Yesterday out of nowhere, a woman claiming to be Q Lazzarus tweeted back at me saying she was indeed alive. I thought it was a joke, so I simply responded “you’re my new favorite account” and thought nothing more of it. This morning, that account tweeted “Any questions?” to which I responded “a whole email’s worth actually.” I then got a direct message stating the following:

“Hi, sorry to bother you. I just wanted people to know I am still alive, I have no interest in singing anymore. I am a bus driver in Staten Island (I have been for YEARS), I see hundreds of passengers everyday so I am hardly hiding (or dead!), I have given Thomas Gorton (Dazed) my fone number and address just to confirm I am ‘real’, sorry if this is a boring end to the story, I am going to come off twitter soon as I find it odd, please take note of this message incase anyone else is interested. THANK YOU”

Now, the bus driver part made sense to me because she was a cab driver when she was discovered–a logical step in the next direction, right? I still wasn’t entirely convinced, but the woman posted a selfie before deleting the account, of which I have a screen shot and it is indeed a woman resembling the rather mysterious looking (and notably rare) promo shots of Q from the late 80s. I decided to google “Diane Luckey” as that was the name the woman used as her Twitter display name, and AS IT FUCKING TURNS OUT there is a woman named Diane Luckey who filed a lawsuit against a Staten Island bus company in 2015 for not having a single woman driver....

Remembering Carol Bander: "une dame extraordinaire"

When Saddleback professor Carol Bander retired in 2016 along with two other colleagues, Trustee James Wright quipped from the dais that their combined years of teaching came to a grand total of 101. It’s worth noting that Carol contributed 39 of those 101 years, starting at Saddleback in 1977, when the college was just 9 years old. During those decades, as a professor of ESl and German and colleague extraordinaire, she made a difference in the classroom, on the campus and in the larger community.

Rebel Girl first got to know Carol during the Steve Frogue recall campaigns. Frogue, a champion of conspiracy theories and a supporter of Holocaust deniers, was ensconced on the SOCCCD Board of Trustees in the 90s until a determined coalition of faculty, staff, students and community members unmasked him. Carol and her husband Myron, UCI professor of Physics, were stalwart members of those campaigns, recognizing that what happens in the classroom and in the community is necessarily connected. Intersectionality, as the kids call it today.

Carol Bander died on November 10, at the age of 73.

Dan Rivas, a longtime colleague of Carol’s offered this eulogy at her service which captures so well her spirit and her contributions.

When my partner, Arturo, and I went to see Carol at the hospital in La Jolla, she looked pale and tired. She passed away a few hours later. She had difficulty speaking and her voice was weak. Around 11:30 AM we hugged and kissed and said goodbye. But then, suddenly, she perked up and in a very clear voice she asked us, “Where are you going for lunch?” THAT was Carol. She then proceeded to rattle off the name of several restaurants that we would enjoy.

Carol and I go back a long time. It was 1985, and I had just landed at Saddleback College as Dean of Liberal Arts. Carol was on the Liberal Arts faculty teaching German and English as a Second Language. It didn’t take me long to appreciate what a very special person Carol was, passionately devoted to her students and to the college. “Carol Bander inspired me in so many ways.” “Saddleback’s gem,” “An awesome teacher.” Those are not my words, but those of her former students writing about her. Carol was outgoing, upbeat, enthusiastic about her teaching, always trying new approaches, always looking for ways to make her classes a unique learning experience. Frequently, she would take students to L.A. to concerts, plays, and restaurants. Every semester she would invite her students to her home for pot-lucks and barbeques or, she would simply confiscate the culinary program’s test kitchen at the college to conduct a cooking class, in German, for her students. The result? That sinful Linzer torte, whose fragrant aromas would grace the building’s hallways and offices, making everyone long for at least a crumb of the leftovers.

