Riot Police Guard Billionaires Against Protesters — in Rancho Mirage

by Karoli on January 30, 2011 · 9 comments

Welcome to Rancho Mirage, California, where David and Charles Koch have convened the latest Billionaires Against the Middle Class Summit. These dangerous people are who police in riot gear have been dispatched to protect:

Common Cause

They’re kind of scary, eh? Well, ok. This one might scare them more:

david dayen - FireDogLake

Andrew Breitbart has evidently caught the fever. It’s been reported that he’s hanging out with the protesters. Too lazy to walk, he’s sporting shorts and rollerblades. Be afraid. In his usual less-than-forthright manner, he claims “internal emails from organizers necessitate riot police.” Mmmhmmm.

Crooks and Liars’ own John Amato is in Rancho Mirage getting video and pictures to share with us. All kidding aside, the meeting they’re protesting is the semi-annual meeting of rich billionaires to plan and coordinate how to best spend their billions electing people who act against the interests of ordinary folks. From repealing the Affordable Care Act to redefining rape, our currently elected House of Representatives is acting in Koch’s best interests.

It might interest those who cheer for Koch’s meddling to know that before they romanced the right, they romanced the left. It’s just that the left saw through the effort and sent them packing.

Here’s a timeline of Charles and David Koch’s meddling in our politics. More about the rally at theother98.com. We might not have the numbers that Egypt has, but the issues are exactly the same. Enriching 2% at the expense of the other 98%, polluting the planet, and stalling progress are human issues. Just not billionaire oil men kind of human issues, or billionaire hedge fund managers’ kind of human issues, or billionaire media moguls’ kind of human issues. Rest assured, the right wing media is inside the room, getting the spin for the next cycle.

Brooke Erdmann

You can read the real time stream, or else follow the hashtag #UncloakKoch on Twitter

Update 2:30pm The local CBS Station in Rancho Mirage is covering it too.

Update:2:40pm David Dayen from FireDogLake estimates the crowd to be about 1500. Here’s a nice shot of them.

David Dayen - FiredogLake

Tagged as: Koch, Palm Springs, UncloakKoch

Pingback: Tweets that mention Riot Police Guard Billionaires Against Protesters — in Rancho Mirage -- Topsy.com
http://www.leosoderman.com Leo Soderman

Such a dangerous looking group. They obviously have imported polar bears as an intimidation tactic. This kind of ugly rhetoric must stop. We can’t have cute, cuddly polar bears used to stop tax breaks. Everyone know polar bears pay too much in taxes already.

Or something like that.
http://www.drumsnwhistles.com/ Karoli

Of course not. And they will say that the very presence of a polar bear down there in Rancho Mirage proves they can survive in any climate.
http://www.facebook.com/morgaine.swann Morgaine Swann

“We might not have the numbers that Egypt has, but the issues are exactly the same. Enriching 2% at the expense of the other 98%, polluting the planet, and stalling progress are human issues,”

Yep, same issues, and our press isn’t covering it. IF you want news these days, you’ve got to go to TWITTER.
GunTotingLib

Where are the bears of color?
http://www.stealthmode.com hardaway

I just wrote a post very like this. America is so hypocritical. We export democracy and practice oligarchy.
http://twitter.com/MagnanaMouse Johnny S. Doe

Very nice photo essay. I hope to see more images. Be safe.
Pingback: Tweets that mention Riot Police Guard Billionaires Against Protesters — in Rancho Mirage -- Topsy.com
Pingback: Who Are The Koch Brothers, And Why It Matters at Edited For Clarity