Sunday, April 6, 2014
Who's Your Daddy Koch?
The Koch brothers' father, Fred Koch:
"The fiercely capitalist Koch family owes part of its fortune to Joseph Stalin.
Fred Koch was the son of a Dutch printer who settled in Texas and ran a weekly newspaper. Fred attended M.I.T., where he earned a degree in chemical engineering. In 1927, he invented a more efficient process for converting oil into gasoline, but, according to family lore, America’s major oil companies regarded him as a threat and shut him out of the industry.
Unable to succeed at home, Koch found work in the Soviet Union. In the nineteen-thirties, his company trained Bolshevik engineers and helped Stalin’s regime set up fifteen modern oil refineries. Over time, however, Stalin brutally purged several of Koch’s Soviet colleagues. Koch was deeply affected by the experience, and regretted his collaboration.
He returned to the U.S. In the headquarters of his company, Rock Island Oil & Refining, in Wichita, he kept photographs aimed at proving that some of those Soviet refineries had been destroyed in the Second World War.
Gus diZerega, a former friend of Charles Koch, recalled, “As the Soviets became a stronger military power, Fred felt a certain amount of guilt at having helped build them up. I think it bothered him a lot.”
In 1958, Fred Koch became one of the original members of the John Birch Society, the arch-conservative group known, in part, for a highly skeptical view of governance and for spreading fears of a Communist takeover.
Members considered President Dwight D. Eisenhower to be a Communist agent. In a self-published broadside, Koch claimed that “the Communists have infiltrated both the Democrat and Republican Parties.” He wrote admiringly of Benito Mussolini’s suppression of Communists in Italy, and disparagingly of the American civil-rights movement.
“The colored man looms large in the Communist plan to take over America,” he warned.
Welfare was a secret plot to attract rural blacks to cities, where they would foment “a vicious race war.” In a 1963 speech that prefigures the Tea Party’s talk of a secret socialist plot, Koch predicted that Communists would “infiltrate the highest offices of government in the U.S. until the President is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us.”
Sound familiar? Hop over to the conservative blogsphere and read almost those exact words and paranoid accusations about President Obama from conservative bloggers and their fevered commenters. Every other word about the POTUS is "Commie," but here we have the history of the famous Koch brothers and evidence of their Stalinist connection, a connection that was the basis of their "all-American" fortune.
But here's what we, who do the awful work of reading those blogs, need to understand: When Conservatives deal with Communists, that's fine! There's no shame or suspicion attached to their history. Just remember that, and everything will be O.K,(och)!
Read the rest of this highly informative article here:
The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.
KOCH FAMILY VALUE EXPRESSED BY DADDY KOCH:
“The colored man looms large in the Communist plan to take over America,”
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22 comments:
A rather interesting article on Fred Koch and the power of creative genius. Equally interesting is the efforts of certain capitalists to prevent competition in fear of losing market share to a superior process that is more efficient.
The asides, Birch Society affiliation, apparent racism, disdain for 20th century communism and central planning etc. seem to be aimed at disparaging capitalism itself.
Playing on the concepts of "greed" and "obscene profits and wealth" it seems the underlying motive is the destruction of capitalism itself.
Perhaps as capitalism is completely discredited it will be replaced by Stalin like central government economic and social planning.
There is nothing new and humans appear to be incapable of learning from the past. It is good to be old.
I don't think capitalism will be completely discredited. But capitalism without any restraints is not a good idea either, and as the Wall Street meltdown showed, can be a destructive force.
No system is perfect, including capitalism, and trying to achieve a balance is not going to destroy it, despite what the Koch brothers' various affiliates tell us.
Capitalism, as Marx noted, was, and remains the best economic system for creating innovation, opportunity, and ultimate personal and national prosperity. What capitalism must achieve, if it is to remain the viable source of good that Marx saw it as initially, is to create a broad, indeed vast middle class of self sufficient productive individuals.
I find it interesting that the capitalist system, if it is ultimately destroyed will have to some degree itself to blame.
"... if it is to remain the viable source of good that Marx saw it as initially, is to create a broad, indeed vast middle class of self sufficient productive individuals."
Very true. However, capitalism tends to concentrate wealth in the hands of the few. In order to keep the flow of wealth downward to maintain a vast middle class requires an opposing force. Government regulation and taxation is such a force; perhaps the only force to control capitalism.
whoa... no troll thoughts? Stuff!
"capitalism without any restraints is not a good idea"
precisely. No system without parameters,responsibily,accountabilty is a good ide.
I know this is anecdotal...but two individuals I know, millionares both, fervently adhere to that. One I knew from college when he was a bartender at a campus dive bar. He is now a developer/builder. "costs twice as much to do things cheap" is his mantra. He once told me it extends to who he hires...pay them well, ensure their safety and security and I am bound to make money...and sleep better. He still hangs out in the same pub we did 30 years ago...(much cleaner and renovated now...) His largest donations are to the Woman's emergency shelter and the local Boys&Girls club.
