Taxing the rich to build social housing works—and this project proves it

ByDEAN PRESTON

AUGUST 26, 2025 (48hills.org)

Vindicating the work of democratic socialists who taxed the rich to fund social housing, permits have now been filed to build more than 100 affordable homes at 650 Divisadero. I’m proud to have authored Prop. I, the tax on billionaires that made 650 Divisadero possible. With this funding, we have a large, steady stream of cash that can be leveraged to scale up social housing in San Francisco. 

Here’s the background on 650 Divisadero, most of which you won’t find in media coverage or press releases.

The site should have been a prime opportunity for a developer to build. The project was fully “entitled” (all approvals secured) for years. No environmental appeals or permit appeals were filed. The developer had the unfettered right to “build baby build.” But even with upzoning and fully approved plans, this privately owned site sat undeveloped.

This fully entitled site joined the growing number of sites across San Francisco during the pandemic where developers simply abandoned market-rate housing development plans. We pushed hard for San Francisco to take this opportunity for the city to buy up these sites to create affordable housing. 

To this end, we passed a ballot measure in 2020 to tax the rich to fund social housing. The real estate industry and tech billionaires fought hard against Prop. I, but still passed. It’s raised more than $400 million already.

Recommendations on how to spend the revenue are made annually by a panel of experts on the Housing Stability Fund Oversight Board. One of the top recommendations has been site acquisition. And one of the little noticed, but intentional benefits, of the Prop. I tax—which charged sellers of properties worth $10 million or more a tax when they sold the property—is that owners who sell for affordable housing development are spared the tax, a huge incentive to sell to a buyer developing affordable homes.

Armed with Prop. I, we pushed the aymor and Planning Department to invest in site acquisitions when prices were low and to scoop up sites. The Breed Administration had no plan for such acquisitions and seemed uninterested in scaling up social housing. The former mayor refused to allocate the Prop. I funds in her budgets for housing acquisitions and affordable housing development, prompting annual budget fights, and the new mayor is similarly refusing to spend Prop. I revenue on affordable homes. 

Despite the Administration’s unwillingness to spend Prop. I revenue on social housing, we were able to clawback hundreds of millions of dollars for these purposes. For example, in 2022, we won an historic $112 million budget deal premised on Prop. I revenue. The deal included $40 million for site acquisitions for affordable housing.

Help us save local journalism!

Every tax-deductible donation helps us grow to cover the issues that mean the most to our community. Become a 48 Hills Hero and support the only daily progressive news source in the Bay Area.

Learn more

These are the funds that enabled the city to acquire 650 Divisadero for affordable housing, as well as other sites including 1234 Great Highway, 250 Laguna Honda Boulevard, 3300 Mission Street, and 249 Pennsylvania Avenue. 

The bottom line: We taxed the rich to fund social housing and acquisition of sites for affordable housing development. Neoliberals and the industry fought our tax, and then fought every effort to spend the money on affordable homes. But in the end, 650 Divisadero is proof that persistent organizing gets the goods, and that the concept of taxing the rich to fund social housing is viable. 

I continue to fully support creating affordable housing at 650 Divisadero. I live just a few blocks from the site, and look forward to welcoming hundreds of new lower-income neighbors. The neighborhood overwhelmingly supports this project. 

While the private housing market failed for this site and is failing in many other sites like it across the city today, the success of socialist housing interventions has made more than a hundred units possible here, and that’s something to celebrate.

Even those who opposed the funding and acquisition strategy that led to this project are now celebrating 650 Divisadero. We welcome their support. This project will help people survive and thrive in San Francisco. There is still time for the city to acquire more sites like this one and use our voter approved law to fund the construction of more affordable homes for San Franciscans. Our mayor should seize this opportunity for the benefit of all San Franciscans.

Dean Preston is former District Five supervisor

… unarmed, to protect immigrants in San Francisco and other California cities against Trump’s invasion

By JOEL SCHECHTER

AUGUST 26, 2025 (48hills.org)

As a resident of San Francisco who prefers to see urban streets free of armed soldiers, I’d rather not have the National Guard occupy our city, as it already has occupied Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. The recent military takeover of Washington by Donald Trump and his army has been abetted by the governors of West Virginia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, South Carolina, and Louisiana who voluntarily contributed some of their National Guard troops to the Washington bivouac, although 80 percent of the residents there, as well as the mayor, say they don’t need or welcome the military invasion.

The arrival of troops on the streets San Francisco may not be far away. Trump is eagerly seeking an excuse to send some of the National Guard —if not our state’s, then Ohio’s, or Tennessee’s, or Louisiana’s— into our sanctuary city, as well as Chicago and Baltimore. (He only invades cities run by Democrats.)

I expect the soldiers will surround City Hall, intimidate the mayor and the Board of Supervisors and protesters, and guard the buildings where immigrants seeking asylum or visas will be subjected to arrest and deportation by masked men who purport to work for ICE.

To avoid this debacle, I modestly propose that Governor Gavin Newsom immediately invite some California National Guard troops into San Francisco, minus their weapons, and order them to protect immigrants and unhoused residents, as well as the rest of us.

The governor is already mimicking Trump’s rhetoric in text messages, but Newsom’s messages call for democratic action instead of authoritarianism. By pre-empting a Trump placement of National Guard troops in San Francisco, and ordering them to protect residents and guests (including immigrants), Newsom would again prove himself a democrat, and undermine Trump’s threats.

If National Guard troops must be in our city, let them peacefully escort people seeking asylum or citizenship or work visas to and from their hearings. If ICE wants to arrest them, Newsom’s National Guard officers should say no: These people are guests of the governor, leave them alone. And the Guard members are likely to outnumber ICE.

It might be slightly reminiscent of National Guard troops protecting and escorting nine school children past segregationists to their Little Rock, Arkansas classes in 1957, only this time it’s mostly adults who would need the protective escort.

California’s governor has started to resist Donald Trump’s overreach—the White House promotion of gerrymandering in Texas (which would rig 2026 midterm elections in the Republican Party’s favor)—by planning to reshape California’s voting districts (if voters approve his plan this November).

