November 15, 2017


News and Views


IT’S DISCOURAGING TO FIND THAT EVEN ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES IN THE LEGISLATURE GET SEXUAL OR SIMPLY DISRESPECTFUL COMMENTS AND BEHAVIOR FROM THEIR PEERS. IT’S A SAD WORLD. STILL THEY ARE PUSHING FOR A BETTER SITUATION NOW. I FEEL CERTAIN THAT ROY MOORE WILL NOT MAKE IT INTO THE SENATE. IF HE DOES, WE NEED TO PASS MANDATORY QUALIFICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP, NOT JUST THE POPULAR VOTE. THE US PUBLIC IS NEITHER AS HONEST, NOR AS INTELLIGENT AS I WOULD LIKE, AND THEY CAN ELECT SOME VERY UNSUITABLE PEOPLE TO OFFICE. I WILL NOT SAY MORE ON THAT SUBJECT. SO, CONGRATULATIONS, LADIES! IF I SEE A WOMAN ON THE BALLOT WHO IS A DEMOCRAT OR EVEN AN INDEPENDENT, I WILL ALMOST ALWAYS VOTE FOR HER.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/two-female-members-of-congress-speak-out-about-sexual-harassment-training/
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS November 15, 2017, 10:38 AM
Lawmakers introduce the ME TOO Act to prevent, respond to sexual harassment in Congress

A group of lawmakers introduced bipartisan legislation Wednesday that seeks to prevent and respond to sexual harassment in Congress and to change the arduous system in place for reporting incidents.

The bill, the Member and Employee Training and Oversight On (ME TOO) Congress Act, would protect the vulnerable, levels the playing field and creates transparency, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-California, said at a press conference unveiling the bill.

It would create an in-house counsel for victims of sexual harassment, Speier explained, and it would ensure that both interns and fellows receive the same protections as paid employees. The counseling and mediation would be voluntary, rather than mandatory as it currently exists.

"I am here to protect the victims. We are all here to protect the victims," said Speier, who noted that Congress created the Office of Compliance in 1995 to protect lawmakers from being exposed. She said that there have been 260 settlements in the last 20 years and has cost taxpayers $15 million.

Gillibrand said that there is a "serious" sexual harassment problem in Congress and too many offices are not taking the issue seriously enough.

"The system to address this problem is virtually unknown to most staffers, very confusing to navigate and tilted against victims," she said.

Rep. Ryan Costello, R-Pennsylvania, one of its sponsors, said that it is "very unfortunate it has taken this long," given that he said it's a very "opaque" and "confusing" process to accessing the tools to file a complaint.

"We need to make sure that everybody coming to work feels safe coming to work," said Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine, another co-sponsor.

This comes as issue of sexual misconduct takes center stage in the U.S. Senate race in Alabama, in Hollywood and the media.

In testimony a day earlier, Speier said that she was aware of two sitting members of Congress who have sexually harassed staffers.

"In fact, there are two members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, right now who serve, who have been subject to review or have not been subject to review, but have engaged in sexual harassment," Speier said during a House Administration Committee hearing Tuesday morning examining sexual harassment policies.

Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Virginia, said that she had heard of a sitting congressman who had exposed his genitals to a young female staffer after she delivered documents to his house.

"This member asked a staffer to bring them over some materials to their residence," she said. "And a young staffer ― it was a young woman ― went there and was greeted with a member in a towel. It was a male, who then invited her in. At that point, he decided to expose himself. She left, and then she quit her job."

Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, on Tuesday announced that all House members and staff must undergo required anti-sexual harassment training.

Similarly, the Senate last Thursday approved a bipartisan resolution that also requires mandatory harassment training for all senators, officers, employers and interns.

Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, has been outspoken about sexual misconduct in the military and has written about how she's been treated as a woman serving in Congress. She recalled in 2014, for example, that a male colleague made a remark about her weight.

"Good thing you're working out, because you wouldn't want to get porky," Gillibrand recalled a male colleague telling her as she worked out in the House gym when she was a member of the lower chamber.

