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San Diego Politics in 2018: A Whiff of Racism, the Odor of Misogyny, the Stench of Entitlement

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Electoral contests in San Diego County government are coming into the final stretch. Mail-in voting is just a month away. A politics column and editorial board interviews at the Union-Tribune, along with the release of depositions from the now-settled lawsuits against labor leader Mickey Kasparian, have all contributed knowledge to what I’ll share today.

First up: a column by Michael Smolens on the race for District Attorney. He describes the contest as insider/reformer (Summer Stephan) versus outsider/advocate (Geneviéve Jones-Wright.

Smollens accurately describes Jone-Wright’s candidacy as the local manifestation of a national movement seeking to address the race and class bias of U.S. criminal justice system and notes the differences in style between the candidates.   [Read more…]

The Cases Against UFCW Local 135’s Mickey Kasparian: The Depositions

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On December 9, 2016 Sandy Naranjo was unjustly fired by UFCW Local 135 President Mickey Kasparian and subsequently filed a lawsuit. That firing and lawsuit lead to a chain of events that will soon culminate in the end of Kasparian’s Machiavellian grasp on San Diego’s progressive body politic.

Kasparian settled five civil cases against him. Yet, after all of this, there are still many within the local Democratic Party and a dwindling few within labor that still support him.

Below you will find all of the depositions, in chronological order, that have been made public. Including ones from Kasparian himself, Richard Barrera, Lori Kern, Sarah Saez, and Melody Godinez. Read them for yourself and judge whether or not Kasparian is a detriment to women, labor, and progressive politics in San Diego.   [Read more…]

Former UFCW Employees Urge Local Democratic Party to Stand With Women

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By Rosy Miner, Isaura Garcia, Odett McAdams, and Debbie Principe

We are former employees who worked under Mickey Kasparian, President of UFCW Local 135. For more than a year, we have stood with our sisters: Sandy Naranjo, Isabel Vasquez, Anabel Arauz, and more recently Melody Godinez, who all filed lawsuits with serious claims involving our former boss.

We have firsthand knowledge of what it is like to work for Kasparian, and we have volunteered for several Democratic candidates over the years.

Our Party has failed us in its handling of – or refusal to handle – him.   [Read more…]

A War of Words in the D4 County Supervisor Race

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The race for District 4 County Supervisor is heating up. And not necessarily in a good way.

Four Democratic candidates are seeking the seat: attorney Omar Passons, former Deputy Fire Chief Ken Malbrough, along with former Assemblypersons Lori Saldaña and Nathan Fletcher. Former DA Bonnie Dumanis is the sole Republican on the June 5 primary ballot.

Saldaña and Fletcher are the ones making the news this week, with stories in the Union-Tribune and the Times of San Diego. You’d need a scorecard to keep track of the charges and counter-charges between two camps. While I’m not going to detail every move and countermove, I will give readers a taste of what’s been happening.

In a nutshell, last week candidate Lori Saldaña was endorsed by a breakaway labor group scorned by many progressive activists. This news has triggered a war of words.   [Read more…]

Industrial Workers of the World Returns to San Diego

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Industrial Workers Of The World (IWW) Returns To San Diego

The Industrial Workers of the World has (re)chartered a San Diego General Membership Branch. The IWW is a union for all workers, regardless of employment, status, race, or orientation, since 1905. From 1907 San Diego-Tijuana IWW members have been instrumental in the Mexican Revolution, the San Diego Free Speech Fight, and organizing in our region.

By IWW / new indicator

For the first time in several decades, the IWW, also known as “the Wobblies”, is organizing workers again in San Diego. The IWW’s General Executive Board has issued a new charter for a San Diego General Membership Branch (GMB). A “branch” is the IWW term for a union local.

“We are an international union with autonomous locals, independent of all political parties, with a bottom-up structure, by and for workers” says the new Branch Secretary, Preston Chipps. He continued, “The IWW was founded in 1905 and the first union in this country to welcome women and all races.” Chipps is an old hand in the labor movement in San Diego and is the retired chair of the San Diego State University (SDSU) Labor Council, the coalition of campus unions.   [Read more…]

Notes from the Class War: the West Virginia Strike Shows That Solidarity Wins

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In the early days of the Trump administration, most savvy observers were quick to note that, populist bluster aside, Trump’s policies would be a disaster for America’s already historic level of economic inequality.  As economist Charles Ballard wrote in The Hill, “the main thrust of policy proposals from President Trump is to maintain, and even accelerate, the anti-egalitarian policies of recent decades.”

