OCTOBER 29, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


TO THOSE WHO ARE “CONSERVATIVE,” I.E. EXTREME “FREE SPEECH” ADVOCATES, I WANT TO SAY THAT I BELIEVE WE REALLY NEED TO REWRITE SOME SEGMENTS OF THE CONSTITUTION, BECAUSE CRUDE, HOSTILE, THREATENING, AND VIOLENT BEHAVIOR OF ANY KIND, BUT ESPECIALLY BASED ON GROUP IDENTITY OR SOME DEBILITATING WEAKNESS, SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED, ESPECIALLY IN THE CASE OF HARMFUL ACTIONS, FROM HARASSMENT AND THREATS TO VIOLENCE. THAT KIND OF THING IS NOT, OR SHOULD NOT BE, “FREE SPEECH.” SOME TEENAGERS HAVE COME UNDER ABUSE FROM THEIR PEERS ON THE INTERNET, AND THOUGH IN ONE CASE THE TEEN ABUSER WAS CHARGED WITH A CRIME, THEY SHOULD ALWAYS BE. THOSE CASES USUALLY MAKE THE NEWS BECAUSE THE HARASSED STUDENT WILL SOMETIMES TRY TO COMMIT SUICIDE.

JAIL TERMS DON’T SEEM APPROPRIATE TO ME NECESSARILY, BUT A MANDATORY AND STIFF FINE TO THE COURT HEARING THE COMPLAINT, AND A SEPARATE PERSONAL FEE TO BE RENDERED TO THE ABUSED SEEM APPROPRIATE, ESPECIALLY SINCE THEY WOULD DISCOURAGE THE OFTEN SILLY THOUGH NOT HARMLESS DISPLAYS OF “WILD” TEENAGERS AND STREET BULLIES, I THINK. I BELIEVE THAT SUCH SHOULD BE REQUIRED BY THE COURT AT THE TIME OF THE OFFENSE, AND NOT MERELY WHEN A LAWSUIT HAS BEEN FILED. I NOTICE A GOOD MANY BLACK PEOPLE LATELY ARE FILING SUIT, AND WINNING, BUT THAT SHOULDN’T HAVE TO BE THE WAY THEY GET JUSTICE. JUSTICE SHOULD BE AUTOMATIC AND RENDERED TO ALL PEOPLE.

ABUSE FROM ADULTS OR OLDER TEENS, THOUGH, SHOULD BE A CRIME, AND PUNISHED AS SUCH, THOUGH PROBABLY BY A FINE THE FIRST TIME THEY ACT OUT UNLESS IT’S SEVERE. IT WOULD BE INTERESTING IF A PERSONALLY WRITTEN APOLOGY TO THE VICTIMS, WHICH SHOULD ALSO BE READ OUT LOUD IN PUBLIC. I SAY THAT BECAUSE WE DON’T HAVE “THE STOCKS” ANYMORE. SOME FORM OF PUBLIC PUNISHMENT IS EMBARRASSING, AND THEREFORE MAY CAUSE THE DOER TO THINK NEXT TIME. A 13 YEAR-OLD IS A CHILD, BUT A 16-YEAR OLD ISN’T. THEY ARE ALMOST ALWAYS CAPABLE OF THINKING IN DEPTH, AT LEAST THOSE WHO ARE NOT MENTALLY DISTURBED OR OF A LOW INTELLIGENCE. PERHAPS GETTING MORE THAN A DRESSING DOWN WOULD SHOW THAT THERE IS AN ACTUAL PENALTY FOR WHAT THEY DID. THEY ARE “YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN.” WE SHOULD ALSO HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO “AFFLUENZA DEFENSES” FOR ANY CRIME WHATSOEVER.

