By Doug Porter
Back in the days when tobacco use was an accepted norm in society, cigarette companies regularly created ad campaigns featuring physicians attesting to the quality of their products.
Opponents of Proposition 64, the California initiative to legalize recreational pot, are being accused of trying to pull a fast one on general election voters by including language in official ballot arguments suggesting that TV ads making marijuana attractive to children are part of the measure.
The Yes on Proposition 64 committee filed suit in Sacramento County Superior Court yesterday, asking a judge to change or delete arguments in opposition to the measure they say include false or misleading language.
From the Associated Press:
In particular, lawsuit says it’s not true that the initiative “rolls back the total prohibition of smoking ads on TV” and that children “will be exposed to ads promoting marijuana gummy candy and brownies.”
Federal law bans marijuana advertising, and the measure won’t change the federal prohibition of televised smoking ads, proposition supporter spokesman Jason Kinney said. The measure itself bars marketing marijuana to people under 21, Kinney said.
“Defenders of the failed war on marijuana are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts,” Kinney said. “The ballot arguments submitted with a straight face by the opponents fundamentally and factually misrepresent this ballot measure and are riddled with obvious falsehoods.”
In other marijuana news–expect to see a lot of claims in coming months– a study recently published in Health Affairs suggests medical marijuana may be one way to deal with the deadly opioid epidemic.
From Think Progress:
The researchers, a father-daughter team at the University of Georgia, combed through three years of prescription data filled under Medicare Part D between 2010 to 2013. Then they looked specifically at nine conditions for which marijuana can be used as an alternative treatment: anxiety, depression, glaucoma, nausea, pain, psychosis, seizures, sleep disorders, and spasticity.
In the 17 states plus Washington, D.C. that had legalized medical marijuana as of 2013, prescriptions for eight of the nine conditions went down — for example, prescriptions written for pain dropped by 1,826 daily doses.
Barrio Logan to Chargers: Our Backyard is Full
San Diego Free Press editorial board member and Desde la Logan columnist Brent E. Beltrán was interviewed by the Bolts from the Blue Chargers blog on behalf of the Barrios Against Stadiums (B.A.STA!) movement.
A snip:
Some people may slap a NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) label on B.A.STA! as a way to dismiss your arguments without actually engaging them. What would be your reply to anyone who played the NIMBY card?
Damn straight I’m a NIMBY on this issue. But a little context is needed because Barrio Logan has a lot of stuff in our backyard that most communities won’t want.
Our backyard includes a freeway and bridge that bulldozed hundreds of families. Our backyard includes one of the most polluted zipcodes (92113) in the state. Our backyard has maritime industry polluting and making noise 24 hours a day. Our backyard has dozens and dozens of semitrucks driving in and out of the 10th Ave Terminal seven days a week. Our backyard is a parking lot for Comic-Con, Padres game sellouts, and Navy/shipyard personnel. Our backyard has polluting industry next door to residences and churches because the voters of San Diego denied us our community plan update. Our backyard is full of homeless people urinating and defecating on our doorsteps and parks as the city continues to ignore the issue.
Our backyard has historically been neglected. People can call BASTA! NIMBY as much as they want but our backyard is full. Start storing stuff in yours.
(SDFP endorses BASTA’s goal of no downtown stadium.)
Crystal Rose Speros–OB Hero Saves Tree
Our blogging compatriots at the OB Rag were on the scene yesterday as a 19-year old woman climbed into a Torrey Pine and stopped a city contractor from removing the tree.
A small crowd of residents and OBceans had gathered around the Torrey by 9 am on the 4600 block of Saratoga, some willing to stay until threatened with arrest or more.
They had gathered under the threat of the City and its contractor, Atlas Tree Service, of cutting down another one of the Torrey Pines on that block, as it had been announced at Wednesday’s OB Planning Board meeting. A dozen people at one point surrounded the large, towering tree with a huge trunk, holding hands in a display of peaceful defiance…
…When it became clear that Crystal and all the supporters on the ground were not going to move or get out of the way, Atlas’s crew folded its tent, gathered the cones and signs, lowered the crane – and finally drove away with all their trucks and equipment.
