Today, Russia’s war on Ukraine gave us a penetrating snapshot of democracy and autocracy. This morning, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint session of Congress virtually; his speech was live streamed to the American people. Looking tired, he wore a green military tee shirt and was unshaven, sitting next to a large Ukrainian flag, a visual representation of his besieged country.
In 1925, Fred C. Koch entered into a partnership with Lewis Winkler, a former employee of Universal Oil Products. Winkler developed a cracking apparatus for heavy crude oil with no patented difference in comparison to his former employer's intellectual property; in 1929, UOP sued Winkler-Koch for patent infringement. Also that year, nearly three years before the patent case went to trial, Winkler-Koch signed contracts to build petroleum distillation plants in the Soviet Union, which did not recognize intellectual property rights.
The extended litigation effectively put Winkler-Koch out of business in the U.S. for several years. "Unable to succeed at home, Koch found work in the Soviet Union". Between 1929 and 1932 Winkler-Koch supported the Kremlin and "trained Bolshevik engineers to help Stalin's regime set up fifteen modern oil refineries" in the Soviet Union during its first Five Year Plan.
In 1934, Koch partnered with William Rhodes Davis to build the Hamburg Oil Refinery, the third-largest oil refinery serving the Third Reich, a project which was personally approved by Adolf Hitler.
Surprise surprise, Koch Industries remains in business with the planet's leading fascist scumbag.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is opening an investigation into war crimes by Russia. What struck me in his interview on CNN (and I paraphrase) is that while there is a process which will be followed (but there is overwhelming evidence) hand wringing, talking, and doing nothing will only open the door for more such war crimes. I would say (and have said repeatedly) the exact same thing regarding the January 6th investigation. We simply cannot let trump and his minions off the hook . . . there is way too much evidence that proves they are more than worthy of indictments, etc. Merrick Garland where the heck are you and the DOJ?!!
Every single republican in Congress, who voted "not guilty" in each of trump's 2 impeachment trials, knowingly supported 1) a violent coup attempt to topple our government, 2) a “dictator wanna be” in trump, and 3) a weakening of Ukraine (by trump's attempt to withhold military aid). These are the most unethical, horrible group of people this country has seen in our lifetime and their presence and clapping for Zelensky on March 16th made me sick. They are hypocrites (that is the most polite term that can be used) of the highest order.
If there was ever any doubt that Charles Koch has worked against the U.S. for decades, look no further.
"Koch Industries, the second-largest privately owned business in America, is staying put. Political groups affiliated with right-wing billionaire CEO Charles Koch oppose broad sanctions and have suggested the U.S. should remain neutral in the crisis."
The Koch Industries supporting Russian imperialism reminds me of the SAME REPUBLICAN OLIGARCHS here in America striking out against voting rights to ensure that our vote is NOT our voice for students, the aged, low income, the disabled and fighting against affirmative action (a stated goal of Donor's Trust on their website).
So when the John Birch Society/Donor's Trust gang (DeVos, Kochs and/or their ilk) funded the attack on Voting Rights (funding Shelby County v Holder to end pre-clearance of any voting laws in states where Blacks were systematically denied their right to vote and Citizens United to ensure that CORPORATIONS as "people" can attack the right to vote and fund through PACs using unlimited funds to continue to support candidates with shared Republican values and attacking with $$$$ those who stood for the rights of citizens to vote, and then take over at least 19 state legislatures who in turn pass repressive voting laws, control the Republicans in the Senate of the USA (and perhaps Sinema and Manchin?) by supporting the filibuster to stop the correction of the Supreme Court decisions and the Republican-state controlled suppressive voting laws and continue by now passing laws to allow these same Republicans to control the validity of the election itself.
We are having our own internal takeover of democracy. WAKE UP AMERICA. FIGHT FOR YOUR DEMOCRACY. URGE YOUR SENATORS TO STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY AND VOTE FOR THE FREEDOM TO VOTE /JOHN LEWIS VOTING RIGHTS ACT and defeat the fascists here in America picking off voting rights (and other civil rights) via their buying legislatures. STAND up for every American citizen having unfettered access to the ballot box. Don't let your zip code determine your right to vote. Pass federal election laws. STOP THESE KOCH Brother OLIGARCHS .
I think Zelinskiy may end up being the most admired man of our time. Every time he speaks he has something valuable to say. How he does it, I don't know, with the stress he is under and lack of sleep. I just hope he will continue to have strength, and that the tide will turn for him and for Ukraine.
One individual should not have the right to upset the world.