This comes as Roy Moore, the GOP Senate candidate in Alabama, faces a slew of sexual misconduct allegations. More than a dozen GOP senators say that he should drop out of the Senate race.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



MORE ON THE CALIFORNIA SHOOTER – SOCIETY NEEDS TO PAY MUCH MORE ATTENTION TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. FIRST, IT CAN “GO TOO FAR,” AND SECOND, IT’S A SIGN THAT THE PERSON IS TRULY DANGEROUS AND NEEDS TO BE IN AN ASYLUM UNDER EFFECTIVE MEDICATION, TALK THERAPY AND GROUP THERAPY.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/official-calif-shooters-wife-found-dead-concealed-under-the-floorboards/
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS/AP November 15, 2017, 1:44 PM
Official: Calif. shooter's wife found dead, "concealed under the floorboards"

RED BLUFF, Calif. -- Investigators in Tehama County spent much of the day Tuesday looking for the wife of a man who was shot dead by law enforcement after going on a rampage in a small northern California town, killing five and injuring nine others.

Ultimately, her's was the final death attributed to gunman Kevin Janson Neal. Her body was found beneath floorboards in his Rancho Tehama Reserve home, Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said at a press conference Wednesday. Neighbors told investigators Tuesday that they believed there was a domestic violence incident at Neal's home the day before.

Link seen between domestic violence and mass killing
kevin-neal.jpg

This Jan. 31, 2017 photo provided by the Tehama County Sheriff's Office shows Kevin Janson Neal, the gunman behind a rampage in Northern California. AP

Johnston said investigators believe she was killed Monday.

"We believe that's probably what started this whole event," Johnston said.

It's not clear what happened in the hours between when officials say Neal murdered his wife and began his shooting spree at 7:54 a.m. Tuesday, but Johnston said Neal's attempt to cover up his wife's body was apparent.

"There was a hole cut in the floor ... we're confident that he murdered her, shot her at some point on Monday, and just put her body in the hole in the floor and just covered it up," Johnston said.

The shooting rampage spanned seven scenes. The first two people Neal shot and killed were neighbors before he stole their truck and sought seemingly random victims elsewhere, including an elementary school, where he was locked out.

A total of six people died, including Neal, who was shot and killed by police, and nine were injured, including seven children, Johnston said. Four of the children were at the school during the incident, and suffered injuries "ranging from very minor to life threatening," Johnston said.

One child remains in critical condition.

"This individual was driving down the road choosing targets. He chased people in the vehicle, shooting at them," Johnston said.

Sarah Gonzales had just dropped off her daughter at Rancho Tehama Elementary School when the gunman blocked her car, CBS News correspondent Jamie Yuccas reports.

"He pretty much stopped me and shot at me three times through his windshield," Gonzales said.

When he stopped firing, she said he continued toward the school. School officials heard gunshots and made a critical decision to lock it down.

"The quick action of those school officials, there is no doubt in my mind, saved countless lives," Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said.

The gunman tried to enter the school but couldn't get in. He fired about 30 rounds in six minutes before he took off.

A short time later, a patrol car rammed the suspect's vehicle. Officers then opened fire and killed him.

Neal had been charged with stabbing one of the slain neighbors in January, and Neal's mother told the Associated Press she posted the $160,000 bail for him and had spent over $10,000 on lawyer's fees. Neal had been involved in a long-running dispute with his neighbors, the woman said.

The mother, who spoke on condition she be named only as Anne because she fears for her safety, said her son told her the neighbor was slightly cut after Neal grabbed a steak knife out of the hand of the neighbor who was threatening him with it.

The head of the area's homeowners association said neighbors had been complaining about Neal firing guns excessively on the property, which sits at the end of a dirt road.

The mother wept as she told The Associated Press she spoke to Neal on the phone on Monday.

"Mom it's all over now," she said he told her. "I have done everything I could do and I am fighting against everyone who lives in this area."

She said Neal apologized to her during their brief conversation, she thought for all the money she had spent on him, saying he was "on a cliff" and the people around him were trying to "execute" him.