LET’S FACE IT, TOTAL FREEDOM OF BEHAVIOR AND SPEECH SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED, ALTHOUGH VERY OFTEN IN THESE CASES PERHAPS AN EXTENDED GROUP OR INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOTHERAPY SHOULD BE MANDATORY. THE PEOPLE WHO DO THOSE THINGS ARE NOT TOTALLY SOUND MENTALLY, BUT I DON’T BELIEVE THAT THEY WILL NECESSARILY TRY TO COMMIT A PHYSICAL ATTACK ON ANYONE. IF AN ADULT IS THE ABUSER, I SUSPECT THAT THE DEPTH OF THE DEVIANCE IS ALSO GREATER, SO PRISON MIGHT BE AN OPTION EVEN IF A PHYSICAL ASSAULT ISN’T PART OF THE CRIME; AND IF ANYTHING APPROACHING WHAT HAPPENED IN THIS SYNAGOGUE OCCURS, THE LEAST PENALTY SHOULD BE LIFE IN PRISON WITH NO PAROLE. THAT’S MY VIEW. I JUST DON’T THINK THAT HARBORING HATRED AGAINST A GROUP OVER THEIR CULTURAL OR RACIAL DIFFERENCES IS A “HUMAN RIGHT,” EVEN FOR THOSE WORTHY “WHITE SUPREMACISTS.”

THE UNSPEAKABLE ONE STEP FARTHER THAT THIS SHOOTER ROBERT BOWERS TOOK IS OF COURSE, AN INSANE ONE, BUT NOT TO BE EXCUSED. THERE ARE MANY INSANE PEOPLE WHO NEVER HURT ANYONE. I BELIEVE THERE IS SOMETHING “DIFFERENT” IN THE MIND OF A CRUEL PERSON, WHETHER THEY ARE KILLERS OR NOT. ALSO, PSYCHIATRISTS DON’T ALWAYS CONSIDER SUCH PEOPLE “INSANE,” BECAUSE THEY ARE CAPABLE OF LOGICAL THOUGHT. THEY ARE MORE LIKELY SOCIOPATHS LIKE MOST OF THE SERIAL KILLERS AND RAPISTS.

SUCH PEOPLE USUALLY GET THE DEATH PENALTY OR LIFE IN PRISON, AND I THINK IT IS JUSTIFIED BY THE AMOUNT OF DAMAGE THEY DO. THERE WAS A VERY INTERESTING VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH THE KILLER CALLED “SON OF SAM” A FEW YEARS, AND HE DID REGRET HIS MURDERS. WHETHER HE WAS ON MENTAL HEALTH DRUGS OR NOT, I DON’T KNOW. HE PROBABLY WAS, BECAUSE HE MADE PERFECTLY GOOD SENSE WHEN HE SPOKE AND SHOWED NO HOSTILITY.

WE DON’T KNOW MUCH YET (THE PUBLIC, ANYWAY DOESN’T) ABOUT THIS MAN BOWERS. I HOPE TO SEE MORE ABOUT IT AS TIME GOES ON. FROM SEVERAL ARTICLES ON THIS MASSACRE SATURDAY, NOT ONLY THE PUBLIC, BUT THE LAW IS PAYING ATTENTION TO THE ANTISEMITIC AND OTHER INTENSELY HOSTILE ACTORS SINCE AUGUST 2016. I DO HOPE THAT MEANS THAT THEY WILL PAY SOME ATTENTION TO PRESIDENT TRUMP’S DECLARATIONS AND ACTIONS. HE RECENTLY SAID, BEFORE CAMERAS AT A RALLY OF HIS, “I’M A NATIONALIST.” THAT’S SIMILAR TO HITLER’S STANCE AS A “NATIONAL SOCIALIST.” FOLLOWING THIS WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE, I HAVE INSERTED ONE ON THE SUBJECT OF “NATIONALISM,” AS OPPOSED TO OTHER “ISMS.”

