Sunday, October 28, 2018
DOCUMENTING HATE IN THE USA AND IN OUR MILITARY 2018
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
OCTOBER 27, 2018
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/
Watch full episodes of FRONTLINE, the PBS documentary series, and explore news investigations from FRONTLINE's award-winning journalism team.
THE FILM – “DOCUMENTING HATE: CHARLOTTESVILLE”
PRODUCERS A.C. THOMPSON AND KARIM HAJJ, WGBH/FRONTLINE
TODAY’S NEWS ARTICLE ON THE AFTERMATH OF THE RIGHTIST GATHERING IN CHARLOTTESVILLE IS IN MY REGULAR BLOG FOR TODAY, BUT I WANTED TO FEATURE MORE ON THE SUBJECT. WHY DID OUR POLICE FAIL TO INTERVENE? IS IT COWARDICE OR SYMPATHY WITH THE NEO-NAZIS, A VERSION OF THE “BLUE FLU, PERHAPS? WE MUST PONDER SUCH THINGS AS WE WORK AGAINST THE RIGHTIST POLITICIANS WHO ARE BEHIND THIS UPSURGE OF FAR RIGHT PHILOSOPHY.
AT THE TIME THAT THE DISTURBING EVENTS AT CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, POPPED UP IN FRONT OF MY EYES ON THE NEWS, I WAS STARTLED. I HAD KNOWN THAT RIGHTISTS WERE AFOOT IN THE FORM OF MILITIAS, A FEW REMAINING KKK MEMBERS, AND MANY SIMPLE-MINDED MACHO DOOFUSES, BUT NOT “THE ALT-RIGHT,” OR A LARGE NUMBER OF ACTUAL NEO-NAZIS. I CERTAINLY DIDN’T EXPECT TO SEE THEM WITH THEIR WELL-KNOWN TORCHES WALKING IN FORMATION AND CHANTING.
THE BEST WAY TO DESCRIBE HOW I FELT AT THE SIGHT IS TO USE AN OLD-FASHIONED TERM – “MY HEART SANK.” IT BECAME CLEAR TO ME THAT AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL HAS A TERMINAL DISEASE IF WE DON’T GET A HANDLE ON IT. OUR COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED BY MEN WHOSE GOALS WERE LOFTY, WHOSE EDUCATION WAS MUCH BETTER THAN OURS TODAY. THE RESULT WAS A GOOD PRODUCT. NOW OUR EDUCATION IS DEGRADED OVERALL, OUR MORAL TRAINING IS MINIMAL, AND THE INBORN COMPETITIVENESS HAS RESULTED IN MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL TRIBALISM.
THE MORE I LOOK INTO IT, THOUGH, I FIND THAT THOSE PEOPLE ARE RECEIVING PLENTY OF FLAK FROM AMERICANS OF ALL STRIPES. IN THIS COUNTRY OUR LAWS ARE WRITTEN TO PROTECT THE RIGHT TO FREE THOUGHT, SO I WILL GIVE THEM THEIR FREE SPACE IN WHICH TO BE DEAD WRONG. MOST OF US DO NOT MARCH DOWN THE STREET AND SHOUT STRANGE NAZI SLOGANS LIKE “BLOOD AND SOIL.” THE “BLOOD” MEANS THAT OH-SO-PURE GERMAN NORDIC BLOOD, AND THE SOIL IS THE SOIL OF THEIR HOME COUNTRY WHERE THEY TOIL TO RAISE THEIR CROPS WHERE THEIR FOREFATHERS LIVED BEFORE THEM.
THAT’S ALL VERY LOVELY, BUT IT IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE EXCUSE TO ABUSE ANYONE OF ANY TYPE OR SKIN COLOR IN ANY WAY. YES, THIS IS “THEIR” AMERICA, BUT IT’S MINE, TOO, AND EVERYONE ELSE’S. WE ARE A TRUE “MELTING POT,” AND THAT’S A GOOD THING. THAT DOESN’T MAKE ME ANGRY. IT MAKES ME HAPPY. IT MAKES ME THINK I’M PART OF SOMETHING BENIGN. I AM GOING TO BE WATCHING THEM, THOUGH, AND WRITING ABOUT THEIR ACTIVITIES WHATEVER THREAT THEY SEEM TO POSE. IF OUR CURRENT RIGHTISTS IN THE GOVERNMENT AT ALL LEVELS DON’T BECOME MORE ACTIVE AND OVERT, I WILL FEEL REASONABLY SAFE. IF THAT ISN’T THE CASE, I WILL LOOK TO THE POSSIBILITIES OF GROUP ACTION AGAINST THEM.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/4-members-of-violent-white-supremacist-group-face-riot-charges-federal-authorities-say/
4 Members of Violent White Supremacist Group Face Riot Charges, Federal Authorities Say
OCTOBER 24, 2018 / by A.C. THOMPSON ProPublica
PHOTOGRAPH -- A still from "Documenting Hate: Charlottesville" that pictures Robert Rundo on the right.
Federal authorities announced riot charges against four members of the Rise Above Movement, a violent white supremacist group based in California. The charges relate to assaults carried out at protest rallies in California and Charlottesville, Virginia.
The charges against four men — Robert Rundo, Robert Boman, Tyler Laube and Aaron Eason — come weeks after four other Rise Above Movement members or associates were indicted on riot charges in Virginia, accused of engaging in violent assaults during the infamous “Unite the Right” rally in the summer of 2017. Only Rundo, Boman and Laube had been arrested as of Wednesday afternoon.
The four men indicted in Virginia have not entered pleas in the case.
FRONTLINE and ProPublica have been reporting on the Rise Above Movement since late 2017, and the U.S. attorney in Virginia noted that work.
The government’s accusations, made public on Wednesday against the four men, are laid out in a criminal complaint signed by an FBI agent who specializes in domestic terrorist groups.
“Through my training and experience,” the agent wrote, “I am familiar with terrorist organizations’ methods of operations, including their use of social media to communicate regarding coordination of strategic ideological goals, recruit and radicalize individuals, and coordinate violent extremist activities.”
The complaint then asserts that the four men, as part of the Rise Above Movement, planned and carried out attacks in three California cities as well as Charlottesville in 2017.
“The defendants used the Internet to coordinate combat training in preparation for the events,” the complaint states, “to arrange travel to the events, to coordinate attendance at the events, and to celebrate their acts of violence in order to recruit members for future events.”
Rundo, one of the men arrested this week, had been identified by FRONTLINE and ProPublica as the founder of the group. He is a native of New York City who had deepened his white supremacist leanings during a stint in state prison in New York.
The complaint asserts that investigators used the men’s social media and private communications, as well as videos and other material created by the group itself, to document specific acts of violence in Huntington Beach, San Bernardino and Berkeley, all in California, as well as Charlottesville.
In Huntington Beach, for instance, Laube is accused of assaulting a journalist at the rally; Rundo and Boman are also identified as having punched, kicked or otherwise set upon people at the rally on March 25, 2017.
It was not clear on Wednesday if the four men charged most recently had retained lawyers, and they could not quickly be reached for comment.
Documenting Hate logo
This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between ProPublica and FRONTLINE that includes documentaries beginning with Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, which aired on PBS in August 2018, and the upcoming film Documenting Hate: New American Nazis, which will air Tuesday, Nov. 20.
If you’ve witnessed or experienced hate crimes, harassment or incidents of bias, you can use this form to send information to FRONTLINE, ProPublica and other partners in the Documenting Hate project.
RELATED STORIES
Four Men Arrested Over Unrest During 2017 “Unite the Right” Rally
OCTOBER 2, 2018
Marines Move to Tackle Racial Extremists in the Corps
AUGUST 30, 2018
How We Identified White Supremacists After Charlottesville
AUGUST 7, 2018
Tonight on FRONTLINE: "Documenting Hate: Charlottesville"
AUGUST 7, 2018
Documenting Hate: Charlottesville
FILM:
Documenting Hate: Charlottesville
I THINK WE NEED A PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST TO SPOT INCIPIENT OR WELL-DEVELOPED SADISM. THE POLICE DEPARTMENTS SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO USE IT IN THEIR HIRING, AND THEN USE IT ON SUSPECTS. THIS PHENOMENON OF "FIGHT CLUBS" IS PRETTY SICK IN MY VIEW.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/four-men-arrested-over-unrest-during-2017-unite-the-right-rally/
Four Men Arrested Over Unrest During 2017 “Unite the Right” Rally
In partnership with:
OCTOBER 2, 2018 / by RAHIMA NASA ProPublica
This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between ProPublica and FRONTLINE that includes documentaries beginning with Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, which aired on PBS in August 2018, and the upcoming film Documenting Hate: New American Nazis, which will air Tuesday, Nov. 20.
If you’ve witnessed or experienced hate crimes, harassment or incidents of bias, you can use this form to send information to FRONTLINE, ProPublica and other partners in the Documenting Hate project.
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced they had arrested four members or associates of the Rise Above Movement*, a white supremacist group, over their alleged role in the infamous 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The four men were charged with having traveled to Charlottesville with the aim of inciting a riot and conspiracy to incite a riot, and prosecutors submitted an array of photographs and videos capturing the men pummeling and choking protesters over two days.
If convicted, the men — Benjamin Drake Daley, 25, of Redondo Beach, California; Thomas Walter Gillen, 34, of Redondo Beach; Michael Paul Miselis, 29, of Lawndale, California; and Cole Evan White, 24, of Clayton, California — could face five years in prison for each of two federal riot charges. White has been described as an associate of the group, not a member.
Most of the men charged on Tuesday have been the subject of reporting by ProPublica and FRONTLINE over the last year. RAM, based in Southern California, claimed more than 50 members in 2017 and an overriding purpose: physically attacking its ideological foes. Its members spend weekends training in boxing and other martial arts, and they have boasted publicly of their violence during rallies — not just in Charlottesville, but in the California cities of Huntington Beach, San Bernardino and Berkeley, as well. Many of the altercations have been captured on video.
The charges announced Tuesday are among a number of prosecutions to stem from the notorious Charlottesville gathering that resulted in two days of mayhem and the death of a young anti-racism activist. The charges brought today are unrelated to the death.
Local prosecutors have also brought charges against a handful of other participants in the Charlottesville rally, successfully convicting several men, including activists on both sides of the clashes. And federal authorities have indicted neo-Nazi James Alex Fields, the man accused of killing counterprotester Heather Heyer and injuring more than two dozen others, on some 30 charges, including 28 counts of hate crime.
“This case should serve as another example of the Department of Justice’s commitment to protecting the life, liberty and civil rights of all our citizens,” U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen said Tuesday. “Any individual who has or plans to travel to this district with the intent to engage in acts of violence will be prosecuted and held accountable for those actions.”
Cullen cited ProPublica and FRONTLINE’s reporting during a news conference Tuesday.
“The news organization ProPublica did in my view a fantastic job in piecing together some of the organized activities that occurred on Aug. 11 and Aug. 12, and the work that they did was certainly reviewed by our office as a starting point to understand a little bit about this particular group,” he said.
One of those arrested, Michael Miselis, was a doctoral student at U.C.L.A., with a U.S. government security clearance to work on sensitive research for a prominent defense contractor. He was let go by the contractor, Northrop Grumman, after ProPublica and FRONTLINE identified him as a RAM member who had attacked people in Charlottesville. At the time, Miselis denied involvement in the violent weekend two summers ago.
