Daily Kos Recommended: Tech CEO: 'Trump's gonna f---k you. You f--king need to leave. You f--king Asian pieces of sh-t!'

Daily Kos Recommended

• Tech CEO: 'Trump's gonna f---k you. You f--king need to leave. You f--king Asian pieces of sh-t!'
• 
• Michael Lofthouse, the founder and CEO of Solid8, an IT tech start-up based in San Francisco, was apparently thinking deep, important thoughts and sipping wine this July 4th at the tony Bernardus Lodge and Spa, nestled in the soft, idyllic hills of Carmel Valley, Ca., when his reverie was rudely interrupted.
  Across the room of the lodge’s elegant Lucia’s restaurant, a small family of Asian-American folks including Ms. Jordan Chan, had begun to sing Happy Birthday to Chan’s “tita,” Mari (‘tita is Filipino for “aunt.”)  It was the culmination of a happy evening, an annual celebration the family liked to hold in the Valley. And it was apparently utterly intolerable to Mr. Lofthouse, who was prompted by the singing to rise and loudly give voice to his innermost thoughts and political convictions.

  Michael Lofthouse gave the family the finger, then said, "Trump's gonna f--- you. You f------ need to leave. You f------ Asian piece of s----."
   

  Ms. Chan fortuitously captured the event on her smart-phone camera.
  As the video shows, an alert server at Lucia’s intervened and ordered Lofthouse to leave the premises. She has since been praised by the restaurant owner for her decisive handling of the matter.

  A Lucia employee quickly stepped in. "Get out, you are not allowed here. You do not talk to our guests like that. They are valued guests. Get out!"

  According to Chan, Lofthouse also told them (off camera) to 'go back to whatever f****** Asian country you're from' and that 'you don't belong here,’ among other things.  From Ms. Chan’s Instagram post accompanying the video:

  (FYI he had a LOT more to say after I stopped recording). This is the face of the man who relentlessly harassed my family and I completely UNPROVOKED, UNWARRANTED, and UNCONSCIONABLE. We were celebrating my tita’s birthday, literally just singing happy birthday to her and taking pictures, when this white supremacist starts yelling disgusting racist remarks at us.

  The server, interviewed by a local ABC affiliate, had noted Lofthouse’s behavior before the incident, observing him switch table and make rude comments to other staff.
  After Ms. Chan's video of the incident circulated on local news affiliates, Instagram and You-Tube. Mr. Lofthouse declared he would step down (whatever that means) as CEO of his company and deleted his Linkedin and Facebook accounts, which were soon filled with negative comments. And, as is  typical of Trump supporters usually only when their hate and racism are publicly revealed, Mr. Lofthouse profusely apologized for his conduct, but not until days after the incident had gone viral. His “apology” includes the assertion that “This was clearly a moment where I lost control and made incredibly hurtful and divisive comments.”
  Lofthouse’s contention that he “lost control” is intriguing, as it suggests that his customary practice was to “control” his racism, but something gave him permission or encouragement to relinquish that “control.” The first audible words Lofthouse says after giving the family the middle finger in the video are “Trump’s gonna fuck you” (apparently Lofthouse also lost control of his sense of irony, as he is a U.K. native, and, according to his mother, his sister-in-law is of Asian descent). So it appears that Trump gave him that permission and encouragement.
  As Forbes Business staff writer Isabel Togoh reports in the “Key Background” segment of her article:

  Democratic senators have denounced a rise in racism towards Asian Americans in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet, President Trump has stoked racial tensions by referring to coronavirus as the ‘Chinese virus', which he later stopped doing, before recently calling it ‘Kung Flu’ at his rally in Tulsa last month.

  Ms Chan directly attributes Lofthouse’s actions to Donald Trump. From her Instagram Post:

  It is no coincidence that this man has the audacity to showcase such blatant racism on the 4th of July. White supremacy has a notorious habit of masquerading as patriotism! The fact that Donald Trump is our president (i. e. THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE WORLD) gives racists a platform and amplifies voices of hate. The surfacing of racists is so prevalent right now, even in such an ethnically/culturally diverse and liberal state like California, because Trump HIMSELF uses his position to incite racial tension and to promote aggression towards POC, foreigners, and immigrants. We need change! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE VOTE THIS UPCOMING RE-ELECTION. PROTECT ALL PEOPLE REGARDLESS OF SKIN COLOR AND ETHNIC ORIGIN. ✊

  As reported by CBS News, there have been more than 2100 reported incidents of Trump-inspired harassment and discrimination against Americans of Asian descent since March, when the Covid-19 pandemic began to prompt lockdowns in the United States.
• 
  
• Thank you, Donald Trump. You have done the one thing no Democrat could ever have done.
  
