Hi there, I just got back from the District Courthouse, where @JuniperLSimonis documented the uncomfortable number of spent toxic crowd control munitions lying around behind the fence
Some background:
The District Courthouse fence, erected during the Fed War in July, is coming down
A chunk of the concrete barricades supporting the fence have been removed
Last night, Dr. Simonis and others (including @AlissaAzar) noticed a rather prodigious number of...this
You may notice that the munitions are corroded
That, Dr Simonis explains, is because the chemicals still within and around the munitions have continued to react. As water flows over the munitions--as it has done all winter--the chlorates react with the metal
"Wait a minute," you might be thinking. "Does that mean that all winter, water has been running over these munitions and washing the chemical reagents and products direct into the storm drains and into the river?"
Yep!
There's a silver lining to the environmental damage caused by chenically-poisoned runoff; when construction crews moved the barricades they probably stirred up a smaller amount of toxic chemicals then they otherwise would have
Good news for the bicyclists who ride past the fence
(also good news for the courthouse employees who smoke in front of the District Courthouse, though I would recommend maybe NOT smoking out here)
Dr. Simonis and others collected 5 or 6 munitions last night, but couldn't get to the ones behind the fence
So they called BES
When BES didn't respond, Dr Simonis tagged them in a tweet
While Dr. Simonis showed me the munitions behind the fence, they found several pieces of "scat"--or "overshot" as the cops call it--on the street side of the fence
These are the cardboard or metal barriers between reagents that keep them separate until the munition detonates
As dire as this all is, it gets worse. A lot of the concrete barricades are still in place
As we walked, we saw munitions visibly beneath them. Looks like the construction crew just plunked 'em down. No effort by the feds to clean up their toxic mess
We also found the top section of a triple chaser CS gas munition wedged beneath a different barricade. They tried to extract it but it's just wedged in there too good
So I guess it'll stay there
With water running over it
Until someone decides to do something about it
We also spotted the top of a triple chaser grenade wedged under a different barrier. Dr Simonis attempted to extract it but we couldn't quite get it out
So I guess it'll just stay there
Washed over by rain
Until someone decides to do something about it
Who knows how much other crap is wedged under these barricades
As I said in the original post this was a shockingly diverse crowd for a Trump rally, by which I mean still mostly white but with a very significant Black and Hispanic presence
Good morning, I'm back for one day only to bring you Trumpening II: Miami Vice, where police have just kicked media and a handful of protesters out of the park
Maybe 30 people protesting on the cement area directly in front of the courthouse
In case you missed it somehow, Trump is being arraigned for the funniest violation of the espionage act anyone has ever committed
Laura Loomer has called for a rally at noon, one hour from now
Press outnumbers protesters, but since this isn't NYC where every journalist lives it's less extreme than Manhattan
Good morning and welcome to TRUMPWATCH IV: THE TRUMPENING here outside the Manhattan District Courthouse, where the, flags are flying and the press outnumbers protesters by at least 30-1
I was going to post a quick summary of what's going on today but I just got absolutely bodied by a crush of press struggling to get a shot of George Santos, who has arrived to great fanfare
I've been to more protests than I can count, well over 100, and this crush and chaos of press trying to get a shot of Santos is as chaotic as it gets without tear gas
A fight breaks out between two press: hard to say why but it nearly came to blows
I'm posting this essay of a comment I just got on my Substack because it's an incredible example of how people on the right sometimes use the AESTHETICS of rationality without any actual rationality behind it
Observe that this very long comment barely engages with the argument I'm making. Instead, he delivers an extremely long but oddly generalized critique of gender science, which this article mentions in passing but does not discuss at all
When, at last, he addresses the actual article--when protest violence is justified--he does not counter my argument that Billboard Chris shows up at these events specifically to provoke, or that rudenss comes at a cost. He simply repeats the same talking points we see everywhere
Rudeness has always carried a price and always will, but never, in the recorded history of the world, has anyone been so good about crying about it for money as the people who routinely call others snowflakes
You are absolutely free to talk shit any time, anywhere. You are free to go up to the biggest guy at the bar and call him a pedophile
See how sorry people feel for you when he lays you out
He might go to jail, but no one is going to be confused about why he did it
Hey, so are we just not going to talk about the part where @BillboardChris grabs her first?
@BillboardChris I just wrote a whole substack about the ethics of punching protest trolls, then go frame by frame to find my thumbnail and turns out it was self-defense the whole time
(publishing tomorrow but spoiler alert: being rude has always and will always carry consequences)