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San Diego’s Unlucky 2013: The Year That Can’t End Fast Enough

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By Jim Miller

…the emergence of the local plutocracy’s strategy of rule by ballot initiative is a genuine threat to our local democracy.

Last year, I rang out the New Year with a list of the best in San Diego culturally and politically in 2012. This year begs for a grimmer assessment. Better yet, politically, 2013 deserves to be tossed from the house with the caveat that it not let the door hit it in the ass on the way out.

It would be tempting to do a bottom ten list as there are so many deserving candidates in all quarters, but let me just reiterate what I wrote last summer, that much of what we saw transpiring in our fair city brought to mind Mark Twain’s pithy assessment of “the damned human race”:

I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the lower animals (so-called), and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man.  I find the result humiliating to me.  For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals; since it now seems plain to me that the theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.

  [Read more…]

Merry Christmas, Sex Pistols Style

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By Jim Miller

Every holiday season one of my favorite tasks is collecting and delivering all the toys donated by my union brothers and sisters in the American Federation of Teachers to the Labor Council office for the annual toy drive. My union, along with many other San Diego locals who participate in this annual ritual, do so in order to help out the families of unemployed workers struggling during the holiday season.

This year, just a few days after I made my usual delivery, a friend shared an article with me from Dangerous Minds on another, way cooler but little known solidarity effort from the Golden Age of punk rock: “When the Sex Pistols Saved Christmas.”  It was on Christmas of 1977 that the notorious Pistols played their last gig in the United Kingdom in Huddersfield as a benefit for striking firefighters who were in the ninth week of their struggle and were down to next to nothing. The Fire Brigade Union was striking because, as the piece notes, the cost of living was skyrocketing and “the pay in the pocket of the average worker was worthless.”   [Read more…]

Selling Kevin Faulconer: The Big Bamboozle

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They want you to glare at the union worker asking for a cookie while they walk away with the whole jar.

By Jim Miller

Last week over at the SD Rostra they posted an interesting commentary entitled “Electing Kevin Faulconer: Make a Clear Distinction on Fiscal Conservatism” that outlined the path to a Republican victory. While not particularly surprising, the strategy suggested there is revealing in some important ways.

What, according to our friends on the right, needs to be done?

First of all, it appears that the early polling has awakened them to the fact that the guy who the Lincoln Club yearned to face is “a serious candidate” who should “not be taken lightly” despite the fact that he is “a sycophant for the same people (labor unions and progressive activists in the Democratic party) who gave us Bob Filner.” Thus, the theory goes, a GOTV effort needs to make use of Jerry Sanders and Carl DeMaio to appeal to Democrats who voted for pension reform.   [Read more…]

“The Defining Challenge of Our Time”: Four Things Obama Should Do To Really Start Addressing Inequality

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By Jim Miller

Just as he did last summer during the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, President Obama addressed the issue of economic inequality last week during a speech on the minimum wage and health care, which he delivered in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Washington D.C.  His message was stark and pointed as he told the crowd that, “The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American dream, our way of life and what we stand for around the globe.”

Sounding a populist note, Obama decried the fact that American workers at the bottom end of the pay scale are continuing to “work their tails off and are still living at or barely above poverty” and called the rising level of economic inequality “the defining challenge of our time.”
Even more encouraging, the President specifically referenced fast food workers on the eve of the Fight for 15 national day of action as well as the plight of health care and retail employees. Such open talk about inequality, class, and economic exploitation is long overdue from the President and, one hopes, indicates a welcome embrace of a populist agenda.   [Read more…]

On Black Friday: I Would Prefer Not To

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By Jim Miller

As the Salon story reposted here on Black Friday noted there were about 1,500 protests around the country on our annual day of consumer madness mostly designed to shine a light on the horrendous corporate practices of Walmart, America’s beloved externalizing machine. While Walmart’s propaganda insists that the company is a provider of good jobs and many benefits to our communities, the facts suggest otherwise.