I BELIEVE WE WILL GET SOME BETTER LAWS ON THE BOOKS ABOUT THE LEGALITY OF “HATE SPEECH” AND OTHER EXTREMELY HOSTILE BEHAVIOR. PEOPLE WON’T HAVE TO GET TO THE POINT OF COMMITTING MURDER, HOPEFULLY. EGREGIOUSLY NEGATIVE ACTIONS MAY COME CLOSER AND CLOSER TO CRIMES IN THE FUTURE BEFORE THERE IS A MURDER.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/for-american-jews-pittsburgh-synagogue-rampage-is-culmination-of-worst-fears/2018/10/27/32226b18-da2c-11e8-a10f-b51546b10756_story.html
For American Jews, Pittsburgh synagogue massacre is culmination of worst fears
By Joe Heim and
Samantha Schmidt October 27 at 10:07 PM

This is what they had long been fearing. As the threats increased, as the online abuse grew increasingly vicious, as the defacing of synagogues and community centers with swastikas became more commonplace, the possibility of a violent attack loomed over America’s Jewish communities.

On Saturday, the worst of those fears was made real as a gunman stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing at least 11 of its members and injuring many more, reportedly shouting “All Jews must die” during his rampage. It is the worst single attack on American Jews in the history of the country. And it is one that many who have been monitoring anti-Semitic activity in the United States have been dreading.

“Unfortunately, in the atmosphere we are in, as shocking as these incidents always are, they are not surprising,” said Oren Segal, director of the Anti Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. “Anti-Semitism is the lifeblood of extremism, and violence is never that far behind.”

[Gunman kills 11 in Pittsburgh synagogue massacre investigated as a hate crime]

In its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States, the ADL chronicled a 57 percent rise of incidents in 2017 over the previous year. That included everything from bomb threats and assaults to vandalism, desecration of cemeteries and the flooding of college campuses with anti-Semitic posters and graffiti.

Saturday’s deadly attack took place against the backdrop of a particularly toxic era in American political and social life. Many Americans believe that the increase in anti-Semitism, xenophobia and racism over the past two years has been stoked by the rhetoric of some of the nation’s top leaders, particularly President Trump, whose ongoing rallies are marked by denunciations of immigrants and the deriding of “globalists,” which is viewed as a code word for Jews. Most recently, he has declared himself a “nationalist,” thrilling some of his followers who identify themselves as white nationalists.

It has been just 14 months since white supremacists protesting the removal of a Confederate statue marched through the University of Virginia campus chanting, “Our blood, our soil!” and “Jews will not replace us!” They were met not with an unconditional rebuke by Trump but a claim by him that there were “very fine people on both sides.” On the far right, the president’s words were taken as an endorsement of their behavior and their ideas and encouragement to pursue them.

“The response was not at all satisfactory,” Segal said. “It’s not hard to condemn Nazis or anti-Semites unequivocally. That’s the expectation the Jewish community has. That’s the expectation all communities have.”

[In the close-knit community of Squirrel Hill, shock and confusion]

Although anti-Semitism is surging, it is not new in the United States. The country’s Jewish groups and organizations have long been targets of zealots and bigots. But for much of American history, there have been relatively few large-scale violent attacks. And nothing on the order of Saturday’s mass murder. That it took place in such a politically poisoned atmosphere is also significant, observers say.

“We have seen acts of violence. What’s new is the context of the acts of violence,” said Eric Ward, executive director of the Western States Center, an Oregon-based progressive group focused on social and economic justice.

“I have never seen this coupling of political violence with political rhetoric before,” said Ward, who has been studying anti-Semitism for the past 30 years. “It has primarily come out of the margins, and what’s different about this moment and chilling about this moment is that the rhetoric is now coming out of the mainstream, and it’s giving permission to people on the margins to act out.”

Deborah Lipstadt, a professor of Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, said that in previous decades, such as when she was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, anti-Semitism was more structural, in the form of discrimination in employment and education. “I knew I had to be twice as good as the non-Jewish kids” to get into college, for example, she said.

Attacks would happen on a personal level, for example. “Kids would be beaten up in the street if you lived in the mixed neighborhood,” she said. But Lipstadt said she was taken aback by the scale and horror of the Pittsburgh rampage.

“This is beyond anything we’ve experienced,” Lipstadt said.

She said it and the recent wave of anti-Semitic incidents over the past two years are the result of “anti-Semitic dog whistles” from leaders — for example, she said, rhetoric painting George Soros as a “21st century Rothschild” — that have emboldened neo-Nazis and other white supremacists intent on committing acts of violence.

