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America, Got Fascism?

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By Frank Gormlie / OB Rag

Okay, America – are we ready for fascism?

As the presidential campaign season degenerated into racist and xenophobic diatribes by the Republican front runner, with those images of Trump supporters pledging their loyalty to him in Hitleresque salutes, after that scene in Chicago when the Trump rally was cancelled, triggering skirmishes between Trump supporters and demonstrators, it seems everybody is forming an opinion of whether Donald Trump is a fascist, comparing him to Hitler and Mussolini, and other dictators.
  [Read more…]

Bernie Sanders is Coming To San Diego

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It would appear that California, long an afterthought in the quadrennial presidential primary process, will get a chance to weigh in this year.

On Sunday afternoon, the Bernie Sanders campaign posted an official event page, announcing a rally in San Diego on Tuesday, March 22 at the Convention Center. Doors will open at 5pm.

The ‘A Future to Believe In Rally in San Diego’ is free and open to the public…

UPDATE: Registration for the event has already reached capacity, according to the event page.

UPDATE #2: Now that the rally is booked, the campaign has announced the San Diego March To A Future To Believe In Rally, meeting at the San Diego Civic Center Concourse, and marching to the Convention Center, via 4th and 5th Avenues. Bring any Bernie Bling you have to show our support for Bernie. The march is expected to last about 3 hours, starting at 10:30am.   [Read more…]

Why Bernie’s Struggle Will Continue

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What the U.S. needs now is a good old-fashioned platform fight at the Democratic Party Convention, only 4 months distant in this nightmare year.

We need to see just who are these people we’re told are the party’s established leaders. What do they really believe?   [Read more…]

San Diego Latino Film Festival Highlights from Nicaragua, Argentina and Spain

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By Mukul Khurana

It isn’t often that we get to see films from Nicaragua. So, it makes sense to avail yourself of the opportunity to catch La Pantalla Desnuda (Nicaragua, 93 min. 2015) at the San Diego Latino Film Festival 2016. Part of the Viva Mujeres Showcase, this recent movie directed by Florence Jaugey, tells the story of Octavio and Alex (two friends from opposite ends of the social spectrum).

Octavio comes from a poor background. He is envious of his generous and charismatic friend Max, son of a landowner. The tension goes into drama when Max uses a cell phone to film himself making love to his girlfriend, Esperanza. The video gets leaked…
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Geo-Poetic Spaces : Carnival Season

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It’s embarrassing
to be an American abroad
when Trump vomits swastikas
on covers of European newspapers

It’s always carnival season
in Washington:   [Read more…]

Police Body Camera Footage Must Be Made Public

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By Rob Tindula

A few weeks ago, the City Attorney’s Office released an 11-page memo outlining the public disclosure of police records, including body camera footage. The report stated that the Mayor has exclusive rights when it comes to releasing the department’s body camera footage to the public and listed a number broad of exemptions to go along with it.

This is unfortunate for all San Diego residents. Police body cameras have the ability to increase the accountability of officers while performing their daily duties because video evidence can provide an unbiased account of what happened at the scene. In fact, with the expansion of the body camera program, between July 2014 and June 2015, complaints against police officers fell 23 percent.

However, if footage is actively hidden away from public scrutiny, then the impartial version provided by video evidence is rendered useless. Here’s why.   [Read more…]

Cable News Now: All White, All the Time?

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MSNBC pulls plug on Melissa Harris-Perry show

By Thandisizwe Chimurenga / Daily Kos

Cable network MSNBC might be going back to “all white, all the time.” That’s what the Washington Post seems to be implying with their headline, “#MSNBCSoWhite.” Unless you’ve been under a rock, you should know that Melissa Harris-Perry, the professor and author most recently known for her news and public affairs show on MSNBC, has effectively ended her relationship with the network.   [Read more…]

Occupy Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street Speeches

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By Marjorie Cohn / Common Dreams

Hillary Clinton refuses to make public the transcripts of her speeches to big banks, three of which were worth a total of $675,000 to Goldman Sachs. She says she would release the transcripts “if everybody does it, and that includes Republicans.” After all, she complained, “Why is there one standard for me, and not for everybody else?”

