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A Surprise Candidate for City Council in District 1

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The future makeup of San Diego’s city council took an interesting turn yesterday as Bruce Lightner declared his intention to run for the District 1 seat being vacated by termed-out Sheri Lightner, who just happens to be his wife.

Sheri Lightener is a Democrat, who at times has been willing to play nice with Republicans on the council. Bruce Lightner is a Republican, who has an adversarial history with Ray Ellis, the other GOP candidate in the race along with others in the party hierarchy. In short, he’s a wild card.

Prior to this announcement the contest for D1 was shaping up to be the battle for partisan control of the council. When Joe LaCava dropped out of the race in January, Democrat Barbara Bry was left with a one-on-one contest headed into the June primary, which historically has brought out more right-leaning voters. Republican Ellis was raising and spending more money.   [Read more…]

Trumpaggedon: The Right Confronts Its Love Child

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The annual Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference is underway. Billing itself as the largest conservative conference in the country, it has in past years served as a political fashion show for politicians of the right wing persuasion.

This time it’s different. CPAC amounts to a day of reckoning for conservatives. Will they pledge allegiance to The Donald? Or will they fight on? A history of generous donations to the sponsoring American Conservative Union has apparently greased the wheels for a Trump appearance on Saturday morning.   [Read more…]

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? San Diego Democrats Set to Shoot Themselves in the Foot Again

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News of a credible Democrat entering the race for mayor of San Diego barely made it onto social media yesterday before intra-party sniping began. The political party with majority registration in America’s Finest City couldn’t even field a candidate, and now its past bad behavior is threatening to sabotage a chance at salvation.

This should have been a serious bump in the road to Kevin Faulconer’s primary coronation, namely that a third well-known candidate made the 50%+1 threshold more difficult, with former City Council member Ed Harris jumping into the mayoral race, according to papers filed with the city clerk.

Running as a Democrat, Harris joins independent activist and former state legislator Lori Saldaña as a second major candidate running against the incumbent mayor. The long time lifeguard and union leader was appointed to the council representing District 2 in 2014 following Faulconer’s ascension to the top job in a special election.   [Read more…]

The End Of The Establishment?

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By Robert Reich / RobertReich.org

Step back from the campaign fray for just a moment and consider the enormity of what’s already occurred.

A 74-year-old Jew from Vermont who describes himself as a democratic socialist, who wasn’t even a Democrat until recently, has come within a whisker of beating Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucus, routed her in the New Hampshire primary, and garnered over 47 percent of the caucus-goers in Nevada, of all places.

And a 69-year-old billionaire who has never held elective office or had anything to do with the Republican Party has taken a commanding lead in the Republican primaries.
  [Read more…]

Questions About Police Intervention at Lincoln High Remain Unanswered

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The San Diego County District attorney’s office announced on Monday that video of an incident at Lincoln High School will not be released, according to a report on 10News. A SDUSD police officer was injured, two students were arrested and five people were hospitalized on Friday.

At issue are conflicting reports over what happened. Students say police overreacted to roughhousing. A cell phone video shows a police officer tasering a student lying face down and another officer pepper-spraying onlookers at the historically black high school. Police are asserting that an officer was jumped from behind and say more arrests are expected in the near future.   [Read more…]

#StandWithLincoln Incident Puts an Exclamation Point on Black History Month in San Diego

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An incident at San Diego’s historically black Lincoln High School on Friday involved students being tased and pepper sprayed by police from two agencies.

Students say police involvement was an overreaction to horseplay. The parent of a student who was jailed claims the arrest is revenge by the authorities. The ACLU says they are deeply concerned about what happened and are investigating.

The police say one officer suffered a concussion and has been placed on administrative leave. A cell-phone video shows the seemingly unharmed officer tasing a student laying face down on the ground.   [Read more…]

Beyond Liberal Schadenfreude: ‘Poorly Educated’ Voters Are Not Really Responsible for Trumpmania

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By Chauncey DeVega / Daily Kos

Tuesday’s Nevada caucuses were but one more battlefield on which Trumpmania easily vanquished its foes. Donald Trump, the American Il Duce and Mad Max’s Immortan Joe come to life in the form of a reality TV show host and real estate gangster capitalist, won 45.9 percent of the Republican vote. This was more support than his two nearest rivals combined.