RAM was founded in early 2017 by Robert Rundo, a Queens, New York, native who served an 18-month prison sentence for stabbing a rival gang member six times during a 2009 street fight. The group’s core membership is small — 15 to 20 young men, according to interviews and a review of court records. Before joining RAM, several members spent time in jail or state prison on serious felony charges including assault, robbery, and gun and knife offenses. Daley served seven days in jail for carrying a concealed snub-nosed revolver. Another RAM member served a prison term for stabbing a Latino man five times in a 2009 gang assault.
A RAM recruiting video posted to YouTube and Vimeo highlights the organization’s heavy emphasis on violence, cutting between choppy footage of RAM members brawling at public events and carefully shot scenes of them sharpening their boxing skills and doing push-ups during group workout sessions.
RAM members are frequently praised as heroes on some white supremacist media outlets.
The group portrays itself as a defense force for a white Western civilization under assault by Jews, Muslims and brown-skinned immigrants from south of the Rio Grande. At rallies, members have waved red-and-white crusader flags and carried signs saying “Rapefugees Not Welcome” and “Da Goyim Know,” an anti-Semitic slogan meant to highlight a supposed conspiracy by Jews to control the globe and subjugate non-Jews. One RAM banner, which depicts knights on horseback chasing after Muslims, reads “Islamists Out!”
ProPublica interviewed one RAM leader last year on the condition of anonymity. He said the gang came together organically. It started when he encountered a few other guys with similar political beliefs, including two active-duty U.S. Marines, while exercising at different gyms in Southern California. They all liked President Donald Trump but didn’t think his agenda went far enough.
On social media channels, RAM members regularly espouse blatantly anti-Semitic and racist views. They have repeatedly been booted from Instagram and Twitter for offensive postings.
This year, four RAM members attended to a massive neo-Nazi rally in Germany, which was held on Hitler’s birthday, uploading photos and videos from the trip to social media.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court Tuesday cited the group’s racist and anti-Semitic postings online in support of the arrests.
Prosecutors said the four men will be brought to Virginia next week to be arraigned on the charges.
It was not clear on Tuesday whether the men had yet retained lawyers.
“This wasn’t in our view the lawful exercise of First Amendment rights,” Cullen said. “These guys came to Charlottesville to commit violent acts, and this wasn’t the first time they’ve done it.”
Cullen said that charging the men with inciting a riot and conspiracy to incite a riot was more appropriate and likely effective than arresting them on hate crime charges.
Cullen said there are other ongoing investigations, but he would not say more about them.
There’s a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office who has done nothing else but look into these investigations since Aug. 12, according to Cullen.
“We’re not finished,” Cullen said. “We’re going to continue these investigations until we reach a point where we’re satisfied that our federal interests have been vindicated.”
RISE ABOVE MOVEMENT* OR RAM –
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/rise-above-movement
RISE ABOVE MOVEMENT
The “Rise Above Movement,” which claims to have about 50 members, is an overtly racist, violent right-wing fight club that attends rallies around the country to do open combat with counter-protesters.
In Its Own Words
“We had them completely surrounded. I hit like 5 people.”
— RAM member Benjamin Drake Daley, 25, of Redondo Beach, California, referring to the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 in a social media chat on Aug. 11, 2017
“Death to antifa!”
— RAM member Robert Boman on April 15, 2017, in Berkeley, California.
Background
The “Rise Above Movement” is a Southern California-based racist fight club that first rose to prominence on the racist “alt-right” rally scene in 2017 and is often photographed in bloody confrontations with protesters.
In October 2017, the website ProPublica released an in-depth investigation that supplied most of the details now known about RAM’s activities. The report identified RAM leadership and cataloged violence perpetrated by the group at four different rallies in 2017. ProPublica’s investigation revealed that many of the group’s leaders have felonies on their records, and that RAM has recruited members from Hammerskin Nation, the largest skinhead gang in the U.S.
RAM trains members in mixed martial arts, skills they put to use assaulting people at rallies.
In an interview with ProPublica’s reporter, an anonymous RAM leader said the group was not racist. It’s not uncommon for a group like this to make that claim, but in RAM’s case it rings particularly hollow. Members are on video referencing David Lane’s neo-Nazi motto the “14 Words,” and just a sample of leaders’ social-media accounts reveals ugly, racist memes and posts riddled with bigoted sentiments and racial slurs.
Their recruitment strategy, including promotional videos featuring their workout and training routines, is targeted toward men who find the idea of a real-world fight club appealing. White supremacy supplies the justification for violence, but ultimately this group has been about street fighting. They’ve won praise from far-right media outlets that applaud the zeal with which they assault political opponents.
On Oct. 2, 2018, U.S. Attorney Thomas Cullen, whose district includes Charlottesville, Virginia, called the group antisemitic and violent in announcing charges against RAM members 25-year-old Benjamin Drake Daley of Redondo Beach, California, 34-year-old Walter Gillen of Redondo Beach, California, Michael Paul Miselis, a 29-year-old Lawndale, California resident, and 24-year-old Cole Evan White of Clayton, California.
“In our view, they were essentially serial rioters,” Cullen said during a press conference at the federal courthouse that stands only a few blocks from where the Aug. 11-12, 2017, rally turned deadly.
According to a Northern California Anti-Racist Action (NoCARA) article:
... the Rise Above Movement, is a loose collective of violent neo-Nazis and fascists from Southern California that’s organized and trains primarily to engage in fighting and violence at political rallies. They have been a central participant in the recent wave of far-Right protest movements in California during the first half of 2017 which have attempted to mobilize a broad range of right-wing constituents under the banners of protecting so-called 'free speech,' unyielding support for Trump, and antipathy toward Muslims, immigrants and other oppressed groups.
The group is inspired by identitarian movements in Europe and is trying to bring the philosophies and violent tactics to the United States.
Online, RAM pitches itself as a positive influence on recruits and members, saying it encourages an “active lifestyle and common values” among young people.
An article published at www.nocara.blackblogs.org and cited by prosecutors in the Charlottesville charging documents describes RAM as “mostly equal parts Identity Evropa’s flaccid identitarian discourse (itself inspired by fascist organizations like Generation Identity from France) and the fetishization of masculinity, physical fitness, and violence mixed with the shallow anti-corporate and anti-consumerist themes of the film Fight Club.”
The group meets regularly in Southern California parks and trains in physical fitness, boxing and other fighting techniques.
Photos posted on RAM’s social-media accounts frequently show members working out and sparring with each other.
But the workouts are more than just for physical fitness, the FBI and federal prosecutors say.
In the charging documents for the four men arrested Tuesday, prosecutors said RAM actively seeks out violence aimed at people they believe are political opponents and counter-protesters.
A man the FBI identified as Gillen is shown in one picture attacking a counter-protester at a rally in Berkeley, California, in 2017.
Cullen, the Virginia prosecutor, said that’s all part of RAM’s core motivation — seeking out opportunities to commit violent acts.
“This is a group that aggressively subscribes to an antisemitic, racist ideology,” Cullen said. “These guys came to Charlottesville to commit violent acts.”
Editor's note: An earlier version of this profile failed to properly quote and attribute information first reported by Northern California Anti-Racist Action (NoCARA). We regret the error and apologize to NoCARA for not properly citing their work.
Recent News
Far-right skinheads join Proud Boys in assaulting protesters in New York City following Gavin McInnes event
Four members of Rise Above Movement indicted in Charlottesville, one went to Europe to meet with white supremacist groups before 'Unite the Right'
Charlottesville rioting defendant linked to earlier violence in California
THE MARINES ARE PROBABLY THE MOST MACHO OF ALL THE ARMED SERVICES, OR AT ANY RATE THAT IS MY IMPRESSION. THE NAVY IS ALSO SIMILAR, IN THEIR SUPER-SEXUALIZED IMAGE. THEN THERE IS THE DISGUSTING AND HIGHLY ABUSIVE “TAILHOOK* SCANDAL.” THAT TERM SOUNDS PRETTY SUGGESTIVE IN ITSELF. THERE IS A LEGITIMATE ORGANIZATION USING THE TERM. SEE THESE TWO SITES FOR MORE ON WHAT A TAILHOOK IS AND HOW IT IS USED. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailhook_scandal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailhook
WHAT THE MOST CORRUPT GROUPS I CAN THINK OF HAVE IN COMMON IS AN EXAGGERATION OF MASCULINITY INTO A MENTAL ATTITUDE OF BORDERLINE CRIMINALITY. IT IS MADE WORSE BY A LOW INTELLIGENCE. SUCH MEN ARE MUCH MORE LIKELY TO PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY ABUSE WOMEN ON GENDER GROUNDS OR EVEN COMMIT CRIMES. I THINK THE PROBLEM IS THAT THEY ARE ENCOURAGED AND EVEN PUSHED TO SHOW HOW MASCULINE THEY ARE, TO THE EXCLUSION OF ANYTHING RESEMBLING SENSITIVITY AND EMPATHY.
WHEN THAT GETS LINKED MENTALLY WITH A STRONG CULTURAL PATRIOTISM, WE GET A MIXTURE OF TRAITS THAT ARE LIKE DYNAMITE, ESPECIALLY WITH SOME MENTAL INSTABILITY AND A DRUG SUCH AS ALCOHOL INVOLVED. AT LEAST THE MARINES, IN THIS ARTICLE, ARE WORKING TO GET THOSE DANGEROUS MEN OUT OF THEIR RANKS. READ THE WORDS OF MAJ. BRIAN BLOCK. WITHOUT BEING ANY LESS A MAN, HE HAS SOME GOOD SENSE.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/marines-move-to-tackle-racial-extremists-in-the-corps/
Marines Move to Tackle Racial Extremists in the Corps
AUGUST 30, 2018 / by RAHIMA NASA ProPublica
This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between ProPublica and FRONTLINE that includes documentaries beginning with Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, which aired on PBS in August 2018.
If you’ve witnessed or experienced hate crimes, harassment or incidents of bias, you can use this form to send information to FRONTLINE, ProPublica and other partners in the Documenting Hate project.
The United States Marine Corps has taken steps to combat racial extremists in its ranks, issuing an updated order emphasizing that participation in white supremacist and other groups is prohibited and encouraging service members to report fellow Marines involved with such groups.
The actions come after an active-duty Marine was documented taking part in last year’s deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and two others were arrested after hanging a racist banner off a building in North Carolina.
“The order reaffirms the Marine Corps’ commitment to maintaining a culture of dignity, respect and trust in which all members of the organization are afforded equal opportunity to achieve their full potential based solely upon individual merit, fitness, intellect and ability,” Maj. Brian Block, a Marine spokesman, said.
A ProPublica and FRONTLINE investigation this year revealed that Vasillios G. Pistolis, a Marine based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, had engaged in a series of assaults during the Charlottesville rally. Pistolis, who had been a member of the white extremist group known as Atomwaffen Division, was subsequently subjected to a court-martial and forced from the Corps. Pistolis told ProPublica and Frontline that he had left the racist group and that he had not been present in Charlottesville. However, there are photographs, video and text messages that make clear he was indeed there.
Last year, the Marine Corps Times reported that Staff Sgt. Joseph Manning and Sgt. Michael Chesny pleaded guilty to trespassing charges for hanging a banner with a white power slogan from a building in Graham, North Carolina, in May 2017. The two Marines have since been “administratively separated” from the organization, Block confirmed.
Like every branch of service, the Marine Corps has regulations that bar its members from participating in racial extremist groups, but the updated policy clarifies language on prohibited conduct, chiefly by explicitly identifying “supremacist” activity as forbidden. It also consolidates many previous orders, a large number of which haven’t been updated in years, and aims to tighten accountability when rules of conduct are violated. The updated policy encourages service members who see their peers engaging in prohibited behavior to report them through various channels.