A year later, it’s now abundantly clear that the anti-egalitarian nature of this administration has only poured gasoline on the fire.  Thus, as Alex Henderson noted in an Alternet piece  last week, “The reality is the United States is now home to some of the worst income inequality in the developed world, and thanks to the recent passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, this wealth gap will grow exponentially wider.”  

Indeed, as Henderson outlines, the gap between Trump’s bogus populist rhetoric and this governing policy is breathtaking   [Read more…]

Why The Rich Love Destroying Unions (‘Janus v. AFSCME’ case edition) | Video Worth Watching

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So what’s up with the U.S. Supreme Court Janus v. AFSCME, a.k.a. Right-to-work (for less), case? NewsBroke’s Francesca Fiorentini provides some history, context and speculation on outcomes in her irreverent, witty and acerbic style.   [Read more…]

Working People’s Day of Action: February 24 from 3:30-5 p.m. at Convention Center Park

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This coming Saturday, thousands of workers, along with their families, friends, and allies in the community, will gather in San Diego to stand up for the rights of working Americans in the face of the impending Janus vs AFSCME decision by the Supreme Court that aims further rig the system against us.  Against this assault, we will continue to insist on our right to form strong unions, raise our collective voice, and fight for equitable pay, affordable health care, civil rights, strong communities, and quality public education for all.  

The only political mechanism American workers have ever had to address this is the labor movement and that is why most Americans should care about the fate of the labor movement, whether they are in a union or not.  

So come on out this Saturday and stand with the American labor movement.  The new Robber Barons of the Trump era can only prevail if we let them divide us.  United, we can fight back and win a better future.     [Read more…]

“Money is Speech”: The Twisted Logic the Supreme Court Will Likely Use to Screw American Workers

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In the wake of my last column on the agenda of the billionaire backers of the Janus vs. AFSCME case soon to be heard by the Supreme Court, the Los Angeles Times published a solid piece that outlined the broader context and suspect reasoning guiding this shameless attack on American labor…

While it’s abundantly clear why progressives should be disturbed by this naked power grab, not all the dissent is coming from the left.  Even those with little sympathy for the Democratic Party have noted how brazenly this case distorts the notion of “free speech…”

It is also unlikely that most Americans if they had a say in the matter, would agree that “money is speech” or that there was any noble right at stake when the Court ruled in favor of unlimited corporate campaign spending in the Citizens United case.  One might also reasonably assume that not many Americans are too sanguine about the corrosive effect this rigging of our political system has had on our democracy.       [Read more…]

The Koch Network’s War on Unions is a War on Democrats, Education, and Democracy

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There’s blood in the water.  That’s the sense that the money behind the American Right has as we head into the second year of the Trump era.  And with recent polls showing the big Democratic polling edge ebbing, the sharks are beginning to circle.  

But, as unsettling as that is, there is a lot more at stake than just one election cycle.  

As Doug Porter ably reported last week, the Koch network got together in Indian Wells to sip cocktails and discuss how they could invest $400 million to promote their politics and policies in the upcoming election cycle.  That alone is very bad news for those of us hoping that a Democratic wave might sweep the Republican majority out of the House of Representatives, but the aim of this incredibly powerful group of billionaires is not just to win one election but to win the long war.   [Read more…]

Issa Report: Bogus IRS ‘Scandal’ Ends in a Whimper, Payday Lenders Fund Campaigns

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Reposted from Escondido Grapevine

Republicans claimed the IRS served as an attack dog for the Obama White House. But inquiries by the House Ways and Means Committee, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and the Justice Department all failed to produce evidence of political interference.

Since at least 2014, Issa has been taking in tens of thousands of dollars from the predatory “payday” lenders industry and, in turn, advocated for their interests.   [Read more…]

Readers Write: Will Predatory Rental Practices Push My Family into the Street?

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By Josh Weber

My family just got robbed of our rent. We have two girls and a baby on the way, so this is extremely tough. For the first time since my oldest child was born, thoughts of homelessness cross my mind.

We were trying to move from one place to another. The new rental we found is the same size as where we lived before, just cheaper and a further commute. Finally we could save a little, and our kids would still have their own room and space.

We were struggling to get in with individual agents, each charging us around $100 for applications or credit checks. We felt like we were getting ripped off from each agent, so after a few hundred dollars, we chose an agency. An agency, we thought, would be a safer approach.   [Read more…]

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