Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I was promised a recession.

That pie keeps getting more and more forks, reducing anyone’s chance of even a Perot.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Second rate reporter says what?

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

T R E 4 5 O N

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Koch and sympathy

Koch and sympathy

by | 72 Comments

This post is in: 

Fee-fees of the rich and famous:

The piece has illuminated David Koch, a man whom some have branded as an ‘environmental criminal’, and has made him human with a real voice, with real jokes (on his artificial knees: “If you spent as many years as I did begging girls for favors, you’d have bad knees, too.”)

Goldman weaves Koch’s tale in a fashion befitting the gentleman. In this story, we delve into Koch’s estrangement from his brother William, the aircraft tragedy that nearly killed him, the reasons behind his philanthropy, even his private sexual… difficulties.

[…..]

Dissatisfied with their father’s John Birch Society, the Koch brothers set to building something William F. Buckley would have seen as at least more agreeable: groups like the Cato Institute, the Mercatus Center, and Americans for Prosperity.

The Kochs are strange people. A friend of mine met estranged brother Fred Koch and I honestly can’t tell you the story of what transpired for fear I might get sued.

But, sad to say, it’s their world, we’re just living in it. Their travails generate more sympathy, at least in certain quarters, than any torture victim or lynched relative of Shirley Sherrod ever wll. And Koch’s lackeys at Cato are taken more seriously than you or I ever will be.

Reader Interactions

72Comments

  1. 1.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Now frumforum is an accepted link? What, politico wasn’t worthy?

    And the Koch’s can DIAF. also, too.

    “I played basketball when you could be white and be good,” he says.

    Larry Bird would like a word with his sorry old ass.

  2. 2.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I honestly can’t tell you the story of what transpired for fear I might get sued.

    Well maybe some anonymous third party, some other, anonymous friend of that friend, could post it, anonymously, in some internet forum.

    It’s not really surprising that the second richest man in NYC (I did not know that), who inherited his money I gather, thinks he’s being picked on by socialists. What makes me tear my hair out is the people living paycheck-to-paycheck, whose taxes have been cut, who do or will rely on Medicare, etc, cheering him on. And this douche says “I sympathize with those folks!”

  3. 3.

    r€nato

    Not so difficult to understand why peasants supported Marxist revolutionaries like Che Guevara, Castro and Mao when you consider what it would be like to live in the kind of industrial-feudal, late 19th century society people like Koch have in mind.

    A world where a very few, very wealthy pay few to no taxes, are subjected to a separate standard of justice than the rest of us, and do as they fucking please to the environment and their workers. The rest of us are kept on our knees, crouching in fear, with no safety net, desperately afraid of losing what little comfort and security we may have.

    I’d want to see their heads on a pike too, if they ever succeeded in getting their way. This is why I loathe the GOP so much. They are not just the party of smaller government and restrained spending (as they have amply proven). They are the party of making the rich richer and throwing the rest of us to the wolves.

  5. 5.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @DougJ:

    A lot of crazy shit but some sane stuff too, for a conservative blog.

    Fair enough. Frum lost me long ago. I believe it was when he said Obama wasn’t overseeing an economy involved in war on Marketplace.

  7. 7.

    Cat Lady

    What, he supports the tea party because he isn’t rich enough? WTF?

    I hate that the Kochs have had their filthy hands on my fair city. If some unnamed MIT buildings burn to the ground soon, it wasn’t me.

  8. 8.

    El Cid

    Sigh. There was no lynching of Sherrod’s relative. Several whites merely beat him to death. When will you libs ever learn?

  9. 9.

    TenguPhule

    the Koch brothers set to building something William F. Buckley would have seen as at least more agreeable: groups like the Cato Institute, the Mercatus Center, and Americans for Prosperity.

    This isn’t something to be proud of, this is RICO waiting to happen.

  11. 11.

    JAHILL10

    This is news?

    I think the “Rich people are self absorbed, selfish pricks who don’t care about anything but their personal bottom lines” horse is dead now.

    The question is: “What are we people who aren’t super rich and self absorbed going to do about it?”

    This endless hammering on what has been obvious since the 2008 crash is just wearying and self-defeating, especially when you frame it like you have above: “But, sad to say, it’s their world, we’re just living in it.”

    Where’s Tim F. with an activism post we can all get behind and get fired up over? I’m tired of lamenting the prickishness of the pricks.

