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Family meets with man who sprayed racist graffiti on their home

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Rene de Monchy dies at 68

MEG MCCONAHEY

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | August 20, 2017, 7:55PM

| Updated 6 hours ago.

One man late Thursday night sprayed three hateful words on the garage door of a northwest Santa Rosa family.

Sunday afternoon, a clean-up crew of more than 50 people appalled by the display of racism, showed up to wipe away the graffiti and show Fijian immigrants Di and Bentley Chong Wan that one guy with a spray can doesnt speak for them.

Residents of the older subdivision near Coffey Park streamed into the cul-de-sac where the Wans have rented a home for the last year bearing covered dishes, small bouquets of flowers and supportive signs reading, Only Love Prevails Here and Keep Hate out of Santa Rosa.

I am so overwhelmed by the support of my neighbors, said Di Chong Wan, surveying the turnout from a camp chair on the sidewalk. Something good always comes out of small bad things. Love overrides everything.

Helen Tucker, who lives a few streets over, had walked past Di Wan in Coffey Park Saturday and approached her after noticing shed been crying.

If it happens somewhere else its hard to do anything about it. But I can do this and it feels really good, said Tucker, who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years. For the potluck she looked up Fijian recipes and made a traditional banana cake.

Di Wans husband Bentley, 50, said it hit him like a brick wall when he came home Friday morning after working all night both he and his wife are in-home caregivers to discover someone had scrawled I hate n.....s in large black letters on his garage door.

It shocked us. Weve seen stories like this in the news and now its happening to us, he said. I didnt know what I should do, or if I should do anything at all. I brushed it off a little bit. But finally it dawned on me that this is unacceptable.

One of the Wans five sons who was home at the time, spotted the hate tag and called Santa Rosa Police.

The Wans have a small security camera outside their home and captured footage of the perpetrator, which they gave to police. In the meantime, Bentley Wan decided to take matters into his own hands. He said he determined that the vandal was a 28-year-old man who had been visiting the son of a neighbor.

The Wans tracked down the man, who does not live in the neighborhood, and invited him to come over and talk. He showed up Saturday night, Bentley Wan said, and spent about 90 minutes talking with his family. He told them he lashed out after he found his car, parked near the Wan home, vandalized. He wound up apologizing.

The Wans declined to identify the man.

I was trying to understand why he did it, said Bentley Wan, who was a teacher of math and economics in Fiji. Was he coerced? What did he mean? I concluded he was just a young, drunken man who was mad and wanted to vent his anger and frustration. I dont know why he chose the word he did.

Santa Rosa police said the incident is under investigation. They were unaware the Wans had identified and met with the perpetrator.

Sgt. Marcus Sprague, who supervises the property crimes unit, said Sunday the recording submitted by the Wans lacked sufficient quality to make a positive identification. He said the case remains under investigation and detectives today will interview potential witnesses and review the tape and see if there is anything else we can do.

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Ultimately, it will be up to the Wans to press charges if a suspect is identified, he said.

Sprague said there is no apparent rash of hate graffiti in the Wans neighborhood.

Graffiti is typically a misdemeanor. But it can rise to a felony if there is a suspicion that it is related to a hate crime, Sprague said.

The Wans immigrated from Fiji eight years ago and chose to settle in Santa Rosa at the urging of friends.

They told me the weather is beautiful, Bentley Wan said. The people are beautiful. It has all the comforts of the city but it doesnt feel like a big city. Its homey. I came here and found its the absolute truth.

Despite the words left on his garage, his faith in community remains unshaken thanks to the support from acquaintances and complete strangers.

Thank you. The only word that comes to mind is that were overwhelmed by your love and care, he told the gathering, after several took up rags and solvent and wiped off the words in a display of solidarity. Since it was discovered Friday, the graffiti was concealed behind a banner hung by neighbor Pamela Van Halsema. A teacher and librarian at Kenilworth Junior High, she organized the block party believing there is safety in numbers and if people know one another, they will be more likely to support each other.

Van Helsema said she has long worried about a rising and vocal hate rhetoric in the country that came to a head at a white nationalists rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Aug. 12. The gathering turned violent, leaving one counter-protester dead and 34 people injured. Two Virginia State Police officers in a helicopter monitoring the rally also died when it crashed.

