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Sen Bernie Sanders on Democratic Socialism: Let Us Finish What FDR and MLK Started

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The following are the prepared remarks for a speech given by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at Georgetown University on Thursday, November 19th, 2015.

In his inaugural remarks in January 1937, in the midst of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt looked out at the nation and this is what he saw.

He saw tens of millions of its citizens denied the basic necessities of life.

He saw millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hung over them day by day.

He saw millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children.

He saw millions lacking the means to buy the products they needed and by their poverty and lack of disposable income denying employment to many other millions.

He saw one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.

And he acted.   [Read more…]

Anti-Muslim Bigotry in San Diego; Trump’s Racist Rampage Continues

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A female Muslim student at San Diego State University was assaulted on campus last week. An unknown male, believed to be a SDSU student, pushed her and pulled her by her hijab while making hate comments and threats based on her religious appearance.

An unidentified pregnant woman, dressed in a traditional Muslim headscarf and pushing her child in a stroller in Mission Valley, was stopped by an unidentified man making racially charged threats. He went so far as to push her stroller back into her.

Those are just the most recent two of the 170 reported threats against Muslims in San Diego this year, according to officials with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The Muslim Student Association organized a rally at SDSU for today, urging the community at large to come make a statement against Islamophobia.   [Read more…]

Rep. Scott Peters Votes with Republican Fear Mongers on Refugees

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Congressman Scott Peters joined with Republicans yesterday to vote yes on hastily drafted legislation creating a micromanaged immigration process essentially barring refugees from Syria and Iraq, including those who served alongside U.S. troops. The bill is H.R. 4038, the so-called “American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act.

If there’s a bright side to this dark moment in American history, it’s that this vote was largely symbolic. Despite the lopsided number of ayes in the House, this act of political cowardice isn’t likely to make it through the Senate with enough votes to overcome the President’s veto.

The rationale for Democrats who supported this legislation was two-fold; it was moderate in that it didn’t include a religious test for entering the US demanded by right-wing extremists and a fear (that’s the operative word here) they’d be branded as soft on terrorism in the 2016 elections.   [Read more…]

North Of The Fence: Water Rates, Dead Dolphins and More Mexicans Leaving U.S.

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Water Rate Hikes

On Tuesday, November 17, members of the San Diegans for Fair Water Rates Coalition rallied at the San Diego Civic Concourse Plaza asking the SD City Council to vote against the recycled water unitary rate proposal. They lost. The City Council approved a five-year, 40 percent increase to the price of city drinking water overall and then also approved the recycled water rate with a vote of 7-2, Alvarez and Kersey voting against it.

Imperial Beach

Vince Farnsworth at the San Diego Reader reported three dead dolphins washed up on the shores of Imperial Beach in the past month. Investigations are underway to determine whether their deaths were due to Navy sonar exercises. According to Earthjustice, there are only 323 bottlenose dolphins known to live in California coastal waters.   [Read more…]

San Diego, We Have a Use of Deadly Force Problem

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It should surprise no one that County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis called a press conference yesterday announcing that charges will not be filed against the San Diego Police officer who shot and killed Fridoon Rawshan Nehad in the Midway District last April.

Her conclusion may or may not be reasonable. The DA said Officer Neal Browder’s fear for his life was reasonable, based on the totality of evidence. She also said the dead man was mentally ill and DRUGS! were found in his system.

So there you have it. A “drug-crazed foreigner” got what was coming to him. Today we’ll look at developments in that case and one Customs and Border Patrol story in the news.   [Read more…]

DOJ Will Not Prosecute Agents Who Murdered Anastasio Hernández Rojas

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By Southern Borders Community Coalition

In a shocking turn of events in the case of Anastasio Hernández Rojas, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday that they will not prosecute the agents involved in his death.

The DOJ cited a lack of evidence to meet the standard for federal criminal prosecution. Despite eyewitness testimony and video, DOJ concluded they were unable to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the agents committed homicide or civil rights violations.

Following are statements from the family of Anastasio Hernández Rojas along with representatives from the Southern Border Communities Coalition.   [Read more…]

My First Tour of the US/Mexico Border

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By ChaKiara Tucker

On October 24th, I woke up at 7:00 am and brushed my teeth. As I stood in the mirror executing my morning routine, my mind raced with thoughts about my plans for the day. I, ChaKiara Tucker, a black woman from the most southern parts of the U.S., was going on my first tour of the United States/Mexico Border. To say that I was nervous would be an understatement, I was afraid.

Would they shoot me on sight because of the hue of my skin? Would I be stopped and have my constitutional rights snatched from me? Am I coming back home? 

