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The National Democratic Party is Missing in Action

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By Jim Miller

Many progressives were upset after the national Democratic party leadership recruited Obama’s Labor Secretary Tom Perez to block Minnesota’s Keith Ellison in the race for DNC chair and even more dismayed when Ellison lost very narrowly in the second round of voting.  

While Perez immediately made Ellison Deputy Chair and did what he could to foster unity, it was evident to numerous observers that putting in a guy who, despite a pretty solid record on policy, supported the TPP and clearly represented the interests of the Clinton wing of the party was a mistake.  

The bad feelings weren’t helped by the fact that there was a reprehensible smear campaign waged against Ellison or that big money donors had been stomping their feet and threatening to leave the party if Ellison won.     [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: Feb 27-March 4

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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: Trump’s Border Brownshirts, AG Sessions Russia troubles, real fake news, corporate Dems in sheep’s clothing, robots, SANDAG, sanctuary network, ACLU criticizing city council decision, fear and hiding in North County, resistance in OB, 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: Lavender Shroud

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Rain
washes out mouths of mines
foaming white arsenic
stitches a lavender shroud
on Black Mountain   [Read more…]

#ResistSD Weekly Calendar for San Diego March 3 – March 14, 2017

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More Than Four Dozen Activism Opportunities

By Doug Porter

San Diego is becoming an activist powerhouse. Major local actions in the period covered by this calendar include Saturday’s OB March 4 Impeachment, and activities centered around A Day Without a Woman, on Wednesday, March 8. There are Townhalls, Teach-Ins, Art Shows, and Fundraisers.

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.   [Read more…]

Community Demands Resignation After Water District Official’s Racist Tweets …

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… Chula Vista City Council Member Mike Diaz Grossly Exaggerates Crime Rates Involving ‘Illegals’

Jose Cerda of The Star Newcalled out a CV council member in the Chula Vista Star News explaining that:

City councilmember Mike Diaz stated in a Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017, Star-News article entitled: “An Offer of Sanctuary, The Welcome Mat or Neither,” to reporter Robert Moreno, that: “In the United States about 47,000 citizens die from illegal aliens driving while intoxicated under alcohol and other kind of drugs.” Councilmember Diaz continues, “If you look at that there is a problem with people who are here illegally who are felons, creating crimes.” Adding, “If you can convince me that a sanctuary city is going to make our citizens safer, I’m all in it but there is no statistics that prove that.” (See more.)

But according to Cerda’s research, in 2014 there were 9,967 victims of alcohol or drug related driving impairment, not the 47,000 Diaz alleges. In addition, Cerda writes that the academic studies he’s found conclude there is no evidence of higher crime rates in cities with sanctuary policies.   [Read more…]

Attorney General Sessions: The Latest of Trump’s Russia Troubles

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Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, former Senator from Alabama, campaign advisor, and current Attorney General is generating the latest waft of smoke from the smoldering garbage fire, also known as the Trump administration’s Russia scandal.

During his nomination hearings, the then-Senator from Alabama failed to disclose two occasions when he met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to the Washington Post.

A New York Times story published today adds more fuel to the fire, saying European intelligence agencies warned the US about meetings in European cities between Russian officials — and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin — and associates of President-elect Trump.   [Read more…]

So Presidential You Shouldn’t Believe It

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President Donald Trump’s first address to a joint session of congress was everything his handlers hoped it would be. It was largely based on falsehoods or exaggerations, as fact checks from the Associated Press, the New York Times, and Politifact document, but couched in less threatening rhetoric.

He stayed on script, starting with things Democrats have a hard time opposing like being against hate crimes and for education, then moving to placate the base with Islamic terrorism horror stories and a new homeland security unit for the victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

Most importantly, Trump didn’t attack the media, giving them an opening to normalize the administration and acquire brownie points by saying things like the speech sounded ‘muscular,’ or the occasion marked (yet another) a ‘pivot point.’   [Read more…]

‘Playing Politics’ and ‘School Choice:’ Code Words for Bigotry and Ignorance

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Republicans on the San Diego City Council united yesterday to oppose an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit before the United States Supreme Court involving the rights of transgender students.

The brief supports Gavin Grimm, a transgender student suing a county district in Virginia for the right to use public facilities, including boys bathrooms, in public schools.

Support came from the council’s five Democrats. Council members Chris Cate and Mark Kersey abstained. Lori Zapf simply didn’t show up. Republican Scott Sherman, who is termed out, voted to oppose the motion.   [Read more…]

Building a Network of Sanctuary Homes in San Diego

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By Dianne Lane

Two activists hosted a Sanctuary House Party/Teach-in at their home in Ocean Beach on Saturday, February 25.

The impetus for the event sprang from a “Teaching Positive Alternatives to Trump Teach-In” last month in Balboa Park. The aim is to build a San Diego network of sanctuary homes in resistance to Trump’s fascism and to corporate capitalism. Over the next few months, a series of neighborhood house parties throughout San Diego will help define and create this vital new network of hope and resistance. The goal is to form real connections during these social /educational events.   [Read more…]

Trump’s Border Brownshirts Already Running Amok

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The ‘gloves are off’ is a terrible thing to say to anybody with a gun and a badge

We’re already seeing glimpses of what ‘empowered’ agencies charged with immigration enforcement will look like in the Trump era, and it’s not a pretty sight.

What seems to be clear at this point is that some enforcement personnel in Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol (two separate agencies, both in Homeland security) aren’t even waiting for the official go-ahead.

San Diego has been lucky–thus far– when it comes to the negative impact of recent executive orders on immigration and refugees. I suspect the reticence of the local ‘migra’ forces may have something to do with the potential for civil unrest as much as anything else.   [Read more…]

The Real Fake News

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Fact-checking is a feeble response in a world where what we think we see and know is more important than the actual truth.

Donald Trump’s continued attacks on the American news media as “the enemy of the American people” have generated quite a stir in mainstream media circles as one might expect. And surely there is good reason to be disturbed by this administration’s punitive stance towards the press.

But what virtually none of the analysis of Trump’s attacks on “fake news” or Steve Bannon’s assaults on what he calls “the corporatist global media,” which both he and the president label “the opposition,” note is the irony that while the new regime is attacking the power of the corporate media, they are also busy installing corporatists in nearly every position of power and pushing an agenda that is every right-wing billionaire’s wet dream.   [Read more…]

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