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Loading...An App To Get the Koch Bros. Out of Your Life
Whether you want to or not, you may be supporting the Koch Brothers, the billionaire, secretive industrialists who are hard at work bankrolling various extreme right, anti-environmentalist, climate change denialist causes. If you use Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups or plates or napkins, Mardi Gras paper towels or napkins, Sparkle napkins, or anything made with products from the world’s largest fiber and textiles company, Invista — including Coolmax, Cordura and Lycra– the Koch Brothers are part of your purchases, your gear, your life.
Darcy Burner, a former Microsoft programmer who is now running for Congress in Washington state, wants to help you not to unwittingly support the Koch Brothers. To that end, Burner is developing an app that will help you avoid products from Koch Brother-owned companies.
As she says to the Guardian,
The Kochs have a record of spending enormous amounts of money to move very reactionary, rightwing policies. Most Americans disagree with those policies but they may be buying products that are bankrolling them.”
We talk about boycotts but with someone like the Kochs, they own so much that it’s difficult to track.
Burner’s app is meant to help people make “informed buying decisions.” The first version of the app will enable people to check a product via its barcode. Eventually, Burner — who would like to have the app ready to go ahead of this year’s election — hopes that that app could actually “warn people when they enter a store with bad labor or environmental practices” and even suggest nearby places where someone “might feel better shopping.”
While it is not so hard to buy a different napkin brand (or forego paper products as much as one might), it may be somewhat harder to get the Koch Brothers out of your outdoor and exercise gear. As Utne Reader’s Keith Goetzman notes, he’s got “duffels, backpacks, stuff sacks, fanny packs, bike bags, luggage, gaiters, and binocular cases” made from Cordura, a company that the Koch Brothers acquired from Dupont in 2004. Goetzman’s own Cordura gear predates the sale so he notes that it is “100 percent Koch-free.”
But Lycra has become ubiquitous for workout and even other clothing. Is the trusty rain jacket you rely on made of Supplex? If so, it’s a Koch Brothers product: As Goetzman points out, de-Koching your life may not be as easy as you might wish. So knowing “there’s an app for that” could come in very handy indeed.
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Read more: APP, climate change denier, Darcy burner, koch, koch bros, koch brothers
Photo by Sue Peacock
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
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Recent Comments from Causes
Agreed Kevin. Heck, Jerry Lee Lewis got the parents of a 12 or 13 year old to sign her over to him…
Thanks.
I can't believe the people who want to lock this child up and throw the key away. The relationship started…
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134 comments
+ add your ownBe Koch Free!
They also make toilet paper not mentioned here "Angel Soft".
Here is list of their products:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/List-of-Koch-Brothers-products/139983639399139?sk=info
Can I pre-order!
Stomp on the KOCHROACHES. Get the nasty parasite vampires out of civil society, these KOCHROACH leeches are a shamer on the human race.
The Koch Bros, and other filthy rich creeps buy politicians in other countries, i.e. -Canada, They do this in many sleazy secretive ways. They donate billions to rightwing good-ole boys clubs like the Fraser Institute and that entity 'influenzas' the corporate captive media to write and broadcast what they say. For instance, the Fraser Instatpuke decrees that "scientist says global warming is a myth"--and, of course, the scientist turns out to be only a gynocologist or any drunk with a degree in some science or other. Totally bogus science. But the brainwashed public doesn't look too closely... So we've wound up with many Koch Bros' creations---ex-premier Gordon Campbell, and unfortunately our present Prime Minister Harper. These 2 are hated by the majority, but we only have a first-past-the -post voting system, so Harper got in with only 37% of the vote. There's no democracy in your country, either.
Lee- it's ok, I get chewed out here enough for both of us... LOL.
Be sure to announce on FB and on Care 2 when the app is available!!!
Huh.
Bright idea. Trouble is, will it be available on iOS? She IS a 'Softie.
Lee W- yes, apparently we do agree on something, LOL :-) I live where the LBD (Little Brown Dog) situation / trial occured. The bastard got a hung jury.
http://fortheloveofthedogblog.com/news-updates/little-brown-dogs-recovery-video
Always be careful of dating people with Koch rot.
I love this kind of idea. However I don't have an iphone or any of the fancy deals. If this app becomes a reality I may have to save my pennies so I can get a phone so I can get that app.
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