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Trump Executive Order Vandalizes Obamacare

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While the press obsesses over Alt-Truths (the same kinds of lies being told all along), the deconstructing of the United States safety net has begun.

Our thin-skinned President has busied himself between tantrums by signing executive orders inspired by likes of the Heritage Foundation, which has long held that our national wealth would be better served if it were in the pockets of the very wealthy.

First up will be the elimination of government spending on anything other than national security and corporate welfare. Second up will be privatized replacements for programs deemed irreplaceable wrapped in the swaddling of alternative truths about how beneficial this will be.   [Read more…]

Health Care Reform Town Hall Meeting In Sizzling Spring Valley With Rep. Susan Davis

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Editor Note: The Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare is much harder and less popular to do than to simply promise it. Republicans were recently confronted by constituents demanding continuation of their ACA healthcare at rallies across the country. This article from the OBRag archives from 2009 is a reminder of the pitched battle that took place in San Diego to support health care reform. Obamacare, which so many loved to hate has suddenly become a program so many now hate to lose.   [Read more…]

Resistance Rises as Trump Inauguration Nears

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On Saturday, supporters of immigrant rights at rallies around the U.S. denounced President-elect Donald Trump for his anti-immigrant rhetoric along with his pledge to build a border wall and discriminate against Muslims entering the country.

On Sunday, Supporters of the Affordable Care Act gathered to protest the health care law’s repeal in rallies across the country.

And throughout the holiday commemorating the late Dr. Martin Luther King rallies and marches from coast-to-coast called out the implicit and explicit racism of the incoming administration.   [Read more…]

Adios Chargers: Don’t Let the Door Hit You Where the Good Lord Split You

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The San Diego Chargers are headed to Los Angeles. Halleluja!

“After much deliberation, I have made the decision to relocate the Chargers to Los Angeles,” team owner Dean Spanos wrote in a press release and letter to season ticket holders. “Today we turn the page and begin an exciting new era as the Los Angeles Chargers.”

The slightly less than 44% of the voters who supported the team’s plan for a downtown stadium in the last election combined with the ‘only’ $375 million final offer involving monies from the County, the City and San Diego State University for some future venue were certainly factors in the decision to move.   [Read more…]

My Neck

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I love Nora Ephron’s book, “I Feel Bad About My Neck”. I have been feeling bad about my neck since I was about 55. As the years passed, my feelings grew as my weight increased and my necked sagged. All my photos are full face – no side shots allowed.

At 62 I had a consult with a plastic surgeon. When I told him I wanted to lose weight, he told me to wait on the surgery until I reached my weight loss goal – no point in sucking out the fat, cutting the muscles and stretching the skin just to have it sag again on an otherwise svelte neck – assuming I actually lost the weight.

Soon I’ll be 68 and my weight loss goal is almost complete (btw, eliminating alcohol can do that for you). So I decided it was time to head back to the plastic surgeon (who btw, seemed to have gained the weight I lost). I learned that the procedure would cost $8500 and I’d need to spend at least 2 weeks recovering. Incisions would be made to suction out the fat, tighten the muscles and pull back the skin. There would be pain and suffering and I’d have to keep my head bound and elevated even during sleep – assuming I was lucky enough to catch a few winks in such an altered state.   [Read more…]

The Destruction of Experience: How Ecopsychology Has Failed

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I do not remember the first time I saw my mother’s face, though I know she remembers the first time she saw mine. It was the very beginning of my life, my birth. I do not remember the first time I saw my mother’s face, but, I do remember the first time I saw my mother’s face at what would have been the end of my life after I tried to kill myself.

This is what I’m thinking about as I hold my fifteen-month-old baby nephew Thomas while he falls asleep.

A soft darkness blankets the room. The curtains are tied back on either side of the room’s only window and the night pours in. A wet snow falls with the starlight in a sprinkling of silver and gray. A few nights before full and the moon is strong. Shadows flicker on the floor below the window. A pine whispers outside where the wind brushes powder from her branches.   [Read more…]

2016 Was Another Deadly Year at Sunset Cliffs

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Last year–2016– ended up as another deadly year at Sunset Cliffs, the beautiful yet dangerous cliffs that abut the Pacific Ocean on the west side of Ocean Beach and Point Loma.

By our calculations, four people died at the cliffs and 3 were seriously injured during 2016. In comparison with 2015, that year had 3 deaths but 8 serious injuries/ rescues.

The month of July, in particular, was the most deadly and dangerous, with 2 deaths and 3 seriously injured people.   [Read more…]

Call to Action! Protect San Diegans’ Obamacare

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The 115th Congress convened for the first time earlier this week. After their disastrous behind closed doors attempt to gut the Office of Ethics went down in flames, they decided that it was time to concentrate on the number one priority–Repeal and Replace Obamacare.

Repeal and Replace Obamacare has been the Republican mantra since 2009. Their call for repeal of the Affordable Care Act is gratuitous, but it has kept the base hopeful if not happy. Repeal is infinitely easier than proposing a replacement and Republicans have nothing to offer in its place. Maybe that is because the Affordable Care Act IS the Republican healthcare coverage position. Democrats advocated for a universal health coverage system, an expansion of Medicare.   [Read more…]

‘A New Wrinkle in the Face of Things’ – A New Year Resolution

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Lets “face” it. My husband has been gone over seven years and for the past six of those years I have tried to find a new companion.

I lost 100 pounds; I grew my hair long – I’ve since cut it – dyed my silver-gray hair brown – I’ve since gone back to being a blond; and put back some of the poundage I lost. And although I have met several men, none of them were “Mr. Right” – and many of them have been “Mr. Wrong”, as evidenced by the book I am writing entitled, “Liar, Liar.”

So I have tried everything that I know what to do to attract a man with no success. I even have been in a passive relationship, where I have pretended to know nothing so that HE could be the dominant one. That didn’t work either.

What must be the problem? I asked myself.   [Read more…]

Connections Have Gaps

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By Bob Dorn

Some six weeks ago I had my first grand mal seizure. In its aftermath I’ve read only enough about the brain’s temporal lobe, and its neurons and mitochondria to be able to say epilepsy remains a bit of a mystery.

Mystery’s not a word doctors like to combine with illness. After all, there are causes and effects. Modest physicians will go so far as to say we don’t know enough to name the cause and the mechanism that delivers the startling effects of these convulsive explosions.

I went to black immediately after some fascinating warning signs (about which, later). I knew nothing once I was down on the living room floor, gurgling and grimacing, my whole body stiffening. “A man will do that” I joked from the hospital bed, inspiring a laugh from my beloved wife, who’d witnessed the horror from its start.   [Read more…]

Floppy’s New Wheels

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By South OB Girl / OB Rag

Over the years you may have seen the Welsh corgi Floppy at the side of his owner, Steve Mallory, who is the owner of Mallory Furniture on Newport Ave.

Recently you may have seen 16-year old Floppy in his new “ride.” A shopping cart which was abandoned in Mallory’s parking lot, with no markings of Vons or Ralphs or any business name. After asking police officers if using the cart would be okay – Mallory has transformed the cart into a portable bed to take Floppy out on strolls. As quite tragically, Floppy now suffers from a genetic disorder, canine degenerative myelopathy.   [Read more…]

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…]

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