
The Koch brothers, who are spending about $1 billion on the 2016 presidential election, are downplaying the amount of political influence their bottomless pockets can buy.
In an interview that aired today on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Charles Koch said that he and his brother are trying to end corporate welfare by making financial contributions to candidates who could stop government assistance of large corporations (via Politico).
Their company, Koch Industries, has reportedly funneled a jaw-dropping $29,519,116 in campaign contributions to mostly Republican politicians since 2002.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski pressed Koch to elaborate his position, asking him, "It's well and good that you want to stop corporate welfare ... but aren't you still getting caught in the same cycle of buying influence?"
Koch brushed off her question and replied that he and his brother are "so far ... largely failures at it, you can tell."
Regarding November's midterm elections, in which the Republicans took over the Senate, Koch said, "We looked like we won," but "as you can see, the performance, we didn't win much of anything."
Charles Koch: We have to be more careful on what candidates we back https://t.co/uGiYdWt0Kv— Morning Joe (@Morning Joe)1446551616.0
Later in the MSNBC interview, co-host Joe Scarborough asked how Koch and his family felt about Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) calling the brothers "un-American" for trying to "buy" the U.S. with their massive campaign contributions. Reid is an outspoken critic of the family.
"It's frightening for the future of the country to have these public officials try to hurt and destroy private citizens who oppose what they're doing, rather than have a conversation and maybe find ... areas we can work together on ... to make the country better instead of this vitriol and these dishonest attacks," Koch responded.
It's not the first time Koch has spoken out about corporate welfare. In August, the brothers made headlines when President Obama slammed them for attempting to thwart the expansion of wind and solar power.
Koch-backed groups, particularly the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), have fought renewable energy programs in several states, including pushing for states to withdraw from climate compacts, penalizing rooftop solar installations and repealing renewable portfolio standards.
In response, Charles Koch told Politico that his company is not trying to stop the growth of renewables, but is simply just “opposed to renewable energy subsidies of all kinds—as we are all subsidies, whether they benefit or help us,” adding that the President’s words seemed like a personal attack.
As EcoWatch reported, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke out about the Koch brothers and corporate campaign donations during a keynote speech this summer.
“And today it’s hard to argue that we still have a democracy in this country when you have the Koch brothers, the two richest people in America, who have pledged already to put nearly $900 million into this presidential election, which is comparable to the amount spent by either political party,” said Kennedy. “This year’s presidential election is going to cost $10 billion with half of that coming from 100 wealthy families. Nearly $1 billion is coming from two brothers.”
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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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