Van Helsema printed out flyers and knocked on doors around the neighborhood. The reaction was mixed.

I had one person say, Well, maybe somebody doesnt like them. And another literally cried when I told them what happened, she said.

She has attended several meetings of Santa Rosa Standing Together, a grass roots group aimed at breaking community social and racial barriers. She learned the first step to understanding is getting to know one another. Bringing people together in her own neighborhood seemed to a good place to start.

Sharing a meal together is one of the best levelers in the whole world. Often what you bring reflects a little bit of who you are, said Van Helsema, whose two daughters saw the graffiti Friday morning while walking the dog. Daughter Talia Mulder, 17, knocked on the Wans door and offered to paint their garage.

Betsy Sanville, a nurse from Forestville, brought several heart signs on stakes saying Love Lives Here and Be Kind to place in the Wans yard. Di Wan is a caregiver for her 91-year-old mother.

Shes just a big-hearted and warm-hearted woman who makes my mom feel safe and brings lightness to her home with a sense of humor and tender loving care, she said.

Im surprised how sad this makes me feel. And some of that is not knowing what to do about it, not knowing how I can make the most difference to change peoples thoughts.

Bentley Wan said he doesnt feel like pressing charges. That, he said, would smear the mans name.

The last thing we want is for him to lose his job or be destroyed, Bentley Wan said. That would destroy what this whole process is trying to restore. I was taught not to bear a grudge and not to carry hatred. You cant live your life carrying excess baggage. It will just slow you down.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @megmcconahey.

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Mondays Letters to the Editor

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A Santa Rosa neighborhood's love wipes out hate - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

The Republican National Committee paid the Trump International Hotel in Washington $122,000 last month after the party held a lavish fundraiser at the venue in June, the latest example of how GOP political committees are generating a steady income stream for President Trumps private business, new Federal Election Commission records show.

At least 25 congressional campaigns, state parties and the Republican Governors Association have together spent more than $473,000 at Trump hotels or golf resortsthis year, according to a Washington Post analysis of campaign finance filings. Trumps companies collected an additional $793,000 from the RNC and the presidents campaign committee, some of which included payments for rent and legal consulting.

The nearly $1.3 million spent by Republican political committees at Trump entities in 2017 has helped boost his company at a time when business is falling off at some core properties. Mar-a-Lago, Trumps private club in Palm Beach, Fla., lost at least 10 of the 16 galas or dinner events it had been scheduled to host next winter in the wake of Trumps controversial response to a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

The market has been much more bullish for the presidents new hotel in Washington, which has emerged as the go-to venue for GOP power brokers and groups on the right. Trump International, whose room rates appear to be the most expensive in the city, generated nearly $2 million in profit in its first four months, as The Washington Post previously reported.

[How the Trump hotel changed Washingtons culture of influence]

In late June, an estimated 300 Trump supporters attended a $35,000-a-person RNC fundraiser at the ornate hotel, raising a reported $10 million for the party and Trumps reelection committee.

The RNC is among 19 federal political committees that have patronized the Pennsylvania Avenue establishment this year. One of the biggest spenders has been Trumps reelection committee, which has shelled out nearly $15,000 for lodging there, filings show.

The Washington hotel also hosted events for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (Calif.), whose campaign committee spent more than $11,000 on event space and catering in late May and mid-June, as well as Rep. Jodey Arrington (Tex.), whose committee paid nearly $9,700 in early January for facility usage, food and beverages. The campaign of Rep. Bill Shuster (Pa.) spent more than $6,000 for event facility rental in early April. And the committee of Rep. David Valadao (Calif.) paid $1,744 on March 9 for a fundraiser at the BLT restaurant in the hotel.

Additional GOP lawmakers whose campaign committee or leadership PACs spent money at the hotel include Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.), Rep. Eric A. Rick Crawford (Ark.), Rep. Mike Kelly (Pa.), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Rep. Ted Yoho (Fla.).

Trumps other signature properties also have drawn GOP fundraising events. The Republican Party of Virginia spent $9,705 on room rental and catering at Trumps Virginia golf club in May. A joint fundraising committee for Rep. Tom MacArthur (N.J.) spent $15,221 in June for venue rental/catering at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., which the president has been visiting frequently.