"I think the motive of getting even with his neighbors and when it went that far - he just went on a rampage," Johnston said.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



THIS CASE IS STRANGER THAN MOST. NEAL WAS BARRED BY A JUDGE EARLIER FROM GETTING A GUN, AFTER ATTACKING HIS NEIGHBOR; BUT STILL HE HAD TWO AUTOMATIC RIFLES WHICH, ACCORDING TO THIS, WERE HOMEMADE, AND TWO HANDGUNS REGISTERED IN SOMEBODY ELSE’S NAME. IN OTHER WORDS, HE MANAGED TO BYPASS THE WHOLE GUN CONTROL ISSUE BY USING HIS WITS. THE GUNS PROBABLY HAD BEEN BOUGHT IN A KIT WITH INSTRUCTIONS, I ASSUME, UNLESS THEY ARE SOME MAKESHIFT DEVICE LIKE A ZIP GUN. THAT KIND OF THING SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO BE BOUGHT ONLINE AND SHIPPED TO PEOPLE WITH NO EXAMINATION OF THEIR QUALIFICATIONS. UNFORTUNATELY, THE INTERNET IS ALMOST UNREGULATED AGAINST MANY HARMFUL SITUATIONS. PEOPLE DON’T WANT REGULATION, BUT THERE IS A TIME TO REGULATE, AND THIS IS ONE OF THEM. THAT’S WHAT I THINK.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shooter-in-deadly-california-rampage-wasnt-allowed-to-have-guns/
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS/AP November 15, 2017, 4:40 PM
Shooter in deadly California rampage wasn't allowed to have guns

RANCHO TEHAMA RESERVE, Calif. -- A judge had barred the Northern California man who went on a deadly shooting rampage from having guns after he was charged with stabbing a neighbor earlier this year.

Tehama County sheriff's officials say Kevin Neal killed four people in a shooting rampage across seven locations Tuesday, including an elementary school where children were wounded. Officials said Wednesday Neal had also killed his wife the day before the deadly shootings and concealed her body underneath the floorboards of their Rancho Tehama Reserve home.

Workers at California school averted "horrific bloodbath"

Sheriff's officials believe her slaying was the start of the rampage, during which Neal shot two of his neighbors in an apparent act of revenge before he went looking for random victims.

kevin-neal.jpg
Photo provided by the Tehama County Sheriff's Office shows Kevin Janson Neal, the gunman behind a rampage in Northern California. AP

The court records show a judge ordering Neal to stay away from the woman who was stabbed and her mother-in-law on Feb. 28. As part of that protective order, Neal was barred from having guns.

Yet Neal, free on bail, was able to use a semi-automatic rifle and two handguns Tuesday to shoot 13 people, before he died in the shootout with police.

Court records also show that Neal was charged with illegally firing a weapon and possessing an illegal assault rifle during the Jan. 31 incident. The 44-year-old was charged with five felonies and two misdemeanors.

Neal's mother told the Associated Press she posted the $160,000 bail for him and had spent over $10,000 on lawyer's fees. Neal had been involved in a long-running dispute with his neighbors, the woman said.

The mother — who spoke on the condition she be named only as Anne because she fears for her safety — said her son told her the neighbor was slightly cut after Neal grabbed a steak knife out of the hand of the neighbor who was threatening him with it.

An attorney who used to represent Neal told the Associated Press he was fired several weeks ago after his client began displaying "bizarre behavior."

Attorney Leo Barone says the behavior of Kevin Neal wasn't violent but strange enough to stand out. He declined to discuss details.

Barone says he first represented Neal several years ago in a road-rage case that prosecutors dropped before it went to trial.

Barone also represented Neal in February in the stabbing case. The attorney said Neal should have been unable to legally purchase guns because of the court order.

Neighbors, however, had complained about him firing hundreds of rounds from his house. Cristal Caravez and her father live across a ravine from the roadway where the gunman and his first victims lived.

She said they and others heard constant gunfire from the area of the gunman's house, but couldn't say for sure it was him firing.

"You could hear the yelling. He'd go off the hinges," she said. The shooting "would be during the day, during the night, I mean, it didn't matter."

She and her father, who is president of the community's homeowners' association, said neighbors would complain to the sheriff's department, which referred the complaints back to the homeowners' association.

"The sheriff wouldn't do anything about it," Juan Caravez said.

Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said Wednesday that police responded to the reports, but couldn't make contact with Neal.

"Every time we responded, we would try to make contact with Mr. Neal," Johnston said. "He was not law enforcement friendly. He would not come to the door. His house was arranged in a manner where we couldn't detect him being there."

He says Neal had two homemade semi-automatic weapons and two handguns registered in someone else's name.

The gunman's sister, Sheridan Orr, said her brother had struggled with mental illness throughout his life and at times had a violent temper.

