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'AI Will Not Scab Us': Post-Gazette Newsroom Decries Use of Artificial Intelligence
"As newsroom jobs continue to disappear due to corporate greed and mismanagement, we stand firmly against any use of AI that takes work out of union members' hands," said one labor leader.
Jan 23, 2024
Amid a nearly 16-month strike by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette employees, the union representing workers at Pennsylvania's top newspaper by circulation on Monday filed an official grievance condemning the use of artificial intelligence to create an illustration published in the previous day's edition.
"The Post-Gazette's attempt to replace our labor with artificial intelligence is a serious concern to journalists not just in Pittsburgh, but all across the country," Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh president Zack Tanner said in a statement Tuesday. "As newsroom jobs continue to disappear due to corporate greed and mismanagement, we stand firmly against any use of AI that takes work out of union members' hands."
Post-Gazette production, distribution, and advertising workers have been on strike since October 2022, primarily over the loss of their healthcare plan. According to union officials, Block Communications, the paper's owner, refused to pay an additional $19 per week for each employee to keep workers' existing coverage.
The paper's workers have been without a contract since March 2017, when the previous collective bargaining agreement expired without a replacement.
Newspaper Guild workers are demanding:
- An end to the impasse in contract negotiations;
- Undoing the unilaterally imposed working conditions and reinstatement of terms of the expired 2014-17 newsroom contract;
- A return to the bargaining table to reach a fair deal with the journalists represented by the Newspaper Guild; and
- Meeting the healthcare demands of striking sister unions.
Block Communications has hired more than two dozen strike-breaking workers to ensure continued Post-Gazette publication during the prolonged union action. However, this is apparently the first time management has passed over human workers in favor of AI.
"AI will not scab us," the Newspaper Guild defiantly declared, using the colloquial labor term usually reserved for human beings who cross picket lines.
Common Dreams reported last year how the AI and fake content industries pose an increasing threat to journalists' livelihoods around the world.
"As the [Post-Gazette] resists working with us to put an end to this strike, they continue to sink to new lows in an effort to crank out whatever product they can cobble together," Jen Kundrach, a striking illustrator at the paper, said Tuesday. "That they've resorted to the use of inferior, AI-generated images rather than custom art by a staff illustrator shows how little they must value the talent of their guild staff. They'd rather squander that talent and put out a subpar newspaper than come to the table and reach a fair agreement with us."
Post-Gazette workers are buoyed by a January 2023 National Labor Relations Board ruling that found management did not negotiate in good faith, imposed illegal working conditions, and unlawfully surveilled unionizing workers. Block Communications legal representatives appealed the decision. Strikers and their supporters are slated to attend a Saturday strategy session at the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers Union Hall at 10 19th Street in the South Side Flats.
Tanner asserted that if management thinks "that this fight is over, they are dead wrong."
"Workers on strike won't stop fighting, because Pittsburgh deserves a newspaper created by union labor, not artificial intelligence or scab workers," he added.
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Cardiovascular ER Visits Plunged After Pittsburgh Coal Plant Shut, Study Finds
"Our analysis adds to the growing body of scientific evidence that policies implemented to regulate and reduce fossil fuel-related air pollution have real public health benefit," said a study co-author.
Aug 04, 2023
Emergency room visits by people suffering heart attacks and strokes significantly decreased almost immediately after one of the largest coal-processing plants in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania shut down in 2016, a study published this week revealed.
The study—published in the journal Environmental Research: Health—found "immediate and/or longer-term cumulative local cardiovascular health benefits" after the January 2016 closure of the Shenango Coke Works on Pittsburgh's Neville Island following millions of dollars in government fines for polluting the air and water over its 54 years of operation.
Researchers Wuyue Yu and George Thurston observed a 90% drop in sulfur pollution, "as well as significant reductions in coal-related fine particulate matter constituents (sulfate and arsenic) after the closure," resulting in "a 42% immediate drop... in cardiovascular emergency department visits from the pre-closure mean."
The study found an even greater long-term reduction in cardiovascular ER visits, which plummeted by 61% in the three years after the plant's closure.
"The immediate and long-term benefits from dramatic reductions in exposure to air pollution are also analogous to the steady reductions in illness and disease that have been observed over time following smoking cessation," Thurston, a professor at the Departments of Medicine and Population Health at NYU Langone, said in a statement.
