
Donald Trump might still be leading in the polls among Republican presidential candidates, but some very powerful and wealthy donors are snubbing the Donald. The Koch brothers are "denying him access to their state-of-the-art data and refusing to let him speak to their gatherings of grassroots activists or major donors," reports Politico.
One might think that the real estate mogul would be a perfect candidate for the Koch Brothers. Politico reports David Koch and Trump have had a "long and cordial relationship" and "a raft of former Koch operatives" are currently running Trump’s presidential campaign. Not to mention, you can't be more of a climate denier than Donald Trump. Sure, the Republican field is awash with candidates like Jeb Bush giving the tired climate denier stance of "I'm not a scientist," but even he admits "the climate is changing, and we need to adapt to that reality.”
On the other hand, the Donald is adamant in his denial:
Record cold temperatures in July - 20 to 30 degrees colder than normal. What the hell happened to GLOBAL WARMING?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2014
NBC News just called it the great freeze - coldest weather in years. Is our country still spending money on the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2014
Any and all weather events are used by the GLOBAL WARMING HOAXSTERS to justify higher taxes to save our planet! They don't believe it $$$$! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2014
The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012
Trump is a seemingly perfect candidate for the Koch brothers, who, along with their network of hundreds of conservative mega-donors have spent millions of dollars funding candidates and campaigns that deny climate change and fight renewable energy programs. But "the Koch operation has spurned entreaties from the Trump campaign to purchase state-of-the-art data and analytics services from a Koch-backed political tech firm called i360, and also turned down a request to allow Trump to speak at an annual grassroots summit next month in Columbus, Ohio, sponsored by the Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity," reports Politico.
Trump was also not invited to the upcoming annual summer conference hosted by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the umbrella group in the Kochs’ brothers massive political network. Some of the top GOP presidential candidates, including Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker and even long-shots such as Carly Fiorina, will be in attendance.
"A spokesman for i360 declined to comment on why the company, considered the leading supplier of voter data and analytics on the right, refused to provide services to Trump’s campaign," says Politico. But the Koch-backed Latino-voter-targeting outfit LIBRE Initiative shed some light on why the Koch network is snubbing Trump. "A spokesperson pointed to a statement from the group’s president denouncing Trump for his inflammatory statements about Mexican immigrants and called him out as an inconsistent conservative 'who has gotten ahead through sensationalism,'" Politico reports.
The Kochs freeze out Donald Trump http://t.co/eg755DykRy
— POLITICO (@politico) July 29, 2015
Trump has come under fire for many of his comments, even among conservatives, like when he accused Sen. John McCain of not being a real war hero. Politico reports many in the Koch network were "offended" by his comments.
The Koch network will play a very important role in the 2016 presidential race as they plan to spend a staggering $889 million. But "while Trump’s campaign could certainly benefit from the network’s data and grass-roots reach, he doesn’t need its cash in the same way that his rivals do," says Politico. Trump has an estimated net worth of $3 billion and he is funding his campaign out of his own pocket.
“The good news is that Donald Trump doesn’t need the Koch brothers, and he can do this perfectly without their assistance,” Josh Youssef, who’s chairing Trump’s campaign in Belknap County, New Hampshire, told Politico. Of the Koch network, Youssef said: “Their motivations are clearly not to break the mold of political insider-ship. Their goal is to keep the wheel spinning. Trump’s bad for business for them.”
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Migratory beekeeping involves trucking millions of bees across the U.S. to pollinate different crops, including avocados and almonds. Timothy Paule II / Pexels / CC0
<p>According to <a href="https://www.fromthegrapevine.com/israeli-kitchen/beekeeping-how-to-keep-bees" target="_blank">From the Grapevine</a>, American avocados also fully depend on bees' pollination to produce fruit, so farmers have turned to migratory beekeeping as well to fill the void left by wild populations.</p><p>U.S. farmers have become reliant upon the practice, but migratory beekeeping has been called exploitative and harmful to bees. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/10/health/avocado-almond-vegan-partner/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported that commercial beekeeping may injure or kill bees and that transporting them to pollinate crops appears to negatively affect their health and lifespan. Because the honeybees are forced to gather pollen and nectar from a single, monoculture crop — the one they've been brought in to pollinate — they are deprived of their normal diet, which is more diverse and nourishing as it's comprised of a variety of pollens and nectars, Scientific American reported.</p><p>Scientific American added how getting shuttled from crop to crop and field to field across the country boomerangs the bees between feast and famine, especially once the blooms they were brought in to fertilize end.</p><p>Plus, the artificial mass influx of bees guarantees spreading viruses, mites and fungi between the insects as they collide in midair and crawl over each other in their hives, Scientific American reported. According to CNN, some researchers argue that this explains why so many bees die each winter, and even why entire hives suddenly die off in a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder.</p>Avocado and almond crops depend on bees for proper pollination. FRANK MERIÑO / Pexels / CC0
<p>Salazar and other Columbian beekeepers described "scooping up piles of dead bees" year after year since the avocado and citrus booms began, according to Phys.org. Many have opted to salvage what partial colonies survive and move away from agricultural areas.</p><p>The future of pollinators and the crops they help create is uncertain. According to the United Nations, nearly half of insect pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, risk global extinction, Phys.org reported. Their decline already has cascading consequences for the economy and beyond. Roughly 1.4 billion jobs and three-quarters of all crops around the world depend on bees and other pollinators for free fertilization services worth billions of dollars, Phys.org noted. Losing wild and native bees could <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/wild-bees-crop-shortage-2646849232.html" target="_self">trigger food security issues</a>.</p><p>Salazar, the beekeeper, warned Phys.org, "The bee is a bioindicator. If bees are dying, what other insects beneficial to the environment... are dying?"</p>EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
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