For Carol, teaching was not just communicating knowledge. It was an adventure; the adventure of engaging her students in a journey of discovery and self-affirmation. Yes, the subjects were certainly there, German or ESL, but it was the medium that gave life to learning. And that medium was Carol, her bubbly personality, her creativity in the classroom, her genuine concern for her students, not only as learners, but also as human beings. She was the champion and spokesperson of ESL students, who frequently came from disadvantaged economic backgrounds are were often undocumented. Her students adored her, showered her with gifts, and flocked to her classes. But as gentle and patient as she was, Carol was also fiercely protective of her programs and her students. She was never unpleasant; she was simply persistently persuasive. She could come up with the most unimaginable reasons for maintaining a low enrolled class that was in danger of being cancelled and, in the end, she prevailed because it was impossible to argue with that level of passion and devotion to students. You see, it was all about them, never about her. It was truly exemplary.

But Carol was not only engaging as an instructor. Saddleback College was much more than a workplace for her. She was highly respected for her work with the Academic Senate, the Faculty Association, and numerous committees and faculty development projects that required much of her time during her long career. Outside the college she was well known for her positions of responsibility in professional organizations at the national, state and local levels. Everyone knew Carol and everyone also knew how valuable she was as a colleague and mentor.

As we gather here this afternoon to say good bye to Carol, I refuse to close this chapter in our lives. The Carol we deeply loved and admired is very much with us right now, at this moment, in our hearts, in our memories, in the lessons of her admirable life. Carol lives, and she lives perhaps more than ever. She lives in the memories of her friends and colleagues, in the thousands of students she taught. She lives in the stories she told us; in the narratives of her unbelievable travel adventures. As we evoke her life, her genuine kindness and generosity, and her professional accomplishments, I am reminded of that wonderful Mexican conviction that informs the celebration of the Day of the Dead and that was so wonderfully exemplified in the film “Coco.” In that tradition, those who have gone before us will always return and be with us as a loving presence but only as long as we remember them and narrate their stories. I, for one, will never be able to walk again into Moulin Bistro and not think of Carol, with whom Arturo and I, and many others, shared not only wonderful food, wine, and conversation on many occasions, but also shared the gift of each other’s presence. That is the Carol I will remember, and I know you will too. We are indeed fortunate for having been part of her life, and just as fortunate for treasuring the wonderful memories we have of her.

IVC ESL professor Colleen Hildebrand who knew Carol from the 80s onward recalls this side of her friend and mentor:

She and her husband Myron filled their lovely home with art and mementos of their visits to more than 100 countries. During one of their trips to Paris, Carol enrolled in the Cordon Bleu and passed (although she was forever bothered by not passing her puff pastry test the first time)! She was a gourmet chef and a true foodie, so anyone lucky enough to be invited to one of her dinner parties will never forget the experience. She knew which restaurants to visit, which bakery to explore no matter where she traveled, so I never had to worry about where I’d be eating when I was with her; she had already done the restaurant and bakery research beforehand. I remember one conversation she and I had about a Rhine riverboat trip I was planning. The land tours included cities in Germany and France. When she heard I was going, she said, “Oh, you must go to Delia’s when you are there!” I thought she meant a city in France. When I returned home, I apologized to her for not going there, and she responded, “Colleen, I wasn’t talking about a French town, I was talking about a bakery in Munich!” Of course Carol would want me to find the best eateries! Ah the world lost a very bright light in the early morning on November 10th when my sweet friend and colleague left us here. As her niece wrote in her FB tribute, Carol did indeed “charm the world” with her intellect & knowledge (she had a PhD and was fluent in several languages), curiosity, fun-loving, adventurous and giving esprit & joie de vivre. Carol was a gift to all of us, une dame extraordinaire who lived life to the fullest and taught us to live ours that way too. I hope is that she’s up in heaven with her beloved Myron and her other loved ones. I envision her with her family and friends at a great dinner party in a beautiful heavenly sky, dining on a feast of scallops, pétrale sole, lobster and duck, with a buttery linzertorte (a dessert she taught all her German students to make), and lifting a glass of fine wine, toasting to a life well-lived.

The Saddleback College ESL website notes that "[a]s her parents were refugees and she grew up bilingually, she brings an extra layer of understanding to her students' situation. She graduated with a B.A. in German from Queens College, City University of New York (Phi Beta Kappa) and with an M.A. and Ph.D. in German from the University of Southern California. She also received her ESL Certificate and secondary credential from the University of California at Irvine."