The increase in anti-Semitic attacks and harassment online, particularly on popular social media platforms, has been an acute concern in recent years for those monitoring far-right hate groups and white supremacists.

“The rise of the far right in America and Europe is tied to both the spread of anti-Semitic conspiracies about Jewish global domination and increased calls for stronger borders and nationalist policies in majority white countries,” said Joan Donovan, media manipulation research lead at Data and Society Research Institute, an independent nonprofit in New York. “Attention to conspiracy theories about Jewish people, especially Soros, has reached new mainstream audiences through Internet memes and right-wing news outlets. This has led to increased harassment and calls for social media companies to ban topics such as Holocaust denial.”

Although there are increasing demands for platforms to aggressively monitor and remove such material, not every social site has been vigilant in addressing the problem.

“Such failures to act on the propagation of these conspiracies is dangerous,” Donovan said.

Rabbi Jack Moline, president of the Washington-based Interfaith Alliance, said the current public display of anti-Semitism “is like nothing that I have seen in my lifetime, and I go back to the early ’50s.”

For Moline, the marches in Charlottesville last year were the first public demonstrations of anti-Semitism he had seen since the late 1970s, when American neo-Nazis fought in court to march in Skokie, Ill. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he remembers synagogues and Jewish centers requiring identification from visitors and erecting barriers to prevent car bombers. Some of the precautions may have seemed excessive. Not anymore.

“I don’t know a Jewish institution who hasn’t considered the new security requirements of a dangerous world,” he said. “I think we have gone from theoretical to practical in a matter of minutes today.”

For the ADL’s Segal, who has spent 20 years tracking anti-Semitic violence and intimidation, Saturday’s deadly news was met with sorrow, but not despair.

“You can’t do this work without maintaining a healthy dose of hope that things will get better,” he said. “We have to hope that this moment in time will not be remembered solely for the haters and the violence, but for what people did in response. Already we’re seeing people coming out in the streets saying that this does not represent us, this does not represent this country. That’s a good first step. Now we need our elected officials and community leaders and business leaders to push back against this hate more than ever.”

Michelle Boorstein contributed to this report.


WHAT IS “THE WORLD TABLE?” ANOTHER INTERESTING SITE I CAME ACROSS. HAVE A LOOK.

https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/letters/2018/10/29/letter-stop-attacking/
Letter: Stop attacking fellow Americans in the name of nationalism
By Dylan Brunjes | The Public Forum
Published: OCTOBER 29, 2108 4 hours ago; Updated: 4 hours ago

PHOTOGRAPH -- In this Oct. 27, 2018, photo, President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Southern Illinois Airport in Murphysboro, Ill. Eager to focus voters on immigration in the lead-up to the midterm elections, Trump on Oct. 29 escalated his threats against a migrant caravan trudging slowly toward the U.S. border as the Pentagon prepared to deploy thousands of U.S. troops to support the border patrol. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

I was born in Boston and raised in Utah. I like apple pie and cold Pabst beer. I employ 20-25 people depending on the day. I am as American as they come. But according to what I am hearing from the president, I am now the enemy of America.

Just because I feel we shouldn’t permanently separate children from their parents and I’m not going into hysterics over migrants approaching the border doesn’t mean I want open borders. Just because I want to elect representatives who will acknowledge and work with our international neighbors to fight climate change and other global challenges doesn’t make me a “globalist” or whatever the president is calling me these days.

I am as American as can be, and I’m proud of that, but I am not a nationalist. As Albert Einstein said, “Nationalism is an infantile disease.”

