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How Black Women Helped Shape History And Today’s Democratic Party

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By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos

If you are not aware that in recent decades black women have been the most reliable and solid voting bloc for Democrats, you should be. We proved it, once again, in the recent presidential election. That stance and practice has a history, rooted in the time when many black Americans had been Republicans and the Democratic Party was the home of racist, anti-black Dixiecrats who took extraordinary measures to restrict black voting rights.

Of course the political party that currently represents and practices racism with a capital ‘R’ calls itself ‘Republican’—and is now occupying the White House. The popular vote loser and liar-in-chief (aka Birther Trump) has placed slimy white supremacist Steve Bannon in a key position to aid, abet and undermine the Constitution. The R’s in the House and Senate are doing nothing to stop the turning back of the clock to pre-civil rights days, and are participating in the deconstruction of our rights while embracing an openly racist, sexist, xenophobic agenda—which they advanced for the eight years they blocked President Obama.

This is our first Black History Month under the new, illegitimate regime, and since voting rights are on the table and more voter suppression and gerrymandering loom large in the near future, I’d like to honor some of the women of our recent past who we should adopt as shining examples to emulate and inspire us as we fight for our future.   [Read more…]

‘A Day Without Women’: Calls Grow for General Women’s Strike

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By Deirdre Fulton / Common Dreams

The next phase of the resistance as embodied by last month’s Women’s March may come in the form of a general women’s strike—a day inspired by feminist movements in other countries, during which women don’t work (in the office or at home) or go to school.

Meanwhile, a coalition of feminist academics and activists is separately calling for “an international strike against male violence and in defense of reproductive rights” to take place Wednesday, March 8. They reference President Donald Trump in their call, but their vision goes far beyond one man or one administration.   [Read more…]

Law and Disorder at U.S. Customs and Border Protection

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By Susan Grigsby / Daily Kos

In Stephen King’s novel Under the Dome, the used car salesman/second selectman of Chester’s Mill, Maine, a guy called Big Jim Rennie, had to turn to local bullies to form his police force. For those unfamiliar with the novel, the people of Chester’s Mill woke one morning to find themselves under an impermeable dome and cut off from the outside world. Published in 2009, many took the power-hungry blowhard Big Jim to be a stand-in for Dick Cheney. But it doesn’t take much re-focusing to visualize the character as a Donald Trump or perhaps a Steve Bannon, if you can ignore the rampant incompetence and only focus on the takeover.

Donald Trump, however, will not have to rely on local bullies to make up his enforcement unit. He already has at his disposal some of the most troubled law enforcement agencies in the United States, not the least of which is the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) which falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a behemoth agency that is supposed to make us think we are safer with it than without it.   [Read more…]

Gold Mountain Sisters

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By Grace Yee / Women’s Museum of California

I grew up in New Zealand, the southernmost white settler post on the Pacific Rim – a place known by my forebears as the “New Gold Mountain” 新金山.

In the 1860s, my great-great-grandfather left his home in Toi Shan 台山 county in Kwangtung (now Guangdong) Province, South China to work on the North American railroads. He died in 1874, when the ship he was returning home in was ambushed by pirates in Hong Kong harbour.

His eldest son, my great-grandfather, unable to enter the United States due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, ventured to New Zealand in 1884, where he established a laundry business in the capital city of Wellington. His only son, my grandfather, founded a bank, a whisky distillery, a grocery business and a pharmacy, and raised a family of five sons, of whom my father was the third. I treasure this family history, for it affirms my Chinese New Zealand origins, but I have long wondered why my foremothers don’t feature in this narrative.   [Read more…]

ACLU Files Demands for Documents on Trump’s Muslim Ban

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Press release provided by Edward Sifuentes / ACLU

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of San Diego & Imperial Counties filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request today with its local U.S. Customs and Border Protection office to expose how Trump administration officials are interpreting and executing the president’s Muslim ban, acting in violation of federal courts that ordered a stay on the ban’s implementation.

The filing today is part of a coordinated effort from 50 ACLU affiliates, which filed 18 FOIAs with CBP field offices and its headquarters spanning over 55 international airports across the country.   [Read more…]

How Do We Stop Trump and Win Gains in Justice and Equality?