Longtime colleague and friend Saddleback professor Kathy Smith shared her eulogy:

This is hard.  When Carol asked me to speak today, I had no idea how hard it would be to honor the totality of a woman we all loved so much.  There is no way that mere words can do her justice. Like some of the delicious dishes she enjoyed cooking, she was rich and complex and layered. To quote Susan Stern,“ she was a brilliant teacher, a dedicated professional, an adventurous world traveler, an amazing and creative cook and a lover of all the arts. She kept up with and loved to discuss politics and world events.  She loved to host gatherings and bring people together.  She had a passion for life that drew people to her and enriched their lives.” Where to begin to express the profound effect she had on all of our lives? I found myself writing, then crossing out and starting over again. Draft after draft of what I could say that would truly honor dear Carol. I decided to just talk about my own memories of her…but this is just a small representative piece of who she was to all of us.  I first met Carol in 1978 when Saddleback College was still in its infancy and Carol and Maddy were beginning to develop the ESL program. I met her in a temporary building where she interviewed me for a position as an ESL teacher.  After I went home, I realized that she had her PhD and I had called her Carol or Mrs. Bander! I was mortified that I had not called her Dr. Bander.  I even called and apologized.  I still got the job, but as you all well know, it was never about Carol, although she was brilliant and highly educated and had her PhD, she never made herself the issue or flaunted her accomplishments. With that job began a 40-year friendship that has been the treasure of my life.  Working at Saddleback College was the perfect job for me, but more than that…working alongside Carol and having her friendship was such a privilege and a joy. She gave generously of her help and encouragement to everyone.   When a full time job became available, she encouraged me to apply, although I was quite hesitant because I had young children at home.  She convinced me that I could manage it. I got that job and thus began a new phase of our friendship.  We were Dept. Chairs together, taught together, attended seminars, gave presentations, and attended conferences of professional organizations together.  I am forever grateful that she had such faith in me and pushed me beyond my comfort zone, as she did for many others. I am basically a rather shy person, but her support and enthusiasm inspired me to stretch myself into new territories.  She believed in me probably more than I believed in myself. Her generosity and desire to help others extended to so many of us. With her professionalism and giving spirit, everything we worked on together was with an easy agreement and joy. There were never any harsh words. The complicated job of scheduling teachers and classes didn’t seem like work.  We moved classes and schedules around like puzzle pieces all the while munching on something delicious at her favorite bakery.
 She cajoled and convinced Colleen Hildebrand and me to join her in submitting a presentation to the professional organization TESOL (Teachers of English to speakers of other languages) for their annual conference. When our proposal was accepted, it entailed hours and hours of research and writing and meetings, but those meetings were laughter filled days of creativity.  She was meticulous in all she did and just as we would finish the handout for our presentation, she would come up with 5 or 6 more newspaper articles or pieces of research that should be included, so that our presentation handout grew to as much as 60 pages.  This was just the beginning of many more such presentations and trips together. Carol’s students adored her creativity, honesty and care for them.  She didn’t mind making herself the brunt of a funny story or laughing at herself… as when she left a raw duck in the trunk of the car for weeks, or when she fell into the water off the Balboa Ferry. She was also a champion of the noncredit ESL students who were often the most in need of English and encouragement. I would like also to speak for the thousands of students whose lives she touched and enhanced through her many years of teaching and her tireless devotion and love for those students.
  I will miss sitting at her kitchen table piled high with papers and magazines, drinking coffee and eating cookies or coffee cake or something wonderful she pulled out of her refrigerator that was stacked to the brim with deliciousness. She hosted so many lovely large and small parties with interesting guests and conversations. To paraphrase what Dan Rivas said in his retirement salute to her, “ If you were invited to Carol’s house for dinner, you dropped everything you were doing to come.”  
On one such occasion, when my husband and I arrived for dinner, the top to the blender had flown off while she was making lobster bisque.  The result was lobster all over the ceiling and in her hair and eyelashes, but with her typical good humor, she shrugged it off, wiped it off and carried on with great aplomb.
 We all know that Carol and Myron were intrepid travelers. They traveled to over 100 countries and survived everything from car trouble in the desolate wilds of the Baja peninsula to a horseback ride in a hurricane in Costa Rica. Carol had an undaunted desire to travel. On one occasion she, Colleen and I were scheduled to fly to Puebla, Mexico on Oct. 11, 2001… exactly one month after 9/11.  We were nervous about flying and when we got to the airport very early on a foggy morning, it was surrounded by The National Guard.  There were very few people venturing to travel. It was a bit frightening, but Carol was ready to go anyway…and we did.
 Even in these last few years, when her health had deteriorated and it could be a tiring exercise to haul her oxygen around and walking wasn’t so easy, she was still unstoppable and courageous.  Recently, we took a trip to Cambria.  She came… oxygen tank and all, determined not to let those things hold her back. As usual, her spirit was undiminished and she had found the best restaurants, hotel and wineries.
 I went with her to the recent 50th anniversary celebration at Saddleback College.  It was nice to see old friends and say hello, but when those friends and colleagues saw Carol… their faces lit up with joy and genuine delight to see her.  That was the kind of love she instilled in others. In the end, I think Carol’s most defining characteristic was love.  She put her heart into everything she did, from teaching to traveling to cooking. But her greatest love was… for all of us: her family, friends, colleagues, and students.  Her heart was so large and inclusive that her circle was huge.  She brought people together and I never saw her leave anyone out.  Besides missing her terribly, and wanting to pick up the phone and call her, we are left with a love for her… that we cannot give her. I believe the best way to honor someone you loved is to try to emulate their best qualities.  She taught us how to live graciously with unconditional love, generosity, courage and joy.
 Today, we are all one family in our grief for the loss of someone so adored, whose arms and home and heart were always open to us all.  With Carol, not just the butter was rich, life was rich and full and vibrant.  You can’t have known Carol and not been changed.  Carol Bander, you will not be forgotten, you will live in the hearts of every life you touched. 