She said Neal had "no business" owning firearms.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



TRUMP AGAIN GAVE HIMSELF HIGH PRAISE, CALLING HIS 5 NATION ASIAN TOUR "HISTORIC," AND OF HIS WELCOME THERE, ENDS WITH “... MOST IMPORTANTLY RESPECT.” MARCO RUBIO WAS QUICK ON THE DRAW WITH THE TWEETS AFTER TRUMP – WHO HAD MADE FUN OF HIM FOR HIS WATER BREAKS – PAUSED TWICE WITHIN THE SAME SPEECH FOR WATER. RUBIO CLEVERLY EVEN CRITIQUED HIS WATER DRINKING STYLE. I’VE ALWAYS LIKED MARCO RUBIO. HE MAY BE “LITTLE,” BUT HE’S SMART.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-pauses-during-remarks-to-sip-water/
CBS/AP November 15, 2017, 4:23 PM
Trump pauses during remarks to sip water

Photograph -- President Donald Trump speaks in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, on Wed., Nov. 15, 2017, in Washington. AP

While making remarks Wednesday afternoon following his 12-day trip to Asia, President Trump abruptly paused, twice, to take sips of water.

Speaking from the White House about his five-country Asian tour, Mr. Trump said he wanted to update the nation on his "tremendous success." Mr. Trump called the trip "historic" and said the United States was treated with "incredible warmth, hospitality and most importantly respect."

During the blow-by-blow account of his foreign travel, Mr. Trump first reached into the lectern to seek water but couldn't find any. He then required a helping hand from others in the room to spot the bottle of water on a nearby table. He then took another drink a few minutes later.

CBS News ✔@CBSNews
Amid delivering remarks about Asia trip, Pres. Trump pauses and checks beneath the lectern, taking a brief interlude for water: http://cbsn.ws/2A28wJp
3:49 PM - Nov 15, 2017
195 195 Replies 93 93 Retweets 143 143 likes
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During the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump frequently mocked then-rival Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's frequent water breaks.

Mr. Trump said of Rubio during a 2015 appearance in South Carolina: "Rubio, I've never seen a young guy sweat that much."

"He's drinking water, water, water, I never saw anything like this with him with the water," he added.

Rubio tweeted on Wednesday about Mr. Trump's water breaks.

"Has to be done in one single motion & eyes should never leave the camera. But not bad for his 1st time ," he tweeted.

Marco Rubio ✔@marcorubio
Similar, but needs work on his form. Has to be done in one single motion & eyes should never leave the camera. But not bad for his 1st time https://twitter.com/warddpatrick/status/930899999092887552 …
3:57 PM - Nov 15, 2017
1,189 1,189 Replies 5,609 5,609 Retweets 14,930 14,930 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



LOOK AT THE PHOTOGRAPH AT THEIR COMMITTED AND INTELLIGENT FACES! 15 OF THEM WON OFFICES AND DEFEATED REPUBLICANS. FOR SHEER MOMENTUM, THIS IS THE WAY TO GO. WHAT SANDERS HAS DONE IS TO EXPLAIN WHAT DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM ACTUALLY IS, AND ISN’T, AND ESPECIALLY, WHY WE NEED IT SO MUCH. THAT’S REALLY THE KEY TO HIS POPULARITY, ALONG WITH HIS UPBEAT AND SOMETIMES HUMOROUS LACK OF TIMIDITY. WHO NEEDS A PARTY FULL OF TIMID LEADERS? DO YOU REMEMBER HOW HE LOOKED WHEN THE LITTLE SPARROW LANDED RIGHT ON HIS PODIUM? I TAKE THAT AS A SIGN OF GOD’S APPROVAL.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8x5b3x/bernie-sanderss-socialist-revolution-is-happening-very-slowly
Bernie Sanders's Socialist Revolution Is Happening, Very Slowly
Last week more than a dozen socialists won office around the country after taking inspiration from the 76-year-old Vermont firebrand.
Eve Peyser
Nov 14 2017, 2:28pm

Photograph -- Photo via Democratic Socialists of America on Facebook

Democrats won off-year elections across the country last week for many reasons, but let's pause for a second and give Bernie Sanders some credit. Among the historic victories Democrats earned in Virginia, New Jersey, and elsewhere were a handful of out-and-proud actual socialists who won local office. It could be a precursor to an upsurge in leftists scoring bigger wins in next year's midterms, but it's both a validation of Sanders and proof that the movement he built during the heated 2016 primaries isn't going away anytime soon.