Pete Simi, co-author of the book American Swastika and an associate professor at Chapman University in California who has studied extremist groups for the last 20 years, said, “The order is significant only if there is a plan to both root out and prevent folks from taking part in extremist activity.”
The amended order isn’t part of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the federal law that defines criminal offenses under the U.S. military’s legal system.
“As an order, violation of the prohibited activities and conduct is punishable under the UCMJ, but this is not in and of itself a change to the UCMJ,” Block said.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-we-identified-white-supremacists-after-charlottesville/
How We Identified White Supremacists After Charlottesville
AUGUST 7, 2018 / by LEILA MILLER Tow Journalism Fellow, FRONTLINE/Columbia Journalism School Fellowships
The Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 was the largest public gathering of white supremacists in a generation. Dozens were injured, and it ended in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, a counter-protester who was killed after a car crashed into demonstrators.
The violence did not come out of nowhere. It followed a series of increasingly bloody rallies in California, New York City, and even Charlottesville. While city and state officials in Virginia had prepared by mobilizing 1,000 first responders, law enforcement largely stayed back while chaos unfolded.
In Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate how white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups have been moving from the fringes into mainstream culture. We have worked to identify white supremacists who engaged in violence at these rallies, and our reporting has revealed that one participant at Charlottesville, Vasillios Pistolis, was an active-duty Marine, and another, Michael Miselis, worked for a major defense contractor and held a U.S. government security clearance.
Producers A.C. Thompson and Karim Hajj spoke to FRONTLINE about the film, describing what it was like to cover the violence in Charlottesville, how they identified white supremacists, and their response to those who view their work as unfairly exposing people’s private identities — a practice called “doxxing.”
The Unite the Right rally began the morning of August 12. Many white supremacists wore helmets and carried shields and clubs, and they were confronted by counter-protesters. How did you plan for this rally and what was it like to be there?
Hajj: The word on the street was that it was going to be pretty unprecedented. It was organized months and months and months in advance. All sorts of neo-Nazi, fascist groups were going to be showing up, and that element of it made it pretty uncertain. When we were walking into it we really didn’t know exactly what to expect, because in recent memory there hadn’t really been a gathering like this of these particular groups of this size.
Traditionally, what you have in rallies like this is some sort of erected impromptu fencing with a line of police officers, and the officers are separating the protesters from the counter-protesters, and in an ideal world, preventing them from engaging in violence with one another. In Charlottesville, that wasn’t the case at all. What was happening was that the park itself was intended as the rally site, and the white supremacists were marching into the park in long lines and in groups. In order to get into the park, they were marching directly into crowds of counter-protesters. That meant that the whole scene was very chaotic.
The film describes how a group of white supremacists pushed into counter-protesters while police looked on. Later, white supremacists beat up a protester named DeAndre Harris [a black man – see washington post below] in a parking garage next to a police station. Still, police did not intervene. Why did law enforcement stand back?
Thompson: I think for us at the time it was a little bit baffling. What we had seen up until that moment was a steady escalation of political violence at these events from coast to coast. Just massive melees and altercations as you had extreme right and fascist rally-goers clashing with anti-fascists and liberal and left counter-protesters. We had seen this over and over and over again. We were a little bit baffled that day why the police hadn’t learned from the lessons of other cities, and why they hadn’t actually even learned from the lessons of their own town where they had two previous white supremacist rallies in recent months.
The city commissioned an investigation after the rally. The investigators heard from two witnesses close to Charlottesville police chief Al Thomas on August 12th: his personal assistant and a police captain. Both witnesses reported hearing Thomas saying that he wanted to “let them fight” because “it will make it easier to declare an unlawful assembly.” For his part, Thomas — who has since retired — offered a somewhat different story: he said he wanted to wait to “see how things played out” before dispersing the clashing crowds.
City and state officials had mobilized 1,000 first responders before the rally. They knew this was coming.
Thompson: I would say that’s one of the most stunning things to come out of the Charlottesville rally and violence. You had Virginia national guard there. You had all kinds of emergency medical personnel. You had Virginia state police. You had the Charlottesville police. They had been planning for months, and they had tons of personnel. The idea that there were not enough law enforcement and emergency personnel to deal with the situation effectively, I believe, is wrong. What is clear is that the planning was insufficient. They didn’t fully take into account how dangerous and how violent things might become.
You looked into a neo-Nazi group called Atomwaffen. How aggressively is law enforcement — at the federal or local level — investigating these groups?
Thompson: Our sense from the reporting that we’re doing is that law enforcement, at least at the federal level, is quite interested in many of these groups, and that they are investigating now.
Hajj: What the FBI will tell you is that they are severely limited, and correctly so, in their ability to police any kind of speech. They have to be very careful not to investigate groups purely for their political orientation. Their only law enforcement mandate is to step in when that speech crosses the line into credible threats of violence. One of the things we’ve heard from law enforcement is actually that these groups are becoming particularly adept at framing their communications both as political speech and also as self-defense.
In the film, a former Orange County probation officer who worked with white supremacists tells you that these groups are moving into the mainstream culture. Members of the Rise Above Movement, for example, have bragged publicly of their violence during protests in California. Why are they leaving the fringes?
Thompson: What we’ve seen over the last couple of years is that these groups have been emboldened and inspired by the Trump presidency, the Trump campaign. When we talk to them, they say that they view him, the president, as an inspiration, as a leader, as a fellow traveler, as someone that at least tacitly supports their movement. The president has said that he doesn’t like or support the neo-Nazis and white supremacists. But they are clearly energized by his leadership.
You identify members of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups that participated in these violent protests. How did you decide who to focus on?
Thompson: We weren’t interested so much in people that just showed up and exercised their First Amendment right and left. We were interested in people who appeared to be engaged in criminal activity. I think what we wanted to do was understand who these people were, what they were doing, and what their connections were to more mainstream institutions.
There’s a lot of reporters covering this subject, and what they do is they go to the leaders of these groups and say “Hey, Richard Spencer [president of the alt-right National Policy Institute], what do you have to say today?” Or they say, “Hey, Matthew Heimbach [leader of the white nationalist Traditionalist Worker Party] what do you have to say today?” They talk to these figureheads of the movement and basically give them a platform to discuss their politics. We weren’t interested in that. We were interested in the people who were sort of staying out of the limelight and staying out of the media spotlight and really engaging in what seemed to be violent behaviors.
Some of the people who you have identified have suffered serious consequences. Michael Miselis, who worked for a major defense contractor, lost his job after you wrote about his involvement in Charlottesville, and the Marines court-martialed and ultimately dismissed Vasillios Pistolis from the Corps after you identified him as a white supremacist. What were you trying to achieve by revealing their backgrounds?
Hajj: Our interest really in identifying these individuals is a matter of spreading the information in the public interest. We’re not interested in doing the job of police officers. The police still need to complete their investigations and find the individuals that are responsible and bring them to justice, as is their mandate. Ours is really to collect as much information on these individuals as possible, who constitute a new front in this movement, which in it of itself is newsworthy, and to put that information out into the world.
There’s been a lot of debate about what it means to “doxx” members of white supremacist groups by revealing their identities. Some might say that you’re doxxing people unfairly and it equates to harassment. What do you say to that?
Hajj: When someone is doxxed, their information is posted online, oftentimes their family’s information is posted online. Personal identifying information that goes far beyond their name – their address, their phone number, their Social Security number, their credit card information – things like that are all posted on the internet with the intent to harass the individual.
What we do is really just public interest reporting. To the extent that we might name the individual or we might reach out to an employer for comment, that work is limited to the way that that individual intersects with the public interest. In the case of Michael Miselis, if you’re an individual working for a large defense contractor with a security clearance, or in the case of Vasillios Pistolis, if you’re an active-duty United States Marine, these are institutions, and the public has the right to ask questions of these institutions: “What are you doing about these individuals who have engaged in violent activity?”
We are very careful and very judicious about who we include in the stories, and the bar is very, very high. We need to have a level of certainty in order to move forward with any kind of published article, and that means multiple sources confirming, multiple sources of video and photo evidence, and so I would really describe what we do as totally distinct from doxxing.
You’ve identified current or former members of the U.S. military who have been in Atomwaffen. Is the Department of Defense screening members effectively for extremist activity?
Hajj: We have reached out to people at the Department of Defense and the Marine Corps specifically to ask what activities they are engaged in in terms of identifying active-duty members who might be members of white supremacist organizations. Their response broadly has been, “This is not a widespread issue. This is an issue we are concerned about at sort of a unit-to-unit or individual basis, but it is not something we view as systemic…” But we have another film coming out in October, and we’ll be looking at that issue substantially over the course of that film.
We’re coming up on the anniversary of Charlottesville. Has that protest affected measures that law enforcement have taken to prevent violence, and how are cities preparing for protests around the anniversary?
Hajj: I would say that Charlottesville was a wake-up call for a lot of people, including law enforcement on the ground in Charlottesville and in the state of Virginia, and also nationally. In the aftermath of the rally, quite a few other rallies which had been planned and promoted by the white supremacist groups that attended were canceled, were modified. The numbers have generally speaking been small. That is not a trend that we expect to continue.
We know from reports that the city [Charlottesville] is actively preparing for any kind of anniversary activity. Jason Kessler, the organizer of the rally, has withdrawn his application for a permit to hold a rally in the city of Charlottesville itself and is instead planning on holding a rally in Washington D.C. on the day of the anniversary. Washington D.C. is a very large city with quite a bit more experience dealing with large protests, and so we expect that the law enforcement response will reflect that.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/local/video-shows-attack-on-black-man-at-unite-the-right-rally-in-charlottesville/2017/08/31/c821702e-8e64-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_video.html -- video no longer available 10/27/18
Former FBI agent Mike German tells Thompson he could see it building: “This was not just predictable, but predicted.”
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/tonight-on-frontline-documenting-hate-charlottesville/
Tonight on FRONTLINE: “Documenting Hate: Charlottesville”
AUGUST 7, 2018 / by RANEY ARONSON-RATH
One year ago this weekend, white supremacists and neo-Nazis converged on Charlottesville, Virginia. Our correspondent, A.C. Thompson, was there, and as he describes it, the rally that day quickly became a “crime scene.”
For the past year, Thompson, who is an investigative reporter for ProPublica, has been methodically trying to understand that crime: identifying the groups and the people who carried out the racist violence.
Tonight, in Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, we’ll bring you the results of that reporting journey. It’s a disturbing, important work of accountability journalism and skilled filmmaking, undertaken by Thompson, director Richard Rowley, and producer Karim Hajj, who was also there that weekend, camera rolling.
Some truly groundbreaking reporting has gone into this film, which is part of an ongoing partnership with ProPublica. Thompson follows a trail of court records, social media posts and videos to two white supremacist groups who participated in the rally, to an active-duty Marine, and to a PhD candidate and employee of a major defense contractor – both of whom were captured in videos engaging in violence. He also examines the failures of law enforcement to prevent the bloodshed, despite warnings from federal authorities.
The film traces a pattern of extremist violence that led up to Charlottesville. Former FBI agent Mike German tells Thompson he could see it building: “This was not just predictable, but predicted.”
After confronting some of the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who participated in the Charlottesville violence and shedding light on their groups, Thompson says at the end of the film that “this story is far from over.” And he is right. This is just the first film in a series from FRONTLINE and ProPublica on this subject; the next one – America’s New Nazis – will air later this year.
Don’t miss Documenting Hate: Charlottesville tonight at 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m. CST on PBS (check local listings) or online, and visit our partners at ProPublica.org to read related reporting.