Today a representative from Bellingcat testified before Congress. Among other things, he mentioned that Russian encryption has failed and so there is access to phone conversations in the field showing that commanders and troops know they are targeting civilians. They are assembling evidence for any future tribunal. Although it is important to remove fake posts, it is important for the companies to preserve and archive them so that sources and custody chains can be maintained for evidence.
Another expert testified that Putin is very isolated and taking advice from just a few people. Not everyone in the Kremlin agrees with the invasion, no one will go up against Putin, but some would testify at a war crimes tribunal.
Putin is using Wagner Group mercenaries, their version of BlackWater, giving butchers free reign and keeping government deniability.
Elsewhere, I also heard the author of The World's Butler - investigative reporting on how Britain become the servant of oligarchs. And how seizing assets is one things, but keeping them is entirely different. How not only international banking but what he called 'colanders masquerading as laws' let the oligarchs and other crooks slip through. Interesting, that the art and real estate industries have no rules for reporting cash payments. Not even to the standard of small businesses.
If we want "to keep justice in history" we will need to document and prosecute war crimes, but we will also need to reform regulation of many industries whose business as usual encourages and overlooks abuses.
‘The Treasury Department also began today to offer bounties of up to $5 million for information leading to “seizure, restraint, or forfeiture of assets linked to foreign government corruption.”
“We have all the capital we need coming in from Russia”- DJT jr
Sounds like easy money to me. Just unlock tfg’s tax returns, licensing deals, condo and property sales by dark LLC’s. You’ll find plenty of Russian oligarch ties and get rich for it! But if that doesnt work just crack the safe at the GOP headquarters, there’s a black book with all the Russian donors to conservatives PAC’s.
On couple of days ago, Anne Applebaum had a piece in The Atlantic titled, American Needs A Better Plan to Fight Autocracy. She suggested that there were three parts to the strategy we should be embracing. One, we should be making laws that end transnational kleptocracy, so that have good laws to defeat money laundering and we jail people who break these laws everywhere in the world. Two, we need to be taking charge of the information war so that instead of just counting on democracy to speak for itself, we do what the autocrats do and send the message out all over the world on why democracy is a good thing tailoring it to each culture. She says that the living example of this being well done is the Ukrainians who are using the technology to get their message out. We should be doing that all the time every day everywhere. Russia is of course also sending out a message, which they are sharing in areas they control, and so we need to be countering that message, here, there and everywhere. Three, she says we should be making democracy the center of our foreign policy. This belief in democracy is something we share which is why we are united in our support of Ukraine and to boycott Russian oil even if it leads to higher prices. We identify with fighting for freedom because this is how we define ourselves.
I think she is really right. I see these letters by HCR, with their discussions, as a fight for democracy. I hope that the Democratic Party sees that they can do more to help their cause by messaging all the time about democracy. Not necessarily about individual candidacies, but the democratic principals that we should all be standing up for. Then, at election times it would be easier for candidates to point to how they are going to be supporting democratic principals that have been messaged about all the time. Currently, we need to support Ukraine since their democratic nation is under attack, at the same time we all need to be working to support democracy here at home by getting the word out on democracy. If Putin can get his people to buy into his message we can get them to buy into our message as well. I think NATO nations are starting to send that message, but they all have a lot of undemocratic individual actions to overcome. Colonization, and racial imperialism is not easily erased. Now is the time to forge a new image of unity and helpfulness.
My wife and I viewed Zelensky’s address to Congress. His manner, words and video had us in tears. :’-(
Considering the seismic battles there - and here… Words are failing but I have, we have chosen the side of equality and justice and good governance - we’re siding with love. The other side has lost the ability to love - fear and rage inform their choices.
Let’s hope that the federal government can take action to stop or deter Koch Industries from operating in Russia. And I expect we will soon see a list of its products, which we can boycott.
Ukraine, by its fight for democracy, has further awakened the sleeping giant of people no longer complacent about the future of a democratic republic in the US. President Zelensky has shown great fortitude as well as empathy. I and my friends will never again take our democracy and political norms for granted. I hope that we haven’t awakened too late to save our country from autocracy.
Charles Koch, along with others (including TFG and family) shows the corruption that results from the love of money and power.
File under Lenin Was Right ("Some decades, nothing happens, then sometimes decades happen in days."): Today, Senator John Cornyn compared President Biden with FDR. Favorably.
How many of you thought three weeks ago those words would come out of the mouth of John Cornyn of Texas?
UPDATE: I was misinformed (so was Michael Beschloss, apparently - my source). John Cornyn is still John Cornyn, Texas-sized asshole, and the sun will continue to rise in the east.