One of the Atlas workers told a few of the protesters that they would be back on Monday, as they had another project on Friday. Also one of the crew workers told people that “I don’t want to cut down the tree…”
…Crystal has lived in OB and Point Loma all her life; she just turned 19 and plans on attending NYU in the Fall. One of the reporters asked her why she did it, and she responded: “The tree is defenseless, it has no one to defend it.”
This is more to the story, of course, of how the City lobbed off one huge branch of the same Torrey Pine awhile ago, and is now claiming the tree is “unbalanced” and is a “hazard” and “needs to come down”. Of how many residents don’t trust Atlas any more – especially after they cut down the wrong tree on Voltaire several months ago.
Residents are planning on returning to the scene in future days to continue their vigil to save the tree.
Zika Spreads So Rebel Flags Might Fly
& Planned Parenthood Can Suffer
I’m not kidding.
From KPCC:
Image from Wonkette.com
“Two infants have been born in California with Zika-related microcephaly, the state Department of Public Health reported Thursday. In both cases, the mothers contracted the virus while pregnant, after spending time in a country where Zika is spreading.”
From CNN:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an unprecedented travel warning Monday, advising pregnant women and their partners not to travel to a small community just north of downtown Miami, where Zika is actively circulating. This is the first time the CDC has warned people not to travel to an American neighborhood for fear of catching an infectious disease, according to agency spokesman Tom Skinner.
This week, 11 additional people in Florida were found to have been infected with Zika virus after being bitten by local mosquitoes, bringing the total to 15.
President Obama asked Congress for additional funding to control the spread of the Zika virus back in February. Congressional Republicans attempted to include provisions in the legislation imposing new restrictions on Planned Parenthood and allowing the Confederate flag to fly at veterans cemeteries, so it didn’t pass.
I’m not one to say the Zika virus is a doomsday event. It’s a public health problem, the sort of thing that most sane people agree government should do something about.
Speaking of Sanity…(Or Not)
I started off the week with a column saying Donald Trump was having troubles. Little did I know how bad things would get in just a few days.
Conservative New York Times Columnist David Brooks called on Republicans to take a stand against Donald Trump, using some strong language questioning the candidate’s basic sanity:
Over the past few days, Trump has destroyed this middle ground. He’s exposed the wet noodle Republicans as suckers, or worse. Trump has shown that he is not a normal candidate. He is a political rampage charging ever more wildly out of control. And no, he cannot be changed.
He cannot be contained because he is psychologically off the chain. With each passing week he displays the classic symptoms of medium-grade mania in more disturbing forms: inflated self-esteem, sleeplessness, impulsivity, aggression and a compulsion to offer advice on subjects he knows nothing about.
His speech patterns are like something straight out of a psychiatric textbook. Manics display something called “flight of ideas.” It’s a formal thought disorder in which ideas tumble forth through a disordered chain of associations. One word sparks another, which sparks another, and they’re off to the races. As one trained psychiatrist said to me, compare Donald Trump’s speaking patterns to a Robin Williams monologue, but with insults instead of jokes.
Michael Morell, former acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, took to the Times to endorse Hillary Clinton in an op-ed, calling Donald Trump a danger to national security and an “unwitting agent” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
From Talking Points Memo:
In the column, the 33-year veteran of the CIA drew a stark contrast between Clinton’s experience and Trump’s “obvious need for self-aggrandizement, his overreaction to perceived slights” and “lack of respect for the rule of law.”
Trump is “already damaging our national security,” Morell wrote, going on to say Putin is trained to exploit an individual’s vulnerabilities, just as he has done with the real estate mogul.
“Mr. Putin played upon Mr. Trump’s vulnerabilities by complimenting him. He responded just as Mr. Putin had calculated,” he said. “In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.”
Whew!
Weekly Progressive Calendar: Upcoming in San Diego
Get your event listed: I try to list the next 10 days or so of mostly non-commercial events I think our readers might find of interest. I source my material from social media listings and press releases. In cases where there are competing but similar events or campaigns of the progressive persuasion, I do my best to list everything.
