Today’s column is about mathematics. We’ll start with the basics: five is a bigger number than four. 5-4 was the final vote tally at the City Council on Monday against holding a special election in November 2017.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer used addition and subtraction to punish the members of the City Council he felt were obstructing his plan to put convention center expansion and a proposal to redevelop valuable Mission Valley real estate before the voters.

The Mayor added $5 million to the city budget to pay for the special election that the council had removed.  And he subtracted dollars destined for projects favored by the Democrats on the Council.   [Read more…]

If you live in California, DON’T call your US Senator about opposing the TrumpCare bill currently under consideration. We already know both our Senators won’t vote for something that goes scurrying back under the refrigerator when the lights come on.

Instead, ask them to withhold consent on all Senate business until Republicans agree to hold a public hearing on ACHA.

The baker’s dozen of good ol’ boys hammering out a ‘healthcare’ bill in the United States Senate are hoping to push their Frankensteinian creature to a vote this week. They’d like to pass legislation affecting one-sixth of the domestic economy and impacting (at a minimum) 23 million people with as little outside input as possible.   [Read more…]

Three things stood out for me during the testimony of former FBI Director James Comey.

Whether or not they wanted Trump to win, the true story of Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. elections is bigger than we think. Republicans are fools to downplay it just because it served them well this time around.

Watching spineless Republicans (and their online minions) complain about somebody not standing up to Donald Trump was beyond ironic. How can these guys look at themselves in the mirror?

Women who have ever reported rape and/or sexual harassment must have been experiencing a strong sense of deja vu with the pattern of Republican attempts to blame the victim/witness.   [Read more…]

Apparently the Republicans in the Senate don’t believe Americans can walk and chew gum at the same time. While the President is busy having a spasm on Twitter, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell believes he’s got a plan to get enough votes for passage of an even more devious version of TrumpCare, otherwise known as the AHCA.

Democratic aides are expecting the Senate Republicans to use surprise tactics, says Greg Sargent at the Washington Post, even a placeholder bill full of platitudes and short on specifics to get something on the table for House and Senate negotiations.

The GOP’s strategy is currently to sabotage Obamacare as a means of creating a sense of urgency around getting a bill through Congress this year, according to Dave Weigel at the Washington Post.   [Read more…]

One thousand, three hundred and thirty posts ago I started writing for the San Diego Free Press. Today, I want to give you a peek behind the digital curtain.

Along with this column, there will be articles from contributors throughout the week. I urge you to read them. You’ll discover–I hope–some of the humans whose creative efforts make this unique media platform happen.

The idea for creating a modern day version of San Diego’s legendary underground newspaper came out of meetings organized by some of us local bloggers who posted at the OBRag–a digital re-incarnation of its sometimes-scruffy ancestor.   [Read more…]