TRANSCRIPT: Public speakers beg for housing; L.A. City Council approves a luxury Marriott instead, on site that used to be a public library and had been promised to the community for years.

Dozens of citizens pleaded with L.A. City Council for housing instead of a luxury hotel at  several January 2023 meetings. After allowing their comments, council went ahead and voted in favor of another luxury Marriott to be built on public land, with public $$$$ and support, just weeks after Mayor Karen Bass declared homelessness in the city a first priority emergency.  

Speakers opposing the Marriott project are alarmed at its timing during L.A.'s current homelessness and housing crisis, speakers pro the hotel claim Marriott jobs will stimulate local economy [not saying where hundreds of employees will afford to live while getting paid hospitality wages]. 

I've transcribed many of those comments from the public about the Marriott project here in this post. 

Why am I doing this? If you come across the Minutes of L.A. City Council meetings, you find they do not include what the public said. All the ideas, suggestions, and pleadings from members of the public who speak during the Public Comment period of the meetings are nowhere to be found in the "journals" from meetings at the city's website.  Public comments take up half of each city council meeting yet nowhere are they being documented let alone published, there's no record that people spoke.

So I've started transcribing the words of these passionate plaintive citizens and posting them here on City of Angels Blog. There will be more posts like this coming soon. 

At the January 11 meeting first speaker on the Bethune / Marriott issue is at 39.20 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwjZtupgl0g

[SPEAKER ON MARRIOTT ISSUE]

[Spanish translator] My name is [SOUNDS LIKE]  Irma Favian from SAJE. We are very upset with our council member because he wants the public land to be a hotel.  The zoning commission of Los Angeles voted not to use that land for the hotel.  Our council member wants to make it a hotel.  It has been worked for the community for ten years because they've been fighting for this land for the community. 

Now we have the opportunity with the ULA measure for them to help us to build housing for the community.  We ask the council members to listen to us because we do not have enough housing for us. So we don’t have anymore people living on the streets. 

[NEXT SPEAKER ON THE MARRIOTT ISSUE] 41.30

Good morning my name is Maria Gutierrez and I'm with SAJE and the Unidad Coalition.  We are deeply disappointed in our council member's position to veto the South L.A. Planning Commission decision to deny a conditional use permit for a hotel on public land.  Our organizations and coalitions have been working for over a decade to ensure a meaningful community engagement process for development at the Bethune Library site.

The Zoning administrator denied the conditional use permit, the South L.A. Planning commission denied the conditional use permit.  And now the council member believes that there hasn’t been enough community engagement or process?

Hundreds of community residents submitted a letter of concern, we've done public comment and signed onto a petition against the development.  We have the opportunity with Measure ULA to allocate this site for affordable housing and for public good.  We are deeply disappointed and concerned and we ask the rest of the council to side with the South L.A. Planning Commission, thank you. 

**

At January 17 meeting video public comments begin on Item 17 Motion Harris-Dawson-Hutt at 33.00 in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07oxmD0_z8w

MOTION (HARRIS-DAWSON - HUTT) relative to asserting jurisdiction over the December 6, 2022 South Los Angeles Area Planning Commission (SLAAPC) action in denying an appeal of Conditional Use Permit and a Site Plan Review issued for the project located at 3685 Vermont Avenue

Recommended action:

ASSERT jurisdiction, pursuant to City Charter Section 245, over the December 6, 2022 (Letter of Determination date: December 21, 2022) SLAAPC action to deny the appeal and sustain the Zoning Administrator’s determination which denied the Conditional Use Permit and Site Plan Review, for the proposed construction of a 168-room hotel building; a community education facility; and open space; in the matter of Case Number ZA-2020-55-CU-SPR-1A for the project located at 3685 Vermont Avenue.

First speaker on Item 17 starts at 01.02.20 in the video

My name is Vijan Gayami, I'm a tenant organizer. I’d like to vote my public comment for No 0n item 17.  The Planning Commission of South L.A. rejected the conditional use permit to use that property as a hotel.  It used to be a public library and the zoning animator before that also said no to the hotel.

We know that L.A. is gearing up for the Olympics and wants to completely disappear all the poor black and brown people in the city of Los Angeles [INAUDIBLE].

But we need to give this land back to the community.  So that's why I'm voting no on seventeen and that's why I'm also voicing to extend the protections, the tenant protections.  This is a common sense thing to do.  We have working class people who are trying to keep up with rising costs of housing, of gasoline, of food.  And their wages are stagnant.  They're making cash.  They have no other options.  The working construction, they're working as domestic workers they're working in restaurants in service industry and hospitality and they can't afford their rent.  They're getting thrown out on the street.  They're suffering, they're human beings, okay.

So but you guys choose instead of putting money into services or voting for more protections for these working class tenants who are paying off the landlords’ mortgages, you guys-

[NEXT SPEAKER ON ITEM 17]

01;05;00

Good morning, my name is Katie McKeown and I'm a staff attorney with public council, we're a member of the Unidad coalition and I'm here to express our strong opposition to number seventeen.  This motion deals with a proposed Marriott Hotel development on a piece of publicly owned land in south L.A. commonly referred to as the Bethune Site. 