From The Hill:
But Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) appears to have a dissenting opinion of the 32nd president. On Saturday morning, Cornyn attempted to smear President Joe Biden by comparing him to FDR.
“’The era of big government is over,’ POTUS Bill Clinton famously declared in his 1996 State of the Union address. versus: Biden has consciously cloaked himself in the legacy of FDR, to hark back to an earlier age of liberalism when government pulled the country out of despair,” Cornyn tweeted.
Born in Texas in 1952 during the post-war economic boom, Cornyn knows better. Thus, the responses he received from the Twitterverse were absolutely – and appropriately – brutal.
Users all but stopped short of castrating the Texas Republican for what they interpreted as an unconditionally stupid take.
What happens to seized Russian assets? Can frozen cash be used to feed and house the refugees? Can yachts and jets be auctioned off and that cash be utilized to rebuild Ukraine? Give the people some hope of reclaiming their land and their lives after the war is over, as well as demoralize the oligarchs.
In all likelihood, the Koch industries Russian subsidiaries are operated independently from US divisions. It ought to be possible to block their products and the transfer of money from their operations just as easily as other Russian goods and services. I wouldn't give US companies staying in Russia any more consideration than Russian companies attempting to do business across the Russian border.
We have made it clear that the US won't take direct action to secure Ukrainian airspace. Stinger missiles aren't enough to stop bombing of Ukrainian cities. The West is going to have to offer Ukraine some higher tech, higher power military hardware to allow Ukraine to protect themselves from air assaults. The other way Ukraine can win will be to inflict heavy enough human casualties on the Russian military to make continuation of the war untenable to Russia. That means getting up close and personal with their front lines. Ground assaults deserve close air support or the equivalent if there is such a thing, perhaps drone technology. I hate to say it, but there's nothing like a real war to test every manner of new mini offensive drone technology in attacking the artillery and supply lines that support the Russian front lines. It can't take all that long to train Ukrainians to use them, given the incredible asset of years of electronic gaming expertise in young adult warriors. There are multiple countries with more skin in the game and more guts than the US who can act as fronts for our best technology to reach the front lines, and don't doubt that there are any number of CIA and other clandestine Western assets already on the ground in Ukraine providing consulting, intelligence, etc. The stuff we don't hear about probably outweighs what we DO hear about by several fold...
In 1925, Fred C. Koch entered into a partnership with Lewis Winkler, a former employee of Universal Oil Products. Winkler developed a cracking apparatus for heavy crude oil with no patented difference in comparison to his former employer's intellectual property; in 1929, UOP sued Winkler-Koch for patent infringement. Also that year, nearly three years before the patent case went to trial, Winkler-Koch signed contracts to build petroleum distillation plants in the Soviet Union, which did not recognize intellectual property rights.
The extended litigation effectively put Winkler-Koch out of business in the U.S. for several years. "Unable to succeed at home, Koch found work in the Soviet Union". Between 1929 and 1932 Winkler-Koch supported the Kremlin and "trained Bolshevik engineers to help Stalin's regime set up fifteen modern oil refineries" in the Soviet Union during its first Five Year Plan.
In 1934, Koch partnered with William Rhodes Davis to build the Hamburg Oil Refinery, the third-largest oil refinery serving the Third Reich, a project which was personally approved by Adolf Hitler.
Surprise surprise, Koch Industries remains in business with the planet's leading fascist scumbag.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is opening an investigation into war crimes by Russia. What struck me in his interview on CNN (and I paraphrase) is that while there is a process which will be followed (but there is overwhelming evidence) hand wringing, talking, and doing nothing will only open the door for more such war crimes. I would say (and have said repeatedly) the exact same thing regarding the January 6th investigation. We simply cannot let trump and his minions off the hook . . . there is way too much evidence that proves they are more than worthy of indictments, etc. Merrick Garland where the heck are you and the DOJ?!!
Every single republican in Congress, who voted "not guilty" in each of trump's 2 impeachment trials, knowingly supported 1) a violent coup attempt to topple our government, 2) a “dictator wanna be” in trump, and 3) a weakening of Ukraine (by trump's attempt to withhold military aid). These are the most unethical, horrible group of people this country has seen in our lifetime and their presence and clapping for Zelensky on March 16th made me sick. They are hypocrites (that is the most polite term that can be used) of the highest order.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/war-crimes-court-prosecutor-opens-ukraine-investigation-statement-2022-03-02/
If there was ever any doubt that Charles Koch has worked against the U.S. for decades, look no further.
"Koch Industries, the second-largest privately owned business in America, is staying put. Political groups affiliated with right-wing billionaire CEO Charles Koch oppose broad sanctions and have suggested the U.S. should remain neutral in the crisis."
