Mornin Bitches

Handcuffed for Asking Questions: Democracy's Warning Signs

S.J. Mendelson

A frightening display of power unfolded in Los Angeles when Senator Alex Padilla was physically restrained, forced to the ground, and handcuffed simply for questioning Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem during a press conference. The confrontation began when Noem used alarming rhetoric about "liberating" California cities from their democratically elected leadership, describing Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass in terms typically reserved for authoritarian regimes.

The treatment of Senator Padilla reveals a deeper crisis in American democracy. Despite repeatedly identifying himself as a United States Senator, security personnel roughly handled him as if he posed a threat. As Padilla himself noted afterward, "If that's what they do to a United States senator with a question, imagine what they do to farm workers, day laborers, cooks and the other non-violent immigrants they are targeting." This sobering reality check forces us to confront how power is being wielded against vulnerable communities.

This incident resonates personally with many Americans whose families came to this country seeking safety and opportunity. I share my own grandmother's story - working a pushcart selling underwear for twenty years before becoming a citizen in 1940. Had she been "rounded up" and returned to Poland during those two decades, she likely would have perished in the Holocaust. These personal histories remind us what's truly at stake in today's immigration debates. At its core, this is about preserving America's founding principle that everyone deserves dignity and respect. Subscribe to hear more unfiltered perspectives on the challenges facing our democracy and join a community committed to speaking truth in difficult times.

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Speaker 1:

it's my kitty here, tiktok puppy. I'm going, uh live, and I'm going to talk about something that really disturbed me and I'm going to read george skelton's column capital journal. But dear was right to challenge gnome rhetoric, gnome, you know gnome Alaska gnome who shot the dog in the face? Hello, our puppy. Hello, senator Alex Padilla had heard all he could stand from Homeland Security Secretary Christine Gnome, for good reason. She was sounding like a military dictator and brushing off California voters. Like a military dictator and brushing off California voters. So the California senator interrupted her. He tried to ask a question and wound up being shoved out of the room by federal bodyguards, strong arm to the floor and handcuffed. This is how the Trump administration intends to make America great again, hello. Intends to make America great again, hello. And, by the way, on Instagram I just saw people saying I voted for Trump and now I'm sorry. How many people have done that? Voted for Trump and now they're sorry? Too little, too late, you morons.

Speaker 1:

The unprecedented act of disrespecting and roughing up a US senator occurred in the Westwood Federal Building during a Nome news conference Thursday. Padilla, a Democrat like me, was standing behind reporters when the secretary said federal agents would continue to conduct immigrant raids in Los Angeles indefinitely. Of course they're going to do that because we're a blue state, bitches, california is a blue state. We will continue to sustain and increase our operations in the city. Our operations in the city. All right, we are not going away. She emphasized. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialist and the burdensome burdensome leadership that this governor and this mayor have placed on this country. Fighting words, baby Liberate the city. That's the sort of language used by dictators, fashions, communists or any third world despot Socialists. Come on A pejorative straight out of the right-wing playbook of political talking points With no saying no, no, no. I say saying the Trump administration's real goal is to overthrow Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass because of their burdensome regimes.

Speaker 1:

Perhaps the secretary has forgotten what she presumably was taught in civics class. Did she even take a civics class? Nome speaks without thinking, but Nome was the governor of South Dakota, 53 years old, and before that she was a member of the US House of Representatives and a state legislator. So she, america, the liberators are the voters, not immigration agents, cabinet secretaries or even the president. California citizens re-elected Newsom by a 59% landslide vote in 2022. The Democrat will be turned out of office next year. A policy set by voters, not by some federal administration. Ok, anyway, social is such a tired character characters that characterization of practically any policy the political right doesn't like. You could tag lots of government spending with socialism, including Social Security and Medicare, which is something I get.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, padilla listened to Noem's dumb contacts about liberating citizens from the governor and mayor and said this was just too much. He broke in with a shouted question Okay, he shouldn't have done that. There's a protocol at formal news conferences, only reporters ask questions, certainly not visiting politicians, and questionnaires really shouldn't interrupt the person at the lectern, although it happens. Okay, this wasn't a Senate committee hearing in which Padilla could ask anything he wanted when it was his turn. He wasn't doing his job at Nome's event, as his Democratic colleagues later asserted. He was there as an observer. Okay, if he wanted to ask the secretary a question, this wasn't the time or place Wrong, but understandable. After he was forced to the ground by federal agents who consider him a security threat, padilla declared repeatedly if that's what they do to a United States senator with a question, imagine what they do to farm workers, day laborers, cooks and the other non-violent immigrants they are targeting in California and across the country. She said he rushed towards her, he lunged towards her Baloney Wrong.

Speaker 1:

A video recording disproved that Federal bodyguards contended Padilla didn't identify himself. Moral, they just didn't listen. Hands off. I'm Senator Padilla. He's heard saying and repeating several times on the recording A federal agent turned to a Padilla staffer recording the sorry incident. There's no recording allowed out here per the FBI rights. Sorry. If it's a right not to be recorded piling onto the senator trying to exercise his rights, then it should be repealed.

Speaker 1:

The Trump administration did another stupid thing. Guess what. Padilla came out a hero. Senator Padilla, you're my hero. I just have to say that I don't know what's happening to this country. I share a lot. You know I don't do as many podcasts as I used to do, but I'm doing starting to do them again on my morning bitches podcast on Spotify and wherever you can hear it.

Speaker 1:

You know my grandparents I always share about this. They came from Poland. Ok, he came. My grandpa, my papa, before 1920. My grandpa, my papa, before 1920, my grandma, my bubby, came in 1920. She didn't become a citizen. For 40 years she worked a pushcart selling underwear, got gets that they used to call them in Yiddish, until she became a citizen in 1940. 20 years she wasn't a citizen. She could have been, you know, rounded up and sent back to Poland and you know what would have happened to her? She would have been in the camps and who knows if she would have been alive. So all I'm saying is treat people with respect and dignity. This country has really gone to the dogs with respect and dignity. This country has really gone to the dogs.

Speaker 1:

You know, yesterday, on TikTok, I was talking about how, when they were interviewing the roommate of the guy who unalived because you can't say killed or assassinated on TikTok, ok, but I can say it here destroyed that couple, okay. And the roommate, who looked like he hadn't missed a meal in 25 fucking years, okay, says oh, and that someone was accusing the guy of being a Democrat and he said, oh, that would hurt his feelings, he's not a Democrat, he's a Republican. Thank God he's not a Democrat. Would a Democrat do that? Would a Democrat do what Republicans have been doing for the last nine years, with a little respite in between, but back and twice as bad right now? So your TikTok, bobby, is in a foul mood.

Speaker 1:

You know about it all and I'm just really sad to say I'm glad my parents, my grandparents, are not alive anymore, because a lot of things would have been taken from them as seniors, aged seniors. And I just have to tell the truth about what's going on with me and how I feel about all of this. I'm a Democrat, I will always be a Democrat, I've always voted for Democratic candidates, and if that makes me a liberal, then I am a liberal. Okay, I'm a grateful Democratic liberal, you know, and I believe in our country and hopefully there will come a time when, once again, our company will be coming through all of this nightmare and this mess. I'm praying that we will.

Speaker 1:

So if you don't believe it, believe it. And if nobody told you they love you today, excuse me. I love you because you're you. Be yourself, speak your mind, be who you are that's the most important thing and be for everybody, everybody. Maybe you don't like the choices that people have made in their life, but be for everybody and let freedom ring in this country. Of course, that's what we were founded on, and have a great day and I love you.