The Disappearances in LA [#162]

What is it called when the terrorists are agents of the state?

Street fruit on the Santa Monica pier.

I moved here because I wanted to live in a truly diverse and pluralistic place. After growing up in lily white St. Louis, and then the white dominant Texas suburbs, and then working in Japan and Korea, which was populated by almost all Japanese and Korean people, I craved a place where everyone could find their people, and also be among so many other kinds of peoples.

LA is Asian, and black, and brown, and white, and old and young and able-bodied and disabled and cis and trans and genderqueer and we show up for each other, especially in the face of crises — natural and manmade.

Things that make LA feel like LA, besides the FYC (For Your Consideration) billboards on Sunset for various awards seasons: Fruteros, the street fruit vendors. The tacos. The car washes. The Latina nannies at the park in the afternoons with young children, feeding ducks or kicking soccer balls or making castles in the sand.

This week, armed and masked federal agents in fatigues pulled up in unmarked cars to snatch fruteros from street corners. Raided car washes across the area. Terrorized children by arresting their nannies on sight, forcing preschoolers to sit in unmarked kidnapper vans until their parents could be located. Lawless federal agents — under the direction of known racist (and former Angeleno) Stephen Miller — are terrorizing the people who hold this community together, care for its children and give it its vibrance.

They do not have warrants. They do not follow process. They could come for any of us.

And if today’s mass No Kings protests turn violent, the authoritarian playbook continues to play out, giving the worst people in power a pretext for even more violence against the American people. As

Gideon Lichfield

put it:

That’s where America is now. The Russians know where it goes next. Troops on the streets become the norm. When there are non-violent demonstrations, provocateurs are sent to manufacture some. Eventually joining even the most peaceful protest entails risking one’s liberty, limb, or life. By the time of the next election, the political opposition’s ability to organize and mobilize is severely curtailed. The election still happens, the votes may still be counted, but the contest is effectively rigged.

Just to be crystal clear, the national guard sent into LA were responding to no emergency at all, but instead helping with immigration arrests. The notion of chaos requiring military occupation is a manufactured farce by a president whose greatest success (up until his elections) was playing a manufactured rich person on reality TV.

Reading

How contemporary politics is mirroring Andor. George Packer’s brilliant piece on J.D. Vance. As traditional media continues to implode, the creator economy is not structurally capable of confronting authority in the way of old school newspapers. Wirecutter’s guide to the best items to get at Trader Joe’s (I agree their scallion pancakes are way too gummy). The coyotes of San Francisco.

Werk Werk Werk

We are in money month at Forever35, where we are spending June in conversation with experts on money and finance. And if you haven’t heard it, it was a real treat to have activist and mystery thriller author Stacey Abrams on recently.

I also talked with Vox about millennial midlife crises and how we’re remapping our relationships to work given all the hustle culture we were cooked in.

Spoke at The Met for the first time, and what an honor!

We are halfway through the year in shooting my documentary about Los Angeles, and the teens growing up here, who are now getting a visceral lesson in politics and policy and how they affect our lives. I’m currently working on finding funding and grants to get us through production, so if you have any guidance or are tied to doc funding organizations, please reach out.

Watch and/or Listen

Fantastic Machine. Fitting for this time of manufactured crises for the media: A documentary asking, did the camera ever tell the truth?

Lilo and Stitch in the theater. Didn’t expect to love it so much and feel so much while watching it. Thoroughly entertained.

Because things feel so so grim, I want to leave you with some uplift. A poem that the poet Sarah Kay gave when she was just 22, on the TED stage, many years ago. It’s called “If I Should Have A Daughter,” and if you aren’t among the six million people who have viewed it, please do. Or if you are among them, it’s worth a rewatch.

Happy Father’s Day weekend and please be safe out there.

Elise