Other than Sanders himself, the most powerful socialist in America might now be a 30-year-old Marine vet named Lee Carter, who unseated Jackson Miller, one of the Republican leaders of the Virginia House of Delegates. He decided to run after he injured his back while working in 2015. "The treatment I got at the hands of my former employer, and at the hands of the Virginia's worker compensation commission was so horrible that I thought, I can't stand for this, I have to step up," Carter told me over the phone.

But he also took inspiration from Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign, he explained, which he saw as "a concrete example of how taking a strong inclusive message of economic empowerment can motivate people who have never been that interested in politics before to get up and get involved."

Carter attributes his nine-point victory to his campaign's ability to inspire the formerly uninspired. "We were going out with a strong economic message and talking to people at their doors, and telling them that there's a reason to believe that this election can make your life better in real measurable ways," he said. "We were able to get folks who have become disillusioned with the political process, people who vote infrequently, people who don't vote at all, typically, to go out there and stand in line at the polls on a 40-degree, rainy, miserable day."

Carter is one of the 15 members of the Democratic Socialists of America who were elected to local and state government last Tuesday. (Full disclosure: I am also a member of the DSA.) The DSA's success indicates a shift in the way Americans understand socialism—it was not too long ago, in a pre-Bernie Sanders America, that "socialist" was a smear, used against Obama by his adversaries. But Sanders embraced that label, and to the terror of conservatives, more and more Americans are OK with saying they support socialism—and, apparently, voting for socialists.

Vanessa Agudelo, a DSA member who won a seat on the Peekskill, New York, City Council last Tuesday, told me she "was very much inspired by Bernie Sanders and the movement he created."

"After he had the primary taken from him I realized that the only way we would be able to successfully change the system would be from the bottom up, starting local," Agudelo, who ran as a Democrat*, explained to me in an email.

Tristan Rader, a former field director for Sanders, was another DSA member to nab a city council seat, this one in Lakewood, Ohio. "Bernie won here by 10 percent during the primaries, so I knew that I had a pretty warm welcoming, a sort of community as a DSA member, and a democratic socialist," Rader, told me. "We unseated two democratically endorsed incumbents. So, pretty huge change in this community and government."

Carlina Rivera, a Democrat elected to the New York City Council from Manhattan, joined the DSA last April, while she was campaigning for her seat. "[I was] looking for their endorsement, to be very honest," she explained, but when she began to attend meetings, she found a very supportive community.

"When you’re talking about running for office and campaigning, people are already trying to tell you that your ideas are too radical. You’re not even elected yet and people are already saying, You know you’re never going to get that done," Rivera told me over the phone. She found that DSA members encouraged her to stick to her convictions, and proved that there are many people who want to see leftist ideals enacted on a legislative level.

Fifteen socialists winning relatively minor offices is a long way away from seizing the means of production, but it's hopefully the beginning of something larger. Carter, who like many socialists wants a federal single-payer healthcare plan, told me that in the meanwhile, he wants to "step up and do it at the state level," as well as advocate for Medicaid expansion. "Medicaid expansion is step one, it's a very very important one. It's also important to recognize going into the fight that it is not the end goal," he told me.

And at a minimum, these new generation of candidates seems determined to embrace progressivism more aggressively than most Democrats. To Rivera, who was inspired by Sanders, his 2016 campaign was a rare moment where a politician ran on a platform that actually spoke to her. It "was about climate change, mass incarceration, racial injustice and healthcare for everyone," she said. "It’s going to make me a better council member."

Follow Eve Peyser on Twitter.

*Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Agudelo ran as an independent. She ran as a Democrat. We regret the error.



WHILE I DON’T WANT TO SEE STREET VIOLENCE, I DON’T WANT TO SEE PEOPLE BULLIED AND WORSE BY THE ALT-RIGHT EITHER. SO FAR, THE POLICE AREN’T DOING ANYTHING ABOUT THEM. THE GOALS AND TACTICS OF THE RADICAL RIGHTISTS ARE WELL KNOWN, AND MY FEELING IS, “NOT IN AMERICA!” I FEEL BETTER WITH THE ANTIFA MOBILIZED AND READY TO CONFRONT THEM, THAN I DID BEFORE I SAW THEM THE FIRST TIME – THAT WAS AT THE TRUMP INAUGURATION. IT FRIGHTENED ME, AND KIND OF SICKENED ME, BUT MADE ME FEEL SAFER FOR THE NATION, ALSO.

