Alex Padilla is an American citizen of Mexican descent. The video of a Mexican-American being manhandled by thugs will play extremely well with the sort of trash who support Trump. Decent people are outraged. Shitty people with shitty values from a shitty culture are thrilled.
A few words about “peaceful protests.” 1. At least 5% of people are uncontrollable assholes and will behave badly in any situation, let alone a high-tension one. So a large protest without ANYONE throwing shit, yelling slurs or for violence, etc. is likely not achievable. /1
Here’s the thing about social media platforms: for the vast majority of people choosing one is a matter of entertainment, interaction, and information, not of “work.” It’s perfectly reasonable to stay away from platforms that suck for you and stick with ones you enjoy. /1
The administration has been hitting the “invasion” rhetoric and portraying the protests as being driven by immigrants because, as in the Alien Enemies Act cases, they want to use wartime and battlefield measures. Don’t let the rhetoric go by uncontradicted. https://lionsmane.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:s6j27rxb3ic2rxw73ixgqv2p&cid=bafkreihhgyb4btfst7eaipj7qwbz3tlelio3tgn7zgjti4wjhpknfvw5q4
Bad shit happens when the military comes into to a volatile situation. This reminds me of a story from the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, to which some Marines deployed. I knew one of them and he told this story I also saw elsewhere — absent his telling it I would have assumed it was apocryphal. /1
The best place to get coverage of the protests in LA is from video from individuals on the scene. The totalitarian government is lying about them and the traditional media is largely unreliable — complicit or fatuously both-sidesey.
Let’s be very clear: Los Angeles is the perfect place for this to play out for the Trumpists. The Trumpists hate California and hate Los Angeles and a vast amount of their base feels the same — even the Trumpists here, who wallow in hating the place they live. /1 RE: View quoted note →
The administration gets closer to using the military to crush civilian dissent. Expect deaths, disappearances, and lawless detentions. RE:
The Trump administration would love to use war-style brutality and violence to attack all protestors. About 35% of the country would cheer it. Remind me why I should feel any community, any common humanity, any need to connect with those people. RE:
Some people condemn professional trolls who share child sexual abuse material. We prefer to take a vaguely amused, aloof stance that treats them as “characters” and denotes our contempt for people with beliefs or values. Tomorrow in the NYT.