One of the largest expenditures by a political committee at a Trump property was made bythe Republican Governors Association, which paid more than $408,000 to hold an event this spring at the Trump Doral Golf Course, according to tax filings a gathering the RGA said had been booked more than two years in advance.

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Republican committees have paid nearly $1.3 million to Trump-owned entities this year - Washington Post

Arthur J. Finkelstein, a longtime GOP pollster and strategist credited with helping elect Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, has died at age 72 of lung cancer, his family says.

Finkelstein, considered less flamboyant but arguably more influential than better known Republican strategists, such as Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes, is widely regarded as the man responsible for turning the word "liberal" into a pejorative to be wielded against Democrats. He was also considered a pioneer in developing political action committees to raise vast sums of money for campaigns.

"Those who matter in politics are familiar with Arthur, but no one beyond that; which is the way Arthur likes it," wrote Craig Shirley at National Review in January. "He's never been the face of a wristwatch, but the gears would not run without him. While other consultants run to the spotlight, Arthur has always run away from it."

He was instrumental in helping to elect or re-elect such figures as Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, New York Sen. Alfonse D'Amato and New York Gov. George Pataki. He also worked on campaigns for Israeli prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon.

Minnesota Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone told The Washington Post in 1996 that Finkelstein "dictated the message strategy" for Republicans, which was to charge "liberal, liberal, liberal."

According to The New York Times, Finkelstein "pioneered sophisticated demographic analyses of primary voters and methodical exit polling, and of using a marketing strategy, called microtargeting, to identify specific groups of potential supporters of a candidate regardless of their party affiliation."

"He would bombard them with appeals to support a candidate through direct mail and phone calls, coupled with television advertisements that mercilessly exploited a rival's vulnerabilities."

The Washington Post writes:

"He was also something of a political conundrum especially after it was revealed in 1996 that his private life as a gay man was in sharp contrast to the views of some of the conservative firebrands he helped elect. Helms, for instance, often railed against the 'homosexual movement,' which he said 'threatens the strength and the survival of the American family.'

"In 1996, New York Times columnist Frank Rich described Mr. Finkelstein as someone who 'sells his talents to lawmakers who would outlaw his family's very existence.'"

In 1994 rival political consultant Philip Freidman described Finkelstein as "the ultimate sort of Dr. Strangelove."

Freidman told The New York Times that Finkelstein "believes you can largely disregard what the politicians are going to say and do, what the newspapers are going to do, and create a simple and clear and often negative message, which, repeated often enough, can bring you to victory."

Link:
Influential Republican Strategist Arthur J. Finkelstein Dies : The Two ... - NPR

Welcometo Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Subscribehere.

Topspin

Downstate Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis says President Donald Trumps lack of discipline in his messaging is derailing the White Houses larger agenda for the country. Davis, of Taylorville in central Illinois, said new White House chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, needs to explain to Trump the importance of using the bully pulpit to push his agenda. Asked on WGN 720-AMSunday if Trumps comments and social media use are getting in the way, Davis agreed. Thats where someone like General Kelly has to come in and help guide this White House to understand how important his messaging is, how important these rollouts are to actually having an effective agenda, he said. Davis noted that Trumps controversial Trump Tower news conference last week over the deadly protest in Charlottesville, Va., originally was supposed to deal with an executive order on improving the nations infrastructure. Every single time the president decides to take questions at a press conference, hes got to understand that theyre not going to ask him about the executive order. And everything he says after that press conference announcing one of his priorities is going to be glossed over and missed, Davis said. The American people elected the first president in our lifetime in Donald Trump that did not have any government or military experience. That means hes got a different learning curve and a different style in being president in what all of us have been used to our entire lifetime, he said. So its going to be different. The American people wanted something different and they got it. Now its up to General Kelly and others that (Trump) knows his agenda is going to be sidetracked if he keeps doing this. (Rick Pearson)

Lolita C. Baldor and Robert Burns

What's on tap

*Mayor Rahm Emanuel will joinPolice Superintendent Eddie Johnsonannouncinga policebody camera initiative.

*Gov. Rauner and First Lady Diana Rauner will attend an eclipse viewing eventat Southern Illinois University.