Sponsored link

Help us save local journalism!

Every tax-deductible donation helps us grow to cover the issues that mean the most to our community. Become a 48 Hills Hero and support the only daily progressive news source in the Bay Area.

Learn more

Now, instead of using government lawyers to prosecute opponents, as Trump has, our governor could supply the city with additional public defenders to assist people in need of legal counsel, and add to the city’s existing staff of social workers and job counselors who might help the unhoused and the unemployed. Some San Francisco city employees already offer these services, but an increase in staffing, along with the security provided to the indigent and undocumented by National Guardsmen, would increase the public services and reduce the chances of a Trump takeover.

“You don’t want the National Guard in our city?” Newsom might ask in response to a White House order to withdraw the state’s Guard from its Bay area posts. “I don’t want them here either. Stop kidnapping immigrants and persecuting the unhoused, fund affordable housing and give work visas to immigrant workers, and we won’t need the National Guard’s protection from you.”

The governor might also send San Francisco and others in the state additional medical assistance, set up new, free travelling health clinics, to help all those who are losing Medicaid. It’s not quite the same as Cuba under Castro sending doctors abroad to nations that needed medical care, but our state could initiate a medical insurgency of its own.

I also would recommend that the governor sponsor some special Internet interventions. Get his favorite IT experts to conduct virtual inspections of DOGE’s and Palentir’s files—initiate computerized checks on government overreach, to insure that the Social Security and tax files of Californians have not been stolen or misused. The governor’s IT troops may be derided by Trump as “Gavin’s geek squad,” but if they’re proficient in their field, they also could hack into the Epstein files and let us know how often Trump is mentioned as one of the sex trafficker’s associates.

Before any California residents protest against these defensive maneuvers, or ask how the state can afford their cost, the governor should propose to pay for his special forces by raising the state’s luxury fees and taxes it assesses wealthy citizens: Charge them at least as much as they’ll save through Trump’s current tax cuts for the rich. Trump’s war against the poor, against refugees and Democrats, is costing taxpayers billions, and it’s time to end it.

Meanwhile, despite all his self-promotional claims that he’s securing world peace and American prosperity, Donald Trump isn’t going to win a Nobel Peace Prize, no matter how many times he meets with Putin, if he keeps commanding National Guard troops to occupy his own country. But if Gavin Newsom’s special unarmed army—his lawyers, doctors, and computer experts—wins public support, as they should, the governor just might find himself preventing a Trump takeover of California and other states.

Joel Schechter is the author of several books on satire.

Every weekday from 12:00–12:45 PM, Saikat hosts small video calls with voters. These are intimate conversations — usually just a handful of people — where you’ll have the chance to talk to Saikat directly, raise the issues that matter most to you, and connect with others who share your vision for San Francisco and the country.

See the video below to get an idea of what these calls looks like:

If you’re interested, you can sign up here! If you’d like to sign up for a call, but the current time doesn’t work for you, please fill out this form to suggest an alternative.

This campaign only works because of people like you. We’re excited to see you on a call!

In solidarity,
Nick Gebo
Saikat for Congress

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at the Fighting Oligarchy rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on May 2, 2025.

 (Photo by Nathan Morris/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“Actually, Mr. Trump, ‘a lot of people’ say that millions of Americans fought and died to defeat dictators,” argued Sanders.

BRAD REED

Aug 27, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday once again mused about the benefits of being a “dictator,” and drew a quick rebuke from Sen. Bernie Sanders and other critics.

During a cabinet meeting, Trump responded to criticism that his deployment of the National Guard in Washington, DC to stop a fictitious crime wave against the wishes of local officials was dictatorial in nature.

OUR SUMMER CAMPAIGN IS FALLING SHORT. WILL YOU PITCH IN?

The only way our people-powered media model can survive is with the support of readers like you. Will you donate $27 to keep nonprofit journalism alive?

about:blank

“So the line is that I’m a dictator, but I stop crime,” Trump said. “So a lot of people said, you know, if that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator.”

Trump then insisted that he wasn’t a dictator but was rather just someone who “knows how to stop crime.” The president also said during the meeting that “I can do anything I want” because “I’m the president of the United States.”

Trump: "The line is that I'm a dictator, but I stop crime. So a lot of people say, 'You know, if that's the case, I'd rather have a dictator.'" pic.twitter.com/YZlFDZs9lq

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 26, 2025

The comments followed similar remarks from the president on Monday in which he claimed, “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we like a dictator.'”

Sanders took to social media and ripped the president for suggesting that a dictatorship would be acceptable.

“Actually, Mr. Trump, ‘a lot of people’ say that millions of Americans fought and died to DEFEAT dictators,” he wrote. “Ask anybody. We’d rather be a free country.”

In a separate post, Sanders laid out Trump’s authoritarian ambitions and challenged other lawmakers to stand up to him.

“Trump threatens and investigates his political opponents—Democrats and Republicans,” he said. “He says, in violation of the Constitution, that he has ‘the right to do anything [he] wants.’ Is there one Republican who has the guts to stand up to this rapid movement toward authoritarianism?”

Progressive veterans organization VoteVets made a similar point in its own criticism of Trump.

“Millions of Americans have worn the uniform and sworn an oath to defend the Constitution, not one man’s ego,” the organization wrote. “Trump is spitting on that sacrifice and shredding the values we served to defend.”

Former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, however, warned that far too many of Trump’s supporters appear to be on board with making him their president for life, based on polling.

“That so many Americans who voted for Trump actually WANT a dictator, an authoritarian, a strongman to rule over them and rule over this country has never surprised me,” he argued. “Because for years, his voters have told me they wanted this. Yes, it’s hugely disappointing, but not at all surprising.”

CNN reporter Aaron Blake backed up Walsh’s contention with polling data showing that 44% of Republican voters surveyed this year don’t think courts should even be allowed to review the president’s policies, while 36% of GOP voters said they wouldn’t mind if Trump tried to “suspend some laws and constitutional provisions to go after political enemies.”