Unfortunately, my subscription to the psychic hotline has lapsed so if you don’t tell me or Facebook, etc., about your event it won’t get listed. See my email address at the end of this column.
Bernie Delegates & Volunteer Appreciation Cookout
Saturday, August 6, Noon
Tecolote Shores Park
1740 E Mission Bay Dr
Info & Updates
Event is a potluck! If you want to bring stuff to BBQ we will have a grill ready!
Please join us to this cookout (potluck) to thank and appreciate all of our SD delegates for standing up and being strong to the corruption of the DNC!
Whether you canvassed for Bernie or volunteered by being an election observer at the ROV. Or perhaps took part in March for Bernie USA – we would like to take some time to say thank you. The struggle continues!
Memorial Service for Angelo DeNardo
and the Murdered Homeless in San Diego
Sunday, August 7, 12:45
Metropolitan Community Church
2633 Denver Street (Clairemont)
Info & Updates
The first victim of a recent string of fatal attacks on homeless men in San Diego is Angelo De Nardo, who attended MCC San Diego for many years. Another named victim is Shawn Longley and there are multiple whose names are either unknown or unreleased by officials.
As a community, we will come together to pay our respects and honor the lives of these fallen Beloved of God and members of the community.
We welcome family, friends and loved ones of Angelo, Shawn Longley and the victims who are known on the streets but remain unnamed at large.
Into God’s hands we commend these spirits.
Save Hillcrest’s Homeless:
Investigate the Hillcrest Business Association
Tuesday, August 9, 5pm
Joyce Beers Community Center
3900 Vermont Street
Info & Updates
(Psst. Don’t forget! Coming to media all over San Diego)
The Problem: Hillcrest Business Association (HBA) / Hillcrest Maintenance Assessment District (MAD) have created a security committee, appropriated funds, and contracted with a private security team. This team’s purpose is to respond to hotline calls requesting the removal of undesirable homeless people, one sleeping bag at a time.
They have found $80,000 to pay for the displacement and criminalization of poverty, but have chosen to abandon all outreach efforts.
We are taking our concerns directly to the HBA board meeting, that is open to public comment and communiy action. We intend to be present at as many HBA meetings and events as possible.
We intend to get as many bodies on the inside of this meeting as possible. We will not be turned away. We will not be ousted. We intend to peacefully disrupt business as usual, and give Hillcrest businesses a taste of the response to come if they continue to support this heartless task force. Attacking impoverished people with nowhere else to go is not acceptable in Hillcrest.
Community Forum on Proposed Stadium Plans
Wednesday, August 10, 6pm
Sherman Heights Community Center
2258 Island Ave
Info & Updates
Did you know there are TWO initiatives on the November Ballot that would/could build a Downtown Stadium just blocks away from the communities of Logan and Sherman Heights?
->GET INFORMED & KNOW what’s on the November Ballot, both the Spano’s Charger Plan & the Cory Briggs ‘Citizen’s Plan’.
->PARTICIPATE in a dialogue w/ LOGAN & SHERMAN HEIGHTS neighbors about thoughts and concerns that come with the construction of a Downtown Stadium so close to our community.
Refugee: The Eritrean Exodus Film Screening
Wednesday, August 10, 6pm
The Women’s Museum
2730 Historic Decatur Road, 103, San Diego, CA
RSVP & Info
The Nile Sisters Development Initiative invites the public to a film screening of Refugee: The Eritrean Exodus, a powerful exposé of the struggles experienced by forcibly displaced Northeastern African refugees who seek safety from violence, torture, and persecution.
This event is free, Light dinner provided by Chipotle Mexican Grill
I AM BERTA CÁCERES:
Honoring Environmental Justice Women
from Honduras to Barrio Logan
Thursday, August 11, 6pm
Bread & Salt
1955 Julian Avenue
Info & Updates
Join the Environmental Health Coalition, along with residents of Barrio Logan and advocates from throughout San Diego, for an evening of remembering, honoring, and strategizing with others toward environmental justice. Free event. Donations accepted.
