Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Nightly Protest Twitter World Tour

 If RantWoman wants to be taken seriously when commenting about transportation and broadband deployment and #digitalEquity, RantWoman probably could consider making some of her more piquant thought streams separate blogs. RantWoman could consider this, but sometimes candor invites candor from others.

A couple nights ago RantWoman did a brief Twitter protest world tour.

Parts East

RantWoman did not get to Minsk / Belarus except indirectly via a tweet about an anti-logging protest in Bashkiria, 2000km from Minsk.


Protesters in Khabarovsk are chanting "Putin have some tea,".a reference to the poisoning of Alexander Navalny.

Protesters from Belarus are also being detained in Khabarovsk.

Near the Evrofei arena large pumps are being installed in case of flooding.

In Khabarovsk, it is 19 deg. C with relative humidity 94%


No protest photos in the top of the feed


Seattle

Next we tune in to the #SeattleProtest hashtag and offer nightly commentary. 


RantWoman is not even going to apologize for snark. 


For instance considering the bravery of people in Minsk, RantWoman is underwhelmed by late night videos in Seattle.


RantWoman would definitely not mind if someone would articulate the point of the late-night public official stalking dance fests with police. If Seattle is going to flirt in national media with a reputation as a riot-riddled dystopian hellhole, someone should be able to offer some kind of coherent rationale for the circumstances earning the reputation. Someone? Anyone? Is there a media stream RantWoman is supposed to visit? Different hashtags?


Or if people really need to be out line-dancing maybe the event just needs better choreography. Maybe there needs to be a bicycle-cross segment where police and protesters vie for coolest tricks, most tricked out gear, and best example of just winging it. 

And while we're at it, there is some serious fearmongering about in the land. Don Jr. always sounds like he is terrified of people having health insurance. 


And RantWoman finds the "Dear Suburbs, they're coming after you" meme appalling. The story should be more like "Dear Real Estate speculators, people don't want to break up communities and have to move away from good transit to car-dependent suburbs with subpar transit options, so how about you get over your terror of in-city affordability?"


Neither of those threads exactly fits on buttons, bumper stickers or protest signs, but oh well.


RantWoman is of course tired of watching cops pepper spray protesters in the face but if cops are willing to do that on camera night after night, RantWoman finds herself thinking about what all they try to get away with when there are no cameras around.


RantWoman is not done. 

For everyone who thinks open carry, concealed carry or armed law enforcement sounds like a good idea, RantWoman proposes that someone create an app that can geofence an entire area and render all weapons within that area  more lethal than a squirt gun unable to fire. No RantWoman does NOT think that is too extreme. RantWoman agrees with Aaron Dixon: get the guns off the street. RantWoman also appreciates Dixon's acknowledgment that the Black Panthers used to open carry. The last time RantWoman was in St. Petersburg Russia, there were bank guards open-carrying large rifles too. This is not a trend RantWoman wants to see more of no matter who is carrying.


No geofenced firearms? 


What about a review panel: seasoned protesters of various ages, ethnicities, hairstyles,  protest lineages who rate performances, kind of like Chopt for the CHOP. Yeah, RantWoman knows the CHOP has been shut down. RantWoman just does not have a good term for any other example.


To qualify for the panel, applicants would have to submit at least one mugshot or protest media image. 


There would be a qualifying interview where panelists would be asked to offer some protest-themed equivalent to Chopped commentary about "that oyster shell caramel was fascinating but the burnt edge of the cilantro cornbread on the same plate ruined the entire effect." 


The panel could open meetings with ice-breakers such is "who is the biggest celebrity you have ever been arrested with?" 


Or maybe "What is the most interesting prop you have ever used at a protest?"


Or maybe "Which protest had the biggest dollar value impact, positive or negative?"


This review panel would rate protests based on attributes like clarity of signage, number of intersections shut down, quality of choreography. Injuries to anyone would of course lose points. There could be nightly frequency tables of injuries due to "non-lethal" weapons and injuries to police officers. RantWoman would always be ready with a scoring tirade in honor of anyone who loses an eye whether because of being shot in the face or because someone threw a rock.


What? You think RantWoman has a weird idea of fun? Yep!.


    Stay safe out there. PLEASE try to have some clearer messages. Get a good night's sleep. #BlackLivesMatter There will be plenty to do in daylight!...


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