THE KOCH BROS: THEY DO PROTEST A BIT TOO MUCH

 

Instead of taking on their history of questionable or possibly illegal activities, the brothers go after a Rolling Stone author that exposed their questionable actions.

Charles & David Koch, the billionaire brothers of Koch Industries that have virtually purchased the Republican Party for their own personal benefit, were given a thorough exposure of their efforts by Rolling Stone Magazine last September.  If you would seriously like to understand how these two have been skirting legal requirements for getting things their own way, just Google the Koch Bros. and Rolling Stone Magazine, and it will all magically appear.  This article has gone viral, and has had tens of thousands of readers.

This true story includes the details of issues against Koch Industries such as a wrongful death judgment, six felony and numerous misdemeanor convictions, tens of millions of dollars in fines, and the brother’s issue of illegally trading with Iran.  These are all included in the story, and well worth your reading pleasure.

What is so interesting is how thin-skinned the brothers have been, not against the article and its contents, (even they can’t argue with the facts), but they instead go personally after the article’s author, Tim Dickenson.  There is very little that the brothers can say against the articles content, but the Koch’s attempt to re-litigate closed cases against them, that was pitiful.  These were situations where judges, juries, and, in one case, a Senate Select Committee, had already had a final say.

No, the Koch’s can’t really complain about the facts of what Mr. Dickinson wrote, but to take their umbrage against the author and the fact that he reported the facts, that is what is so disgusting.  The brothers are saying they are upset that someone had the cojones to actually write the truth of what the brothers have done, and continue attempting.

And the brothers could have had their own say for giving their side of what was stated in the article.

For weeks, after Rolling Stone had said they were going to do the article, the magazine tried to engage Koch Industries in a discussion of the issues at hand. Rolling Stone had requested interviews with CEO Charles Koch, and his company's philosophy of Market Based Management.  The same request was made to Ilia Bouchouev, who heads Koch's derivatives trading operations, to ask about the company's trading practices.  In addition, the top Koch lawyer, Mark Holden, was asked to discuss the company's significant legal and regulatory history.

The requests to meet were simply ignored.  In fact, the lawyer Holden baselessly insinuated that the author had been given an "opposition research" document dump from the liberal activist, Mr. David Brock.  Brock and Dickenson have both stated that this event never occurred.

As has been reported, Dickinson did state, “From my perspective as a reporter, Koch Industries is the most hostile and paranoid organization I've ever engaged with, and I've reported on Fox News.”

So far, the Koch’s have done nothing but complain about the article and its author.

In response to these complaints, Mr. Dickinson has now provided an exhaustive, 14-point take-down of each of the Koch’s complaints about his story.  Dickinson includes every instance in which the Koch’s do not dispute the facts, but he then shows their attempts to muddy them while whining that he reported them. They also don't acknowledge that Dickinson attempted to give them the opportunity to talk to him about his story before publishing the article.

The reality is that the Koch’s seem to feel that because of all their billions, (money inherited from their father), they should be allowed to purchase an entire American political party.

With that attitude, along with their long history of abusing people; the environment; and the political system; this is doing them no favors. They've now made themselves the main subject of the up-coming 2016 election.  If the Democrats can gain back the Senate, it will largely be because the Koch’s have made themselves a long list of political and business enemies.

 

We can only hope that's the case.

Copyright G.Ater  2015