*** 

Friends at the the well-attended funeral service tell Rebel Girl that they believe only a single administrator from Saddleback College and the district put in an appearance. Guess which one?

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Butte College needs our help.

The Butte College community up north needs our help. Students, staff and faculty have been displaced and some have lost everything. Rebel Girl heard from an IVC colleague who has strong connections up north and who has been privy to emails from students, faculty and staff. They are devastated. CTA represents the faculty at Butte and has made available disaster relief funds for them -and those affected by the Woolsey Fire as well. The CTA website lists a number of other resources for folks who want to help: Wildfires: How You Can Help. 

Among the resources listed there: the Butte College Education Association has set up two funds, one for faculty and staff, the other for students. Your donation at this time can make a real difference.

Click here for: Butte College Staff/Faculty Fire Relief Fund

Click here for Butte College Student Fire Relief Fund

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CSU Fullerton: "a responsibility to stand against anti-Semitism and other forms of hate"

Cal State Fullerton has a student newspaper and so can respond swiftly online and in print to campus events like this one. Check out their editorial:

Editorial: Anti-Semitism at California State University Fullerton

The phrase “For the many, not the Jew” appeared on a electrical city box on Tuesday outside of College Park. It brought with it the reminder that hate still has a voice, and far worse, it has found a way to speak on our campus.

The vandalized electrical box was downstairs from the Daily Titan newsroom, and feet away from a building frequented by Cal State Fullerton students.

While a written message may not seem like cause for concern, it occurs on the heels of a mass shooting at a synagogue in Pennsylvania as well as a string of anti-Semitic acts that occurred in Orange County over the last month.

It also brings anti-Semitism right to our campus a little over a week after local Jewish communities held a vigil at Becker Amphitheater for the 11 people killed in the Tree of Life synagogue shooting.

The message was scrawled in what appeared to be black marker, which would suggest that whoever wrote it did so in a careless manner and without much thought for how their message would be received.

In a time when white supremacist propaganda on college campuses has been increasing, especially in California, hateful messages like these can’t be taken lightly.