"Our analysis adds to the growing body of scientific evidence that policies implemented to regulate and reduce fossil fuel-related air pollution have real public health benefit," Thurston added.
Each year, air pollution kills more people worldwide than wars, tobacco, and various diseases combined—around 8.7 million deaths annually, according to one study, or nearly 1 in 5 of all global fatalities.
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'Huge Victory for Workers': Judge Excoriates Starbucks for Union-Busting in Pittsburgh
"Time is ticking, Starbucks and the longer you continue your anti-union crusade," said Starbucks Workers United, "the more the public will learn about your truly heinous actions against workers."
Jul 04, 2023
In what union members called a "huge victory for workers," an administrative judge with the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that coffee giant Starbucks violated federal labor law by terminating organized workers in several Pittsburgh locations, accusing the company of orchestrating a "purge" of employees leading the unionization effort.
The ruling by Judge Robert A. Ringler found that the company and local store managers in Pittsburgh abused their power and unlawfully targeted workers organizing with Pittsburgh Starbucks Workers United. As part of the decision, Ringler ordered the company to reinstate four fired workers and compensate any employees who lost income due to the illegal labor practices.
Noting how the specific union members were consistently treated differently than other non-union employees and ultimately fired, Ringler said in his ruling that a "repeated pattern of unlawful activity abundantly demonstrates a casual relationship between their firings and union activities."
Three of the fired workers were part of the union's 5-member bargaining unit, a fact that Ringler suggested was not a coincidence. "Starbucks fired 3 of the 5 members of the Union's effects bargaining team," he said in the ruling. "This appears to be less than coincidental. Or put another way, a whopping 60% firing rate for the effects bargaining team seems more like a purge than an evenhanded practice."
Tori Tambellini, one of the workers fired by Starbucks, applauded the judge's ruling. "I absolutely cannot wait to be back on the shop floor with my coworkers, fighting for the contract we deserve," Tambellini said Monday.
Starbucks Workers United, the national union behind the push to organize the stores, said the 50-page ruling by Judge Robert A. Ringler "exposes the ludicrous and simply implausible excuses Starbucks has used to justify their union-busting actions. It also shows just how far the company is willing to go to stop workers from organizing, and just how scared of their own workers this company is."
According to Mashed:
Starbucks' Pittsburgh union alleged that the Starbucks corporation and shift supervisors abused their power and interrogated, threatened, and unjustly terminated members of the union. Supervisors allegedly stated that union members would lose their benefits, be barred from transferring stores, and would be deprived of shift assistance during rush hours. The supervisors also engaged in unlawful surveillance to determine which employees were working with the union.
As workers at Starbucks stores nationwide have racked up organizing victories, the company has been hit numerous times with NLRB rulings that found unlawful labor practices.
"Not even a multi-billion dollar corporation like Starbucks is above the law," Starbucks Workers United tweeted Monday night. "Workers are fighting back against Starbucks' illegal union-busting campaign and are WINNING. This ruling is just one step in our campaign to hold Starbucks accountable."
"Time is ticking, Starbucks and the longer you continue your anti-union crusade," the union added, "the more the public will learn about your truly heinous actions against workers. It's not too late to stop this now, do the right thing, and come to the bargaining table in good faith."
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'Time to Rebuild This Nation': Fetterman Speaks Out After Pittsburgh Bridge Collapse
"This collapse is just the latest in a long line of preventable, man-made disasters that prove what so many of us in Pennsylvania and around the country have been saying for years: Our infrastructure is failing our people."
Jan 28, 2022
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman said Friday that the Pittsburgh bridge collapse that wounded 10 people demonstrates how the nation's decaying infrastructure is endangering lives, and that the disaster underscores the importance of earnestly implementing the bipartisan infrastructure law signed by President Joe Biden last year.
"Our roads and bridges, which are supposed to connect us and bring us together, are increasingly putting us in danger."
"This collapse is just the latest in a long line of preventable, man-made disasters that prove what so many of us in Pennsylvania and around the country have been saying for years: Our infrastructure is failing our people," Fetterman, a Democrat who is also running for the U.S. Senate, said in a statement. "Our roads and bridges, which are supposed to connect us and bring us together, are increasingly putting us in danger."
