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Bernie Sanders is Coming To San Diego

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Large Crowds of San Diegans to #FeelTheBern on Tuesday

startinglinelogoBy Doug Porter

It would appear that California, long an afterthought in the quadrennial presidential primary process, will get a chance to weigh in this year.

On Sunday afternoon, the Bernie Sanders campaign posted an official event page, announcing a rally in San Diego on Tuesday, March 22 at the Convention Center. Doors will open at 5pm.

The ‘A Future to Believe In Rally in San Diego’ is free and open to the public, and RSVPs are being strongly encouraged. Admission will be first come, first served. If Sanders rallies elsewhere are any indication, it’s reasonable to expect an overflow crowd.

UPDATE: Registration for the event has already reached capacity, according to the event page.

UPDATE #2: Now that the rally is booked, the campaign has announced the San Diego March To A Future To Believe In Rally, meeting at the San Diego Civic Center Concourse, and marching to the Convention Center, via 4th and 5th Avenues. Bring any Bernie Bling you have to show our support for Bernie. The march is expected to last about 3 hours, starting at 10:30am.

The following notice was included with the announcement:

For security reasons, please do not bring bags and limit what you bring to small, personal items like keys and cell phones. Weapons, sharp objects, chairs, and signs or banners on sticks will not be allowed through security. Parking available in garage on-site for a fee. Carpooling is strongly encouraged. The San Diego Trolley has two stops directly in front of the convention center at Harbor Drive/First Avenue and Harbor Drive/Fifth Avenue.

A link to the campaign’s event page at SDFP Facebook generated over 1000 views overnight and there have been significant mentions on social media.

From California Playbook:

…Hell has officially frozen over: An actual presidential campaign event is taking place in the Golden State, as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders holds a rally this week in San Diego. Which means that from the effects on downballot and congressional races to voter registration, the June 7 presidential primary could put California center stage. Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats are calculating their next moves as Donald Trump heads west.

(FYI–This wouldn’t be San Diego without a right-wing counterprotest. Bring your left-over signs from last summer welcoming Westboro Baptist to Comic-Con.)

Sanders in Seattle Sunday

According to KIRO 7 TV, thousands were unable to get into a Sunday rally at Seattle’s 10,000 + seat KeyArena.

“Ten years ago, if somebody jumped up and said, ‘I think that gay marriage will be legal in 50 states in America in the year 2015,’ the person next to them would’ve said ‘You are nuts, what are you smoking?'” Sanders said.

In Seattle, Sanders applauded the city’s move to incrementally phase in a $15-an-hour minimum wage by 2017 that took effect in April 2015.

Sanders pledged to make it easier for people to vote. He elicited huge roars when addressing a number of issues such as racial justice, his intent to implement universal health care and fight climate change.

“In my view we have a moral responsibility to leave this planet to our children and grandchildren in a way that is healthy and habitable,” he said.

Meanwhile in the Other Washington…

In Washington DC, the word is that Democratic Senators are urging Bernie Sanders to wind down his campaign, according to Politico. California’s Barbara Boxer is quoted as saying “ The writing’s on the wall” for the Vermont Senator’s candidacy.

After holding their fire on Sanders for the better part of a year, the senators — all backers of Hillary Clinton — are gently calling on Sanders to face the reality that there’s almost no chance he’s going to be the Democratic nominee. They don’t say outright he should quit; doing so would be counterproductive, they say.

But nearly a dozen Democratic lawmakers suggested in interviews that Sanders should focus more on stopping Donald Trump and less on why he believes Clinton’s stands on trade, financial regulation and foreign policy would make her a flawed president.

bernie sanders san diego ibew event

Via Facebook

The article makes it clear the Senators think Bernie’s been real cute and all, talking about this inequality stuff, but now it’s time to put the party pros in charge. (…Pass the caviar, please. And can we have that pest Elizabeth Warren neutralized?)

My sense is that Senator Sanders has no intention of backing down. (Yes, I will vote for the party nominee in November.)

Coincidentally, a Sanders meeting held at the Kearny Mesa IBEW hall drew a capacity crowd, with organizers saying that over 50 phone banking events were organized.