Raney Aronson-Rath
FRONTLINE Executive Producer
Friday, October 26, 2018
OCTOBER 26, 2018
NEWS AND VIEWS
WELL, I KNEW THIS WAS COMING JUST BY THE COMEDY OF ERRORS THAT HAS CAUSED SO MUCH AGONY AMONG MEXICAN FAMILIES SINCE THIS STORY FIRST BURST OPEN. SEEING IT ON PAPER, THOUGH, IT IS SHOCKING. I WISH TRUMP HIMSELF HAD BEEN INCLUDED HERE, BUT OF COURSE NOT. STILL, WHAT DID HE KNOW, AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT?
“DHS DECLINED TO COMMENT.” OF COURSE, THEY DID.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/413405-watchdog-sues-trump-administration-over-family-separation-records
Watchdog sues Trump administration over family separation records
BY LYDIA WHEELER - 10/26/18 04:14 PM EDT
PHOTOGRAPH – MOTHER AND CHILD © Getty
A government watchdog group is suing the Trump administration for failing to create records linking immigrant children to their parents while separating them at the border.
In the lawsuit filed Friday against the Department of Homeland Security and DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) accused the administration of violating the Federal Records Act.
The 23-page complaint before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia also alleges the administration failed to establish an adequate agency-wide records management program.
“Indeed, rarely has a records management failure had such catastrophic consequences: DHS ripped thousands of children away from their parents, failed to make and preserve adequate documentation of individuals taken into its custody, and, consequently, has been unable to reunify each of the families it separated,” CREW argues in the filing.
The lawsuit comes after the Washington Post reported earlier this month that President Trump is considering a new separation policy.
“The Trump Administration’s haphazard implementation of the Zero Tolerance Policy paired with DHS’s failure to meet basic record-keeping requirements mandated by federal law has had catastrophic consequences on the lives of thousands of immigrants seeking entry to our country, even threatening the permanent separation of children from their parents,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement.
“Rarely, if ever, has an agency’s violation of its statutory record keeping obligations had such grave implications. With the administration considering reinstating a new form of their failed policy, it is crucial that they be compelled to follow the law, which makes this lawsuit even more urgent.”
DHS declined to comment.
“LISTED UNDER THE “MAKE” SECTION OF THE REPORT, DESCRIBING THE NATURE OF THE CLOTHING, WAS THE PRESIDENT’S NAME — “DONALD TRUMP.” THIS MAN MUST BE INSANE. THE “LOGIC” HERE IS NONEXISTENT. I’M SO GLAD THEY CAUGHT HIM, AND QUICKLY TOO. I WANT TO SEE 48 HOURS DO A DOCUMENTARY ON THIS STORY, WHAT THE CLUES WERE, HOW THEY CAPTURED HIM – THE WHOLE BALL OF WAX.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mail-bomb-suspect-cesar-sayoc-custody-allegedly-sending-pipe-bombs-n924856
Pipe bomb suspect Cesar Sayoc is a registered Republican and a Trump fan with a criminal record
Mail bomb suspect has a criminal history and had worked as a bouncer in strip clubs, according to his cousin.
YOUR VIDEO BEGINS IN: 00:25
Florida man charged with sending explosive packages
OCT. 26, 201803:20
Oct. 26, 2018 / 12:00 PM EDT / Updated 7:58 PM EDT
By Pete Williams, Rich Schapiro, Adiel Kaplan and Corky Siemaszko
VIDEO -- BREAKING NEWS – SERIAL BOMB SUSPECT ARRESTED FOR MAILING 14 DEVICES
The Florida man charged Friday with sending more than a dozen pipe bomb packages to prominent critics of President Donald Trump was a bulked-up, down-on-his luck former stripper with a right-wing bent who had been living in his van.
DNA evidence played a role in the arrest of 56-year-old Cesar Altieri Sayoc, whose past criminal history includes an arrest for making a bomb threat — and who, according to a cousin, also worked as a bouncer in a number of strip clubs and described black people during a 2014 conversation using a racist term in Italian slang.
"I said, ‘What do you hate for?’” recalled the cousin, Lenny Altieri — who noted that Sayoc is part Italian and part Filipino. "He got very upset with me and that was the last time we spoke."
"I couldn’t understand why he’d say something like that," Altieri added. “He’s multi-racial himself."
Image: Cesar Sayoc, Jr.Prior mugshot of Cesar Sayoc.
Sayoc was hit with multiple federal charges, including making "threats against former presidents," in connection with the pipe bombing campaign that could send him to jail for up to 48 years. Nobody was hurt, but the bombs were real, officials said.
"These are not hoax devices," FBI Director Christopher Wray said.
Earlier, the suspect's white van, which had pictures of Trump and the presidential seal plastered to the windows, was seized by the officials and hauled off to a secure facility in Plantation, Florida.
In Washington, Trump praised the FBI and Secret Service for the swift arrest.
"It’s like a needle in a haystack," Trump said. "And they have done an incredible, incredible job."
A registered Republican, Sayoc appeared to attend a Trump rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, in 2016. His Facebook page and Twitter accounts contained several postings in support of Trump.
There were also several on his Facebook pages critical of George Soros, the liberal philanthropist who also was targeted with one of the package bombs earlier this week. The account handles were equally ominous — “Killgeorge Soros” and “Killall Socialist.”
VIDEO -- Social media footprint sheds new light on Cesar Sayoc Jr. OCT. 26, 2018 03:39
A Facebook spokesperson said Sayoc's page was taken down after it was flagged.
"In line with our policies, as our community standards explain, we do not allow praise or support for horrendous acts like these," the spokesperson said. "We also do not allow the suspect to maintain a presence on our site, so we’ve removed his account."
Sayoc has a criminal record in Florida and was arrested in 2002 for making a bomb threat, according to Miami-Dade County court records. He pleaded guilty. There were also two arrests, one in 1992 and the other in 2014, for petit theft.
In the later theft case, Sayoc tried to walk out of a Walmart with a shopping cart filled with $239 worth of merchandise, according to an arrest affidavit.
In 2015, Sayoc was convicted of stealing a heavy rolling briefcase and a garment bag from Walmart worth $58.
Sayoc also had a misdemeanor arrest on his record in North Carolina, where he was charged in 1999 for possession of stolen car, records show. And in 1995, he was charged in Minnesota with theft and possession of crack cocaine.
In May 2015, Sayoc also said he that he was the victim of a robbery. According to a Broward County Sheriff’s report obtained by NBC News. The report says that 11 items of clothing worth roughly $7,000 were taken from Sayoc.
Listed under the “make” section of the report, describing the nature of the clothing, was the president’s name — “Donald Trump.”
The 2002 mug shot of Cesar Sayoc when he made a bomb threat in Miami. Miami-Dade Police Department
The suspect also appeared to have money troubles. Records revealed he had a property foreclosed on in 2009 and filed for bankruptcy in 2012. At the time, he was living with his mother and employed as a grocery store manager, records show.
But of late, Sayoc had been living in his van and showering at the gym where he works out, a Florida-based cousin told NBC News.
Sayoc played soccer for one semester at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1983. "He was a good kid and a hard worker," former teammate Philip Drosdick said.
But Drosdick said their relationship took a bizarre turn after he left UNCC for the University of Central Florida and Sayoc followed. He said Sayoc suspected he had stolen his favorite jacket and took revenge by sneaking into his room, grabbing one shoe of every pair he had as well as his mattress, several jackets and pants, and his $350 surfboard.
Drosdick said he found most of his stuff in a shed. "I've not seen Cesar or my surfboard since then, " he said.
Records show that Sayoc also lived for a time in New Jersey, Michigan and Brooklyn, New York.
On Facebook, Sayoc also claimed to be a booking agent with the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. A spokesperson for the tribe told NBC News that Sayoc was not a member and had never been employed at the casino.
It was not immediately clear if Sayoc has Native American ancestry. But he named the two businesses he operated for a time Native American Catering & Vending and Proud Native America One Low Price Drycleaning, according to Florida business records.
On his LinkedIn page, Sayoc listed himself as Cesar Altieri and claimed to have worked for Chippendales. After word of this leaked out, the male striptease dance troupe quickly issued a statement declaring that Sayoc "has never been affiliated in any way with Chippendale USA, LLC."
Sayoc grew up in North Miami Beach with his two sisters and was thrown out of his house as a teenager, the cousin, Lenny Altieri, said.
He described him as a "loose cannon" and a "lost soul" who was estranged from his family and had been abusing steroids.
Image: Cesar SayocCesar Sayoc Jr. at a Trump rally.via Facebook
"He's been in the strip clubs since he was 22, that was his life," Altieri said. "He was a male dancer and he wanted to be a wrestler. He was taking steroids. He was all buffed up. ... He was built like a rock."
Another cousin, who lives in another state, told NBC News she was stunned by Sayoc's arrest.
"Oh my God," the woman, who asked not to be identified, said. "He's always been a very nice, thoughtful person. I don't know anything about this. It's shocking."
The cousin said that she hadn't seen Sayoc for two decades but that he called her recently after her father died.
"It was mostly just small talk," she said. "How's your family, that kind of thing. I don't really know that much about him. We have a very big family."
Brandy Zadrozny, Donna Mendell, Courtney McGee, Ken Dilanian, Hannah Rappleye, Tom Winter and Tim Stelloh contributed.
CAN WE SAY THAT THIS STEROID EATING MAN, WHICH IS SOMETHING THAT IS KNOWN TO CAUSE EXTRA AGGRESSION IN MEN, WAS DIRECTLY CAUSED BY TRUMP’S WORDS TO DO THIS? NO, BUT WE CAN’T SAY HE WASN’T EITHER. MENTALLY DISTURBED PEOPLE ARE OFTEN INFLUENCED STRONGLY BY THE OUTSIDE WORLD IN WAYS THAT A HEALTHIER PERSON WOULDN’T BE. ONE OF OUR TASKS IN THE JOB OF GROWING UP IS TO OUTGROW SUCH THINGS. TEENS ARE VERY INFLUENTIAL OVER EACH OTHER, BUT USUALLY AS WE MATURE THAT DECREASES. THERE IS STILL A POTENTIAL FOR MASS HYSTERIA UNDER SUFFICIENT STRESS WITH THE AVERAGE PERSON, THOUGH, LEADING TO THINGS LIKE LYNCHINGS. TRUMP IS PARTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INCREASED CRIMINALITY AND HOSTILITY SINCE HE CAME INTO POWER JUST BY THE TONE HE SETS. I BELIEVE THAT A PRESIDENT SHOULD BE SANCTIONED FOR NEGATIVELY INFLUENCING THE COUNTRY BY WORD OR DEED.
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/413431-foxs-shep-smith-chris-wallace-spar-over-trump-responsibility-after-mail-bomb
Fox's Shep Smith, Chris Wallace spar over Trump responsibility after mail bomb suspect charged
BY JOE CONCHA - 10/26/18 06:14 PM EDT
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith sparred with "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace on Friday over whether President Trump's rhetoric should be linked to the explosives mailed to more than a dozen Democratic figures this week.
Smith began the segment by noting that all of the figures who had the pipe bombs mailed to them, including former President Obama and 2016 Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton, have exchanged fierce criticism with Trump.
“You just can’t ignore the politics of this, even if you wanted to,” Smith said. “These are people the president has gone after rhetorically. These are people this guy targeted. It goes to the tone and tenor of the political discourse and the words that the president uses in his rallies.”
Wallace argued there was no direct link between Trump and the alleged actions of the suspect, Cesar Sayoc Jr., who was arrested and charged in connection to the mailed explosives. Sayoc was taken into custody along with a van with stickers and decals supportive of Trump, and he was shown in footage attending at least one Trump rally.
