This quote, from the @nytimes review of the OPPENHEIMER film: "He served as director of a clandestine weapons lab built in a near-desolate stretch of Los Alamos, in New Mexico"...
It was inhabited by Hispanos. They were given less than 24 hr to leave. Their farms bulldozed. 1
Many of those families had been on the same land for centuries. The Oppenheimer's crew literally shot all their livestock through the head and bulldozed them. People fled on foot with nowhere to go. Land rich, money poor. Their land seized by the government. 2
All of the Hispano NM men who were displaced by the labs later were hired to work with beryllium by Oppenheimer. The white men got protective gear. The Hispano men did not. 3
The Hispano men all died of berylliosis. These were US citizens, folks. Their land taken, animals killed, farms bulldozed, forced to work for the people who took everything from them, and killed by those people. 4
For 20 years I have been trying to sell a film based on the story of Loyda Martinez, a remarkable whistleblower whose family's land was seized for the labs. Her dad was one of the men who died from beryllium exposure at the labs. She later went to work there too. 5
She is a computer whiz who rose to the top of her department at Los Alamos. Then she started digging for info on the Hispano men the labs killed, like her father. She filed a class action lawsuit, and won. 6
The first Hispano governor of NM, Bill Richardson, appointed Loyda to run the state's human rights commission. She then filed a second class-action against Los Alamos, on behalf of women scientists not paid fairly. 7
But, no. We want more films about the "complex and troubled" "heroic" white men, who conducted their GENIUS in a "virtually unpopulated" place. These are ALL lies. This is mythology in service to white supremacy and the military industrial complex, masquerading as "nuanced." 8
Because of what the labs did to the local Hispano people in northern NM, our communities now have the highest rates of heroin overdose deaths in the nation. The generational trauma and forced poverty is outrageous. We need the real stories of Oppenheimer to be told. END
Nolan, Hollywood, the NY Times - all of them should be ashamed. Someone should fund my Loyda Martinez film. She's like @ErinBrockovich - bubbly, beautiful, was a cheerleader & computer genius. Loyda's is the story we SHOULD be hearing. But we get Hot fucking Cheetohs.
Loyda Martinez. KNOW HER NAME. One of the bravest and most important women in American history.
Loyda's mother and father. Her dad was driven off their family's land when Oppenheimer and the US government seized it to make the labs. They then hired him, made him work with berrylium without protective gear (his white bosses got PPE) and he died of berryliosis, like many did.
Apologies - corrections. Richardson was the 6th Hispano governor of the US State of NM.
Plesse watch
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Do not underestimate the role "Biblical" child abuse played in creating traumatized, peraonality disordered adults who feel safe with authoritarianism. John Bradshaw researched the role of familial violence against kids in shaping them more easily into Nazis as German adults.
The brains of such children get wired very early, to equate love, parent, safety with terror and fear in the face of an authoritarian. Appeasing and protecting the authoritarian is how their basic needs got met. This is a subconscious, emotional, visceral response for them.
It not only feels dangerous for them to question a rageful, insane daddy figure, it feels like death. Imminent death. Deep in their bones. Conservative Christian authoritarian homes beat this kind of obedience into CHILDREN. Remember that when a Maga is frothing mad at you.
Elon Musk shared a tweet on his social media allegedly claiming that Mexican businessman Carlos Slim might have ties to criminal groups. Five minutes later, Slim canceled all business collaboration with Starlink. (1)
...in Latin America, causing Musk to lose $7 billion. An hour later, Slim announced that he would transfer his planned projects with Starlink over the next five years—an investment of $22 billion—to companies in China and Europe. More than just money, Musk lost (2)
...his main partner in 25 countries, in addition to handing over all that territory to competing companies. Most critically, this further contributes to the U.S. losing commercial presence and ceding it to China. (3)
Create economic hardship. Blame Othered people. Present the "solution", - ie, genocide, seizing businesses and money, authoritarian crackdowns.
It looks a lot like capitalist advertising: Create a problem, scare consumers, sell them the solution.
Trump is following a well-worn and successful script. Here are some other examples:
Stalin’s Soviet Union & the Holodomor (1932-1933)
Economic Destruction: Stalin’s forced collectivization of agriculture in Ukraine led to mass starvation. The Soviet government seized grain and livestock from Ukrainian farmers, leaving them to starve.
Now for a little story I wrote this morning, called FEAR AND LOATHING IN TARIFFLAND: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF KARYN VON MAGA KOCHSUCKER.
Strap in. This is a long thread.
The morning sun rose like a bloated orange over the strip malls and foreclosed Applebees of the suburb, signaling another glorious day in Trump's tariff-ridden America. Inside a three-bedroom home, Karen Kochsucker groaned into her MyPillow and checked her phone.
Another headline about inflation. Another breaking news alert about China retaliating. Another ALL CAPS POST from Trump promising everything is fine.
Karen sighed, and smiled. It was worth it.
Sure, she was spending $200 more per week on gas, groceries, and basic survival, but
For decades, the raving lunatics of the far right have peddled a steaming pile of hysteria about "illegals" storming across the border, coming to pillage, murder, and steal jobs—none of which hold up under the brutal scrutiny of cold, hard facts.
This is classic American paranoia, a bad acid trip wrapped in a flag and sold as patriotism.
One of the more deranged myths spewing from the frothing mouths of talk radio goons and cigar-chomping pundits is that undocumented immigrants are bloodthirsty criminals. But hold on, you gibbering lunatics—science, that old enemy of reactionary fear-mongers, says otherwise.
Six days in, he's alienated Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Panama, Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela and Brazil. Mexico and Canada already teamed up to stop selling us steel. Now Colombia is imposing tariffs on coffee and other goods.
Population of the USA: 341 million.
They don't need us
His biggest fans have a grasp of international relations transferred from their understanding of professional wrestling, where the loudest chest-beater wins. They think his tantrums are strength. They are in for a rude and expensive awakening. They will never blame him, though.
This is the sad result of a poor educational system and rampant child abuse. We have a nation of ignorant, traumatized people, walking around in a haze of fear manifesting as hatred. The wires for "love" "protection" "daddy" are crossed. They were groomed to obey a tyrant.