Donald Trump stuck to a tried-and-true routine during his victory speech. The “Trumpeteers” are an easy crowd to move when in the presence of their demigod. Trump knows how to manipulate their anxieties, fears, worries, and hopes. Trump plays to the cheap seats—the lowest common denominator—as he brays about “making America great again,” killing “terrorists,” and building a wall on the Mexican border.

His public lives vicariously through Trump’s proto-fascist strongman routine. They are desperate to absorb his supposed vitality.   [Read more…]

Trump University Lawsuit: Pretrial Conference Set for San Diego

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An upcoming class action lawsuit involving allegations of financial fraud by former students of Trump University has San Diego in the news today. The Donald is among witnesses listed by attorneys for both sides leading up to a May 6th final pretrial conference.

Most of the stories mentioning this lawsuit seem to based on reporting by Michael Isikoff at Yahoo News. Senator Marco Rubio–who has his own problems with questionable for-profit colleges–brought up the subject of the lawsuits against Trump University at Thursday night’s GOP Presidential debate on CNN.

While I’m doubtful about suggestions of The Donald taking time off from his campaign to swing through America’s Finest City to testify, it’s telling that the GOP has finally gotten around to challenging his most basic claim to greatness, namely his business acumen.   [Read more…]

Spinning SeaWorld: “Hey Look, We’re No Longer Spying on Activists!”

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Forgive me if I don’t seem all that excited about SeaWorld CEO Joe Manby’s admission about SeaWorld employees posing as animal rights activists in order to spy on opponents. And their promise not to do it anymore.

We already knew about Paul T. McCombe, using the alias Thomas Jones, the guy who was fond of inflammatory rhetoric and tried to incite PETA activists to violence. His activities and the high probability that more of his ilk were lurking in the shadows was reported in the Union-Tribune in the summer of 2015.

The company’s statement was given at the end of a conference call to discuss an earnings report. The press has largely taken the bait reporting on this disclosure over the real news, namely that SeaWorld had just posted an adjusted loss of $9.6 million, or 11 cents per share.   [Read more…]

Winter 2016 AFL-CIO Executive Meeting Topics: Economic Inequality, Democracy in America

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The executive council of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 56 unions representing 12.5 million members, has been meeting in San Diego this week. The agenda for the gathering suggests a growing enthusiasm for broad political actions, going beyond the specific needs of organized labor.

The Big Story, according to mainstream media outlets, has been the decision not to make a presidential endorsement. The reasoning behind that decision, and just about everything else happening at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel is no secret though it would be easy to think it was from the lack of local coverage.   [Read more…]

San Diego Enters Phase One of the Stadium Shakedown

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After Chargers owner Dean Spanos got his ass handed to him by the National Football League in rejecting (30-2) a joint Chargers/Raiders stadium atop a dump in Carson, San Diego started to look like a viable alternative for the future of the franchise.

True to form in a city where “a hotel tax isn’t a tax because we say so,” City Attorney Jan Goldsmith held forth via a weekend article in the Union-Tribune on the terms and conditions for the upcoming “citizens initiative” for funding a new football stadium at the old location.   [Read more…]

No, Bernie Sanders is Not a Modern-day George McGovern

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By Susan Grigsby /Daily Kos

Thom Hartmann wrote that Bernie Sanders should not be compared to George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic Presidential nominee who was buried by Nixon’s CREEP in a landslide. I happen to agree—and while our reasons may differ, our conclusions are the same.

Instead of harkening back to McGovern, Sanders’ candidacy more closely resembles that of Barry Goldwater. Granted, their political views are worlds apart, but they both are movement candidates. Radical revolutionaries.

Barry Goldwater was a man of integrity, and no matter how much you may despise his principles, he never betrayed them. His book, The Conscience of a Conservative, inspired young people across the nation and its impact is still being felt today.   [Read more…]

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