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Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind…| Summer Chronicles 2018 # 3

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Dead and Company are heading to San Diego this Friday as Bob Weir continues the long, strange trip of the Grateful Dead into his old age.  Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the group understands that perhaps more than any other band that started in the 1960s, the Dead are associated with psychedelia and the American Counterculture.  For decades, their shows have carried the legacy of the Acid Tests (for which they were the house band) and served both as an inspiration for new generations of Deadheads and a convenient target for the DEA.  

In his fascinating new book, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, Michael Pollan touches on the history of the Acid Tests, noting their unintended origins as a result of a CIA funded experiment   [Read more…]

Daughter of undocumented parents gives powerful speech at a ‘Families Belong Together’ Rally | Video Worth Watching

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The twelve year old daughter of an undocumented worker speaks at the ‘Families Belong Together’ rally in Washington, D.C. to protest the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.   [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: June 24-30

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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, cartoonists, at-large contributors, and locally and nationally sourced writers on Our Children, immigration policy, the winners and loser of the June Primary, internment camps, community-based block program, 1968, school choice failure, and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s feisty, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

‘Families Belong Together’ Rally Vibes: John Legend; Lin-Manuel Miranda; Get Up, Stand Up, Don’t Give Up the Fight | Video Worth Watching

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In recognition of the energy and movement of Saturday’s marches here are some vibes that hopefully resonate. First, John Legend in Los Angeles performing Preach.

Lin-Manuel Miranda in Washington, D.C. sings the Dear Theodosia lullaby from Hamilton.

And just because I want to hear it: Get Up, Stand Up, Don’t Give Up the Fight!   [Read more…]

Photo Galleries: Families Belong Together Marches in San Diego and Around the Nation

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While President Trump played golf on Saturday, people gathered for events protesting his immigration policies in 780 events nationwide, covering all 50 states and 85% of the congressional districts in the county.

Counts included 35,000 in Washington DC, over 60,000 in Chicago, 30,000 in New York and San Francisco, and 55,000 in Los Angeles.

The downtown San Diego rally, starting at Waterfront Park had roughly 4,000 people show up. Over 300 came to make their voices heard in deep red Temecula.   [Read more…]

Summertime – Big Brother & The Holding Company, ft. Janis Joplin | Video Worth Watching

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A request for one more nod to the Summer Solstice as it slips away: Janis Joplin with Big Brother & the Holding Company – Summertime; from a live 1969 performance. (h/t to AGD)   [Read more…]

Immigration Protests Continue Nationwide | Progressive Activist Calendar June 29-July 9, 2018

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It ain’t over till it’s over. Protests, rallies, and phone calls continue as people express their outrage at inhumane and racist policies.

San Diegans protesting the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy towards immigrants and separation of families at the border picketed the Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Sector Headquarters in Chula Vista yesterday.

CBP security personnel by the entranceway heard 2+ hours a recording of the children crying after being forcibly taken from their parent(s). An 800# was prominently displayed offering free legal advice for employees refusing to separate families.

Nearly 600 women were arrested in Washington DC on Thursday, as they staged a sit-in in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office building.   [Read more…]

Caring for a Dropped Flag | Geo-Poetic Spaces

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The flag has been
dropped
stars trampled into bloody stripes
by a bull kicking up dust

Suture the tattered banner
with gold thread
before the colors can be burned

The fabric will be stronger
because of its scars   [Read more…]

Cory Booker Warns of POTUS Conflict of Interest in Selecting Supreme Court Justice | Video Worth Watching

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Cory Booker must have been picking up on our Anna Daniels’ brain waves in the Zeitgeist. Here’s Cory’s depiction of the issues involved in the scenario of a possibly complicit president.

I’ve heard some pushback to this demand for “no nominations until the conclusion of the investigation”, along the lines of not “punishing” someone who must be presumed “innocent until proven guilty”, but I don’t consider this demand to be a punishment. I view it more along the lines of judiciously putting someone suspected of embezzling, on administrative leave until the issue is resolved. If the person is adjudicated as innocent, no harm done, but if the person is determined to have indeed been acting as was believed, any harm done that might have gone unchecked has been prevented.

Mitch McConnell and his allies will, of course, never accept this line of reasoning, so it’s up to us, the people, to make them see the light.   [Read more…]

San Diego Unions Respond to Supreme Court Ruling; New Strategies, More Activism

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There were two public responses in San Diego on Wednesday to the Supreme Court decision striking down the practice of government sector unions charging non-members fees for the services they provide.

At midday unions representing public employees led a rally and press conference in front of the University of California Medical Center in Hillcrest. Nurses, County employees, and supporters denounced the decision in Janus v AFSCME, pledging to step up organizing efforts in the face of what is widely considered a blow to the union movement.

Later in the day, unions piggy-backed protesting the ruling with an already planned action by UNITE HERE Local 30 aimed at calling attention to contract talks currently in progress at multiple hotels owned or managed by Marriott International.  Local politicians, including Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher along with San Diego City Council members Chris Ward and Georgette Gomez, joined the effort.   [Read more…]

1968: A Year of Loss and Hope

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1968. A year of loss and hope for me.

One of my losses was my marriage which, after years of rough waters, sunk like the Titanic, unsaveable, destined for a rocky shore.

But one thing I had going for me in my depression was the love of the beautiful young people in my sixth grade class, the fun I had learning with them: writing poetry and prose with them; giving life to characters and situations in social studies with them; playing with numbers in a variety of ways, questioning current events everyday…

Did those young people ever keep alive what little hope I had for anything. They inspired me to “Keep the Faith,” to resist the madness in the war in Vietnam, to forever be “Black and Proud!” and willing to say it out loud.

But sometimes, that year, my personal life would just be too much to bear.
  [Read more…]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez On Her Win And ‘The Start Of A Movement’ | Video Worth Watching

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All In’s Chris Hayes interviews Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her campaign and her win.   [Read more…]

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