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We’ve Got to Stay Ahead of This Devil Named Trump

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I was watching Stephen Colbert the other night, laughing away at his brilliant witticisms and daffiness, and a segment came on wherein a visual, referring to Trump’s “ban,” read, in part, “…a five year old was handcuffed…”

I stopped chuckling for a moment in reaction to such a terrible statement, trying to picture a five year old being shackled. But Colbert was on a flow so I had to let that go and next up on the show was White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, commenting on the little boy’s inhuman predicament with these words: “To assume that just because of someone’s age and gender that they don’t pose a threat would be misguided and wrong.”   [Read more…]

Resist and Persist: Trump Can’t Stand It

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The third weekend of the Trump administration saw protests and organizing events in cities large and small around the country.

Two Republican Congressman ignored the advice of their colleagues to stay away from in-person town halls and ended up having catching hell. Republican Reps. Tom McClintock in Roseville Ca., and Mike Coffman in Aurora, Co. tried and failed to limit attendance at their events; both ended up calling for a police escort to escape constituents angry over attempts to repeal Obamacare.

In San Diego, an organizing meeting for the downtown chapter of nascent Indivisible network drew nearly 200 people on Saturday. The Indivisible national registry indicates more than 50 such groups have sprung up in San Diego County since the Women’s March.   [Read more…]

How Not to Be the Resistance: Local Democratic Party and Union Leaders Fail Early Test

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Last week I dedicated my column to outlining how, despite the emergence of inspiring protests in the streets and amongst the progressive base, many key Democratic figures in Congress and in the national leadership of the building trades unions still didn’t seem to understand what time it was. Sadly, it only took a few more days to see a couple of stunning examples of how not to be the resistance right here in San Diego.

On January 26th, Jessica Hayes, the newly elected chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party, took advantage of her presence at a forum hosted by the Democrats for Equality entitled “#The Resistance: Women Lead the Way” to attack not the dangerous plutocrats running the country, but a key element of the Democratic base: unions.

The last few weeks have also held its challenges for local labor leadership as protesters, including Donna Frye and Irene McCormack, picketed outside the monthly delegates meeting at which there was no mention whatsoever of the elephant in the room, the lawsuits filed against Labor Council President Mickey Kasparian and what this means for local labor at this perilous moment in the history of the movement.   [Read more…]

So-Called President Trump: The Fine Art of Name Calling

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What first comes to mind when you think about the presidential contenders in the primary and general election? Do you recall Little Marco? Low Energy Jeb? Crooked Hillary, Lyin’ Ted? Trump had a knack for applying a descriptive label that successfully branded his opponent and stuck throughout the campaign.

The description was used repetitively in debates, at Trump rallies, in tweets and interviews. The press amplified them through their coverage of Trump.

It is remarkable that Trump himself has eluded a descriptive label that conjures up his narcissism, fascist bent, recklessness and corruption or the swirling cloud of illegitimacy surrounding his presidency.   [Read more…]

Progressive Calendar for San Diego February 3-13, 2017

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Activism works, particularly when it is on many levels. Demonstrations, teach-ins, forums, phone and letter writing campaigns all have cumulative effect. And while not every battle can be won –Trump will get most of his cabinet– they effectively shift public opinion and the tone of media coverage.

It took sixteen months for the Watergate scandal to convince 40% of Americans of the need to impeach President Nixon. Donald Trump made it in less than two weeks.   [Read more…]

Anti-Immigrant Sentiment and Anti-Semitic Acts Impact San Diego

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San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer made a statement on Tuesday indicating his disapproval of the executive order banning immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries where President Donald Trump’s companies do not have investments.

Though milder in tone than statements by mayors in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle (some of whom have actually joined protests), Faulconer’s statement does recognize that individuals affected by the order are essential parts of the community.

In making the statement, Faulconer sidestepped a potentially thorny confrontation with supporters of an online petition who were using his silence to promote the idea of San Diego declaring itself a sanctuary city.   [Read more…]

Resistance Rather Than Collaboration Is the Only Way In the Trump Era

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By Andrew J. Mackay

Sens. Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren, who liberals usually speak fondly of, both say they support the utterly unqualified Ben Carson for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary. All but one Democratic senator confirmed Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis for Secretary of Defense. This despite Mattis having what can only be called bloodlust; a military man who can’t wait to kill foreigners. These same senators will in a year’s time decry what Mattis does in office, but they chose to approve him. This is not resistance, not even close.

Because the middle ground is treacherous between resistance and collaboration, accommodation, whatever you want to call it. For the last half century, activists have been trying to change the Democratic Party from within. This strategy failed in the past, and some Bernie supporters and Black Lives Matter activists are trying again today. But today’s activist can easily be tomorrow’s apologist, as social movements are co-opted.   [Read more…]

Calexit: A Waste of Time and Energy

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At the Sunday night airport demonstration, I was approached by somebody who wanted me to sign a petition to get a proposed Calexit initiative on the 2018 ballot. I politely declined. I don’t sign initiative petitions without doing my homework.

So I did a little research.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla cleared the petition last week. Backers of Calexit need to gather 585,407 valid signatures from registered voters over the next 180 days to qualify for the ballot.What they’re asking people to sign on involves a two-step process.   [Read more…]

Trump’s Long Shadow Falls on San Diego Immigrants, Refugees, Muslims

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From City Heights Town Hall to Airport Protest

“Tell me what democracy looks like!”

“This is what democracy looks like!”

The chant ran up and down the whole length of Terminal 2 of San Diego’s Lindbergh Airport, up and down the opposite side of the terminal and could be heard on the second floor walkway. Three lines of cars ran between the two and those cars honked their horns while passengers waved flags and held signs outside of the windows.

An estimated 2,000 of us put our bodies on the public sidewalks of the airport to protest the fear and chaos engendered by Trump’s recent executive order restricting immigration from seven Muslim countries.   [Read more…]

Trump’s Muslim Ban: The Whole World is Watching

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Nationwide Protests, Faith Leaders Disapprove, and World Leaders Shake Their Heads in Dismay

In smaller cities like Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Staunton, Virginia, Boise, Idaho and Anchorage, Alaska, along 80+ other cities coast-to-coast, there have been or will be demonstrations responding to an executive order that amounts to a ban on Muslims.

In San Diego, hundreds of people showed up at Lindbergh Field on Saturday, followed by thousands on Sunday.

President Trump’s executive order bans all immigrants and visa holders from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US for 90 days, bans all refugee admissions for 120 days and bans Syrian refugees indefinitely. It was issued at 4:30 Friday afternoon, causing widespread confusion among federal agencies as to its scope.
  [Read more…]

Love Really Does Trump Hate

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I could have never imagined a president like the one we’ve got today. Is there anybody who is anybody on the planet as hateful as he is?

I saw him on TV the other day and he was spewing hate every whichaway, talking to the Homeland Security employees in his signature pose: his index finger and thumb forming a circle in the shade of three fingers that seem embarrassed to be on his hand, still basking in the glow of having made a sucker out of a country, a land, that has no idea as to who or what it is.

He spoke in “gloom and doom” tones of a country that’s breaking down at the seams, riddled with crime, overrun by “illegal immigrants” – but don’t worry he was going to take care of them and build a wall that will keep vermin like them where they belong and Mexico was going to pay for the wall after we paid for it first. Yeah, and it doesn’t snow in Minneapolis in the wintertime.   [Read more…]

An Alternative Pledge

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By Barry Johnson

since we are getting Alternative Truths, why not alternatives to other sacred cows

I pledge allegiance
to defy Donald Trump
and all the hurtful policies that he stands for   [Read more…]

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