Mark Andrew is a former Henco commissioner and former DFL chair. He also works in the “green energy marketing” biz. Since “government” is the primary target of green industry “marketing”, it’s fair to say Andrew is part of our nation’s ongoing green graft racket – by which the “green” industry tries to chivvy tax money from friendly governments.
And as yesterday’s Strib op-ed shows, he really really doesn’t like the Koch Brothers – their refinery (the Flint Hills refinery in Rosemount), them, or their business:
What make’s their businesses so dirty is not just what they do, but how they do it.
Koch Industries’ corporate ethos is to pollute the American landscape with impunity.
(Really, Mark? That’s their “ethos”? The Kochs base their behavior on the idea that polluting is a moral good? That seems a bit far-fetched).
After hours, they fuel a dark labyrinth of propoganda networks to spew out pollution of another kind-disinformation, defamation and denials. Their goal is not to gain market share–it is to rid the world of government oversight of their businesses and the nefarious groups that prop them up. This is how they roll.
Put another way – and in this case an accurate one? The Kochs use some of their fortune (in the tens of billions) to press libertarian solutions (some of their stances have angered conservatives and would probably have gotten Andrew’s support, if he were intellectually honest, which this article pretty much confirms he’s not).
Oh, yeah – they’re thought-criminals (emphasis added):
The brothers over the years have outspent ExxonMobil’s subsidies of shadow climate denier groups by a 3-1 margin.
But this piece isn’t just an attack on the Kochs.
No – it’s against those polluted by association – in this case, the Ordway Theatre in Saint Paul, which the Koch Brothers help underwrite (again, emphasis added):
It is not so curious then, that the Koch’s would want to align themselves with St.Paul’s Ordway Theatre, one of the nation’s leading non-profit live performance venues. The 14th Annual “Flint Hills International Children’s Festival, presented by the Ordway” opens this weekend, and is the perfect halo under which the conglomerate might dwell for a few days, basking in the glow of delighted children whose lives are put at risk by their business and political actions.
The Koch’s [sic] and the Ordway’s that birthed the theatre couldn’t be a starker study in contrasts…Bathed in a riot of color, the brochure captures multi-colored children carefully photographed and captivated by a phantasmagoria of dance, music, acrobatics and reverie. And not a refinery to be found!
The stagings are fantasy adventures as far removed from daily reality as the Koch brothers’ climate change denials.
One wonders if the Kochs slither about in black capes and top-hats and laugh maniacally as they twirl their waxed mustaches.
What Andrew is trying to do is “shame” the Ordway – and the rest of Minnesota’s cultural community – into putting the Kochs “beyond the pale”. Something like this:
Look for more of this; well-heeled liberals badgering Big Minnesota into dissociating with anyone who pushes back against Big Narrative.
Because to the Minnesota left, the only act that can be shamed any more is disagreeing with Big Left.
Epilogue: A local journo pointed out on Facebook that Andrew’s op-ed reads a lot like Andrew’s former boss at the Minnesota Daily – Nick Coleman.
I toyed with responding on Facebook “A badly-written hatchet job, long on name-calling, thoughtcrime-shaming and innuendo and short on fact? Yes, I see the similarity”.
But I don’t like it when people gunk up my Facebook page, either. But it never ceases to amaze me – journalists actually think Nick Coleman is a good writer and reporter.