How Lyndon LaRouche stole $150 from a Trader Joe's...

It's true. LaRouchepac.Org actually cost my local Trader Joe's roughly $150.00 of my dollars last week.

Granted, I'm small potatoes, but in this economy, losing any business should matter. But, apparently, to Trader Joe's, it doesn't. To be honest, they seemed insultingly laid back about how just how their loyal customers felt about being confronted with racist images at their store. Which seems, I don't know, wrong. I'd have done more to get my right to do business needs met, if I were them...but, I'm getting ahead of myself, here.

Apparently if you are a member of an annoying cult looking to set up shop in a busy marketplace to, apparently the front of Trader Joe's is the place to be. -- Who knew?

So, just how does LaRouchepac.Org get away with comparing Obama to Hitler? Because they have the right to free speech, that's how. Even if it gets racist, they can do this. And I do get that this is America and we do that here, but, somehow, the way they did this seemed pretty antagonistic and unAmerican, at the time. And that bothers me.

Here's what I don't get: Why did the store just ask them to get off the property? Isn't that a no-brainer?

How complicated is this? Just shoo the jerks off the doorstep, guys. It's not rocket science.

Ask yourself this: If these same people set up shop in front of the Bada Bing, what would Tony do?




Perhaps the laid-back strategy that Trader Joe's management is currently using should be crafted into more of a Tony-like approach, is all I'm saying. In this economy isn't having something of a muscular version of non-violence, better than throwing up one's hands and doing nothing?

Anyone who reads my blog knows that doing nothing is rarely the road I choose.

Free speech is free speech, but business is business.





But, what do I know? I'm just a typical stay at home mom.

Okay, here's what happened.

Last Thursday, about 3-4 in the afternoon. I picked up my kids from school and we were headed to Seal Beach to do our weekly family grocery shopping at local Trader Joe's. At least, I thought that's what I thought we'd be doing.

But, this time something was different.

As my girls and I got close to the store we noticed (kind of impossible not to) a big booth set up with two college age "nice young men" handing out literature from it.

I assumed it was just your average signature collector, you know, the kind hired from via the classified of LA/OCWeekly. I strolled by without much thought, but then I saw the sign.

Poster, actually. A color poster that boldly suggested our president was in league with Hitler.




NOTE: this is another image from their website and was not the exact they used, which at the time of writing this I couldn't find on the web. But, thanks to Bill Maher and others, it's now easily found just about everywhere, but I still find this image pretty jaw-dropping.

Say, what? Is this a joke?

Seriously. Right out front of the exit doors there was the inexplicable, large color poster of Obama sporting a Hitler mustache painted on his upper lip along with a sharpie scrawled headline stating "Obama's Health Plan Approved By Nazi Doctors!"

My daughters looked up at me, then back at the two young men pushing brochures into the hands of every customer exiting Trader Joe's or even walking by the store. Was this an Ashton moment, or a serious protest of some sort?

My kids look at me for some explanation, but I had nothing for them.

Their message was as bizarre as it was illogical.

Wasn't Hitler racist?

So, isn't calling Obama a racist, racist?

And aren't most of the original Nazis dead now, anyway? Are they talking about some really, really old Nazis? Is Obama a neo-Nazi? Does Michelle know? Now I'm really confused.

Obama's health care program a branch of the Third Reich?

I scrutinized the laminated color poster of Obama sporting a Hitler mustache tried not to laugh. It looked funny, until I realized they wanted it to look funny, which, actually then hit me really wasn't so funny at all.

Racists, Obama-haters, anti-government, Leisure World residents, Holocaust...why were these messages in my head as having been recently a subject of debate in the news, recently? Wait!

Then, tried to remember why the subject of Obama and Racism had the holocaust had recently been in headlines Wasn't something similar to this image in the news recently?

Oh, yeah. The Holocaust Museum that was shot up by a geriatric whack-job. That's why it was in my mind, right now.

