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Travel Ban Ruling by the Supreme Court Gets a Passionate Response in San Diego

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This week the Supreme Court was asked to stand up for the rights of the vulnerable against the biases of the powerful — and failed, not once, but three times. Conservatives on the bench prevailed each time, ruling against Muslims, women, and public sector workers.

In Washington DC, San Diego, and cities around the country opponents of the administration’s travel ban took to the streets to express their disapproval of the ruling in Trump v. Hawaii. Comparisons with earlier wrongful rulings, like the Dredd Scott case upholding slavery were made in speeches and rallies, mostly near Federal buildings.

The mood at the demonstration in downtown San Diego was one of profound sadness and determination. It was, in many ways, more powerful than much bigger protests I’ve attended in past decades.   [Read more…]

How Progressives Win: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez | Video Worth Watching

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I’m tired of hearing the “Democrats don’t stand for anything.” refrain. As The Nation notes, Ocasio’s campaign boldly called for “a federal jobs guarantee, a national $15 minimum wage, expanded Medicare for All, tuition-free public college and trade school, 100 percent renewable energy by 2035, immigration reform, and the abolition of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).” Her YouTube web page adds “We can do it now, and we can do it without corporate money.” She just won her primary campaign, defeating a corporate Democrat entrenched in the position for 20 years who raised over $3 million (only $26,496 of it from small individual donations) for his campaign compared to Ocasio’s $300,000 ($208,000 from donations of $200 or less).   [Read more…]

Fear Mongering 101: MS-13 as the New ISIS

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Are you afraid yet? The Central American gang known as La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, is everywhere in the news. They have officially replaced Al Qaeda and ISIS as the new poster children for why Americans need to live in fear.

Lately, I’ve seen what I thought were otherwise sane people mouthing government gibberish in social media about this group.

Don’t get me wrong. This gang and gangs, in general, are not nice people. They commit crimes to support their activities and are capable of extreme violence. But the narrative of MS-13 as a reason for more border security or immigrant roundups is severely lacking in substance.   [Read more…]

Entertainment Explosion! and a Lesson From Op-Ed – The Break with Michelle Wolf | Video Worth Watching

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If you’ve ever wondered, while watching what purports to pass as TV news and journalism by some of the popular talking heads, “Are they going for ratings?”, Michelle Wolf thinks you’re on to something. She calls it “Entertainment Explosion!” [NSFW – Language (What can I say? It’s cable.)]   [Read more…]

The Civility Distraction: Sorry, We Can’t All Be Friends, Right Now.

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There’s rampant pearl-clutching and whataboutism in punditland currently, stemming from incidents where public officials have been rebuked by private citizens.  

Engaging in that particular debate is a waste of time. We’re past that point in our national discourse.

Our fearless leader is openly proposing ending the rule of law. For asylum seekers. (For now) No judges, no juries. Just some guys with badges administering ‘justice’ to people regularly characterized as less than human who have fled injustice at great personal cost.   [Read more…]

Simply for the Children’s Sake

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I was singing the blues
until I heard the news
that children
being torn from the
arms of their parents
was coming to an end,
if but for a minute,
a breather
from evil being played
out in my face,
beautiful innocent
brown skinned children,
screaming “Mami! Papi!”
as Mami and Papi
are pulled one way,
and they, another way,   [Read more…]

Summer Chronicles 2018 #2: Learning to Be No One

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Alone on the plane, I had the same thought that I always do: “we could crash and my life might end at any time.”  As always, images of the moments before death subsumed me. I imagined the faces of my fellow passengers contorted in horror.  I heard the weeping, the screaming, the voices futilely attempting to leave last messages for their loved ones on their cellphones, all to no avail.  

My fantasy was real enough that amidst a banal announcement about expected turbulence, I came close to tears as I thought of never seeing my wife or son again and went on to consider the weight of the collective losses of all the souls on the plane.  

But, in this case, what used to be a source of physical anxiety gave way to a feeling of absolute groundlessness.     [Read more…]

MJ Hegar for Texas – Doors | Video Worth Watching

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Here’s a kick-ass campaign spot. Air Force combat veteran M. J. Hegar is a Democrat running for office in Texas’ deep red 31st Congressional District and this campaign ad explains how doors play a pivotal role in her journey. For those who thought first female fighter pilot Amy McGrath’s campaign ad was inspiring and impressive, Hegar’s ad takes it to the next level.   [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: June 17-23

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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…]

Spinal Tap – ‘Stonehenge’ | Video Worth Watching

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In a nod to the recent solstice and the rituals for celebrating and observing it, here’s Spinal Tap’s Stonehenge.

[For the Spinal Tap (the band whose amps go up to 11) uninitiated, here’s something you need to know in order to appreciate the last part of this clip. In an earlier scene, when the sketch of the stage prop that is lowered onto the stage was given to the fabrication team, the dimensions were written by someone who apparently believed that one tick (‘) means an inch and two ticks (“) means a foot. Isn’t that right?]   [Read more…]

The ‘Fundamental Decency’ of Japanese Internment | More Video Worth Watching

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Putting a happy face on human misery. We’ve been here before. Remember how this turned out: litigation, legislation—the Civil Liberties Act of 1988—authorizing reparation payments to Japanese Americans who had been interned, eventually totaling nearly 1.6 billion, that began in 1990, with the last payment occurring in February 1999.   [Read more…]

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