This land was most recently the home of the Mary McLeod Bethune Library branch.  When the library was demolished in the two thousands, the city promised local residents that the land would continue to be used for the local community, including through the provision of affordable housing.

However the city has gone back on its promise and is instead trying to sell this public land to a private developer to build a Marriott Hotel to serve out of town tourists instead of the local community. 

In recent years this city has state its intention of seriously addressing the housing crisis starting with using public land to start making a dent in the affordable housing crisis.  It has passed motions to compiles lists of public lands to use for affordable housing.  In the most recently adopted housing element, this parcel is listed on its site for the public land program and the newly elected mayor has stated in her campaign that she wanted to use the public land for desperately needed housing.

Now this is one of the instances where this council can actually put its words into action.  Will the council overturn the judgment of its professional staff who denied the requested permits for the hotel?  Will the council overturn the decision of its appointed commissioners who affirmed the denial? 

It's time to stop making one off exceptions for developments that don’t serve the community but give valuable land public land to private developers who won't address our most desperate crisis.

[NEXT SPEAKER ON ITEM 17]

1.18.09

I want to reach out and voice my support for the project near  Edgemont and Vermont.  I think it's important we finally take advantage of this opportunity to build something and improve the surrounding area.  The project will add tons of jobs to the local community and improve the walkability of the area.

I went to USC but also grew up in South L.A. more specifically on Vermont.  I have lived on the main street my entire life and don’t understand why the development is going on in Figueroa.

I know the counter argument to this is a lot of people want affordable housing but how can we keep pitching the same idea when it has failed at least twice already. Adding an affordable housing project there doesn't help the immediate local community it helps those outside of this community.  By bringing them into an area that is already lacking safety and retail.

Adding more housing is definitely fundamental to the growing housing crisis but it doesn't all have to be centered in that area.  Most individuals can't even be accepted into low income housing.  The threshold is so low you’d have to almost purposely maintain a part time job and not exceed a certain amount of hours. 

I also believe the people will have been empty for far too  long and we have to do something now and create change. Thank you.

[NEXT SPEAKER ON ITEM 17]

01.27.03

I've been coming here ever since I was five years old. I went to Beaudry Elementary School down the street.  And I've been coming here for a long time over seventy years.  I remember when the tenth floor used to have a cafeteria, we could get cookies there.  I've seen this chamber full of joy but now I see it heavy, pesado, a cloud on top of you.

I've heard the family call out his name, I want to call out Fanny Lou Hamer.  How many of you remember her?  No one.  Because time passes here.  It's a time machine.  You come back, you plug in and it's just the same thing again.

Now I came to talk about item seventeen.  The reason why the city should assert jurisdiction over land.  The city should assert jurisdiction over land for public purpose by public housing.  Anything less than that is an abridgement of your responsibility to the people of the city and will lead to only more of this heavy feeling that we have here.  The heavy feeling of desires unrequited, dreams unmet, the potential unfulfilled.  How long will this chamber be silent and heavy?

[NEXT SPEAKER ON ITEM 17]

01.31.41

Council member, I am [SOUNDS LIKE] Henry Fan of Orion Capital the developers for this project so I'm urging for your support on this project.

Let me just state that we are not in opposition of affordable housing or in denial that there is need for affordable housing in the city.

But what we believe in is that developing an economic asset like a hotel will stimulate commerce up and down the Vermont corridor and provide people with jobs. 

Economic development is a necessary component to keep people housed and off the street.  Often times economic development is significantly more difficult because of factors such as the availability of land at the right location, on a major thoroughfare, and nearby major transport.  Furthermore we are local developers  that are part of this community, our offices are literally half a mile from the site.

And I've personally spoken to almost every business along Vermont Avenue to discuss the development.  And virtually every single business is in support of the hotel. 

To that point, we've received almost three hundred signatures from community supporters that we personally have spoken to.  Additionally we received almost two hundred more emails of support. 

[DISRUPTION IN CHAMBERS PEOPLE SHOUTING]

[NEXT SPEAKER ON ITEM 17]

1.34.22

So my councilman Price and Marqueece Harris-Dawson, thank you from my family for all the support for my father [SOUNDS LIKE] Ronald Wright. One thing I’d like to say is that we have about a thousand students that we support at Youth Build Schools throughout Los Angeles and those kids need jobs, they need job training.  So I’d like to commend the developer as not being a fat cat that is not just coming in to take from our community but they've already provided us with food subsidies for our families, they provided jobs, and they provided training opportunities.  SO the reason why I support the building is because people will receive jobs and they will be able to raise their families out of poverty.

Few people know that these developers have risen out of poverty themselves.  And that they are not outsiders, that they are a part of our community.  And with my last remaining time, I’d like to give the family my heart and my prayers and anything that we can do we will do.  Thank you. 

[NEXT SPEAKER ON ITEM 17]

1.45.55

My name is John Broadway I represent an organization called Artists United which has been working with the Unidad Coalition to preserve the Bethune Site on behalf of the public use. 

