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Concerned Veterans for America – A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

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By Shawn VanDiver

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has its fair share of challenges—no one disputes that. Still, over the last two years under Secretary Bob McDonald, VA has made irrefutable progress through the MyVA transformation. But you would never know that if you listened to the rhetoric of the politically motivated advocacy group calling themselves Concerned Veterans for America (CVA).

The deceivingly-named group has positioned themselves as champions of veterans who are simply seeking quality health care. Over the past year, CVA has slowly been exposed for what the American Legion called a “mouthpiece” vets group who is proactively trying to privatize VA.

Although they claim that their positions have been mischaracterized, CVA’s public statements and policies make it easy to remove the sheep’s clothing from this political wolf.   [Read more…]

Navigating Between Worlds: The Peaceful Warriors of Standing Rock

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By Ariana Krieger

When you see the somber brown hills of the Dakota Borderlands for the first time, they don’t look like the setting for a historic victory by a people armed only with the power of prayer and reverence for the land. Yet among these hills of Standing Rock has sprouted a camp, a human crossroads whose unique character has made the seemingly impossible happen.

Seven tribes lead this movement and among the tribal elders are men like Wanasa, a Lakota elder who greets everyone warmly during meal times in the main kitchen.

“The most important thing you can do is pray,” he tells us, “What is happening on the front lines is secondary; the main purpose of this camp is to pray.”   [Read more…]

Twenty Point Guide to Defending Democracy Under a Trump Presidency

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By Timothy Snyder / Facebook

Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. Here are twenty lessons from the twentieth century, adapted to the circumstances of today:

1. Do not obey in advance.

Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You’ve already done this, haven’t you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.

2. Defend an institution.

Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don’t protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.   [Read more…]

Open Letter to Electors: Exercise Judgement and Choice

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Esteemed Electors:

We, a bipartisan coalition of Americans including Electors, scholars, officials, and concerned citizens write to you in the spirit of fellowship, out of our sense of patriotism, and with great urgency.

There are times in the life of a nation when extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures. Now is a such time, and your courage and leadership are required.

Never in our Republic’s history has there been a President-apparent comparable to Donald Trump. His inauguration would present a grave and continual threat to the Constitution, to domestic tranquility, and to international stability:   [Read more…]

Developer – Insider Benefits from Affordable Housing Program By Building Coastal McMansions

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A developer and political insider – a former chairman of the San Diego Planning Commission – appears to have benefited big-time from a City of San Diego affordable and sustainability housing program – that he was ineligible for – by being allowed to construct single-family McMansions at the coast.

Tim Golba of Golba Architecture was given the green light by the City’s Development Services Department to obtain the permits for his single family home projects through the city’s “Affordable/In-Fill Housing and Sustainable Buildings Expedite Program.” We know this, thanks to the diligence of the Voice of San Diego.   [Read more…]

Air Politics (Or Is It Just Gas?)

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Because America fell to a fascist coup d’etat only a few weeks ago it’s not too early to talk about how it happened.

First and above all others, the Democratic Party was a necessary player in this debacle. Loyalists will be outraged seeing that in print. After all, they’ll say, we need now more than ever to grow more united, to bond again as Democrats because… stronger together. But that mother-loving phrase failed, didn’t it? It was empty of substance, like so many others the Dems put up. No one bought it.

It’s almost pathetic to watch the defeated party grope for explanations having to do with the decrepit Electoral College and Republican gerrymandering, the FBI’s Comey striking a blow at the last minute, the Russians hacking into party emails and releasing excerpts of conversations that revealed—Gasp!—cynicism equaling that portrayed in any House of Cards episode.   [Read more…]

Russia + Trump: Oil and Money Mix Nicely

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By Mark Sumner / Daily Kos

Oil and natural gas aren’t just a part of Russia’s economy, they are the economy. Up until 2014, oil accounted for 50 percent of revenue going into the budget. As long as oil and gas prices were high, Putin was able to float along, using oil profits to prop up the Russian economy and his own popularity. But as oil and gas fell, so did Putin’s ability to pretend that his policies were bringing improvement. Since 2014, the value of the ruble has plunged to a third of its former value against the dollar.

