David Koch, Billionaire Who Fueled Right-Wing Movement, Dies at 79

[ChrryBlstr]

Ding dong indeed....

David H. Koch, an industrialist who amassed a multibillion-dollar fortune with his brother Charles and then joined him in pouring their riches into a powerful right-wing libertarian movement that helped reshape American politics, died on Friday at his home in Southampton, N.Y. He was 79.

Charles G. Koch announced the death in a statement, which noted that David Koch had been treated for prostate cancer in the past. ?Twenty-seven years ago,? the statement said, ?David was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and given a grim prognosis of a few years to live. David liked to say that a combination of brilliant doctors, state of the art medications and his own stubbornness kept the cancer at bay.?

Hitching his star to the soaring ambitions of Charles, his older brother, David Koch (pronounced coke) became one of the world?s richest people, with assets of $42.2 billion in 2019 and a 42 percent stake in the family enterprise, Koch Industries, a Kansas-based energy and chemicals conglomerate. He also became a nationally known philanthropist and the early public face of the Koch political ascendancy, as the Libertarian Party?s candidate for vice president in 1980.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/us/david-koch-dead.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR0jgiTVyRd4X2qPhf7FGARAlHwNChzey5wmip9NOuXFKbHfDJ2vScIBkgY

 

[Duff Miver]

Ding dong indeed....

David H. Koch, an industrialist who amassed a multibillion-dollar fortune with his brother Charles and then joined him in pouring their riches into a powerful right-wing libertarian movement that helped reshape American politics, died on Friday at his home in Southampton, N.Y. He was 79.

Charles G. Koch announced the death in a statement, which noted that David Koch had been treated for prostate cancer in the past. ?Twenty-seven years ago,? the statement said, ?David was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and given a grim prognosis of a few years to live. David liked to say that a combination of brilliant doctors, state of the art medications and his own stubbornness kept the cancer at bay.?

Hitching his star to the soaring ambitions of Charles, his older brother, David Koch (pronounced coke) became one of the world?s richest people, with assets of $42.2 billion in 2019 and a 42 percent stake in the family enterprise, Koch Industries, a Kansas-based energy and chemicals conglomerate. He also became a nationally known philanthropist and the early public face of the Koch political ascendancy, as the Libertarian Party?s candidate for vice president in 1980.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/us/david-koch-dead.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR0jgiTVyRd4X2qPhf7FGARAlHwNChzey5wmip9NOuXFKbHfDJ2vScIBkgY

Good riddance.

 

[Skulnik]

FLASHBACK: When Liberals Got Mad and Protested David Koch for Giving $100 Million to a Hospital
freebeacon ^ | AUGUST 23, 2019 | Andrew Stiles

'No justice, no peace!' they chanted
Libertarian philanthropist David Koch has passed away at the age of 79. He, along with his brother Charles Koch, was one of the most reviled individuals in American politics among journalists and other left-wing activists, even when they were doing ostensibly uncontroversial things such as donating large amounts of money to a hospital.
In March 2014, liberal activist groups staged a protest outside the planned site of the David H. Koch Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. The center was funded in part by a $100 million donation from the man Democratic billionaire and presidential candidate Tom Steyer once described as "famously evil."
The libs were so mad that even New York City Councilman Ben Kallos showed up at the rally to denounce David Koch for financing a new hospital center in his district.
.@BenKallos: David Koch is against affordable healthcare. Why is his name on a hospital? #stopKoch #womensday
At one point, union leader Minerva Solla took the mic and declared, "If there ain't gonna be no justice, there ain't gonna be no peace!" It's a phrase often shouted at gatherings of angry libs, but one that becomes especially poignant when used to decry the existence of a hospital.
Added context: In 2012, former President Bill Clinton was paid $225,000 to give a speech at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., the same year the hospital laid off 300 employees. "No disrespect to Bill Clinton, but that money could?ve gone a long way and been put to better use," union leader Dan Fields Jr. said at the time.
As a result of David Koch's philanthropy, his name adorns a number of prominent sites throughout New York City, including the David H. Koch Theater at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, a beloved institution among liberal ?lites.