Fetterman's remarks came hours after Fern Hollow Bridge over Hot Dog Dam Dog Park, on the eastern edge of Frick Park, collapsed at around 7:00 am local time, hours before Biden was set to visit Pittsburgh to tout the infrastructure law. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the president will proceed with his planned visit to the city.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports 10 people were injured--three of them seriously enough to require hospitalization--in the collapse, which overturned multiple vehicles and sent a Port Authority bus sliding backward at a 45-degree angle before bridge debris stopped it. The falling bridge ruptured a gas line running below, causing a massive leak that witnesses said sounded like a jet engine. The leak has since been controlled. Emergency responders rappelled 100-150 feet down a hillside to rescue injured victims.
Appearing on MSNBC Friday morning, Fetterman--who lives near Frick Park--said that "it's surreal to see a bridge you've driven over thousands of times just collapse 60 feet below into the park where people could've been walking."
"Thank God that school buses were delayed due to weather, so there was less traffic than normal," he said in his statement. "Thank God there have been no casualties reported at this point. I wish all of those who were injured a safe and swift recovery."
Fetterman's statement pointed to the disatster as proof of "why infrastructure bills like the one President Biden signed into law last year are so important."
"Too often, D.C. politics can feel like insider baseball--and Pennsylvanians are left wondering how abstract legislation helps them," he continued. "But here, the answer is clear. As a result of Biden's infrastructure bill, the state is now getting $1.6 billion to repair bridges like this one."
"Now more than ever, we need to get to work. We need to make use of the legislation President Biden ushered in, rebuild our roads and bridges, and fix our faulty infrastructure," Fetterman added. "In Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, and across America, we cannot afford neglect any longer. It's time to rebuild this nation."
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The World Mourns for Jews After Pittsburgh's Synagogue Shooting. What About Other Targets of Hate?
It’s not enough to take a stand against anti-Semitism. We need to join together to fight all of it.
Nov 03, 2018
When a white supremacist killed 11 people and wounded 6 others at a Pittsburgh synagogue last weekend, the world took notice.
Lights dimmed at the Eiffel Tower and Empire State building.
Candlelight vigils were held nationwide - including in Boston, Houston, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles.
A host of international leaders from the Pope to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed outrage, sadness and solidarity.
I'll admit that as a native Pittsburgher and person of Jewish descent, it touched me deeply.
For a moment, it seemed like the whole world had stopped spinning and from every corner of the globe people were with us in our tragedy.
But at the same time, it was troubling.
After all, there were at least two other major hate crimes in the U.S. perpetrated within 72 hours of the shooting.
In Kentucky, a white man shot and killed two African-Americans at a Kroger grocery store following a failed attempt to break into a black church.
Only two days later, a deranged man who had railed against Democrats and minorities with hate-filled messages online was arrested for allegedly sending mail bombs to people who'd been criticized by President Donald Trump.
Where were the candlelight vigils for those atrocities?
Where were the international landmarks going dark?
Where was the worldwide condemnation?
In the wake of Pittsburgh's tragedy, these other violent acts have been almost forgotten.
Yet they're all symptoms of the same disease - hate and bigotry.
Don't get me wrong.
What happened in Pittsburgh was terrible.
The Anti-Defamation League estimates that the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue may be the most deadly attack on Jews on American Soil in our history.
But me and mine do not have a monopoly on sorrow.
We suffer, but we are not the only ones hurting.
This all happened not far from my home.
I'll admit that I am having a really hard time dealing with it.
I am not sleeping well.
I find myself zoning out in the middle of everyday activities.
And I feel this constant anxiety like part of me is expecting to hear a gunshot ringing down the hall at any time.
When the alleged shooter entered the sanctuary armed to the teeth and shouted "All Jews must die!" before carrying out his plan, he included me in his declaration.
All Jews.
That's me.
That's my daughter. My parents. My family.
It means something to me that so many people have come together to repudiate this crime.
The Islamic Center of Pittsburgh and other U.S. based Muslim groups donated more than $200,000 for funeral expenses. An Iranian refugee (who hadn't even been to the three rivers) started a GoFundMe that brought in $1 million for the victims and their families.
You can't go anywhere in Pittsburgh without a memorial, a moment of silence, a shared statement of solidarity and love.
At the symphony, musicians read two statements from the stage against hate before playing a Hebrew melody with string quartet.
At my school - I'm a teacher - the union decided to collect money for the victims.
I saw a barge floating down one of the rivers that had the message "Stronger Than Hate" on the side next to the modified Steelers logo where the top star had been replaced by a Star of David.
