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A Primal Scream From Gun Violence Reaches Congress

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History was made yesterday. The primal scream of the families of gun violence victims echoed through the halls of Congress.

One hundred sixty-eight Democrats from the House of Representatives and thirty-four of their colleagues from the Senate are staging an ongoing sit-in, making a statement aimed at reducing the incidence of gun violence in the United States.

Just as Black students staging sit-ins at lunch counters in the 20th century didn’t reverse decades of legal discrimination or centuries of racism, the actions of Congressional Democrats aren’t likely to end with legislation signed by the President. Things will never be the same again, and that’s the point. It may take months. It will more likely take years. To paraphrase Martin Luther King, Jr., the long arc of the moral universe bent in the direction of justice on Capitol Hill yesterday.   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces: Report

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It’s time to leave
when guns grow on trees
orange blossoms cut down

Kiss the dream good night
alarms set
locked in gated housing   [Read more…]

Bang! Bang! (((Never Mind))) More Guns, Please!

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Today’s column is all about guns and the people that enable their abuse. A few corporations fund a ‘grassroots’ lobbying group. Data is suppressed by law. Thousands of people die every year and the only solution is supposedly prayer.

Or we’re supposed to chant the words Radical Islamic Terrorism three times, click our heels, and everything will be right in the world.

Once again the nation finds itself in the middle of a ‘debate’ over guns following a mass shooting. It’s a very one-sided debate. Vast majorities of people believe that common-sense measures are needed. The will of the people is likely to be ignored.   [Read more…]

Does Bernie Sanders Losing In California Trump What Happened in Orlando?

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In the middle of all the anger and sadness I was feeling about the death and destruction in Orlando, I received an email that should have never been sent.

The sender, a long-time political activist in San Diego, was hoping for attention. I don’t think he’s going to like what I’m going to say.

Here’s the relevant quote, in the same all caps format as it was sent: PLEASE COME TO THIS RALLY. NEED BIG TURNOUT TO GET THROUGH MEDIA BLACKOUT DUE TO NIGHTCLUB MASSACRE IN FLORIDA!!   [Read more…]

Secret Service Bails Republicans Out of Their Convention Open Carry Dilemma

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By Laura Clawson / Daily Kos

Republicans hate gun-free zones, so why are they holding their convention in one? A petition pushing to change that has now gathered more than 42,000 signatures:

The petition calls on each Republican presidential contender, the National Rifle Association, the Republican National Committee and Chairman Reince Priebus, convention host site Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich to do what they can to allow convention attendees to openly carry firearms. The arena currently bans firearms and other weapons, it says on its website.

“Without the right to protect themselves, those at the Quicken Loans Arena will be sitting ducks, utterly helpless against evil-doers, criminals or others who wish to threaten the American way of life,” the petition’s author argues. Some have speculated that such dramatic language makes it sound as though the whole thing is a ruse intended to put Republicans in a tough political spot.

  [Read more…]

Red Riding Hood Has A Gun And So Does Everyone Else, So It’s All Good

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By Abby Zimet / Common Dreams

Last week, blood-soaked NRA zombie Wayne LaPierre crawled out of his cave to whine to an audience at Liberty University that, “So many of those elites, they think they’re better than us.” He went on to proclaim, “They think they’re more intellectually evolved somehow than we are…Well, I’ve got news for the elites who look down their noses at all of us and our rights: We gun owners are a heck of a lot smarter than you’ll ever be…Never have there been smarter, freer American citizens than America’s one hundred million gun owners.”

Oddly, he declined to mention the disheartening torrent of gun fail stories in which almost 17,000 American citizens are unintentionally shot or killed each year – today, the Alabama four-year-old who shot himself in the head while his mom went shopping – and the fact that many contradict the good-guy-with-a-gun fairy tales they regularly propagate, but still.   [Read more…]

Gonzalez Bill Opens the Door for Gig Economy Workers Rights

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Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez has (re-)introduced legislation (AB 1727) ensuring that independent contractors working in the gig economy are allowed workplace rights currently enjoyed by conventional employees. Thus begins what will likely be a multi-year struggle to redefine the role of labor in the 21st century.

The rights under consideration include negotiating as a group, communicating with customers and the public, boycotting or critiquing a hosting platform’s business practices, and reporting publicly or to law enforcement any practices in violation of local, state, or federal laws.

The 1099 Self-Organizing Act, as it’s called, would apply to businesses and workers in the “gig economy,” where companies use online systems and mobile apps to match laborers with customers. State labor law would be amended, allowing 10 or more independent contractors, who work for “hosting platforms” such as Uber and Lyft, to join in union-like groups and negotiate workplace protections.   [Read more…]

Gun Buyback Program Comes To The Border

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By Barbara Zaragoza

The San Diego Police Department, Southern Division, held its first ever Gun Buyback program on Saturday, January 30th at the Otay Mesa Campus of Southwestern College. About twenty police staff, including cadets, retired volunteers and officers were on duty to hand out $10,000 worth of Walmart Gift cards to community members who handed over their firearms.

The Southern Division—which covers thirty-one square miles along the U.S.-Mexico border—has 85 detectives and officers serving approximately 100,000 residents. The area averages about two homicides per year.   [Read more…]

The Four States That Have the Biggest Gun Industry Economies in America

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From jobs to political contributions to ownership, the firearms sector spans the United States

By Sarah Lazare / AlterNet

We can’t truly address the epidemic of gun violence in the United States without taking a hard look at America’s deep-rooted economic dependence on the arms and ammunitions industry.

The firearms sector spans the country, including jobs, political contributions and ownership. According to one analysis, in 2014 alone the guns and ammunitions industry pumped almost $43 billion into the economy.   [Read more…]

The Decade-Long Journey to an Emotional Day of Action for Obama and Gun Reform Advocates

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The president’s executive actions punctuate Democrats’ emboldened approach to an issue the party is now eager to run on — rather than from

By Dan Friedman / The Trace

In a press conference immediately following the fatal shooting of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in December 2012, White House spokesman Jay Carney shrunk from linking the massacre to a push for more restrictive gun laws. There will be “a day for discussion of the usual Washington policy debates, but I do not think today is that day,” Carney said. It wasn’t quite the “thoughts and prayers” that have drawn Republicans criticism from reform advocates after recent headline-grabbing gun violence, but it was close.   [Read more…]

With a Spate of New Laws, California May Be the Most Progressive State in the Nation

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By Sonali Kolhatkar / TruthDig

California lawmakers have been extremely busy actually getting work done—unlike their federal counterparts in Washington, D.C. The most populous state in the nation is now arguably also the most progressive. Here are 10 critical issues covered by recently passed laws, from reproductive rights and equal pay to voting rights and health care for undocumented children.   [Read more…]

Environmental Activists in Paris and San Diego: We Want More

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One hundred ninety nations reached an agreement in Paris this past weekend, theoretically setting the world on a path towards reducing carbon emissions. The San Diego City Council is poised to bless the long awaited Climate Action Plan. People took to the streets of Paris and the byways of Balboa Park over the weekend to affirm their commitment to seeing the challenges of climate change acted upon.

At last!–or so we’re told–there are processes in place to help save the planet, or at least humanity’s position at the top of the food chain. The truth, however, is much different that the hype. Consider these deals “hope” without the “change.”

Neither the international agreement nor the local plan would have happened without grassroots activism. A legacy of misinformation and misdirection directed by the fossil fuel industry and its adherents was countered by thousands of actions involving millions of people.   [Read more…]

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