“Trump is more or less right that many people seem to want a dictator,” Blake commented. “They’re his people.”

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, argued that a strong public education system is one of the best defenses against tyranny in the United States.

“As Donald Trump throws around the word dictator, it’s a good reminder that the founding fathers warned about kings and dictators,” she argued. “In fact, they believed that public education was essential to a functioning democracy.”

Weingarten then posted a video in which she read from her upcoming book, called “Why Fascists Fear Teachers,” that features quotes from America’s founders about the crucial role education plays in guarding against dictatorship.

“Thomas Jefferson was an early advocate of free public education, and wrote, ‘Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… they are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty,'” said Weingarten. “Democracy and public education have been linked every since. You cannot have a country of, by, and for the people without a means for the public to prepare, not just for the privilege of that democracy, but the duties as well.”

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

BRAD REED

Brad Reed is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

Full Bio >

No Azure for Apartheid activists lead a rally outside Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington on August 26, 2025.

 (Photo by No Azure for Apartheid)

“Brad Smith is the face of human rights at Microsoft,” said one No Azure for Apartheid protester. “And yet Microsoft every day continues to abet this genocide.”

BRETT WILKINS

Aug 27, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)

Seven current and former Microsoft workers were arrested Tuesday after occupying the office of president Brad Smith to protest the company’s complicity in “the first AI-powered genocide” as Israel kills and ethnically cleanses hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.

The protesters gathered at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington and declared a “Liberated Zone” inside Building 34, which they renamed the Mai Ubeid building in honor of a Palestinian software engineer killed by Israel in Gaza in 2023. Demonstrators sounded noisemakers, draped banners, and delivered a “People’s Court Summons” to Smith. They chanted, “Microsoft, Microsoft, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!”

OUR SUMMER CAMPAIGN IS FALLING SHORT. WILL YOU PITCH IN?

The only way our people-powered media model can survive is with the support of readers like you. Will you donate $27 to keep nonprofit journalism alive?

about:blank

Seven protesters who locked themselves inside Smith’s office were arrested by Redmond police. Other current and former Microsoft workers joined community members at a rally outside the building.

“Microsoft continues to militarize its campus to harass, brutally attack, and violently arrest its workers and community members,” No Azure for Apartheid organizer and former Microsoft worker Abdo Mohamed told the Seattle Times.

⚡️ BREAKING: Microsoft employees and other demonstrators with the No Azure for Apartheid movement are currently occupying the office of company president Brad Smith. Workers say they have re-established a “Liberated Zone” inside Microsoft’s executive Building 34, renaming it the… pic.twitter.com/cf5vA2lgKm

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) August 26, 2025

The arrests came on the same day that Bloomberg revealed that Microsoft asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation for intelligence on pro-Palestinian protesters targeting the company, worked with local law enforcement in a bid to thwart demonstrations, and deleted internal emails containing protest details and words like “Gaza.”

Tuesday’s action followed a protest last week at which around 20 No Azure for Apartheid activists were arrested after setting up an encampment on the grounds of Microsoft headquarters. Earlier this month, protesters staged a demonstration at a Microsoft data center in the Netherlands that is reportedly being used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to plan airstrikes on Gaza.

The No Azure for Apartheid protesters are calling on Microsoft to “cut ties with Israel, call for an end to the genocide and forced starvation, pay reparations to the Palestinians, and end the discrimination against workers.”

“We are here because Palestine must be free, the genocide must end, the apartheid must end, and everything that’s happened to the Palestinian people over the past 75 years must end,” declared one No Azure for Apartheid organizer in a video of Tuesday’s occupation that was posted online. “It must end and this is how we must end it. We must occupy the people who are letting it happen.”

“We are here today not because we want to be here, it’s because we need to be here,” he said. “Brad Smith is the face of human rights at Microsoft. And yet Microsoft every day continues to abet this genocide.”

“Every Palestinian phone call in the last few years has been stored on Microsoft servers,” he continued as the other protesters shouted, “Shame!”

“That is a disgrace! That is untenable! There is no way to justify that,” the protester asaid. “Every time we have come with these problems… Microsoft has dragged their feet.”

The activist also pointed to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the IDF’s largest intelligence unit.

“Satya has dragged his feet. Brad has dragged his feet. Satya met with the head of Unit 8200 and that led to this plan to store Palestinian phone calls on Microsoft servers,” he said.

A a joint investigation published earlier this month by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call revealed that Unit 8200 is storing 11,500 terabytes of data containing roughly 200 million hours of Palestinians’ phone call recordings on the Azure servers in the Netherlands. According to the article, former Unit 8200 head Yossi Sariel traveled to Microsoft headquarters in 2021 to meet Nadella.

“What happens as a result is that every phone call is recorded, it is transcribed from Arabic, it is translated, and it is used for targeting,” the protester said.

Earlier this year, an Associated Press investigation detailed how Israeli forces are using artificial intelligence and cloud computing systems sold by US tech giants including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Open AI—which makes the popular ChatGPT chatbot—for the mass surveillance and killing of Palestinians in Gaza.

In addition to US tech, the IDF uses its own AI system called Habsora to automatically select airstrike targets at an exponentially faster rate than ever before. A November 2023 investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call cited an Israeli intelligence source who said that Habsora has transformed the IDF into a “mass assassination factory” in which the “emphasis is on quantity and not quality” of kills.

Following the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, IDF officers were told they could order any number of strikes as they believed were legal, with no effective limits on civilian harm. This led to massacres in which dozens or more civilians were killed in single strikes, often using US-supplied 1,000- and 2,000-pound bombs.

Microsoft said earlier this month that it has launched an investigation into how Unit 8200 is using Azure. This, after the company said in May that an internal review “found no evidence to date that Microsoft’s Azure and [artificial intelligence] technologies have been used to target or harm people in the conflict in Gaza.”

Big Tech’s profiteering from Israel’s annihilation of Gaza and occupation, settler colonization, and apartheid in the West Bank has sparked numerous protests, including by employees of complicit companies. At least dozens of workers at companies including Google, Meta, and Microsoft have been fired for Palestine advocacy. Others have resigned in protest.