I even saw a similar message on a Wendy's sign: "PittsburghStrong/ Stronger/ Than Hate".
The community has come together in a way I've never seen before.
But I can't help wondering why.
Even after Richard Baumhammers went on a racially motivated killing spree in 2000 murdering five people including two Jews, the response wasn't this overwhelming.
Perhaps it's just that this latest shooting is the final straw.
Perhaps it is the moment when our nation finally pulls together and says that enough is enough - We won't tolerate this kind of hate and violence.
I hope that's it.
However, in the shadows of my mind I wonder if it might not be a reflection of the same beast that struck us last weekend.
Could it be that we're willing to put up with violence against brown people, but only draw the line when those targeted have lighter skin?
I guess my point - if I have one - is this: Thank you, But.
On behalf of Pittsburgh's Jews, thank you for having our back.
If we're going to survive this, we're going to need your continued support and solidarity.
But it's not just us.
Hate crimes have jumped from about 70 incidents a year in the 1990s to more than 300 a year since 2001. And after Trump was elected, 900 bias-related incidents were reported against minorities within the first 10 days.
Our country was built on the genocide of over 110 million indigenous Americans and the enslavement of 30 million Africans.
The idea of concentration camps didn't originate with the Nazis. Hitler got the idea from U.S. treatment of Native Americans.
Racism didn't end with the Civil Rights Movement. It just changed shape and is hidden in the way we practice health care, education, and policing all the way to mass incarceration.
The shock and solidarity in the wake of the synagogue shooting is appreciated, but it's not enough to mourn only when 11 Jews are murdered in cold blood.
It's not enough to take a stand against anti-Semitism.
We need to join together to fight all of it.
We need to be unified against school segregation, police brutality, xenophobia and prejudice in all of its forms.
The white supremacist who killed my friends and neighbors targeted us because he thought we were helping brown-skinned immigrants into the country.
We can't just stand for the helpers. We need to stand for those in need of that help.
It just won't work any other way.
We can't just be against violence to light skinned minorities. We have to empathize and protect our brown skinned brothers and sisters, too. We have to love and cherish our LGBTQ neighbors, as well.
We have to realize that our freedom, our safety, our very lives depend not just on what rights we have - but on what rights we give to all.
That is the only way any of us will ever feel safe again.
Through love and solidarity for every. Single. Human. Being.
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'We Are Not Alone': A Week After Deadly Synagogue Shooting, Jewish Leaders Invite People of All Beliefs to #ShowUpForShabbat
"What could be a more fitting response to the terror in Pittsburgh?"
Nov 02, 2018
An international Jewish advocacy group is urging Americans of all faiths and belief systems to attend Shabbat services at synagogues across the country this weekend, a week after 11 people were shot to death in an anti-Semitic attack at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Calling on Americans to join the #ShowUpForShabbat movement in a show of unity against anti-Semitism and violence, the New York-based American Jewish Committee (AJC) has reached out to religious leaders, elected officials, and other leaders to support the campaign. Many rabbis are expected to dedicate their Shabbat sermons to the initiative.
"The doors of synagogues are open to all," wrote Seffi Kogen, AJC's global director of young leadership. "If you consider yourself an ally of the Jewish people, join us in synagogue on Saturday morning. Elected officials: Come stand in solidarity with your constituents... Diplomats: Come and show that your country stands with Jews all over the world. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, people of any faith and of none: Come and show up for Shabbat with us this Saturday morning."
"What could be a more fitting response to the terror in Pittsburgh?" David Harris, CEO of the Committee, said in a statement. "We are not afraid. We are not going to think twice about affirming our identity and faith. We are not alone."
An outpouring of support from many religious communities followed the attack last Saturday, which took place in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
Members of the Muslim American community organized a fundraiser that as of Friday afternoon had raised more than $230,000 for the grieving families, while a Sikh leader in Oak Creek, Wisconsin urged worshipers to show the local Jewish community the same compassion that had been extended to them after a shooting at their own temple in 2012.
"After Oak Creek, the Jewish community resoundingly stood by Sikh Americans, and this time we encourage our whole community to stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters," Rajwant Singh, co-founder of the National Sikh Campaign, said in a statement.
On social media, others wrote about their intent to join the initiative in their towns and cities as the movement spread to dozens of Jewish communities around the world.
