As part of Starbuck’s four-hour training session last Tuesday, participants watched a short film by Stanley Nelson designed to heighten the viewer’s awareness of how profiling affects diverse communities. The video features the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Sherrilyn Ifill who served as Senior Consultant for the project. During the video a narrator comments that even though discrimination in public spaces has been against the law since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, changing the law doesn’t always change reality. And being allowed in doesn’t always mean being welcomed. [Read more…]
Slate Mailers and Other Weapons of Mass Deception
As the primary election season draws to a close, voters are being bombarded with slate mailers, a legally recognized way in California to fool some of the people some of the time. More than 80 such efforts are registered with the California Secretary of State. Further down in this column I’ll give a shout out to some of the other hinky happenings this year.
These mailings, which don’t come from political parties, unions, or business groups, typically start of listing a few well-known candidates running for high profile offices. To the untrained eye, most appear to come from organizations with names suggesting a legitimate interest group or point of view. All contain the legally mandated disclosure explaining the sender is “not an official political party organization.” Slate mailers sometimes call themselves voter guides and the only way a curious voter can tell the difference is by looking for the legally mandated disclosure.
These mass mailings are funded by selling ‘endorsements’ to various campaigns. Often times candidates buy in as a means of keeping their opponent from gaining exposure. It’s not unusual for the mix of candidates supported by a slate mailer to seem illogical, especially if you’re reasonably well-informed on politics.
[Read more…]
Missing Migrant Children – Full Frontal | Video Worth Watching
Updated 11:30am 5/31/18
Full Frontal’s Samantha Bee takes on the current administration’s new policy, as it is being implemented by the Department of Justice under Jeff Sessions, of separating children from their parents when taken into custody by Immigration officials. YubaNet reported that testimony by Richard Hudson, Deputy Chief of the Operations Program for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), at a May 23rd Judiciary Committee meeting revealed that during the 13 day period from May 6th through May 19th, 638 parents traveling with 658 minor children were prosecuted under the “zero tolerance” policy. That’s roughly 50 children a day being separated from their parents. [NSFW: language] [Read more…]
Homelessness and Capitalism: Some Untold Truths
According to the survey in the 2018 Point-in-Time Count (PITC) of homeless people in San Diego County, the four main reasons for becoming homeless are: Loss of Job; Money Issues; Cost of Housing, and Other. Abuse/Violence ranks lowest. But this survey is missing input from thousands of families, as I explained in my prior column, so in reality, fleeing from domestic violence could be a major cause of homelessness. So too could deportation of the primary breadwinner be a factor, which is not even listed as an option, but is a contributing factor for some homeless families.
Underlying those four highest causes are specific failings in our current economic system, such as: jobs that don’t pay enough to cover the basics; lack of reasonable family planning; unsustainable rent increases; lack of affordable housing for people with extremely low incomes; social safety nets that are cut off as soon as a family starts to get on their feet, leaving them worse off; a broken health care system, and racism that sets young blacks and Latinos up for failure.
I’ve been told, “Don’t go there,” when I suggest that homelessness is a symptom of an economic system struggling to stay alive. But if we can’t be honest about the systemic causes of homelessness, we are doomed to be the archetypal dog chasing its tail. It’s my opinion that homelessness has a symbiotic relationship with unchecked capitalism – both being a result of it, and serving to sustain it. The “tell” in this game is the recent escalation of the criminalization of homelessness. [Read more…]
Looking Back at Our Coverage of County Primary Contests – These Are the Races to Watch
An Overview
The motto for San Diego County is “The noblest motive is the public good.” Questions to be answered in 2018 will decide if this is possible in the future.
I hold that the government of the County of San Diego is the single biggest factor standing in the way of solving many of the social problems facing the region. Voters have an opportunity to do something about it, starting in June.
Editor’s Note: Starting Line columnist Doug Porter is taking a few days off. Since he’s spent the last six months flogging the importance of the County of San Diego primaries (last day to vote is June 5), we’re reprinting some of his early observations. Updated parts of these stories are in red. [Read more…]
So, How Many Deaths Were Due to Hurricane Maria? 64? 4,645? | Video Worth Watching
The Real News’ Aaron Maté speaks with Omaya Sosa, co-founder of Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism, about a recent Harvard study which calculates the deaths due to Hurricane Maria to be around 4,645, more than 70 times the figure officially announced by the Puerto Rican government. For comparison, the death toll for Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was 1,833.
Lori Saldaña and the Lincoln Club? Just Say NO
There’s been a lot of controversy lately about Lori Saldaña’s previously floundering County Board of Supervisors run getting a big money boost in the form of an independent expenditure campaign by the Lincoln Club, and while Doug Porter did a fine job of connecting the dots and explaining why both the Lincoln Club and the Working Families Council would be involved in a dark alliance to attack Nathan Fletcher and promote Saldaña, some folks wandering the barren landscape of social media still don’t seem to grok precisely how troubling these connections are for those inclined to support Saldaña, the self-proclaimed savior of the Democratic Party.
Thus, some history is in order. [Read more…]
Feeling in Tune With La Neighbor and Logan Heights
I just finished reading a collection of essays, “La Neighbor: A Settlement House in Logan Heights,” written by a longtime friend, Maria Garcia.
Maria and I go back a ways and we’re soulmates in so many ways.
We’re writers, and activists, who’ve taken to the streets many a time in the pursuit of equality.
We’re educators who modeled, in our schools, how to treat children with respect and how to turn them on to the world of learning.
When a state law was passed requiring us, as school principals, to harass some of our families, our friends, like we were “la migra” or somebody, we, without as much as blinking, said a a loud “Hell! No!” to that.
Maria’s stories captured the spirit of Logan Heights’ old iconic Neighborhood House, a welcoming place that so many Mexican Americans considered the “heart” of their community. [Read more…]
Looking Back: D4 Supervisor Candidate Lori Saldaña – The Truth Will Set You Free
Editor’s Note: Starting Line columnist Doug Porter is taking a few days off. Since he’s spent the last six months flogging the importance of the County of San Diego primaries (last day to vote is June 5), we’re reprinting some of his early observations. Updated parts of these stories are in red.
Former Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña is running for termed-out Supervisor Ron Roberts seat, a Republican who managed to get re-elected despite Democrats outnumbering Republicans in the district 2 to 1.
She has a long progressive political pedigree and has maintained a high profile despite not currently holding office through her activism with groups advocating for the homeless, women’s rights, and environmental causes. [Read more…]
Nothing Changes in Puerto Rico
Dial Telephones: “How to Use the Dial Phone” 1927 AT&T | Video Worth Watching
Today, May 29th, marks the 91st anniversary of dial telephone service in the Fresno area. To prepare the public for this new technology the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co. and the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. (AT&T) produced a “training” film demonstrating how to use these new-fangled instruments. The original, now in the Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, was silent, but this YouTube version has been provided with (somewhat random) background music. You may want to just mute the sound and listen to something that works for you. (h/t to AGD) [Read more…]
Bill Withers – I Can’t Write Left Handed | Video Worth Watching
For the Memorial Day observation here’s Bill Withers’ plaintive and matter-of-fact “I Can’t Write Left-Handed”. [Read more…]
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