If members of the GOP do not take a stand against the president attacking fellow Americans under the guise of nationalism, their legacy is going to be one of rank corruption and blind allegiance to a tiny man so frightened of truth that he had to rip America asunder to maintain power.

https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/letters/2018/10/29/letter-stop-attacking/comments/#twt-comments


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Comments --

Well good luck on your quest. Trump however is more likely to increase the rhetoric, because he is being asked to decrease it. Trump was angry with his staff after Charlottesville because the clarification speech made him look weak in his opinion. It was the right thing to do but Trump came out and doubled down with the many fine people on both sides speech going right back to bad and wrong. One of those many fine nationalists killed someone with a car but doing the right thing was secondary to his own feelings. Trump has no empathy for anyone outside his family and immediate circle of helpers.
Getting Trump to do the right thing because it is right won't happen. He didn't even want to lower the flag to half staff for John McCain. Like I said, Good Luck.


Well he's proven that he won't pass up an opportunity to ballyhoo his latest favorite Republican buddy over pausing to show respect for victims of a shooting. I sometimes wonder if the man had empathy for his own children.


REPUBLICANS have cemented their legacy all right. All for a "tax cut".

I suspect Dear Leader Trump will quit accusing fellow Americans of being "globalists" the day he stops prioritizing political rallies over mass shootings. Not gonna happen any time soon.


GAB IS KICKED OFF ITS’ SERVER AND OTHER PLATFORMS – SEE ALSO THE COMPANION BLOG FOR TODAY CALLED SIMPLY “GAB.” IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THIS SITE HAS HAD A LINKAGE WITH THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN OR THE RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA SITE, “INTERNET RESEARCH AGENCY?" MAYBE SO AND MAYBE NOT, BUT THEY CERTAINLY DO SMELL THE SAME. I WONDER IF MUELLER IS ON THEIR TRAIL? I WONDER IF CONTACT FROM MUELLER’S FBI INVESTIGATION TEAM HAS CAUSED GAB TO BE DROPPED FROM ONE PLATFORM AFTER ANOTHER AFTER IT’S EMERGENCE IN AUGUST OF 2016. IT CERTAINLY HAS BEEN DOING SOMETHING WRONG.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46017529
Pittsburgh shooting: Gab drops offline after attack
OCTOBER 29, 2018 5 hours ago

IMAGE -- Gab was launched in August 2016 and used to use a frog logo

A Twitter-rival used by the man accused of a gun attack on a US synagogue has gone offline after several technology services withdrew support from it.

Gab describes itself as a defender of "free speech and expression" with nearly 800,000 users.

It has faced criticism in the past for providing an outlet for far-right figureheads and conspiracy theorists banned from other social networks.

The service has said it has "zero tolerance" for terrorism and violence.

It has, however, acknowledged that a verified account whose details matched those of the alleged Tree of Life Synagogue shooter had been active on its service.

The account, registered to Robert Bowers, had posted several anti-Semitic messages on the platform. And in a final update had written: "Screw your optics, I'm going in," shortly before the Pittsburgh attack.

Gab said it was "ready and willing to work with law enforcement" and noted that the suspect "also had accounts on other social networks".

It said "high volumes" of criminal activity were present on other social media platforms.

And it specifically criticised Twitter for having hosted posts from anti-Semites and "Isis cells", adding no-one was calling for its competitor's closure.

Even so, some of the technology companies who have severed their relationship with Gab said they were uncomfortable with its behaviour .

RELATED STORIES
Pittsburgh shooting: Survivors relive synagogue ordeal
Gab user's anti-Semitic posts removed
Gab: Free speech haven or alt-right safe space?

Among them is PayPal, which banned the company from using its money-transfer service on Saturday.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Eleven people were killed in Saturday's attack

"When a site is explicitly allowing the perpetuation of hate, violence or discriminatory intolerance, we take immediate and decisive action," PayPal said in a statement.

Internet domain registrar GoDaddy also explained why it had given Gab just 24 hours to find another provider.

"In response to complaints received over the weekend, GoDaddy investigated and discovered numerous instances of content on the site that both promotes and encourages violence against people," a spokesman told BBC News.

Gab has reported that a further three technology companies, which have not publicly commented, had also banned or suspended it:
Samsung-owned Joyent, which provides web-hosting services
Stripe, an online payments processor
Medium, the blogging platform, which Gab had used to publish a statement about the synagogue attack.

In addition, Gab has suggested that Twitter might soon block it.