On December sixth, South L.A. Planning Commission, the deciding vote from the president, when she gave her deciding vote she said that she could not ignore the voices of the community who have repeatedly voiced their concerns over this land being used for commercial development that does not serve them.

And she made the vote to veto this proposal because the community has repeatedly voiced their concern and their need for affordable housing on this land or for something that benefits the community, something that will not lead to gentrification and displacement that has ravaged the USC area. 

And we will not continue to stand for this to happen and that's why we're here making our voices heard and urging the council to vote no on this proposal.  And honor the voices of the community who have repeatedly voiced their concern. 

[NEXT SPEAKER ON ITEM 17]

1.56.52

I speak to item seventeen on behalf of the Mary McLeod Bethune organizing team at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church.  Our church has been invested in the Mary McLeod Bethune site for generations and we have always seen it as a space for public good in our community. 

For the last three years our church has tried to engage with this project in good faith but the more we learn about this project the less we like it. 

Labor agreements have been an after thought.  The environmental impact has been an after thought.  Community benefits have been an after thought.  Our church cannot support this project.  We're not the only ones.  The Neighborhood Council said no, the zoning animator said no, the Planning Commission said no, the church right next door says no. 

You can also say no. by voting no in Item Seventeen.  We can do better.  Please let this project die so something better can rise, thank you.

[MEETING DISRUPTED BY AUDIENCE MEMBERS, SOME REMOVED FROM CHAMBER 1.58.07 to 2.10.17, during which you hear the City Attorney say to security officers: “If you can figure out who’s making the most noise, please remove them.” And Mr. Williams please leave, and the guy with the ‘Death to killer cops’ sign.”

Public Comments now open for callers on phones.

[NEXT SPEAKER ON ITEM 17]

2.11.45

Number seventeen is a case in point.  A luxury hotel  project on city property versus affordable housing.  The city’s public plans program was to build ten thousand affordable housing units on city property, including this Bethune site of thirty four thousand square feet.  L.A. Planning Commission, the city zoning commission, the neighborhood councils all say no.  The public has said no. 

What does sleazy paid-off king of black evictions Marqueece Harris-Dawson do?  No, he sides with the developers, the luxury developer.  Has anybody heard of [SOUNDS LIKE] Jose Uizar the four million dollars paid off a developer.  I can guarantee an FBI complaint going in on this one [LAUGHS].  I can guarantee it.

And I can guarantee boycott of all Marriott Hotels.  This one isn’t going through.  As soon as Marriott hears about the hell coming down.  Corrupt little short sleazy councilman Marquise Dawson, another corrupt paid-off politician. 

For a luxury hotel one block from school, one block from a church, the community doesn't want it, boy. 

[NEXT SPEAKER ON ITEM 17]

2.20.50

Next thing, the hotel, we need affordable housing.  Right now we have zero affordable housing.  We have housing but not affordable housing.  When it comes to living In Los Angeles, if you make twenty dollars an hour, that's thirty four thousand dollars a year.  If you only work forty hours a week. 

So when you work that much, you have to continue to work that much to afford a house.  It's ridiculous.  We need affordable housing, we don’t need hotels that cost billions of dollars to say there for one night.  It's just crazy.

[NEXT SPEAKER ON ITEM 17]

2.30.10

I think that the hotel will provide a lot of opportunities and jobs for this area, in addition, this area also has numerous affordable housing available at this time.  So I want to support this project, thank you.

[NEXT SPEAKER ON ITEM 17] 

2.30.58

Council members, I am kindly asking you to vote yes and support the project located at 3685 Vermont Avenue.  This hotel project is located on a major commercial corridor and will add a tremendous amount of value to the area.  We need more economic development in this neighborhood and the project will not only elevate this area but it will also bring in additional businesses and resources to the community. 

It will provide jobs and help support the local community as well as bring in revenue to the city, which can go towards funding much needed   programs like infrastructure repair and affordable housing.

While I understand the need and demand for affordable housing, I believe this is a unique opportunity to build something that will not only be easily accessible to the surrounding community, but will have a positive impact as well. 

I thank you for your time and consideration.

[NEXT SPEAKER ON ITEM 17]

2.35.54

Speaking about item seventeen, one thing I do want to say is that we do not need more construction of hotels being built in the city of Los Angeles.  I want you to understand that there are motels and hotels where over half of their rooms are sitting vacant and we don’t need more hotels and motels to be built in the city of Los Angeles.  What we do need is more affordable housing.  So I'm urging you  council members to reject item number seventeen, to reject the construction of the one hundred sixty eight room hotel building, because this community needs affordable housing not more  hotel rooms. 

And it's just not fair that the community doesn't have enough affordable housing. We voted for H H H bonds and when we have public lands available, that should go towards building more affordable housing not building more luxury hotels and motels that the community does not want. 

And I urge you council members, please, support the community in building more affordable housing not more hotels and motels. We don’t need that. 

[NEXT SPEAKER ON ITEM 17]

2.40.44

Hi my name is Wendy and I'm with Esperanza Community Housing which is [INAUDIBLE] and I'm urging you all to vote no on item seventeen which would be total [INAUDIBLE] [unable to hear well enough to transcribe verbatim] .