With so much hate in the nation, our campus should work to remain a safe place of acceptance, growth and knowledge, where people from all backgrounds can come to better themselves and their futures.

While the message isn’t a direct threat and wasn’t deemed as a hate crime by University Police, its intent is inherently hateful and shouldn’t be tolerated.

We cannot allow hate to be normalized in any capacity, furthering the deep divisions that have already embedded themselves into this nation.

This university is one of the most diverse college campuses in the state, and students, faculty and staff have a responsibility to stand against anti-Semitism and other forms of hate in solidarity.

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The Daily Titan was founded in 1960.

This Week in Threats, Heeded, Unheeded

This week at CSU Fullerton (photo from Orange County Jewish Life Magazine)

What to do in the face of threats?

I hope people call me insane’: Social media posts, former teachers reveal alarming mind-set of Thousand Oaks gunman by Matt Hamilton, James Queally and Richard Winton

Cluke, the former high school track coach, said she considered Long to be a “ticking time bomb.” She and another assistant coach, Dominque Colell, recalled how Long attacked Colell during a dispute in 2008. Colell said she was trying to determine if Long owned a cellphone that had been found by another student, and he was shaking with rage.

“He started to grab at me,” she said. “He reached around and with one arm, groped my stomach. He grabbed my butt with the other arm.” Colell said she reported the incident to school officials, who urged her to drop the issue to avoid jeopardizing Long’s dream of joining the military. “He was very determined and very angry,” she said. “He was probably the only student that I was actually scared of when I coached there.”...

Cluke said she witnessed the attack on Colell, and chose to speak out now because she felt sickened by what her former colleague had endured in attempting to hold Long accountable.“To be sexually violated and told by your bosses, ‘Get used to it’ ... it’s so wrong,” she said....

Cluke said she told her father, a staff member at the high school, and did her best to monitor Long herself. She felt that other staff members in positions of authority ignored Long’s behavior. “They chalk it up to being a teenage boy,” she said. “He needed help back then, and nobody even thought to seek any help for him.”

 L.A. Unified apologizes for keeping mum about armed man who tried to lure middle school girls off campus by Howard Blume

School district officials took the unusual step Wednesday night of offering an unqualified apology to an angry audience of parents.

The administrators told more than 200 parents at Reed Middle School that they had erred in failing to notify them and staff that a man had reportedly approached girls at school and then returned days later in a truck containing an arsenal of illegal weapons.

While insisting that the man posed no threat, officials said they had made the wrong call in keeping parents of students at the Studio City campus in the dark for more than two weeks. “We’re sorry,” said regional operations administrator Andres E. Chait. “This is something that was inexcusable.”

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Jackass Rohrabacher dispatched by Democrat; Trump an international embarrassment. Again.

Dana Rohrabacher, a pro-Russia Republican, narrowly loses House seat
(Washington Post)

     A Republican congressman known for his outspoken support for Russian President Vladimir Putin narrowly lost his Orange County, Calif., seat after 15 terms, a defeat that helped Democrats further solidify their House majority.
     Democrat Harley Rouda, a real estate executive, beat Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in one of the state’s most closely watched congressional races, the Associated Press projected on Saturday. Rohrabacher’s strong identification with President Trump and his unabashed support for Russia had made him ripe for a challenge in an affluent district that went for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
. . .
     Rohrabacher’s friendliness toward Russia has raised eyebrows over the years and became a focal point in the race. Referred to as “Putin’s favorite congressman,” the longtime Republican lawmaker has said that Putin beat him in a drunken arm-wrestling match in the early 1990s to decide who won the Cold War.
     The FBI warned Rohrabacher in 2012 that Russian spies were actively trying to recruit him. In 2015, Rohrabacher met with a woman in Russia who was later charged in the United States with spying for Moscow, an indictment the lawmaker called “bogus.”
     And he has expressed doubts about the intelligence community’s consensus that Russia interfered in the 2016 election….