Wallace pointed to the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Va., when a shooter targeted GOP lawmakers. The shooting left House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and three others wounded.
“I don’t think you can draw any particular link or any responsibility on the part of the president for this action,” Wallace argued. "I mean, as [White House press secretary] Sarah [Huckabee] Sanders said and just repeated by [Fox News White House correspondent] John Roberts, a Bernie Sanders supporter shot up the congressman at the baseball practice. Is Bernie Sanders responsible for that?"
"Nobody is saying he's responsible," Smith said. "The rhetorical discourse has devolved over time and the president says we need to unify. Some of that begins with the rhetoric, does it not?"
"It would certainly be good, but I think it’s separate and apart from the actions of this guy," Wallace replied. "This is a twisted person."
After some extended crosstalk, Wallace accused Smith of holding the president responsible for Sayoc's alleged actions.
"I think that it’s really incorrect to hold the president either by implication or directly responsible in any way for the misdeeds of a person that is a psychopath," Wallace repeated.
"Nobody did that, Chris. Don’t say I did," Smith insisted. "All I said is when the rhetoric gets loud, the crazies come out sometimes."
"Let me just say, it’s a separate issue about the political rhetoric in this country and it’s unfortunate and I think it’s a very bad thing," Wallace would add later. "But I think it’s very dangerous to draw links between that and links of any sort between that and criminal activity."
"History will decide what the rhetoric has done in this society," Smith declared.
"I’ll wait for history," Wallace replied.
"I’ll wait for it, too," Smith said in ending the segment. "I hope you have a good weekend."
On Friday, Sayoc was charged with five federal crimes for allegedly sending packages containing explosive devices.
THERE IS A GOOD DEAL OF DETAIL OF INTEREST HERE, PLUS THE TYPICAL TRUMPIAN REFERENCES TO THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA BEING TRULY RESPONSIBLE.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/10/25/pipe-bombs-packages-deniro-clinton-obama-schultz-what-we-know/1759676002/
What we know about the 10 potential pipe bombs sent to De Niro, Biden, Clinton, Obama
USA TODAY NETWORKAshley May, USA TODAY Published 8:17 a.m. ET Oct. 25, 2018 | Updated 10:40 a.m. ET Oct. 25, 2018
Two weeks before national midterm elections, a series of suspicious and potentially explosive packages addressed to high-ranking Democrats were intercepted.
And early Thursday morning, New York Police were responding to a "suspicious package" that was sent to the building that houses the Tribeca Grill, a restaurant started by Robert De Niro, and his Tribeca Film Center. Two similar packages addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden were intercepted in Delaware.
On Wednesday, packages, including those addressed to former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, contained pipe bombs. At least seven packages, not including the device in Tribeca, were sent to multiple locations in the New York and Washington, D.C., areas, and Florida.
As of Thursday morning, exactly how many dangerous packages had been sent and who sent them wasn't clear. Here's what we know now:
How many packages were intercepted?
At least seven bombs were sent to various locations and intercepted since Monday. The FBI said that number could grow, as they investigate other suspicious packages Thursday, including the one addressed to De Niro's restaurant and two addressed to Biden.
Where were packages sent?
Hillary Clinton's home in Westchester County, New York
Former President Barack Obama, intercepted in Washington
Former CIA Director John Brennan, sent to CNN’s offices in New York City
California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters
Florida's Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (a package discovered at her office was addressed to former US Attorney General Eric Holder)
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at his Manhattan office
Billionaire George Soros, in the mailbox at his Bedford, New York, home
Former Vice President Joe Biden, two packages were intercepted in Delaware
Robert De Niro's New York restaurant
More: NYPD responding to new report of suspicious package
More: Officials search for package addressed to Biden after devices sent to CNN, Clintons, Obamas
What was in the packages?
Most of packages were mailed in manila envelopes, affixed with six Forever stamps and a computer-printed address label showing a return address for "Debbie Wasserman Shultz," a misspelled name for the Florida Congresswoman, according to the FBI.
Wednesday afternoon, the FBI said at least five of the packages with bubble wrap interior have what appear to be pipe bombs inside.
Was anyone hurt?
None of the intercepted bombs detonated and no one was hurt.
What is Trump saying?
"No nation can succeed that tolerates violence," Trump said Wednesday at a Wisconsin rally. "The language of moral condemnation and destructive routine, these are arguments and disagreements that have to stop. Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective."
But then, he also pointed a finger at media, saying it has a "responsibility to set a civil tone."
More: Trump tones down attacks, calls for civility after devices mailed to Democrats, CNN
He tweeted Thursday morning: "A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News," the post reads.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!
7:18 AM - Oct 25, 2018
136K
110K people are talking about this
THIS IS A GREAT PRE-ELECTION INTERVIEW FROM 2015, CALM AND INFORMATIVE. FUNNY HOW THE ISSUES ARE STILL CURRENT.
https://splinternews.com/bernie-sanders-invest-in-jobs-and-education-rather-th-1793852006
Bernie Sanders: 'Invest in jobs and education, rather than jails and incarceration.'
Felix Salmon
10/20/15 6:00am
Fusion senior editor Felix Salmon sat down with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders in Los Angeles last Wednesday, the day after the first Democratic presidential debate, to talk about economic policy.
PHOTOGRAPH – SANDER SPEAKING
Fusion senior editor Felix Salmon sat down with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders in Los Angeles last Wednesday, the day after the first Democratic presidential debate, to talk about economic policy.
That day, at least, fresh off his strong performance in front of 15 million people, Sanders was not in policy-wonk mode. Instead, he had one big message that he wanted to convey: The rich and powerful have far too much control of America, and it’s time the country was run not for them but for the 99%.
Q: Thank you for doing this. As an Englishman, I’m glad to see proud socialists running for president. Do you believe in redistribution of wealth?
A: Yeah. I think what’s happened is that there has been mass redistribution of wealth in this country for the last 30 years. The problem is it’s gone from the middle class to the top one-tenth of 1%. And I think we have to redistribute it back to working families and the middle class so that they can have a decent standard of living.
Q: So we’ll take the wealth from the rich and redistribute it to the middle classes?
A: It’s a little more complicated than that. But what we have seen in the last 30 years is the percentage of wealth owned by the top one-tenth of 1% double—double!—while the percentage of wealth owned by the middle class has significantly shrunk to the tune of many trillions of dollars. And we have to deal with that.
Q: So would you believe in a wealth tax?
A: A variety of a wealth tax. What I certainly do believe is that we have to have a strong estate tax so that when billionaires pass on, they don’t leave all of their money to their kids and perpetuate a very distorted class society. I believe we have to end these tax havens that exist in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere by which large corporations make billions of dollars a year in profits and just stash their money there and don’t pay a nickel in federal taxes. I think we need a progressive income tax so that we don’t have a situation where—as Warren Buffett reminds us—billionaires end up paying an effective tax rate lower than truck drivers or nurses. So I think there is a lot to be done in making our tax system fairer. And that’s based on the fact that today almost all of the new income and wealth being created is going to the top 1%.
Q: In terms of a system which has given the income and the wealth to the privileged, and being able to turn that around—do you believe in reparations at all?
A: No. The issue right now is this is what I do believe in: I believe that we have got to raise the minimum wage in the country to a living wage, which I think is $15 an hour over the next several years. Real unemployment in this country is over 10%, which means to me that we have to create millions of decent-paying jobs, and we can do that most effectively by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, by hiring teachers and not by firing teachers. We need pay equity for women workers, who should not be making 79 cents on the dollar compared to men. We need to especially focus on youth unemployment because Hispanic youth unemployment in this country is 36% and underemployment. African-American unemployment and underemployment is 51%. We end up having more people in jail than any other country on earth. So I think I would rather invest in jobs and education, rather than jails and incarceration.
Q: So you’re investing in youth jobs, you’re investing in infrastructure. Who’s your treasury secretary who’s going to be driving all this?
A: Well, there are a lot of great people out there, but I’ll tell you who it’s not. It’s not going to be some guy who worked on Wall Street representing the major financial institutions in this country. Under Democratic administrations and Republican administrations, those are the guys who, by and large, have held major financial positions—major positions in the Treasury Department.
Q: So no Bob Rubin in your administration?
A: Let me be—OK, you got the scoop on this: Bob Rubin will not be my secretary of treasury. And you can quote me on that.
Q: I wasn’t expecting that he would be. But you believe in postal banking?
A: Yeah, I think that’s a great idea. In fact, I just spoke to a postal union this morning. I want to see our post office be reinvigorated. And one of the ways that I think we can help not only the U.S. Postal Service, but help a lot of low-income people—if you are a low-income person, it is, depending upon where you live, very difficult to find normal banking. Banks don’t want you. And what people are forced to do is go to payday lenders who charge outrageously high interest rates. You go to check-cashing places, which rip you off. And, yes, I think that the postal service, in fact, can play an important role in providing modest types of banking service to folks who need it.
Q: So Walmart should get a banking license as well, for the same reason?
A: Well right now we’re focusing on the U.S. Postal Service.
Q: Walmart’s a great bank in Mexico.
A: Right now in the United States we’re focusing on the U.S. Postal Service.
Q: So in terms of banking, you last night talked a lot about bringing back Glass-Steagall, repealing Gramm-Leach-Bliley. What’s the purpose for that? You want to break up the banks. What’s the reason for that?
A: If you’re talking about creating an economy that works for the middle class and not just the top 1%, I think we have to rethink our current financial system and the way Wall Street functions. What we want are financial institutions who know the communities in which they function, who are prepared to make affordable loans to small and medium-sized businesses so that they can grow and create jobs. What we have right now is a situation where the largest six financial institutions in this country, Wall Street companies, have assets about equivalent to about 60% of the GDP of the United States of America. They issue two-thirds of the credit cards, about 35% of the mortgages, they are extraordinarily big. And in fact, the top three are much bigger today than they were when we bailed them out because they were too big to fail. So bottom line here is you want financial institutions who are part of the communities. Not, as is currently the case, on Wall Street—an island unto itself whose only purpose in life is to make as much money as it can for itself, no matter how they do it.
Q: So it sounds to me you’re not really or even mainly talking about just separating commercial banking from investment banking as we had in Glass-Steagall, but you’re talking about breaking up the banks along geographic grounds so that they become much more—
A: It’s not geographic. We’re talking about re-establishing Glass-Steagall, and you’re looking at a guy who as a member of the House Financial Committee—Services Committee—was a leader in the opposition of deregulating banks and in opposition to ending Glass-Steagall. So I think we do want to bring back Glass-Steagall, but we want to go further.
Q: But you voted for the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which was the big deregulation.
A: Yeah, I know. Of the many, many votes that I cast. I was a leader. I think the record is very clear in doing that. OK, how are we doing here? Because we have to get going fairly soon.
Q: OK, talk to me very quickly, then, about the financial transactions tax. Is that just a way of raising revenue or did stock market speculation—was that part of the crisis?
A: It deals with both issues. It will damper excessive speculation on Wall Street, which is not a good thing. But at the same time it will raise very substantial sums of revenue, and what we have done is targeted that revenue to make certain that young people, in this country, will be able to go public colleges and universities tuition-free.
Q: Let me ask you about the currency manipulation that you say China is doing. You want to impose a fee on that? How does that work?
A: Well, what I want to do is to deal with the reality that today we have a massive trade deficit with China. And you’re looking at a guy who helped lead—unsuccessfully, unfortunately—the effort, the permanent normal trade relations with China. So what I think is we have to rethink our trade relations with China, which are now grossly working against the interest of American workers. What we have seen in recent years is a significant reduction in the number of manufacturing jobs in this country—factories being shut down and then being sent to China. And that has got to end.
