memeorandum: Shaking My Faith in America (Howard Fineman/New York Times)

7:45 AM ET, October 28, 2018

Top Items:

A Massacre in the Heart of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood — Squirrel Hill will continue to live by the values that Jews have sustained for more than 2,000 years. They can never be gunned down. — Ms. Weiss is a writer and editor in the Opinion section. — On a Saturday morning in March …

Discussion: Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Washington Post, The Guardian, RedState and The Nation

Max Boot / Washington Post:

What is happening to our country? — I am so sad. I am so heartbroken. What is happening to our country? — How can we live in an America where a gunman can barge into a synagogue and open fire, reportedly screaming “All Jews must die”? — How can we live in an America where someone …

Howard Fineman / New York Times:

Shaking My Faith in America — The bloodshed in the Tree of Life synagogue is a sign that hatred of The Other is poisoning our public life. — Mr. Fineman is an NBC News analyst and a journalism lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. — WASHINGTON — I grew up in Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue.

Discussion: Vox, Splinter, WTKR-TV and Daily Kos

Sam Stein / The Daily Beast:

I Grew Up in a Place Where I Felt Safe from Anti-Semitism—It was the United States — As a Jewish child in 1990s America, anti-Semitism to me was a theory, not a reality. But today, I wonder if it will be the same for my young son. — I remember standing there, staring at the ash pits …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and The Gateway Pundit

Vaughn Hillyard / NBC News:

Pence rejects suggestions of a link between Trump rhetoric and acts of violence — The vice president defended Trump's attacks on opponents as part of “political debate.” — LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Vice President Mike Pence rejected the suggestion that there is a link between the kind …

Discussion: Political Wire and POLITICUSUSA

John Podhoretz / Commentary:

The Slaughter in Pittsburgh — The synagogue in Pittsburgh is called the Tree of Life. The name is a translation into English of the Hebrew phrase etz chaim. We sing those words as the Torah is put away on every Shabbat. They are words from the Book of Proverbs: “She is a tree of life …

CNN:
What's Gab, the social platform used by the Pittsburgh shooting suspect?

Discussion: ImmigrationProf Blog, Raw Story, The Daily Beast and KRTV-TV

Ben Collins / NBC News:
Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suspect threatened Jewish groups, pushed migrant caravan conspiracies

Discussion: The Atlantic and Mediaite

Washington Post:
11 killed, several wounded, in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting

Discussion: CBS Pittsburgh, Mother Jones, Refinery29, Greensburg Tribune-Review, The Mahablog, France 24, HIAS, Mediaite, The Guardian, New York Times, Fox News Insider, CBS News, Vox, CNN and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Taylor Lorenz / The Atlantic:
The Pittsburgh Suspect's Internet of Hate

Discussion: Washington Post and The Guardian

Gab:
Gab.com Statement On The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting

Discussion: UPI, Gizmodo, Intelligencer, New York Times, CNN, israpundit.org, Breitbart, The Daily Beast, Japan Times, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Mashable

Michael Kunzelman / Associated Press:
Study: Online attacks on Jews ramp up before Election Day

Discussion: ABC News

Franklin Foer / The Atlantic: A Prayer for Squirrel Hill—And for American Jewry

CBS Pittsburgh:
Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter Identified As Robert Bowers, Yelled ‘All Jews Must Die’ …

Discussion: archive.fo, Vox, abc7ny.com, Balloon Juice, Splinter, Breitbart, New York Post, The Other McCain, Fox News Insider, The Root, Mediaite, WWAY-TV, The Week and Boing Boing

Associated Press:
The Latest: Trump to go ahead with Illinois rally

Discussion: Townhall

CBS Pittsburgh:
11 Dead, Several Others Shot At Pittsburgh Synagogue

Kaelyn Forde / ABC News:
Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting claims 8 lives; 4 officers among multiple wounded, officials say

Discussion: HuffPost, Power Line, FOX 61, KRTV-TV and Daily Wire

Press:
Malinowski Statement On Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting

Discussion: New York Times

NBC News:
At least 8 dead in shooting near Pittsburgh synagogue

Discussion: Governor Tom Wolf, Indianapolis Star, Politico, USA Today, NPR, Raw Story, CNN, The Daily Beast, ThinkProgress, CBS Pittsburgh, Southern Poverty Law Center, Deadline, Townhall, The Week, POLITICUSUSA, Axios, Jezebel, IJR, Breitbart and Splinter

Washington Post:

Mail bomb suspect made numerous references on Facebook to Russian associates and echoed pro-Kremlin views — A Facebook account apparently belonging to the man charged with sending pipe bombs to prominent Democrats this week included references to Russian associates and propaganda links …

Discussion: Raw Story and The Intercept

Washington Post:

‘He felt that somebody was finally talking to him’: How the package-bomb suspect found inspiration in Trump — BOCA RATON, Fla. — The first thing that stood out about Cesar Sayoc was his vehicle. — As far back as 2002, lawyer Ronald Lowy recalled, the windows of Sayoc's white Dodge Ram van …

Discussion: Raw Story

Ilya Somin / Reason:
Mail Bomber Cesar Sayoc Threatened Me on Facebook

Discussion: Slate, CNN and KTVQ-TV

Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Cesar Sayoc's Path on Social Media: From Food Photos to Partisan Fury

Discussion: Sean Hannity, NPR, electionlawblog.org, TechCrunch, Bloomberg and Sputnik International, more at Techmeme »

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed News:

The Conspiratorial Hate We See Online Is Increasingly Appearing In Real Life — This week, reporters dredged up the online pasts of two monsters: a Florida man who was arrested for sending pipe bombs to at least a dozen of President Trump's critics, and a neo-Nazi sympathizer who opened fire …

Aris Folley / The Hill:

LeBron James dons Beto O'Rourke hat to game in San Antonio — Los Angeles Lakers player LeBron James donned a Beto O'Rourke hat ahead of his team's matchup with the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night. — In a photo shared by James' team on Saturday evening, the player could be seen wearing a white hat, reading: “Beto for Senate.”

Discussion: HuffPost and The Atlantic

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

‘Riling Up the Crazies’ — WASHINGTON — As long as I've covered politics, Republicans have been trying to scare me. — Sometimes, it has been about gays and transgender people and uppity women looming, but usually it has been about people with darker skin looming.

BBC:

Leicester City owner's helicopter crashes leaving stadium — The Leicester City owner's helicopter has crashed in a car park outside the club's ground as it left the stadium following a Premier League match. — Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was in the helicopter when it came down at about 20:30 BST …

James Fallows / The Atlantic:

The Worst of Our Country—And the Best — Every society contains its monsters: people damaged or disturbed enough, or misdirected enough, to inflict cruelty on others. A central purpose of society—its families, its schools, its civic and faith organizations, its official …

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

No, President Trump, the NYSE did not open the day after the Sept. 11 attacks — “I remember when we had the attack in Manhattan, we opened the stock exchange the next day. People were shocked.” — “With what happened early today, that horrible, horrible attack in Pittsburgh, I was saying maybe I should cancel both this and that.

Discussion: Bloomberg and Raw Story

Michael Goodwin / New York Post:

Neither of this week's attacks will affect the midterms — Whom can we blame? How will it play in November? — For the second time in a week, those were the crass calculations running through the minds of the political class. First it was the pipe bombs and now it is the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre.

Jason Le Miere / Newsweek:

Donald Trump jokes about his hair being ruined by having to answer questions in the rain about Pittsburgh shooting — Hours after a mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh that killed at least 11 people, President Donald Trump gave a political speech at the Future Farmers of America Convention.

Discussion: Hullabaloo