Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Oh joy. Now the Kochs are pushing phony science.

The poor widdle Koch brothers. Now people are making fun of them for backing a phony science group, the American Foundation on Science and Health (ACSH). It claims opponents of GMOs are causing blindness around the world (really). It claims e-cigarettes are safe and fracking will lead to energy independence, even as energy companies that frack are pushing to export more liquid natural gas to Russia.

As much as the Koch brothers try to protect their secrecy privacy, people keep insisting on prying into their business. Just the other day the Center for Media and Democracy reported the Kochs' political spending is even more enormous than we thought. It turns out David Koch secretly writes millions of dollars in personal checks to stink tanks that spew propaganda against unions, public education, environmental protection, voting rights and consumer safety.

Now CMD is at it again, making fun of the Kochs for bankrolling the American Foundation on Science and Health. The Kochs profit from petroleum products like ammonia fertilizers and other agribusiness-related operations, so of course they'll pay for a propaganda machine that tells us GMO food is safe. Writes CMD:
ACSH has also published claims about GMOs that make outrageous statements like "opposition to agricultural progress . . . causes blindness and death worldwide." ACSH has also made patently false and easily disprovable claims such as, "[T]here are no alternative technologies available to plant breeders with which new improved varieties can be created to overcome the current limitations of global agriculture to produce sufficient food, feed, fuel, and fiber on available land."
Then there's this on liquid natural gas:
ACSH has published reports calling fracking "a safe and efficient path to energy independence," despite the hazardous chemical cocktail used in hydraulic fracturing, which spoils millions of gallons of fresh drinking water each year. ACSH's spin also ignores the growing amount of "natural gas" fracked in the U.S. that is exported to foreign countries ... Now, the New York Times and other outlets are writing about the strong push by energy companies like Exxon for large quantities of liquid natural gas from fracking to be exported to Russia and elsewhere rather than kept for domestic use.
And surprise! ACSH now says e-cigarettes are safe -- perhaps because it's getting money from e-cigarette makers. The phony science group says "electronic cigarettes should be made as accessible as cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes should be sold widely and lightly regulated..."

No one likes them but their fellow plutocrats. All because they're spending so much money to turn the United States into a feudal serfdom.