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The Racist Stain of Trump’s Presidency

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By Sher Watts Spooner / Daily Kos

Whatever happens to Donald Trump, however long it takes before he’s out of office, there’s one area where it will be hard to stop the spread of his poisonous politics: his stoking of racial hatred.

Trump and Republicans keep trying to turn the murder of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, allegedly done by an immigrant who may have been in the United States illegally, into a campaign issue, trying further to stir up anger and raise fears about immigrants among Trump’s base. But they conveniently ignore the murder of 18-year-old Nia Wilson on a BART train in Oakland, California, allegedly committed by a white supremacist.

It’s not hard to figure out their reasoning: Tibbetts was white, and her accused killer is Latino. Wilson was African-American, and her accused killer is white. Crimes by “others” are by definition bad and scary, to a racist’s way of thinking. Crimes by whites must be a sign of mental illness, right?   [Read more…]

‘I Have a Dream’ at the San Diego-Mexico Border and Reflections on 1968

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By Rev. Richard Lawrence

1968 came back to me when I stood with Martin Luther King, III, at the Border on August 28 and listened to folks on the other side of the Border holler in pure delight that the day had finally come when a black leader stood tall in the fight for a just immigration policy.

King, III, took us back to his father’s “I Have a Dream Speech” fifty-five years ago and reminded us that there’s no room for leaders who separate children from their parents in the world his father envisioned. No. Dr. King wanted to build bridges, not barriers, to freedom.   [Read more…]

Iraq Should be a Much Bigger Part of McCain’s Legacy Than His ‘Civility’

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The “straight talk” people praise McCain for is actually what most of them can’t stand about politicians: They say noble words but cast ignoble votes.

By Peter Certo / OtherWords

In the last days of his life, an old video of John McCain surfaced on the internet.

It’s 2008. He’s running for president and fielding questions from voters in Minnesota. A middle-aged woman takes the microphone.

“I can’t trust Obama,” she complains of McCain’s Democratic opponent. “He’s an Arab.”

The Arizona Republican shakes his head. Obama is “a decent family man and citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with,” McCain retorts. And adds: “He’s not [an Arab].”

Standing up for a rival was classic McCain, many believed, and his handling of the incident got praise at the time. No wonder it’s circulating again now, after a later presidential candidate made that woman’s slanderous race-baiting look tame.

Still, too few people asked: Do real Arabs not make “decent family men” or citizens? Can one not have principled “disagreements” with them?   [Read more…]

Deep Dark Secrets – Opening Statement by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) on the Kavanaugh Hearings | Video Worth Watching

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s opening remarks at the Senate hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh include an observation that the selection process and support for Kavanaugh has been a deep dark secret. He notes that the White House “in-sourced” the selection process to the Federalist Society. That process was opaque to any public observation. His nomination is being promoted, to the tune of millions of dollars, by organizations such as the Judicial Crisis Network, whose funding is also a deep dark secret. And a significant portion of his record is being hidden by claims of Executive Privilege. Is this any way to select a lifetime appointment to the highest court of the land?

The full transcript of Sen. Whitehouse’s remarks from his website are included below the video. To listen to the entire remarks, after the excerpt finishes, click on the replay icon in the lower-left corner of the video.   [Read more…]

Victory! California Passes Net Neutrality Bill

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By Katharine Trendacosta / Electronic Frontier Foundation

California’s net neutrality bill, S.B. 822 has received a majority of votes in the Senate and is heading to the governor’s desk. In this fight, ISPs with millions of dollars to spend lost to the voice of the majority of Americans who support net neutrality. This is a victory that can be replicated.

ISPs like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast hated this bill. S.B. 822 bans blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization, classic ways that companies have violated net neutrality principles. It also incorporates much of what the FCC learned and incorporated into the 2015 Open Internet Order, preventing new assaults on the free and open Internet. This includes making sure companies can’t circumvent net neutrality at the point of interconnection within the state of California. It also prevents companies from using zero rating—the practice of not counting certain apps or services against a data limit—in a discriminatory way. That is to say that, say, there could be a plan where all media streaming services were zero-rated, but not one where just one was. One that had either paid for the privilege or one owned by the service provider. In that respect, it’s a practice much like discriminatory paid prioritization, where ISPs create fast lanes for those who can pay or for other companies they own.   [Read more…]

Update on Prison Strike Demanding End of “Slave Labor”: After 10 Days, Protests Spread to 11 States | Video Worth Watching

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From the Democracy Now! YouTube channel, an update on the nationwide prison strike: Prisoners across the country join work stoppages, hunger strikes and commissary boycotts in at least 11 states to protest prison conditions and demand the end of what they call “prison slavery.” Organizers report prisoners in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Indiana are […]

The Sins of Lorie Zapf – Part 1

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As Councilmember Lorie Zapf does her victory laps through the coastal neighborhoods of District 2 for her successful stand against unrestricted short-term vacation rentals, locals need to remember Zapf is also a partisan candidate running to keep her seat on the Council (and hoping for an unusual third term).

