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Thank you, Maggie — I mean — Dilma! The Workers’ Party of Brazil Has Gone Full Thatcher!

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“Today there is a systematic campaign against the World Cup — or rather, it is not against the World Cup but rather a systematic campaign against us.”

By Daniel Gutiérrez / Conjecture

[Editor’s Note: The World Cup begins today in Brazil. Thousands upon thousands of Brazilians have been protesting the billions of dollars spent to pay for hosting it while basic needs of the impoverished are unmet.]

The past week in Brazil has fully revealed the face of the country’s Worker’s Party (PT). If there’s any wonder as to which side of the fence the PT is on, it surely isn’t on the side of the workers. And Dilma said it herself, “Today there is a systematic campaign against the World Cup — or rather, it is not against the World Cup but rather a systematic campaign against us.” These words are reminiscent of [former British Prime Minister] Maggie Thatcher’s proud words against striking miners: “We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty.”   [Read more…]

The National Football League Has a “Donald Sterling” and it’s Daniel Snyder – Owner of the Redskins

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By Beau Grosscup

Hours after the private racist statements of Donald Sterling, the NBA Los Angeles Clipper’s owner became public, millions of people, from players, owners, fans, indeed the whole sports industry and many in the general public went appropriately apoplectic. In unity they said the National Basketball Association must take decisive action. Clipper players engaged in symbolic acts of protest before their first playoff game. Threats of player and fan boycott preceded the second game.

Outraged at Sterling’s racism, Americans inside and out of the sports world waited to hear what action NBA commissioner Adam Silver would take. It had to be of consequence, they insisted, a strong message that racism in today’s society is socially unacceptable. Silver banned Sterling for life from NBA events. Arguing Sterling violated Article 13, Section d. of the NBA Bylaws,Silver said he would push Sterling to sell the Clippers. A month later the team was sold to a new owner.

Contrast this with the long public campaign to get Daniel Snyder, owner of the National Football League’s Washington Redskins, to follow the lead of dozens of amateur sports teams and drop the racist Native American name in favor of a socially responsible moniker.   [Read more…]

Fans Move to Buy LA Clippers after Owner Is Banned from NBA

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The fans hope to buy the team and make it into a nonprofit organization like the Green Bay Packers.

By Christopher Zumski Finke/ Yes!

Everyone from the Commissioner of the National Basketball Association to the players and the fans seems to agree: Donald Sterling should not own the Los Angeles Clippers.

Last week, Sterling’s girlfriend recorded Sterling in a racist diatribe, in which he requested that she not associate with African Americans in public. The audio was released to the paparazzi website TMZ, and within 72 hours Sterling was banned for life from all NBA activities. The commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver, recommended the league’s 29 other owners vote to force Sterling to sell his team.

The legality of forcing Sterling to sell is open to question, but the rapid unfolding of events raises an important question: who should own the Clippers?
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Bike Sharing Plan Snubs Economically Challenged Neighborhoods

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By Doug Porter

It’s National Bike Month and, like cities all over the United States, San Diego has its fair share of events celebrating the increasing importance of two-wheeled transportation in recent years.

Residents of the city who happen to reside in the city’s eastern neighborhoods have a little less reason to celebrate. San Diego’s much vaunted and oft-delayed bike share program, via the privately run DecoBike, has announced their plan for over 175 pick-up and drop off locations, and it would seem that residents of City Heights, Golden Hill  and eastward along El Cajon Boulevard are not part of the picture.   [Read more…]

Ride through National Bike Month with These Local Events

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The SDFP is switching gears from National Poetry Month to National Bike Month. There are several events throughout the month of May for avid and amateur cyclists alike. If you know of an event not listed below, please add it in the comment section.   [Read more…]

Cyclists Take Over Barrio Logan for a Day

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Photos from the 18th Annual Barrio Logan Grand Prix

By Brent E. Beltrán

On Saturday May 3 hundreds of cycling enthusiasts from throughout the region and beyond descended on San Diego’s most historic Mexican community for the 18th annual Barrio Logan Grand Prix.

This event, organized by the San Diego Bicycle Club to benefit the Logan Heights Family Health Center, has become one of the largest cycling events in southern California.

