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Town Halls a la San Diego: Darrell Issa Deflects, Duncan Hunter Sings Off Key

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As town halls in San Diego featuring Representatives Darrell Issa, Duncan Hunter and Susan Davis drew big crowds and garnered national attention, the American Civil Liberties Union rolled out the inaugural event of People Power, with more than 2,200 events in cities coast-to-coast.

Women from all over the region at City College, supporters of Planned Parenthood in Vista, and Muslim youth at UCSD all participated in events responding to the policies and proclamations of the Trump administration. People in North Park filled out protest postcards to mail to the administration, a union local hosted a panel discussing the future of local activism, and health care advocates gathered in Mission Valley to discuss a path forward to a single payer system in California.

And the Huffington Post published what could be the ultimate cautionary tale for activists, pulling together threads about a social media disinformation campaign aimed at promoting divisions during the 2016 presidential campaign. San Diego activist John Mattes’ efforts to uncover the truth about the conspiracy news stories spread through Facebook pages seemingly favorable to candidate Bernie Sanders start off the story.

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Where’s The Love? Dehumanization, American Style

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The last time I saw Hunter S. Thompson speak before he died, he threw out a good line about how in the post-AIDS world, the New Right began to flourish because people were afraid to touch each other. And how Thompson mused, can we ever expect people to stand together in any other way when they are afraid to do that?

Now, years later, what seemed like a bit of insightful hyperbole appears to be backed up by social research.   [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: March 5-11

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This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week features articles, commentaries, columns, toons, and other work by San Diego Free Press regulars, irregulars, columnists, at-large contributors, cartoonists, and sourced writers on: A Day Without A Woman, local Dems women problem, Trumpcare, Muslim Ban 2.0, D&D’s Town Halls, national Dems MIA, white privilege, Chicano artists, public banks, Indivisible’s local rallies, and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s friendly, neighborhood, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces: Rain’s Recusal

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RAIN’S RECUSAL

Rain recused itself
continued to pour landlocked
into cloud cover   [Read more…]

Progressive Calendar for San Diego Activists, March 10 – 21, 2017

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Wow. Here’s another calendar packed full of events for local activists. I’ve made some cosmetic changes this week, including icons to make events more recognizable.

So what will you do? Check out this week’s Progressive Calendar listings below. Following those listings are upcoming events of national importance, along with opportunities for organizational involvement and a few reading suggestions.

Get your event listed: I try to list the next 10 days or so of mostly non-commercial events I think our readers might find of interest. I source my material from social media listings and press releases.   [Read more…]

Chicano Artists Rock the South Bay and CV Councilmember Denounces Racist Tweets

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The South Bay celebrates Women’s History Month with two outstanding exhibits:

San Ysidro’s The Front celebrated their 10th annual Dia de la Mujer. On Thursday, March 9th the art gallery opened its  Back to Basics featuring 21 female artists from both sides of the border varying from photography, sculpture, paintings and digital art. 

“Back to Basics suggests that the way out of many of our problems is to return to the origins, to the most basic forms of community interaction, to respect for nature and all living beings, to teamwork, to respect differences, to search for happiness and love in the simplest things, to the inner and deep look of our existence,” said Norma Iglesias Prieto, curator of the exhibit and Professor of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at SDSU. 

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Darrell & Duncan Staging Saturday Town Halls in Oceanside & Ramona

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Persistence pays, I think the woman said. Two previously shy Congressmen have now scheduled forums where constituents will (maybe) have the opportunity to share their thoughts on the destruction of guardrails along the road towards Making America Great Again.

GOP Representative Darrell Issa made it official yesterday, pulling permits for a Saturday morning forum at Junior Seau Recreation Center in Oceanside. One hour sessions are scheduled for 8:30 & 10am, with reservations for residents of District 49 being accepted at Issa’s website starting at noon on Thursday.

Rep. Duncan Hunter’s town hall, announced on February 24, is also scheduled for Saturday, March 11. It is being held at the Ramona Mainstage, a venue best known as home for the local Tea Party affiliate. Doors are scheduled to open at 9:15; the Congressman will answer question cards collected from the audience in advance starting at 10am.   [Read more…]

Readers Write: International Women’s Day Gets the Trump Treatment

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By Michael-Leonard Creditor

Since SDFP was striking on Wednesday when this happened, I thought I’d take the opportunity to express my outrage in your stead.

He didn’t. He said WHAT? Oh, the man is utterly stupefying and infuriating. A true sociopath, he will say anything in the moment regardless of how his prior actions absolutely give lie to the words. And even when he seems to be trying to say something positive, he simply can’t.   [Read more…]

Photo Gallery: Muslim Ban 2.0 Prompts Lindbergh Field Protest

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The call to protest went out mid-day, not long after the Trump administration rolled out their Muslim Ban 2.0. On Twitter, on Facebook, and on the Indivisible network, encompassing dozens of groups throughout the county.

Those that could do so came to make a statement. Those that couldn’t, amplified the message via social media.

It still reads like a ban It still feels like a ban. And it’s still an affront to human decency. Travel restrictions aside, the United States of American is slamming the door on refugees. After the 120-day suspension ends, a mere 12,500 humans fleeing war, oppression, and famine will be allowed to enter the country for the remainder of the year.   [Read more…]

An Enemy of the People

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All I can say about the early weeks of Donald J. Trump’s “First 100 Days” is that he has shown himself, in that time, to be an “Enemy of the People” in so many ways.

And there are those of us who keep saying “Give him a chance,” a rather non-sensical idea considering how he abuses chances every chance he gets.

He’s had and still has an enviable chance, as the most known person on the planet, with microphones and video cameras at his beck and call, to guide us in a spirit of love, so that we can be the kind of people Americans should be: tolerant people; caring people, people the rest of the world should be able to depend on.   [Read more…]

Republicans Big Hurry to Ruin Healthcare for Millions

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Like a dog finally catching up with the car it’s been chasing, the Republicans are now faced with the question of “what do we do now?” when it comes to Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act.

Each of San Diego’s Congressional districts has roughly 30,000 people covered, thanks to the provisions of the law. There are 121,500 people employed in the healthcare industry locally, contributing $17.2 billion annually to the area’s economy. So any changes to the way the system currently functions are bound to have a broad social and economic impact.

The text of the GOP’s replacement health care plan was reportedly finalized over the weekend, with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney, HHS Secretary Tom Price, among others, hashing out details via a conference call on Saturday.   [Read more…]

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