KOCH KILLS
On February - 14 - 2011
Billionaire Bashing in Rancho Mirage, CA
by Mike Roddy, Daily Beast, Buffalo Beast, February 14, 2011
We came dressed for battle at Rancho Las Palmas Hotel. Gail Zawacki and I had matching tuxedo shirts, top hats, ghoul masks, and the best sign ever: KOCH KILLS, on an eight by two foot banner, painted in dripping red by Gail. We’d been planning it for weeks, and came from New Jersey and Seattle, respectively, for this important event.
***
And we’re not talking about whatever the gathering inside the hotel met for—no mystery there: “How can we evade paying taxes? When can we destroy Social Security? Those pesky pollution and climate change rules are cutting into our bottom lines; who should we bribe?”
***
Still smarting from Jane Mayer’s exposé in The New Yorker and increased scrutiny from Web sites like Think Progress, Alternet andthe eXiled, the Koch brothers—organizers of the billionaire gathering—made sure that the guest list was private. Regular tourists at Rancho De Las Palmas were kicked out to make room for the really giant bankrolls from the Far Right, and their hate-mongering water-carriers like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Gail had been talking with the local government for weeks, and we knew that they couldn’t get the cops to drag us off the sidewalk without violating the First Amendment.
***
And we’re not talking about whatever the gathering inside the hotel met for—no mystery there: “How can we evade paying taxes? When can we destroy Social Security? Those pesky pollution and climate change rules are cutting into our bottom lines; who should we bribe?”
***
Still smarting from Jane Mayer’s exposé in The New Yorker and increased scrutiny from Web sites like Think Progress, Alternet andthe eXiled, the Koch brothers—organizers of the billionaire gathering—made sure that the guest list was private. Regular tourists at Rancho De Las Palmas were kicked out to make room for the really giant bankrolls from the Far Right, and their hate-mongering water-carriers like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Gail had been talking with the local government for weeks, and we knew that they couldn’t get the cops to drag us off the sidewalk without violating the First Amendment.
- Koch-blockers gather outside the Rancho Las Palmas Hotel
***
Our reason for being there was to call attention to the fact that the Koch brothers have spent at least $48 million on front groups trying to persuade the American public that global warming is a hoax. If this obstruction succeeds for a while longer, they will surpass Gates and Buffett as the country’s richest polluters, which is really all they want. If the planet turns into Venus, a likely occurrence if we burn all the coal and tar sands the Kochs are invested in, well, that’s someone else’s problem. Rather than get into their heads to try to understand how their minds work, it’s better to just say that Charles and David Koch are two of the biggest assholes in the world, and someone had to call them on it.
Our reason for being there was to call attention to the fact that the Koch brothers have spent at least $48 million on front groups trying to persuade the American public that global warming is a hoax. If this obstruction succeeds for a while longer, they will surpass Gates and Buffett as the country’s richest polluters, which is really all they want. If the planet turns into Venus, a likely occurrence if we burn all the coal and tar sands the Kochs are invested in, well, that’s someone else’s problem. Rather than get into their heads to try to understand how their minds work, it’s better to just say that Charles and David Koch are two of the biggest assholes in the world, and someone had to call them on it.
- “Hey, Chris, be honest: Does this beating-stick make my fascism look fat?”
******We missed the speeches on Sunday morning, but didn’t care, since it had become a political protest, and we were there for what the Kochs are doing to the atmosphere and climate. All of us who showed up in the street seemed to get along, and even most of the cars on Bob Hope Drive honked their horns in approval, and gave us the thumbs up. In Rancho Mirage! That was a good sign.
**Common Cause wants to awaken Americans to things like the Koch’s wining & dining of Thomas and Scalia—underscoring why the corrupt SCOTUS ruling on Citizens United needs to be set aside. True, but good luck. If Obama can extend tax cuts to the rich, escalate the war in Afghanistan, and keep his torture, assassination, and rendition options open, there’s not much chance of that happening.
***Two of the Common Cause workers even tried to stop us from walking onto the streets with our sign, muttering something about “Tucson” or some shit. We of course told them to take a hike, and walked past them proudly:
**Common Cause wants to awaken Americans to things like the Koch’s wining & dining of Thomas and Scalia—underscoring why the corrupt SCOTUS ruling on Citizens United needs to be set aside. True, but good luck. If Obama can extend tax cuts to the rich, escalate the war in Afghanistan, and keep his torture, assassination, and rendition options open, there’s not much chance of that happening.
***Two of the Common Cause workers even tried to stop us from walking onto the streets with our sign, muttering something about “Tucson” or some shit. We of course told them to take a hike, and walked past them proudly:
- Roddy gets hassled by liberal pussies, for his accurate signage
***Then, David Koch found a spot among his three sharpshooters up on the hotel parapet, looking down at us disapprovingly with his daughterwife Julia:
- David Koch and his child bride survey the disappointingly civil mob
***
We had lots of allies on our side: Code Pink (a fun bunch of ladies), The Ruckus Society, Common Cause, Greenpeace, and many more.
***There were agents provocateur in the crowd from Andrew Breitbart’s slime-factory BigGovernment.com. They found (or planted) a couple of racist idiots and asked them about Clarence Thomas. “String him up,” said one moronic woman after prodding. The billionaire-friendly WSJposted the exchange which was probably staged all the way, making liberal protesters look like KKK members. Since progressives at this rally were in the tradition of the Freedom Riders—when white civil rights workers were murdered in the South—this was a particularly evil and dirty trick. It’s ingenious, really—like Alexander the Great at Guagemela, they disorient the opposition by attacking him where he’s strongest.
