Microsoft’s browser “Edge” has its pros and cons. Mostly cons. And the pros are related to the cons. So, a lot of cons.
Why do I mention Edge? The “stories” Edge pitches at me are almost always nonsense narratives, pushing faithful leftist causes. The last few days, Edge has been a fountain of nonsense about the LA riots – mostly chiding people (like me) for believing our lying eyes. What you've seen on TV and social media? It isn’t real. It isn’t happening or something. I’ve ignored most of it until today.
Today, Edge gave me too much of the “Mostly Peaceful Riot” narrative.
Let's start with ESPN talking head Mina Kimes, and then discuss Esquire Magazine editor David Holmes. They dropped their own versions of: “Don’t believe your lying eyes”. Sure, we had three days of cars being torched, cops being pelted with rocks and their cars being smashed, stores being looted, and Karen Bass having to declare an emergency and impose a dawn-to-dusk curfew, but according to those two, the riots are mostly peaceful. LA is peaceful. The rioters, the looters, the criminals hiding their mugs are really not that big a deal, America – calm down.
Something like: "My Santa Monica Condo is just fine and my local Whole Foods wasn't looted".
I’ve always found Mina Kimes insufferable. Nasally and over-caffeinated and just not good at her job. Her sports chops are middling at best. So why did ESPN hire her? I think it was her limited talent for “etch-a-sketch". No, I am not kidding. There are few leftist causes Kimes won’t comment on, and unlike Sage Steele, who was shown the door for her views, Kimes endorsed Karen Bass, so it is no wonder that she’s protecting “the precious”. LA, isn’t all that fiery. She wrote:
The disparity btwn what’s actually happening in Los Angeles and the way it’s being mischaracterized is one of the biggest stress tests of modern media in recent memory. Botted socials, AI, old clips, declining literacy—it’s like seeing a broken emergency response system hit by a storm.
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes.bsky.social) June 10, 2025 at 2:57 PM
The article quoting Kimes is from “Awful Announcing,” which added:
As CNN’s Brian Stelter has reported extensively, traditional and digital media are feeding audiences an outsized narrative of lawlessness and violence.
If you’re using Tater Stelter as a point a reference, you’ve lost the argument.
Why quote Etch-a-Sketch Kimes? Well, because she lives in “LA” so, she "knows". Kimes is a leftist. Besides endorsing Bass, she oozed praise on Tim Walz as emblematic of the “new masculinity”.
Kimes campaigned for Kamala. Kimes should stick to Etch-A-Sketch.
Another “LA resident” named David Holmes is an editor with Esquire Magazine. He wants you to know that your eyes are lying to you. He knows because on Sunday, he went to protest, chanted, and chatted with “Abuelitas”. He knows the truth.
I situated myself right near the Geffen wing of the Museum of Contemporary Art, with the Barbara Kruger Untitled (Questions) mural on the exterior wall: Who is beyond the law? Who is bought and sold? Who is free to choose? I went and chanted and was home safe and sound by 7:00 p.m. And now the Marines are here.
The Marines aren’t here. That’s a blatant lie. The Marines remain at a staging area. Holmes continues.
After an hour or so, I went back toward my car, and there was an L.A. Pride block party around Angel City Brewery at Second and Alameda. I went in, and another one of my friends made his way over to meet me. We each had a couple pints of Angel City's limited-edition LGBTQ-IPA...Once you tuned out the white noise of the three choppers circling low overhead, you wouldn’t have known anything was happening at all.
Got that? Holmes spent an hour chanting - and that made him an expert observer of the riots - sorry, protests.
At 7 p.m., with his “I was at the protest chanting” card punched, Holmes drove home to Santa Monica. With billowing smoke of burning cars in his rearview mirror and helicopters droning overhead, he was safe. Maybe Holmes threw back a couple more “pints” of Angel City's limited-edition LGBTQ-IPAs as he watched the news reports of looters, cops getting pelted, cop cars getting stoned, and criminals stealing shoes and mumbled to himself, "I didn't see any of that". No matter, Holmes was back in Santa Monica and all he saw were chanters, his gay beer bros, and Abuelitas handing out water. Your eyes are lying to you.
He then spent several paragraphs ranting about how evil Steven Miller was, time-traveling back to Miller's high school days. Holmes ended his rant, with once again, lying about the Marines being in LA. But your eyes are lying to you.
Why does it matter? Because Kimes and Holmes are hacks. But they have platforms, and they tell viewers and readers, “Don’t believe your lying eyes”. And people listen to them. Worse, they believe them.
I had a golf buddy rant about pretty much the same thing. Riot? What Riot? It’s a protest! ICE is deporting 4-year-olds! No amount of patience and facts would sway him.
There's plenty of garbage on social media and TV. All one needs to do is take time to verify. But if I see videos of rioters in masks throwing rocks at cops, I'm going to believe my lying eyes. Sorry, not sorry, Kimes. Sorry Holmes. You can't gaslight everyone.