Comments
ERIC PREVEN’S NOTEBOOK - Homeland Security just posted a picture on X featuring crocodiles—or maybe alligators—wearing ICE hats along the border. It’s not immigration enforcement; it’s concept art for the newest ride at DystopiaLand. Alligators in agency caps, guarding razor-wired swamps: Florida Man meets Fortress America. If cruelty is the point, absurdity is the delivery system.
But let’s be clear: this isn’t just absurd. This is the State memeing itself into impunity. Once upon a time, governments trafficked in euphemism and plausible deniability. Now they wage psychological warfare with AI-generated reptiles in branded caps, mocking the very public they pretend to protect.
This is not governance. It’s mockery with a badge. And every official who approved, commissioned, or disseminated this vile spectacle will be identified, investigated, and publicly held to account. Titles won’t shield you. Rank won’t protect you. We will find you—wherever you lurk in this bureaucratic swamp—and strip you of the power you so grotesquely abused.
Warm regards.
Who runs the X site above? We see you!
The Strip-Mining of Hollywood’s Soul
We read in the Los Angeles Times that the old Henson studio—Occidental Studios, built in 1913 where Pickford and Fairbanks forged cinema’s grammar—is on the market for a stratospheric price. TikTok billionaires don’t need soundstages; they want legacy and clout. Picture it: the lot where silent films birthed an industry, now a deodorant ad bunker for iPhone-shot vertical thirst traps.
Hollywood isn’t dying. It’s being strip-mined by algorithm fetishists who think content’s a formula, not a craft.
It used to be that a set decorator reported to an art director, who reported to a production designer, who answered to the director and ADs. That chain—that little army—was the dignity of the job. You learned, rose, and earned the right to lead. Now? One person reports to one director. Two do the work of seven. Hierarchy gone. Learning gone. Deadlines loom. Lowball offers are LA’s new kink—salacious, watching people underbid to survive.
Crews are hard workers, aspiring to be good soldiers. But there’s no work. So they take non-union microdrama gigs for Chinese vertical platforms, churning cliffhanger-packed shorts to keep you scrolling. Checks are smaller. Protections? Gone. Yet they show up for camaraderie, hope, and a rescue dog at home that needs to eat.
Even my dog Pickles works for free now. He starred in an indie with a major TV actor—no wrangler fee, no markup. Time was, I’d collect something for his trouble. Now? Everyone’s cutting rates to zero. Even Pickles.
Not all these shorts are drek. I cut my teeth on daytime drama; quick-turn storytelling can be craft. But there’s a chasm between craft and churn, art and algorithm. And when everything’s video—from soaps to stump speeches—craft drowns in clicks. Look at politics: Trump gets memetic energy better than anyone, turning micro-issues into global performance art. Dr. Phil embedded with ICE? Naturally. Mamdani’s recent win? He defended “globalize the intifada”—messy, complicated—but won because he’s a master memer. Memes cut through. Memes win elections.
This isn’t just Hollywood’s funeral. Journalism, tech, your industry—they’re next. Because dignity stripped from work isn’t innovation. It’s demolition.
My proposal: eminent domain the Occidental Studios—the Henson lot—and fund a union-run media hub with a tax on streaming giants. Replace the void created by Trump’s NPR and PBS pogrom. Give writers their bungalows, crews their dignity. Otherwise, the next generation won’t be starving artists—just starving, on camera, for views. And the likes will keep coming, while Hollywood’s heart flatlines on a soundstage.
Am I the last fool in LA who believes content’s a craft, not an algorithm?
Top Ten Most Funfuriating Items
The city agenda reads like a financial crime scene with ceremonial tinsel taped over the bloodstains. Payouts, bond debt, policing contradictions, and corporate management of public space all glide by unchallenged, while small progress like unarmed crisis response is hidden in the shuffle. The people deserve governance that isn’t just performative or extractive. Until then, Smart Speaker will keep reading the fine print.
Before diving in, let’s acknowledge the agenda mechanics behind the madness. Of the 151 items crammed onto today’s docket, only 11 public hearing items – including the $60 million housing bond issuance (Item 7) – and 36 other items (Items 116–151) are available for public comment. But a whopping 104 items—holy crap—are not, because their public hearings were held at some other time and place. That means payouts like the $3 million settlement in the Horihata case (Item 19) and the Homeland Security grant acceptance (Item 18) glide by with no public input. Meanwhile, items like the ICE raids emergency declaration (Item 116), the Hollywood Hills traffic enforcement plan (Item 136), and the Council’s new rule banning the N-word and C-word during public comment (Item 140) are technically open for comment—assuming you survive the mob or the perception that there will be a mob. One can only imagine the presentations.
1. Settlements totaling $11 million (Items 19, 33–52)
The city will casually approve over $11 million in liability payouts—for bomb squad mishaps, trip-and-falls, sidewalk vending lawsuits, employment retaliation, and negligent traffic signal placements—without meaningful public discussion of root causes, trends, or systemic fixes. It’s budget hemorrhage as routine governance.
2. Item 18. Homeland Security grant acceptance ($50K transfer)
While declaring a local emergency against ICE raids (Item 116), the city accepts DHS counterterrorism funds in silence. The contradiction is profound: denounce ICE terror while quietly taking DHS money. Watchdog translation: co-opted compliance hidden under emergency virtue-signaling.
