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Trumped Up Trickle Down

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Oh, what a week. And it’s only Wednesday.

While the current President was bidding a dignified farewell and leaving hardly a dry eye in the audience on Tuesday, his successor was tweeting in response to accusations of water sports.

An opposition report, dog-eared from months of circulation around the national press corps, surfaced. It was, we were told, compiled by an ex-British spy with some credibility in intelligence circles, and the internet went wild over claims about Russian dealings with President-elect Donald Trump, including blackmail involving sex workers in a luxury Moscow hotel in 2013.   [Read more…]

Grand Theft, GOP-Style: Art Today, Civil Rights Tomorrow

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Trump’s day of triumph is rapidly approaching, and it has become clear his administration’s policies will amount to open season on the assets of the United States.

Congressman Duncan Hunter couldn’t wait for the inauguration and lifted a painting that displeased him from a Congressional art exhibit. Also, House members quietly changed a rule last week allowing them to hide records from future ethics probes. (More on these later in the story)

Not all assets are measured by monetary value, and this is today’s big story. In a hearing room originally used for inquiries into the sinking of the Titanic and the Teapot Dome Scandal, Senate Republicans are lobbing softballs at Attorney General nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions in the hope they can kick-start the erosion of civil and human rights in this country.   [Read more…]

Big Questions for Local Labor in 2017

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2017 awaits us fierce as a tiger with major assaults looming on multiple fronts. As I have written here quite recently, it is not an overstatement to say that we face existential threats. With so many things to worry about in the near future, what should labor and progressives be focusing on in anticipation of the coming storm?

Let me start by saying that our first order of business should definitely not be whether you are with or against the imperiled San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council President. It should also not be about which side you choose in a toxic internal struggle between factions inside of the San Diego labor movement. As I have said elsewhere, the honorable and prudent course of action would be for labor leadership to take these issues off the table because they will prove to be fatal distractions if we allow them to stop us from confronting a long laundry list of crises to come after inauguration day.   [Read more…]

Democrats Vote for Change in ADEM Elections As Labor Council Infighting Continues

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You wouldn’t know from reading today’s newspapers, but there were elections in California over the weekend. And, although the results aren’t finalized yet, it’s obvious something significant is going on in the state’s Democratic party.

Although these changes (in the short term) amount to little more than a sea of new faces at the state Democratic Party convention, the significance of record turnouts, competing slates of candidates, and the openly stated desire for progressive ideals all should give us optimism for a new era in politics in the Golden State.

Locally, controversies arose in Oceanside and Chula Vista. The North County event seems to have been procedural; the South County occurrence reflects a deep division among organized labor groups threatening the unity Democrats will need in opposing the actions of the incoming administration.   [Read more…]

On the Topic of the GOP and Ethics

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It makes perfect sense to me that the House Republicans tried to secretly curtail the powers of the Office of Congressional Ethics because, if you have no ethics, you damn sure don’t want some nosy person poking around documenting it.

And these GOP characters are as to ethical behavior as a sea turtle is to Death Valley. They’ve demonstrated for decades, which anyone can google, that they are not, by any means, on speaking terms with anything anywhere near synonymous with “ethics.” They are, in a word, ethic-less, if you will.

And their leader – The Donald – twittered some jive that supposedly caused these alleged “representatives” to back away from their devious deportment.   [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: Jan 1-7

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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, and sourced writers on: accused sexual harasser Mickey Kasparian, the Russians, K-Faulc for governor (funny!), the spineless AARP, restaurant surcharges, action for the homeless, SD’s housing crunch, the war on the poor, another deadly year at Sunset Cliffs, 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: Sunset

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Sun kneads into earth
fires up the clay oven
bakes tomorrow’s bread
  [Read more…]

San Diego Activism Abounds in January

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ML King Day Events, Inauguration Protests, Progressive Slates Vie for Democratic Party Power, and More…

There are now seven events being planned in response to the upcoming inauguration of Donald Trump as President. the All People’s Celebration with featured speaker Rev.  Dr. William J. Barber as the keynote speaker along with a separately organized protest march will mark Martin Luther King Day, and Democrats throughout the State of California are participating in mini-elections for party leadership posts.

Activism abounds in San Diego if you know where to look for it. I’ve been posting this progressive activism calendar on Fridays now for more than six months and every week I learn about new groups.   [Read more…]

Councilman Alvarez: “I am disgusted by the allegations” About Sexual Harassment by Labor Leader

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Respected Latinas Step Forward with Shocking Claims Against Former Boss Mickey Kasparian

On December 17, 2016 NBC 7 San Diego broke the news that former UFCW Local 135 organizer Sandy Naranjo had filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against UFCW President Mickey Kasparian.

A few days later on December 21 NBC 7 San Diego came out with another story on Kasparian. This time it was regarding allegations of sexual harassment filed by former employee Isabel Vasquez. Vasquez’s complaint was full of lurid details.   [Read more…]

The Hip School Where the Arts Rule

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By Ernie McCray

I had moments not too long ago when I thought that I just might not be around in 2017 – based on the complete lack of energy I was enduring day after day, with my belly under siege by some bacteria that just didn’t want to leave.

But I’m still here on the scene, happy as a lark, slowly getting back to my routines. Wanting to write something regarding my making it to 2017, I checked a writing prompt website and chose number 17 of the choices, as a symbol for 2017, and it read: “In 400 words create your ideal place.”

That put me in a nice place because the prompt could have been something like “Write a 150 word profile on somebody named ‘Margaret Mallory’” or write about “something wrapped” which would have called on more creativity than I wanted to own. I just wanted to kick the new year off in a nice tone.   [Read more…]

Faulconer for Governor, Kill the Wabbit, Save the Chargers, and Other Post-Holiday News

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Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve officially entered the Twilight Zone in San Diego.

The Mayor of the second largest city in a State with the fastest GDP growth in the nation is exploring a run for Governor.

Which might seem unremarkable, except that poverty rates in the region anchored by San Diego have increased by more than 2% since the ‘recovery’ began, homelessness has nearly doubled, and he’s reportedly scheming to cough up $200 million for a football stadium concept soundly rejected by voters just two months ago.   [Read more…]

Readers Write: No! to Minimum Wage Surcharge on Restaurant Bills

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By John Loughlin

Restaurateurs make a political statement by adding a surcharge to ‘cover’ the cost of paying the poorest workers a higher wage.

The Union-Tribune article helpfully provides a list of restaurants to boycott as well as some to support.

Back in May 2016, David Cohn speaking at a CREW event “It is so easy to vote for that [minimum wage] increase, but it is going to really raise your cost of entertainment and spark a new round of inflation that we haven’t seen since the 1970s.” He was reported as predicting that the results could lead to menu prices increasing a minimum of 30% over the next few years. From Jan 1, 2017 the Cohn Restaurant Group is adding a 3% surcharge to cover ‘mandated’ cost increases.   [Read more…]

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