Originally Posted by cmac2012

NPR presents a broad variety of info that you will NEVER hear on conservative radio or TV.

I grasp the concept of socializing risk, privatizing reward. The Koch bros. make their money in industries that are responsible for huge amounts of toxicity spilled into the air and water that all of us are stuck with for the duration.

If they operated in a more responsible fashion instead of crying for their entire adult career that the simply awful US of A was limiting their net worth to $10 billion instead of $15 billion they'd still be employing people and they wouldn't have people questioning their moral compass so stridently.

World class whiners.

Originally Posted by aklim

So why not refuse their money then? As a sign of a rejection of their philosophy? If you offended me that much, I wouldn't want to touch your blood money. I take it as the price of doing business. You want their jobs and money so don't whine about how unethical it is as long as it is within the laws. If I lived with my parents and they paid for everything I have, what right do I have to grumble about their rules?

How big and successful are these companies that follow some ethical practice? BTW, who decides what is ethical? Some consider abortion ethical while others don't. Some consider harming those who harm you ethical while others don't. The list goes on.

Those happen to be the bigger companies and they have less restraint than others simply because they don't require your approval anymore. The small gas station knows they require your goodwill and thus have to behave the way you want or lose your business. Bigger shops are less dependent.

Originally Posted by cmac2012

Apologist nonsense. The extractive industry potentates want to be like kings, earls, and dukes - many are already like that - and anyone who tries to point out to them that they share the earth with other people is sneered at.

Originally Posted by elchivito

"Upstanding reputation". Uh huh... perhaps among the recipients of their largesse. Sort of like the way the drug cartels buy the allegiance of entire Mexican towns by building them swimming pools and clinics. Blood money and nothing more.There's nothing wrong with using your wealth to support political causes, but why be so secretive about it?
From wikipedia:

In March 1999, Koch Petroleum Group, a Koch Industries subsidiary, pled guilty to charges that it had negligently allowed aviation fuel to leak into waters near the Mississippi River from its refinery in Rosemount, Minnesota, and that it had illegally dumped a million gallons of high-ammonia wastewater onto the ground and into the Mississippi River.[24]
In 1999, a federal jury found that Koch Industries had stolen oil from government and American Indian lands, had lied about its purchases more than 24,000 times, and was fined $553,504. [25]
In January 2000, Koch Industries subsidiary, Koch Pipeline, agreed to a $35 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department and the State of Texas. This settlement, including a $30 million civil fine, was incurred for the firm's multiple oil spills in Texas and five other states going back to 1990.[26] The spills resulted in more than three million gallons of crude oil leaking into ponds, lakes, streams and coastal waters.[27]
In 2001, the company reached two settlements with the government. In April, the company reached a $20 million settlement in exchange for admitting to covering up environmental violations at its refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas.[28][29] That May, Koch Industries paid $25 million to the federal government to settle a federal lawsuit that found the company had improperly taken more oil than it had paid for from federal and Indian land.[30][31]
In June 2003, the US Commerce Department fined Koch Industries subsidiary Flint Hill Resources a $200,000 civil penalty. The fine settled charges that the company exported crude petroleum from the US to Canada without proper US government authorization. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said from July 1997 to March 1999, Koch Petroleum (later called Flint Hill Resources) committed 40 violations of Export Administration Regulations. [32]
In 2006, Koch Industries’ subsidiary Flint Hill Resources was fined nearly $16,000 by the EPA for 10 separate violations of the Clean Air Act at its Alaska oil refinery facilities, and required to spend another $60,000 on safety equipment needed to help prevent future violations. [33]
In 2009, Koch subsidiary Invista agreed to pay a $1.7 million civil penalty and spend up to $500 million to correct self-reported environmental violations at its facilities in seven states.[34][35] Prior to the settlement, the company had disclosed to the EPA more than 680 violations after auditing 12 facilities acquired from DuPont in 2004.[36][37]

Originally Posted by LUVMBDiesels

Eh, I say shoot anybody with over $10 billion and use the money to build more happy camps

Did I say $10 billion? I mean $1 billion.
No wait make that $100 million! no, um say anybody with over $10 million is a parasite and must be eradicated.
Wait a minute there are an awful lot of millionaires out there, where did they get that money? To the camps with them!

Hey, did you say you have $100,000?

Originally Posted by mgburg

Two words ....

B I L L
G A T E S

OK! Back to your corners and come out swinging!!!

Originally Posted by MS Fowler

Now that we, as a society, have learned to hate the rich and successful, what next? Do we imitate the stupid and jobless?
This class warfare---so well coordinated by the political left, for their benefit--is another nail in the coffin of the USA.

Originally Posted by cmac2012

Hating the rich and successful. What utter nonsense. You can do better than that. Regular readers of my column might recall that I've spoken highly of the surgeon/inventor whose house I worked 2.5 years building - he came up with the first balloon catheter in the early 60s. The best estimates of the crew was that he was close to being a billionaire - at any rate his house was on 300 acres about 8 miles west of Stanford and he owns a renowned winery nearby.

I dug the guy big time. He added something of value to the world in a big way. His first invention alone is estimated to have saved the lives or limbs (blood clot remover) of around 15 million people worldwide.

The Kochs pull natural capital up from the earth, and spill large amounts of it now and then, by most accounts, with whatever impunity they can get away with.

They're greedy, they're arrogant. David Koch particularly has a bizarre gleam to his gaze. Dude is just a weird character, I'm sorry.

Originally Posted by MS Fowler

Now that we, as a society, have learned to hate the rich and successful, what next? Do we imitate the stupid and jobless?
This class warfare---so well coordinated by the political left, for their benefit--is another nail in the coffin of the USA.

Originally Posted by elchivito

Neither "stupid" and "jobless", nor "rich" and "successful" are synonymous. Following that line of thinking, all jobless people are stupid and all rich people are successful. We have posters here who are out of work or have been, are they by definition stupid? Lots of wealthy people are born to their wealth and haven't done anything to earn or for that matter deserve it. A biological fluke. Is Paris Hilton "successful"?? As far as I'm concerned, the right's fawning over wealth and willingness to bend over and spread 'em for anyone with deep pockets is what has brought this country to the state it's in now.