Koch Industries (and the Family) - Part 7

Frederick R Koch is the eldest of the four Koch brothers, and is a well known art and history collector, as well as a philanthropist.  Unlike his father and three brothers, who studied chemical engineering at MIT and pursued business careers. Frederick studied humanities at Harvard College.  He enlisted in the US Navy, and served in Millington, Tennessee and aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. After serving his time in the Navy, Frederick attended the Yale School of Drama, receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1961.  He has assembled large and important collections of rare books, literary and musical manuscripts, fine arts, photographs, and decorative arts.  He has also purchased as restored multiple famous buildings throughout Europe and the United States.
  William I Koch is the fraternal twin of David.  he studied chemical engineering at MIT and has his own company, Oxbow Carbon LLC.  The last estimate said the company was worth about $4 billion.  Oxbow LLC sells the following products: sulfur, sulfuric acid, fertilizer, coal, petroleum coke, calcined petroleum coke, metallurgical coke, activated carbon, and gypsum.  They provide logistics and transporting services for their products via rail, barge, and trucking.  They own a coal mine in Somerset, Colorado, alongside the Gunnison River - which is currently not operating due to seismic activity.  They have shipping terminals in Long Beach, California; Texas City, Texas; Tecop, Brazil; as well as three terminals in the Netherlands, three terminals in France, one terminal in Germany, one in Belgium, and one each in the United Kingdom and Mexico (on the Gulf coast).  Oxbow also sells "value added services,"  which includes calcining; bagging, screening and distribution; and briquetting their product to your specification.

 Perhaps I really don't have any good reason to dislike the Koch brothers, Koch Industries, or Oxbow Carbon LLC.  But it truly bothers me that they have their fingers in so many pies - I am not against their diversification of their businesses.  What bothers me is how much money is secretly and anonymously given to so many widely varied institutes, foundations, and grass-roots groups.  I'll never even make $500,000 in my lifetime (and I'm starting to push 60) - let alone the millions and billions these men play with.  Am I jealous of their prosperity?  I don't think so.  It would be nice to have a couple of million dollars, but then I'd have to worry about taxes and donations and people wanting things given to them.
   Perhaps because I grew up during the time the "Sunshine Laws" were passed in Florida, requiring transparency in governing, I believe that we should all know who is paying for political advertisements - not just the, "Hi. I'm Silly Smith and I want you to vote for me" ads, but the ones that urge people to support, or be against, specific items that will eventually affect the entire world.
   Yes, I'm a liberal Democrat.  I'm against the Keystone XL Pipeline, and I'm for Obamacare.  I want cleaner air for me and my grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  I don't believe we should despoil our world to get a dirtier type of energy (tar sands).  I believe we should re-use, re-cycle, and return.  We need to make better use of hydro-electricity, solar  and wind energies.
  I do not like the way the Koch brothers hide behind so many differently named "shield" and "shell" groups.  They should stand up and admit to which monies go where, how much money, and be done with it.  Or will they be thought to be megalomaniacs who want to take over the world?

I found all of this information in books, newspapers and magazines, as well as posted on the internet.

For further reading about the Koch brothers and Koch Industries, please sample the following:

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120510/koch-industries-brothers-tar-sands-bitumen-heavy-oil-flint-pipelines-refinery-alberta-canada

http://www.channelingreality.com/Temp_Dir/Reason_Koch/Koch%20Oil.pdf

http://www.vanityfair.com/society/2014/06/daniel-schulman-koch-brothers

http://www.vanityfair.com/society/2014/05/frederick-koch-brothers

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/blood-and-oil/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2012/12/05/bad-blood-meet-bill-and-fred-the-other-two-koch-brothers/

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/koch-brothers-palm-springs-donor-list

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html?_r=0

http://webreprints.djreprints.com/3365550225628.pdf  -   Charles Koch's op-ed

Loch Ness Monster, Thoroughbreds & Ads

Yesterday, in the year 565 (and that's 1447 years ago), was the first reported sighting of the monster in Loch Ness, Scotland. An Irish missionary wrote that he saw a huge, long-necked creature arise from the water of the loch and pull another man into the water, before submerging and disappearing. How does the story of this creature stay alive? I know there were reported sightings throughout the years; between October 1871 and August 1933, there were 14 reported sightings. In 1934, a road was built around the loch, and sightings became more frequent, with a London paper printing a photo taken by a well-known physician (lately proved a hoax). Loch Ness is almost 23 miles long, nearly 800 feet deep and stocked with salmon, eels, trout and sturgeon. The lake was formed by melting Ice Age glaciers some 10,000 years ago, and is a body of freshwater. The last sighting of "Nessie" was reported on 2 November 2011, but it had last been seen on 17 June in 1998.   Has he/she/it finally passed away? Was it really a trapped plesiosaur (and, possibly, family?) from the Jurassic period? I think that as long as man has dreams and imagination, there will always be a monster in Loch Ness, a Bigfoot or Sasquatch in the northwestern US, and Yetis or Abominable Snowmen in the Himalayas. After all, humans need dreams and imagination to continue to grow and explore with every generation... When there are no more questions to be answered, I think mankind will swirl down the drain of life.

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   I have to say that this year's crop of three-year-old colts has been a disappointment. Yes, I'll Have Another won two of the three Triple Crown races; Union Rags won the third; Bodemeister was runner-up in two of the Triple Crown races and was a Grade I winner.  And it was just announced that Hansen, the striking grey colt, has an injured tendon and will probably be retired, also. All three colts have been retired from racing due to leg problems; all might have been able to race again, next year, if given time off and allowed to heal.   Then again, are we Americans breeding the thoroughbred race horse into something that can't run beyond three years of age? Surely not! What about Seabiscuit? - Oh, yeah... He ran in the 1930s. What about Kelso, Forego, and John Henry? They raced into their later years - but they were all geldings, and couldn't pass along their wonderful racing genes of strength and longevity on the track to new generations. I really am beginning to believe that the USA is breeding the thoroughbred into disaster. How many horses today could contend in the old type of racing - in four mile heats, sometimes running three in one period of daylight? Perhaps steeplechasers could compete, and perhaps three-day event horses could compete - but I can't think of one horse, who could, today, race in the old fashioned manner. Perhaps Secretariat and Man o' War could have done so... But I really don't think that today's thoroughbreds - bred anywhere in the world - can hold a candle to the old racers: Cade, Regulus, Lath, and the original Eclipse. The Breeders Cup will be held the first weekend of November at Santa Anita - we'll have to see who will be able to run...

   While watching Jeopardy! last night, I counted commercials: there were three normal ads (ie: cars, toothpaste, grocery shopping); nine ads for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan; and three ads for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Can I guess which party has more money? - I am so sick of seeing the same political ads, and it's only the end of August! I think the ads I find most offensive are the ones that neither Romney nor Obama have approved - the ads claiming to be from different support groups. Bah! Humbug! You can tell from the way the ads start, as to whether it is pro or anti someone. I will be very happy when this Presidential election is over!

  We're expecting afternoon thunderstorms, which will be a welcome relief...  It's partly cloudy, and a nice breeze is blowing from the west.  The haze from the western wildfires is still present, as one can barely see the Indian Peaks and Mount Audubon from my place.  Oh, well....