Q: If you want to save manufacturing and improve exports, that means the dollar’s too strong, right? We need a weaker dollar?
A: Well, what it means is we need a trade policy in this country which works for American workers.
Q: As opposed to international workers? Because if it helps international workers—
A: It’s not that we don’t care about international workers. We need trade agreements that work for all workers and not just the CEOs of large corporations. OK, thank you very much.
SANDERS IS LIKE THE ENERGIZER BUNNY. DOES HE EVER STOP?
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/412464-sanders-thanks-iowa-voters-for-giving-momentum-to-progressive-agenda
Sanders thanks Iowa voters for giving momentum to progressive agenda
BY NAOMI JAGODA - 10/21/18 08:08 PM EDT
PHOTOGRAPH – SANDERS SPEAKING © Greg Nash
AMES, IOWA — Speaking in Iowa on Sunday ahead of a possible 2020 presidential run, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) thanked voters in the state for showing that his progressive policy ideas resonate with the public.
Sanders narrowly lost the 2016 Democratic Iowa caucuses to Hillary Clinton, a result that he called a “tie” that fueled his campaign that year. Sanders ultimately lost the nomination to Clinton but received millions of votes.
“Why it was important in terms of what Iowa did in that very first caucus, is that it showed the American people that the ideas that we were talking about were not radical ideas or extremist ideas or ideas that were outside of the mainstream,” Sanders said at a rally at Iowa State University.
“So it started off in Iowa and it went to New Hampshire and it went across the country. And ideas that just three years ago were perceived to be radical and extremist ideas are now ideas that are supported by the vast majority of the American people. Thank you Iowa,” he added.
Sanders spoke about several of his policy ideas that have gained traction in recent years, including a $15-per-hour minimum wage, tuition-free public college and "Medicare for all."
He said he understands that people may have voted for President Trump in 2016 because they felt like they were being ignored by Washington but that Trump is a “pathological liar.”
“This president has no political beliefs,” Sanders said. “He is [an] opportunist of the worst kind.”
Sanders also criticized Trump for “using his bully pulpit to try to divide us up.”
“I say to President Trump that this country has struggled for too many decades, for too many centuries, in the fight against racism and sexism and homophobia and religious bigotry. We have fought too hard against people who are trying to divide us up,” Sanders said. “President Trump, we are not going backwards, we are going forward as one people.”
Sanders campaigned at the event for J.D. Scholten, the Democratic nominee seeking to unseat GOP Rep. Steve King in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, and Deidre DeJear, the Democratic nominee for Iowa secretary of state.
Sanders, Scholten and DeJear all encouraged the attendees, many of whom were college students, to vote in the midterm elections and to get their friends and family members to do so as well.
“If we did nothing more than have people 30 years of age or younger vote in the same percentages as the general population, we can transform the United States of America,” Sanders said.
King criticized Sanders on Twitter earlier in the day.
Scholten responded to King’s tweets, criticizing King for not debating him.
Scholten faces an uphill battle in the race, which the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates “likely Republican.”
But he said Democrats can win in rural areas by reaching out to people and proving that they will fight for them.
“We live in the land of ‘if you build it, they will come,’” he said. “If you build the right campaign and earn votes, get out there and earn votes, they will vote for you. If you build the right campaign that creates buzz, Sen. Bernie Sanders will come.”
Scholten was introduced at the event by Hill.TV anchor Krystal Ball, who has a PAC that endorsed the Democratic congressional candidate.
The rally in Ames came at the end of Sanders’s trip to Iowa to campaign for Scholten. Earlier on Sunday, he participated in a town hall with Scholten that was focused on Social Security and marched in Iowa State’s homecoming parade. He also held a rally with Scholten Saturday in Sioux City.
Sanders is in the middle of a nine-state tour ahead of the midterms. Prior to the stops in Iowa, he was in South Carolina, another state with an early nominating contest in 2020.
Sanders isn’t the only potential Democratic presidential candidate who has been spending time in Iowa in recent days. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) was also in Iowa this weekend, and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) will be in the state on Monday and Tuesday.
Scholten’s campaign said about 800 people attended the rally in Ames.
After the rally, Scholten said he’s grateful for Sanders’s help. The congressional candidate said he hasn’t had time to think about whether Sanders is going to run for president again, but added that “if he wanted to, I think it’s there for him.”
THIS OFFER BY MEXICO IS A GREAT HELP, EVEN IF ITS’ ONLY A RESPITE. SURELY THE USA ISN’T THE ONLY PLACE TO LIVE, AND BEING IN A SPANISH SPEAKING COUNTRY SOUNDS TO ME LIKE A GOOD IDEA FOR THEM.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45999610
Migrant caravan: Mexico offers temporary work permits
OCTOBER 26, 2108 7 minutes ago
PHOTOGRAPH -- A number of children are travelling with the migrant caravan
Mexico has offered temporary work permits to migrants who register for asylum, as a big caravan of Central American migrants makes its way through the country toward the US.
The plan also envisages temporary ID cards, medical care and schooling.
But to qualify, migrants must remain in Mexico's southern Chiapas and Oaxaca states.
The US has warned that about 800 troops may be sent to the US-Mexico border to stop the migrant caravan.
"I am bringing out the military for this National Emergency," US President Donald Trump said earlier this week. "They [migrants] will be stopped!"
The president also threatened cutting aid to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
The caravan set off from Honduras several weeks ago.
What is the migrant caravan heading to US?
Honduran migrants: 'We left because we had to'
Fake news follows migrant caravan
What about Mexico's plan?
The scheme, announced by President Peña Nieto, covers Central Americans who have officially asked for a refugee status in Mexico or are planning to do so in the nearest future.
It is called Estas en Tu Casa ("This is Your Home" in Spanish).
Image copyrightAFP/GETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Many from the migrant caravan are forced to sleep rough during their journey
"Today, Mexico extends you its hand," President Nieto said.
But he added: "This plan is only for those who comply with Mexican laws, and it's a first step towards a permanent solution for those who are granted refugee status in Mexico."
The plan envisages:
Temporary ID cards and work permits
Medical care
Schooling for migrants' children
Housing in local hostels
But President Nieto failed to explain what would happen to the migrants if they chose to carry on regardless.
The Mexican authorities are coming under increasing pressure from the Trump Administration to find a solution to this caravan, the BBC's Central America correspondent Will Grant in the town of Arriaga, Chiapas, reports.
The authorities are trying to tread a balance between placating the US and giving a green light to travel to potential future caravans, our correspondent adds.
Where is the caravan now?
The caravan is presently in Arriaga.
Most migrants said they had no intention of changing their plans to head to the US.
"The majority plan to cross the border. And that's my intention, too," Jose Santos, from Honduras, told the BBC.
"Because, yes, while life here is calmer than at home, it's still not like the US where it would get better. That's the goal: to have a better life."
Meanwhile, Anna Lisset Velazquez, also from Honduras, told the BBC: "It's a kind offer - but it's not the plan that we have, to stay here halfway up."
However, another migrant described Mr Nieto's proposal as a decent "plan B".
"Because we can't go back to Honduras. So, as a second choice we'd be better off here," Greville Juan Villanova said.
A spokesman for the United Nations said more than 7,000 people had joined the migrant caravan as of 22 October, citing estimates from the International Organization for Migration.
But the group has split up, which makes it difficult to determine the exact number.
The migrants say they are fleeing persecution, poverty and violence in their home countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Can they migrate legally?
On Thursday, Mr Trump once again urged the migrants to stay away, tweeting: "To those in the Caravan, turn around, we are not letting people into the United States illegally."
VIDEO: Media captionTrump and the facts about the migrant caravan
Many of the migrants say they plan to seek asylum in the US.
There is a legal obligation under international law to hear asylum claims from migrants who have arrived in the US if they say they fear violence in their home countries.
But in June, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that victims of domestic abuse and gang violence would no longer generally qualify for asylum in the US.
Those seeking asylum must be fleeing due to a serious fear of persecution in their home country. Under international law, these are considered refugees.
If an asylum seeker enters the US illegally, they are still entitled to a hearing of their claim.
Economic migrants are those seeking a better quality of life - and even if they are fleeing devastating poverty, they are not considered refugees and do not have the same protections.
The mid-term elections are less than two weeks away and critics say Mr Trump has used the threat of illegal immigration to fire up his supporters.
Thursday, October 25, 2018
OCTOBER 25, 2018
NEWS AND VIEWS
BERNIE ROUSTS SOME TRUMP FANS WITH A TRUMP BANNER. NO FIREWORKS, THOUGH.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-supporters-with-maga-banner-removed-from-rally-after-bernie-sanders-calls-them-out
Trump supporters with 'MAGA' banner removed from rally after Bernie Sanders calls them out
by Daniel Chaitin
| October 25, 2018 06:25 PM
A small group of Trump supporters were removed from a campaign event in Nevada on Thursday after Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., pointed them out.
Minutes into an event for Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Jacky Rosen at University of Nevada, Reno, Sanders addressed a handful of people on the second floor of a nearby garage who had unfurled a "Make America Great Again" banner.
“Really? Do you really want to give $1 trillion in tax breaks to the 1 percent?” Sanders said, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. “Is that what you want?”
Modern Conservatives: Sir Roger Scruton
Soon after, the outlet reports Democratic campaign operatives ushered them out. Some of the half-dozen individuals returned later, but the flag did not re-emerge.
While event emcee Wil Adler told the outlet that university officials asked him to remove the demonstrators because they were not in a “free speech zone," campus police pushed back, saying it was a public university.
I THINK WE NEED SOME CLOSER DEFINITIONS. CLEARLY ANY WAY OF FALSIFYING THE ELECTION, BY ILLOGICALLY AND UNFAIRLY REMOVING PEOPLE FROM THE VOTER ROLLS, OR FALSELY ADDING A NAME WHO IS DEMONSTRABLY NOT QUALIFIED TO VOTE SHOULD BE PUNISHABLE IN A MEANINGFUL WAY UP TO JAIL TIME. WHAT THE REPUBLICANS LOVE TO DO IS REMOVE PEOPLE FROM THE ROSTER SO THAT THEY GO DOWN TO THE POLLING PLACE AND FIND THAT THEY ARE NO LONGER REGISTERED. THEY DO SO ON GROUNDS LIKE HAVING A SPANISH LAST NAME, AN ODDLY SPELLED FIRST NAME, OR AN ADDRESS IN ONE OF THE SEVERAL “WRONG” NEIGHBORHOODS. LIVING IN A POVERTY-STRICKEN NEIGHBORHOOD IS NOT A LEGAL BASIS FOR DISQUALIFYING ANYBODY, AND YET IT HAPPENS ANNUALLY.
AGAIN, WE HAVE TO REDO PARTS OF THE CONSTITUTION, AND THE NUMBER OF OVERBROAD AND DAMAGING POWERS RESERVED TO STATES THAT WE HAVE NOW IS ONE OF THE WORST PROBLEMS. IT’S ALMOST ALWAYS THE STATE PARTY IN POWER, ESPECIALLY THE REPUBLICANS, THAT DO THESE THINGS. FEDERAL LAWS ARE RARELY IF EVER AS EXCLUSIONARY AS THOSE IN STATE BASED FUNCTIONS. “STATES RIGHTS” IS CODE FOR “CONSERVATIVE” AND RACIST; AND ALLOWING OUR ELECTION SYSTEM TO BE RUN BY A HIGHLY BIASED GROUP OF PEOPLE IN THAT WAY IS VERY POOR AND UNFAIR POLICY. I DO WANT TO SAY HERE, THOUGH, THAT “FEAR OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS” IS NOT THE REASON FOR ALL THE REPUBLICAN CHEATING. IT IS PURE GREED. IT’S NOT BECAUSE THEY FEEL PITIFUL AND WEAK. IT’S BECAUSE THEY FEEL AGGRESSIVE AND PREDATORY.