While her STVR coalition with Councilmember Barbara Bry ultimately and admirably won the day for restrictions on STVRs and for saving communities from the deluge of mini-hotels plaguing the beaches, one need only peek at some of the other issues Lorie has taken positions on to have your eyebrow raised.

A more serious look into her record over the past 8 years on Council does more than raise eyebrows – it raises the blood pressure.   [Read more…]

El Cajon Deplorable: Councilman Ben Kalasho Talks Trash About His City

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Ben Kalasho was thinking about running for Mayor of El Cajon. That was before the hundreds of emails started coming in, begging him to represent the Fletcher Hills and Grossmont areas of the city. Or at least that’s what he says on a video on his city councilman campaign website.

What makes this claim odd was Kalasho’s earlier threat to sue the City of El Cajon after they rejected redistricting maps he’d submitted, all of which split his newly-drawn district in two. The people he didn’t want to represent somehow thought he was the best choice to represent them.

Now candidate Kalasho is singing a different tune   [Read more…]

Campus Rapists and Sexual Harassers Set to Get a Big Gift from the Trump Administration

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By Laura Clawson / Daily Kos

In the age of #MeToo, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is poised to set a policy that lets colleges off the hook for taking sexual harassment seriously and makes life much easier for accused rapists and harassers. DeVos previously rescinded Obama-era guidelines on campus sexual assault because they were supposedly unfair to rapists, and now she’s ready to take the next step with regulations of her own.

The DeVos rules would allow perpetrators to cross-examine their victims during mediation and would “also allow the complainant and the accused to have access to any evidence obtained during the investigation, even if there are no plans to use it to prove the conduct occurred.” Because it’s not already hard enough for assault survivors to come forward—now their assailants will have free rein to dig through their lives and intimidate them in person.   [Read more…]

Memories of a Doctor on the ‘Front Lines’ During Chicago 1968

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By Jeoffry B. Gordon, M.D. / OB Rag

Fifty years ago this week, I was in Chitown.

Having just finished my medical internship and working several years with the famous pediatrician Dr. Ben Spock on anti-war issues, I was in a white coat among the checkered blue caped and the robins-egg blue-helmeted police and real people.

I will never forget walking along the lines of scared, sweating teenage national guardsmen with fixed bayonets, trying to calm them down by talking about how we were all brothers, and now remembering Kent State – I think, Thank God, there was never a charge by them.   [Read more…]

California Law Makers in Action: Renewable Energy, Bye-Bye Bail, and Training for Concealed Carry

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While Washington DC sinks into a political swamp and the nation’s chief executive is melting down, California’s legislature is making history, thanks in large part to San Diego Democrats. Their accomplishments, even when they fall short of progressive expectations, are a welcome contrast to the vileness we see coming from the other coast. 

President Donald Trump warned evangelicals on Monday that his policies will be “violently” overturned if Democrats win in November’s mid-term elections. He’s gone full-blown conspiracy-theory crazy, so let’s focus today on some better news. 

The 100 Percent Clean Energy Act of 2018 (SB100) was approved by a vote of 43-32 in the assembly on Tuesday.   [Read more…]

Dr. Jen Campbell’s Candidacy in City Council District 2: Is She the Cure?

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Dr. Jen Campbell is not tall, loud, or filled with that busy anxiety of most politicians. But Campbell has a thoughtful quality.  And a talk with her about the city’s problems is much like discussing the ailments of a weary organ.  What seems to rile her most, like any good physician, is the untreated and blase patient.  In this case, the city’s leadership, perpetually reacting to San Diego’s crises rather than responding actively to new realities and opportunities.

Dr. Campbell believes her opponent, current Republican District 2 Councilmember Lorie Zapf, serving on the council since 2010 and hoping for a third term, is part of San Diego’s historical problem of a lack of initiative.

“It’s an old story of San Diego,” Campbell said.  “It’s a city that just doesn’t plan ahead.  Especially on infrastructure.  We’re a city that has constantly gone from crisis to crisis.  Zapf is part of this problem.”   [Read more…]

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