IT IS WORTH MENTIONING THAT, ACCORDING TO THIS VIDEO, THE ALT-RIGHT LEADER, RICHARD SPENCER, AFTER HE GOT HIT IN THE FACE AT ONE OF HIS RABBLE ROUSING EVENTS, HAS BEEN LESS HAPPY ABOUT HOLDING HIS WHITE SUPREMACY “RALLIES”. HE’S A LITTLE MORE TIMID AND CAREFUL, NOW. THE FIRST AMENDMENT GUARANTEES FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ASSOCIATION, BUT THE GUARANTEE GOES TO BOTH SIDES. IT WOULD BE BETTER, THOUGH, FOR THE ANTIFA TO DEVELOP SOME CONFRONTIVE MEANS THAT AREN’T PHYSICAL UNLESS THEY, THEMSELVES, ARE ATTACKED. FIGHTING NEEDS TO BE THE LAST OPTION.

https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-black-bloc-antifa-inside-americas-hard-left-fighting-alt-right/590cff588a99751977883e1b
The Black Bloc: Inside America’s Hard Left
VICE met members of Philadelphia's Antifa movement to learn more about their tactics before they went out to a local Trump rally.
VICE Staff
Nov 2 2017, 10:30am

The left-leaning anti-fascist movement—or Antifa—has been around for decades, popping up in North America and Europe in response to rising white nationalist or fascist sentiments. Now, Antifa has made a resurgence in the US, where members clad in masks and nondescript black clothing physically confront groups of white supremacists and neo-Nazis who've started organizing in cities around the country.

Since the 2016 presidential election, Antifa has become a staple at alt-right and Trump-related rallies that often result in violence. VICE met up with a few Antifa activists in Philadelphia who engage in "Black Bloc" actions to find out more about their ideology, tactics, and individual reasons for participating in a high-risk form of activism.



THE CYNICISM IS SO DEEPLY ENTWINED IN THIS ARGUMENT BETWEEN A DISGUSTING WEBSITE AND THE BEST OF THE PUBLIC. UNFORTUNATELY, THE SUPREME COURT HAS UPHELD THEM. THE SENATE IS ON THE RESCUE, OR AT LEAST THEY WILL TRY. PERSONALLY, I WANT TO SEE CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION THAT DO NOT ALLOW THIS SORT OF ABUSE TO GO ON UNDER THE NAME OF FREEDOM OF THIS, THAT OR THE OTHER. OUT OF CURIOSITY, WHY ARE ONLY HALF OF THE SENATE BEHIND THE LEGISLATION?

ON THE LONG HISTORY BEHIND THIS CASE, SEE WIKIPEDIA BELOW. THIS EXCELLENT WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE BRIEFLY STATES NUMEROUS ISSUES, LAWS MADE, AND SUITS FILED. WHILE THE LAST CASE DECIDED ON JANUARY 9, 2017, WENT IN BACKPAGE’S FAVOR, THE VERY SAME DAY ANOTHER PLAINTIFF SUED THEM. PRESUMABLY IN RESPONSE TO THE UNREMITTING ASSAULT BY THE PUBLIC AND THE COST OF PAYING THEIR LAWYERS, THEY ABRUPTLY DECIDED THAT THE GAINS AREN’T WORTH THE LOSSES, AND THEY PULLED THEIR HATED ADULT ADVERTISING SECTION ENTIRELY. THE GOOD GUYS WON THIS TIME. IT SIMPLY SHOCKS ME THAT, ACCORDING TO THIS CBS ARTICLE, BACKPAGE.COM HAS SIMPLY SWITCHED ALL THOSE ADS TO ANOTHER SECTION ON THEIR SITE. LOOK AT THE PERCENTAGE OF BACKPAGE’S REVENUE COMES DIRECTLY FROM THE SEXUALLY RELATED ADS.

PSI, POPULATION SERVICES INTERNATIONAL, THE LAST TO SUE THEM ON JANUARY 9, IS DESCRIBED ON ITS’ WEBSITE AS A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION IN WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. THEY ARE DOING GOOD THINGS. THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE IS HTTPS://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PSIHEALTHYLIVES, AND THEY ARE OPEN FOR DONATIONS, IF YOU HAVE MORE MONEY THAN I DO. THEIR SITE WILL NOT ACCEPT LESS THAN $20.00, AND I JUST WON’T BE HIJACKED THAT WAY SO I GAVE NOTHING.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/backpage-website-investigation-sex-trafficking-prostitution/
CBS NEWS November 15, 2017, 7:38 AM
Does Backpage.com help or hinder efforts to stop sex trafficking?

