OCTOBER 28, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


KEYWORDS FOR TODAY, “WORDS MATTER.”

HALLOWEEN APPROACHES, AND THE GHOULS ARE OUT ALREADY. THE NEWS IS ABOUT MAYHEM AND MINDLESS HATRED. AS RACHEL MADDOW SAYS, IT’S ABOUT THE PRESIDENT AS WELL, AS HE CLAIMS THAT HIS WORDS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DANGEROUS BRAND OF NUTTINESS THAT IS OUT AMONG US, AND DARES TO CHIDE THE NEWS MEDIA FOR STIRRING UP GROUP HATRED. WATCH HER COMMENTS ON YOUTUBE BELOW. WHAT PERCENTAGE OF AMERICAN REPUBLICANS ARE BEHIND TRUMP IN THIS, I WONDER.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NidkK2rVSFs
Trump Era Unique For Violent Extremists Inspired By US President | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC
210,730 views
Rachel Maddow looks at the violent, racist, extremist groups that seek out street violence in the name of supporting Donald Trump, and wonders what will happen when Trump-inspired extremists collide with Trump-pressured law enforcement.


“WORDS MATTER. WORDS MATTER. WORDS. MATTER.”

THIS PARTICULAR CASE OF BLOOD LUST IS TOLD ABOUT THE JEWISH NEIGHBORHOOD AROUND THE TREE OF LIFE SYNAGOGUE BY A WRITER WHO GREW UP THERE. IMAGINE THIS IS YOUR HOMETOWN, NOT HIS. HOW WOULD YOU FEEL? IS IT TIME TO STEP IN AND REESTABLISH CIVILIZATION AGAIN YET, OR ARE YOU POSSIBLY STILL CHEERING BEHIND OUR PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP? WHERE DO YOU THINK HE IS LEADING YOU? WHERE ARE YOU PREPARED TO GO WITH HIM, AND CAN YOU STOP YOURSELF FROM FOLLOWING? ASK YOURSELF, “AM I A LEMMING?”

IF YOU AREN’T, YOU CAN CONTACT YOUR GOVERNMENT LEADERS EASILY, AND IF WE ARE TO REMAIN AMERICA, THE TIME TO DO SO IS NOW, I’M AFRAID. DID YOU HEAR HIM SAY THAT HE IS “A NATIONALIST?” THIS INFO IS FRESH OFF THE NET, AND THE PHONES ARE OPEN TO ALL. EMAILS ARE OKAY, BUT NOTHING BEATS A CONCERNED OR EVEN IRATE TELEPHONE CALL FOR MOVING LEGISLATIVE MINDS. GO TO THE GOVERNMENT CONTACT SITE BY GOOGLING “CONGRESS AND SENATE CONTACT INFORMATION,” OR SOME OTHER VARIATION ON THOSE WORDS. GOOD OLD GOOGLE CHROME WILL UNSCRAMBLE ALMOST ANY COMBINATION OF LETTERS.

“Call congressional offices directly or through the switchboard. If you do not have the direct number, you can reach US representatives by calling 202-225-3121, and US senators by calling 202-224-3121. Ask the operator to connect you to the individual office.”

THESE VIDEOS ARE VERY GOOD. I WATCHED THEM ALL THIS MORNING. I WANTED TO GET AN IN-DEPTH VIEW OF A JEWISH COMMUNITY, AND FOUND THE KIND OF GRIEF THAT I AM FEELING OVER OUR TWO WEEKS OR SO OF HORRIFIC NEWS STORIES. THE WRITER OF THE FOLLOWING STORY, DAVID SLATER, WAS BORN AND GREW UP IN THE TOWN, AND KNEW THE PEOPLE. THAT MUST BE VERY HARD FOR HIM.

