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District Attorney Summer Stephan Must Apologize to San Diego’s Jewish Community

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On Monday night, District Attorney Summer Stephan attended the vigil at the Congregation Beth Israel for the victims of the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. She stood on stage and sat in the front row.

However, when asked by a reporter from Times of San Diego about the anti-Semitic website that her campaign launched attacking George Soros during the June primary election, Ms. Stephan refused to answer any questions or acknowledge the issue. 

As the leadership team of the campaign for Geneviéve Jones-Wright, the target of Ms. Stephan’s race-baiting and fear mongering, we watched in horror as the voters of San Diego fell for hateful scare tactics.

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Transgender Americans #WontBeErased By The Trump Administration | Video Worth Watching

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From the Now This YouTube web page:

The Donald Trump administration is reportedly planning a policy that will define a person’s gender by their genitalia at birth. Transgender people and allies nationwide are speaking out against this anti LGBTQ policy. 1.4 million transgender people are standing up and declaring that they will not be erased. The hashtag #WontBeErased has become a rallying cry for the transgender community.

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Bigger Lies, Told More Often: The Trumpublicans’ Final Mid-Term Push

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The level of anxiety in the pre-midterm zeitgeist has been cranked up to 11.

It hurts to listen, just like it did at the Newport Festival in 1969 (?) when the band who invented heavy metal, Blue Cheer, took to the stage and literally blew (parts of) the audience away during their rendition of Summertime Blues. I know, I was there. People got up and ran. (I’m just not sure what year it was. It was the 60s, y’know.)

I urge you to remember all this noise is deliberate; aimed at inducing a nihilist stupor on the left and a rabid frenzy on the right. One thing you must not forget is your participation in the election. (Don’t worry, there’s more to do past November 6th. We’re just not there yet.)

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Jim Carrey Acceptance Speech at the Britannia Awards | Video Worth Watching

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In his acceptance speech for BAFTA’s Charlie Chaplin Excellence in Comedy Award, Jim Carrey reminded the audience that Chaplin’s comedy included pointed social commentary that took on the American right-wing of his day. He went on to draw parallels to current events, saying that “we are fighting those same evils today” and dedicating the award to Chaplin and contemporary heroes, including Christopher Steele, Christine Blasey Ford and Colin Kaepernick. [h/t to Shelly P.]   [Read more…]

The Myth of Mom n Pop: What the Anti-Rent Control Forces and AirBnB Have in Common

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As a mainstay of the American Dream–family home ownership– is declining, the land barons of the twenty-first century have been busy using that foundational yearning to disguise their true intent.

Dressing a corporate crusade as a defense of the small investor is a trick as old as the hills. It’s especially useful when the actual behavior –if known–of the corporate entities involved would be considered repugnant.

This was the crux of the successful petition drive leading up to the San Diego City Council’s rollback of regulations aimed at the overnight stay market locations in residential neighborhoods. It’s also at the heart of the massive effort to defeat Proposition 10, the initiative allowing localities to consider rent control ordinance.

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The Democrats Midterms Test Anxiety and What They Need to Study for 2020

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With the midterms a little more than a week out there is a good amount of handwringing in progressive circles about whether or not the “blue wave” will actually happen.  

Nervous Democrats pore over the latest posts on the polling at FiveThirtyEight, and the talking heads on MSNBC parse the current numbers, muse about the accuracy of the polling, and commiserate about their post-traumatic stress after the 2016 election.

With decision day looming, the collective anxiety is getting more and more palpable.  In between ranting about Russia and the Mueller investigation, the unthinkable question is on the tip of many a liberal’s tongue: could we actually blow it again?  

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Readers Write | Why I Support Nicole Jones for the Southwestern College Board of Trustees

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By Michael Flanders

I am proud to provide this endorsement of Nicole Jones for Seat 4 on the Southwestern College Board of Trustees. I’ve seen firsthand how she creates culturally sensitive programs at Cuyamaca College that both facilitate equal access and level the playing field for the college’s diverse population of students. She will be an exceptional Board Member for Southwestern College at a time when the future success of both the County and the State lies squarely in the hands of its community college leaders.

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The Firsts of 2018 Midterms Help Make History | Video Worth Watching

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From the Now This YouTube page:

Women, young people, and people of color are making history in the 2018 midterm elections. The 2018 midterm elections are just around the corner and we’re celebrating all of the history makers this political cycle. There are 262 women on the ballot for Congress. Young people are running for office and stepping up like never before. People of color and LGBTQ people are shattering barriers. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Andrew Gillum, Stacey Abrams, and Christine Hallquist are just some of the history makers.

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Looking Back at the Week: October 21-27

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This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week contains articles, commentaries, columns, and other work by San Diego Free Press regulars, irregulars, columnists, at-large contributors, and locally and nationally sourced writers on that Kreepy judge, terror as a political weapon,National Day Against Police Brutality, the immediacy of Climate Change, 1968,the D2 race, and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from SanDiego’s feisty, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

Ntozake Shange – a laying on of hands / i found god in myself | Video Worth Watching

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R.I.P. Ntozake Shange, (October 18, 1948 – October 27, 2018). StarTribune writer Rohan Preston notes that Shange’s “For Colored Girls”—an empowering series of interwoven poems on love and loss, joy and pain—introduced choreopoem into the dictionary. The poems were gathered into a show that opened off-Broadway in 1975, and on Broadway in 1976, and has been produced consistently ever since. Shange, 70, had suffered multiple strokes in recent years, but she had been on the mend lately, creating new work, giving readings and being feted for her work. She died in her sleep Saturday morning in an assisted living facility in Bowie, Md., where she lived.   [Read more…]

Handel Unleashed: Tilda Swinton Directs Dog Opera | Video Worth Watching

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A HuffPo post alerted us to this bemusing video by Tilda Swinton and Sandro Kopp. It features her spaniels cavorting seaside to “Rompo i Lacci”—music from Handel’s “Flavio”. With a bit of editing magic (some slow motion, mirroring, time reversal, …) we have a new spirited interpretation of this 1723 masterpiece. [h/t to AGD]   [Read more…]

Make Your Vote the Tie-Breaker | Progressive Activist Calendar, October 26 – November 5

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Let’s take a stroll down memory lane.

Remember how you felt on the morning of November 9, 2016? Shocked? Depressed? Angry? Do you ever want to feel that way again?

Despite all the hype, the role of ‘the resistance’ against the Trump regime hasn’t been anything like it’s imagined in fictional portrayals of people bravely fighting back against evil and oppression.

The last two years have been a long slog. The banality, the naked greed, and near-complete lack of empathy coming out of Washington was worse than (almost) anyone could have expected. 

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