End of public comment

It seems appropriate to transcribe here the weirdly self serving opposite-land excuse for voting for the hotel delivered by council member Marqueece Harris-Dawson

02;43;45

Cuncilmember Dawson

Marqueece Harris-Dawson:  I want to take time to comment on the Bethune Library site that we've been working on now for upwards of seven years.  Trying to get a development into this space.  This space is on Vermont between Exposition and Jefferson Blvd on the east side of the street, the sort of western border of my district at that point. 

Many people have raised the question or asserted that because this is publicly owned land that the only thing that should go there is affordable housing. 

And we raise an objection on several counts but the main count is it's a neighborhood that has perhaps more affordable housing- or at least as much as any other section of the city.  [INAUDIBLE] Gardens is a hundred and forty units right around the corner.  At King and Vermont twenty seven H H H units.  At Western and Expo thirty three units., at Casa de Rosa around the corner on Hoover thirty seven units.

I can tick off development after development after development and these are the ones that are already open and families are living in them. They don’t include the ones that are on the books to be built.

And so at this one site, the eighth district has the one opportunity to remove itself from a very short list an extremely short list of council districts in the city of Los Angeles that do not have a single union hotel.

It is the location right across the street from the new Lucas Museum from USC, the sports arena.  And the coliseum.  Folks who remember in years and months prior we talked about the division of community benefits that come from these types of developments, a hotel is one of the things that not only creates permanent jobs, but it creates permanent community benefits for a neighborhood that sorely lacks them, even though they bear all of the brunt of having these tourist destinations right in the heart of their neighborhood. 

And so I ask my colleagues for an aye vote on the very rare occasion that I will stand up in defense of a private developer commercial development over affordable housing.  Thank you.

 

END OF PUBLIC COMMENTS

 

Council voted yes on item seventeen which sends the Marriott Hotel project to the Planning Commission

 

Watch Jan 17 2023 meeting on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07oxmD0_z8w

**

I have to admit, there are more public comments about the Marriott Hotel proposal at more meetings that I've been watching last few months, but I was not taking notes and now I cannot find them. Reading through the agendas at the L.A. City Council website to find a topic is a lot like reading IRS tax form instructions, and after spending a few hours trying to find more comments on this issue, I decided to just keep moving forward and accept that since I did not decide to start transcribing them for my blog until yesterday, I'll just do better going forward.

NEXT POST IN THIS SERIES: Follow-up on incident May 26 Nazis disrupting Sacramento CityCouncil, which I wrote about here. At May 30^th meeting many residents showed up with their reactions to the presence of Nazis and how that affected the City Council meeting. I am working on that blog post now and  it will go up in a few days.

PS WHY am I doing this? Because I used to transcribe for a living and now at age 75 I'm not working full time but don’t want to lose my skills as a transcriber.

**

As a UT Austin trained journalist I try to stay objective and hear both sides.  It's amazing how the pros of a project like this Marriott mention the benefits to the economy, jobs, stimulus, a better community.  Developers in L.A. have been saying that for decades, but look around. Do you see economic prosperity amidst all this economic development? 

Will anyone who works at this hotel be able to afford an apartment in L.A. at hospitality industry wages? I mean, I WISH what the developers say was true but I've never seen any evidence of it and I've been paying attention for more than sixty years now. At age 75, I was politically woken up at age 15 during the Vietnam War and I've never stopped since then. I pay attention. Developers always promise jobs and prosperity and then when the project is completed, the prosperity is somewhere else, it never appears for or helps the locals who, in fact, get trampled over and forgotten.

Even though more than half of each 3x a week LACC meeting features local people who go to the time and expense to come to council chambers and make their case in person to council members, when you go to read minutes of those meetings, you only find “journals” that don’t even mention that anyone from the public was in attendance.

In fact usually while a citizen is making a case in front of the horseshoe of city council members’ chairs, the chairs are empty.  Council members ignore most of the public requests. 

Hundreds of citizens came to council to protest and beg for affordable housing instead of a luxury hotel in the weeks before the council voted to approve funds for the hotel, ignoring their words. 

I will be transcribing more public comments at meetings in L.A., Orange County, Sacramento, and anywhere else I find that the words of the public are not being heard. 

I wrote about the Marriott project a while back before deciding to make this an ongoing project here: https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2023/02/la-city-council-favors-luxury-hotels.html

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2023 L.A. City Council favors luxury hotels and landlord rights in response to homeless emergency declared by Mayor Bass

-30-

POSTED BY 

Kay Ebeling, producing City of Angels Blog since January 2007

Not Just L.A., the city of angels is everywhere

If you appreciate this work at City of Angels Blog, please click my PayPal button with a high $5 or higher or email me at cityofangelslady @ yahoo . com to connect. 

