What happened is that there was already protests against the ICE detention facilities, and ICE made the brilliant move of kidnapping the leader of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Protestors started pushing their non-violent actions, with ZERO weaponry, and ICE has begun firing teargas and rubber bullets (which can be fatal). Tonight they are bringing in the NATIONAL GUARD.
Meanwhile, they’re stepping up kidnappings and “deportations”–If you dont have your papers and you live in southern california I’d avoid leaving your house. If you’re a citizen, keep your papers on you as you leave.
And if you’re one of the brave people fighting this gestapo, PLEASE DO SO SAFELY!!! Dont use milk to rinse out teargas or pepper spray, it can cause infections with the bacteria in it!!!! Use water!!!! Tell someone where you’re going, but leave your phone at home unless you’re there to document. If you are there to document, DONT SHARE PROTESTORS FACES OR IDENTIFYING FEATURES on social media!!!! And for fucks sake, WRITE A LAWYER PHONE NUMBER ON YOUR BODY WITH SHARPIE, trust me, it could save your ass.
I have become a regular at the local cafe. I sit at the lunch counter with my laptop to write. The workers keep me updated on all the tea.
Barista: Oh god here he comes.
Me: who?
Barista: White Ferrari guy. Hes banned from the other cafe. All he ever does is tell the same stories about the pyramids. Or ghosts. Or his car. Don’t make eye contact with him. If he talks to you he won’t leave you alone- Hi hello welcome!
I almost immediately accidentally made eye contact with him. He practically beelined to the chair next to me, and stares at my notebook. The vibe is immediately strange. I understand why he was banned from the other cafe.
White Ferrari Guy: What’re you writing?
Me: (fuck it) I’m developing a script!
WFG: A what?
Me: A script. I’m developing an alternate script for the international phonetic alphabet. My goal is to make it one grapheme represent a single syllable, rather than one grapheme per phoneme. I’m happy with the consonants, but the vowels still need work. I’m experimenting with kerning based on Georgian script-
I look up, he is staring past me completely dead-eyed. He could not be less interested in what I’m saying. He leaves about a minute later.
[sheathes this notebook like a katana] your autism is weak, old man.
nasa: we’re going to shoot three rockets directly at the sun during the total eclipse. for study and research purposes.
me: oh cool
nasa: we have named the rockets apep. this stands for atmospheric perturbations [in the] eclipse path.
me: oh cool
nasa: apep is also the ancient egyptian deity of chaos and darkness, who ceaselessly seeks to extinguish the sun. we launch these rockets directly at the sun in the name of apep.
