When I was informed Orange County supporters of Bernie Sanders' presidential bid were protesting the Koch brothers Saturday, I had to know why. After all, Dave and Chuck Koch are successful industrialists who are really involved in making America a better place … for successful industrialists. So I asked a random person happening by if she knew why OC Sanders supporters would be so down on the Kochs.
]
“We the people are protesting big money in the government. The Koch brothers are hosting several members of the GOP presumably to donate money to their super PACs and talk to them about their agenda for the future of America which involves destroying then privatizing Social Security, voter suppression, changing the age of retirement to 70, non labeling of GMOs, the Trans Pacific Partnership, re-segregation of schools, all while supporting union busting, foreclosing homes and pollution. They fully support the Keystone XL pipeline, and one of their plants is in litigation for polluting its area and causing cancer in the nearby residents, and [they] donate millions to universities with the agreement to hire their trained people and distribute Koch agenda-friendly syllabi. These guys pledged $60 million in the 2012 election to try to eliminate President Obama. They have already pledged several hundred million for our next election and do a lot of these activities through their 'Americans For Prosperity' group which is really a cover for their agenda.
“We oppose government that is for sale and we believe that most of the presidential candidates in the Republican party have been bought and paid for to march to the Koch brothers' agenda. We want the government to be returned to the people and protest that they have given Scott Walker almost a billion dollars to be their puppet.
“That was a lot but we are determined to support Bernie Sanders and give the government back to the people!!!”
Wow, what are the odds that the random person I would ask about the Koch heads would turn out to be Jeni Havill, an Orange County organizer for Bernie Sanders? It's Socialist kismet, baby!
Havill, who really does end some sentences with triple exclamation marks, goes on to inform that the protest will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Niguel Road in Dana Point.
For more deets on the OC push for Sanders, visit:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/OCforBernieSanders
https://www.facebook.com/groups/CoalitionOfThirdPartiesForByOfThePeople
A recent event:
Oh yeah: !!!
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.