Image copyrightGAB
Image caption
Gab's website currently shows this message --

"Show the world that your TOS [terms of service] means nothing and your rules are enforced subjectively at will," it posted.

This is not the first time Gab has clashed with others.

Apple and Google have both banned its app from their stores and Microsoft stopped hosting the platform on its Azure cloud computing platform in September.

But Gab has said that it still has "plenty of options, resources and support" after the latest setback and is "working around to clock" to get back online.

Five things to know about Gab –

Critics have described the site as a "haven" for the far-right, since many controversial figures have moved there after being banned from Twitter and Facebook. Among them are conspiracy theorist Alex Jones; the founder of the neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer, Andrew Anglin; and the anti-Islam group Britain First. Gab says it welcomes all speech and members should mute accounts they do not want to see

Not everything is allowed on Gab. Its terms and conditions do not allow direct threats of violence. And founder Andrew Torba has previously blogged disavowing political violence. Posts that break US laws - such as copyright content and images of child abuse - are also not allowed. A small number of Gab users have complained that the platform does not allow cartoon depictions of children in sexual situations. The company has told those people to go "somewhere else"

Gab does not carry advertising. Instead, members can pay for a Pro membership that unlocks several features, including video live-streaming

Apple has never allowed Gab on its App Store, citing pornographic content and hate speech. Gab was available on the Google Play store until August 2017, when Google removed it citing hate speech. The company has produced versions of its app with content filters switched on by default but Apple and Google have not allowed this on their app stores. Gab has described this as Silicon Valley censorship

Gab has faced censorship accusations of its own. In 2017, its web domain registrar ordered it to delete a post mocking Heather Heyer, a woman killed in protest-related violence in Charlottesville. Faced with the threat of losing its web domain, Gab deleted the post and sought a new domain registrar. Its cloud service provider, Microsoft, also ordered it to delete two anti-Semitic posts. However, these were subsequently removed by the writer himself. Gab has said it wants to develop its own decentralised infrastructure so that it can avoid censorship


WHEN I LIVED IN WASHINGTON DC LONG YEARS AGO, MY FRIEND WAS INVOLVED IN A RENT CONTROL ACTION. IN THIS CASE THEY WANT TO CAP RENTS. THAT WOULD BE REALLY GOOD. SANDERS HAS TALKED ABOUT INCOME MAINLY, BUT COST OF LIVING IS CRUCIAL ALSO.

I DO LIKE THE STRESS ON FREE COLLEGE. WE WILL NOT HAVE A WELL-EDUCATED POPULATION AS LONG AS COLLEGE COSTS AS MUCH AS IT DOES. MOST PEOPLE DON’T GO VERY FAR OFF THEIR BASIC MAJOR COURSES, BUT SOME DO AND WILL END UP WITH INCREASED UNDERSTANDING OF PEOPLE AND THINGS; THAT CREATES BETTER CITIZENS, WHO WILL BE MUCH LESS LIKELY TO ELECT A FAR-RIGHT AUTOCRAT WHO ACTIVELY ENCOURAGES GROUP HOSTILITIES. IF ONLY WE HAD HAD FREE COLLEGE FOR THE LAST 50 YEARS!

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Bernie-Sanders-backs-CA-rent-control-measure-13345525.php
Bernie Sanders backs CA rent-control measure, candidate Jovanka Beckles
Photo of Melody Gutierrez
Melody Gutierrez Oct. 29, 2018 Updated: Oct. 29, 2018 4:05 p.m.

3 photographs – Bernie Sanders greeting people

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders followed his stop in the Bay Area over the weekend with endorsements Monday of a state ballot measure that would lift restrictions on residential rent control and a progressive Assembly candidate running against a fellow Democrat for an open East Bay seat.

The independent senator and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate gave thumbs ups to Proposition 10, which polls show is facing longshot odds Nov. 6, and Jovanka Beckles, a Richmond City Council member and youth mental health counselor who is running for an open seat in Assembly District 15, which stretches from north of Richmond into Oakland.