The other was a cab driver along with me. He is a stock broker. Also a hell of a canoeist. I remember once, after a Market set back cost him 100K.."oops" he said. "it was just paper". He is opposed ot the mine in Wisconsin that would make millions for other investors, but trash and pollute over 200 square miles of pristine forest and lakes. "cost more to clean it up later."
there is room for capitalism...but not economic rape and pillage. Or cultural warfare. but whatta I know.
Interesting that the heroes of the right, the Koch brothers, have a connection to one of the worst Communist butchers of the last century, Josef Stalin, and those brothers started their political life as Birchers?
Naturally, the howler monkeys on the right are trying to deflect this fact by bellowing SOROS! SOROS! SOROS!
But George Soros did not make his fortune with anyone the likes of Uncle Joe!
What a story! The heroes on the right have a very strong connection to a Commie? LOL!
A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF KOCH INDUSTRIES: HOW STALIN FUNDED THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT
"Everyone knows that Tea Party revolutionaries fear and hate socialism about as much as the Antichrist. Which is funny, because the Tea Party movement’s dirty little secret is that it owes its existence to the grandaddy of all Antichrists: the godless empire of the USSR.
What few realize is that the secretive oil billionaires of the Koch family, the main supporters of the right-wing groups that orchestrated the Tea Party movement, would not have the means to bankroll their favorite causes had it not been for the pile of money the family made working for the Bolsheviks in the late 1920s and early 1930s, building refineries, training Communist engineers and laying down the foundation of Soviet oil infrastructure."
What the WATBs* on the right don't want to face:
[T]he Koch family's obscene wealth -- go back more than half a century, all the way to grandpa Fredrick C. Koch, one of the founding members of the far-right John Birch Society which was convinced that socialism was taking over America through unions, colored people, Jews, homosexuals, the Kennedys and even Dwight D. Eisenhower.
These days, the Kochs paint themselves as true-believer Libertarians of the Austrian School. Charles Koch, the elder brother who runs the family business in Wichita, Kansas, quotes the wisdom of proto-libertarian "economist" Ludwig von Mises, but also sees himself as an economist in his own right. In 2007, Charles made his contribution to the body of free-market thought with an economic theory he calls "Market-Based Management" (a term he trademarked).
David Koch is the highbrow brother who lives in New York. He ran as the Libertarian party candidate for president in 1980 and says his dream is to "minimize the role of government, to maximize the role of private economy and to maximize personal freedoms."
Apparently everyone's a free-market enthusiast at Koch Industries, including its spokeswoman, who recently wrote a letter to the New York Times stating that "it's a historical fact that economic freedom best fosters innovation, environmental protection and improved quality of life in a society." It might be true somewhere for someone, but not for the Kochs -- they owe it all to socialism and totalitarianism.
*WATB = Whiney-Ass Titty Babies
“In 1927, he invented a more efficient process for converting oil into gasoline, but, according to family lore, America’s major oil companies regarded him as a threat and shut him out of the industry”.
One would think this quote would influence Koch family attitudes about capitalism more than their attitudes against communism. If capitalism is supposedly the great engine of innovation and invention, here is an example of American-style capitalism that has actually suppressed innovation. If Corporate America had embraced the more efficient process invented by Fred Koch, perhaps he (the family patriarch) would have been less inclined to seek work in the Soviet Union.
All too often, large corporations respond to competitive threats, not by embracing invention and innovation, but by acting as predators – stifling progress by keeping more nimble competitors out of the marketplace.
In my lifetime, I have been both employee and self-employed. Inasmuch as my employers did not fully utilize my talents and abilities, all too often I felt frustrated and held back. When I ventured out on my own, I faired better – by adding far more value in the marketplace of ideas than my former employers would have allowed. On my own, my net worth grew exponentially and I was able to retire early – with money and time to earn an advanced degree and start a second mid-life career. In Corporate America, the concept of meritocracy is more myth than real.
During my lifetime, I have seen literally thousands of small businesses gobbled up by larger fish – national chain stores and mega corporations grown larger, more powerful, and more impervious to competition – not through innovation - but through acquisitions, mergers, and consolidations. Concentrations of market power are anti-competitive and anti-capitalist.
My point: Big Business is not the engine of innovation and economic growth as our conservative friends might assume. And Big Government is not necessarily the greatest threat to freedom, entrepreneurship, and innovation.
Here is a dirty little secret: Major chain retailers such as Wal-Mart thrive on low wages because the government subsidizes their workforce with food stamps and other social safety benefits. Wal-Mart employees receive an estimated $2 billion annually in government benefits; otherwise they would starve. The American economy is driven by an exploited underclass, and Corporate America wants to keep it this way. Is this capitalism … or feudalism?
How ironic! The Koch family legacy was built in the Soviet Union. Why? Because the American oil industry kept the family patriarch out of the American marketplace. Perhaps they should re-read their family history and draw different conclusions.