• Not Shocking News: The couple who waved guns at peaceful protesters are gigantic a-holes
• 
  Personal-injury attorneys Mark and Patricia McCloskey entered the national spotlight like the ultimate expression of white privilege, waving their weapons toward peaceful protesters whose crime was walking down a sidewalk. Republicans immediately tried to make the pair heroes of the Second Amendment, valiantly defending their home by pointing the weapons in the face of Americans who had the audacity to not be rich and white.

  So it will probably come as a relief to everyone that they turn out to be jackasses of the first water. Mark McCloskey isn’t just the kind of raging a-hole who is hated by all of his neighbors, he’s not just a guy who has sued his own sister and his own father, he’s also a guy who did this: He destroyed bee hives on a neighbor’s property and left behind a note not only admitting that he did it, but threatening to sue if they didn’t clean up the mess promptly. That neighbor was a Jewish synagogue which had planned to use the honey for Rosh Hashanah.  “The children were crying in school,” said Rabbi Susan Talve. “It was part of our curriculum.”

  Congratulations, Republicans. These are your new heroes. And they’re perfect.
  As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch outlines, the McCloskeys have a “long history of not backing down.” Which in this case means they are unbelievably—unbelievably—awful. If their moment in the national spotlight made them seem like a postcard advertising the very worst America has to offer, prepare to be amazed. They’re worse than you think.

  That sidewalk that protesters were walking up? It belongs to their “private place” subdivision. Only the McCloskeys have claimed it as their own. The McCloskeys have also claimed the green space on the other side. And the wall around the subdivision. They’re suing the subdivision to assert their ownership over all these things. They’ve been at it or years.

  Their deed for the property doesn’t give them any right to these things, but then that hasn’t stopped the McCloskeys in the past. In what may be the most perfect tidbit about a couple that the right wing has been elevating as sterling defenders of property rights, the McCloskeys have sued to take over two properties they didn’t own through “hostile occupation” and “asserting squatter’s rights.” 

  In the main, the McCloskeys seem to operate by just suing the hell out of everyone. They sued their dog breeder over paperwork. They sued a guy who sold them a car. They filed a lawsuit over a birthday card Mark McCloskey got when he was a teenager. They’ve filed multiple lawsuits on the same trip “to save gas.”

  They’ve even sued their all-white neighborhood association, insisting that they have to maintain the original 1871 agreement over “exclusivity” in selling properties. Yes, that means exactly what you think. In this case, the breach of that exclusivity was allowing a gay couple to move in. The McCloskey’s took that case all the way to the state Supreme Court where, thankfully, they lost.

  The McCloskeys even got their ludicrous castle with a lawsuit. They came in after the house had already been sold, made a claim that they had made an offer on the house, then sued everyone involved in the deal. That lawsuit caused the legal firm where Mark McCloskey worked to fire him. So he also sued them. McCloskey lost the job, but got the house. He considers all of this “a fun story.” But then, we are talking about a guy who sued his own father while his father was in the “memory care unit” at a nursing home. He also sued his father’s caregiver. So his idea of fun might not be the widely accepted definition.

  In any case, KSDK reports that St. Louis police served a warrant on the McCloskey’s Friday evening and seized the AR-15 rifle that Mark McCloskey pointed at protesters. The pistol that Patricia McCloskey waved directly at people’s faces was apparently not home. They claimed the gun was at the office of their attorney—but the attorney denied it. Of course, the McCloskeys have already hired one attorney to represent them, then fired him, and hired another. So maybe the gun is at the office of their last attorney. Or their next one. 

  It’s unclear if the city will file any charges against the McCloskeys. But it’s certain that they’ll end up being involved in many, many lawsuits. It may be too much to hope for that their faux-Italian palazzo ends up being the new headquarters for Black Lives Matter … but we can dream. 
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• Fox News hosts claim Trump never called Mexican immigrants 'rapists' in bizarre defense of Goya CEO
• 
  Far be it from the run-of-the-mill Fox News host to be grounded in truth, but cohosts on the network’s “The Five” talk show stooped to particularly erroneous lows in defending Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue and President Donald Trump on Friday.

  There have been frequent calls to boycott the Latin food company after Unanue practically pledged his allegiance to Trump despite the president’s many racist comments and policies harming Mexican immigrants. When “The Five” host Juan Williams cited the well-known fact that Trump called Mexican immigrants "rapists" during his speech to announce his presidential campaign in 2015, Fox News pundits Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters, and Jeanine Pirro shook their heads. “No he didn’t,” one of the hosts could be heard saying, and Pirro similarly responded. “He didn’t say that,” she said.
  Trump’s direct quote was: “When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

  Pirro, who apparently didn’t remember the president’s remarks, seemed to have a similarly unreliable memory of former President Barack Obama’s time in office. She said to Williams: “The left is so focused on trashing people on the right that they don’t care that the people that they presume to be on the right are helping poor people, hungry people, helping immigrants. Their hate is so dug in. I mean are you comfortable with this? The right doesn’t do this to Obama, and trust me a lot of people on the right didn’t like Obama.”