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/video/pittsburgh-community-shattered-mass-shooting-synagogue-58803484?cid=ap_video_rec.
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/video/pittsburgh-mayor-reacts-deadly-synagogue-shooting-58803483
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/video/tree-life-synagogue-rabbi-speaks-58803414
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/video/latest-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-suspect-investigation-58803279
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/video/pittsburgh-residents-react-shooting-synagogue-58803244
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/video/11-dead-injured-shooter-opens-fire-inside-pittsburgh-58803243

BOWERS USED THE INTERNET WEBSITE CALLED GAB FOR WHITE NATIONALISTS TO EXPRESS HIS RAGE AGAINST JEWS.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/person-mass-murder-mr-rogers-neighborhood-58808487
First Person: A mass murder in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood
By DAVID MICHAEL SLATER FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oct 28, 2018, 1:13 PM ET

PHOTOGRAPH -- Gideon Murphy places a flower at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018. Robert Bowers, the suspect in Saturday's mass shooting at the synagogue, expressed hatred of Jews during the rampage and told officers afterward that Jews were committing genocide and he wanted them all to die, according to charging documents made public Sunday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Harry Houdini, the Jewish escape artist who thwarted every attempt to cage him, died not long after being punched in the gut by a college student. Houdini's abdominal muscles were legendary, but the student didn't give him enough time to tense them before delivering a blow that ruptured his appendix.

Something like this happened to me on Saturday morning.

I grew up in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill — in fact, directly across the street and catty corner to the Tree of Life synagogue. Squirrel Hill is one of America's leafiest and loveliest Jewish communities. Synagogues and Jewish shops abound in the hilly little Eden. Heavenly corned-beef sandwiches are easy pickings where orthodox, conservative, reformed, and unaffiliated Jews live harmoniously with their non-Jewish neighbors. The Jewish Community Center is a beehive of multi-faith activity.

People are nice to each other in Squirrel Hill. For crying out loud, it was literally Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. We had a mass murder in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood.

Until today, it seemed inconceivable to me that any American could, at this point, be shocked by a mass murder, even one in their backyard. Those expressing such shock have struck me as willfully self-delusional. Jewish Americans, in particular, are taught pretty much from day one that the veneer of "civilization" is perilously thin and that "It" could happen again. Here. In our lifetimes. And so we must be ever vigilant and wary — perpetually tensed.

I was weaned on such worries. And despite how paranoid they seemed on the corner of Shady and Wilkins, I thought I had internalized them.

But I wasn't ready for the blow.

I wasn't ready to hear the words 'Squirrel Hill' uttered by the president of the United States or the prime minister of Israel. I wasn't prepared to see a law enforcement officer armed to the teeth standing in front of the house where I grew up memorizing Steelers' Super Bowl stats. Or to see a childhood friend interviewed on the news. I was not prepared to wonder how close a connection I would have when the names of the dead were finally released.

Now I know what far too many Americans know — not that it can happen anywhere, but the visceral truth that it happened in a place I consider home. This isn't knowledge. It's a wound.

You don't want to hear me rant and rave about what I think must change to make this the last mass shooting in America. So instead, I'll tell you something else about Harry Houdini: He managed many of his impossible escapes by hiding keys in the back of his throat.

Our key is in our throats as well: our words.

Words matter. Words matter. Words. Matter.

We live in a cesspool of hateful words, and we are drowning in it. Yet we act surprised when hate rears up in our communities.

Mr. Rogers, whose son attended my elementary school, always counseled us to look for the helpers in times of crisis. I took his advice Saturday and was brought to tears by the bravery of Pittsburgh's first responders. And I swelled with pride when several local rabbis declined a news anchor's invitation to offer thoughts and prayers. Instead, they explained that, for Jews, prayer is primarily a personal affair, and that Judaism is first and foremost a religion of action.

Unless we see courageous action, the Squirrel Hill massacre will be just another on the list, albeit one with an asterisk for me. You probably have your own.

We're a ruptured and bleeding nation in a cage of our own making. I only wish I had the magic key to unlock our hardening hearts.

Won't you be my neighbor?

———

David Michael Slater is the author of more than 20 books. His work for children includes the picture books "Cheese Louise!", "The Boy & the Book" and "Hanukkah Harvie vs. Santa Claus"; the early chapter-book series "Mysterious Monsters"; and the teen series "Forbidden Books." Slater's work for adults includes the comic-drama "Fun & Games." Slater teaches in Reno, Nevada, where he lives with his wife and son. You can learn more about Slater and his work at http://www.davidmichaelslater.com.