*There will be a solar eclipse from just before noon to just before 3 p.m. in the Chicago area. Despite the sun, the moon and the Earth lining up, peace is not expected to break out at the Illinois Capitol.

*The week ahead:On Monday, new Chicago Sun-Times CEO and former Ald. Edwin Eisendrath will give a lunchtime talkat the City Club of Chicago.On Tuesday, legislative leaders plan to meet again in ongoing school funding negotiations.On Wednesday, the Illinois House is back in Springfield to consider overriding Rauner's education bill veto. Also, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin will speak at the City Club.

Julie Pace and Bill Barrow

From the notebook

*Air war revs up as Illinois still without school funding bill: As negotiations resume this week over Illinois' lack of a school funding plan, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and a group aligned with Democrats are already doing battle over the airwaves.

Do Your Job Inc., a tax-exempt group led by two Democratic lawmakers and the head of the Illinois AFL-CIO, says it's spending $500,000 on TV spots to try to pressure Republican lawmakers to override the governor's rewrite of a sweeping education funding bill.

"Rauner wont compromise," the ad's narrator states. "Republicans and Democrats have to fund our schools without him. Sound familiar? Tell your legislator: Override Rauner."

Last week, Madigan pointed to TV adsaired by the Rauner campaign in accusing the governor of not being willing to compromise. Those debuted on Governor's Day at the Illinois State Fair, when House lawmakers convened to vote down the governor's education funding changes.

"Illinois' education system is broken," one spot's narrator says. "Just more insider deals and special interest giveaways. Bruce Rauner's plan is based on bipartisan reforms."

Both groups bought time during Sunday's Cubs-Blue Jays game on WGN-TV.

A meeting among legislative leaders Friday lasted more than two hours and was productive, according to Senate Republican leader-in-waiting Bill Brady's spokeswoman, Patty Schuh. She said she called the Tribune on behalf of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan's spokesman Steve Brownbecause he wasgoing to say the same thing.

That tight-lippeddisplay of bipartisanship comes as another meeting is set for Tuesday, ahead of Madigan's planned vote to override Gov. Rauner's veto on Wednesday.

The speaker said last week that if an override attempt fails Wednesday, lawmakers have until Aug. 29 to try again.

*Quick spins: State Sen. Dan Biss, who's running for the Democratic governor nomination, claimed the endorsement of Sen. Pat McGuire, a colleague who represents the Joliet area. ... Democratic U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Evanston has signed on to a long-shot House resolution to censure President Donald Trump, saying "as an American Jew, I know there are no two sides to the story when one side is Nazism.

*The "Sunday Spin":On this week's show, Chicago Tribune political writer Rick Pearson's guests were Republican U.S. Rep.Rodney Davisof Taylorville and veteran State Journal-Register Capitol reporter Doug Finke. The"Sunday Spin"airs from 7 to 9 a.m. on WGN 720-AM. Listen to the full show here.

What we're writing

*Rauner facing pressure from Downstate Republicansto veto 'very reasonable' immigration bill.

*Emanuel, Rauner spar in latest front in war over school funding.

*Governor's Friday afternoon news dump: Raunervetoes bills on spending transparency, home health care worker OT, Lake County election.

*Chicago's violent weekend: 33 shot, six fatally, in 13 hours.

*Malia Obama's gap year about to end as she goes to Harvard.

*Cook County soda tax lawsuit alleges Jewel wrongfully taxedconsumers paying with food stamps.

*AG Madigan wins $4.5 million settlementwith opioid drugmaker.

*One fatally shot after leaving Cook County courthouseat 26th and California.

*On Illinois farms where labor is tight, foreign workers welcomed.

What we're reading

*Blagojevich had a "football" too. It was his hairbrush.

*VFW hall's $1.6 million jackpot creates a big stir in tiny Morris.

*Carbondale hopes 60,000 eclipse tourists can invigorate city: "Mother Nature has given us a gift."

*What's the best hot dog mustard? We taste test 12 brands.

Followthe money

*The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform tracks the week's big donations.

*Track Illinois campaign contributions in real timehereandhere.

Beyond Chicago

*Trumpto address nation on Afghanistan tonight. Will he increase troop levels?