Son of a Mitch

Lest you think Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell is an independent thinker…

From Think Progress:

Supreme Court justices are nominated by the president and appointed with the advice and consent of the National Rifle Association, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

McConnell offered this unusual view of the confirmation process during an interview with Fox News Sunday. In response to a question from host Chris Wallace, who asked if Senate Republicans would consider the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court after the election if Hillary Clinton prevails, McConnell responded that he “can’t imagine that a Republican majority in the United States Senate would want to confirm, in a lame duck session, a nominee opposed by the National Rifle Association [and] the National Federation of Independent Businesses.”

The National Federation of Independent Businesses is funded by the Koch brothers (among others) and was the lead plaintiff in the ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

I’ll quote Joan McCarter at Daily Kos by the way of analysis:

So apparently the constitution needs to be amended to allow for the advice and consent of the NRA to the president on Supreme Court nominees, and no nominee that the NRA doesn’t agree to will get a confirmation as long as McConnell is around. It’s not about “letting the people decide” and it’s not about filling a vacancy in the last year of a president’s term, not that those are legitimate excuses for refusing to do his job. It’s about answering to the NRA and keeping a justice with a less expansive view of the Second Amendment off of the court.

And then there’s this:

Son of a Trump…

GOP candidate Donald Trump continues to draw protests at rallies around the country.

From the Union-Tribune:

Donald Trump struck a combative posture on illegal immigration amid vigorous protests Saturday as he sought to rally Arizona Republicans three days before the state’s winner-take-all presidential primary.

More than 100 protesters blocked the main road leading to Trump’s rally in this Phoenix suburb, chanting that he was a racist.

“Get this clown out of my town!” they shouted, carrying signs that read, among other things, “Trump = Hitler” and “Combat white supremacy.”

Three people were arrested for blocking the roadway. Some of Trump’s supporters, including retirees, had to walk three miles in the hot Sonoran Desert sun to his rally at a lakeside park.

I’m Waiting for The Donald

So what will happen when and if Trump comes to San Diego?

My view is that what Trump stands for must be confronted. I will be near wherever he speaks, picket sign in hand. I think it’s a patriotic act.

Michael-Moore-Invites-People-Around-to-Write-We-Are-All-Muslims-e1450403033416Lacking vocal chords, I can’t be a leader. But I can be a damn good follower. If need be, I’d get arrested protesting non-violently for this cause. And now is the time to start thinking about this sort of thing.

There’s been much discussion within the media world lately about its role in enabling Donald Trump. Frankly, I think it goes back a lot further than Trump. By failing to challenge the relentless stream of falsehoods coming from the right in the name of providing “both sides of the story,” much of the mainstream press (and particularly cable news) have built the foundation upon which a figure promising authoritarian government can run for office and get more than a smattering of votes.

The reality of totally invented crap like, say, the Obamacare “death panels” getting serious media coverage (and they did) can not be denied. Somewhere along the way the concepts of truth and honesty got left on the cutting room floor too often.

So it’s not just countering Trump’s ideas making me want to go protest any appearance he makes in San Diego; it’s the idea that the legacy of birtherism, et. al., must be challenged.

Glen Greenwald’s essay at The Intercept on the media’s role in the rise of Trump includes this addendum at its conclusion:

Regarding whether “neutrality” and “objectivity” are new journalistic concoctions, note that the two most revered figures in American broadcast journalism history — Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite — would have been fired from NPR and multiple other contemporary media outlets for their most notable moments: Murrow when he used his nightly news broadcast to repeatedly denounce Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and Cronkite when he did the same about the Vietnam War.

Oh, and then there’s this to worry about…

global warming 2016 chartOn This Day: 1925 – The state of Tennessee enacted the Butler Act. It was a law that made it a crime for a teacher in any state-supported public school to teach any theory that was in contradiction to the Bible’s account of man’s creation. 1965 – More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began a march from Selma to Montgomery, AL. 2000 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had overstepped its regulatory authority when it attempted to restrict the marketing of cigarettes to youngsters.

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Doug Porter

Doug Porter

Doug Porter was active in the early days of the alternative press in San Diego, contributing to the OB Liberator, the print version of the OB Rag, the San Diego Door, and the San Diego Street Journal. He went on to have a 35-year career in the Hospitality business and decided to go back into raising hell when he retired. He won numerous awards for his columns from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Doug is a cancer survivor (sans vocal chords) and lives in North Park.

Comments

  1. I’ll be right next to you on that line, Mr. Porter. Not to stop the rally — freedom of speech and all that. But to send the message to Trump and his minions.

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