Hailey Bieber + Nikki Blonsky From Hairspray + Astronaut AI + Letters From A Louisiana Jail + "Deportations" and Arrivals + Dept of Education + Tesla Recalls
You know what. Yeah. Several religious cults, especially here in L.A., spend a lot of time on recruiting. Targeting. Things like that. It still happens. In the social media age, high follower accounts are media, and recruiting…or dating…the owner of that high follower account is not akin to media control, it’s actually media control. The roster of influencers recruited into the 7M TikTok cult isn’t too far off from Tom Cruise handpicking Katie Holmes out of the binder his Scientology shills handed him. It’s not too far from Tom’s own recruitment. If you can lock down the biggest actor in the world, or the biggest pop star, or the most followed woman on Instagram, consider the mission, and the message plan, successful.
WITH THAT SAID, I don’t have a seven part series to back any of this up.
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The Stranded ✌️Astronauts✌️ Made It Back Home To ✌️Earth✌️ (CNN)
Wendy Williams And The Age Of The Celebrity Conservatorship (Vanity Fair)
Sleeping in Line For My Queens Tour Tickets!!!! (BPC)
Big U, “Checking In,” Shakedowns, and R.I.C.O. (Complex)
“Hi! It’s Nikki From The Movie From Hairspray” (@Joeynoble)
I’ll Remember Forever 21 The Same Way I’ll Remember Chipotle (…defined by one long gone era of untouchable greatness) (The Street)
Thierry Henry Gets Reminded Of His G.O.A.T. Status (Golazo)
After Wildfires, L.A.’s Clear Skies Conceal A “Toxic Soup” (NYT)
Buju Banton Is Coming To Vegas (SFLCN)
It’s Coyote Awareness Week! (PC.org)
The Scammer (Netflix) Gets Scammed (L.A. Times)
Death of Drag Race Star The Vivienne Sparks Calls For Ketamine Awareness (BBC)
Aurelio Martinez Dies In Plane Crash (NPR)
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Latasha Harlins was a child, not a woman, when she was murdered on March 16, 1991.
Harlins was 15 years old when she was murdered by Soon Ja Du, 52, who attacked the teen after accusing her of stealing a $1.79 orange juice from Empire Liquor Market & Deli, where Du was cashier. Latasha was shot in the back of her head as she turned away from her attacker, who had just thrown a stool at her. The $2 for the juice was found in Latasha’s hand.
Two children in the store, 9-year-old Ismail Ali and his 13-year-old sister Lakeshia Combs, witnessed the teenager’s Saturday morning execution, and their testimony, along with store security footage, disputed Du’s claims of theft.
Du was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, which typically comes with a max sentence of 16 years in prison. Judge Joyce Carlin, who, despite evidence, continued to falsely paint Latasha as an aggressor deserving of her execution, reduced the sentence to just probation, 400 hours of community, a $500 fine and the cost of Latasha’s funeral expenses. The ongoing tensions between South Central’s Black residents and the Korean immigrants who set up businesses in a neighborhood they feared, and the fallout of Latasha’s verdict, left stewing for nearly a year before the LAPD’s brutal attack on Rodney King, incited the L.A. riots in 1992. (TheWeeklyWork Archive)
This week, a reminder from me to you of what the goal is anytime a university joins forces with the federal government against their students. What this country saw at Kent State is very close to happening again. The bread-crumbing of suspensions, dorm searches, visa revocations and other retaliations is simply light work. It’s just enough to buy Columbia a little more time behind the mask. The mask isn’t slipping. They’re pulling it off themselves, with a goal to never have to put it on ever again.
In his second week without charges, detained Columbia student-turned-political prisoner Mahmoud Khalil shares a letter from the Louisiana detention center he’s been held at:
Elsewhere…
The murderous, white supremacist pariah state continues its unchecked terror
Firefighter Scott Merlin is charged with obstruction of justice, shared photos of the teens’ bodies
Black people in Libya are being hunted, raped, enslaved and slaughtered
Last month, a Libyan slave port was discovered with mass graves and 76 people tortured and detained
Layoffs loom at L.A. city hall after a $1B budget shortfall (the mayor gave the money to cops)
Bury my student loans in the Department of Education’s casket