3. Item 7. $60 million bond issuance for 207 units (6033 De Soto Ave)
Massive debt load for a modest unit count—nearly $300,000/unit in bond financing alone, before actual construction costs. “Affordable housing” without structural cost reform becomes a finance industry enrichment scheme wrapped in moral language.
4. Item 58. Public bank feasibility study
At a time of layoffs, cuts, and record settlements, the city proposes expensive multi-phase consulting studies to examine whether it can run a public bank when it can’t manage sidewalk repairs on time. Performance over practicality.
Pride.
5. Items 8–11. BID renewals
Business Improvement Districts continue to privatize public space management, displace unhoused residents, and shift city core responsibilities to private coalitions with little transparency or democratic control.
6. Item 140. Council rule banning N-word and C-word
Symbolic censorship while ignoring systemic obscenities: corruption payouts, exploitative mega-event contracts, and a billion-dollar homelessness industry with minimal accountability. Speech bans as governance theater.
7. Item 113. Minimum wage updates
Wage increases are positive, but the reality: workers’ raises get swallowed by simultaneous fee hikes (e.g. parking meters, Item 2) and living costs, effectively nullifying gains while politicians take victory laps.
8. Item 81. Annual Homelessness Funding Report
Another glossy presentation summarizing billions spent with encampments still proliferating. No structural solutions, just dashboards and PR bullet points. The city remains a national case study in accountability avoidance.
9. Item 144. LAPD assistance to other law enforcement agencies
No details on which agencies are receiving assistance. In a sanctuary city with active ICE raids, “other agencies” should be named and scrutinized. Public safety or backdoor cooperation with federal enforcers?
10. Item 148. Unarmed crisis response expansions
An actual positive program to reduce reliance on LAPD for mental health crises, but alarming because it’s buried among 151 items with no spotlight. A small glimmer of meaningful reform is lost in the clutter of settlements, contracts, and performative resolutions.
Addendum:
And for the record, the 104 items that may have been heard in committee… barely… Because the council makes it so hard in so many ways. Even the mechanism for recording the meetings is an embarrassment. If you don’t believe me, take it from Imelda Padilla—who loves to hear herself speak but, under the current system can’t find her own speeches. She made an anti-YouTube motion, calling for change.
Here’s her motion, boiled down:
The current system for accessing audio recordings of City Council and committee meetings is inadequate. YouTube is poorly suited—no timestamps, no categorization, no ease of browsing. The City should distribute meeting audio through podcast platforms like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, offering passive listening, time stamps, and notifications.
Therefore, she moves to instruct the City Clerk and ITA to report back with options to modernize access, optimize organization, and increase public engagement and transparency.
Smart Speaker: Look, Padilla isn’t wrong – the city’s current YouTube system is archaic and borderline unusable. There is no time stamping. Trying to find a particular section of an Ethics Commission meeting is harder than performing eye surgery with a melon baller.
But Spotify and Apple Podcasts? Srsly? Those are corporate paywalled platforms designed to extract data, attention, and fees. What we need is a simple, timestamped public archive hosted on the city’s own website with proper indexing, scrubbing, and download options. Because let’s face it – making people sign up for Spotify to hear yesterday’s Housing Committee meeting is like requiring a Netflix subscription to read the Brown Act.
Shocking expensive and weird LA28 merchandise website. Do Angelenos get a cut or even a ticket?
Handsome Watchdog Demands Council Redo Votes After Quorum Lapses
LOS ANGELES — Government watchdog Eric Preven has formally demanded that the Los Angeles City Council vacate all actions taken during its June 25 meeting, alleging violations of California’s open meetings law.
In a Cure and Correct letter sent to Acting City Clerk Petty Santos, Preven argued the Council failed to maintain quorum during public hearings, citing screenshots showing six to eight vacant seats while public comment was underway.
“Public hearings require that councilmembers be physically present and attentive,” Preven wrote, noting that neither the Presiding Officer, City Attorney, nor Sergeant-at-Arms intervened to restore quorum. Under state law and parliamentary procedure, decision-making bodies must hear testimony before taking action.
Preven recommended that Deputy City Attorney Jonathan Groat recite a reminder at the start of each hearing, admonishing members to remain at their seats or actively watch the meeting feed.
The letter also flagged procedural concerns from the June 27 meeting, when Item 31—a $500,000 contract with Covington & Burling LLP, the firm of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder—was not clearly posted during the vote. Adrin Nazarian attempted to vote no, but the onscreen chyron didn’t show that.
Adrin Nazarian's invisible vote against the upscale legal defense of LA's federal investigations.
Preven questioned the necessity and cost of hiring Covington, noting its past role in investigating county contracting scandals related to Mark Ridley-Thomas.
He demanded that the Council:
- Vacate and redo all June 25 public hearing votes
- Enforce quorum standards during public comment
- Preserve footage, attendance, and voting records for public inspection
“If not handled,” Preven warned, “additional remedies under the Brown Act—including judicial relief—will be pursued. I’d prefer not to subpoena council member Fitbit data, but let’s not rule anything out.”
City officials have not yet responded to the letter.
(Eric Preven is a Studio City-based TV writer-producer, award-winning journalist, and longtime community activist who won two landmark open government cases in California.)