David Michael Slater grew up in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood, directly across from the Tree of Life synagogue. In this column for The Associated Press, he writes about his community and processing the tragedy.


BOWERS WAS OPPOSED TO HIAS – HEBREW IMMIGRANT AID SOCIETY – AND WAS A “GUN ENTHUSIAST.” HE “HATED DONALD TRUMP.” APPARENTLY, HE’S JUST A PRIMARY ANTI-JEWISH PERSON. I JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT KIND OF THING.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/27/us/synagogue-attack-suspect-robert-bowers-profile/index.html
Here's what we know so far about Robert Bowers, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suspect
By Saeed Ahmed and Paul P. Murphy, CNN
Updated 7:14 AM ET, Sun October 28, 2018

(CNN)As officials try to put together a picture of the alleged Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, one focus of the investigation is his social media postings, the FBI said. Here's what we know so far about suspect Robert Bowers, 46:

He allegedly made anti-Semitic statements after his arrest
While in custody and receiving medical treatment, Bowers told a SWAT officer he wanted all Jews to die and also that "they (Jews) were committing genocide to his people," according to the police criminal complaint. The bloodshed took place on the same day as Saturday Shabbat services. At the time of the shooting, three different congregations were holding services at the Tree of Life.

He was in the synagogue for about 20 minutes
At a Saturday afternoon news conference, officials said the suspect was in the Squirrel Hill synagogue for about 20 minutes. After the attack and as he was leaving the building, Bowers encountered a law enforcement officer and the two exchanged gunfire, officials said. The suspect went back inside to hide from SWAT officers. Bowers was in fair condition with multiple gunshot wounds, officials said. It's believed he was shot by police.

Trump says synagogue should have had armed guards
He was not known to law enforcement
"At this point we have no knowledge that Bowers was known to law enforcement before today," said Bob Jones, FBI Pittsburgh special agent in charge. Jones said that while Bowers' alleged motive is unknown, officials believed he acted alone.

He has an active license to carry firearms
Bowers has an active license and has made at least six known firearm purchases since 1996, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said. On September 29, Bowers posted photos of his handgun collection on his Gab.com account, which included multiple clips and sights. A rifle and three handguns were found on the scene of the attack, the FBI said.

He blamed Jews for helping migrant caravans
On his Gab.com account, Bowers claimed Jews were helping transport members of the migrant caravans. He shared a video that another Gab.com user posted, purportedly of a Jewish refugee advocacy group HIAS on the US-Mexico border. Another post that Bowers commented on described HIAS' overall efforts as "sugar-coated evil."

Seventeen days before the attack, Bowers posted a web page from HIAS that listed a number of Shabbats that were being held on behalf of refugees, an official said. On that list was a Shabbat address that is less than a mile away from the Tree of Life Synagogue. (The chief executive officer of HIAS, Mark Hetfield, said Bowers is not known to the group.)

He called those in migrant caravans 'invaders'
According to his posts, Bowers believed that those in the migrant caravans were violent because they were attempting to leave countries that had high levels of violence. And Bowers repeatedly called them "invaders" on his Gab posts. "I have noticed a change in people saying 'illegals' that now say 'invaders'," read one post, six days before the shooting. "I like this."

A law enforcement source confirmed to CNN that investigators believe the social media postings belong to Bowers and that the language on his account matches the suspected motivation behind the shootings.

His most recent post was five minutes before police were alerted to the shooting
In that Gab post, Bowers said he "can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in."

Bowers' photo on Gab.com
His Gab account has frequent anti-Semitic postings
He has reposted a number of posts on his social media accounts that tell Jews to get out or leave. Gab is a social media platform that advocates for free speech and puts nearly no restrictions on content.

(In a statement posted online, Gab says it "unequivocally disavows and condemns all acts of terrorism and violence...Gab's mission is very simple: to defend free expression and individual liberty online for all people." Gab said it was alerted to the suspect's profile on their platform, backed up the data, suspended the account, and contacted the FBI.)

