The momentum created through movements such as the Women’s March on Washington and the various Indivisible Groups is great and is noticed. All the strategists in the Democratic party – who, by the way, couldn’t excite and capture this level of energy during the last election – are conniving to capture and steer this energy for the Party’s gain. In other words, going forward, what may look like grassroots organizing and politicking will more than likely be a front for the “corporate Democrats” the movements are pushing against. [Read more…]
Readers Write: County Supervisors Vote No on Feasibility Study for Community Choice Aggregation
“What’s the rush?”– Supervisor Kristin Gaspar
By Bruce Bekkar, M.D. and Donald Mosier, M.D.
On February 15, our County Board of Supervisors voted against staff’s recommendation to conduct a feasibility study on Community Choice Aggregation (CCA).
An increasingly popular option throughout California, CCAs (also known as CCEs) provide local residents an alternative to investor-owned utilities and a chance to select a mix of less carbon-intensive electricity at competitive prices. A San Diego County CCA program would be a big step towards a cleaner, healthier future for everyone.
Community Choice Aggregation programs came into being in California in 2002 with the passage of AB 117 in the California State Legislature. This Bill created the framework for establishing local, not-for-profit public agencies that would partner with existing utilities to provide additional electricity choices for state residents.
[Read more…]
Looking Back at the Week: Feb 19-26
This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week features articles, commentaries, columns, toons, and other work by San Diego Free Press regulars, irregulars, columnists, at-large contributors, cartoonists, and sourced writers on: Trump, Radical Anti-Semitism, Indivisible taking on Issa and others, inequality in America, council troubles in National City, The DC Shuffle, MOXIE’s Blue Door, and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s friendly, neighborhood, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site. [Read more…]
Geo-Poetic Spaces: Self Portrait #8
Three coats of gesso
brushed across naked canvas
painted by sunrise
[Read more…]
Weekly Progressive Activism Calendar for San Diego, February 24-March 5, 2017
We’re Not Going Away! More Than Three Dozen Ways to Get Involved
Duncan Hunter’s on the Run! The Los Angeles Times ran a hilarious article about the San Diego Congress-Critter’s pathetic attempts to close down his offices in the face of ongoing protests. Also, Congressman Darrell Issa tried and failed to co-opt the local resistance this week.
Two hundred representatives are not even bothering to try and meet with constituents during the February break. But that hasn’t stopped people from picketing their offices and flooding their switchboards with calls demanding answers on immigration, health care, and a host of other issues. And it’s not going to stop anytime soon.
Meanwhile, Congresspersons Susan Davis and Scott Peters spoke before full houses this week, answering questions and seeing up close and personal the passion people are feeling these days. As Democrats, these representatives didn’t face crowds that were necessarily upset, but the message of resistance was just as strong. [Read more…]
2 Investigations Requested at National City’s Council Meeting
Independent Investigation On Whether SANDAG Deceived the Public: Mayor Ron Morrison on the Board of Directors
Summary: The Voice of San Diego reported that SANDAG may have deceived voters, telling them Measure A would generate $18 billion over 40 years, although they knew this was untrue. Mayor Morrison was a SANDAG Board of Director and residents wondered if he knew about the deceit.
Residents during public comments and two council members asked that the California Attorney General do an investigation. The motion failed in a 3-2 vote. A subsequent motion asked for an independent investigation without the California Attorney General, which passed unanimously.
On February 21st, Voice of San Diego reported that prior the November 2016 election, voters were told Measure A would generate about $18 billion over 40 years. Newly uncovered emails, however, revealed SANDAG staff knew as early as 2015 that the $18 billion figure was unrealistic. (The measure failed.) [Read more…]
Trump’s ‘Military Operation’ Against ‘Bad Dudes’
In a meeting with corporate executives this morning, President Donald Trump took time out to extol the virtues of his administration’s immigration policies, saying his effort to ramp up deportations is a “military operation” aimed at ridding the U.S. of “really bad dudes.”