  13. 13.

    Mark S.

    If you don’t care about these shitstains’ personal lives, on page 5 we get treated to one of the asshole’s views on global warming:

    Koch says he’s not sure if global warming is caused by human activities, and at any rate, he sees the heating up of the planet as good news. Lengthened growing seasons in the northern hemisphere, he says, will make up for any trauma caused by the slow migration of people away from disappearing coastlines. “The Earth will be able to support enormously more people because a far greater land area will be available to produce food,” he says.

    Or we might be fighting over the last few acres of habitable land in Greenland. Either way, this fuck will be dead by then.

  15. 15.

    GregB

    Another wingnut prattling on about their love of rich Koch’s.

    I wonder if Frum ever worked one of their balls?

  16. 16.

    DougJ

    @General Stuck:

    “bring your Bibles, flags, signs, dogs and singing voices.”

    They forgot the most important thing. And they call themselves Real Murkins.

  19. 19.

    MattR

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    Larry Bird would like a word with his sorry old ass.

    And I think Steve Nash has a couple MVP trophies he would like to show Koch.

    @Mark S.:

    Lengthened growing seasons in the northern hemisphere, he says, will make up for any trauma caused by the slow migration of people away from disappearing coastlines.

    At this point, I would be psyched if we actually have the ability to make a slow migration from the coastline. I think most people believe that the changes are going to be a bit more traumatic.

    (EDIT: Of course, Nash is Canadian so he doesn’t count. And the 40% (I am guessing there) of Americans that live within 75 miles of the coast are not Real Murkins so they don’t count wither)

  22. 22.

    Cacti

    “I played basketball when you could be white and be good,” he says.

    In other words, before black players were allowed to participate. :-P

  23. 23.

    kdaug

    I hate to get back on my sawhorse, but…

    1950-80. One person per household could work and afford a home and a car, raise a family, and go on an occasional vacation with the kids. The average CEO made ~30x what the lowest worker made. In that time, we built our cold-war arsenal, created NASA and sent a man to the moon, and paid off all our WWII debt while creating the most vibrant middle-class the world has ever known.

    Top average marginal tax rate: 90%. Now they’re bitching that it might go from 37% to 39%.

    There’s a class war going on, and if your’re reading this you’re likely not winning. Trickle-down is exactly as stupid as it sounds.

  24. 24.

    AnotherBruce

    But, sad to say, it’s their world, we’re just living in it.

    Why the defeatist bullshit? It’s a bigger world than any man will understand. Suck it up buttercup!

  28. 28.

    General Stuck

    @KG: If you do, don’t get too close, the stoopid might be contagious. :)

    And bring back pics.

  29. 29.

    KG

    @General Stuck: I’ll run head long into the stooopid, just as any good anthropologist would.

    Also, too. Here is a story on the situation. There’s some fun stuff in there. This is my favorite (though the Mormon parallel is also fun):

    The Islamic Center has owned its Temecula site – which totals four acres at Nicolas Road and Calle Medusa – for about 10 years, Richardson said. The Islamic Center has operated in Temecula since 1998, and is based in an industrial park on the city’s west side.The Islamic Center is proposing to build a 24,950-square-foot mosque. Its building size and acreage would roughly mirror that of two nearby churches – Calvary Baptist Church and Grace Presbyterian Church. The number of parking spaces proposed for the mosque exceeds the city’s requirements, Richardson said.

  30. 30.

    Ripley

    Oddly enough, the rotating ad below this post was for Rand Paul, so that we may help him in his effort to “take back our country.” Back, I assume, to the 19th century.

  32. 32.

    KG

    @Yutsano: oh, we can do better than that.

    I want to have a sign that says “My God could beat up your God*”

    And then on a second sign: *If, of course, they weren’t actually the same God based on a common tradition arising out of neighboring civilizations and sharing a common history and mythology. Otherwise, He totally could”

  33. 33.

    Mark S.

    @KG:

    I thought the fact that they raised hell over a Mormon church several years ago was interesting. Is this some fundie redoubt?

  34. 34.

    KG

    @Mark S.: Temecula is in a red part of the State, in Riverside County. It’s still a rural-ish area. The Congressional District is an R+10, and Issa is their rep.

