A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

For the record, should I be murdered with a gun as is the fate of so many in America, I would like my death to be politicized immediately. Further, I would like the most graphic possible photos of my mutilated corpse to be publicized, made into flyers, and used to leaflet-bomb the homes of appropriate politicians and supreme court justices.

On the principle that the results you get are the results you want, I think there's a reason other than profit for the people encouraging the unhindered proliferation of guns in the US, and the more lethal and crowd-killing, the better. It's to terrorize people out of public gatherings and prevent the freedom of assembly.

All non-violent political change stems from public assembly; protests and demonstrations may be effective or not, depending on circumstances, but you cannot enact nonviolent political change when people cannot gather. So getting people scared to go out in public in groups is a great way to prevent political change.

It also has side benefits: destroying public education by making people afraid to send their kids to school and making it hard for kids to learn when their brainpower is getting sucked up by fear, funneling more and more money away from anything that benefits actual humans and toward the police (who won't stop the shootings, so that part won't be a problem), and of course creating more of a market for guns from people who think they need one to defend themselves, and so the circle of murder generates profit generates murder continues.

ETA: Jayland Walker drives while black and runs from cops; they shoot him 60 times. Robert Crimo murders 6 people, wounds 40, and runs from cops; they arrest him unarmed. Can't imagine white's different about them.

While gardening, no less!

Don't worry, he doesn't know where I live. I wasn't at home, I was doing some work elsewhere in the neighborhood in a fenced-in lot.

So there I was, peacefully pulling weeds, when a white guy walked past with a kid I assume was his son, neither wearing masks. They looked like a totally normal white suburban family (which as we all know from horror movies, means I should have run for my life.) The kid looked about four years old and was on a scooter. Just as they were passing me, the kid took a tumble.

I looked up and said, "Are you all right?"

The kid picked himself up, the dude looked at me, and then he said in a hostile tone, "That's a Marxist organization! They're Marxists! Do you know that?!"

That seemed like a total non sequitur, so I said, "What?"

"Black Lives Matter! They're Marxists!"

It was then that I remembered that I was wearing a BLM mask. And also, taking a closer look, I saw that he was wearing a TRUMP 2020 baseball cap.

I was not really prepared for a political debate, so I just said, "No, they're not."

"Yes, they are!"

I didn't see much point in continuing the debate, so I said, "Well, I disagree."

He walked closer, I waved him back, he didn't move, so I got up and backed up. I was inside a locked lot and he was outside, with a chain-link fence between us, so I was worried about him breathing on me, not attacking me.

"It's not a matter of agree or disagree!" he yelled. "It's facts! It's on the Black Lives Matter website that they're Marxists!"

"No, it isn't," I said.

"Yes, it is!"

"No, it isn't," I said. "That's just not correct."

"Just you wait," he said. "The squatties will all get their necks squeezed."

He didn't yell, but said that in a kind of gleeful tone. It was extremely creepy. His kid was just standing there with his little scooter the whole time, watching.

I had no idea what a squatty was, but figured it was some Q-Anon or white supremacist derogatory term. When I'm hearing death threats I like to know specifically why I'm being threatened, so I said, "I don't know what that word means."

"Squatty, squatty," he said. "You know."

"No. I've never heard that before."

"The bald lady, you know... they'll all be strung up, all the Marxists! It's on the Black Lives Matter website that they're Marxists!"

"No, it isn't," I said, belatedly realizing that he meant "the squad" in Congress. "I believe in justice and equality for all. Listen, you should join, see for yourself..."

He gave a loud, maniacal laugh - seriously, it was a HA HA HA HA - and said, "When you try to take over the country, I'll be there to stop you!"

I said, "Listen, I have work to do. You have a nice day."

"You're Marxists! Marxists!" He stomped off with his kid, belatedly yelling, rather aggressively, "You have a nice day too."

That is the first time I've ever gotten a death threat as an adult from someone who was not having an obvious psychotic episode. In broad daylight, in a public place, in front of his child. I have to say that it was pretty disturbing.

(Yes, yes, technically he was threatening the Congresswomen, not me directly, but he certainly seemed to be implying that I should also be killed.)

I have been doing a lot of activism with Swing Left geared toward flipping Republican districts in my area to Democrats. Yesterday we had the primaries. Cut for stuff about California elections. ( Read more... )

This clip from CNN is well worth listening to.

It encapsulates both the jaw-dropping awfulness and bizarreness of the Orange Supremacist era, and the extent to which the mainstream media has gotten so appalled that they're dropping their usual false equivalency. I mean the old "both sides have a point," which works when both sides DO have a point, but does not when you're talking about Nazis vs. anti-Nazis or Cheetolini vs. human beings with empathy. Also, it made me laugh.

Yesterday post-rally hederahelix and I were discussing this.

"It's just so surreal," she said. "Hey... Is that a camel?"

I looked over. The U-haul next to us had a giant camel painted on the side.

Below the camel, as if in explanation of why a U-haul would be decorated with a giant camel, were a few lines of Wikipedia-esque notes on camels, something like "A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back."

Looks like the Nazi scum saw how many people planned to show up to stand up to them in LA, and ran like the cowards they are. Apparently the Venice Nazi rally has been cancelled (but Nazi rallies are still planned in other cities). But it looks like OUR rally is still on, whether the Nazis show up or not.

I will keep updating but if our rally is happening, I'll still be there. I think it's important to show our solidarity and fire. Hey, just talking about showing up chased the Nazis out of LA before they even came - let's give them crowd photos to haunt their dreams and keep them out.