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Get Health Care by December 15 and Piss Off Trump | Video Worth Watching

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From the Now This YouTube website:

It’s no secret that President Donald Trump dislikes Obamacare. Paul Ryan and the Republicans in Congress tried and failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act put in place by President Barack Obama. So how can you stick it to President Trump in 2018? Sign up for health care through Healthcare.gov. Healthcare in America has been a hot debate for decades, but if you need health insurance, you can go to Healthcare.gov and sign up for 2019. The deadline to get health care in America is December 15.

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Helter Skelter News: Administration Sex Scandal, Big Brain at Work, Rotten Romaine, Pelosi Pummels Penn

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I took a week off from writing this column over the Thanksgiving holiday. This time of year is typically slow in political circles, and it was obvious to me that Democratic wins in the midterm election would continue to accumulate. (And they have!)

These aren’t typical times, however. My morning meander through the media looking for topics, seemed like more work than trying to make a choice from one the many excellent New Orleans restaurant menus I viewed last week.   [Read more…]

Saying Goodbye to a Friend Who Gave Me a Helping Hand

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You know that feeling you get when a dear friend all of a sudden says something like “Well, we’re moving to Seattle next month,” and a kind of sadness sets in? Nothing devastatingly grievous or crippling, but you feel a little empty inside, knowing that your pal is no longer just down the street or across town, but gone.

That was me when I got the word that the San Diego Free Press was coming to an end because I see them as a friend, a beloved friend; because who, but a dear friend, would allow you to write about a little of everything, anytime you wanted to, and any way you wanted to, be it poetry or prose.

I can’t adequately express what a lift in my spirit the gift of having a place to vent so freely has meant to me. What can one say about being appreciated so openly and unconditionally?   [Read more…]

ACLU Deputy Director Lee Gelernt on How Trump is Subverting the Asylum Process | Video Worth Watching

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ACLU Deputy Director, Immigrants’ Rights Project, Lee Gelernt speaks with All In’s Chris Hayes about the process of seeking asylum in the U.S., and the current Administration’s attempt to subvert that process in violation of current U.S. and international law. One recent attempt on November 9th was for Trump to issue a proclamation declaring that only those entering the United States at designated ports of entry would be eligible to apply for asylum. It then submitted a rule to the federal register, letting it go into effect immediately and without the customary period for public comment. After a number of civil rights groups took the government to court, Lee Gelernt successfully argued against that case, with Judge Jon S. Tigar of the United States District Court in San Francisco in Monday issuing a temporary restraining order blocking the implementation of that rule.   [Read more…]

The Urgency of Transgender Safety, Legal Protections

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Local ACLU joins suit against El Cajon Crunch Fitness Center

It is hard, if not impossible, to maintain awareness and then do something about the constant erosion of civil rights of minority populations in our country. The Trump administration never sleeps when it comes to undermining current laws or attempting to supplant them with cruel new ones, the Constitution be damned.

Recent news, both locally and national have underscored the degree to which transgender women and men sustain some of the worst weaponized bigotry and intolerance imaginable. They are paying with their lives, their employment opportunities and their ability to simply exist in society–you know, the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness guaranteed to each one of us.   [Read more…]

No One Wanted Us – The Tragic Voyage of the SS St. Louis | Video Worth Watching

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From the YouTube website:

In May, 1939, the SS St. Louis, a ship of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution left Hamburg, bound for Havana, Cuba. Without their knowledge, their landing passes had been voided by the Cuban President, Laredo Bru. When the ship arrived in Cuba, the passengers were not allowed to debark. Representatives from the Jewish Joint Distribution committee negotiated with the Cuban government, but to no avail. The passengers appealed to President Roosevelt to allow them to land in the United States, but they were again turned away. The ship was forced to return to Europe, where two-thirds of the passengers would perish in the Holocaust.