Have you heard about the Honduran woman, Berta Cáceres, who is said to have been murdered earlier this year due to her environmental justice work? She successfully protected a water resource against corporate grab for thousands of people.
What about Other Latina women, the mothers in particular, who for decades have defended the environmental health quality of their beloved Barrio Logan neighborhood?
We hope you can join us for a unique community dialogue!
Protest Against the Largest Private Prison Corporation (CCA)
Thursday, August 11, 6:30
551 S. 35th St. San Diego
Info & Updates
The time is NOW and we must act NOW! This is a call for ACTION that will take place on August 11th in Southeast San Diego as we stand in solidarity to protest against the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).
CCA is the largest for-profit prison industry in America and they currently operate three Correctional Facilities across San Diego County. Two out of the three facilities are located in the heart of Southeast San Diego and Barrio Logan. Both centers are located in residential neighborhoods within close proximity of homes, churches, schools, and businesses.
CCA is looking to capitalize through alternative services in order to boost their revenue by purchasing re-entry/detention centers across the country. Our brothers and sisters deserve an authentic righteous RE-ENTRY/Pre-Release center that is not ran by for-profit corporate pimps. CCA’s primary objective is to to make profit off incarcerating human beings rather than providing quality rehabilitative services that help individuals transition back into their communities after incarceration.
Our communities deserve better and we must start investing in infrastructures that will promote positive social change for our people. Join our movement as we take a stand against these corporate pimps!
Film Night “How to Change the World”
Thursday, August 11, 7pm
The OB Green Center
4843 B Voltaire Street, Ocean Beach
619-225-1083
This film is an award winning 2015 documentary directed by Jerrry Rothwell, which chronicles the adventures of an eclectic group of young pioneers who set out to stop Richard Nixon’s nuclear bomb tests in Amchitka, Alaska, and end up creating the worldwide green movement with the birth of Greenpeace. Special guests will be local Greenpeace activists from the 90’s who worked on local and national campaigns. Free of Charge :-)
Sierra Club Film Night “The True Cost”
Friday, August 12, 6:30pm
8304 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. #101
More info Jean Costa 619-463-0721 or ellenshively@sbcglobal.net
This 2015 documentary explores the impact of fashion on people and the planet. Filmed in countries around the world, from the brightest runways to the darkest slums, this groundbreaking documentary pulls back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider who really pays the price for our clothes. Free
Chicano Park Museum & Cultural Center Fundraiser
Saturday, August 13, 5pm
Bread & Salt
1955 Julian Ave
Info & Updates
We invite you to imagine a state of the art Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center next door to our beloved Historical Chicano Park and Monumental Murals. A place our community, our children and youth, and all visitors could come and learn about the many contributions made by local Chicano Artists, Community Activists, and residents of Barrio Logan, a repository of photographs, articles, and all things related to the park and community, a learning center, performance and exhibition space, and information center, the unfinished dream carried for decades by all of us involved one way or another with Chicano Park.
Don’t miss a chance to help make history by attending this very important fundraiser on August 13, 2016 from 5:00 PM – 11:00 PM at Bread and Salt, 1955 Julian Avenue, San Diego, CA 92113. Tickets will be sold at the door.
On This Day: 1884 – On Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid. 1957 – American Bandstand made its network debut on ABC-TV. The show was hosted by Dick Clark. Until this day the show had been a local show in Philadelphia since 1952. 1993 – The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) took effect. The first law signed by President Clinton, it allows many workers time off each year due to serious health conditions or to care for a family member.
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Doug Porter
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After Congressional Republicans had the stones to insert poison
pills in a Zika appropriation on behalf of Florida this summer, thus
blocking federal aid to supress the virus, now comes Gov. Rick
Scott, Republican, blaming the administration for not helping the
state.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/03/president-and-congress-failing-to-fight-zika-in-florida-gov-rick-scott.html
As if Obama hadn’t asked the Senate to spend $1.9 billion to eradicate
the bugs everywhere and research the prevention of Zika infections.