French President Rebukes Trump’s “America First” Mantra
(Mother Jones)

     “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,” he said as Trump looked on uncomfortably.
     President Donald Trump’s troubled trip to France took a turn for the worse on Sunday. After Trump faced international criticism Saturday for skipping a planned visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery to honor soldiers killed in World War I, he received a new rebuke from French President Emmanuel Macron, who took a barely veiled swipe at Trump’s foreign policy during a ceremony Sunday commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the war.
     “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,” Macron said at the Armistice Day event, speaking in French. “By saying, ‘Our interests first, who cares about the others,’ we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what gives it grace, and what is essential: its moral values.”….

In case you missed it: news in review including IVC student in New Yorker article...

The success of Katie Porter’s sharply progressive candidacy in a place with so much Republican history and cultural mythology on its side has meaning even if she does not prevail.

photograph by Mike Blake / Reuters

Rebel Girl doesn't know what you do after election day but she reads. She is old school that way. It has its rewards like this: discovering an IVC student in this New Yorker article about Katie Porter whose efforts to succeed Mimi Walters to represent  CA-45 is still undecided. (Nate Silvers at 538 just moved the race from Toss Up to Lean Dem.)

"Chasing the Blue Wave in Orange County" by Dana Goodyear

Irvine, a little inland from the coast, is part of CA-45, where Katie Porter, a professor of consumer-protection law, had hoped to overtake the Republican incumbent, Mimi Walters, in a race that was supposed to be an indicator of the region’s changing political makeup. Porter’s name, in pink poster paint on a board emblazoned with dressing-room lights, adorned the entrance to a ballroom at the Hilton. Inside, supporters mingled, waited, checked phones, booed Senator Ted Cruz, of Texas, when he appeared on a large screen, and drank. When my eyes grew fatigued from watching screens, they sought shoes: flip-flops, Birkenstocks, Converse, hiking shoes, a few pairs of party flats with bows, Vans. Polling, a notoriously inexact science, had called the race for the Forty-fifth a tossup. I had a fleeting thought that there might not be enough party-flat-wearing women in the crowd for a Porter win. In the hotel bar, where everyone was watching CNN, I heard someone at a table of Porter people say, about the nationwide results, “Honestly, it’s not going to be as much of a blowout as I thought. I thought it’d be a frickin’ landslide.”

Back in the ballroom, I asked two Porter volunteers, in Vans, friends since elementary school, what drew them to Porter. “I live below the poverty line with my father,” Shayan Ehssan, who is Persian-American, told me. He is nineteen and goes to a community college. “I like the liberal agenda,” he said.

Ehssan is an IVC student - and his childhood friend, mentioned later in the article, may be as well.  It's good to see our students engaged in the electoral process and to see them featured in such a high profile publication as the New Yorker. What would attract Ehssan and other students to Porter's campaign? Goodyear's answer:

Student debt is not part of the incumbent’s platform; she’s far more interested in the national debt, and how to reduce it by cutting government spending. Mimi Walters was the only Orange County Republican to vote for Trump’s tax plan. Defending it, she said that her constituents—business owners and those with 401(k)s and stock portfolios—were thriving. Her allegiances were clearly with high earners, not with community-college students living with their dads. “Remember,” Walters told CNBC, “Many people who are in the, let’s say $200,000-$500,000 range, they had the alternative minimum tax. We’ve done away with it.”

Another great read this week: "An obituary for old Orange County, dead at age 129" by Gustavo Arellano published in the LA Times.

“Orange County,” the California collection of 34 cities and 3.2 million residents once described by President Reagan as where “all the good Republicans go to die,” died Tuesday. It was 129 years old.

Long famous for its wealth, whiteness and conservative values, Orange County is survived by its offspring, who include a population that is about 60% people of color, some of the most crowded and poor neighborhoods in the United States and a Republican Party that’s on the ropes. Once reliably red, the official cause of O.C.’s passing is a case of the blue flu, which turned its politics more purple than Barney the dinosaur....