Protesters took to the streets outside Walmarts across the country to splash some cold water on the consumer delirium. Indeed, even Santa got hauled into the pen for civil disobedience at one demonstration.

Inside the stores, away from the protests, things were a bit more disturbing and, as ABC News reported, many customers documented the holiday fun by taking “photos and videos of bloody noses, paramedics wheeling stretchers, women smacking one another on the head, security officers wrestling shoppers to the ground and employees yelling at shoppers to stop recording the melees on their cellphones.” And for those who want to keep a tally of shoppers who were truly dying for a bargain, there is now a website called, “Black Friday Death Count” that does precisely that.

While all of this makes us want to condemn those few “nuts” out there engaging in murderously uncivil behavior, the meaning of Black Friday is much deeper than we’d like to think.   [Read more…]

Redemption Time: Alvarez Beats the Odds and Keeps Hope Alive

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By Jim Miller

Last Tuesday, fortune favored the bold. David Alvarez defied the pundits and political insiders and beat the prohibitive favorite, Nathan Fletcher, in the race to face Kevin Faulconer in the run-off to be San Diego’s next mayor. This was a seminal moment for San Diego—perhaps the biggest political upset in history of the city.

It just wasn’t supposed to happen. Guys like this aren’t supposed to have a chance. Nobody knew who he was, the favored one had already been chosen, and all the experts thought he couldn’t win. He had powerful party insiders opposing him, the Governor of California campaigned against him, Sacramento politicians came out of the woodwork to support his opponent, and he was down near the single digits in the polls.

Everybody knew it was a crazy to run a little-known Latino councilman from South of 8 in a low turnout special election against a well-funded, favored son of the local establishment. It wasn’t his turn. The deck was stacked against him. Only folks who’d lost their minds would support him.

Then he won. David beat Goliath.   [Read more…]

Closing the Deal for David Alvarez: Your Vote Will Make a Difference

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Perhaps out of the summer of scandal and the fall of discord, new hope can be born

By Jim Miller

With less than 24 hours to go until the polls open, San Diego’s special election for mayor has turned into a contest to see who will face Republican Kevin Faulconer in the run-off. A Datamar automated poll last Wednesday showed Faulconer at 44% with Alvarez pulling in at 25.3%, way ahead of Fletcher’s 15.9%. This was followed by yesterday’s UT poll that showed Faulconer ahead as well but with Fletcher up by two over Alvarez, 24% to 22%, a statistical dead heat.

The American Federation of Teachers’ (AFT) final internal polling has the race to make the run-off at 20% for Alvarez and 14.3% for Fletcher with a big pool of undecided voters still waiting to make their call at the last minute. Thus, taking all of this into account, it’s mostly likely a dead heat leaning Alvarez heading into Tuesday. Alvarez can make the primary and win, but his voters have to show up for that to happen.

Bottom line: your vote matters a lot this time. We’ll either have a race between plutocracy and plutocracy-lite or we’ll have an opportunity to keep a bold progressive agenda alive in San Diego. It’s your choice.   [Read more…]

Fletcher Floundering, Alvarez Ascending, and Other Tales of Fear and Loathing from the Campaign Trail

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By Jim Miller

This just in: it appears that Nathan Fletcher’s claims of inevitability have evaporated as the race to meet Kevin Faulconer in the run off is a dead heat leaning Alvarez heading into the last week. The internal polling in all three camps shows Faulconer having consolidated the Republican vote as Fletcher’s early name ID-fueled lead has collapsed, and Alvarez has continued to steadily trend upwards.

More specifically, the most recent numbers from the AFT tracking poll over the weekend have Faulconer at 37.2%, Alvarez at 21.7%, and Fletcher trailing but still barely within the margin of error at 16.3%. Mike Aguirre has 2.5% and a big 20.5 % are still undecided. Hence the trend we are seeing is one of Alvarez slowly tracking up and Fletcher sinking like a lead weight.