POST SCRIPT

I have finally found a topic / focus for my blog after spending last 2-3 years looking for one. I do not want to just write things everyone else is writing as that's not how UT Austin J school grads are trained (!) I was looking for something that is not being covered anywhere that I can cover from my laptop at my desk as I'm old and sclerotic and never go out anymore.
I FOUND ONE
All over USA extremist radical groups are showing up at city council and board of directors meetings and shouting, saying outrageous stuff, and if it gets in any news it's not more than one or two quotes in a local paper.
So now I have a new way to use my blog and skills to do SOMETHING as otherwise I may end up in my senior housing building lobby confused by a bingo game. . .
Working now on the meetings in LA City Council that led up to approval of the Marriott Luxury Hotel weeks after the mayor called homelessness a crisis. There are passionate, informed, involved citizens who go to great lengths to get to these meetings and speak and yet they get No Coverage from local media. Even minutes from the meeting leave the public speakers out.
shameful
Anyway
after that I'm doing a follow up of the Sacramento CC meeting where last week Nazis disrupted and I posted on that last week. Many Sac residents came to council last night to say what they think and share their experiences with fascism on the streets of the city.
So City of Angels Blog is at it again. I have missed having something to blog about and even depressed by the lack of sense of purpose blogging and disseminating information to people brings me.
stay tuned. Meanwhile read CofA Blog from its start at link here https://cityofangels3.blogspot.com/

If you appreciate this work at City of Angels Blog, please click my PayPal button with a high $5 or higher or email me at cityofangelslady @ yahoo . com to connect. 

Malcolm Nance warned US about Putin as far back as 2016

 Malcolm Nance was right: from Plot to Hack America published Sept 2016 page 66 "Putin sees election of D Trump as fastest way to destabilize the US and damage its economy as well as fracture European Union and NATO"

-ke

Nazi presence causes Sacramento City Council to recess meeting, have police empty the room, and take public comment by phone only

Wow. This really happened in Sacramento this week: 'They basically used city council as a platform to spout vile, racist rhetoric and anti-semitic rhetoric," KCRA quoted  Keyan Bliss, Sacramento resident, at the meeting. "Those white supremacists were deliberately provoking people and shouting really hatefully things," Bliss said.  

Here are my notes while watching the video of meeting which is linked at bottom of this post. 

at 01:19 hour in during discussion about finding shelters and places for people to put their tents  People start shouting from audience 

wow this is fascinating. People shouting while the council tries to discuss homelessness in the city... 

Nazis wait to speak to city council*

at 01:27 a group goes up front and unfurls a sign that says "your hate is not welcome here" and "never again" 

they are shouting "no more Nazis" and people in the audience are shouting back at them 

a woman shouts "They are doing the Nazi salute in your chamber" and the mayor calls the meeting to recess for disruption. A minute later they return to take speakers by phone only 

Wow. Now a guy outside the bldg calls in to say there are about 200 people forced from meeting now outside who wanted to speak on homeless issues and "five racists" were able to disrupt and close the meeting so Everyone's first amendment rights are violated due to five nazis... (ain't America just getting greater and greater) 

"you have allowed this to escalate to where discussion on that issue is entirely forced out" -speaker on phone "I'm wondering if that was their purpose" 

the disruption happened because one of the white supremacists was at the podium to speak. The group with signs went up front angry bk the nazi was allowed to speak. 

"rather than allowing 20 persons to speak, you chose to cater to the needs & feelings of five white supremacists and used 25 police officers to vacate the meeting." (call-in speaker) 

I may go back and transcribe these speakers for a blog post, or I may not... will watch next meeting May 30 5PM 

Watch the meeting here https://sacramento.granicus.com/player/clip/5588?view_id=22&redirect=true&h=fc69a0e5e6be1394c90088cc51efc89b  

Despite the tense atmosphere at the meeting, Bliss told KCRA  he thought the police response was not necessary. He said he was especially disheartened when the city council resumed and public comment could only be made online. He said everyone should have been able to speak about the topic at hand, which was regarding the unhoused population in Sacramento.'

READ MORE at KCRA: 

https://www.kcra.com/article/sacramento-city-council-meeting-paused-small-disruption/43982594?fbclid=IwAR1TU6MbA7xeCoZdrAgHqkfYwJ2T2KwvflgbCVdhCLPjdyCIoCKrqXlHNzE# 

* Photo credit is KCRA, I think... 

-ke

Russia has been gaslighting USA at least since 2013

In 1950s-60s I’d hear about ways the Soviet government controlled news media, reporting stories that were obviously not true but repeating the lies often enough that Russian people believed them. My pre to post adolescent soul was shocked, how can Russian people believe those lies.

Today I see same gamesmanship in American news stories for example the NY subway murder last week. Almost every report of that story calls the perpetrator a “Marine” when truth is the guy joined the military and then left after one month, he never even finished boot camp. He was allowed an honorable discharge as it "was not a good fit" as reported in early articles about the murder. However, Google searching his military record now brings up vague non distinct half-facts "Not much is known" about his military history. However, enough articles about the Jordan Neely murder have identified the killer as a Marine, an "alternative fact," for him to now be referred to as a “Marine veteran” all over the world of U.S. Newspeak.

