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President Flip Flops as Government Shutdown Nears

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There is chaos today in Washington created by Donald Trump, whose early morning impulses have upended attempts to get the thing he reportedly values the most–a win.

The GOP hoped they had the makings for a short-term budget deal, kicking the can down the road for a few more weeks while trying to figure out a way to sort out the thorny political issues surrounding defense spending, children’s healthcare (CHIP), and some compromise on Dreamers.

Republican Congressional leaders thought they’d put Democrats between a rock and a hard place by including CHIP and excluding a DACA fix. They were wrong, as legislators from the left side of the aisle said “nope” and lawmakers from the right side of the aisle said, “enough already.”   [Read more…]

A Powerful Economic Justice Movement Is Brewing, Even in This Dark Time

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An American Democracy Movement is fighting brutal capitalism and the culture of blame.

By Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen / AlterNet

In this tumultuous world, one thing seems certain: today’s dire threats to our democracy did not arise out of nowhere. Every culture thrives, or not, on whether its core narrative—the causation story we tell ourselves—enhances mutual gain or spurs division. And, the narrative driving today’s unfolding catastrophe feeds the latter.

It begins with a deep distrust of human nature.

Way back in 1651, philosopher Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan summed up our nature with the Latin proverb Homohominilupus, “Man is a wolf to his fellow man.” From this thought tradition, now reinforced through much of media and advertising, we absorb the notion that humans are essentially selfish, competitive, and materialistic. Yet, with this dim view of our nature, how can we possibly make society work? The dominant narrative has the answer: Just put self-interest to work.   [Read more…]

Call Lethal Injection the Vile Torture It Is

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In a New Year’s Eve display of liberal newspaper death penalty abolition harmony – buoyed by the release of the Death Penalty Information Center’s (DPIC) annual report evidencing another year in the long-observable trend of capital punishment’s disuse and disfavor in America – both the Washington Post and New York Times’s editorial boards published opinion pieces arguing for an end to what the Times called a “cruel and pointless” practice; one that is “savage, racially biased, arbitrary,” and which “the developed world agreed to reject…long ago.”

On her well-followed Twitter account, intrepid anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean opined that the Times “opened the New Year with a bang: a full-throated exhortation against the death penalty. The editorial hit all the right notes.” While I hardly disagree with Sister Helen on anything concerning death penalty abolition – and, despite all the truthful and pointed invectives the Times’s editorial board did skillfully use to highlight capital punishment’s moral depravity – I still preferred when newspaper editors used the word ‘torture’ to describe to the American people what lethal injection really is.   [Read more…]

All Politics is Local, Even on National Fake News Day

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Arizona Republican Jeff Flake took to the floor of the Senate to make a much-anticipated speech on the President’s attacks on the media.

Given that this speech occurred on the same day as Trump’s promised Fake News Awards, his words, as reported by Raw Story, are worth sharing.

“I rise today to talk about truth’s relationship to democracy,” Flake said.
The senator said that objective truth had been “battered” over the past year, with help from “the most powerful person in our government.”
“Mr. President, it is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Josef Stalin to describe his enemies,” he said. “It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase ‘enemy of the people,’ that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of ‘annihilating such individuals’ who disagreed with the supreme leader.” Flake added that “free press is the despot’s enemy.”
“No president will even have dominion over objective reality,” he continued, saying that Trump was “charting a very dangerous path” with his inability to withstand criticism. 2018 must be a year in which truth takes a stand.”

I don’t want to make too much of it–his disagreements with the administration, as evidenced by his voting record, are more about style than substance.   [Read more…]

Who Is Calling Whom a Terrorist? | Video Worth Watching

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Amy Goodman and Juan González of Democracy Now! interview Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors and journalist asha bandele on the release of their new book When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir.   [Read more…]

Issa Goes, Opposition Grows: Indivisible Ups the Ante in 49th and 50th Congressional Districts

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Indivisible groups and their coalition partners have announced plans to turn up the heat in San Diego’s Republican-held congressional districts in the wake of Rep. Darrell Issa’s decision not to run for re-election in the 49th District.

This week, rallies and marches in both the 49th and 50th districts will focus on the 2018 elections. Voters are gathering outside the office of Rep. Darrell Issa today to plan the next phase of work to Flip the 49th.

According to a press release, “the message to Rep. Hunter is that the united resistance is coming for your seat after you voted to raise our taxes. The message to Rep. Issa is that if you decide to run for Congress in CA50, the resistance will follow and defeat you there.”   [Read more…]

Behind the Bars – From Harvard to Homeless | Video Worth Watching

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From the Vimeo website:

Throughout the course of his life, poet Edward Smyth Jones faces an uphill battle through the oppression that the institutions of the world hold against men of his race. As the obstacles surmount and things begin to seem hopeless, he turns to the written word to find solace in his experience – finding meaning in his struggle and passing down the story of his life in order to teach future generations how to find comfort in a life hindered by inexplicable prejudices.

  [Read more…]

Public Schools Best Fulfill Dr. King’s “Purpose of Education”

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By Steven Singer / Common Dreams

What is the purpose of education?

Is it to train the next generation of workers?

Or is it to empower the next generation of citizens?

Is it to give children the skills necessary to meet the needs of business and industry?

Or is it to provide them the tools to self-actualize and become the best people they can be?
  [Read more…]

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – A Mini Bio | Video Worth Watching

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The Biography Channel’s Mini-Bio of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.   [Read more…]

One Down, One to Go OR Will Darrell Replace Duncan?

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It’s possible both the 49th and the 50th district Congressional seats could end up remaining Republican.

Messages of congratulations for people who’d persisted and protested outside Rep. Darrell Issa’s office for over a year rolled in from all over the country yesterday.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow noted “Now that he’s actually retiring, they’re celebrating by teaching other activists about what they did,” and shared a 15 tweet how-to thread from San Diego Indivisible.   [Read more…]

Who Is Stacey Abrams and Why Is She Running for Governor? | Video Worth Watching

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Full Frontal’s Ashley Nicole Black gets the scoop on Georgia House minority leader and gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Could she be the Shonda Rhimes character the DNC is looking for?   [Read more…]

D2 City Council Candidate Campbell Apologizes for ‘Fake Homeless’ Remarks Caught on Video

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Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your article in the San Diego Free Press.

My comments referenced were regrettable and off-the-cuff and I apologize. They do not reflect my values or my beliefs of what we must do to responsibly and effectively address homelessness. This is a multi-faceted, difficult issue and I must stay focused on the right paths forward. Our latest movement toward Housing First and Wrap Around Services through the work of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless must be held sacrosanct.

As a new candidate, I have learned that I need to choose my words more carefully. I vow to use this opportunity as a candidate to contribute to a better civic dialogue, focused on the right approaches.   [Read more…]

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