A nut-job like these idiots took a gun to a Holocaust museum and murdered people because he was crazy and angry. It made no sense then, either. Didn't anyone notice this old guy was upset? Why didn't they do anything to stop it? Did he have any hate literature on him? Like what, this stuff?

A mixed up, old geriatric who hated government and Obama decided to "fight back" by killing people.

An racist, angry, hating geezer just like the ones leaving Trader Joe's, mumbling "I never liked the guy, anyway," some random senior citizen who one day just up and killed innocent people for no good reason other than he didn't like jews and blacks. Because he believed crazy things like Obama was like Hitler. Some nutcase, just like the ones taking handouts from Young Male #1 and Young Male #2, the boys from LaRouchePAC.Org.

This bothered me.

Nobody sane kills other people.

Not that everybody who is crazy is a killer, still, most of the time killers are crazy. And so why let them spew opinions clearly designed to just upset people? And why, of all places, do these guys want to upset the Trader Joe's crowd?

These were the things going through my head last week in the parking lot at Seal Beach. Especially since I had my two daughters were with me, because for at least one or two more years what I do actually has an impact on them.

A few days before this shopping trip I struggled to help my second grader finish her book report on Susan B. Anthony.

Little did I know, till last week, that Susan B. Anthony was brought up an avid Quaker who was raised to put her money where her mouth was for reasons both ethical and moral. Susan B. Anthony changed the Constitution and gave women the right to vote which was not an easy thing to do. It took a stubborn determination to stand up for what was fair to do this, and there was a great deal of resistance to her goals.

So, I decided not to ignore these guys after all.

I decided that today would be a lesson in standing up for doing the right thing and not ignoring things that was know were wrong. I wanted to show my girls how the actions of people, people just like Susan B. Anthony, can actually help create a positive changes . Today. But, before you decide to protest what's wrong, you have to notice it first.

Should we just smile and pass by and get into our cars and go merrily about our way while jerks convince reactive right-wingers that Obama is Hitler? Or just let someone else deal with it?


Well, I decided to attempt to model how to stand up for what I thought was right in as sane and reasonable a way possible. (Key word: "Attempt.")

I wanted to channel the ghosts of Susan B. Anthony's MOTHER to guide me, here. I wanted those kind, but staunch Quaker spirits to help me educate the few future citizens I was actually in charge of raising: My daughters.

but I wanted my kids to say "Mommy stood up for what was right" and not, "Mommy went crazy at Trader Joe's."

And so, even though I was running out of time and had two tired kids and a long grocery list, I decided to revise my afternoon game plan.

I went into Trader Joe's to speak politely with the manager. Did they know what was going on outside? Yes.

Not only did they, but they begged me to get involved and call the cops for them since Trader Joe's stated their hands were tied.

By the time we'd had this much of a conversation, other fights were breaking out in the front of the store with the LaRouchePAC dudes.

Three more citizen/Trader Joe's shoppers had requested to phone the cops to complain.

See? I was hardly the only one.

There outside the front of the store was not just your average card table, but a big honkin' podium thing with a big color, laminated poster of Obama sporting a Hitler moustache. There was an equally big post facing the exit of Trader Joes stating that "The Obama Health Plan Approved by Nazi Doctors."


I was very calm. I asked the management at Trader Joe's "why don't you tell them to move?"

Trader Joe's said their hands were tied, and that they, too, were genuinely irritated and fatigued by the LaRouchePAC drama on their doorstep and they were happy to provide a phone for us to phone the police to request they remove them from their doorway.

So, I called the cops.

During this exchange with the manager at Trader Joe's three other strangers also wanted to know why nothing was being done about the LaRouchPAC guys, as well.

Then, the Larouchpac dudes, (college age, white guys somewhere between age 19 and 27) got really hostile with us, around this time, too. Gee, it was like they were waiting for us to call the police. They called the police, too. They claimed we were oppressing them. They made a scene, too. And they seemed very comfortable with being victims in public.

I began to see what the objective was, for the whack-jobs, it was to prove a point that they were being oppressed by liberals who were too busy buying hormone-free milk to see that they savior, Obama, was going to send us to the ovens where the new healthcare plan was presumably offered.

