NYT: Kochs dump Canadian petroleum waste in downtown Detroit

[Newsjock]

Source: New York Times

WINDSOR, Ontario — Assumption Park gives residents of this city lovely views of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit skyline. Lately they’ve been treated to another sight: a three-story pile of petroleum coke covering an entire city block on the other side of the Detroit River.

Detroit’s ever-growing black mountain is the unloved, unwanted and long overlooked byproduct of Canada’s oil sands boom.

And no one knows quite what to do about it, except Koch Carbon, which owns it.

The company is controlled by Charles and David Koch, wealthy industrialists who back a number of conservative and libertarian causes including activist groups that challenge the science behind climate change. The company sells the high-sulfur, high-carbon waste, usually overseas, where it is burned as fuel.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/business/energy-environment/mountain-of-petroleum-coke-from-oil-sands-rises-in-detroit.html

[HiPointDem]

1. kr. social cost of koch's billions.

[MichiganVote]

2. My poor state, what a total shambles it is becoming b/c of these billionaire bastards

[Frustratedlady]

3. Not in their backyard.

Imagine the aroma and the contamination of the river with runoff during rainstorms.

How could they get by with this?

[freshwest]

7. They bought the Governor of Michigan. He's their local robosigner. What they want, they get.

Not only that, they created the Tea Party of whole cloth, got the media to make them mainstream and demogogued their way into power in 2010. Synder is part of that election, just like Walker in WI, Rand Paul of KY and others.

This dangerous pile of waste is why the Libertarian Party, founded by Koches, wants to get rid of the EPA and also to sell everything to these fascists.

Yet their interpretation of civil libertarianism is widely praised, too bad about those minorities, women, the poor and disabled. But with 'liberty' only for the rich, misery for the rest of us. They go out of their way to take the vote from us, if they get their way it won't matter, the ones with the power of life and death will corporatists and theocrats.

And the planet be damned, to hell with regulations of any kind for the civil rights or health of others, as it interferes with their 'freedom' to be rich.

How Freedom Became Tyranny

Rightwing libertarians have turned “freedom” into an excuse for greed and exploitation.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 20th December 2011

Freedom: who could object? Yet this word is now used to justify a thousand forms of exploitation. Throughout the rightwing press and blogosphere, among thinktanks and governments, the word excuses every assault on the lives of the poor, every form of inequality and intrusion to which the 1% subject us. How did libertarianism, once a noble impulse, become synonymous with injustice?

In the name of freedom – freedom from regulation – the banks were permitted to wreck the economy. In the name of freedom, taxes for the super-rich are cut. In the name of freedom, companies lobby to drop the minimum wage and raise working hours. In the same cause, US insurers lobby Congress to thwart effective public healthcare; the government rips up our planning laws; big business trashes the biosphere. This is the freedom of the powerful to exploit the weak, the rich to exploit the poor.

Right-wing libertarianism recognises few legitimate constraints on the power to act, regardless of the impact on the lives of others. In the UK it is forcefully promoted by groups like the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Adam Smith Institute, the Institute of Economic Affairs and Policy Exchange(2). Their conception of freedom looks to me like nothing but a justification for greed.

So why have we been been so slow to challenge this concept of liberty? I believe that one of the reasons is as follows. The great political conflict of our age – between neocons and the millionaires and corporations they support on one side and social justice campaigners and environmentalists on the other – has been mischaracterised as a clash between negative and positive freedoms...

http://www.monbiot.com/2011/12/19/how-freedom-became-tyranny/

[Frustratedlady]

9. Darned scary, isn't it? Thanks for the info. eom

[freshwest]

10. All we can do is stay united and keeping voting them out. Yup, it's scary.

[defacto7]

15. 'Wish I could K&R your reply!

[freshwest]

18. Thanks. Skim my Journal. You may not agree with all, but it's a lot. We must spread the word.

[defacto7]

19. Will do!

[Lunacee_2013]

20. Wouldn't it be great if the ppl of Detroit some how

came together and figured out a way to dump this shit in the Kochs' backyard?

[City Lights]

4. Koch Bros = malignant tumor on the planet. nt

[glinda]

5. They don't view America in Patriotic terms. It is all Global for them.

[LeftInTX]

6. Dump it in the Kochs' mansion front yards

Let their HOAs have a fit!!!

[farmbo]

8. So this is why Snyder appointed an "Emergency Manager" for Detroit

No democratically- elected Mayor would ever permit this kind of environmental desecration of one of America's great cities. Never.

Now we know why ALEC and the Koch's pushed so hard to banish democracy from Michigan's cities-- so Koch Industry could turn them into dumping grounds, with absolute impunity.

[defacto7]

16. ^^ this ^^

[freshwest]

17. +1. And will do so in every state the teaparty has majority.

Last edited Wed Jun 5, 2013, 12:39 PM - Edit history (1)

A video was posted in which someone filmed Paul Ryan, a Koch brothers lackey all the way, meeting his followers and put it on youtube.

He began with the anchor baby argument, but at :55 in the video, he says their goal is to turn enough states red to get them to pass a repeal of the 14th Amendment. He framed it in terms of illegals because of welfare, but this much more dangerous than it first appears.

Those people ate it up, because that's how they get the lower in society to vote for what they want, division based on hatred. But consider the other clauses in the 14th upon which many of our rights depend.

In addition to the Reconstruction part of the Amendment there is Birthright Citizenship, and the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses. We know what their intentions on voting rights have been; their assaults on the poor and every kind of 'minority' civil rights. They wouldn' stop at ending birthright citizenship, or any form of gender rights, labor or environmental protections.

They want this country back to something far older, oppressive than most of us ever knew. Here is the video, the thread and my further comments. I hope that people will listen to this:

Paul Ryan Casually Drops This Slur And Shows The GOP's Effort To 'Reach Out' Is B.S.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017117146

My comment here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017117146#post3

Think two steps ahead, this is not just about bigotry. They know that will garner attention of those who believe they need to discriminate and those who are resisting that. While we must resist, think long-term.

It's always about money and power with all the works of the Koch brothers, their candiates and ALEC.

This is what is being planned in the private rooms and country clubs across this nation. They have the money and a plan. We must mobilize and keep going, not get demoralized by every passing thing that the media tells us. They are playing for keeps.

[proReality]

11. Drop them in the middle of it, without a shovel. n/t

[mountain grammy]

12. I'd like to see David and Charles suspended over this mess, then slowly lowered into it.

[alp227]

13. Whoa, the Koch Brothers have introduced a whole new brand of coke to Detroit!

Except it can't be snorted.

Really. Koch? What a fitting family name right there.

Meanwhile neither the Detroit Free Press nor News have even reported on this dump - it took the NEW YORK TIMES to expose it!

[Boomerproud]

14. Okay everyone-simmer down-it's only Detroit!