Now today, the games being played with the Durham Report. I swear, the Soviet propagandists of the 1950s-60s were never this good at gaslighting as what we're going through in America. You can't even explain the twists and u-turns and blatant misstatements of the Durham Report without getting snagged into a whirlpool and falling deep into a hole never experiencing the truth, you just go round and round down down down forever...

I first noticed the Russian footprint in right wing media in 2013, as that was my first introduction to Fox News. I moved to Lancaster CA - looking for a rental I could afford in Hollywood Lancaster was closest I could find. There in the desert I first encountered Fox zombies, people who repeat everything Fox News says so a conversation can go nowhere. After observing this phenom a few times, I watched Fox News for the first time.  After I watched a few nights, I said “this is Russian. Fox News is like Soviet era Russian propaganda.” I recognized the Soviet nuances, tricks, ticks- I'm not sure how I saw it, I just recognized it. I may have learned some things in the years I worked in the NASA news room in 1970s and 1980s when Russian Soviet journalists would often come through our offices in Houston and we’d have off the cuff conversations. I'd say even back then, I can't believe Russian people fall for such obvious lies. 

So I've known since 2013 that Russia was filling USA with propaganda and it may have been going on longer, the propaganda just hadn't yet reached me in my Rachel Maddow / Stephanie Miller watching world back then.

Of course now with Bull Durham the propagandists have come up with a report that says whatever they want it to say and our sleeping- understaffed, all smart reporters culled and now on unemployment- news media will just report what each other say and I just sit here, going on age 75 living in a resort town where I know almost no one, wondering what is going to happen next, how bad can this get, will they really take away my Social Security too?

I am experiencing internalized stress, greatly. 

TRANSCRIPT: 'Hitler was right' group, many former Trump admin leaders, to meet & speak this weekend, at Trump Doral hotel (Rachel Maddow Show opening May 8, 2023)

*

[So many people are talking about Rachel Maddow’s show Monday May 8 that I tracked it down. After watching, I realized what Maddow is reporting here is so critical, I want to help spread this message.  I just retired* from my job as a transcriber, so I transcribed what Maddow said to post it here on my blog:]

If you had recently been at the pentagon as chief of staff to the defense secretary of the United States, if you had been the director of trade policy at the White House- again recently held that job.  If you had been national security advisor to the President of the United States within the past few years- if you had been the chairman of the intelligence committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, if you had been the attorney general of the United States recently-

If you had had any of those jobs in the recent past, you’d think that you’d kind of be a hot ticket right [LAUGHS] you’d think that you’d have options, you’d be moving in impressive circles.

You would think.

Alas.  This week all of those people I just mentioned are speaking at the same event in Miami.

An event at a hotel owned by former president, the event will include all of those Trump administration officials, as well as the former president’s adult son Eric. The blond one.  And his daughter-in-law plus a whole bunch of other trump administration folks- and they will all be speaking at that same event alongside- I will interrupt myself here for a moment- [ADVISES HAVE CHILDREN LEAVE THE ROOM BEFORE WHAT COMES NEXT]

[MAN SPEAKING ON CLIP FROM THE ALPHA WARRIORS SHOW]’

If you look at what happened, again, all coming out of the same group of people that has done a very good job at hiding under the religion of Judaism.  They use Judaism as a cover for what they're really doing.  These people are so- so elusive and slippery and cunning and capable- I'm sure they helped engineer the takedown of Hitler [LAUGHS].  Things that I see, it just makes me shake my head, after what they've programmed-

This evil cabal has been causing all of the chaos on the planet.  People going to learn a lot about world war two and Hitler they're going to learn that Hitler was actually fighting the same people that we're trying to take down today. END OF CLIP

Maddow;  Hitler was fighting the same people that we're trying to take down today.  The Jews, the evil cabal, the Jews who did Nine-Eleven and all the rest of it.

I can't really believe they are going ahead with it  Media Matters the watchdog and advocacy group, they've been going at it since February of this year.  We started reporting on it in March of this year.  So it's not like they think they can do this without people noticing.

But apparently they are going ahead with it. 

This week the Trump Hotel in Miami is going to host an event that features lots of trump administration officials and trump family relatives and also this guy- that guy who you just heard who says Hitler was fighting the good fight.  The same fight that we're all fighting now. 

**

In addition to everything you just heard, he also blames Jewish people for all the presidential assassinations, not jut like JFK, yes he blames them for killing JFK.  But all the way back to Lincoln, Lincoln he says killed by the Jews.  Also William McKinley, okay. 

CLIP

They assassinate anybody who threatens their power.  Doesn't matter if you're a U.S. president.  They did it to McKinley, they did it to Lincoln. This was a Rothschild operation.

Close clip

That is who’s going to be speaking this week at the Trump property in Miami.  He speaks right before trump’s acting attorney general of the United States, the bald guy on the left- right before you get his remarks, you'll get remarks from the guy who says the Jews killed Lincoln and Hitler had all the right enemies, we've got to finish the job for him.