*Bannon out at White House, quickly back at Breitbart. The rise and fall. Will his agenda survive at White House without him, NYT asks?

*Ohio's Kasichhas no plans to challenge Trump in 2020.

*Nearly500 dead in Sierra Leone mudslides.

Originally posted here:
Morning Spin: Downstate Republican congressman says Trump derailing his own agenda - Chicago Tribune

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Having refused to repeal Obamacare, the Republican Party is dead, as was the Whig Party in 1854 after it colluded in the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act which opened these territories to slavery.

Republican majorities in both Houses of Congress as well as control of legislatures and governorships in 26 states veil the fact that, in 2017, there are no longer reasons to vote Republican any more than there were to vote Whig after 1854.

The Republican Partys successes in recent electoral cycles were due to the American peoples desire not to be governed by a ruling class, headed by the Democratic Party, which is restricting, insulting and impoverishing the country. Republican voters were hopeful but doubtful. In the 2016 Republican primaries the overwhelming majority of votes went to candidates least tied to the party establishment.

In 1854, the Whig Party finished itself off because its support of Kansas-Nebraska was the last in a long line of acquiescences to the Democratic Partys agenda regarding slavery and expansion. Obamacare is a principal part of what Democratic rule imposed on America. By embracing it in 2017, the Republican Party removed any prospect that it might serve as an alternative to Democratic rule.

Political parties live and die by their capacity to represent their constituents sentiments. In our time, there is no doubt that the Democratic Party reflects its voters, any more than there was in the first half of the 19th century.

But, now as then, opposition to the Democratic Party has no viable political vehicle. The Whigs, like todays Republicans, contained a substantial percentage of prominent people whose interests and ideas are hardly distinguishable from those of Democrats.

Hence, to Whigs such as William Seward, John C. Fremont and Salmon P. Chase, passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act proved that, if they really were going to oppose slavery in the territories, if they were really going to counter the Democratic foreign policys amorality, they would have to leave some of their colleagues and found a new party.

They called the new party Republican. They dedicated it to fighting slavery and polygamy the twin relics of barbarism. Because there was no doubt that this core of conscience Whigs meant it, they drew in a host of others, plus some fallen-away Whigs, like Abraham Lincoln, for whom Kansas-Nebraska had been the last straw.

By the next election cycle, the party fielded a presidential candidate. By the one after that, they won the presidency in a three-way race.

Todays America does not need a third party. When Congressional Republicans and Democrats together affirmed Obamacare; as they set about financing the health insurance industry in explicit contradiction of law; as every branch of the permanent government continues to have its unaccountable way with Americans; as a foreign policy of indecisive warfare continues despite popular opposition, there is no doubt that todays America is ruled by a single ruling party and that the Republican Party is part of that party rather than an alternative to it.

Why vote Republican when that results, rhetoric aside, in being governed as by Democrats? America needs a true alternative to our ruling Uni-party, a true second party.

The New Party would be about returning America to the rule of law under the Constitution. That would mean rolling back the judicial-administrative state that is restricting economic activity, religious freedom and imposing an alien morality on America.

The party would tailor ingress of foreign labor to Americas needs, and treat citizenship as a privilege. Its foreign policy would aggressively defend vital interests while ending indecisive warfare.

There is no doubt that the New Partys core would be formed by people who currently label themselves Republican, just as the original Republicans were mostly re-labeled Whigs, or that the new party would pursue much of what the Republicans have purported to pursue, just as the original Republicans pursued much of the old Whigs agenda.

The crucial difference, now as 160 years ago, is that the New Party would cast aside its links to the establishment, would incorporate new concerns, and that it would mean what it said.

Were such a New Party to present a presidential candidate in 2020, the only certainty is that the Republican Partys standard bearer would receive fewer popular votes than either the Democratic Partys or the New Partys candidates. Since neither of these two would likely receive a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives would have to choose between them, each state casting one vote.

The majority of states have a majority of Republican Congressmen. Whoever of these voted for the Democrat would cut himself off from his district. Whoever voted for the New Party candidate would thereby be applying for membership.

Angelo M. Codevilla is professor emeritus of international relations at Boston University.

Excerpt from:
Replacing the Republican Party - Washington Times