Sanders said Prop. 10 is needed to address the affordable-housing crisis and protect renters from skyrocketing prices.

“Municipalities should have the freedom to implement legislation to deal with the outrageous decline in affordable housing and rising rents,” Sanders said in a statement. “In that regard passing Proposition 10 makes sense to me.”

Under the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act — which the ballot measure seeks to repeal — cities can’t cap rents on any housing built after the law passed in 1995. The restriction extends further back in cities such as San Francisco that had rent control when the law took effect. The law bars cities from capping prices when a unit becomes vacant, allowing landlords to raise rents as much as they like when a tenant leaves.

The Costa-Hawkins law also says cities cannot impose rent control on single-family homes. Under Prop. 10, local governments could decide what kind of rent control is appropriate for their cities.

The Assembly race in which Sanders issued an endorsement features Beckles running against Buffy Wicks, who directed Hillary Clinton’s California presidential campaign in 2016 and worked in Barack Obama’s White House on passing the Affordable Care Act.

Sanders’ endorsement of Beckles came two days after he appeared onstage with her at the Berkeley Community Theater during a rally in which he largely steered clear of state issues and races and focused on attacking President Trump.

“While in Berkeley, I had the chance to meet with Jovanka Beckles, and I was impressed by her commitment to progressive values,” Sanders said Monday. “In the state Assembly, she will fight for Medicare for all, a living wage for all California workers, environmental justice and criminal justice reform.”


ABOUT THE REPORTER –

Melody Gutierrez is the San Francisco Chronicle’s Sacramento bureau chief. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez

Photo of Melody Gutierrez
Melody Gutierrez
Follow Melody on:https://www.facebook.com/SFChronicle/MelodyGutierrez

Melody Gutierrez joined the San Francisco Chronicle in 2013 to cover politics from the Sacramento bureau. Previously, she was a senior writer who covered politics, education and sports for The Sacramento Bee.

With an emphasis on watchdog reporting, she has written investigative stories on pension spiking, high school steroid use, troubles in a school police force and how the state failed to notify a school district that a teacher was barred from foster care parenting due to multiple molestation allegations.

She has also examined the state’s use of segregation cells for prisoners, detailed legislative and legal efforts to curtail "revenge porn" and chronicled the effects of the drought in California.

Past Articles from this Author:
Jerry Brown assails Trump on clean-car standards
Migrant caravan no emergency for Gavin Newsom: He’d pull CA Guard from border
Jerry Brown named chair of Doomsday Clock group



FOX NEWS REALLY DOES A GREAT DEAL OF HARM, BUT THEY GET TO EXPRESS THEIR VIEWS, AS I DO ALSO. THE “CONSERVATIVES” ARE CONSCIOUSLY POISONING THE WATER HOLE WITH WORDS. ONE OF THESE DAYS THIS KIND OF THING WILL BITE THEM BACK BY PRODUCING SO MUCH ILL WILL TOWARD THEM THAT THEY WILL CAUSE MEMBERS OF THEIR OWN BASE TO LEAVE. PERHAPS WE COULD CALL THAT “THE NEW ENLIGHTENMENT.”

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/29/media/pittsburgh-suspect-invasion/index.html
Pittsburgh suspect echoed talking point that dominated Fox News airwaves
By Brian Stelter, CNN Business
Updated 10:01 PM ET, Mon October 29, 2018

(CNN)In the search for answers after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, there is newfound scrutiny on the suspect's social media posts and how his anti-Semitism merged with a hatred of immigrants.

The suspect, Robert Bowers, complained about immigrant "invaders" six days before the shooting.

While there is no such invasion happening, this rhetoric has blanketed right-wing media in relation to the Central American migrant caravan that's been in the news this month.

And Bowers apparently noticed. On October 21, he wrote on Gab, "I have noticed a change in people saying 'illegals' that now say 'invaders'. I like this."

It may never be known where he heard this hateful language. But a review of television and online content shows how "invasion" and "invaders" became a talking point in October -- not just in the darkest corners of the web, but on Fox's prime time shows. The network's rivals CNN and MSNBC used "invasion" in the context of explaining the right-wing narrative.