When you're 10,000km from home, and you feel the need to #ShowUpforShabbat, what's a 300km train ride to from Hiroshima to one of two synagogues in Japan, really? It was comforting to spend Shabbat with community. Even on the other side of the world, it somehow feels like home. pic.twitter.com/dKhrqAdVCf
-- Tema Smith (@temasmith) November 2, 2018
"We are determined to ensure that love triumphs over hate, good over evil, unity over division," Harris said. "That's our America."
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'President Hate, Not Welcome in Our State': Thousands Counter Trump With March for Love and Solidarity in Pittsburgh
"Nationalism, anti-Semitism, and white nationalism cannot be allowed to exist in our city. For many of us, our families came to this country to escape brutal leaders like Trump."
Oct 31, 2018
As President Donald Trump arrived in Pittsburgh on Tuesday amid opposition from local officials and activists who argued the man responsible for stirring so much racist hatred should not visit the site of a deadly mass shooting motivated by anti-Semitism, thousands of peaceful demonstrators flooded the streets near the Tree of Life synagogue to condemn Trump's embrace of white nationalism and demand that he end his assault on immigrants, refugees, and other minority communities.
"The shooting is almost like a manifestation of his hate that really hits home. I wanted to let him know we do not want him here."
--Elisa BorreroWhile the protestors and mourners were barred from approaching the synagogue as Trump lit memorial candles near the site of the deadliest attack on Jews in American history, reporters who accompanied the president said they could hear the chants and songs of protestors who marched down nearby streets.
As Trump attempted to leave the synagogue, police rushed to carve out a path for the presidential motorcade--but Trump was ultimately forced to take a different route after authorities were overwhelmed by the sheer number of protestors filling the streets wielding signs that read "President Hate is not welcome in our state" and "Your words have consequences."
"The shooting is almost like a manifestation of his hate that really hits home," Elisa Borrero, a 26-year-old demonstrator and Pittsburgh resident, told Al Jazeera. "I wanted to let him know we do not want him here."
"He's fostered an administration of white supremacy and he is not welcome here in our time of mourning."
Trump's motorcade forced to turn around after thousands of protesters flood #Pittsburgh streets #strongerthanhatehttps://t.co/5MuNoohXG6 pic.twitter.com/9AJu5GpyRh
-- Julie Laumann (@Otpor17) October 30, 2018
Rev. Susan Rothenberg--who lives just a block away from this weekend's anti-Semitic attack--shouted "it's not about you!" as the president and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in Pittsburgh.
"Let the families grieve. This is our neighborhood," Rothenberg shouted from the front of her home. "You are not welcome here!"
Following Tuesday's afternoon demonstrations, massive crowds gathered in the streets later in the evening to continue mourning the victims of Saturday's hate-driven atrocity, which left 11 dead and several more injured.
"As we're grieving, we recognize that the murder of 11 Jews on Shabbat did not happen in a vacuum--this violence is part of white nationalism. White nationalism targets a rotating cast of scapegoats with violence," IfNotNow, an American Jewish advocacy group that helped organize Tuesday's protests, declared in a series of tweets on Tuesday. "Nationalism, anti-Semitism, and white nationalism cannot be allowed to exist in our city. We have seen this before--here, and in countries our ancestors fled. For many of us, our families came to this country to escape brutal leaders like Trump."
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Trump's Trick or Treat
The president's games of Let’s Pretend and vilification have dire consequences.
Oct 31, 2018
This is not who we are. We are better than this.
How many times have we sincerely said this to ourselves, only to hear the words echoed by the very people who help stir the fires of bigotry and violence?
Take a look at some of those who sent their "thoughts and prayers" to the families of the eleven congregants gunned down Saturday at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue. Compare their words, as Igor Volsky, executive director at the activist group Guns Down, did, with the money they've received from the National Rifle Association. Here are just a few:
US Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS): "My prayers are with those who lost loved ones at the Tree of Life synagogue."
From the NRA: $1,584,153US Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV): "I'm praying for all the victims and their loved ones."
From the NRA: $335,770US Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX): "My prayers with all affected and selfless first responders."
From the NRA: $158,111US Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA): "Our hearts break for the victims of this anti-Semitic act..."
From the NRA: $137,232US Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV): "Lynne and I are praying for the victims and their family members..."
From the NRA: $125,302US Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH): "... We grieve for Pittsburgh and the Jewish community as a whole."
From the NRA: $114,548.