The Koch Industries supporting Russian imperialism reminds me of the SAME REPUBLICAN OLIGARCHS here in America striking out against voting rights to ensure that our vote is NOT our voice for students, the aged, low income, the disabled and fighting against affirmative action (a stated goal of Donor's Trust on their website).
So when the John Birch Society/Donor's Trust gang (DeVos, Kochs and/or their ilk) funded the attack on Voting Rights (funding Shelby County v Holder to end pre-clearance of any voting laws in states where Blacks were systematically denied their right to vote and Citizens United to ensure that CORPORATIONS as "people" can attack the right to vote and fund through PACs using unlimited funds to continue to support candidates with shared Republican values and attacking with $$$$ those who stood for the rights of citizens to vote, and then take over at least 19 state legislatures who in turn pass repressive voting laws, control the Republicans in the Senate of the USA (and perhaps Sinema and Manchin?) by supporting the filibuster to stop the correction of the Supreme Court decisions and the Republican-state controlled suppressive voting laws and continue by now passing laws to allow these same Republicans to control the validity of the election itself.
We are having our own internal takeover of democracy. WAKE UP AMERICA. FIGHT FOR YOUR DEMOCRACY. URGE YOUR SENATORS TO STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY AND VOTE FOR THE FREEDOM TO VOTE /JOHN LEWIS VOTING RIGHTS ACT and defeat the fascists here in America picking off voting rights (and other civil rights) via their buying legislatures. STAND up for every American citizen having unfettered access to the ballot box. Don't let your zip code determine your right to vote. Pass federal election laws. STOP THESE KOCH Brother OLIGARCHS .
I think Zelinskiy may end up being the most admired man of our time. Every time he speaks he has something valuable to say. How he does it, I don't know, with the stress he is under and lack of sleep. I just hope he will continue to have strength, and that the tide will turn for him and for Ukraine.
One individual should not have the right to upset the world.
" ... to keep justice in history"
Pres. Volodomyr Zelensky
On CSpan:
Today a representative from Bellingcat testified before Congress. Among other things, he mentioned that Russian encryption has failed and so there is access to phone conversations in the field showing that commanders and troops know they are targeting civilians. They are assembling evidence for any future tribunal. Although it is important to remove fake posts, it is important for the companies to preserve and archive them so that sources and custody chains can be maintained for evidence.
Another expert testified that Putin is very isolated and taking advice from just a few people. Not everyone in the Kremlin agrees with the invasion, no one will go up against Putin, but some would testify at a war crimes tribunal.
Putin is using Wagner Group mercenaries, their version of BlackWater, giving butchers free reign and keeping government deniability.
Elsewhere, I also heard the author of The World's Butler - investigative reporting on how Britain become the servant of oligarchs. And how seizing assets is one things, but keeping them is entirely different. How not only international banking but what he called 'colanders masquerading as laws' let the oligarchs and other crooks slip through. Interesting, that the art and real estate industries have no rules for reporting cash payments. Not even to the standard of small businesses.
If we want "to keep justice in history" we will need to document and prosecute war crimes, but we will also need to reform regulation of many industries whose business as usual encourages and overlooks abuses.
‘The Treasury Department also began today to offer bounties of up to $5 million for information leading to “seizure, restraint, or forfeiture of assets linked to foreign government corruption.”
“We have all the capital we need coming in from Russia”- DJT jr
Sounds like easy money to me. Just unlock tfg’s tax returns, licensing deals, condo and property sales by dark LLC’s. You’ll find plenty of Russian oligarch ties and get rich for it! But if that doesnt work just crack the safe at the GOP headquarters, there’s a black book with all the Russian donors to conservatives PAC’s.
The Koch brothers father made his fortune in the 30s selling wheat to Joseph Stalin. They are the prototype of Oligarchs.
On couple of days ago, Anne Applebaum had a piece in The Atlantic titled, American Needs A Better Plan to Fight Autocracy. She suggested that there were three parts to the strategy we should be embracing. One, we should be making laws that end transnational kleptocracy, so that have good laws to defeat money laundering and we jail people who break these laws everywhere in the world. Two, we need to be taking charge of the information war so that instead of just counting on democracy to speak for itself, we do what the autocrats do and send the message out all over the world on why democracy is a good thing tailoring it to each culture. She says that the living example of this being well done is the Ukrainians who are using the technology to get their message out. We should be doing that all the time every day everywhere. Russia is of course also sending out a message, which they are sharing in areas they control, and so we need to be countering that message, here, there and everywhere. Three, she says we should be making democracy the center of our foreign policy. This belief in democracy is something we share which is why we are united in our support of Ukraine and to boycott Russian oil even if it leads to higher prices. We identify with fighting for freedom because this is how we define ourselves.