Right before the second day of the conference,

The other say of the conference right before Lara Trump the former president’s daughter-in-law speaks, and also Peter Navarro who is the White House trade chief, right before they speak, the attendees at that event are going to be treated to a speech by this other guy who says that the Holocaust never happened, and it's actually the Covid Vaccine that killed way more people than this so-called Holocaust. 

CLIP

How many people in here even know that more people have been killed by the jab than were killed in the holocaust.

END CLIP

MADDOW

More  people were killed by the jab than were killed in the holocaust.

He is also a featured speaker at the Trump Hotel in Miami this week.  And lest you think he's just being hyperbolic about the covid vaccine there in a joking way the way some people are wont to do, Media Matters has been reporting on this planned event and these featured speakers for months now leading up to this event.

And they actually went through the eye burning trouble of looking at what else these featured speakers at the trump hotel are bringing to the table for this event- and yeah I don't think he was being hyperbolic in his holocaust references there, this is what his self proclaimed social media sites are posting online: yes those are stars of David on the foreheads- you get the point.

Also this one with the Jews as the puppets controlling the government and the media.  And here- this is subtle.  Here he is posting Hitler’s speeches, literally Hitler’s speeches, exclaiming about how excited he is to have this footage of Hitler warning us about the Jews.

He has been hired as a featured speaker for the big trump hotel event in Miami this week alongside all those trump family members and trump senior officials and alongside the guy show says the Jews did Nine-Eleven.

**

Former President Trump’s son Eric has been traveling the country- a lot of trump family members and trump administration officials have been part of this thing but Eric Trump in particular has been traveling the country doing versions of this road show with these rabid antisemites.  And this week that road show arrives at the trump family hotel, the Doral Hotel, Friday and Saturday this week.

This past Friday just three days ago the former president himself made a surprise video appearance in Budapest in Hungary at a C-Pac event, remember C-Pac?  They just held another C-Pac event in Hungary, because C-Pac now regularly wants to kiss the ring of the authoritarian white ring leader of Hungary, Victor Orban.  The first event with Orban was August last year.

Last July Orban had just given a speech where he railed against race mixing. He said there should be no race mixing and in his Hungary there would be no more race mixing.  His anti miscegenation speech was so alarming that one of his own top advisors resigned from the Hungarian government saying, “the speech you delivered is a nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels.”

Orban did not apologize.  He gave that speech in July and then in August C-Pac invited him to speak to the U.S. conservatives in Dallas.  They were ecstatic, gave him a big standing ovation.

Now C-Pac holds events in Hungary every year apparently, to continue to honor him.

Trump just three days ago spoke at the Victor Orban C-Pac event on Friday and this Friday he will host the Hitler was Right Guys at his hotel in Florida.

 

Tonight NBC news is verifying some of what are basically the worst fears about the apparent motivation behind the gun massacre that happened this weekend in Allen, Texas.  We're also learning the identities of some who were killed on Saturday. 

There's so much that is disgusting and unsettling about these latest killings in Texas, including what they sort of connect to.  You might remember it was a year ago this week that a gunman motivated by white supremacist racist ideology went to Buffalo, went into a super market in a black neighborhood in buffalo and killed ten African Americans in that market, that was a year ago this week.

That killer claimed he did that, he massacred all those people in that super market because of the great replacement theory which you can hear all about on the Fox News Channel.  He said he did it because of the great replacement theory and because of the white genocide, which you can hear all about on right wing talk radio. 

He killed ten people he injured more people than that, he got in February of this year he got eleven life sentences.

That Buffalo attack again was a year ago this week.

Also the connection to Allen Texas- this latest massacre this weekend Allen Texas was also where the shooter was living from the El Paso massacre.  Allen Texas is where the guy skirted his road trip to that Walmart in El Paso in 2019 where he shot and killed twenty three people, almost all of whom were Latino. Again the killer there ranting that he did it because of the great replacement theory popularized on the Fox News Channel in Prime Time.

Well now today in Allen, Texas, we're learning more about the apparent motive in killing all these people this weekend.  It is not a subtle thing.

[PHOTO OF NAZI SIGNS TATTOOS]

This picture and others like it appear to be him from a couple of weeks ago, you can see some of his nice fresh tattoos there.  NBC also reports that he has a long social media record online that included rants against Jews, against women, against racial minorities.  NBC News also reporting that he posted online from white supremacist influencers, including the one who recently was apparently invited to Maralago, to dine with the former president at his south Florida home.

There have also been reports that the gunman from Allen Texas this weekend had a patch that was Velcro’d onto the vest that he was wearing for the shooting, the patch that had the initials RWDS on it, it looks like this one

There's a patch of a similar kind shown on the tactical vest of the man who was the leader of the Proud Boys, pro Trump right wing paramilitary group, until not that long ago that Proud Boys leader had a merch store that sold these patches, RWDS, stands for Right Wing Death Squad.

Again that patch was apparently on the tactical vest of the killer in Allen, Texas, this weekend. The proud boys sold hoodies with that acronym and also these patches, you can see various proud boys showing off that patch, that acronym that sort of shows force in the streets including in Washington D.C. right before January sixth.