A bipartisan group of 47 lawmakers – almost half of the Senate – is co-sponsoring a bill to close what it sees as a loophole that supports an online market for sex trafficking. They want to remove legal protections for websites that host prostitution ads, but some in law enforcement warn the effort could be counterproductive.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says classifieds website Backpage.com is involved in nearly three-quarters of all reports of online child sex trafficking that it receives from the general public, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner. A Senate investigation showed adult ads proved to be big business for Backpage, generating more than 90 percent of its ad revenue in 2011. Some victims' advocates want the site shut down. But is it that simple?

Chicago police use Backpage for undercover sting operations. They post ads on the site and according to Commander Bill Leen, who heads Cook County's vice unit, they get responses within a minute or two. Leen said sometimes they'll get 50 to 100 calls in one night from one of their ads. That's despite the fact that Backpage shut down its "adult" advertising section earlier this year under pressure from lawmakers. Now, police say they find ads for sex with young girls in the website's dating section.

ctm-111517-backpage-3.jpg
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart CBS NEWS
"I honestly, even being a former prosecutor, I couldn't believe what I was seeing," said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

Dart says many of the girls advertised are victims of sex trafficking.

"I was naïve," said one teenage girl who says she is a victim of sex trafficking. She says a pimp seduced her when she was just 14 years old and convinced her to post on Backpage.

"There was, like, hundreds of guys responding to the ad," she said.

She says the pimp told her to book appointments with men, then send him the money. On a good day, she says would make about $1,000 -- meaning appointments with about four men. The pimp even branded her with a tattoo. He later plead guilty to human trafficking and is serving eight years in prison. Now she's filed a lawsuit accusing Backpage of negligence among other allegations.

"They're letting all of this happen on their website. I mean, without Backpage, I would have never been in any of this in the first place," she said.

"Backpage has a primary purpose and it's to sell sex. Backpage has not done anything to ensure the safety of the kids on there, period," the teen's mother said.

The company recently settled a similar lawsuit in Washington, but it's also won several legal decisions in part because of a federal law called the Communications Decency Act. The company has argued in court filings that under the act, "websites cannot be held liable for publishing or editing content provided by third-party users".

ctm-111517-backpage.jpg
Ads posted on Backpage.com CBS NEWS

However, a Senate report alleges Backpage "knowingly concealed evidence" of child sex trafficking through its editing "by deleting words, phrases, and images indicative of criminality". Senate investigators said words like "young," "little girl" and "innocent" were removed while "the remainder of the ad would be published."

At a congressional hearing in January, Backpage executives took the fifth.

The company also declined an on-camera interview, but a representative told CBS News that senators are conducting a "witch hunt" against the site. Backpage says it cooperates with police departments to help find victims and some police like Minneapolis Sergeant Grant Snyder – a sex trafficking investigator – agree.

"In some cases, we just tell them we've got a victim out there and we need to recover this individual and they respond very rapidly to that," Snyder said.

ctm-111517-backpage-2.jpg
Sergeant Grant Snyder CBS NEWS

Snyder also agrees with Backpage that if ads aren't on their site, they'll pop up somewhere else – on sites that may not be as helpful to police.

"I think that if we eliminated Backpage today, you would see the same level of commercial exploitation occurring in other venues," he said.

Sheriff Dart doesn't buy the argument.

"I would hope our bar would be a lot higher than that. That your entire logic behind it is, like, 'Well, it could be just really, really worse. So just allow this to continue to go on,'" Dart said.

Sheriff Dart pressured credit card companies to stop doing business with the site. Backpage is now suing him for that, saying it violated the First Amendment and the Communications Decency Act.

