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Snapshots of Congressional Districts 51, 52, and 53 | Three Incumbent Democrats With Safe Seats

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Three incumbent Democrats. Zero controversies. No surprises expected on June 5.  I thought this snapshot would be the most boring of all the election pieces I write pre-primary. But it wasn’t. I learned some stuff, and you will too.

The Democratic Party has a majority of registered voters in each of these Congressional Districts. There are no challengers from the more progressive wing of the party taking on the center to center-left incumbents.

My assumption was that I’d find a bunch of minor GOP functionaries and a smattering of whack-a-doodles in the opposition. They’re there, but there are also a few compelling stories to be told along the way.   [Read more…]

Digging Up Dirt in Duncan Hunter-Land | Election Snapshot for the 50th Congressional District

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First in a series

The filing deadline has now passed for candidates seeking office in California, so it’s time to take a closer look at who’s running, what we know about them, and how they measure up as what needs to be done to end the reign of error also known as the Trump administration.

Incumbent Republican Duncan D. Hunter occupies what should be one of the safest seats in the House of Representatives. His father had the position until 2008. Political consultants say they believe many residents of the 50th Congressional District still think they’re voting for Duncan L Hunter (papa).

Republicans (+11) and white people (58.6%) are dominant parts of the electorate in a district encompassing the mostly rural east and north parts of San Diego County, along with a sliver of Riverside County. Duncan D.won his last two general elections by 70,000 or more votes.
  [Read more…]

2020 Census Citizenship Question Amounts to a ‘Sabotage’ of Democracy

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By Jake Johnson / Common Dreams

In a move denounced by immigrant rights advocates and legal experts as an effort to “undercount communities of color” that could have an enormous impact on the drawing of congressional districts, the Trump administration announced late Monday that the 2020 Census will ask respondents whether or not they are U.S. citizens.

“This is an attempt to racially rig the census,” argued Common Cause president Karen Hobert Flynn in a statement after the move was made public in a late-night press release by the Commerce Department. “An accurate census is essential in the redrawing of our congressional and legislative districts and budgeting decisions that impact our schools, hospitals, roads, and veterans.”

Shortly after the decision to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census was announced, California Attorney General Xavier Beccera joined civil rights advocates in condemning the move and filed suit against the Trump administration, arguing that inclusion of the question is “not just a bad idea—it is illegal.”   [Read more…]

Linda Brown Recalls Her Role in the Historic ‘Brown v. Board of Education’ Case | Video Worth Watching

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Linda Brown, the schoolgirl at the heart of the Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit, died on Sunday, at the age of seventy-six. In this video recorded in 2004, she relates her memories of the situation that led her father to file the court case that ultimately led to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring school segregation unconstitutional.   [Read more…]

In the Wake of the March for Our Lives, Let’s Talk About Criminal Justice Reform in San Diego

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This moment in time is about so much more than gun reform. It’s about political reform. It’s about criminal justice reform. And that’s what I’m going to focus on today, in light of recent events in Sacramento and along with what’s (or not) happening locally.

San Diego is lucky in that we have candidates for County Sheriff (Dave Myers) and District Attorney (Geneviéve Jones-Wright) in the June primary who stand on the side of criminal justice reform.

Assemblyman Todd Gloria and San Francisco’s David Chiu have joined forces with statewide Indivisible groups in partnership with ACLU of Northern California and the American Friends Service Committee to co-sponsor AB3131.

The bill would create oversight and ensure transparency on the sale of surplus military equipment to police departments statewide. This is important because President Trump and Jeff Sessions have rolled back an Obama executive order limiting the sale of surplus military equipment to state and local police departments.   [Read more…]

If the Democrats Want a Wave Election, Don’t Sell Out Main Street in Favor of Moneyed Interests

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I have long thought that if you wanted to look back to find one of the key moments that showed how out of touch the Democratic establishment was on economic issues that it might very well blow the 2016 Presidential election, you’d likely want to revisit the debate over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).  

