• NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    120
    ·
    10 hours ago

    It’s the Koch’s. If you want a somewhat happy ending, David is dead now, at least.

    • TheFriar@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      6 hours ago

      The kochs have been the actual boogeymen of American politics for a long time. They’re basically what the right always fear soros is, but for racist, imperialist, corporatist shit. They basically responsible for citizens united.

  • Baron Von J@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    80
    ·
    10 hours ago

    They put a shit ton of money into state races, too. Their plan was to get enough state legislatures in their pocket to call a constitutional convention and rewrite the US as an anarcho-capitalist state.

  • mlg@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    9 hours ago

    If it makes you happy, the constitution was created to prevent this exact scenario, which is why everything in the US is an oligopoly and not an outright monopoly that can buyout the entire government. Stuff like US Steel, Standard Oil, and the original JP Morgan has never truly been eclipsed in sheer power in the modern US.

    Even with collusion, deals still fall through and billionaires fight each other because they all want to be king.

    So uh, woopdeedoo I guess

    • dwazoup@lemm.eeOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      75
      ·
      edit-2
      10 hours ago

      Tight. Very tight. Their bodyguards have special police badges allowing them to carry concealed weapons in all 50 states.

      https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2018-04-11/koch-bodyguards-got-police-badges-from-same-tiny-town-as-mercer

      One reporter called Lee Fang once managed to interview one of the brothers.

      They tried to ruin his life.

      At the congressional swearing in ceremony for the Tea Party wave, I saw David Koch leaving the building and got a short interview. Every other political interview Koch ever gave was carefully screened. This one wasn’t.

      https://xcancel.com/lhfang/status/1164942632599953409

      This interview apparently angered him.

      Shortly after they hired private investigators & operatives and I got harassed for over a year. An old high school media account got hacked, they hosted a website calling me a liar, edited my Wiki, a Koch blogger smeared me almost every day.

      https://xcancel.com/lhfang/status/1164943758497968129

      • Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        42
        ·
        10 hours ago

        Yikes. Listening to him talk, and his security guy or whoever that was, leaves a really sickening feeling in my gut. They come across as psychopaths for some reason. It’s that cheap charisma that feels so off-putting. I worry what those types of billionaires do in private that will never reach the light of day. Epstien Island type stuff we’ll never know about.

          • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            16
            ·
            7 hours ago

            The Koch’s are not your average CEO. They are 100% psychopaths. They have been financing libertarian propaganda since the 60’s, and are more responsible for both fascism and the MAGA mental illness than Trump, McConnell or any other Republican. If you dig into their history, it’s littered with examples of everything from wilfully poisoning the environment, screwing workers they gave cancer, and attempting to overthrow the US gov. I suggest the behind the bastards episode about them.

            Their dad was a literal nazi; praised Hitler, Japan, and Italy in the 1930’s, and considered New Zealand a socialist hellscape. They were raised by a child abusing Nazi nanny, who was such a Nazi she returned home in 1939 to be a part of Hitlers reich. Everything that came after don’t get any better.

    • robolemmy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      edit-2
      10 hours ago

      One of them is dead, so his security is perfect. I’m hoping the other one ups his security game real soon now (due to natural causes, obviously).