Current U.S. and international asylum policies and laws owe much to the eventual repudiation of that sort of reaction to the plight of refugees.   [Read more…]

Chaos and Cruelty at the Border

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We have become the barbarians at the gate

As if ripping children from their parents’ arms, locking them up in cages or sending them to facilities on the other side of the country weren’t the absolute low point of the Trump administrations response to immigrants seeking asylum, we are now tear gassing children.

Let that sink in for a moment. We are tear gassing children, who were reported as running screaming and crying from the tear gas canisters shot into Mexico, a foreign country, by US Border Patrol. (Imagine this situation reversed, with Mexico lobbying canisters into the US.)

There is essentially no operative immigration policy in this country.
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Oligarchy Sucks: Billionaires Are Undermining Our Democracy and Killing the Planet

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We live under oligarchy. Yes, we have elections, but the interests of a tiny opulent minority are far better represented in our government than the concerns of the vast majority of Americans. That conclusion was the central takeaway of a Benjamin Page and Martin Giles study published a few years ago that grimly observed, “economic elites and organized interest groups play a substantial part in affecting public policy, but the general public has little or no independent influence.”

Now Page is back with two new academic partners, Jason Seawright and Matthew J Lacombe, and a new study that further unmasks the role of billionaires’ stealth role in driving American politics. Buried during the stretch run of the midterm elections, the Guardian published an article by the aforementioned trio outlining the thesis of their forthcoming book Billionaires and Stealth Politics that shows us how it is not the rich and famous we need to worry about but the very rich and unassuming donors to the coffers of the Kochs’ political causes.   [Read more…]

KPBS’s Jean Guerrero Reporting on Conditions of Migrants Arriving in Tijuana | Video Worth Watching

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KPBS’s Jean Guerrero was in Tijuana Sunday to report on the situation with the migrants that have been arriving from Central America. Here is some footage capturing the conditions around the municipal sports facility where the city is attempting to accommodate the arriving migrants. She also interviews a person who salvaged a spent tear gas canister from an earlier event where migrants approached the U.S. border.   [Read more…]

Ana Tijoux – Antipatriarca | Video Worth Watching

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Ana Tijoux was born in Lille, France in 1977, daughter of Chileans that had fled the 1973 Chilean coup of Pinochet. Her interest in rap, hip-hop and dance began in 1988, but she didn’t return to Chile until after 1973 when civil power was restored. This song is from her 2014 album Vengo and even though it’s in Spanish, I believe the sense of independence and autonomy will come through even for non-Spanish speakers. Equally as impressive is the evident diversity of her world. For me, it echoes the sensibilities of Edward Steichen’s The Family of Man.

Since lyrics can be difficult to discern, especially on a first listening, I’m including the lyrics after the video.   [Read more…]

The Day After Tomorrow – Joan Baez (Tom Waits / Kathleen Brennan cover) | Video Worth Watching

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The inimitable Joan Baez presenting her plaintive interpretation of the Waits/Brennan anti-war song “The Day After Tomorrow”. (h/t to mic)   [Read more…]

My Big Hairy Kosher Cuban Turkey

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It is not an auspicious sign when the turkey is not only NOT in the oven on time, but a feverish online search has ensued with the frantic words “where find blowtorch thanksgiving san diego.”

I was really looking forward to roasting a turkey this year. My husband and I have a brand new stove that replaced the old one with the inoperable oven that has functioned as a storage unit for over a decade. The fragrance of roasting turkey is one of the best smells that life offers; my olfactory senses were primed. But the taste of turkey is often something quite different.

Despite the successful attempts to make turkey breasts gigantic, culinary engineering has been less successful in assuring breast meat that doesn’t taste like a Mojave Desert burger. Getting and cooking a flavorful turkey has always been hit and miss for me. I have tried every kind of turkey available. Or at least I thought I had.

Doug Porter, who is not only a SDFP editor but also a stellar cook, recommended that I try a kosher turkey instead of the usual commercial fare.   [Read more…]

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