    That said, I’m not sure if it’s really “fundie” just because it say rapid expansion and then got hit hard when the housing bubble popped.

    ETA: I should also point out that they’ve got quite a few wineries and a pretty sweet Indian house of gaming (FYWP)

  35. 35.

    KG

    FYWP – trapped in moderation because of a bad word in my ETA.

    Short version, @Mark S.: it’s a R+10 district represented by Darrell Issa

  36. 36.

    Jager

    Temecula is on it’s ass, high unemployment, foreclosures, empty office buildings, in short a fucking mess. And these asses want to stop a construction job to build a 24,000 sq foot building?

  37. 37.

    danimal

    @KG: I just might be in Temecula, will get some pix if I get the chance.

    It could be fun to show up with vile protest signs filled with religious bigotry and xenophobia. But I’m afraid that out wingnutting the wingnuts is a fool’s errand.

  38. 38.

    Mark S.

    @KG:

    That’s weird. I saw your original comment. I guess the moderation filter sometimes takes its sweet ass time.

  40. 40.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    @JAHILL10:

    The question is: “What are we people who aren’t super rich and self absorbed going to do about it?”

    That may be your question. My question is, “What are those of us who aren’t rich, but are self-absorbed going to do?” Can we at least catch the ball game on TV?

  43. 43.

    asiangrrlMN

    Really? We got nothing better to do than read about whack-jobs who just happened to be born rich? No. Not gonna click. I am in a pissy enough mood as is. Someone give me some FUCK YOU, ASSHOLES! music, please. Thank you.

    P.S. I love my techie brother. He cleaned up my desktop and now it’s better than ever.

    @Ruckus: So, basically the rich are having a golden shower on the rest of society.

    @Yutsano: How did the background check go? Any skeletons in your, um, closet?

  44. 44.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Still ongoing, although I have to overnight some crap that they didn’t bother to tell me was missing until today and is due Thursday. I feel like a flea or something.

    And I won’t give David Frum clicks. I have zero issue accepting the summaries provided by DougJ. My life is not incomplete because I don’t read him.

  45. 45.

    Mark S.

    @asiangrrlMN:

    I skimmed the article (it’s looong), couldn’t keep track of which brother was which, and decided I didn’t really give a fuck. And can 80 year old guys just accept that their dicks don’t work like they did when they were 20?

  47. 47.

    Yutsano

    @Mark S.: Uhh…dude…CiaIis…Vlagra…other little enhancements for the male sexual organ. Which incidentally are covered by virtually every insurance plan out there including the Medicare ones. They sell well for a reason. And when you have more money than Allah it’s all about not accepting reality for as long as possible.

    @asiangrrlMN: Some folks would be daunted and give up. Screw that. It’s a weeding process, and I’m not getting trimmed without a good fight.

  48. 48.

    Joseph Nobles

    Well, I thought the click-through was worth learning about how Papa got his Birch freak on: watching his Russian subsidiaries destroyed by the build-up to Stalin’s Great Purge. Oddly enough, the article didn’t go into any details about how friendly Papa might have been with a certain nameless government after that. That probably would be interesting to know.

    And now I’ve got Capitalism: A Love Story on Starz to cleanse the palate.

  49. 49.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Joseph Nobles: Thanks for reading and summarizing so I didn’t have to besmirch my innocent mind with that kind of dreck.

    @Mark S.: Like Yutsy said, with that kind of money and with all the dick pills out there, some guys will cling to their dicks past all reason. If they can have sex with twenty-year-old women, then they can fool themselves that they are still young.

    @Yutsano: Nope. You are a fighter AND a lover!

  50. 50.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: I’m wussing out early tonight though. Have to get up and take care of business before I go through the penultimate day at work. Hee. I said penultimate.

  52. 52.

    Mark S.

    @Yutsano:
    @asiangrrlMN:

    No disputing any of that. Actually, the one interesting tidbit in that article was that Papa Koch used to be partners with that old fart who married Anna Nicole Smith.

  53. 53.

    burnspbesq

    @Yutsano:

    You young whippersnappers. When I joined the Gubmint, all I got was fingerprinted.

    How many years worth of returns do you have to cough up for your new-employee audit?

  56. 56.

    eco2geek

    @Yutsano: If you were planning on committing a crime, now might be a good time, rather than waiting until after they’ve taken your fingerprints and whatnot. :-P

    @burnspbesq: Wow, $7 million. So that’s what finally happened.

