They say you learn something new every day, but it shocked me that this has never come to my attention before. I trust you’ve seen me expound and document many times how the Bush family fortune is tied up in a relationship with Adolf Hitler. I guess goose-stepping must be a Republican disease, because the Koch family fortune is even more tied up in a relationship with right-wing dictator Joseph Stalin.
Josef Stalin, the ruthless Communist dictator of the Soviet Union, was the godfather of the Tea Party. Let me show you how that happened.
We first have to visit Texas around 1900, when a Dutch immigrant had a son named Fredrick C. Koch. Fred got a degree in chemical engineering from MIT and formed a company named Winkler-Koch with a classmate. They developed a new method of cracking (refining) petroleum to get more gasoline out of it. Fred Koch was ready to roll into the American dream with his invention.
Texas oilmen tied up his refining methods in litigation in the 1920s so he was unable to market them.
Meanwhile, in the new Soviet Union, Stalin had embarked on his first 5-Year Plan, which included developing petroleum resources around the Black Sea. He needed refineries. Papa Fred contacted Stalin, who immediately hired him on to help with the 5-Year Plan.
In 1929, Winkler-Koch signed a $5 million contract with Stalin to build refineries, the beginnings of the Koch fortune. He continued to work with the Soviets well into the 1950s, but is alleged to have become disillusioned. So after making an immense income from a totalitarian Communist State, going out of his way to please them with his work, he had some kind of epiphany and suddenly became a fierce anti-Communist, bankrolling the John Birch Society, which saw Commies under every rock and carpet.
Fred had two sons, Charles and David, who parlayed their Commie fortune into one of the largest energy companies in the country.
With their staggering wealth, they now have unparalleled influence over American politics, founding (or funding) "think tanks" that preach Koch messages. They include the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute, as well as Americans for Prosperity, a Koch Family PAC, and a number of climate denial groups and "researchers."
They are opposed to unions, regulations, taxes, Social Security, and of course, pro free enterprise. Tea baggers love them because they carry Koch-funded signs, and ride on Koch-funded buses to their "grassroots" events…
Inserted from <Danbury News Times>
Photo credit: Radioman’s Kansas City
No wonder the Kochs, the Bushes, and their Republican lackeys hate freedom so much. They know from experience, that great wealth is most easily built on the denial of freedom that allows them to exploit others.
13 Responses to “Stalin Was the First Koch Sucker”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Papa Koch probably became dissillusioned with the Soviets because communism does not promote private fortunes. It was all for the good of the collective. So, he took his money and ran back to the bastion of free enterprise, the good old USA.
Remember Joseph McCarthy was coming into his own with the Red Witch Hunt in the 1950s. Papa didn't want to be dubbed a "Red" and either deported or jailed.
I think it was Matt Taibbi that wrote an excellent article [Rolling Stone] a few years back that opened the secret life of the Koch family.
"Not based much on logic or reason, mind you, but he hated them anyway. In 1961, Fred Koch's pamphlet, "A Businessman Looks at Communism", lends invaluable insight into Koch's thinking process on this. Long on alarmist rhetoric, broad, rambling generalizations, and less-than-logical conclusions, this work is unsettlingly reminiscent of Glenn Beck in many ways." Daily Kos
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/23/948765/-Meet-the-Kochers
Yep, though dates vary from different sources, Fred Koch rode out the Depression from USSR profits. In the US, the courts tossed his patent rights, while Stalin was only too eager to use Fred Koch. Koch was not stupid, getting into MIT has never been easy, and his sons are well educated. At some point in time Koch comes to hate the USSR but is willing to use similar techniques to grow his own fortune and his personal beliefs through the John Birch Society. Self interest wins the day for all too many of our "entrepreneurs".
I guess the apples don't fall far from the tree…. especially the rotten apples.
I might just point out that Koch-funded think tanks include, to an extent, PBS. David is on the board of WGBH (there is an eddort to get him off, but…) and his name can be prominently seen on every episode of Nova (ever wonder why Nova doesn't deal with climate change? Well, now you know.)
Move On petiton: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/remove-david-koch-from
Courage Campaign/Forecast the Facts petition: http://act.couragecampaign.org/sign/koch-wghb_solo/
There may be more. This was just from a quick google.
Thanks JD! Signed both. Would love to see this unethical pariah gone from any sort of influence peddling or buying of politicians or people.
Signed.
Signed – thanks Joanne!
The Koch's all ready own half our politicians, perhaps they see themselves as the new Stalin, but for the USA. They are against anything and everything that helps anyone who is not wealthy.
"If Josef Stalin, the family benefactor, had known how easy it would be to destroy Democracy in America, he would smile at the work of the Koch boys."
Who needs Stalin et al when the US is stuck with the Kochs?!
I sometimes wonder if the bought politicians, Scrotus, and other judges etc realise that they owe their souls to the company store, the Koch company store?
Thanks and amen to all of the above.
Patty is right that Koch pere wanted to protect himself and his fortune from McCarthy – all these Reich wingers want is money – they wouldn't know a principle if it came up to them and bit them.
Noted as enemy list…