Hossam Nasr, a former Microsoft software engineer, was fired after organizing an October 2024 “No Azure for Apartheid” vigil. Microsoft engineer Ibtihal Aboussad and another worker, Vaniya Agrawal, were fired after interrupting speeches by company executives.

Responding to Tuesday’s protest, Smith said, “Obviously, when seven folks do as they did today—storm a building, occupy an office, block other people out of the office… that’s not okay.”

“There are many things we can’t do to change the world, but we will do what we can and what we should,” Smith added. “That starts with ensuring that our human rights principles and contractual terms of service are upheld everywhere, by all of our customers around the world.”

Tuesday’s protest came as the IDF ramped up Operation Gideon’s Chariots 2—the US-backed campaign to conquer and occupy Gaza and ethnically cleanse around 1 million Palestinians—and amid a worsening famine that has killed hundreds of people, many of them children.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

BRETT WILKINS

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

Full Bio >

Residents praise new captain and his plan to go ‘back to basics’

by ELENI BALAKRISHNAN August 26, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)

Read Mission Local often?

Help grow our newsroom, joining the hundreds of San Franciscans who support us by giving below.

Donate today!

New Tenderloin Police Station Captain Matt Sullivan said at a community meeting Tuesday evening that four San Francisco police officers will begin patrolling on foot next month in a new strategy to address street conditions in the neighborhood.

Sullivan said the officers will hit the pavement during the day and early evening in mid-September, and will connect with residents and business owners, break up groups of loiterers and address complaints. 

“The main goal for them is to improve street conditions, so they’re going back to basics,” Sullivan said, to applause from the 25 or so residents attending the meeting at the Tenderloin Station on Eddy Street.  

Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter below.Sign up

Sullivan, who took over the Tenderloin police station last month, said the plan comes in response to the feedback he has heard from community members.  

“The request was for officers to be more visible, to be seen, to be known,” Sullivan said in an interview after the meeting. “The community thought that would be beneficial going forward, so we listened.” 

For now, the patrols’ focus will be on three-block stretches on Hyde Street and Leavenworth Street between Golden Gate Avenue and Ellis Street, as well as the area of Jones and Market streets. 

The idea of foot patrols appeared very popular at Tuesday’s meeting. 

“Bringing foot beats to the Tenderloin was one of our main needs,” said Stone Selseth, who is on the safety committee of the Central City SRO Collaborative and lives in one of the target areas at Market and Jones. “So we’re going to have some good news to tell our cohorts.” 

Naomi Cohen, a tenant organizer who said she has lived in the Tenderloin for about 10 years, was disappointed that her block of O’Farrell would not be part of the foot beat. Still, she called it “a wonderful idea.” She said she has rarely, if ever, seen police officers walking the neighborhood on foot. 

Multiple residents at the meeting said they were grateful for the changes they had already begun seeing since Sullivan took over a month ago. Last month, he told residents of another effort in the neighborhood to block off different streets to vehicles for a few days at a time.

That strategy, led by the multi-agency Drug Market Agency Coordination Center, is intended to eliminate cover for crime and unwanted activity that might be obscured by parked cars.

Aaron Thomas, a Tenderloin resident, said that in the last month he has noticed officers exiting their cars to do police work. A block near his home that has long been home to open-air drug activity and noise has become less of a problem. 

“We’re seeing a lot less crime on that particular block,” Thomas said. “I got some sleep this month.” 

Thomas called foot patrols the “missing piece,” after a year and a half of watching police officers remain in their vehicles and ineffectively scold people through loudspeakers.

Seeing an officer on foot, he said, will be different. “It makes you recognize, ‘I can’t do this illegal thing here, at least as openly as I was doing.’” 

The new police presence could lead to arrests, but Sullivan said the main goal was to improve street conditions through high visibility.

“I want our foot beats to know the pulse of the community,” Sullivan said. 

MORE POLICE NEWS

S.F. police foot patrols are coming to these Tenderloin streets

What S.F.’s war on illegal drug markets looks like, one case at a time

S.F.’s new strategy to get rid of drugs in the Tenderloin: Ban cars

Support the Mission Local team

We’re a small, independent, nonprofit newsroom that works hard to bring you news you can’t get elsewhere.

In 2025, we have a lofty goal: 5,000 donors by the end of the year — more than double the number we had last year. We are 20 percent of the way there: Donate today and help us reach our goal!

Donate!

ELENI BALAKRISHNAN

eleni@missionlocal.com

Reporting from the Tenderloin. Follow me on Twitter @miss_elenius.More by Eleni Balakrishnan

By Adrienne Fong

Things are changing rapidly, faster than what is posted. RESISTANCE matters!!!

RESOURCES:

STAY UPDATED WITH BAY RESISTANCE and get plugged to actions you can support, text “Resist” to 888-850-0928

GI HOTLINE (877) 477-4497

  – Share this number to people who know active duty service members

See list of Calendar of Events on Palestine from AROC: https://www.araborganizing.org/events/ 

  If your post is about Palestine you can also list your action on the AROC calendar

There are events listed on Indybay that might be of interest to you(many listings in the South, North & East Bays and beyond the bay area)

Please post your actions on Indybay: https://www.indybay.org/calendar/?page_id=12

Bay Area Progressive Action Calendar

ATW Bay Area / NorCal — Action Together West

ARTICLES

A. 138 Gaza war protesters arrested after they storm Sen. Padilla’s S.F. office – August 27, 2025

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/protesters-storm-sen-padilla-s-s-f-office-21016997.php

   Actions also happened at Sen. Padilla’s offices in Los Angeles, San Diego & Sacramento today.

  Instagram of SF action:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DN33-j8EpwB/

     100’s of Jewish and allies in the lobby of SF Sen Padilla’s office

https://www.instagram.com/p/DN4K9QRku5G/

      Arrests have started at Senator Padilla’s office in San Francisco. Hundreds of Jews and allies are putting their bodies on the line across California, from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, from Sacramento to San Diego in the largest statewide action of antizionist Jews in California history.