The Barrio Logan Grand Prix coincides each year with the Logan Heights Family Health Center Health Fair that offers free health screenings, free children’s vaccinations, free pregnancy testing, food, entertainment and prizes for those in attendance.   [Read more…]

The Best Bicycle Ride Around Mission Bay

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By Frank Gormlie / OB Rag

The tour I now present around Mission Bay is a great one and it is a ride that has been honed by me and a few riding friends over the last three decades – since the early Eighties.

It is a ride along a route that has a minimum of traffic and street exposure, and it is a route that is practically 13 miles round trip from the Ocean Beach Skateboard Park in Robb Field.   [Read more…]

DA Bonnie Dumanis – Keeper of the Flame for San Diego’s Power Elite

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By Doug Porter

The race for District Attorney in San Diego has heated up in recent days, with incumbent Bonnie Dumanis actually showing up for a debate in Del Cerro after skipping events in Oceanside and La Jolla earlier this month. She also appeared at a Ramona Tea Party multi-candidate forum on Saturday, reportedly wearing a straw cowboy hat.

UT-San Diego gave Dumanis their editorial blessing this weekend, saying “She deserves re-election to a fourth term,” before acknowledging that she might have picked up some “baggage” over her 12 years in office. While that “baggage,” which includes a campaign finance scandal and an over-zealous (and failing) campaign against medical marijuana is of interest, it’s the broader accusations that Dumanis has politicized the District Attorney’s office that merit your attention.   [Read more…]

The Banana Republic of San Diego: Quest for a New Football Stadium and Lower Wages

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By Doug Porter

Another week has passed and UT-San Diego has published yet another article telling us what to expect in the coming months as our local plutocrats hammer out plans for a new gladiator arena, er, football stadium.

Past failures to achieve a consensus were brushed aside by Chargers special counsel Mark Fabian in this weeks fish wrap, attributed to “the kind of political instability that is more typical of a banana republic than of a major American city”. I’m sure former Mayor Jerry Sanders (2005-2012) is thrilled by that characterization.

This week we learn of a Joint Powers Authority (Think SANDAG, or the Airport Commission), with a “working scernario” envisioning a county-wide 2016 ballot measure tapping local treasuries for the expected “taxpayer contribution common in the construction costs of every new National Football League stadium in recent years.”   [Read more…]

Build Us a Stadium or We’ll Shoot This Puppy – Here Comes the Chargers ‘Deal’

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By Doug Porter

He doesn’t speak for anyone, UT-San Diego sports columnist Kevin Acee says, and he won’t be heard by anyone. Thus, his page-one-worthy column about the likely scenario for a new football stadium ended up on page D-4 in Sunday’s paper.

The story was actually posted on Friday afternoon online, and its significance becomes apparent when you realize that nearly 150 people had posted comments before the dead tree edition hit the streets.

The Chargers stadium scenario story is supposed to be nothing more than informed speculation, of course. Except that (I’d bet) it’s not. Call it a trial balloon, floated in the wake of a ‘preliminary’ meeting between team representatives and the mayor’s minions last Wednesday.   [Read more…]

March Madness Bringing out “The Thinker” in Me

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Go Aztecs! Bear Down, Arizona!

By Ernie McCray

My highlight of the 2014 March Madness Tournament was the Arizona Wildcat win over the San Diego State Aztecs in the Sweet 16. What a great game.

It was, however, a bittersweet win for me because, although I used to play for the U of A and the school is in Tucson, the town in which I made my debut as a homosapien, the Aztecs are my team too as San Diego is the town I came to when I decided that my “running around looking for shade trees” days were through. So my rejoicing after the game was somewhat tame. But I did do a little jig. For about an hour.
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Zen and the Art of Baseball

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It’s spring and opening week is here and that makes me very happy. Baseball helps me live. It’s perhaps the best American manifestation of the kind of daily ritual that enables us to achieve a small portion of the balance and harmony we need to provide ballast against the chaos of the world. Whether it’s playing the game or simply contemplating it, baseball provides one with precisely the kind of focused yet purposeless activity that can take you out to the ballgame and into the heart of the moment.   [Read more…]

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