I BELIEVE THAT ANY FALSIFICATION OF ANY KIND BY ANY PARTY SHOULD RESULT IN A MONETARY FINE AND LOSS OF POSITION AFTER THE FIRST EVENT. THIS CURRENT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR GEORGIA GOVERNOR BRIAN KEMP IS, ACCORDING TO RACHEL MADDOW, USING THE VERY SAME METHOD OF CHEATING WITH THE VOTER LISTS THIS YEAR AS HE DID OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS, AND PAID PENALTIES THEN. STILL, HE’S DOING IT AGAIN. THAT TELLS ME THE PENALTIES ARE EITHER TOO LIGHT OR OF THE WRONG KIND. PERHAPS BEING REMOVED FROM OFFICE AND BANNED FROM RUNNING IN POLITICS AGAIN WOULD BE ENOUGH. THEIR FINES COULD GO TO THE FEDERAL COFFERS THAT ARE SET UP FOR SUPPORTING THE CANDIDATES IN THEIR RUN. MAYBE THAT WOULD BE PAINFUL ENOUGH. I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT FEAR OF SOME UNCOMFORTABLE CHANGE IN THE BALANCE OF POWER IS AN EXCUSE FOR LYING, CHEATING OR STEALING. JUST BECAUSE WE WANT TO WIN DOESN’T MAKE DISHONESTY ACCEPTABLE IN A DECENT SOCIETY.
https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/413182-voter-suppression-is-rooted-in-fear-of-changing-demographics
Voter suppression is rooted in fear of changing demographics, says pollster
Pollster Dalia Mogahed said in an interview on "What America's Thinking" that aired Thursday that voter suppression tactics are rooted in a fear of changing demographics in the U.S.
"A lot of this is about a fear of a changing America," Mogahed, director of research at the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), told Hill.TV's Jamal Simmons on Wednesday.
"Demographic changes in America have really invigorated some pockets of our country, and I think the Trump win is a symptom of that, and voter suppression is another symptom of that," she continued.
A new American Barometer poll, conducted by Hill.TV and the HarrisX polling company found that Americans were split over whether voter suppression or voter fraud was a bigger issue.
Fifty-one percent of respondents said voter suppression was a bigger issue, while 49 percent said the same about voter fraud.
The issue of voter fraud has taken center stage in Georgia's gubernatorial race after a report found that state officials removed an estimated 107,000 people from voter rolls because they decided not to vote in prior elections.
"Purging roles, saying that if you didn't vote the last election you're not allowed to vote this election, it is targeting a specific type of American," Mogahed said. "It's targeting people of color, poor people, young people, and it's trying to exclude. It's trying to disenfranchise a group of Americans that some Americans don't want to be a part of this country."
— Julia Manchester
WITH ALL THAT HEAVY-HANDED MANIPULATION OF THE GEORGIA ELECTORATE, HE STILL ISN’T WINNING, NOT YET ANYWAY. IT’S NECK AND NECK DOWN THE LAST STRETCH. GO, STACEY!
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/24/deadlocked-georgia-governor-race-tests-power-of-voter-restrictions.html
Deadlocked Georgia governor race tests power of voter restrictions
John Harwood | @johnjharwood
Published 5:15 PM ET Wed, 24 Oct 2018
A new poll finds the race for governor in Georgia is deadlocked between Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams and Republican candidate Brian Kemp.
Kemp oversees voter restrictions in the state and has resisted calls to resign, saying he would stay in his role even if the race is close enough for a recount.
President Trump and GOP officials say they are stepping up efforts to prevent "voter fraud," despite the lack of evidence that it exists.
ALL THOSE HOSTILE TWEETS AND DISGUSTING PERSONAL DIGS, GROTESQUE PHYSICAL IMITATIONS, ETC. “HAVE GIVEN PSYCHOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL SPACE TO SOME ELEMENTS IN OUR COUNTRY THAT UNTIL RECENTLY WERE AT THE MARGINS." TO ME, THOSE GROUPS ARE JUST LIKE THE TROLLS THAT NORMALLY LIVE UNDER THE BRIDGE IN DIE BRUDER GRIMM’S FAIRY TALE CALLED “THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF.”
https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/413199-pollster-says-terms-like-alt-right-white-nationalism-have
Pollster says terms 'alt-right,' 'white nationalism' have become mainstream
10/25/2018
Pollster Dalia Mogahed said in an interview that aired Thursday on "What America's Thinking" that terms like 'alt-right' have become more mainstream.
"Now there's this 'alt-right' or 'white nationalist' sort of these euphemisms that are being used, but they've become more and more mainstream," Mogahed, director of research at the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), told Hill.TV's Jamal Simmons on Wednesday.
Mogahed said alt-right and white nationalist groups are emboldened as a result of rhetoric in the national discourse.
A study published by the Institute for Family Studies in August found that 11 million Americans* identify with beliefs shred [sic] by the alt-right movement.
"I think what's driving it is the rhetoric, as well as the policies, and what it's done is it's emboldened and given psychological and political space to some elements in our country that until recently were at the margins," she said.
White supremacists gained national attention last year during the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., which resulted in violent protests.
One person was killed during the demonstrations.
Far-right protesters and counter-protesters descended on Washington, D.C. one year after the clashes in Charlottesville.
— Julia Manchester
11 MILLION AMERICANS* AGREE WITH THE WHITE SUPREMACISTS.
WHAT PERCENTAGE IS THAT OF THE POPULATION OF THE USA TODAY?
https://www.google.com/search?q=population+of+the+united+states+2018&oq=population+of+the+united+states+&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0l5.14244j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
– Year Population World Population
-- 2018 326,766,748 7,632,819,325
11 MILLION IS A LARGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE, MORE THAN I WOULD HAVE GUESSED FOR THIS QUESTION, BUT IT IS ONLY .033742, OR 3 AND A THIRD PERCENT OF THE AMERICAN POPULATION. THAT IS NOT A LARGE PART, MAYBE A TENTH OF THE NUMBER WHO SHOP AT WALMART I WOULD GUESS. IF THEY WEREN’T LOCATED MAINLY IN THE SOUTH AND THE WEST, WE WOULDN’T WORRY ABOUT THEM. BEING SITUATED TOGETHER THEY CAN GET UP TO SOME SERIOUS MISCHIEF, SUCH AS THE EXECRABLE BUNDY FAMILY OF RUFFIANS WHO SEIZED A GOVERNMENT BUILDING SEVERAL YEARS AGO.
STILL, IN THIS FREE SOCIETY OF OURS, THEY CAN BE VERY UGLY IN PUBLIC AND GET AWAY WITH IT, SO THIS IS THREATENING. EVEN NOW ONE OR PERHAPS A GROUP OF THEM ARE PLACING BOMBS ON THE PROPERTIES OF IN THE RANGE OF 8 OR 9 OUTSPOKEN DEMOCRATS. THE FACT THAT THE BOMBS HAVE SO FAR BEEN DUDS DOESN’T MEAN THAT THE NEXT TIME IT WON’T WORK. IT’S A MATTER OF HOW MUCH THE INDIVIDUALS REALLY WANT TO KILL PEOPLE VERSUS SIMPLY GET LOTS OF PERSONAL ATTENTION. I’M SO GLAD THAT I GET RID OF MY ANGRY FEELINGS VERBALLY RATHER THAN PHYSICALLY.
***********************************************************
HE WHO NEVER TAKES RESPONSIBILITY IS NOW DEFENDED BY HIS LOYAL WATCHDOG MS. SANDERS. OF COURSE, HARSH AND RABBLEROUSING WORDS ARE NOT IN THEMSELVES VIOLENCE, BUT THEY CERTAINLY DO STOKE THE FURNACE. TRUMP HAS NO RIGHT TO SCOLD LIBERALS FOR “MOBBING” WELL-KNOWN PEOPLE. THAT’S HIS NEWEST SLUR, AND SO SILLY. EVERYBODY WHO PAYS MUCH ATTENTION TO HIM KNOWS THAT IF HE DOESN’T HAVE A CROWD AROUND HE FEELS SLIGHTED. HOW MANY WERE IN THAT INAUGURAL CROWD NOW? WHILE THE PRESIDENT IS CHANGING UP HIS WHITE HOUSE STAFF, HE NEEDS SOME MORE WRITERS TO THINK UP SOMETHING SERIOUS AND RESPONSIBLE FOR HIM TO SAY ONCE IN AWHILE. LET’S FACE IT. I’VE HEARD NO STORIES OF HIM OR HIS MINIONS BEING “MOBBED.” WHAT DOES THAT MEAN, ANYWAY?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-white-house-trump-responsible-sanders-gop-baseball-20181025-story.html
White House says Trump as responsible for mail bombs as Bernie Sanders is for GOP baseball shooting
By DENIS SLATTERY
OCT 25, 2018 | 11:30 AM
PHOTOGRAPH -- White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders criticized reporters Wednesday, saying they were wrong to focus on President Trump's often harsh word for journalists in the wake of this week's pipe bomb deliveries to prominent Democratic political leaders and CNN. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
President Trump is no more responsible for the makeshift bombs being sent to top Democrats and CNN in recent days than Sen. Bernie Sanders was for one of his supporters shooting up a GOP baseball practice last year in Virginia, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday.
There's a big difference between "comments made and actions taken," Sanders said as she defended Trump’s vitriolic attacks on the media and his political opponents.
Her defense of the President’s acid-tongued attacks abuses came hours after suspicious packages addressed to actor Robert De Niro and former Vice President Joe Biden were intercepted by authorities.
Investigators said the parcels were similar to crude pipe bombs sent to former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, CNN and others earlier in the week.
None of the devices detonated and no one was injured.
Sanders compared the targeted mailings to the shooting of Republican lawmakers practicing for a congressional baseball game last June, saying that “the president is certainly not responsible for sending suspicious packages, any more than Bernie Sanders was for supporter shooting up a baseball practice.”
The gunman, James Hodgkinson, who severely injured House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), had posted social media messages suggesting he intentionally targeted conservatives.
While Trump constantly calls the media the enemy of the people and regularly rails against Democrats as “evil,” Sen. Sanders is not known for using caustic language.
Aaron Rupar
✔
@atrupar
.@PressSec draws false equivalency between Trump inciting violence against reporters & Bernie Sanders having deranged fans
"The president is certainly not responsible for sending suspicious packages, any more than Bernie Sanders was for supporter shooting up a baseball practice"
10:17 AM - Oct 25, 2018
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Representatives for the Vermont independent, who mounted a failed presidential bid as a Democrat in 2016, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump initially condemned the “acts or threats of political violence” and made a call for unity on Wednesday.
However on Thursday morning, he returned to using his label of "fake news" and blasting the media for negative coverage of his administration.
Democratic leaders blasted Trump’s call for calm Wednesday after several of the bombs were discovered, faulting him for fostering a climate in which violence is an everyday part of politics.
“Trump’s words ring hollow until he reverses his statements that condone acts of violence,” Senate and House Minority Leaders Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement.
