THE PAUSE THAT DOES NOT REFRESH
One of the few benefits of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's bid to dismantle collective bargaining for Wisconsin's public service workers is that
Americans are getting to know the Koch brothers, Charles and David.
The Koch brothers' extensive wealth as owners of energy conglomerate Koch Industries, has allowed them to spend over $100 million dollars since the 1980's in pursuit of their extreme right wing political causes. It turns out that father Fred C. Koch, the patriarch who created the Koch fortune developing a better way to turn heavy oil into gasoline, was a founding member of the ultra conservative John Birch Society, which famously charged that even President Eisenhower was a "Communist tool" guilty of treason. The current Koch extremist campaign has been largely ignored by the mainstream media, that is, until exposure of their effort to dismantle the bargaining power of pubic employee unions nationwide, starting in Wisconsin. We now learn that the billionaire Koch boys have been major contributors to Governor Walker's successful gubernatorial election and major influences on his immediate legislative effort to break the unions and obtain power to privatize Wisconsin's energy resources, some of the benefits of which, just might benefit the Koch boys' business interests.
The extent of Koch influence over Governor Walker was revealed this week when a blogger impersonated David Koch and recorded his conversation with Walker who took twenty minutes out of his hectic budget battle to strategize with the fake David Koch on how successfully his union busting effort was working. In the conversation, Walker, with breathtaking cynicism, admitted he considered planting "troublemakers" among the tens of thousands of peaceful protesters at the Wisconsin Capitol. Ignoring the implications of a sitting Governor possibly fomenting public unrest, Walker said he decided against such despicable conduct simply because it might not serve his political interests. At the end of the call the faux David Koch promised Walker a luxurious vacation at Koch's fabulous digs once Walker had "crushed the bastards".
Growing up in the 1950's as a member of America's endlessly expanding middle class, I would often down the world's most famous drink whose name rhymes with the aforementioned Koch brothers. The drink Coke was known as "the pause that refreshes". Sixty years on, alas, as America's middle class dwindles, I simply find the brothers Koch to be "the pause that depresses".
Americans are getting to know the Koch brothers, Charles and David.
The Koch brothers' extensive wealth as owners of energy conglomerate Koch Industries, has allowed them to spend over $100 million dollars since the 1980's in pursuit of their extreme right wing political causes. It turns out that father Fred C. Koch, the patriarch who created the Koch fortune developing a better way to turn heavy oil into gasoline, was a founding member of the ultra conservative John Birch Society, which famously charged that even President Eisenhower was a "Communist tool" guilty of treason. The current Koch extremist campaign has been largely ignored by the mainstream media, that is, until exposure of their effort to dismantle the bargaining power of pubic employee unions nationwide, starting in Wisconsin. We now learn that the billionaire Koch boys have been major contributors to Governor Walker's successful gubernatorial election and major influences on his immediate legislative effort to break the unions and obtain power to privatize Wisconsin's energy resources, some of the benefits of which, just might benefit the Koch boys' business interests.
The extent of Koch influence over Governor Walker was revealed this week when a blogger impersonated David Koch and recorded his conversation with Walker who took twenty minutes out of his hectic budget battle to strategize with the fake David Koch on how successfully his union busting effort was working. In the conversation, Walker, with breathtaking cynicism, admitted he considered planting "troublemakers" among the tens of thousands of peaceful protesters at the Wisconsin Capitol. Ignoring the implications of a sitting Governor possibly fomenting public unrest, Walker said he decided against such despicable conduct simply because it might not serve his political interests. At the end of the call the faux David Koch promised Walker a luxurious vacation at Koch's fabulous digs once Walker had "crushed the bastards".
Growing up in the 1950's as a member of America's endlessly expanding middle class, I would often down the world's most famous drink whose name rhymes with the aforementioned Koch brothers. The drink Coke was known as "the pause that refreshes". Sixty years on, alas, as America's middle class dwindles, I simply find the brothers Koch to be "the pause that depresses".
posted by Walt Zlotow at 3:51 PM
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