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Will the GOP Send ‘Poor’ ‘Dead’ Duncan Hunter Back to DC to Represent East San Diego County?

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Now that Congressman Duncan Hunter and wife Margaret have been indicted, Republicans are working hard on formulating a strategy to keep his District 50 seat red.

While the Representative from Alpine has been full of bluster, anybody who’s actually read the 60 counts against him knows he’s a dead man walking. All that’s left for him to do is work out a plea deal that is consummated after November 6. Oh, and hope his wife doesn’t escalate expression of her rage beyond the stony silence on display at their arraignment.

There were about a hundred or so people on hand to witness Hunter walk into the San Diego Federal Courthouse. His dash from the curb to the door was more like a circus parade than a perp walk, as demonstrators from various Indivisible chapters waved signs, wore bunny ears (in honor of the plane tickets purchased for the family’s pet rabbit), and chanted “lock him up.”   [Read more…]

Are We Facing Generational Guilt in the Time of Trump? | Readers Write

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By Karin Brennan

My mother was born in Germany in 1931.  Her childhood was dictated, literally, by the rise of Hitler and the Nazi regime. Hitler’s Youth organization, which had 50,000 members at the beginning of 1933, had over 2 million members (children) by the end of that year. In 1936, the Nazis systematically shut down or banned all other youth groups, including the Boy Scouts.

Instead, all children had to join the Hitler Youth. Anyone who refused to join was punished, so by 1939, more than 90 percent of German children were members. My mother was 8 at this point, and an official member of the Hitler Youth. Her memory of this time was spotty … she recalls having to take physical fitness tests in the cold lakes of Bavaria, and some marching.

She remembers friends suddenly disappearing from her school and no one would ever say why. She was 13 when her city was bombed, near the end of the war. The city was Munich, and in very close proximity to the city was the longest running concentration camp, Dachau, which operated from 1933 to 1945.   [Read more…]

A Nationwide Prison Strike Began This Past Tuesday, August 21st | Video Worth Watching

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From the DemocracyNow! YouTube website:

Prisoners in at least 17 states are expected to strike [Tuesday, August 21,] in a mass mobilization demanding improved living conditions, sentencing reform, the right to vote and the end of “prison slave labor.” The weeks-long strike begins on the 47th anniversary of the killing of Black Panther George Jackson, who was shot and killed by guards during an escape attempt from San Quentin prison. It will end on September 9, the 47th anniversary of the deadly Attica prison uprising. For more, we speak with Heather Ann Thompson, American historian, author and activist. She is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy.” She is a professor of history at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. We also speak with prison strike organizers Amani Sawari and Cole Dorsey.

  [Read more…]

Read Duncan Hunter’s Claims of Innocence Alongside Snippets From the Indictment

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I give Congressman Duncan and Margaret Hunter credit: They’ve got some kind of nerve.

Hunter’s campaign has published a lengthy statement calling the effort to indict him a “witch-hunt.”

I’ve broken his statement up into small bits, juxtaposed with paragraphs from the 48-page indictment. Sometimes the two pieces are related. Sometimes they’re not. It’s a long, but worthy read. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll wonder how this guy looks in the mirror in the morning.

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Rep. Duncan Hunter Goes Rogue, Refuses to Step Down From House Committee Assignments

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Bonus: Some Juicy Snips from the Indictment

Congressman Duncan Hunter is refusing to step down from his assignments on the Armed Services, Education, and the Workforce and Transportation committees, according to Politico.

Following the release of a 48-page indictment, House Majority Leader Paul Ryan urged the 50th District Congressman to resign his committee assignments until the matter was resolved.

Republicans in the House of Representatives are now planning to take action to remove Hunter in a steering committee meeting slated for September 4. The full GOP conference is expected to ratify this the following day, and shortly thereafter it will go to the House floor, where it will be made official.
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How City Heights Is Trying To Protect Its Multicultural Roots | Video Worth Watching

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KPBS’ Tarryn Mento reports that the City Heights Economic Development Collaborative is seeking California Cultural District designation for the Little Saigon area of City Heights. If successful it will join the Barrio Logan and Balboa Park districts to represent San Diego among the current fourteen designated districts. The hope is that this designation can be used in the fight against gentrification.   [Read more…]

Rep. Duncan Hunter Indicted for Diverting Campaign Funds for Personal Use

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Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife, Margaret are expected to be arraigned on Thursday morning in Federal court.

A 48-page grand jury indictment accuses the couple of diverting more than $250,000 in campaign funds to family vacations, school tuition, theater tickets and other personal expenses.

They are facing charges of wire fraud, falsifying records, campaign finance violations, and conspiracy, resulting from a more than year-long investigation by the Department of Justice.   [Read more…]

Cash Bail Goes Away, Reform Flops in California

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Imagine California’s system for handling people accused of crimes embodied as a statue of bounty hunter Dwayne “ Dog” Chapman. Senate Bill 10 was supposed to make it go away.

What happened instead was the statue was gone, but the base upon which it stood remained intact. As of October 2019, the old system of requiring cash or a bail bondsman’s assurance as a condition for pre-trial release will go away.

I won’t miss the seedy buildings downtown or what they stand for. People with the means to post cash bail get it refunded if they’re found not guilty or the case is dismissed. If you’re not so wealthy, you get stuck with the bondsman’s 10% fee, regardless.   [Read more…]

Trump Endorses in 49th, Russian Hackers in Action. Keep Your Eye on the Prize

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Republican Diane Harkey, the Darrell Issa-endorsed candidate in the 49th Congressional District received the blessings of President Donald Trump via Twitter late yesterday.

Nobody should be happier about this news than her Democratic opponent, Mike Levin, although his campaign showed remarkable restraint in responding to the announcement.

Polling by the Public Policy Institute of California three months ago showed just 39% of voters in the two counties included in the district approve of the job Trump is doing as president. Hillary Clinton won the 49th by seven points over Trump, and Issa’s re-election margin was the closest of any House incumbent in 2016.
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Is Bank of America ‘Just Following Orders’ by Asking Citizenship Status Questions?

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It’s not just ICE and local bigots harassing immigrants and people who they think might be immigrants anymore.

Activists are claiming U.S. financial institutions, encouraged by the Department of Treasury, are including citizenship status as part of the Customer Identification Program provision of the USA Patriot Act, even though it is not legally required.

What this means in practical terms is that existing customers, like Josh Collins and wife Jessica Salazar Collins who thought envelopes from Bank of America were junk mail, are having their accounts suspended until such time as questions about citizenship are answered.
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Astroturfing: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver | Video Worth Watching

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John Oliver of Last Week Tonight presents an update on the practice of astroturfing. San Diego’s own Juan Vargas has a brief cameo during a discussion of the California flame retardant legislation lobbying.   [Read more…]

California Kids Meal Soda Ban: Would You Like Water, Milk, or Truth With That?

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If you were anywhere near the State Approved media lately, no doubt you heard about California’s upcoming ban on restaurants serving sodas to children. It must be true because Faux News and The Hill (among others) have made this assertion in headlines.

Except that it’s not true. Today’s headlines are based on an August 16 story in the Sacramento Bee which said no such thing   [Read more…]

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