Indeed, in 2015, in the wake of the riots in Baltimore, I observed how President Obama could sound great on some social justice issues while badly missing on key economic ones…

That’s why recent news stories about the national Democratic Party’s efforts to “contain” Elizabeth Warren once again are concerning.  As a recent Politico story notes, there have again been rumblings that Warren’s fierce condemnation of the rollback of the Dodd-Frank law was harshing the mellow of the neoliberal wing of the party   [Read more…]

Battling the Death Penalty with James Baldwin

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If you’re thirsting to understand our increasingly cold, jaundiced, at times carcinogenic society, James Baldwin’s singular insight about America and his dizzying, divine command of the English language are as refreshing as an icy elixir on the hottest day in hell.

Moreover, for death penalty abolitionists, Baldwin’s writing is particularly poignant in the wake of:

  1. The Supreme Court’s recent refusal to reconsider the constitutionality of the death penalty, and, “wipe the stain of capital punishment clean” (In the aftermath, Reuter’s Andrew Chung soberly observed that “[t]he Supreme Court has not seriously debated the constitutionality of the death penalty since the 1970s”);
  2. The Trump administration’s doubling down on a harebrained, ass-backward plan to put drug dealers to death;

    3.   [Read more…]

After the March for Our Lives, What Will You Do? Progressive Activist Calendar March 23-April 2, 2018

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With rallies in over 830 cities worldwide, a handful of survivors of the Valentines Day shootings in Parkland Florida will have inspired one of the single largest expressions of political protest in history. The March for Our Lives can’t end when the day’s events have concluded.

If there ever was a time when assuming everything will be okay in the long run was a bad idea, this is it. There’s an unhinged man-child of privilege in the White House who is seemingly hell-bent on undermining the ideals most people believe this country was founded on. All forms of bigotry, be they racist, misogynist, or religious intolerance, are now being normalized. History clearly shows the next step on this path will be the state using its power to abet or conduct violent acts against those considered the ‘other.’

If you have not registered to vote, do so now. Everything you need to know, including how to register online is to be found on this page at the Women’s March San Diego site. Hopefully, someday they’ll do me the favor of listing this calendar in their Activist Resources.

A revolutionary way to learn about local politics: don’t miss the unique forum on the first Sunday in April, hosted by Flip the 49tth activists.   [Read more…]

This Is the Bunny I Love: The Stellar Trolling of Mike Pence

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This week’s Canny Resistance Award goes to John Oliver, who deftly stole Mike Pence’s family’s homophobic thunder by, hours before the release of their children’s book profiling their pet rabbit Marlon Bundo’s “Day in the Life of the Vice President,” released his own “Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo” – who is, gasp, gay. 

Oliver announced the book Sunday night on his Last Week Tonight show after an angry, lengthy look at Pence’s bigoted history, including his long association with the anti-LGBTQ, conversion-therapy-loving wingnuts of Focus On the Family. Oliver admitted the only thing he likes about Pence is his rabbit Marlon Bundo – or at least he did until learning that the book created in his honor, which was written by Pence’s daughter Charlotte and illustrated by his wife Karen, was being promoted in partnership with Focus on the Family to underline the notion that family-friendly means not, ewww, gay.

“It turns out, in a complete coincidence, we also wrote a book about Mike Pence’s rabbit,” Oliver smilingly told his audience.   [Read more…]

The History Of Women’s Pain – Full Frontal with Samantha Bee | Video Worth Watching

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In honor of Women’s History Month, Laurie Metcalf joins Samantha Bee to give us a brief history of women’s constant, apparently untreatable pain through the ages.   [Read more…]

Cambridge Analytica: Undercover Secrets of Trump’s Data Firm | Video Worth Watching

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For readers of Tuesday’s Starting Line, here’s one of the sources mentioned in the post. Britain’s Channel 4 posted on YouTube, video from the undercover investigation into Cambridge Analytica. This segment includes some fascinating discussion related to the Trump presidential campaign.   [Read more…]

Protests in Brazil After Politician Marielle Franco Shot Dead | Video Worth Watching

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Tens of thousands of Brazilians have protested across the country to mourn the apparent assassination of a well-known police critic.

Marielle Franco, a councilwoman from Rio de Janeiro, was shot along with her driver on Wednesday night.

The 38-year city councillor had become a voice for gay and black rights, as well as fighting against police violence in poor areas of the city.   [Read more…]

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