B. Israeli official Alexandrovich skips US court hearing on child sex charges – August 27, 2025

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/27/israeli-official-alexandrovich-skips-us-court-hearing-on-child-sex-charges

C. Dozens injured as Israeli forces raid Nablus in occupied West Bank – August 27, 2025

Dozens injured as Israeli forces raid Nablus in occupied West Bank | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

D. Judge Blocks Kristi Noem From Deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda – for now – August 26, 2025

Judge Blocks Kristi Noem From Deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda — for Now | Truthout

E. From Middle East Eye – on Killing of Palestinian journalist August 25, 2025

https://x.com/MiddleEastEye/status/1960037230967234576?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

F. Bernie/AOC “Are Compromised, They are Class Traitors.” Labor SILENT on Israel? (w/ Chris Smalls) – August 25, 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4OhoG9uDA8   23 min YouTube

G. Trump says he’ll send troops to ‘clean up’ San Francisco – August 22, 2025

https://sfstandard.com/2025/08/22/trump-send-troops-clean-san-francisco/

H. Trump admin. fires S.F. immigration judge with high asylum rate – August 22, 2025

Trump admin. fires S.F. immigration judge with high asylum rate

I. Brown Misleader Dolores Huerta Can’t Stop Hustling for Neoliberalism – August 21, 2025

https://www.blackagendareport.com/brown-misleader-dolores-huerta-cant-stop-hustling-neoliberalism

J. A pro-Palestinian activist came to Oakland to practice medicine. An outrage campaign followed – August 19, 2025

A pro-Palestinian doctor came to Oakland. An outrage machine followed

3 PETITIONS

1. Stop the Attacks on Our Communities and End Trump’s control of the DC police force NOW.

  SIGN: Stop Trump’s DC Takeover | Care in Action

2. Tell Nevada Governor Lombardo: Reject Coyote Compound or any other detention camp proposal

  SIGN: Native Organizers Alliance Action Fund

3. Tell Congress: Sign the discharge petition to restore the right of federal workers to unionize

  SIGN: Tell Congress: Sign the discharge petition to restore the right of federal workers to unionize.

~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~

Faith In Action Accompaniment Form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3WXlcteNu3ZgogOPko0GDrUaPwKJh-4iqgsMwHAZS0XDUUg/viewform

  Learn more about how to accompany ‘immigrants’ to court appearances

~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~

EVENTS / ACTIONS

Thursday, August 28 – Tuesday, September 2

Thursday, August 28

1. Thursday, 8:30am, Pack the court for Guillermo Medina Reyes,

Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse,
661 Washington St, Oakland, CA

Join in keeping beloved artist and immigrant rights champion, Guillermo Medina Reyes, out of ICE custody!

Info: https://www.instagram.com/p/DN3jtKN0k0p/ 

Friday, August 29

2. Friday, 8:00am – 4:30pm, ICE out of San Francisco courts!

SF ICE Court
100 Montgomery St.
SF

Nr. Montgomery St. BART

Defend Community; Stop The Abductions

Every Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday

Since late May, ICE has arrested 60+ immigrants at the San Francisco Immigration Courts at 630 Sansome St. (from Mission Local)

Does this sound like a ‘sanctuary city’?

In January 2025 Mayor Lurie, the SF Board of Supervisors and many non-profits held a press conference at City Hall  in support of SF Sanctuary – where are they now? Why haven’t they condemned ICE actions and presence in SF??

Call / Email Mayor Lurie

415-554-6141 and ask his staff.

Email: Daniel.lurie@sfgov.org

3. Friday, 10:30am – 12:30pm, Noise Against Genocide

Israeli Consulate
456 Montgomery St.
SF

NOISE PROTEST at the Israel Consulate to protest the intentional killing of almost 200 journalists, the intentional starvation of Palestinians, the 2-years of nauseating lying of Netanyahu and his psychopathic allies, the sadistic murder of humanitarian aid workers, hospital workers, academics, and the destruction of Palestinian homes, businesses, mosques, churches, museums, universities. 

We will cause a furious ruckus. We will have megaphones, trumpets, whistles, air horns and drums to share, plus bring your own pots and pans to beat on the barricades they set up to separate us from the Zionists inside.

Info: Israel! Stop Killing Journalists! Stop Starving Gaza! : Indybay   

4. Friday, 3:00pm (PT); 6:00pm (ET) Online Press Conf. Mumia needs Medical Treatment to Prevent Permanent Blindness

 Register: Webinar Registration – Zoom

Political Prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is at risk of permanent blindness. His eyesight is deteriorating at an alarming rate and requires immediate medical treatment, or he will permanently lose his sight. A virtual press conference at 6pm EDT on Friday, Aug. 29 will focus on Mumia’s condition and inquire as to why the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is delaying his treatment.

It started 8 months ago. 8 long months of worsening eyesight to the point of him being declared legally blind in a recent doctor’s appointment. The gravity of this situation is more tragic by its preventability and the refusal of the prison medical complex to adequately address his medical concerns. This delay is highly consequential and could be the difference between whether he regains his sight or whether this becomes a permanent and life altering disability. Mumia is suffering from post-cataracts and diabetic retinopathy in both eyes. He also has glaucoma. We must act quickly and decisively to protect our vulnerable comrade.

Info & Actions: AUG 20: Mumia Abu-Jamal: Urgent medical alert – Free Mumia

5. Friday, 5:00pm, Vigil for Gaza

Cortland & Andover (corner)
SF

Stand with your neighbors!

Last week all four corners were covered by neighbors

Plan is to do this every week till CHANGE happens

Host: Bernal Bay Resistance 

Saturday, August 30

6. Saturday, 1:45pm – 3:00pm, Support Jerusalem Coffee House

@East Bay Community Space
507 55^th Street
Oakland

Food and beverages available for purchase

Bay Area out in full support of Jerusalem Coffee House! They were targeted by Zionist agitators and must be supported in their fight back against the overreach of Trumps DOJ. Please follow them and support!

