Comment by owenversteeg | Hacker News Reader

Comment by owenversteeg | Hacker News Reader

Oh man, every part of this story is great. The Asian couple buying a street that was only salable to whites for most of SF's history, the fact that the fancy gated community didn't pay $900 in taxes, and the $90k price.

I read that Feinstein owned a home there. They should set up a website taking donations: every dollar donated would increase Feinstein's annual parking costs by a dollar.

In case people don't know who Feinstein is: she co-sponsored PIPA, is a continuing supporter of the PATRIOT Act and SOPA, FISA, warrantless searches, and sponsored a bill that would have criminalized all forms of strong encryption.

[edit] I have a lot of friends with strong political views, from hardcore Hillary supporters to Communist/Socialists to the far right, and literally all of them strongly dislike Feinstein for various reasons. Meanwhile, she keeps getting elected easily and set a record for the largest amount of votes for a Senator. In the last election, she ran against a woman who doesn't even have a Wikipedia page, who got 37% of the vote.

> I read that Feinstein owned a home there. They should set up a website taking donations: every dollar donated would increase Feinstein's annual parking costs by a dollar.

I'd donate to that, as long as the money went to the ACLU and/or the EFF. She's also a notorious gun-grabber despite having been one of the few people in the city of San Francisco to have a concealed carry permit (I don't remember if she still has it or not)

"I don't remember if she still has it or not"

I wouldn't be surprised if she still does. I also wouldn't be surprised if she still employs armed bodyguards.

She does, but most those homes are empty 80% of the time. They have security guards that go around to the homes just to look for people who break into those homes to squat, which is an actual problem. I knew a guy living in one of the homes on that block for free just so that somebody would be around.

You're thinking of security guards, not bodyguards. yellowapple was pointing out that she has armed bodyguards near her when she's out and about, yet she advocates for disarming the regular folk like us--"one law for me, another for thee"

I can't help but laugh at having to hire people to keep a home from serving its purpose: to house people.

I always figured her position on guns had something to do with her closeness to the Harvey Milk / Moscone assassination. Probably very personally distressing.

She no longer has it, and if I read right she hasn’t since 1995: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/273989-fein...

I’m also not sure the sourcing of her armed bodyguards mentioned elsewhere. In DC, all senators are under protection of the Capitol Police, who are armed, but I can’t find details about what protection she has outside DC.

They should turn it into a homeless shelter or Methadone Clinic -- like what the SF Rich do to the poor areas.

Just let the homeless camp in the community spaces that were purchased. Let it be known as a safe-haven.

>IPA, is a continuing supporter of the PATRIOT Act and SOPA, FISA, warrantless searches,

Except this describes at least 80% of Congress and 95% of the GOP congress. Not sure what you're expecting here, she isn't exceptionally liberal if that's your criticism. Replacing her with a GOP politician will only make the things you complain about worse and it'll add ending Net Neutrality, questionable anti-Immigration policies, gutting the EPA, Muslim bans, and Climate Denial to the mix.

Also the warrant-less search criticism is a little unfair, perhaps not terribly so, but she's one of the few that has called out the CIA for this:

http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/dianne-feinstein-...

That said, she's too old to run for re-election and this is her last term. Hopefully, you'll get the unicorn politician you want, but I think we're destined for a Californian Republican that'll just make matters worse.

83% of Congress voted for the PATRIOT act renewal. Less than half of Congress continually supports the various "IP protection" bills, which is why SOPA/PIPA/Protect IP died. Many members of Congress have criticized FISA. Sure, perhaps half of Congress at any time will reliably vote for stupid things. But at the same time, she's not just showing up and voting and going home. She's cosponsoring these bills, pushing them through, doing whatever she can to make stuff like the PATRIOT act/SOPA/PIPA/Protect IP/etc law. If you were to rank members of the Senate on their IP-friendliness, she'd certainly be the worst in my opinion.

Look, I'm politically active. I go out and have worked for two Presidential campaigns. I'm not going to vote for someone that wants to gut the EPA, stop immigration, or ban Muslims. (I'm also not a CA resident.) But not _all_ Republicans are bad, and one that would win California of all places probably wouldn't be very hard-right.

Like Devin Nunes? Darrel Issa? Dana Rohrabacher? All California Reps and all with odious voting records and near total Trump support.

California is huge and the "California liberal" mythos only applies to certain areas. You can absolutely have a pretty conservative person win the state. Feinstein is arguably the lessor of two evils. She leans right enough to pick up moderates and conservatives but is still socially liberal and liberal-moderate on most issues. Her seat absolutely is at risk of being picked up by someone who will align himself with Trump.

The same way Hillary was a moderate liberal who lost out to people who wouldn't vote for a non-unicorn (Bernie or Bust) candidate while the other side marched lockstep to the voting booth for Trump and won.

Unfortunately she is listed as a past owner.

Sure, maybe its true rich people usually do this to poor people. But it's different rich people. Being happy because some random rich people are getting screwed over because other rich people are assholes is incredibly stupid.

I am marxist and I think Feinstein is horrible on every axis.

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