David Koch in deteriorating health, leaving business, politics - Polidicks

Topeka Capital-Journal: David Koch in deteriorating health, leaving business, politics http://www.cjonline.com/storyimage/KS/20180605/NEWS/180609277/AR/0/AR-180609277.jpg NEW YORK (Topeka Capital-Journal) — Billionaire conservative icon David Koch is stepping down from the Koch brothers’ network of business and political activities. The 78-year-old New York resident is suffering from deteriorating health, according to a letter that older brother Charles Koch sent to company officials Tuesday morning. Charles Koch wrote that he is “deeply saddened” by his brother’s retirement. “David has always been a fighter and is dealing with this challenge in the same way,” he wrote. David Koch is leaving his roles as executive vice president and board member for Kansas-based Koch Industries and a subsidiary, Koch Chemical Technology group, where he served as chairman and chief executive officer. Koch is also stepping down as chairman of the board for the Americans For Prosperity Foundation, the charity related to Koch brothers’ primary political organization. Charles Koch had assumed a more visible leadership role in the brothers’ affairs in recent years. He will continue to serve as the CEO of Koch Industries and the unofficial face of the network’s political efforts. Reuters: David Koch to retire from Koch Industries due to poor health (Reuters) - Conservative billionaire industrialist David Koch is retiring from his roles at Koch Industries and associated companies due to poor health, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. David Koch, 78, along with his elder brother Charles, have been a force in American politics since the 1980s. Their influence has largely been powered by a fortune centered on Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held company in the United States, whose operations range from refining and chemicals to ranching and forest products. The brothers are known to spend heavily on conservative initiatives and to oppose government intervention in business. David, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer almost two decades ago, is the executive vice president at Koch Industries. The brothers have donated several millions to doctors and researchers working toward a cancer cure. “David has always been a fighter and is dealing with this challenge in the same way,” Charles Koch wrote in the memo dated June 4.

No one's gonna shed a tear over this.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Doubt the business will stop funding the gop even when both of them retire.

Well this is a decision that helps everybody who matters (sorry gop).

How sad, is there a gofundme campaign I can donate to?

I find the man deplorable at the best of times, but yet I still feel pity for his condition. Cancer sucks, regardless of who has it.

Thank gods for this luck, but unfortunately its too late for his influenced has mostly ruined American society.

I feel no pity for this man. Think of how many families have been bankrupted by cancer treatment, how many people are going to die on account of climate inaction and environmental degradation, and think of how the Koch Bros. perpetuated that system. Fuck him, I hope he suffers.

There's a sort of one way respectability street for rich people killing a lot of others for their own personal gain versus serial killers or bank robbers doing it. Every social service or Planned Parenthood closed by the Kochs leads to unsafe abortions, hiv epidemics, worse sex ed, drug overdoses...

He doesn't deserve cancer but it'll be a good thing that he dies.

I don't hope he suffers, but I won't shed a tear over any amount he does. How's it a good thing? Even if he were dead today or never existed there would be and will be another to take his place.

You don't get rich (unless you make it in a new industry I suppose) without being an amoral sociopath, or having rich parents.

lol, no. He is retiring from active business work; he is not even kind of retiring from politics at all. One of their sons and bunch of their grandchildren live in Kansas City, and hes at rallies and events all the time. He won't be out of politics until he can't make use of his fingers, much less any other part of his body.

Here's hoping he trips on his way to hospice and falls feet first into a wood chipper, dragging all of his family along with him.

they have an absolutely enormous trust setup for their action network, though without someone like charles or david pulling strings, I could see their network of thinktanks fragmenting pretty quickly as each has its own agenda

I thought there was vitriol in this thread at first, but my god, what has the rest of his family done? If he has kids, it's not like it's certain that they're Republican stooges, surely?

You would be incorrect, having met them a couple of times at sports functions.

I suppose it's more accurate to call them libertarians, yeah.

Well not quite, Ed Koch came out of the closet as a homosexual and a democrat and the rest of the family essentially excommunicated him so there definitely still are some old ideas in the minds of these old men.

Corporate anarchists is more accurate.

Let's see if all your wealth can dig you out of this one, David.

You make a good point. I hope that all lobbyists and wealth-holders fall feet first into a wood chipper along with their families.

Why not put a bounty on their kids up and put pictures of them writhing in agony up on the Internet whilst you're at it? There's a reason that North Korea's program of imprisoning 2nd and 3rd generations of "ill-doers" is considered barbaric.

Fuck this high road shit, he deserves full body cancer.

their immigration policy is strangely liberal, in the sense that they want as much cheap imported labor as possible

You clearly don't know what these people have done to ruin America; I'll agree that killing them wouldn't solve anything, but the world would be a better place without them.

I do know what the Koch brothers have done, but I was specifically talking about how killing their families doesn't make any sense when many of them probably have nothing to do with fucking over Americans. Do you think 5 year old children deserve to be killed just because of their association with somebody?

I don't think putting bank robbers in the same category as serial killers or rich elitist pricks like the Koch brothers is fair. A lot of people who turn to those kinds of crime (robbery and theft in particular) tend to do so because they're at the end of their rope and have very limited options at their disposal.

can we take out the other one too