Sunday, August 31

7. Global Sumud Flotilla will be sailing on August 31st to BREAK THE SIEGE on GAZA!

Follow at:  https://globalsumudflotilla.org/   and  https://www.instagram.com/globalsumudflotilla/?

On August 31, the largest attempt to break the siege on Gaza is launched.

This is the largest civilian and humanitarian fleet ever to sail for Gaza.

Dozens of boats will set sail from Spain, carrying hope, courage and solidarity

And on the 4th of September, the Freedom Fleet sets off from Tunisia.

A sailor with dignity, carrier of hope, and raising the banner of humanity.

Tunisia to Spain, Brazil to Indonesia, Algeria to Libya,

Peoples and nations unite in one word:

“Together to lift the siege on Gaza”

8. Sunday, 5:00pm (PT); 8:00pm (ET), In Solidarity with Haiti and Cuba

Virtual event: ZOOM ID: 842-3132-6242 PASSWORD: 464-860

FEATURED SPEAKERS:

Seth Donnelly – Haiti Action Committee

Dr. Isaac Saney – Author of Cuba a Revolution in Motion & Cuba Africa & Apartheid’s End

Maud Jean Michel – Haitian Activist

SPECIAL GUESTS:

Vijay Prashad – Historian Executive Director Tri-Continental Institute

MODERATOR: YaYa Marin Coleman – Journalist – Belize

Info: https://haitisolidarity.net/in-solidarity-with-haiti-and-cuba/

Monday, September 1

Labor Day

Have only listed SF & Oakland actions – See Indybay for other Labor Day actions

9. Monday, 9:30am – 11:30am, San Francisco: Federal Employees Labor Day Protest

Philip Burton Federal Building
450 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, CA, 94102 

After this rally people are encouraged to take the #49 MUNI to the demo on 16^th & Mission

Stop the Illegal Firings of Federal Workers!

Protect Unions & Worker Rights Now!

Save Our Democracy!

March with federal unions, your fellow workers and former workers to protest the illegal firing of members of the Federal Workforce, -without cause- from the V.A., Social Security, Dept. of Education, Treasury, Labor, HHS, CDC, and all Federal Agencies.

PROTEST: The illegal elimination of Federal Unions

PROTEST: Firing without cause

PROTEST: The removal of the “Rule of Law” from our land.

Parking is available beneath the Civic Center Plaza. If you take BART, the Civic Center Station is less than a 5-minute walk.

We rally to call out the illegal Trump Administration’s Actions:

-To indiscriminately fire federal employess inviolation of Title 5 U.S.C. 2301

-To eliminate Federal Employee Unions andCollective Bargaining Agreements in violation ofThe Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-454)

-To desecrate Article 1, Section 7 & Section 8 of theU.S. Constitution in violation of: Clinton v. City ofNew York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998) U.S.S.C.

Demand DOGE keep their hands off your IRS Tax Returns, your Social Security data, V.A. data, and Medicare data, your most private information.

Together we can fight this unprecedented attack on Federal employees, OUR government, and the people!

Some protest signs will be provided but feel free to bring your own.

Host: Federal unions & allies – See list of sponsors on Indybay

Info: San Francisco: Federal Employees Labor Day Protest : Indybay

10. Monday, 11:00am – 1:00pm, San Francisco: Labor Day March & Rally for Worker, Immigrant & Human Rights 

Meet at:

16^th & Mission BART
SF

March will start at 16th and Mission BART Plaza in San Francisco and proceed to Dolores Park for the rally.

LABOR DAY PRO-UNION, ANTI-FASCISM MARCH & RALLY

#WorkerRights
#RacialJustice
#GenderJustice
#LGBT+Justice
#NoICE
#GlobalHumanRightsNow

Join the national movement for working class power to stand against rising fascism, for racial justice, immigrant rights, LGBTQIA+ equality, gender justice, public services, and human rights throughout the U.S. and the world.

See list of sponsors on Indybay list

Info: San Francisco: Labor Day March & Rally for Worker, Immigrant & Human Rights : Indybay 

11. Monday, 12Noon – 3:00pm, Oakland: Stop the Fascist Billionaires! Labor Day Protest Supporting Freedom & Democracy

Frank H. Ogawa Plaza
1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza
Oakland, CA 94612  

Info: https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/815313//

The billionaires continue to wage a cruel war on working people, with their cronies in the administration, ICE and law enforcement backing up their attacks. This Labor Day we will continue to stand strong, fighting for public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, shared prosperity over corporate politics.

Working people built this nation and we know how to take care of each other. We won’t back down—we will never stop fighting for our families and the rights and freedoms that ensure access to opportunity and a better life for all Americans. The billionaire’s time is up.

On September 1st we will continue the movement we launched together on May 1st, standing in solidarity with all our communities under attack and fighting for real wins for all our people.

In thousands of communities around the country we encourage you to take a stand with us on Labor Day. On the streets, outside the offices of the corporate criminals who are behind the attacks on our freedoms and at congressional offices. Together we will demand a world that works for all of us.

OUR DEMANDS TO BUILD THE SOCIETY WE ALL DESERVE:

Stop the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration.

Protect and defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people.

Fully funded schools, and healthcare and housing for all.

Stop the attacks on immigrants, Black, indigenous, trans people, and all our communities.

Invest in people not wars.

Please note: A core principle behind all our events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values. Weapons of any kind, including those legally permitted, should not be brought to events.

Info: Oakland: Stop the Fascist Billionaires! Labor Day Protest Supporting Freedom & Democracy : Indybay

Tuesday, September 2

12. Tuesday, 12Noon, Save TPS (Temporary Protected Status) Rally

SF City Hall
1 Dr. Carleton B. Goodlett Pl (Outside steps)
SF 

12 Noon Rally

2:00pm – Board of Supervisors Meeting

Join us for a rally to Save TPS (Temporary Protected Status) for over one million TPS holders across the nation who may otherwise face deportation when it is unsafe to return to their home countries.