His posts included criticism of President Trump
Among the many anti-Semitic social media posts were comments suggesting that President Trump was surrounded by too many Jewish people. "Trump is surrounded by k****", "things will stay the course," read one post on the Gab social media platform, which used a derogatory term to describe Jews. Another post, apparently intended as an insult, read: "Trump is a globalist, not a nationalist," Bowers said two days before the shooting. "There is no #MAGA as long as there is a k*** infestation.
He said he didn't vote for Trump
Roughly four hours before the shooting, Bowers commented in a post that he did not vote for Trump.

He was involved in trucking
A law enforcement official familiar with the ongoing investigation tells CNN that Bowers has a commercial driver's license and a history associated with the trucking industry.

He received a traffic citation in 2015
A CNN review of criminal records found a 2015 traffic citation against Bowers for allegedly driving without tags.

He's been charged with hate crimes
Bowers faces 29 charges in all, including 11 counts of using a firearm to commit murder and multiple counts of two hate crimes: obstruction of exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and obstruction of exercise of religious beliefs resulting in bodily injury to a public safety officer.

CNN's Keith Allen, Steve Almasy, Josh Campbell, Matthew Hilk, Tammy Kupperman, Nadia Lancy, Shimon Prokupecz, Miguel Marquez, Evan Perez, AnneClaire Stapleton and Joe Sutton contributed to this report.


HIS BALD STATEMENT ABOUT BEING “A NATIONALIST” MADE MY STOMACH TURN. HE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT HE IS SAYING, AND YET SAYS IT ANYWAY. I HOPE SOME TWIST OF FATE ENTERS OUR SITUATION AND DISLODGES HIM FROM HIS HOLD ON THE REINS. A GOOD PLACE TO START WOULD BE A BEAUTIFUL BLUE TIDE, BUT WHO CAN SAY FOR SURE. I HAVE VOTED FOR ALL THE DEMOCRATS AND WOMEN ON THE BALLOT, SO I’M JUST WAITING FOR THE ELECTIONS TO BE OVER AND OUR FATE TO IMPROVE. WE MUST BREAK THE REPUBLICAN GRIP ON CONGRESS AND THE SENATE OR WE ARE IN REAL PERIL, I BELIEVE.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/413558-jewish-leaders-say-trumps-not-welcome-in-pittsburgh-until-he
Jewish leaders tell Trump he's not welcome in Pittsburgh until he denounces white nationalism
BY MORGAN GSTALTER - 10/28/18 07:01 PM EDT

A group of Jewish leaders told President Trump that he is no longer welcome in Pittsburgh until he denounces white nationalism following the shooting at a synagogue there over the weekend.

Eleven members of the Pittsburgh affiliate of Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice penned a letter to Trump following the Saturday shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue.

“Our Jewish community is not the only group you have targeted,” the group wrote. “You have also deliberately undermined the safety of people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. Yesterday’s massacre is not the first act of terror you incited against a minority group in our country.”

Trump was fiercely criticized after he failed to condemn white supremacy and asserted that there is “blame on both sides” after last year’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

The group also said Trump is not welcome in the city until he also stops targeting minorities, immigrants and refugees.

The president has “spread lies and sowed fear about migrant families in Central America,” the group wrote.

“The Torah teaches that every human being is made b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. This means all of us,” the leaders wrote. “In our neighbors, Americans, and people worldwide who have reached out to give our community strength, there we find the image of God.”

They noted how Squirrel Hill, the Pittsburgh neighborhood where the attack took place, was once the neighborhood where children’s television host Fred Rogers lived.

“Here in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood, we express gratitude for the first responders and for the outpouring of support from our neighbors near and far,” they wrote.

Robert Gregory Bowers, 46, has been arrested and charged with the deaths of 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue.

The attack on the synagogue is the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

Trump condemned the attack as "an assault on humanity."

"It will require all of us working together to extract the hateful poison of anti-Semitism from our world. This was an anti-Semitic attack at its worst," Trump said during a rally Saturday night.

He condemned the gunman as a “wacko” who should get the death penalty and suggested that an “armed guard” at the synagogue could have prevented the attack.

The president, however, was criticized on social media Saturday night for tweeting about the World Series game shortly after the shooting took place.
- Updated 7:42 p.m.