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From defense to offense in an age that demands deep strategy and mass mobilization

By David Solnit, George Lakey / Common Dreams

As mass demonstrations against President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban rocked airports across the United States last weekend and after a week of mass demonstrations against Trump’s memo pushing for the Dakota Access and Keystone Pipelines, I asked George Lakey, an author and organizer with six decades of experience in movement training and strategy thinking, to share his thoughts on these most recent developments, the overall threat posed by Trump, and the resistance that has grown up in opposition.

Last week, Lakey wrote A 10-point Plan to Stop Trump and Make Gains in Justice and Equality. The piece went wildly viral as people respond, “In short, there’s good reason to see the Trump era as an opportunity not only to stop him but to make major gains in justice and equality.” In this interview he goes deeper on how we can do this.   [Read more…]

Gov. Brown: ‘California is Not Turning Back. Not Now, Not Ever.’

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State of the State Address / Office of the Governor

This is California, the sixth most powerful economy in the world. One out of every eight Americans lives right here and 27 percent – almost eleven million – were born in a foreign land.

When California does well, America does well. And when California hurts, America hurts.

As the English poet, John Donne, said almost 400 years ago: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

A few moments ago, I swore into office our new attorney general. Like so many others, he is the son of immigrants who saw California as a place where, through grit and determination, they could realize their dreams. And they are not alone, millions of Californians have come here from Mexico and a hundred other countries, making our state what it is today: vibrant, even turbulent, and a beacon of hope to the rest of the world.

We don’t have a Statue of Liberty with its inscription: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” But we do have the Golden Gate and a spirit of adventure and openness that has welcomed – since the Gold Rush of 1848 – one wave of immigration after another.   [Read more…]

Building Trades Allow Themselves to Be Played Like Fools

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By Erik Loomis / Lawyers, Guns & Money

Emperor Tangerine invited the building trade union leaders in for a meeting yesterday and boy were they excited.

At a meeting with the leaders of several construction and building trade unions, President Trump reiterated on Monday his interest in directing hundreds of billions of dollars to infrastructure investments, some of it from the federal government, union officials said.

“That was the impression I was taken away with,” said Sean McGarvey, the president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, an umbrella group, on a call with reporters after the meeting. “That the American citizenry and the American Treasury will be invested in building public infrastructure.”

Mr. McGarvey added that Mr. Trump clearly felt that much of the money should come from the private sector and that some of the investments could take the form of public-private partnerships, an idea the president floated as a candidate.

  [Read more…]

‘I Am Not Your Negro’ Will Introduce James Baldwin to a New Generation

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By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos

There are voices we all need to hear. At a time when the United States is once again faced with our chilling legacy of racism and other ills including sexism, homophobia, and economic inequality, one of the most powerful voices from our recent past is speaking out again through the medium of documentary film.

It is the voice of James Baldwin. The film, I Am Not Your Negro, will be opening in movie theaters on Feb. 3.   [Read more…]

Welcome To 2017: Seven Keys for Immigrants to Overcoming Adversity

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By Carlos Batara / OB Rag

As the new year dawns, most of us need to reflect where we’re headed, individually and collectively.

Unfortunately, far too many of those active in immigration circles are caught in the “feel sorry for myself” moment. With a new president, one who has articulated strong law enforcement measures, about to take office, the “doom and gloom” sentiments of immigrants and their advocates are deafening.

Yet, stop for a moment and reflect back to 2009 and 2013. What has really changed in immigration law since that time? In the majority of cases, my office helps immigrants under the same rules that existed back then.   [Read more…]

When Mexico Sends Its People, They’re Not Sending Their Best

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By Eloisa Amezcua / Literary Hub

WHEN MEXICO SENDS ITS PEOPLE, THEY’RE NOT SENDING THEIR BEST

I.

my father is not rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a bad one   [Read more…]

Holocaust Survivor Ruth Sax and “Try to Remember — Never Forget”

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By Steven Goldkrantz / San Diego Jewish Journal

Upon meeting Ruth Sax, one finds a woman who is gentle and kind, with a powerful and positive outlook on life. She is very quiet at first but it’s clear that she can see everything, even your soul, before she says anything. In fact, it’s impossible to imagine all of the things her eyes have seen. Hers is a story told with humility and a sense of pride, in that she survived the great tragedy of our time. Ruth Sax is a notable Holocaust contributor to the South Bay community in San Diego, and now her story has been documented by her daughter, Sandra Scheller, in a book entitled, “Try to Remember – Never Forget.”   [Read more…]

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