You get the idea. While their hands are busy being pressed together in prayer, sanctimonious politicians give a head nod to the gun lobby, asking it to slip more thousands into their back pockets, especially with the approach of Election Day. A reminder, too, that the AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle, one of the weapons used on Saturday, has been described by the NRA as "America's Rifle," and that variations have made appearances in Parkland, Florida (17 dead), and the Pulse nightclub in Orlando (49 dead); Las Vegas (58 dead); Sutherland, Texas (26 dead) and Newtown, Connecticut (28 dead), among many other scenes of murder and mayhem.
Of course when Dear Leader was asked about the Pittsburgh tragedy on Saturday, he said that the surfeit of guns in America - 393 million, more than there are people in the United States - and the lax laws regulating them had "little to do with it, if you take a look."
Instead, the president said that we need more guns in places like houses of worship: "If they had protection inside the results would have been better." To at least one of the mourning families, it was "inappropriate" and felt like Trump "was blaming our community."
Trump ignored the fact that police with guns were shot at the scene in Pittsburgh or that armed guards have in fact been present at many mass shootings. Soon our short-attention-span chief executive was talking and tweeting about other things, including the World Series - oh, and invasions of brown people and the media as an enemy of the people and the death penalty.
In truth, usually, these all too frequent mass shootings stir up a flurry of vows to do more about gun violence which all too quickly fades--until the next one--but Pittsburgh is one instance of in which the gun control issue almost immediately took a back seat to another enormous concern; primarily, the anti-Semitic, anti-immigration and other prejudiced, white supremacist sentiments expressed by supporters of this wretched White House.
In the social media of both the alleged Pittsburgh shooter Robert Bowers and Cesar Sayoc, arrested for the mailing of pipe bombs to top Democrats, other Trump critics and CNN, there was a spew of anti-Semitic and anti-refugee hatred, much of it directed against the bete-noire of the right, George Soros.
But it's all of a piece. Trump is frantically stirring the pot ahead of the midterms, encouraging xenophobia, tossing out ideas "to see what might stick," as Peter Baker of The New York Times put it, "... untethered from political or legal reality."
Some are marginally more benign than others--his imaginary middle class tax cut, for example. Other are just plain wacky but dangerous appeals to the base: 5200 troops to the Mexican border to combat a group of exhausted threadbare refugees that's a thousand miles away and diminishing in size by the hour, rejecting the 14th Amendment and ending birthright citizenship--convinced he can overturn a piece of the Constitution with a single stroke of his stubby black Sharpie. And all the while insisting that this and that scheme "has nothing to do with elections."
Yes, it's all meant as a distraction from such real issues as healthcare, the deficit and trade policy. And we should not let his patented heinous humbug to lure our attention away from any of them. But Trump's games of Let's Pretend and vilification have dire consequences. Already, too many people have been murdered, hurt or threatened by wingnuts who think they have the sometimes more than tacit approval of the commander-in-chief.
It's not for nothing that the Anti-Defamation League reports a 57 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents during 2017, "the largest single-year increase on record and the second highest number reported since the ADL started tracking such data in 1979." Also in 2017, the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, noted a 12.5 percent increase in hate crimes in the ten largest American cities, "the highest total in over a decade."
Yet virtually no one in the spineless Republican Party dares to challenge him. They've accepted, even embraced the hate and his other tricks in exchange for his treats - tax cuts for the rich, deregulation and hardcore conservative judges.
This is not who we are. We are better than this. I cringe when people say they find this president "exciting" (as in a fake reality TV show, I guess) or worse, "fun," as I heard a woman declare the other day on the radio. But it's not fun as in the orange-haired little boy from next door going trick-or-treating and soaping your windows or toilet papering the oak tree on the front lawn. A long time ago, the tricks of this petulant manchild escalated to burning down the house - while the rest of us still are in it.
Happy Halloween.
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'We Do Not Welcome Him. We Do Not Need Him': Protests Planned as Trump Defies Requests He Stay Away From a Pittsburgh in Mourning
"We certainly don't want Trump to feel welcome... He needs to take responsibility for the fact that his dog-whistle politics has helped enable the kind of violent action we saw at Tree of Life."
Oct 30, 2018
Large protests are expected Tuesday afternoon in Pittsburgh after President Donald Trump ignored demands from residents and members of the Jewish community that he stay away from the city--still reeling from the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue last weekend--until he fully denounces white nationalism and ends his hateful brand of politics.