The reality of what’s happening is divorced from the administration’s portrayals. Mexican authorities say they’ve seen no increase in deportations. What has increased are public relations efforts to justify the new policies.
Locally, the suicide of Guadalupe Olivas Valencia, less than an hour after he was deported has impacted the immigrant community. The 45-year-old Mexican citizen jumped to his death from a pedestrian bridge spanning the border in San Ysidro. [Read more…]
Nationwide Indivisible Movement Challenges Issa, Other Elected Officials
‘This is Democracy. You Should Come Try It.’
By Doug Porter
Pressure from citizens groups continues to mount nationwide, as elected representatives grapple with political blowback over health care, immigration, environmental, and other issues raised by Republicans seeking to dismantle America’s social contract.
Nearly 2000 people came to what was billed as an ‘Emergency Town Hall’ in Vista on Tuesday night, even though the guest of honor, Congressman Issa, made it clear he had no intention of showing up.
The Jim Porter Recreation Center quickly filled up to its legal capacity of 350 people; the remaining attendees rallied outside. Midway through the proceedings, which included speakers from faith-based and healthcare organizations, the room was emptied to allow a new group of constituents in to hear speeches. [Read more…]
Trump Still Won’t Say the Words: ‘Radical Anti-Semitism’
“The President’s sudden acknowledgment is a Band-Aid on the cancer of anti-Semitism that has infected his own Administration.”– Anne Frank Center
For the second time this month, The Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center in La Jolla was evacuated in response to a bomb threat. San Diego Police searched the facility following a 6am phone call on Tuesday.
On Monday there were 11 new bomb threats against Jewish community centers, from New York to New Mexico. Over the weekend, vandals toppled and damaged as many as 200 headstones at a St. Louis-area Jewish cemetery.
Prior to Tuesday morning’s threat, the Jewish Community Center (JCC) Association of North America has documented 69 incidents at 54 centers in 27 U.S. states and one Canadian province since the start of 2017. [Read more…]
Mayor, Mayor on the Wall
We’ll start with a trick question: Is Mayor Kevin Faulconer the mirror image of President Donald Trump? No, of course not! you’d probably say.
Kevin Faulconer is a pleasant, if unremarkable, go-along-to-get-along San Diego city councilman turned mayor:
“…born and raised in Oxnard California… learned to speak Spanish in grade school… San Diego State University… member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity… one year as Student Body President of Associated Students. He and his wife Katherine, a small business owner, live in Point Loma with their two children. Before running for office… executive with the public relations firm NCG Porter Novelli and volunteered on the Mission Bay Park Committee…” (see Wikipedia)
You might say that Kevin Faulconer is a lightweight Republican who goes down nice and easy in a city like San Diego. He is decorum incarnate – never an unguarded sneer, never an unscripted rant. [Read more…]
Happy So-Called President’s Day: The Administration Spins On
Here we are, just over one month into the Presidency of Donald J. Trump, [Insert your favorite descriptive phrase here]. Things aren’t going well for the current administration.
It’s leaking so much that ‘false leaks’ — like the story about the National Guard being mobilized to aid in deportations — are now part of White House strategy designed to portray the press as the “enemy of the American people.”
Based on a misunderstanding of a Fox news show, our government is now at odds with the government of Sweden. Rather than admit the error, the administration is doubling down on it. (If they want to declare war, I’m willing to negotiate terms of surrender!)
Most importantly, resistance against the policies and proposals of the administration and its Republican allies continues to spread. [Read more…]
Inequality in America: Incomes Collapsing for Bottom 50% as Top 1% Soars
While most of us were busy watching the Trump administration and their crack team of “populist” millionaires light the world on fire, a new study released by Thomas Piketty, Facundo Alvaredo, Lucas Chancel, and Emmanuel Saez underlined the fact that the steep costs of our historic level of economic inequality are being borne by those at the bottom of the economic system, particularly here in the United States. As the Market Watch story on this new research outlined:
In the U.S., between 1978 and 2015, the income share of the bottom 50% fell to 12% from 20%. Total real income for that group fell 1% during that time period. [Read more…]
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