The reason is the same as the reason the coal industry is going under: fracking. Fracking for oil and natural gas has filled the US market to overflowing. It’s the reason that gas is $2 at the pump, the reason that the largest coal companies in the world are bankrupt, and the reason that over 160 oil companies have also gone bankrupt this year. Prices are so low, companies and countries that depend on fossil fuels for revenue are feeling a huge squeeze.   [Read more…]

Study: SDPD’s Racial Bias is Undisputed and Ineffective

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By Martha Sullivan, of Women Occupy San Diego

The afternoon before Thanksgiving, the San Diego Mayor’s Office released a long-awaited report on racial bias in traffic stops by the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) prepared by San Diego State University (SDSU) under contract to the Mayor’s Office.

There has been much news about the delay by the Mayor’s Office in releasing this study, as well as that office’s use of the well-worn tactic to release bad news on the eve of a major holiday.

As San Diego Councilmember Todd Gloria pointed out in the Council’s Public Safety & Livable Neighborhood Committee’s hearing on this report last week, the Mayor’s handling of this study on racial bias in San Diego policing has only deepened the mistrust of the Mayor and his Administration among community members who have experienced such racial bias throughout their lives, but whose experiences have not been validated by the Mayor or his management team.

There has also been much news in the past two weeks about the findings of this report, which are elegantly summarized in its Executive Summary:   [Read more…]

Trump’s Plan to Make Education Great Again: Abandon Public Schools

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President-elect Trump described his choice for Secretary of Education in a Nov. 23 tweet as a “passionate education advocate,” who will “break the bureaucracy that is holding our children back so that we can deliver world-class education and school choice to all families.” Tweeting her reply, Betsy DeVos vowed to work with Trump “on his vision to make American education great again.”

Will tweets follow, identifying those years of greatness, together with the plan to return to them? Don’t hold your breath.

Over the last half century eight presidents (four Democrats, four Republicans) recognized the shortcomings of American education.   [Read more…]

Veterans Help #NoDAPL Resistance Achieve Significant Victory

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By Brian Trautman

Over the past eight months, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North Dakota have been joined by more than 200 allied tribes and tens of thousands of non-Native activists for a nonviolent resistance campaign against Energy Transfer Partners’ (ETP) $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).

The pipeline, which has been projected to transport at least 470,000 barrels of oil per day over 1,100 miles from the Bakken oil field to an existing hub in Illinois for delivery to refineries on the Gulf Coast, was rerouted in 2014 from north of Bismarck to the south, taking it through unceded treaty lands of the Sioux.

Pipeline construction over this altered route desecrated sacred ancestral sites, and, until last Sunday, was slated to cross the Missouri River at the Lake Oahe reservoir, which would have threatened the safety of the drinking water of the Standing Rock Sioux and millions of people downstream.   [Read more…]

Take Your Football Stadium and Shove It, Mr. Spanos!

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These are extraordinary times, and for a passionate progressive like myself, it’s hard to look away from the Basket of Deplorables being assembled to run the country’s executive branch.

But for today we need to discuss something both local and deplorable. Another hair-brained idea to build a downtown stadium for the San Diego Chargers is making the rounds, coming out of a Wednesday sit-down between Mayor Kevin Faulconer and team owners Dean Spanos.

After getting his ass handed to him at the ballot box in 2016 (56% voted No on a stadium measure requiring two-thirds approval), Spanos is counting on a future court ruling lowering the threshold to a simple majority, and on Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s desire to have the Los Angeles market all to himself.   [Read more…]

Readers Write: Military Too Small?

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Regarding the proposed expansion of the military–

Good thinking!

By all means we must ramp it up, for the following rational reasons, in no particular order:

The weapons manufacturers are in dire need of further enrichment,

and Congress needs the various kinds of kickbacks available in order to avoid being poverty-stricken;   [Read more…]

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