The pair knocked Trump’s recent public praise for a Republican congressman who pleaded guilty to assaulting a reporter; his refusal to unambiguously condemn white supremacists in the wake of Charlottesville; his encouraging supporters to rough up protesters at rallies; his warm words for “dictators around the world;” and his repeated references to the free press as “the enemy of the people.”
“Time and time again, the President has condoned physical violence and divided Americans with his words and his actions,” the Dems said.
THIS IS A GREAT PRE-ELECTION INTERVIEW FROM 2015, CALM AND INFORMATIVE. FUNNY HOW THE ISSUES ARE STILL CURRENT.
https://splinternews.com/bernie-sanders-invest-in-jobs-and-education-rather-th-1793852006
Bernie Sanders: 'Invest in jobs and education, rather than jails and incarceration.'
Felix Salmon
10/20/15 6:00am
Fusion senior editor Felix Salmon sat down with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders in Los Angeles last Wednesday, the day after the first Democratic presidential debate, to talk about economic policy.
PHOTOGRAPH – SANDERS SPEAKING
Fusion senior editor Felix Salmon sat down with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders in Los Angeles last Wednesday, the day after the first Democratic presidential debate, to talk about economic policy.
That day, at least, fresh off his strong performance in front of 15 million people, Sanders was not in policy-wonk mode. Instead, he had one big message that he wanted to convey: The rich and powerful have far too much control of America, and it’s time the country was run not for them but for the 99%.
Q: Thank you for doing this. As an Englishman, I’m glad to see proud socialists running for president. Do you believe in redistribution of wealth?
A: Yeah. I think what’s happened is that there has been mass redistribution of wealth in this country for the last 30 years. The problem is it’s gone from the middle class to the top one-tenth of 1%. And I think we have to redistribute it back to working families and the middle class so that they can have a decent standard of living.
Q: So we’ll take the wealth from the rich and redistribute it to the middle classes?
A: It’s a little more complicated than that. But what we have seen in the last 30 years is the percentage of wealth owned by the top one-tenth of 1% double—double!—while the percentage of wealth owned by the middle class has significantly shrunk to the tune of many trillions of dollars. And we have to deal with that.
Q: So would you believe in a wealth tax?
A: A variety of a wealth tax. What I certainly do believe is that we have to have a strong estate tax so that when billionaires pass on, they don’t leave all of their money to their kids and perpetuate a very distorted class society. I believe we have to end these tax havens that exist in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere by which large corporations make billions of dollars a year in profits and just stash their money there and don’t pay a nickel in federal taxes. I think we need a progressive income tax so that we don’t have a situation where—as Warren Buffett reminds us—billionaires end up paying an effective tax rate lower than truck drivers or nurses. So I think there is a lot to be done in making our tax system fairer. And that’s based on the fact that today almost all of the new income and wealth being created is going to the top 1%.
Q: In terms of a system which has given the income and the wealth to the privileged, and being able to turn that around—do you believe in reparations at all?
A: No. The issue right now is this is what I do believe in: I believe that we have got to raise the minimum wage in the country to a living wage, which I think is $15 an hour over the next several years. Real unemployment in this country is over 10%, which means to me that we have to create millions of decent-paying jobs, and we can do that most effectively by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, by hiring teachers and not by firing teachers. We need pay equity for women workers, who should not be making 79 cents on the dollar compared to men. We need to especially focus on youth unemployment because Hispanic youth unemployment in this country is 36% and underemployment. African-American unemployment and underemployment is 51%. We end up having more people in jail than any other country on earth. So I think I would rather invest in jobs and education, rather than jails and incarceration.
Q: So you’re investing in youth jobs, you’re investing in infrastructure. Who’s your treasury secretary who’s going to be driving all this?
A: Well, there are a lot of great people out there, but I’ll tell you who it’s not. It’s not going to be some guy who worked on Wall Street representing the major financial institutions in this country. Under Democratic administrations and Republican administrations, those are the guys who, by and large, have held major financial positions—major positions in the Treasury Department.
Q: So no Bob Rubin in your administration?
A: Let me be—OK, you got the scoop on this: Bob Rubin will not be my secretary of treasury. And you can quote me on that.
Q: I wasn’t expecting that he would be. But you believe in postal banking?
A: Yeah, I think that’s a great idea. In fact, I just spoke to a postal union this morning. I want to see our post office be reinvigorated. And one of the ways that I think we can help not only the U.S. Postal Service, but help a lot of low-income people—if you are a low-income person, it is, depending upon where you live, very difficult to find normal banking. Banks don’t want you. And what people are forced to do is go to payday lenders who charge outrageously high interest rates. You go to check-cashing places, which rip you off. And, yes, I think that the postal service, in fact, can play an important role in providing modest types of banking service to folks who need it.
Q: So Walmart should get a banking license as well, for the same reason?
A: Well right now we’re focusing on the U.S. Postal Service.
Q: Walmart’s a great bank in Mexico.
A: Right now in the United States we’re focusing on the U.S. Postal Service.
Q: So in terms of banking, you last night talked a lot about bringing back Glass-Steagall, repealing Gramm-Leach-Bliley. What’s the purpose for that? You want to break up the banks. What’s the reason for that?
A: If you’re talking about creating an economy that works for the middle class and not just the top 1%, I think we have to rethink our current financial system and the way Wall Street functions. What we want are financial institutions who know the communities in which they function, who are prepared to make affordable loans to small and medium-sized businesses so that they can grow and create jobs. What we have right now is a situation where the largest six financial institutions in this country, Wall Street companies, have assets about equivalent to about 60% of the GDP of the United States of America. They issue two-thirds of the credit cards, about 35% of the mortgages, they are extraordinarily big. And in fact, the top three are much bigger today than they were when we bailed them out because they were too big to fail. So bottom line here is you want financial institutions who are part of the communities. Not, as is currently the case, on Wall Street—an island unto itself whose only purpose in life is to make as much money as it can for itself, no matter how they do it.
Q: So it sounds to me you’re not really or even mainly talking about just separating commercial banking from investment banking as we had in Glass-Steagall, but you’re talking about breaking up the banks along geographic grounds so that they become much more—
A: It’s not geographic. We’re talking about re-establishing Glass-Steagall, and you’re looking at a guy who as a member of the House Financial Committee—Services Committee—was a leader in the opposition of deregulating banks and in opposition to ending Glass-Steagall. So I think we do want to bring back Glass-Steagall, but we want to go further.
Q: But you voted for the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which was the big deregulation.
A: Yeah, I know. Of the many, many votes that I cast. I was a leader. I think the record is very clear in doing that. OK, how are we doing here? Because we have to get going fairly soon.
Q: OK, talk to me very quickly, then, about the financial transactions tax. Is that just a way of raising revenue or did stock market speculation—was that part of the crisis?
A: It deals with both issues. It will damper excessive speculation on Wall Street, which is not a good thing. But at the same time it will raise very substantial sums of revenue, and what we have done is targeted that revenue to make certain that young people, in this country, will be able to go public colleges and universities tuition-free.
Q: Let me ask you about the currency manipulation that you say China is doing. You want to impose a fee on that? How does that work?
A: Well, what I want to do is to deal with the reality that today we have a massive trade deficit with China. And you’re looking at a guy who helped lead—unsuccessfully, unfortunately—the effort, the permanent normal trade relations with China. So what I think is we have to rethink our trade relations with China, which are now grossly working against the interest of American workers. What we have seen in recent years is a significant reduction in the number of manufacturing jobs in this country—factories being shut down and then being sent to China. And that has got to end.
Q: If you want to save manufacturing and improve exports, that means the dollar’s too strong, right? We need a weaker dollar?
A: Well, what it means is we need a trade policy in this country which works for American workers.
Q: As opposed to international workers? Because if it helps international workers—
A: It’s not that we don’t care about international workers. We need trade agreements that work for all workers and not just the CEOs of large corporations. OK, thank you very much.
SANDERS IS LIKE THE ENERGIZER BUNNY. DOES HE EVER STOP?
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/412464-sanders-thanks-iowa-voters-for-giving-momentum-to-progressive-agenda
Sanders thanks Iowa voters for giving momentum to progressive agenda
BY NAOMI JAGODA - 10/21/18 08:08 PM EDT
PHOTOGRAPH – SANDERS SPEAKING © Greg Nash
AMES, IOWA — Speaking in Iowa on Sunday ahead of a possible 2020 presidential run, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) thanked voters in the state for showing that his progressive policy ideas resonate with the public.
Sanders narrowly lost the 2016 Democratic Iowa caucuses to Hillary Clinton, a result that he called a “tie” that fueled his campaign that year. Sanders ultimately lost the nomination to Clinton but received millions of votes.
“Why it was important in terms of what Iowa did in that very first caucus, is that it showed the American people that the ideas that we were talking about were not radical ideas or extremist ideas or ideas that were outside of the mainstream,” Sanders said at a rally at Iowa State University.
“So it started off in Iowa and it went to New Hampshire and it went across the country. And ideas that just three years ago were perceived to be radical and extremist ideas are now ideas that are supported by the vast majority of the American people. Thank you Iowa,” he added.
Sanders spoke about several of his policy ideas that have gained traction in recent years, including a $15-per-hour minimum wage, tuition-free public college and "Medicare for all."
He said he understands that people may have voted for President Trump in 2016 because they felt like they were being ignored by Washington but that Trump is a “pathological liar.”
“This president has no political beliefs,” Sanders said. “He is [an] opportunist of the worst kind.”
Sanders also criticized Trump for “using his bully pulpit to try to divide us up.”
“I say to President Trump that this country has struggled for too many decades, for too many centuries, in the fight against racism and sexism and homophobia and religious bigotry. We have fought too hard against people who are trying to divide us up,” Sanders said. “President Trump, we are not going backwards, we are going forward as one people.”
Sanders campaigned at the event for J.D. Scholten, the Democratic nominee seeking to unseat GOP Rep. Steve King in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, and Deidre DeJear, the Democratic nominee for Iowa secretary of state.
Sanders, Scholten and DeJear all encouraged the attendees, many of whom were college students, to vote in the midterm elections and to get their friends and family members to do so as well.
“If we did nothing more than have people 30 years of age or younger vote in the same percentages as the general population, we can transform the United States of America,” Sanders said.
King criticized Sanders on Twitter earlier in the day.
Scholten responded to King’s tweets, criticizing King for not debating him.
Scholten faces an uphill battle in the race, which the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates “likely Republican.”
But he said Democrats can win in rural areas by reaching out to people and proving that they will fight for them.
“We live in the land of ‘if you build it, they will come,’” he said. “If you build the right campaign and earn votes, get out there and earn votes, they will vote for you. If you build the right campaign that creates buzz, Sen. Bernie Sanders will come.”
Scholten was introduced at the event by Hill.TV anchor Krystal Ball, who has a PAC that endorsed the Democratic congressional candidate.
The rally in Ames came at the end of Sanders’s trip to Iowa to campaign for Scholten. Earlier on Sunday, he participated in a town hall with Scholten that was focused on Social Security and marched in Iowa State’s homecoming parade. He also held a rally with Scholten Saturday in Sioux City.
Sanders is in the middle of a nine-state tour ahead of the midterms. Prior to the stops in Iowa, he was in South Carolina, another state with an early nominating contest in 2020.
Sanders isn’t the only potential Democratic presidential candidate who has been spending time in Iowa in recent days. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) was also in Iowa this weekend, and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) will be in the state on Monday and Tuesday.
Scholten’s campaign said about 800 people attended the rally in Ames.
After the rally, Scholten said he’s grateful for Sanders’s help. The congressional candidate said he hasn’t had time to think about whether Sanders is going to run for president again, but added that “if he wanted to, I think it’s there for him.”
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