The recent protests and demonstration have largely featured young people of diverse backgrounds facing off against the police or Trump-supporting counter protestors. But Saturday saw something different at The Villages, a retirement community in Florida that has very wealthy, almost exclusively white, residents. It is seen as a reliably very right-wing Republican stronghold and has hosted many fundraisers for such candidates including Trump.
When rich people fight each other, it is usually behind closed doors and through lawyers. But on Saturday we were treated to the unusual sight of some of the people in this community facing off against fellow members who are Trump supporters who were having a parade to celebrate their hero by riding through the community in (what else?) their golf carts. These normally genteel elderly folks let loose with obscenities against each other, with one Trump supporter yelling out ‘white power!’ It is not often that you see rich old people screaming obscenities and making rude gestures at one another in public.
Seniors from The Villages in Florida protesting against each other: pic.twitter.com/Q3GRJCTjEW
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) June 27, 2020
Trump retweeted that video of his supporter yelling ‘white power’ before deleting it three hours later following widespread criticism. But this is further evidence that white supremacists see him as one of them.
Here is the militant anti-Trump protesting woman in black explaining why she was out there demonstrating against him.
A lot of people were interested in the #Resister in black, so here ya go, her name is Sharon Sandler: pic.twitter.com/10rYXtZpci
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) June 27, 2020
Meanwhile, also on Saturday, actor and veteran prankster Sacha Baron Cohen pulled off another one.
On Saturday, Cohen, convinced the leaders of the “March for Our Rights 3” to allow him to take the stage and perform some musical acts. The rally was being held in Olympia, Washington and was attended by a lot of right-wing militia members and three percenters.
During Cohens “performance”, he sang lyrics that mocked Barack Obama, Dr. Fauci and the “Wuhan Flu.” He also sand about injecting anyone who wears a mask with the Wuhan Flu or chopping them up “like the Saudis do.”
So how did he fool event organizers? He disguised himself as a the leader of a political action committee that wanted to help sponsor the rally and then he brought HIS OWN personal security to allow him to stay on stage once he was in character. This would prevent the event organizers from removing him or cutting the power when he was on stage.
The organizers of the right-wing event were, not surprisingly, not pleased at being made fools of.
Regarding the elderly being genteel… a long time ago I had a job as in telesales. Obviously my calls were rarely welcome, but the demographic most likely to get abusive by far was the elderly. They just flew into a rage and the trivial inconvenience of having an unwanted phone call.
Regarding the “white power” retweet, NBC reports that White House aides realized it was explosive and were desperately trying to get him to take it down, but couldn’t reach him because he was playing golf and had put his phone down. Good thing it wasn’t a real emergency, huh?
Um, @Holms? If you picture it as one unwanted call, sure. But here at the Senior Residence where I am comfortably ensconsed, it’s several, often from the same robots. “Hi, it’s James from your local air-duct cleaning service!” “This is Melanie from Apple Support. We have information your iCloud account has been breached. Press one to speak to an Apple specialist.” I’ve had multiples of both of those in a day. I’ve got a new protocol: I pick up and say “Hello!” and wait a two-count. If nothing speaks, it is a sure sign of a robocall; the computer is busily looking for a free rep to connect me to. Or maybe I hear the little bloop noise of a Skype connection. Either silence or Skype means a robocall, and I hang up. Melanie and James usually start talking at once, but I know their rat-squeaks now. Minimal annoyance? Well, yes, except I had to interrupt whatever I was doing (likely, napping) and get up. @Homes, here in the Senior Facility, every time you hastily get up to answer the phone is one more opportunity to trip and break a hip.
So, @Homes, the times a senior went ballistic on your simple little cold sales call? It was likely the third or fourth time in the day and they had had it with the bullshit telemarketing.
Recently during a veritable blizzard of “Your iCloud account has been breached” calls, literally 5 and more a day, I started taking the time to press 1 and wait for the cheerful dude with the Filipino (I think) accent to say, “This is Greg with Apple Support, how may I help you,” and I’d say, “Greg, does your mother know that you tell lies for a living?” and hang up. Or, “Greg, you should really, really rethink your life choices.”
It was satisfying to me to waste his miserable time. And maybe it planted a seed.