A Senate committee last week approved legislation that would revise that law to specify it doesn't provide protection for sex trafficking. The bill now heads to the full Senate for consideration.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpage
Backpage
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Backpage is a classified advertising website launched in 2004. It offers classified listings for a wide variety of products and services including automotive, jobs listings, and real estate. In 2011, Backpage was the second largest classified ad listing service on the Internet in the United States after Craigslist.[2]

Backpage came under fire starting in 2011 for allegations that their adult services subsection was used for prostitution and human trafficking, particularly involving minors, and that the company took insufficient steps to prevent these practices. After a series of court cases and the arrest of the company's CEO and other officials, in early 2017 Backpage removed the adult services subsection from their website in the United States, though said adult services simply moved to both the dating and massage sections of the site.

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History[edit]

. . . . There has been significant public controversy and discourse regarding the adult section of Backpage.com. Most of the criticism has centered on the charge that Backpage is used to market minors (i.e. underage sex trafficking), and that they contribute to a surge of prostitution in areas that they operate.[9][10] Media, law enforcement, politicians and parents of trafficked children have weighed in on this matter.[11][12][13][14]

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the majority of child sex trafficking cases referred to NCMEC involve ads on Backpage.[10] Backpage says that it blocks about a million ads per month, mostly suspected of child sex trafficking or prostitution.[11] Of those, they report around 400 ads a month to NCMEC which in turn notify law enforcement.[12][13] Content submitted to Backpage is surveyed by an automated scan for terms related to prostitution. At least one member of a team of over 100 people also oversees each entry before it is posted.[14]

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In an amicus curiae brief, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says the efforts of Backpage are inadequate and their reporting lacked in several areas. They say Backpage does not report all ads that have been flagged as being underage, does not report when someone tries to advertise children under 18 years of age, and does not respond to requests of parents to have ads of their trafficked children removed. They also say Backpage "encourage[s] dissemination of child sex trafficking content on its website". They say Backpage is much slower in removing ads that advertise children than ads placed by authorities aimed at trapping traffickers, guides traffickers in creating false pages for underage children, instructs traffickers and buyers on how to pay anonymously, and makes it easier to make adult posts than other posts. They said "To all intents and purposes, Backpage has instituted no effective procedures to prevent child sex trafficking ads from being created on its site." They say that they do not use obvious techniques to identify traffickers, such as using the same phone number, email address or credit card of a known trafficker, or reusing the same picture of known victim of human trafficking.[11]

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Numerous writers, non-governmental organizations ("NGO's") legal experts and law enforcement officials including the Electronic Frontier Foundation,[19][20] the Internet Archive,[21] and the Cato Institute,[22] have pointed out that the freedoms and potentially the entire fabric of the internet would be threatened if this type of free speech is prohibited on Backpage. They cite both First Amendment rights of free speech guaranteed in the Constitution as well as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.[23] This law provides protection to Interactive service providers that are the conduits for others’ speech and not the speaker themselves.[23][24]
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On January 9, 2017, the United States Supreme Court refused to re-consider a ruling by the U.S 1st Circuit Court of Appeals that a suit filed in Boston federal court in 2014 against Backpage by three women who claimed that Backpage was responsible for them being forced into illegal sex transactions. The Court of Appeals held that Backpage could not be held liable as the “publisher or speaker” for postings on its site by third parties in accordance with the protections provided to website operators under section 230 of the CDA.[79]
Also on January 9, 2017, prior to its scheduled hearings on Backpage the next day, the PSI [NOTE: PSI REFERS TO “Population Services International”] released a report that accused Backpage of knowingly facilitating child sex trafficking.[80][81]

Shortly thereafter, Backpage announced that it was removing its adult section from all of its sites in the United States. Backpage said it was taking this action due to many years of continuing acts by the government to unconstitutionally censor the site’s content via harassment and extra-legal tactics and to make it too costly to continue its legal publishing activities.[82][83]



THIS MADDOW VIDEO IS A DEEP ONE – MOORE HAS BEEN UNCEREMONIOUSLY DROPPED BY HIS STRONGLY LOYAL BACKER, THE YELLOW HAMMER NEWS IN ALABAMA. IN VERY CLEAR WORDS, THE EDITOR WRITES THAT THEIR PAPER CAN NO LONGER SUPPORT HIM. I’M ALWAYS GLAD WHEN THE PUBLIC AND THE LEGISLATURE AS WELL STAND UP FOR SOMETHING.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/15/17
Still more women report past lurid Roy Moore behavior
Beth Reinhard, Washington Post investigative reporter, talks with Rachel Maddow about two more women describing being sexually pursed as school girls by grown man Roy Moore, including one who was literally called on the phone by Moore at school. Duration: 10:12