I think she is really right. I see these letters by HCR, with their discussions, as a fight for democracy. I hope that the Democratic Party sees that they can do more to help their cause by messaging all the time about democracy. Not necessarily about individual candidacies, but the democratic principals that we should all be standing up for. Then, at election times it would be easier for candidates to point to how they are going to be supporting democratic principals that have been messaged about all the time. Currently, we need to support Ukraine since their democratic nation is under attack, at the same time we all need to be working to support democracy here at home by getting the word out on democracy. If Putin can get his people to buy into his message we can get them to buy into our message as well. I think NATO nations are starting to send that message, but they all have a lot of undemocratic individual actions to overcome. Colonization, and racial imperialism is not easily erased. Now is the time to forge a new image of unity and helpfulness.
My wife and I viewed Zelensky’s address to Congress. His manner, words and video had us in tears. :’-(
Considering the seismic battles there - and here… Words are failing but I have, we have chosen the side of equality and justice and good governance - we’re siding with love. The other side has lost the ability to love - fear and rage inform their choices.
Let’s hope that the federal government can take action to stop or deter Koch Industries from operating in Russia. And I expect we will soon see a list of its products, which we can boycott.
Ukraine, by its fight for democracy, has further awakened the sleeping giant of people no longer complacent about the future of a democratic republic in the US. President Zelensky has shown great fortitude as well as empathy. I and my friends will never again take our democracy and political norms for granted. I hope that we haven’t awakened too late to save our country from autocracy.
Charles Koch, along with others (including TFG and family) shows the corruption that results from the love of money and power.
File under Lenin Was Right ("Some decades, nothing happens, then sometimes decades happen in days."): Today, Senator John Cornyn compared President Biden with FDR. Favorably.
How many of you thought three weeks ago those words would come out of the mouth of John Cornyn of Texas?
UPDATE: I was misinformed (so was Michael Beschloss, apparently - my source). John Cornyn is still John Cornyn, Texas-sized asshole, and the sun will continue to rise in the east.
From The Hill:
But Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) appears to have a dissenting opinion of the 32nd president. On Saturday morning, Cornyn attempted to smear President Joe Biden by comparing him to FDR.
“’The era of big government is over,’ POTUS Bill Clinton famously declared in his 1996 State of the Union address. versus: Biden has consciously cloaked himself in the legacy of FDR, to hark back to an earlier age of liberalism when government pulled the country out of despair,” Cornyn tweeted.
Born in Texas in 1952 during the post-war economic boom, Cornyn knows better. Thus, the responses he received from the Twitterverse were absolutely – and appropriately – brutal.
Users all but stopped short of castrating the Texas Republican for what they interpreted as an unconditionally stupid take.
“That’s a bad thing?” one poster replied.
What happens to seized Russian assets? Can frozen cash be used to feed and house the refugees? Can yachts and jets be auctioned off and that cash be utilized to rebuild Ukraine? Give the people some hope of reclaiming their land and their lives after the war is over, as well as demoralize the oligarchs.
In all likelihood, the Koch industries Russian subsidiaries are operated independently from US divisions. It ought to be possible to block their products and the transfer of money from their operations just as easily as other Russian goods and services. I wouldn't give US companies staying in Russia any more consideration than Russian companies attempting to do business across the Russian border.
We have made it clear that the US won't take direct action to secure Ukrainian airspace. Stinger missiles aren't enough to stop bombing of Ukrainian cities. The West is going to have to offer Ukraine some higher tech, higher power military hardware to allow Ukraine to protect themselves from air assaults. The other way Ukraine can win will be to inflict heavy enough human casualties on the Russian military to make continuation of the war untenable to Russia. That means getting up close and personal with their front lines. Ground assaults deserve close air support or the equivalent if there is such a thing, perhaps drone technology. I hate to say it, but there's nothing like a real war to test every manner of new mini offensive drone technology in attacking the artillery and supply lines that support the Russian front lines. It can't take all that long to train Ukrainians to use them, given the incredible asset of years of electronic gaming expertise in young adult warriors. There are multiple countries with more skin in the game and more guts than the US who can act as fronts for our best technology to reach the front lines, and don't doubt that there are any number of CIA and other clandestine Western assets already on the ground in Ukraine providing consulting, intelligence, etc. The stuff we don't hear about probably outweighs what we DO hear about by several fold...
Yours is a excellent summary of a packed, emotional news day. I am so grateful for our President.