Questions that may seem farfetched to others were running a marathon through my head.   [Read more…]

Hundreds of Women in Immigrant Prison on Hunger Strike for Immediate Release

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“I’m dying of desperation from this injustice, from this cruelty,” wrote Insis Maribel Zelaya Bernardez.

By Sarah Lazare / Common Dreams

Just one week in, an indefinite hunger strike at an all women’s immigrant detention center in Texas—operated by the for-profit prison company Corrections Corporation of America—has swelled to hundreds of refugees and migrants who are uniting behind a single demand: immediate freedom.

While the exact number of participants is unknown, a person who regularly visits the Hutto Detention Center in Taylor where the protest is taking place told Common Dreams that a “very substantial proportion” of the 500 women detained there on hunger strike. The source requested anonymity to ensure continued access to the detention center, which is ultimately under the control of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.   [Read more…]

Reflections on Palestine: Symbols of Homeland

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By Pedro Rios

As I traveled throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, it was evident to me that life under Israeli occupation means that Palestinians must live under a constant stage of siege.  Israeli military and police forces use violence to enforce apartheid-style policies to control every aspect of Palestinian life. I heard many stories about how the Israeli government flagrantly violates international human rights conventions and agreements, and witnessed examples of how Palestinians live with unreasonable restrictions that are meant to humiliate and demean an entire people.

In spite of this, there were natural resources that have become symbols in Palestinian life that call for a dignified homeland. These symbols – water, olive trees, and cactus plants – all are palpable objects that transcend the callousness of occupation because they represent long-lasting survival, in spite of what appears to be a permanent occupation. Below, I offer my brief reflections on each.  I believe they each merit a more just and thorough contemplation for what they’ve come to mean to Palestinians.   [Read more…]

Many Faces of Modern Day Racism in the USA

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By Doug Porter

For too long, too many white Americans have viewed racism through the lens of the South. Once again, current events are proving once again this particular brand of fear and hatred runs much deeper in the national psyche than Jim Crow laws.

Two recent media reports about immigration–always a lightning rod for fear of the ‘other’– illustrate the point here. Then there’s the festering sore of state-sanctioned violence directed at people of color and now the push-back about how somehow making videos of people being brutalized is causing crime.

Congressman Paul Ryan is about to take over as Speaker of the House of Representatives. There’s been deal making galore going on as Rep. John Boehner heads out the door. A long-term budget agreement has emerged, something inconceivable just a few weeks ago. Suddenly, a large number of deficit hawks are willing to vote for a  $120+ increase in federal spending.

But there was one particular promise the incoming speaker made to the Republican rebels of the right. It involved a promise to not even consider immigration reform…as long as that Black Guy is in the White House.   [Read more…]

North Of The Fence: It’s All About The San Diego-Tijuana Border

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By Barbara Zaragoza/ SouthBayCompass

The Times of San Diego reported that former Arkansas governor and Presidential hopeful, Mike Huckabee, visited Border Field State Park on Saturday, October 10th. Standing alongside former congressman, Duncan Lee Hunter, Huckabee talked about illegal border crossers, saying: “They’re not coming to make beds and pick tomatoes. They’re coming to sell drugs. They’re coming to commit crime and to bring the mayhem that they have in their hearts upon the American people.”

Huckabee didn’t cite his sources. The statement was interesting because more than 68% of the 1.6 million people living in Tijuana legally cross the border at least once a year (sometimes once a week); they have in their hearts a desire — to shop. They spend at least $6 billion a year, or more than $1 of every $8 in retail sales in San Diego. (Check page 7 of the linked report.) That means legal, peaceful Tijuanese put a heck of a lot of sales tax dollars into our economy each year.   [Read more…]

California Rises Above the Republican Madness

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By Doug Porter

We are six years into the Obama administration. The dire predictions made for the United States of America by the prophets of the right have failed to occur. If this were baseball instead of politics, their batting average is so low they wouldn’t even qualify for the minor leagues. This is the kind of madness passing for normal in the GOP.

Yet somehow these very same voices continue to be treated as credible. A leading candidate for the highest office in the country says–with a straight face–that German Jews could have stopped the holocaust if they had a few real men with guns. Fox News finds some clown who agrees. And now we have a “debate”, based on a fantastical assumption.

Messages of fear continue to contaminate the political process, thanks to a press dependent on access and an ever-growing pile of Dark Money. According to an article in the New York Times, a mere 158 American households coughed up nearly half of all the money donated to 2016 presidential campaigns thus far. That’s more money–including inflation–than was spent on the entire 2000 presidential campaign.   [Read more…]

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