Excess labor. Contemplate the logical outcome on a societal level when efficiency and innovation creates a constant or increasing surplus of labor.
In my mind it would neccessarily result in a reduction of labor hours for all and a corresponding increase in wages to maintain societal equilibrium.
.But what the hell do I know.
okjimm, is it time for another beer yet?
You have a point, RN. There is nothing magical about a 40 hour work week. Reducing it to a 30 hour work week would reduce unemployment.
RN,
Where is there social justice when American workers have delivered doube digit productivity gains to their employers but received in return no commensurate increase in wages?
Two possible explanations account for a surplus in labor: 1 - An increase in producivity or ...
2 - An increase in the labor supply.
Global trade and the outsourcing of manufacturing to lower wage markets offers the real and only explanation; the former explanation is merely smoke and mirrors.
The chaos in Ukraine can be viewed, in part, as what happens when a collection of "oligarchs" -- sometimes competing, sometime collaborating -- take control of a society, buying most of the politicians and owning the media. The political/media classes become corrupted by serving their wealthy patrons and society breaks down into warring factions.
In that sense, Ukraine could be a cautionary tale for the United States and other countries that are veering down a similar path toward vast income inequality, with billionaire "oligarchs" using their money to control politicians and to pay for propaganda through media ventures.
Depending on your point of view, there may be "good oligarchs" and "bad oligarchs," but the concept of oligarchy is antithetical to democracy, a system in which governance is supposed to be driven by the informed consent of the majority with respect for minority rights. Instead, we're moving toward a competition among oligarchs with the "people" mostly as bystanders to be manipulated one way or the other.
Wow, an Anonomous making sense. Kudos! And without the hyperbole and usual BS.
Hat's off to ya Anonomous. BTW, your points are logically valid.
(O)CT(O)PUS, What is perhaps equally ironic is that the Central Planners failed to catch on.
Perhaps we are fortunate they didn't or we might be speaking Russian and living in a totalitarian society, eh?
(O)CT(O)PUS, BINGO!
I have been doing a lot of thinking about surplus labor lately. We have both increasing productvity and an increase in labor supply.
I believe my prior comments at least alluded to the logical results. What might make sense is a 30 hour work week with a 40 hour salary. As to equitable, well let's say I'm open to ideas.
Time for coffee.
Either the anonymous blogger (April 6, 2014 at 10:13 PM) is Robert Parry, or Robert Parry has just been plagiarized by an anonymous commenter. Read the original article: The Age of the Oligarchs (Consortium News).
Let’s just say I wholeheartedly agree with Robert Parry’s assessment, but I don’t support plagiarists who rip off material and/or fail to provide honest attribution.
Speaking of honest attribution, I call your attention to Mike Lofgren’s latest article, “Can't We Just Say the Roberts Court Is Corrupt?”
First, some background on Mike Lofgren: He is a former Congressional staff member (and a Republican) who served on the House and Senate Budget committees. Since retirement, Lofgren has been writing scathing articles on the breakdown of our system of government – sparing no words on Democrats and Republicans alike. Regardless of political persuasion, his articles are well worth reading.
Now for a quote from his latest indictment:
“The Supreme Court's decision in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission was not about aggregate limits on individual campaign donations to candidates in federal elections. The case was about what constitutes a bribe, how big that bribe has to be, and whether an electoral system can be corrupt even in the absence of a legally demonstrable cash payment to an office holder or candidate for an explicitly specified favor. The Roberts court, or five of its nine members, adopted the misanthrope's faux-naïve pose in ruling that private money in politics, far from promoting corruption, causes democracy to thrive because, money being speech, the more speech, the freer the politics. Anatole France mocked this kind of legal casuistry by saying "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”
Thank you for the heads-up, (O)CT(O).
Anonymous, next time you post what other people have written, please give attribution and put quotations around the text.
Thanks.
RN "Time for coffee" pppfffft...too much caffeine is not good for you. Beer..book club meets at 330.
and, speaking of Capitalism....the Craft Brewing Industry has survived every attempt of BIG Beer...to shut them down. There are now about 2,500 craft brewerers and brew pubs in the US. Innovative individuals ....who took chances and succedded.
a friend has done the same thing with hot dogs. Two years ago he had a hot dog cart made to order, fought city hall to get approval'licensing that hadn't seen one for years. Home-made dogs, his own recipe chili. He has now leased a small downtown spot and is expanding to burgers....a block from a Burger King. He will kill them!
When some think of 'small business' they think of employers with over a hundred employees... How wrong. Charlie will retire from his factory job next year...and be his own boss.
Damn...there still is stuff that is GREAT about America!
Yeah, many American craft breweries are second only to German beer. MA has few good ones and VT craft beers rock.
Small is indeed often better.
Oh blah blah. Last 2 elections the democrats had all the money now they are afraid of the Republicans out spending them this time. Big deal you think if you go to most college campus' and minority neighborhoods and you ask them if they were you going to vote republican because the Koch bros donated alot of money to them that they would suddenly switch their vote?
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