  I’m not sure how Pirro could even pretend that conservatives who have championed locking immigrant children in cages and demanding the birth certificate of the first Black U.S. president serve as commendable moral examples, but Williams did find and answer the question buried in her ridiculous claims.

  “I don’t like boycotts if that’s what you’re asking judge, but let me just say we live in politically polarized times,” he said. “And if you’re talking about who likes division, President Trump pushes buttons of division and polarization quite regularly. I think you’ll remember he started his campaign by going after Latin immigrants. He said Mexicans were ‘rapists’ and thieves...”

  “There are people who will punch back from the other side,” Williams added, ignoring the moans and groans of his colleagues. 

  In response, Pirro cut Williams off, seemingly to compare Trump to a battered woman. She said she interrupted Williams “because you used the term that battering men use when they say, ‘she pushed my buttons and therefore I beat her up.’ Enough.”

  RELATED: Goya CEO insists he's not sorry as loyal customers boycott over comments praising Trump
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• 300 positive cases of COVID-19 and 4 deaths led to shutdown of LA garment factory
• 
  A sign is posted on the outside of an American Apparel factory on January 17, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. American Apparel laid off thousands of workers at their factories in Southern California within months of filing for bankruptcy.
• COVID-19 infections continue to surge in the U.S. as experts urge individuals to continue practicing social distancing and wear facial coverings or masks. Businesses across the country are closing down as they become hotspots for the novel coronavirus. Factories, specifically, struggle to deal with stopping the spread of the virus as workers often work closely together and are limited in space making it difficult to social distance.

  Reports have been made nationwide in which factory employees have expressed the inability to follow social distancing measures in their work facility. Following an investigation into more than 300 positive COVID-19 cases including four deaths, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has closed down a garment factory in Los Angeles, California. According to CNN, the Los Angeles factory was previously shut down on June 27 after violating county health regulations and failing to cooperate with the health department’s investigation of a reported coronavirus outbreak, health officials said.
  Investigations first started when a healthcare provider notified county officials of a possible outbreak on June 19. According to the health department, a site visit on June 26 found multiple violations of COVID-19 safety measures, including the use of cardboard as a barrier between the workers, CNN reported. By July 4 the company had reported 198 positive cases and provided the health department an incomplete list of employees; lab results confirmed more than 300 cases by July 10, the department said. 

  The factory, called Los Angeles Apparel, reported three deaths in June and one in July. "The death of four dedicated garment workers is heartbreaking and tragic,"  Barbara Ferrer said, director for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. "Business owners and operators have a corporate, moral and social responsibility to their employees and their families to provide a safe work environment."

  Los Angeles Apparel was founded in 2016 by Dov Charney, who also founded American Apparel. According to the health department, Los Angeles Apparel was given instructions on what steps to take before reopening however reopened without following the health officer’s order.

  Charney disputed claims that his company did not follow safety measures or comply with health department investigations, in addition to allegations that new employees were hired without first being tested. “Absolutely, we brought in new employees,” Charney told CNN. “What company can’t hire new employees? No one said do not hire new employees.”

  In a statement to BuzzFeed News, he said that he is aware of the number of employees who have been infected but implied he believes exposure resulted elsewhere.  "We're all in tears. But I don't know how he got it. His wife also got it. And if he got it here, of course it's horrifying. But I can't think that everyone just got it here," Charney said of an employee who worked with him for almost 20 years and died of COVID-19 complications.

  Still despite the number of alarming cases his factory has confirmed, Charney plans to reopen the factory again blaming the lack of testing in the U.S. for a surge in cases and suggesting the shutdown of his factory was “political”, CNN reported. He added that the numbers reported were not high for a factory of its size. "It couldn't be less,” he said noting that more safety measures would not decrease cases among employees and that employees were not concerned about working amid the pandemic.

  Charney’s lack of concern for his employees comes as no surprise. Multiple former employees have made complaints of sexual harassment against Charney; despite his denials in a 2017 interview with The Guardian he said: "sleeping with people you work with is unavoidable."

  According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the factory will “remain closed until they can show that the facility is in full compliance with Public Health mandates.”  As of this report, there have been at least 320,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in California and 7,012 reported deaths as a result of COVID-19, data compiled by The New York Times found. A large majority of the state’s cases were reported in Los Angeles County.
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