Then another woman felt she had really had it with them got so utterly pissed off she told the cops there was "going to be a riot" in front of Trader Joe's and that a mob was about to rip their signs down and what would they think of that?

Hey! Don't look at me. I didn't go there. That was another person, not me. See? I told you people were not happy about these dudes. It was getting ugly in front of Trader Joe's.

I had my two daughters with me, I was being very mindful of how one should conduct themselves when engaging in public demonstrations. And, as much as I wanted to make a strong statement about protest, this was going South, fast. I started backing up a bit.

I asked the men why they were saying Obama was a Nazi. They scoffed at me. After all, I could have read my literature first! I could have been wise and informed at looked past the obviousness of the sign, their sign, and educated myself before addressing them first.

Young White Male #1 and Young White Male #2 informed me that it was beneath them to answer this question when I could taken their literature and read it myself. Actually, what Young White Male #1 said to me in front of my daughters was "Well, why don't read about this instead of fucking running your mouth off, lady."

Actually, I believe he actually used the word "lady" to me, but he used "Ma'am" with the other woman who was, frankly, very upset with the two men by now. And that's what set me off.

Note to liturature waving young men: Don't ever call someone like me "Ma'am." Ever. Don't even go there.

Ever. You racist, hate mongering little shit heads, because if you do, women like me will "Ma'am" your ass back so fast your heads will spin.

So, I was in, now. I joined the other woman who was standing in front of their dopey Anti-Obama poster, I joined the Iraqi man (No "Ma'am, there. Believe me.) who said this was incredulously wrong and that in his country these two guys would be beaten and in jail by now, and I then I asked my girls, again, if they wouldn't mind continuing to stand aside for a few minutes while Mommy showed them what non-violent protest against hate looked like.

The girls didn't mind in the slightest.

But, I sort-of did mind, actually. Because, the truth was I was tired and hungry and really needing the groceries, and these two LaRouchePAC dudes were really irritating and messing up the plan.

Finally, the police showed up. The LaRouchePAC babies called for the cops, too, since they were now loudly whining that they were being oppressed. They were suddenly young male victims of "Ma'am" and Co.

The police talk to people. Try to figure it out. They'd been there several times that day, already and seem genuinely confused, as well. The police finally say that they will not be doing to do a thing to move the protest to the side, or somewhere else and that this is all "out of their hands."


Okay. Free speech. I get that.

The cops didn't care that people are threatening to rip up other people's private property.

The Ma'am lady was upset that the Young men were jabbing elbows into her when she was blocking his sign. It was getting messy.

People were yelling at each other that they were being racist.

So, I shake my head and ask the police "So, bottom line is, will you be doing anything to stop what's going on here?" He says tells us he is not able to prevent free speech. And I say, "fine, then, I'm going to finish my shopping, now. By shopping somewhere else."

The protesters seemed to view my throwing in the towel as giving up, but I put it like this: Vote with your wallet, folks.

Forget making a fuss. Vote with your wallet. Just take your business elsewhere and tell Trader Joe's why, that's all. Seems simple to me.

Trader Joe's has a legit point to make with their property company they rent space from that not enough was done to keep these wackos off their doorsteps. By them not doing more to protect Trader Joe's, this store lost valuable business. Not good.

And as for my girls? They didn't mind the history lesson.

I asked them if my non-violent protest was embarrassing to them.

Now, safely back in our van they said they were proud to have a mom who says things like "You're an idiot and should be ashamed of yourself for engaging in activity that induces hate."

Or "Oh, wow. You (That would be "young man #1) just dropped the f-bomb in my face. Is this supposed to make me leave now?"

They state they were proud of me, for some crazy reason, even though I didn't make the commotion stop, or even move.

But they did mention they were worried I would get punched in the face.

Something about that didn't seem right.

Should my kids have to worry that mommy will get punched in the face on a seemingly normal day in Seal Beach, CA?

Probably not.

Will this mean I'll behave more like my reasonable, high-minded husband in the future?

-- Hell, no.