Finally, considering all that's happening on campus and in our community, it's worth noting Frank John Tristan's feature article in this week's OC Weekly: RISE ABOVE, UNMASKED: A FORMER WEEKLYINTERN RECALLS HOW HIS SURF CITY ASSAULT BECAME AN FBI CRIMINAL PROBE INTO AN ALT-RIGHT GROUP

The article closes at the recent screening of the PBS/Pro Public documentary: Documenting Hate: Charlottesville at Chapman University, sponsored by OC Human Relations Council and others, featuring journalist A.C. Thompson, Gustavo Arellano and many more. The article concludes:

In response to moderator Dr. Lisa Leitz’s question regarding what to do about the growing threat of violence from white supremacists, Arellano said, “The most important thing is to shed light. “Back when I was at the OC Weekly, we’d always get criticized: ‘Why are you reporting on these fringe groups? They don’t matter; they don’t do anything at all. They’re losers,’” he explained. “And our response was ‘Yeah, they’re losers, but somebody needs to keep an eye on them, and more important, somebody needs to expose them.’ As a reporter, you have to be able to expose these people, and you can’t stop.”

Illustration by Richie Beckman

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Yep

Not so long ago

Election 2018: Orange County GOP faces tipping point in longtime stronghold
(OC Reg)
MARTIN WISCKOL

• Democrats have closed the gap by holding its voter share while GOP’s older voters die and are replaced on the rolls by young, independent voters — and to a lesser extent, by Republicans re-registering as independents. In 1990, Republicans edge over Democrats was 56 percent to 34 percent. Today, it’s 34.7 percent to 33.5 percent.
• As recently as 2002, voters under 34 favored the GOP 42 percent to 29 percent. Today, people of that age favor Democrats 38 percent to 20 percent. Voters ages 35 to 44 also favor Democrats. Voters 44 and older prefer the GOP, with the Republican advantage biggest among those over 70.
• In 2002, Latinos were 18 percent of registered voters and favored Democrats over Republicans 53 percent to 28 percent. Today, they are 20 percent of voters and prefer Democrats 52 percent to 17 percent.
• In 2002, Asians were 9 percent of registered voters and favored Republicans 40 percent to 31 percent. Now they are 15 percent of voters and prefer Democrats 30 percent to 29 percent. While Republicans still have the edge among Vietnamese, Democrats are more popular among East Indians, Filipinos and Koreans. Chinese and Japanese are almost evenly divided.

Trump's deft touch

Voter suppression: 1988 and 2018

The pious Mr. Fuentes

Without evidence, Trump and Sessions warn of voter fraud in Tuesday’s elections (Washington Post)

President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday issued strong warnings about the threat of voter fraud in Tuesday’s elections, echoing the president’s baseless claims that massive voter fraud marred his 2016 election and prompting accusations that his administration is trying to intimidate voters.
. . .
In remarks to reporters on his way to a campaign rally in Cleveland, Trump also falsely claimed that voter fraud is commonplace.
. . .
Voting rights advocates denounced Trump’s remarks as a blatant attempt to intimidate voters on the eve of Election Day — and part of a pattern among Republicans, they said, to curtail voting access with strict rules that disproportionately affect voters of color who tend to vote Democratic.

     Perhaps some DtB readers will recall that the KING—and modern-day original practitioner—of outrageous voter intimidation tactics was none other than Tom Fuentes, who joined the SOCCCD Board of Trustees in July of 2000:

That notorious episode: Tom's "goons" (DtB, 1/16/10)

     SOCCCD Trustee Tom Fuentes may be pious as hell, but he ain't decent.
     Perhaps the most notorious episode of Fuentean ungentlemanliness (aka abject loutitude) occurred twenty-one [now 30] years ago.

     In an open letter to Tom, in 2005, Gustavo Arellano describes the incident:

...[Y]ou approved the use of poll guards to stand outside polling places in Latino neighborhoods when they cast ballots for the 72nd Assembly District race. The Republican Party candidate, Curt Pringle, won the election. But the subsequent furor led to your resignation as communications director for the Catholic Diocese of Orange, an exodus of Latino voters from the GOP (the first of many, it would turn out) and various settlements of lawsuits regarding the matter totaling more than $480,000. (See An open letter to the former GOP chairman, current college trustee, forever self-destroyer, OC Weekly.)

     It happened during the election of 1988....

Fuentes and Bush, pals

SEE ALSO Hastert and Fuentes and bears, oh my!