Those who follow politics closely know that the trend line is what matters most at this point in a campaign and this bodes well for Alvarez.   [Read more…]

You’ve Got Mail: Mayoral Shapeshifter Sweepstakes Rolls On

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By Jim Miller

Everywhere you look, there is a different Nathan Fletcher. The magic never stops. You can see it in a recent mailer from the Municipal Employees Association (MEA) that touts the man with an 18% lifetime score on labor issues and a 36% Sierra Club score on environmental issues as someone with “a consistent progressive record we can trust.” The MEA magic comes by taking a handful of votes that Fletcher made while re-positioning himself for his mayoral run and giving them the tag line, “Show Us the Facts.”

Well, brothers and sisters, if you think that Fletcher is a progressive, with both a labor and an environmental record that actually comes in behind Republican Kevin Faulconer’s, you just don’t care about the facts. Particularly when you know that David Alvarez’s record on these issues is far superior to both of them.   [Read more…]

Nathan Fletcher, The Magic Environmentalist: A Case Study in Machine Versus Movement Politics

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By Jim Miller

If the environment matters to you and you had to choose between a candidate with a 48% lifetime voting record on environmental issues from the California League of Conservation Voters and a 38% lifetime voting record from the Sierra Club or a candidate with an 88% voting record on environmental issues, you’d think the choice would be clear.

That is, of course, unless this choice involves Nathan Fletcher, the magic environmentalist, whose husky whispers of promise and inside game voodoo can make uncomfortable facts disappear like dust in the wind.

Last week San Diego Politico posted an interesting piece on how the San Diego League of Conservation Voters’ endorsement process fell prey to the Fletcher fairy dust as they handed him their endorsement despite the horrible lifetime voting record of 48% he has earned from their own organization.   [Read more…]

Project Censored 2012-13: The Human Costs of Corporate Propaganda

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By Jim Miller

Projected Censored recently released their list of the “Top 25 Most Censored Stories of 2012-13.” As I noted in a column about last year’s list, Project Censored’s definition of censorship is a nuanced one:

We define Modern Censorship as the subtle yet constant and sophisticated manipulation of reality in our mass media outlets. On a daily basis, censorship refers to the intentional non-inclusion of a news story – or piece of a news story – based on anything other than a desire to tell the truth. Such manipulation can take the form of political pressure (from government officials and powerful individuals), economic pressure (from advertisers and funders), and legal pressure (the threat of lawsuits from deep-pocket individuals, corporations, and institutions).

In sum, the folks at Project Censored argue, along with Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, that all the information we consume in our market-driven system has to go through a series of “filters” before a story makes it (or doesn’t make it) to our eyes and ears.  This is not a definition that implies a conspiracy; it is a structural analysis of how our media system works in the real world with all the economic, political, and legal pressures that shape the process of delivering the infotainment we call news.   [Read more…]

Is San Diego in a New York State of Mind? De Blasio and Alvarez Give Us Hope

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By Jim Miller

After my last column on the perils of Carl Luna’s characterization of progressives supporting David Alvarez as the “Tea Party of the Left” I got a response from Luna when the article was reposted at the OB Rag where he stood by his analogy “that those in the Democratic camp who hold that there are ‘true’ progressives (aka those they agree with) and DINOS are in danger of going down the Tea Party rabbit hole—like the Occupy Wall Street people run wild. (Except that Tea Party has 90 seats in Congress—OWS zero).”

This was prefaced by a reminder that, “the point of elections is to win.”

My response to this was to observe that, “The problem with the Tea Party argument is false equivalency. To equate the Tea Party (a movement based on factually challenged assumptions across the board combined with a good dose of racism funded by the Koch brothers) with progressives worried about the growing influence of the rich and corporations inside the Democratic Party is sloppy thinking at best. It implies a kind of moral equivalency, which is frankly offensive.   [Read more…]

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