San Francisco is on fire.
It’s just a little fire, like the ones in Portland a couple years ago. Nothing a single engine company can’t handle. There are mobs of young people with nothing better to do than standing around taking pictures of the fire. Somewhere in that mob are a dozen knuckleheads, some thugs and a snickering arsonist. They have no reason to be here except to know that shit happens. A dude in a hoodie is smashing holes in a windshield with his skateboard. He has a sweet backhaded flip in the sway he swings this tool of destruction. In his right hand is a tall can. He pours it out into the cracks of the windshield. Chicks and dudes are sitting on the roofs of parked cars to get the best angle.
Hey but it’s just Chinatown. Not like it’s Wall Street where cops would be there in a moment. And it’s just California. Not like it’s Texas where such crimes could be something other than misdemeanors. And hey it’s just America where we let every kind of idea breathe freely, not like it’s a rational society where stupidity and chaos get social pushback. And it’s a Waymo car. Surely somebody on social media has a viral post on that company’s whole existence being ‘problematic’. Protestors got to protest, right?
Have you ever seen this movie? I was once actually frightened about Y2K and what might happen if a member of Public Enemy was shot. Now I see that people don’t really need a reason to become part of a mob. SF just went nuts over Chinese New Year, and given the current pace, every so-called minority will have their own official holidays. If you don’t believe that, look at a country like Colombia. Combine their calendar with that of the US, Canada and Mexico and you easily get two days a month off plus weekends. Plenty of time to raise a ruckus.
This is just a bit of stuff on the radar. Every time an Asian old lady gets smashed in the face on the streets of one of our major metros it pisses me the hell off. I say this understanding full well what my brother tells me about his time thus far in Southeast Asia where it is tranquil and inexpensive.
Boy that Usher sure can dance. He makes the bread, we get the circus. Viva Las Vegas.