THE QUESTION IN THIS ARTICLE IS WHETHER BERNIE STILL HAS IT, OR HAS THE COUNTRY CHANGED TOO MUCH. HIS STATEMENT BELOW THAT THE SENIORS’ MEDS ARE COSTING EVEN MORE THIS YEAR, AND THEY STILL CAN’T AFFORD TO PAY IT, IS HIS ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION. AS WITH ALL GOOD FITS, THERE IS A NEED FOR A HELPFUL GOVERNMENT AS MUCH AS THERE HAS BEEN BEFORE, AND HE WILL CONTINUE TO FOLLOW THAT PATH. ONE THING I CAN TRUST SANDERS FOR. HE WILL NOT STOP WHAT HE IS DOING BECAUSE HE IS AFRAID OF LOSING FUNDING OR VOTES.

AS FOR EXACTLY WHAT WILL BE TRUE IN ANOTHER YEAR, WE WON’T KNOW UNTIL THE TIME COMES. WHILE I WATCH THE RACE CLOSELY, I DON’T USUALLY ENGAGE IN TOO MANY PREDICTIONS. I’D RATHER HEAR SOMETHING IN DEPTH, LIKE THE SENIORS’ COSTS, THAT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE ABOUT HOW THINGS WILL GO NOW AND LATER. FOR NOW I’LL JUST LIVE THROUGH IT ALL A BIT AT A TIME.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/28/politics/bernie-sanders-2020-will-he-wont-he/index.html
It's Bernie Sanders' world. But what's his place in it?
By Gregory Krieg, CNN
Updated 5:41 PM ET, Sun October 28, 2018

Correctionville, Iowa (CNN)Bernie Sanders has a decision to make.

In a political season when some of the Democrats considering presidential runs have been unusually direct about their ambitions, the independent senator from Vermont's next steps remain a genuine mystery - including, it sometimes seems, to himself.

Sanders tries his best to avoid talking about it now, so close to a midterm election the party is so desperate to conquer. Listening to the question, in its manifold formulations, can at times appear to physically pain him. But his work and itinerary this fall, as he travels to boost Democrats around the country while continuing to grow and sustain the grassroots movement he elevated with his 2016 campaign, has guaranteed its asking.

The last time around, this process played out in lower velocity settings. No one was bellowing "Ruuuuun" when, as a frequent guest on liberal Bill Moyers' public television program, Sanders mused a bit more freely about the prospect. During an appearance in October of 2014, after some friendly nudges from Moyers, he set the bar for a 2016 bid.

"The main issue that I'm trying to figure out, and I'm going around the country talking to people -- is there support for a candidacy which is really prepared to take on the billionaire class?" Sanders said. "Can you do it? How do you do it? How do you get the resources to do it? How do you build the grassroots organization?"

Four years on, the answers are clear, and if the standard now were roughly the same, a second consecutive swing would be a no-brainer.

Bernie Sanders wants to see Trump lose in 2020

Sanders' grassroots following on the political left is unparalleled in Democratic politics. Anger and a desire to act against the influence of the wealthy few is embedded in both American political life and increasingly, the popular culture.

Small dollar donors across the country are swelling liberal candidates' campaign accounts, much as they ended up doing for Sanders in 2016. Some of his signature policies and, perhaps as importantly, his political language, have been adopted by a wide range of Democrats. The party this midterm season has been mostly focused and largely coherent in its pledges to expand health care and root out corporate influence from Capitol Hill to state legislatures and city councils.

But as former campaign manager Jeff Weaver readily acknowledged in an interview outside a Sioux City, Iowa, rally with J.D. Scholten, the Democrat challenging GOP Rep. Steve King in the state's 4th Congressional District, things have changed.

Simply put, President Donald Trump happened.

"You can't deny that the country is in a fundamentally different place," Weaver said. "We have to beat Trump in 2020" and Sanders, he insisted, "feels a great responsibility to the country to make sure that, if he's getting in, that he's getting in because he is the person best positioned to do it."

Weaver has been clear on his own views. He punctuated his book on the 2016 primary and its implications with a plea for the next time around: "Run, Bernie, run." The infrastructure Sanders lacked in 2015 is in place and, should the call go out, Weaver insisted, stands ready to be activated. Minutes earlier, Pete D'Alessandro, Sanders' Iowa campaign director in 2016 - who made waves this summer when he signed on to help steer Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan around the state in 2018 - made his first cameo of the trip. He made the rounds again the next day in Fort Dodge and Ames.