***Also dropping by our banner was a nasty looking character who stuck a mic in my face and tried to get me to say that I advocated murder (our sign read “Koch Kills” not “Kill Kochs”!), and a different guy did the same to Gail. Eventually, Breitbart—the ultimate Koch whore—emerged from the hotel on goddamn roller skates. A crowd of reporters surrounded the lying freak, lapping up his incoherent right-wing logorrhea. Like George Will’s bow ties, Breitbart’s skates were a stage prop—worn to impersonate an actual human being. But I wasn’t buying it, and tuned out his mad rant.
***Also dropping by our banner was a nasty looking character who stuck a mic in my face and tried to get me to say that I advocated murder (our sign read “Koch Kills” not “Kill Kochs”!), and a different guy did the same to Gail. Eventually, Breitbart—the ultimate Koch whore—emerged from the hotel on goddamn roller skates. A crowd of reporters surrounded the lying freak, lapping up his incoherent right-wing logorrhea. Like George Will’s bow ties, Breitbart’s skates were a stage prop—worn to impersonate an actual human being. But I wasn’t buying it, and tuned out his mad rant.
***After over two hours of marching, the group decided it was time to get arrested, so they moved into the police line blocking the hotel:
- The Koch brothers’ closest friends
***Many people I respect think that you are making an important statement by trespassing or laying on asphalt, going to jail, and proving your commitment. It’s a kabuki I saw many times as a student at Berkeley in the ’60s, and cedes too much power to the cops and their bosses. When confronted with humanoid horror shows like the Kochs, it is incorrect to assume the position of doggy submission. Better to stick out your chest and raise your voice, announcing to the world that David Koch and his brother Charles are the ones who belong in prison, for theft, fraud, negligent homicide, and bribery. Not us.
***Besides prosecuting the Kochs, the other proposal in my handout was to boycott all products made by Koch Industries, including fluffy toilet paper from old growth Canadian forests (delicate American asses apparently crave these products), formaldehyde laden wood products, and toxic chemicals for the home. I asked for boycott support and listed the products in e-mails to some environmental groups, but didn’t bother wasting time with Big Green groups. They sold out a long time ago.
***Besides prosecuting the Kochs, the other proposal in my handout was to boycott all products made by Koch Industries, including fluffy toilet paper from old growth Canadian forests (delicate American asses apparently crave these products), formaldehyde laden wood products, and toxic chemicals for the home. I asked for boycott support and listed the products in e-mails to some environmental groups, but didn’t bother wasting time with Big Green groups. They sold out a long time ago.
***
Protests used to be a more spontaneous up-swell of rugged individuals bound together by a common goal. They’ve evolved into highly-coordinated onslaughts with color-coded t-shirts and public relations strategies. Each group has their marching orders, their talking points, and their corporate mission. In some ways, modern forms of direct action have vastly more potential to affect change—especially with the organizing power of the Internet. Just look at Mubarak’s ouster in Egypt. But we also lost something from the past that the Egyptians retained—that organic and essential human outrage. Outrage that appropriately drives a movement toward justice. Outrage that is the truly reasonable response to despots and demagogues. Outrage that’s unhindered by a feeble adherence to public relations, framing, spin, optics, branding and the other media buzzwords that plague the American sensibility.
Protests used to be a more spontaneous up-swell of rugged individuals bound together by a common goal. They’ve evolved into highly-coordinated onslaughts with color-coded t-shirts and public relations strategies. Each group has their marching orders, their talking points, and their corporate mission. In some ways, modern forms of direct action have vastly more potential to affect change—especially with the organizing power of the Internet. Just look at Mubarak’s ouster in Egypt. But we also lost something from the past that the Egyptians retained—that organic and essential human outrage. Outrage that appropriately drives a movement toward justice. Outrage that is the truly reasonable response to despots and demagogues. Outrage that’s unhindered by a feeble adherence to public relations, framing, spin, optics, branding and the other media buzzwords that plague the American sensibility.
***Some of the environmental groups I e-mailed got back to me with weaselly words and noncommittal hedging, and the anemic reaction to our KOCH KILLS sign defines the environmental left’s lack of backbone. Koch Industries is quite possibly the most malevolent company in history, and environmental organizations who claim to be progressive take a big gulp and shit themselves before deciding to throw one little punch. What are they afraid of? Pissing off a donor? God forbid they appear uncivil while confronting men who are literally threatening our civilization. Not to mention our democracy.
***Like the peace and environmental movements of the ’60s and ’70s, and the direct action in Egypt, whatever we accomplish will have to come from the ground up—lest we become co-opted by those we deride and imprisoned by the language and behavior of the polite. Polite people worry about donor relations. Polite people worry about ruffling feathers. Polite people never get anything done.
People in Rancho Mirage kept asking me “Who are you with?” And I was proud to reply, “It’s just me and Gail.”***[Hey, Mike and Gail, good friends, some of us were there with you in spirit (especially me, sending a constant stream of emails from Brazil to Mike's Blackberry, hoping he was not going to arrested by Koch thugs).]
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Mike Roddy owns and operates a small hotel energy management company, with offices in Seattle, Napa, and Yucca Valley, California. He can be reached at mike.greenframe@gmail.com.. All photos courtesy of Gail Zawacki at Wit’s End.
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