Within days of the new caravan's formation in Honduras, Fox News hosts and Republican congressmen were using dehumanizing language and casting the migrants as an imminent threat. In reality, the nearest caravan is about 1,000 miles from the nearest US port of entry, and many of the migrants say they want to seek asylum through legal avenues.

On Fox News, the word "invasion" was used in relation to the caravan more than 60 times in October, according to closed captioning transcripts. (This includes repeats of programs.) "Invading" was brought up more than a dozen times.

On Fox Business, the word "invasion" was invoked more than 75 times in October, mostly on Lou Dobbs' program.

Fox's Tucker Carlson referenced an "invasion" as early as October 16.

Eleven days later, on October 27, minutes before entering the Tree of Life synagogue, the suspect wrote another post about "invaders" and said "I'm going in," seemingly linking his anti-immigrant attitudes to his attack on the synagogue.

One of the congregations that rents space at the synagogue, Dor Hadash, reportedly has a partnership with HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which has a long history of helping refugees.

The suspect claimed in his final post on Gab that "HIAS likes to bring in invaders that kill our people."

It is unknown how the suspect heard about HIAS. The group received only a tiny bit of national news coverage in the weeks leading up to the shooting, according to Google News search results.

But the imagined threat posed by the migrant caravan was all over the news. And President Trump tried to keep it that way, by repeatedly tweeting about and talking about the caravan. On October 18, he cast the migrant issue as a midterm election opportunity for the GOP, saying "this will be an election of Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order and common sense."

The right-wing rhetoric was sometimes accompanied by accusations that Democrats were funding or supporting the caravan.

Social media sites were clogged with conspiracy theories along these lines, and some of the theories even parroted anti-Semitic tropes.

Billionaire George Soros was brought up by GOP stalwarts like Rep. Matt Gaetz, who tweeted a video on October 17 and said it showed someone in Honduras "giving cash 2 women & children 2 join the caravan & storm the US border @ election time. Soros? US-backed NGOs? Time to investigate the source!"

Soros is Jewish and a favorite boogeyman of the far-right -- two things that are not always a coincidence.

In the comment sections on YouTube and other sites, anonymous users frequently went even further than Fox News' TV stars.

Here's just one example from YouTube: "This is an invading army and invasive species, this assault on America must be stopped by any means necessary!"

Conservative websites also employed the term "invasion" liberally.

"This is an invasion. There's no other way to describe it," Glenn Beck wrote on his own website on October 23.

But few conservative news sources can rival Fox News' reach. The millions of viewers who tuned to its prime time programs heard guests on Fox also use words like "invaders" and "mob."

On October 19, Fox contributor Newt Gingrich said "this is an invasion. This is an act of attacking the United States' sovereignty." He became one of the loudest voices repeating the term "invasion" on TV and online.

"We have to treat this as an invasion," Rep. Steve Scalise said on Laura Ingraham's show on October 23.

"It's not a caravan, it's an invasion," Tomi Lahren said the next day on Fox.

Afternoon anchor Shep Smith, a lone Fox voice who spoke out against the rhetoric used by his colleagues, told viewers on October 23, "The president has called it an ASSAULT on the US border. It is absolutely not."

On his phone, he read a tweet from a viewer who told him, "Sorry, Shep. We are not falling for your fake story. This is an invasion."

Smith tried to tell her that Trump was preying on her fears.

Later in the day, the fear-mongering continued on Fox. Ingraham's 10 p.m. monologue was titled "leftists aiding and abetting an invasion." She referred to the migrants as "this invading horde."

In the wake of the Pittsburgh massacre, some observers have pinned the hate crime on right wing rhetoric -- and the president directly.

Writing for The Atlantic, Adam Serwer asserted that "Trump's Caravan Hysteria Led to This."

The president apparently isn't second guessing himself. On Monday, he used the word "invasion" for the first time in a tweet to describe the caravan.

"This is an invasion of our Country," he wrote, "and our Military is waiting for you!"