"When we go into every state, there are people on the ground there who are part of what I would call 'Bernieworld,'" Weaver said. "There's already a network of people: delegates, former staffers, former supporters, new people who want to be supportive. That first meeting we went to in Indiana at the union hall, there were a number of local electeds, Democratic party officials, who might not have been there in 2015."

Also absent from the picture this time around: a prohibitive favorite like Hillary Clinton.

"The presidential stage is a lot different than running for senator or anything else. There are people who get on that stage as dark horse candidates who suddenly blossom," Weaver said, sounding genuinely curious how the 2020 crop would sort itself out, "and there are some candidates who are favorites, who get up there and suddenly wither."

Sanders' recently concluded midterms sprint began in Indiana and ended this weekend in California. In between, he headlined rallies, convened meetings with workers and seniors, and posed for untold numbers of selfies in Michigan, South Carolina, Iowa, and Wisconsin, before lighting out to Arizona and Nevada. He campaigned with Democrat Mike Levin on Friday in the Golden State's hotly contested 49th Congressional District before heading north for a rally, on Saturday, in Berkeley with Rep. Barbara Lee, a longtime ally.

Lee's seat, which she's held for two decades, is safe. But California's presidential primary, which comes early on in the 2020 primary schedule, is up for grabs.

In an interview at a homecoming parade in Ames, Iowa, Sanders coolly sniffed out and defused a question about his own future plans. (He's considering it, as he's said; this wasn't about that.) Anyway, he doesn't especially need the major media headlines, given the reach of his online operation, and probably doesn't want the kind he's most likely to generate.

"I made news today. I made big news today," Sanders said, engaging a meta analysis of his media strategy, which is anchored by a team of staffers who zip around with video equipment, entering and exiting scenes in quiet, quirky sync like characters in a Wes Anderson film. "Because I talked with four senior citizens and one senior said that the cost of her medicine soared. Extraordinary news. Because that's news that millions of people will shake their heads at."

"What you mean by news," he said, "is I gotta say something that I didn't say yesterday, but I think what's more important, and we're going to put it out on our social media, is that the cost of medicine for seniors and for everybody else is soaring, and people can't afford it."

Sanders surveyed the parking lot staging area. It was bright and cold and the band, in their cardinal and gold, were about to set off for Main Street.

"The news here," Sanders said, "is that throughout this state, people are earning starvation wages. To me that is a big story. More than anything I can tell you right now."

Sanders speaks during a rally for Nevada Democratic candidates

For decades, he has been telling it. But it was only very recently, in the course of a long and varied career, that such a wide swath of people began to really listen. On the trail in 2015 and 2016, they turned up by the tens of thousands. His critics said he never accomplished anything much during all that time in Congress, but for many, that was - in some odd sense - the point. Sanders, who arrived in Washington as Vermont's at-large representative in 1991, never bought the ticket, never took the New Democrats' ride. Now, in his late 70s, he has become a favorite of the loud, if congenitally unreliable youth vote, his visage animating armies of internet memes, his voice helping to revive a dormant passion for social democracy in American life.

Whether that means Sanders is best-positioned to win the party's nomination in 2020 is less clear.

Would he carry the same insurgent appeal this time around, particularly as so many of his potential opponents are adopting, to varying degrees, pieces of his own agenda? And even as the progressive left makes gains in minority communities, Democratic voters in 2018 have shown a unique enthusiasm for women and candidates of color. The left's biggest electoral successes, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York to Chokwe Antar Lumumba in Mississippi, have matched that profile — a fact that only complicates these crude calculations.

At a rally with the campaign spinoff group Our Revolution in South Carolina, Sanders - as he had a night earlier to a packed auditorium of Michigan Democrats in Ann Arbor - spelled out the movement's advances and reminded supporters, as if they needed it, of the dismissive groans that greeted him in 2015.