As the New York Times editorial board , “The only different standard here is the one Mrs. Clinton set for herself, by personally earning $11 million in 2014 and the first quarter of 2015 for 51 speeches to banks and other groups and industries.”

Hillary is not running in the primaries against Republicans, who, the Times noted, “make no bones about their commitment to Wall Street deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.”

She is running against Bernie Sanders, “a decades-long critic of Wall Street excess who is hardly a hot ticket on the industry speaking circuit,” according to the Times.   [Read more…]

Hogarth at the San Diego Public Library

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By Brett Warnke

“What’s your proposal? To build the just city? I will.” –W.H. Auden

What does it mean to construct the just city today? San Diego is admittedly no Flint. As I write this, there are unpunished poisoners like Rick Snyder still giving speeches, doing fundraisers, outside of a prison cell, with the craven media establishment recording every utterance. And even further east, goldbricker frauds on Wall Street giggle their way through new swindles—ones we won’t discover until we once again stand at the lip of another recession when “tough choices” will again “have to be made” in order to “save Main Street.”

But San Diego is a city not immune to corruption. Our streets, too, are peopled with the chalked bodies of unarmed black and brown men. In July 2015 we even played host to the American Legislative Exchange Council (or ALEC), that great instrument of business elites to capture the regulatory powers of the state for its own tax loopholes and favors. And just this year our local democracy was used by the Chamber of Commerce to thwart wage increases for thousands of workers.

What does it mean to construct a just city in such a corroded republic? “America’s finest city” is a city 41% more expensive than the rest of America, where people of every shade are scrabbling at the lower slopes of the wage scale and where 38% of residents, regardless of their neighborhood, are unable to earn enough to make a living. One method of coping is to laugh. Ours is a golden age of satire.   [Read more…]

Ceramic Heights: A New Creative Outlet for City Heights

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Have you ever taken a ceramics class? If you were lucky, maybe your high school art class or summer camp let you play around with hand building. But for most of us, we’ve either never had the chance or think of ceramics as “that thing I tried once upon a time”. For Amanda Gardner, ceramics has been a hobby since she was a kid growing up in the suburbs of Chicago.

Fast forward to adulthood and Amanda joined the coast guard. She was stationed in San Diego in 2007 and spent 4 years in the service as an electrician. After leaving the coast guard, she found herself picking up a variety of different jobs, constantly learning new skills.   [Read more…]

John Oliver Takes on Abortion. Yes, He Goes ‘There’—and He Goes There Well

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By Leslie Salzillo / Daily Kos

Talk show hosts are not known to expand on the subject of abortion. But John Oliver is not the average nighttime host and wades his way into a plethora of deep controversial issues. The Last Week Tonight political humorist started off his Sunday night show with an interesting attention-grabber and segue.   [Read more…]

Two Los Angeles Cops Charged With Raping Multiple Women Over Years

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Veterans of the force allegedly targeted victims who were most unlikely to report or be believed.

By Kali Holloway / AlterNet

According to a statement released yesterday by Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey, some of the assaults took place in the officers’ patrol car, and nearly all of the alleged assaults were carried out while the cops were on duty.

James Nichols, a 15-year veteran of the force, and Luis Valenzuela, on the force for 18 years, face multiple charges, including “forcible rape, rape under color of authority, oral copulation under color of authority and oral copulation by force.” Valenzuela is also being charged with assault with a firearm for pointing a gun at one of the women.

The four alleged victims, who range in age from 19 to 34, all told investigators similar stories of sexual assault by the officers. Citing information contained in the arrest warrant, the Los Angeles Times reports the women, often after being threatened with jail, were taken by car to desolate areas where they were forced to perform sex acts on one officer while the other “kept watch.”   [Read more…]

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