 The 12 p.m. rally will be followed by a 2 p.m. Board of Supervisors meeting where they will vote on a resolution to urge congressional delegations to urge Congress to make a permanent residency pathway for all TPS holders. All are welcome to join this meeting as well. #SaveTPS

Host: NorCal TPS Coalition

Info: Facebook

LiveNOW from FOX Streamed live on Aug 26, 2025 President Trump holds cabinet meeting amid DC and Chicago National Guard deployments, federal reserve shakeups and more. Subscribe to LiveNOW from FOX! https://www.youtube.com/livenowfox?su… Where to watch LiveNOW from FOX: https://www.livenowfox.com/ Follow us @LiveNOWFOX on Twitter:   / livenowfox   Raw and unfiltered. Watch a non-stop stream of breaking news, live events and stories across the nation. Limited commentary. No opinion. Experience LiveNOW from FOX.

By Jay Willis

August 22, 2025 11:53 a.m. (TurningPointsMemo.com)

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at Balls and Strikes. 

At the behest of President Donald Trump, Texas Republicans are in the midst of making their state even more of a mockery of the concept of representative democracy than it already was. In an attempt to preserve the GOP’s narrow House majority in the 2026 midterms, lawmakers are tinkering with the boundaries of the state’s 38 congressional districts to create five more safe Republican seats, forcing several Democratic incumbents to seek re-election next year in districts that are suddenly, alarmingly red. Scrambling the map in this manner would ensure that in a state in which Trump earned 56 percent of the vote in 2024, Republicans would lock up 80 percent of the state’s representation in Congress for the rest of the decade.

In response, California Governor Gavin Newsom has asked lawmakers in his state to create a new map that would eke out five additional safe Democratic seats until 2030. Ambitious elected officials elsewhere are exploring similar retaliatory options, eager both to make the national electoral landscape friendlier for their parties and also to publicly take credit for doing so. In Texas, Republicans grew so desperate to maintain the quorum necessary to move forward that they had a handful of Democrats physically confined to the chamber overnight—generally speaking, not a sign that democracy is “in a good place.”

As is so often the case in American politics, you can draw a straight line between this frantic gerrymandering arms race and a mind-bendingly stupid decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 5-4 ruling in Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019, the five Republican justices held that court challenges to partisan gerrymanders could not go forward in federal courts because such cases present a “political question”—basically, a question that judges (ostensibly) cannot answer using legal principles. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts explained that the Constitution yields no workable standard for determining when a given gerrymander goes too far to be legal. Citing the line in Marbury v. Madison about the Court’s duty to “say what the law is”—always a good sign that a conservative justice is about to bullshit you—Roberts concluded that this time, the Court’s “duty is to say, ‘This is not law.’” (Do you see what he did there?)

It is of course true that the Supreme Court did not invent partisan gerrymandering, let alone force Texas Governor Greg Abbott to speed-run fascism by issuing civil arrest warrants for Democratic lawmakers who had the temerity to oppose his redistricting gambit. But the Court is responsible for its choice to tie its own hands six years ago, thus enabling these lawmakers to cement themselves in power without fear of interference from pesky, meddling federal courts. 

In what is, in my view, still one of the most embarrassing paragraphs to appear in the pages of the United States Reporter, Roberts wraps in Rucho by noting that the holding constrains only federal courts; Congress, he says, would remain free to enact anti-gerrymandering legislation, as would lawmakers at the state level. The argument here is that voters who are dissatisfied with corruption in the political process don’t actually need John Roberts’s help, because they can always seek redress of their grievances via the aforementioned corrupt political process. This is roughly analogous to the fire department pulling up to a burning house, attaching the hoses to fire hydrants, and then politely informing the owner that it could rain any minute.

Roberts’s premise is, to put it generously, dubious: As Steve Vladeck points out, there are standards the Court could have decided to prescribe for use in partisan gerrymandering cases, if it were so inclined. The problem, of course, is that the conservative justices do not give a shit about partisan gerrymandering, because they understand basic facts about how politics in this country works: Nationwide, Republicans control 59 of 99 state legislative chambers, and hold both the legislature and the governorship in 24 states, compared to just 15 for Democrats. In other words, Republicans have more power over the line-drawing process in more places than their Democratic counterparts, who are always scrambling to catch up.

As Newsom has demonstrated, Democrats are as capable as Republicans of drawing maps that ruthlessly squeeze their opponents out of power. But the bet Roberts made in Rucho is that, on balance, the existence of unchecked partisan gerrymandering is better for his fellow Republicans than the absence of unchecked partisan gerrymandering. Appealing to the supposed difficulties of crafting “politically neutral” standards for solving problems is a time-honored maneuver among judges seeking to wash their hands of problems they do not want to solve. At one point, Roberts carefully notes that the justices in the majority do not “condone” partisan gerrymandering, but if they did, I am not sure how they would have decided the case any differently.

What is happening in Texas and California and elsewhere right now demonstrates just how vapid and hollow the reasoning in Rucho always was. You do not have to have a law degree to understand that a Texas map that transforms a 56-42 advantage into a 79-21 blowout is not, in any meaningful sense, fair. You do not need to be a Supreme Court justice to understand that a California map that would turn Kamala Harris’s 58 percent vote share in 2024 into 94 percent of power in the House does not allow for equal participation in the political process. 

But this is the price that Rucho is forcing millions of voters to pay: Roberts borrowed the language of judicial humility, warning of the potential dangers of cavalierly empowering federal courts to answer hypothetical questions that might be difficult. All he did is prevent federal courts from answering very real questions that are not.

Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Jay Willis is the Editor-in-Chief of Balls & Strikes. Previously, he was a staff writer at GQ and a senior contributor to The Appeal. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate, Defector, and Fast Company, among others.

Democratic socialist mayoral candidate Omar Fateh won the endorsement of his city party. Then the state party overturned the result. Representative Ilhan Omar calls it “inexcusable.”