"When I was in South Carolina and other states campaigning (before the last primary), we talked about a series of ideas, we talked about a progressive agenda and my opponent and editorial writers all over the country and the political establishment and the economic establishment, they said, 'Bernie Sanders is nuts, he is far out, his ideas are extreme. Nobody in American supports those wild ideas,'' he said, pausing a half-beat to tee up the punchline: "Well, guess what happened, folks!"

Sanders didn't wait to deliver the spoiler: "Three years have come and gone and those ideas that were seen to be radical and extreme three years ago are today mainstream, supported by the vast majority of the American people."

That the Columbia event had been panned ahead of time by some local Democratic officials, who called it unhelpful ahead of the midterms, clearly stuck in Sanders and his onstage allies' craw. South Carolina state Rep. Justin Bamberg addressed the skeptics.

"I think it's pretty clear why the Senator is here," he said. "Because the people wanted him."


THESE RECENT ARTICLES PAINT THE LEFT AS “AN UNHINGED MOB” – THE NEW TRUMPIAN MEME. THIS IS THE FIRST INSTANCE OF THAT WORD USAGE THAT I WAS ABLE TO FIND, BUT ON OCTOBER 11 A FINE NEW MIXED MEDIA AD FROM THE REPUBLICAN PARTY CAME OUT. WITHIN HOURS THREE OTHER SOURCES WERE MIMICKING IT, AND THE BALL BEGAN TO ROLL DOWNHILL. ON THE 14TH, TRUMP HIMSELF PICKED IT UP. CLEARLY, THEY’RE VERY PROUD OF THEMSELVES.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/410624-mcconnell-torches-far-left-mob-over-kavanaugh-fight
McConnell torches 'far-left mob' over Kavanaugh fight
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 10/09/18 04:00 PM EDT

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday knocked the "far-left mob" for the fight over Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination, arguing critics were still trying to target the justice.

"The madness hasn't stopped. They are already signaling that even more drastic steps may be necessary now that Justice Kavanaugh is on the court," McConnell said from the Senate floor.

McConnell noted that some "left-wing" publications and groups are floating that Democrats should move to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court when they regain the Senate or try to impeach Kavanaugh.

PHOTOGRAPH -- MCCONNELL SPEAKING © Getty

"One far-left pressure group is already trying to circulate petitions that Justice Kavanaugh should be impeached. ... The mob would like to make itself perfectly clear," McConnell said. "The far-left mob is not letting up."

Republicans have increasingly denounced the confrontation between protestors and Republican senators as "mob tactics," "bullying" and "intimidation tactics."

Hundreds of protesters were arrested as the Senate considered Kavanaugh's nomination earlier this month, while several senators received Capitol Police escorts amid heightened tensions.

McConnell added Tuesday that the vote to confirm Kavanaugh over the weekend was a "victory" for the "the integrity of this institution."

"Reason and deliberation triumphed over what was literally, literally, an attempt to sway the Senate using mob tactics," McConnell said.

McConnell also knocked Hillary Clinton, who told CNN that "you cannot be civil with" the Republican Party because it "wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about."

"No peace until they get their way? More of these unhinged tactics? Apparently this is the left's rallying cry," McConnell said.



THIS HILL ARTICLE SEEMS TO BE WHERE THE “MOB” TERMINOLOGY BEGAN, AND WAS QUICKLY FOLLOWED UP BY THE OTHER HARD RIGHT NEWS SOURCES SUCH AS BREITBART, TOWN HALL, NATIONAL REVIEW ON THE SAME DAY AS THE GOP’S AD, THE 11TH AND INFOWARS AND BREITBART AFTER THAT.

WATCH THIS AD JUST TO GIVE THE DEVIL HIS DUE. I SEE THAT THE TERM “OUTSIDE AGITATORS” HASN’T GONE TOTALLY OUT OF STYLE, EITHER. IN THE MEAN OLD SEGREGATION DAYS THAT WAS ONE OF THEIR FAVORITE TERMS. WHAT’S DIFFERENT NOW? NOTHING. THEY’RE STILL THE SAME OLD LIARS, CHEATS AND THIEVES THAT THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN.

THIS IS THEIR PRIZE WORK OF ART:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlMIyae9-ZU
Oct 11, 2018 - Uploaded by GOP
1 http://www.GOP.com.