Four leaders of the pro trump paramilitary group were convicted of seditious conspiracy at the end of last week one of those proud boys defendants who was just convicted had not just a patch of the right wing death squad acronym like the Allen Texas shooter had- he had RWDS tattooed on his arm. Which you can see her.

Today also in federal court in Washington D.C. we got a fairly heavy sentence handed down against yet another participant in the January sixth attack. Former petty officer first class in U.S. Navy carried top secret security clearances, already convicted to three years in federal prison for possessing unregistered silencers a few months ago.

Today he got an additional four years on his sentence for his participation in the January 6^th attack and in the FBI document submitted to the court, the affidavit spells out his communications with FBI confidential informants, this co workers and others, explaining to people why he was at the capitol on January Sixth. His world view… he believed Biden rose to power through election fraud and was operated by the Jews.  He thought he was defending the United States from the Jews. . .

They were at the capitol because Trump was their guy standing up to the Jews.

All this is happening while we are in the middle of the trial of the white power mass murderer from the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, that trial is ongoing right now.  And of course all of these things have the same smell, right.  They're not just- they're not just connected in the news right now, they're connected.

The Buffalo white supremacist mass murder, the El Paso, the Pittsburgh synagogue, now it appears the Allen Texas, all white supremacist mass murderers. 

In a nation recoiling ashamed and disgusted, there's also these apparent connections, right, between this bleeding ragged right wing mass violence and the bleeding ragged right wing edge of politics.  The most mainstream possible electoral Republican politics.

The most mainstream most successful right wing media as well.

But also this former president and his family and his former officials and the way he is currently running for president again. 

They're inviting literal Hitler was right outspoken antisemites, putting stars of David, Jewish stars on the heads of their enemies, telling people that’s who we need to be going after just the way Hitler- they're inviting people like that to their events with the highest ranking former officials of their government and it's all happening while that former president is running for president again.  And it's all happening amid this unrelenting wave of white supremacy motivated mass murder.

Are those two things separate? Are those two things just very disturbing parallel tracks that will never meet and that have never met?  Or is one of these things an anchor for the other?  Does the fact that both of these things are happening at once in our country accelerate them both? Accelerate the racial radicalism and antisemitism as a political tool and also just accelerate the violence in the streets?

Do they work together and if so how? And if they do work together, how do we stop it?

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehZSJ9OyOiE  

Posted by Kay Ebeling

producing City of Angels Blog since January 2007

* Post note: Until last November I worked as a transcriber, now I'm age 74.5 and retired but want to keep up that skill, So occasionally I'll see a news clip or interview that merits being saved and I transcribe it and post it here on my blog. I figure over the weeks, the video will disappear, many transcript services online are backed up (Maddow’s most recent is from October 2022). So as a way to combat encroaching senility in my aging brain, I decided to keep transcribing things now and then, to stay sharp. As a service to writers, academics, and late arrivers everywhere. 

-ke

 

The USA lost three wars and now the country is falling apart. Surprise surprise.

To the victor go the spoils, so who won America?

In Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam we engaged in flagrant war crimes (plus whatever you call what we did in Syria since the 1970s). 

Now Americans are beginning to feel what it's like to be the occupied losers. Plus people all over the world despise us. Even the internet, which Americans invented and gave away, is now wide open for crooks from Nigeria to Eastern Russia to use to rob us. 

To the victors go the spoils, and we are the spoils now. Saudi Russia and whoever else (Hungary?) get to inherit the ignorant Americans. 

It seems like the war victorious are letting us down easy. Each time a right is removed or a beloved institution destroyed, it only happens a little at a time, so we experience our takeover incrementally.  I guess that's a sign that our new leaders are benevolent, I hope it is.  

Even if USA had the resources to fight back against this information warfare attack, it has gone on so long it is deeply entrenched in our entire national DNA. The damage is done. Half the people around us believe a completely different set of “facts” about what has happened in USA last 20 years. So it will not be easy to ever unite and fight back. 

I think MSNBC delivers disinformation. Fox is not the only one, just the most obvious. For progressives the skewered news has resulted in false hopes. Beginning with the Steele Dossier in 2015 to last year when the President stole top secret documents and apparently sold them to Arabs, MSNBC et al have helped many Americans think- that's the straw that broke the camel's back. Things will change soon, now that the truth about … (fill in the blank)… is coming out. 

Then things don’t change, the momentum of our disorientation pulls the entire planet along with it- and the right wing coup prevents whatever progress progressives are making. The right (nazis) have access to tools that were put carefully in place for just this purpose sometime in the past twenty years, with the disappearance of AM talk radio except hate messaging, placement of unqualified but loyal judges, voting obstructions. 

Meanwhile Red State argues with Blue State so we are all distracted, while the victors suck up all the spoils. 

They won. 

I'm surrendering to the acceptance that Nazis, for want of a better name to call them, or "the victors" funded by Saudis, managed by Russians, probably, are now running the country. For now I need to look for ways out of the way, places to hide to survive.

Posted by Kay Ebeling

Meanwhile where I live, the Post Office doesn't even work anymore. Surprise surprise.

POST NOTE: The death of Jordan Neely coincides with the death of USA.