The restaurant rant
Jordan Chan, a Filipina, was celebrating her aunt Mari Orosa’s birthday on the 4th of July weekend at Lucia, a restaurant in the Bernardus Lodge Hotel in Carmel Valley, California when human colostomy bag Michael Lofthouse started making racist remarks at them. Chan started recording his rant on her phone, catching his rant, which included “Trump is going to fuck you. You fuckers need to leave. Fucking Asian piece of shit.”
She then posted it on Instagram:
“We were singing happy birthday. We were just taking pictures and goofing around with each other and then all of a sudden the man, Michael Lofthouse, starts making really loud racist remarks at us,” Chan said.
To Bernardus Lodge’s credit, a staffer immediately responded to Lofthouse by pointing out that Chan’s family are valued guests and saying “No, you do not talk to our guests like that. Get out of here.”
Chan also said in her interview with local station KION 546, , “Even after he got kicked out, he tried to come back because he was inebriated. It was very clear that alcohol was involved.”
Here’s what the management at Bernardus Lodge Vice President and GM Sean Damery had to say to local news station KION:
“This is an extremely unfortunate situation, however we are proud of our staff at Lucia in keeping with Bernardus Lodge’s core values; this incident was handled swiftly and the diner was escorted off property without further escalation. We provide guests with a safe environment for lodging and dining, and extend our sincere apologies to the guests enjoying a birthday celebration on a holiday weekend.”
The racist ranter goes online
Apparently unsatisfied with his restaurant encounter, Lofthouse got into a related altercation on social media:
Who is Michael Lofthouse, anyway?
1. To borrow a phrase, “He’s no angel”. He’s got priors.
According to Heavy, he:
- Was found guilty of vandalism in July 2016 and sentenced to two days in prison, three years probation and 80 hours of community service.
- Also had a restraining order placed upon him as a result of the aforementioned case.
- Had also been facing charges of domestic battery and the destruction of telephone lines, but these were dismissed.
2. He “emigrated” to the U.S. in 2010, which makes him newer to the U.S. than the family he harassed.
In an all-too-common fit of bias, Heavy describes him as having “emigrated” from the U.K. to the U.S. in 2010. It’s funny how brown people “immigrate” and are “immigrants”, but white people “emigrate” and are “expats”, isn’t it?
Raymond Orosa, husband of the birthday celebrant Mari Orosa, said that he has lived in the United States for 26 years. If we have to play that stupid game of “last hired, first fired” to determine who belongs more in the country, Lofthouse loses, as the Orosas have been the U.S. nearly three times as long as him.
3. Apparently, he’s a CEO for a tech consultancy that’s probably talking to someone who specializes in crisis communications.
He’s the CEO/founder of a San Francisco Bay Area consultancy named Solid8. If they have a lick of sense, they’re talking to a reputation management or public relations company that handles meltdowns.
Here’s what Michael Lofthouse’s LinkedIn profile would’ve looked like had you gone there last week:
But if you were to go there right now, you’d get redirected to a page that displays this:
It turns out that he’s taken down his Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.
[Update, Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 4:23 p.m.] If you go to Solid8’s site, all you’ll see is a newly-minted “Coming Soon” page. Here’s a cached version, showing content so generic that you can’t actually tell what they do.
4. He’s already been de-platformed by Twitter.
His Twitter page says that his account has been suspended for violating Twitter’s rules.
(By the way, “Lofty”, for a tech CEO in the SF Bay Area, that is an incredibly pathetic follower count. You have as much hustle as you have basic decency.)
5. He’s released a statement, (because of course that’s what one does).
Here’s what he provided to a local news station:
“My behavior in the video is appalling. This was clearly a moment where I lost control and made incredibly hurtful and divisive comments. I would like to deeply apologize to the Chan family. I can only imagine the stress and pain they feel. I was taught to respect people of all races, and I will take the time to reflect on my actions and work to better understand the inequality that so many of those around me face every day.”
It’s boiler-plate, but I’ve seen worse.
This is “trickle-down Trump”
Lofthouse’s “Trump is going to fuck you!” didn’t come from nowhere.
It comes from a president who’s got nothing left to run on. He blew it with the pandemic, the economy, and race relations in a matter of months. He’s burned his way through a lot of staff. He has cronies who’ve been sentenced. He’s been impeached. He’s turned a blind eye to autocrats who are actively plotting against the U.S.. He has only one card left to play: The culture war.
So he stokes prejudices against Asians with phrases like “China Virus” or “Kung Flu”. He does it against black people by declaring that the slogan “Black Lives Matter” is a “symbol of hate”. He’s labeled Antifa — more concept that group, just as MAGA is — as a terrorist organization. With him, it’s always some other who’s at fault, and only he can protect you.
It’s trickle-down Trump, and it’s time to stop it.