"President Trump, words have consequences... The gunman who tore apart our neighborhood believed your lies."
--Bend the Arc coalition
In an open letter to Trump that's now garnered more than 72,000 signatures, local Jewish leaders wrote to the president that he is unwelcome in the city because the massacre of 11 congregants on Saturday was "the direct culmination of your influence," and that "your words and your policies have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement."
Despite the letter, Trump opted to visit Pittsburgh as the funerals for the victims began on Tuesday. In response, the local chapter of Bend the Arc--the progressive Jewish group behind the letter--has partnered with other organizations including branches of the Women's March and Indivisible for a 4pm event to "unite as a city to show our love for our neighbors, all our neighbors, whoever they are and wherever they come from."
Participants plan to sing songs for those killed in the shooting and march along Forbes Avenue in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood, according to the Facebook event, which also accuses the president of inciting violence. "We cannot trust that you will protect all our neighbors, regardless of religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity/expression," the groups declared. "Your words, actions, and policies have only been to do the opposite."
"President Trump, words have consequences," the organizers added. "The gunman who tore apart our neighborhood believed your lies about the immigrant caravan in Mexico. He believed antisemitic lies that Jews were funding the caravan. These are all things you and your party have claimed, without evidence, things that drove this madman to take his anger out on peaceful, sabbath-observing Jews."
Those marching with the Bend the Arc coalition, according to The Forward, will meet up with participants of the "Safety Through Solidarity" action, which is co-organized by the local chapters IfNotNow, the Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Voice for Peace, and others.
"Today, President Trump will visit Pittsburgh. We do not welcome him. We do not need him. We stand with each other and mourn for our dead, and show up to love and protect one another."
--IfNotNow coalition
Organizers of that 3pm demonstration said on Facebook: "Today, President Trump will visit Pittsburgh. We do not welcome him. We do not need him. We stand with each other and mourn for our dead, and show up to love and protect one another."
"We are going to be holding a public shiva and rally for all the victims of white supremacy in Pittsburgh and across our nation," IfNotNow activist Ella Mason told The Forward. "We certainly don't want Trump to feel welcome, should he come to Squirrel Hill... He needs to take responsibility for the fact that his dog-whistle politics has helped enable the kind of violent action we saw at Tree of Life."
Opposition to Trump's visit is not limited to local activists and the Jewish community. In addition to organized protests, the Washington Post reports that "a mourning family doesn't want to meet him. Top members of his own party declined to join him. The mayor has explicitly asked him not to come." Among those who declined invitations are Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.).
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'We Wish to Respond to Evil With Good': Muslims Raise Over $120,000 in 48 Hours for Victims of Anti-Semitic Mass Shooting
"We're not gonna stop. We don't think our work is finished because that's a high number."
Oct 29, 2018
As part of an enormous outpouring of interfaith solidarity after an anti-Semitic gunman killed 11 people who were worshiping inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday--the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history--a Muslim-led crowdfunding campaign has raised over $120,000 in just 48 hours to help pay for the immediate needs of the wounded victims and grieving families.
"If you need anything at all, if you need food for the families, if you just need someone to come to the grocery store because you don't feel safe in this city, we'll be there."
--Wasi Mohamed, Islamic Center of Pittsburgh
"The Muslim-American community extends its hands to help the shooting victims, whether it is the injured victims or the Jewish families who have lost loved ones," reads the site of the campaign, which was organized by CelebrateMercy and MPower Change. "We wish to respond to evil with good, as our faith instructs us, and send a powerful message of compassion through action."
Within just six hours of its launch on Saturday, the campaign had already far surpassed its initial goal of $25,000, and the donations continued to pour in.
As of this writing, the campaign is just $2,000 away from its updated goal of $125,000.
After announcing during an interfaith prayer service on Sunday that the Muslim-American community has raised tens of thousands of dollars to support the victims of Saturday's hate-driven massacre, Wasi Mohamed--executive director of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh--said, "We're not gonna stop."
"We don't think our work is finished because that's a high number," Mohamed said. "We just want to know what you need. If it's more money, let us know. If it's people outside your next service protecting you, let us know. We'll be there."
"If you need anything at all, if you need food for the families, if you just need someone to come to the grocery store because you don't feel safe in this city, we'll be there," Mohamed concluded. "And I'm sure everybody in the room would say the same thing."
Watch Mohamed's speech:
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