AUG 26, 2025 The Nation Magazine

by John Nichols

Omar Fateh in an interview with KARE 11 News on August 7. 2025. (KARE 11 News)

Anyone who knows the epic history of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party will tell you that its internal politics have often been contentious. But out of that contention have come some of the most dynamic figures to ever grace the national political scene: from presidential candidates Eugene McCarthy, Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey to more contemporary leaders on the left, such as the late US Senator Paul Wellstone, former US representative and now Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and US Representative Ilhan Omar.

The Nation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Upgrade to paid

The DFL is also a party where grassroots activists have often lifted up political outsiders and activists and put them on paths to prominence. So it wasn’t all that surprising when, on July 19, the Minneapolis DFL endorsed the mayoral campaign of just such a rising star: state Senator Omar Fateh, a democratic socialist who has championed bold efforts to expand affordable housing and rent stabilization, supported a $20-an-hour minimum wage and taken up the cause of unionized and non-unionized workers.

Fateh’s focus on affordability issues and his energetic challenge to Democratic Party lethargy have garnered comparisons to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani—another young, Muslim, democratic socialist anti-establishment candidate—with some calling Fateh “the Mamdani of Minneapolis.” Fateh has embraced those comparisons. After Mamdani’s landslide victory over former Governor Andrew Cuomo in June’s New York City mayoral primary, Fateh declared, “Minneapolis Next!”

Initially, the Minneapolis DFL appeared to agree. In the final formal balloting at the July convention, more than 60 percent of delegates chose to back Fateh over incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey, a DFLer who last year issued a record number of vetoes of measures approved by the progressive majority on the city council, including a Gaza ceasefire resolution.

In addition, just before the convention adjourned, and at a point when a number of Frey backers had departed, Fateh won a show-of-hands vote where delegates held up badges to indicate whom they supported.

Fateh began campaigning, accurately, as the “DFL-endorsed” candidate.

But then the surprise came. Last week, a state DFL party committee revoked the endorsement after Frey and his allies complained that a “highly flawed and untested” electronic voting system produced a significant number of uncounted votes at the convention. Concerns were also raised about delays tied to slow Internet connections and a host of issues that frustrated backers of both leading endorsement contenders.

Frey celebrated the decision to revoke the endorsement, saying, “I am proud to be a member of a party that believes in correcting our mistakes.” State DFL leaders called for unity. But Fateh and his backers said the revocation—which was coupled with a decision barring the Minneapolis DFL from making another endorsement—represented an outrageous overreach by the state party.

Minnesota DFL conventions have a long history of factional fights and conflicts, and this one was no different. But, as Amanda Otero, co–executive director of Take Action MN, said when Fateh backers rallied on Friday, “The will of the delegates was clear, and I need a party who cares more about building power with the people and upholding our will than a set of technicalities and rules that ultimately did not disrupt the ultimate outcome.”

Fateh objected to the revocation of his endorsement by announcing,

Twenty-eight party insiders voted to take away our endorsement behind closed doors. This group was comprised of non-Minneapolis residents, Mayor Frey supporters and even donors. This is exactly what Minneapolis voters are sick of. The insider games, the backroom decisions and feeling like our voice doesn’t matter in our own city. Frey’s team used every tactic they could, including delay and confusion on convention day, because they didn’t have the votes. We see this for what it is—disenfranchisement of thousands of Minneapolis caucus goers and the delegates who represented all of us on convention day. Let me be clear, we’re still in this fight. And we’re going to win.

The reaction of US Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was every bit as firm and focused as that of the candidate. “It is inexcusable to overturn the DFL endorsement from Omar Fateh,” she said. “A small group, a majority living outside Minneapolis, met privately to overturn the will of Minneapolis delegates who volunteered, organized, and participated in a months-long DFL process. Unacceptable.”

Share

Omar, who represents Minneapolis in the House, told The Nation, “It is paramount that the Democratic Party does everything possible to bring in new voices and new communities into the coalition. I often say we are a big-tent party and we need to ensure we continue to uplift and celebrate progressive perspectives. At a time when people are hungry for bold change across the country, we need to support, not silence, progressive candidates. Zohran Mamdani’s incredible victory in New York was a testament to the people-powered campaign voters are craving. In order to win upcoming elections, we have to center the needs of working people and give voters clear reasons to support us.”

Notably, though Mamdani won the New York City primary, he has yet to be endorsed by prominent Democrats such as Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Along with a group of DFL elected officials from Minneapolis—including three state senators, five state representatives, three Hennepin County commissioners, Minneapolis City Council president Elliott Payne and four other council members, and Minneapolis School Board member Greta Callahan—Representative Omar signed onto a statement that declared:

We strongly condemn the DFL’s Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee’s (CBRC) decision to revoke the DFL endorsement from Omar Fateh. Last month, thousands of caucus-goers and delegates across Minneapolis gathered to participate in the Minneapolis DFL Convention. Now, a month later, a small group of DFL board members, a majority living outside Minneapolis, met privately to overturn the will of Minneapolis delegates who volunteered, organized, and participated in a months-long DFL process. It is inexcusable to overturn the results weeks after the convention because board members did not like the outcome. Not only does this decision set an extremely dangerous precedent, it will undermine the DFL endorsing process going forward and fails to center the will of delegates.

Right now, there is a clear tension between the progressive democrats who are challenging the status quo and moderate democrats. It is extremely disheartening that Omar Fateh, the first Black mayoral candidate to be DFL-endorsed in the last three decades, will have his endorsement revoked. Chair Richard Carlbom campaigned on uniting the DFL; this decision directly runs counter to that effort, to which we are all committed. The DFL Party is a big-tent party and all factions should be fairly represented, not silenced. Minneapolis is the heart of the engine of Democratic turnout in our state. Undoubtedly, this appalling decision will leave many voters feeling discouraged and unwelcome from participating in our party.

Throughout this mayoral campaign, we have seen the influence of big money in our politics. This should not be how decisions are made in our party. Blatant corruption should be widely condemned, not tolerated. We know organized people beat organized money. Fateh’s campaign organized and won the endorsement. This decision will be a stain on our party for years to come and damage our ability to organize for Democratic wins this year, next year, and beyond.