  57. 57.

    thalarctos

    Hey, dumbass–it’s not just the square acreage that determines if land is arable; it’s the water supply and topography, among many other things. If the atmosphere isn’t humid enough, or is too humid, or the land is at the wrong altitude, it’s a net loss of food production.

    There’s so much FAIL in that statement it would take a dissertation to analyse the rest of it, but that point just leaps right out and begs to be refuted.

  58. 58.

    thalarctos

    “Koch says he’s not sure if global warming is caused by human activities, and at any rate, he sees the heating up of the planet as good news. Lengthened growing seasons in the northern hemisphere, he says, will make up for any trauma caused by the slow migration of people away from disappearing coastlines. “The Earth will be able to support enormously more people because a far greater land area will be available to produce food,” he says.”

    Hey, dumbass—it’s not just the square acreage that determines if land is arable; it’s the water supply and topography, among many other things. If the atmosphere isn’t humid enough, or is too humid, or the land is at the wrong altitude, it’s a net loss of food production.

    There’s so much FAIL in that statement it would take a dissertation to analyse the rest of it, but that point just leaps right out and begs to be refuted.

    And FYWP.

  59. 59.

    El Cid

    @thalarctos: That ain’t up to you and yer damn ‘science’ and ‘logic’ and shit. Koch knows what’s what because he talks to Jesus.

  60. 60.

    bob h

    He has donated enough money to Lincoln Center to get his name on the old New York State Theater. That is about all the good he has ever done.

  62. 62.

    Uloborus

    @Joseph Nobles:
    I’m only on page 2 and this is a scary read. They were raised by a paranoid madman. Forget the communism stuff. Living through the so*hrrmhrrm*ism scare of the early 1900s did that to a lot of people. Listening to them defend parents who neglected them but were such control freaks Old Man Koch made them dig ditches and disowned one of his kids for going to the wrong college is so disturbing. Seriously, every sentence reads like a manual of abusive parenting. No wonder his son has only the dimmest connection to reality. He seems to spend money randomly, too. Everything he says and does just seems utterly self-involved. The universe is immediate and personal to him, what he wants and who he’s close to, and everything else is meaningless.

  64. 64.

    Michael

    In my ideal world, David Koch would have to check his car each and every day for bombs, he wouldn’t get to walk down the street without being physically assaulted, would be shunned even by members of his own class and would have to hire food testers just to be sure.

  65. 65.

    Montysano

    OT, but while channel surfing last night, I discover that Fox News is using Pamela “Atlas Shrugged” Geller as an analyst?!? WTF? I stopped by for a minute, thinking that maybe she had raised her game. Nope. Same dumbass anti-Muslim rhetoric. Hannity, of course, was lapping it up (heh..).

  66. 66.

    Chris Johnson

    Awesomeness of a heating planet is stupid.

    What you get is drastically increased weather violence. All the extremes go up, and the outliers go crazy, because you’re putting energy into a chaotic system whose exuberance is limited by the amount of energy you put in.

    Climate chaos shouldn’t be lightly fooled with. You get stuff like ‘coldest cold snap in the history of winter’ as well as the opposite. Invest in hurricane-relief organizations, not beachfront properties.

  67. 67.

    OhSuzanna

    Just remember that truth is an absolute defense. Now, what were you saying about Fred Koch?

  68. 68.

    Shalimar

    @El Cid: Beaten to death by police officers, the people in the community you are supposed to be able to trust to protect you from crime. So that makes it less bad than lynching somehow.

  70. 70.

    HyperIon

    Fee-fees of the rich and famous

    this is about the twelfth time this week i’ve read something on the web containing the phrase “fees-fees”. way to get on the bandwagon, DougJ.

  71. 71.

    Mark S.

    @bkny:

    That’s what’s awesome about these guys. One week they’ll say there’s no evidence of warming. Next week, they say well it’s getting warmer but it’s not man made, it’s those sunspots. And then the third week they’ll say sure it’s getting warmer and that’s great because plants love CO2. Then they start the process all over again.

  72. 72.

    300baud

    @OhSuzanna:

    Truth is an absolute defense only if you get as far as judgement. As anybody who has been sued can tell you, a legal victory is not the same thing as actual victory.

Comments are closed.