IVC in the News

Anti-semitism in action in Irvine. Clip from security camera at Beth Jacob Synogogue. 

IVC in the news:

from Newsweek:

‘KILL ALL JEWS’ TRENDS ON TWITTER AFTER SYNAGOGUE VANDALIZED

The Brooklyn synagogue was vandalized a day after a similar incident took place in California.

The Beth Jacob Synagogue in Irvine, California, was defaced with anti-Semitic slurs on Wednesday, ABC News reported.

"This morning's news of anti-Semitic vandalism against one of Irvine’s synagogues, along with reports of a recent incident at Irvine Valley College, are both enraging and unacceptable," Irvine Mayor Don Wagner said of the incident. "They will not go unchallenged by the good people of Irvine. An attack on anyone in Irvine of any faith is an attack on us all."...

The murders and vandalism come amid rising anti-Semitism under President Donald Trump, according to the Anti-Defamation League. In 2017, anti-Semitic incidents increased 57 percent, according to the organization. The 1,986 anti-Semitic events recorded last year represented the second-highest number in the ADL's almost four decades of tracking.

from CNN
A California synagogue was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti four days after Pittsburgh

Mayor Don Wagner said the vandalism and a similar anti-Semitic incident at Irvine Valley College are "enraging and unacceptable."
In early October, police found swastikas scrawled in the restrooms of the college, according to a local councilwoman.

from the LA Times:
Officials offer reward for tips leading to suspect in vandalism of Irvine synagogue

Glenn Roquemore, president of Irvine Valley College, promised to stay vocal against hate and violence across the country, adding that school officials recently discovered swastikas defacing restrooms on campus.

The OC Register also covered this but Rebel Girl can't get behind their paywall and refuses to renew her subscription until they stop giving white supremacists and their ilk a platform in their comments section.

Meanwhile in Florida in case anyone (anyone?) is interested in how misogynistic threats against women are manifested and carried out:

Gunman In Yoga Studio Attack Had A Criminal History, Posted Racist And Sexist Videos

The AP also reported that Beierle was banned from FSU's campus in 2014.... And one woman, Courtnee Connon, who told the Tallahassee Democrat that Beierle grabbed her buttocks in her dining hall at FSU in 2012, said she spoke with police but ultimately decided not to pursue charges against Beierle. Connon, who was 18 at the time of the incident, told the Democrat she was scared by the idea of going to court and unsure criminal charges would deter Beierle from assaulting women in the future.

Scott Paul Beierle

On Saturday, Buzzfeed News reported that Beierle had uploaded a series of racist and misogynist videos to YouTube in 2014, and that he had also posted songs on SoundCloud in the past few months. According to Buzzfeed News, a song posted shortly before Friday's shooting included the lyrics: "To hell with the boss that won't get off my back /To hell with the girl I can't get in the sack." Additionally, one of Beierle's YouTube videos reportedly expressed sympathy with Elliot Rodger, who went on a misogynist killing rampage in Isla Vista, Calif., in 2014.

All of Beierle's original videos were removed from YouTube after Buzzfeed News published its story, but a video posted to YouTube on Saturday appears to be a duplicate of one of Beierle's original video rants. In it, a man whose likeness matches the photo of Beierle released by the Tallahassee Police Department uses a racial slur to describe black people and goes on to list the reasons he despises them. It includes a section in which he called black women "ugly and disgusting."

The AP also reported that "a man who looks like Beierle" appeared in a series of videos posted to YouTube in 2014, and that in the videos he called women who date black men "whores," spoke of an "invasion" from Central America and ranted about women....
Miller could not confirm misogyny as a motive in this attack. But Beierle's online emphasis on romantic rejection — and his reference to Elliot Rodger — does call to mind the group of men on the Internet who term themselves "incels," which is short for "involuntarily celibate."

...In April, a man linked to the incel community plowed his van into a Toronto sidewalk and killed 10 people. In the aftermath of that attack, NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro spoke with Arshy Mann, a Toronto-based reporter who covers incels and defines them as an "online subculture of young men who feel very frustrated with their sexual and romantic lives."

Be safe out there.