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Republicans Plan to Continue Looting

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Having engineered what may be the biggest upward transfer of wealth in US history, Republicans are coming after the crumbs left on the table. They are optimistic about reconciling the House and Senate bills in conference committee and anxious to move on dismantling the social safety net. 

They see no irony in saying ‘reforms’ must be made to food stamps, Medicare, and social security to reduce America’s deficit after crafting legislation exploding that same deficit by more than a billion dollars over the next decade.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) went on talk radio this week to say congressional Republicans will aim next year to reduce spending on both federal health care and anti-poverty programs.   [Read more…]

Time to Escalate? First-Ever Rights of Nature Lawsuit Dismissed

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By Will Falk

Our first-in-the-nation lawsuit seeking personhood for the Colorado River was dismissed. After the Colorado Attorney General filed a motion to dismiss and threatened sanctions against attorney Jason Flores-Williams for the unforgivable act of requesting rights for nature, Flores-Williams withdrew our case.

When I agreed to serve as a next friend, or guardian, of the Colorado River, I saw the opportunity as a win-win. Either, we would win the lawsuit and the Colorado River would gain a powerful new legal tool to protect herself. Or, the lawsuit would be defeated proving that the American legal system privileges corporate rights to destroy the natural world over the natural world’s right to exist.

I knew it was highly unlikely that corporations, the courts, and the Colorado Attorney General would let rights of nature gain traction in American law. I wanted to be there, when the case failed, to remind everyone who invested hope in our cause that lawsuits are not the only way change is made.

I do not want this essay to come off like I am saying “I told you so.” I am heartbroken. A small part of me clung to the hope that Flores-Williams could resist the threats, that the Colorado Attorney General would, at least, litigate the case on the merits, and that the legal system would do the right thing. This hope, of course, was misguided.   [Read more…]

Feeling Hope for a Better World in the Middle of My Pain

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Seeing Robert Mueller hover over Donald J. Trump like a starving owl gliding in the winds above its soon to be swooped up prey – well that kind of makes my day.

And the way I’ve being feeling lately, with my daughter having passed away, I appreciate any little chuckle that comes my way.

Now, I don’t usually like to laugh at somebody else’s expense, at somebody else’s pain, as that goes against the grain of my nature.

But this man has touched emotions in me I didn’t even know I had. I mean one day I’m listening to somebody on MSNBC or CNN describe one of his daily shenanigans and I find myself jumping up on my feet yelling out loud “Why doesn’t somebody off that sick-jive–ass mother____r!”

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Readers Write: ‘Non-Partisan’ Forum Slanted for GOP Candidate in District Attorney Race

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By Terrie Best / OB Rag

While following local politics I was surprised to find intelligent people right here in urban San Diego who will vote against their own interests. This particular anomaly is one I’d long ago set aside for white people in the rural south – the ones who are in bad need of dental check-ups but nevertheless want Obama Care repealed.

When I hear of communities targeted by law enforcement, I assume their leaders will be savvy enough to seek out and oppose the perpetrators of racist practices in the justice system.

Recently, what I saw in the name of party line politics is folks actually stacking the deck against those who would make life better for people of color and therefore, all of us. This show of self-sabotage was carried out all while pretending to lead without bias.

I’m talking about the Latino American Political Association, which hosted the District Attorney Forum last week and afterward endorsed Republican Summer more-of-the-same Stephan. LAPA also disregarded the public who were only trying to do what LAPA was offering: to learn more about the two DA candidates at the forum.   [Read more…]

Facebook Minions, Greedy Old Perverts, and the War on Women

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There Is No #NotMe Here

Yesterday I learned to be careful about writing the lede and headline for a story tackling the subject of misogyny. Alex Zaragoza at City Beat wrote something about all men having a degree of complicity in sexism and its more extreme manifestations and was silenced for doing so.

It didn’t take long for Facebook’s content moderation team to remove the article from City Beat’s social media postings. It seems as though the headline “Dear Dudes, You’re All Trash” infringes on the rights of white men, who are considered a protected group on the platform, according to a six-month-old ProPublica investigation.   [Read more…]

Taxing Our Democracy: The GOP Plan is Part of a Larger Assault on Democratic Institutions

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Back during the halcyon days of the Obama administration, political scientists Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin I. Page of Northwestern University published a seminal study on American democracy that illustrated that:

Despite the seemingly strong empirical support in previous studies for theories of majoritarian democracy, our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America’s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened.

This threat to our democracy was the product of the fact that, according to Gilens and Page, “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.”   [Read more…]

Who Can You Trust Most Not To Show Their Penis In A Professional Setting? | Video Worth Watching

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When confronted with the question of whether Michigan can afford to have an all woman slate, Dana Nessel in her campaign for the state’s Attorney General position, pushes back by asking if it can afford NOT to.   [Read more…]

Carr, Geraci Believe a Democrat Can Top Waldron in the 75th Assembly District

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By Rick Mercurio / Alianza North County

Two democrats are gearing up to challenge incumbent republican Marie Waldron next year for the 75th Assembly district, which has traditionally been a safe seat for conservatives. Waldron is currently serving as the Assembly’s minority floor leader and is in her third two-year term after serving 14 years on the Escondido city council.

Eric Carr and Alan Geraci hope to harness the political activism that has been sweeping the nation, including North County, and turn that energy into an electoral upset.
The 75th encompasses Escondido, San Marcos, Valley Center, Fallbrook and southern Riverside County.   [Read more…]

County Sheriff Race Heats Up As Incumbent Gore’s Workplace Retaliation Revealed

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Candidate for San Diego County Sheriff Dave Myers has decided that having his office relocated to a broom closet just might constitute workplace harassment.

He issued a statement today denouncing incumbent San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore, calling attention to what he described as retaliatory actions since declaring as a candidate for the County’s top law enforcement post in the 2018 election.

Myers has served in the Sheriff’s office for 32 of his 34 years in law enforcement and is running a campaign based on the need for substantial reforms in the department.   [Read more…]

Duncan Hunter Vapes While Opponents Organize

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By DWeisman/Escondido Grapevine

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-50th Congressional District) has been a walking horror show for years, and generations if one harkens back to his dad from whom he “inherited” the once-safe Republican congressional seat.

Hunter and his mentor, President Trump, actually have a lot in common. They’re blowhards. They’re caught somewhere between ineffective and impotent. They shill. They lie. They’re under federal investigation and probable indictment.

Every day Trump says and does horrible and disconcerting stuff. Monday, it was Pocahontas slurs in front of Navajo code talkers and a portrait of Indian-killer Andrew Jackson, along with the appointment of a guy who wants to destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as its director.

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Republican Tax Bill Paves Way for the Destruction of Social Security, Medicare, and Safety Net

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By Joan McCarter / Daily Kos

Take it from a Republican, not just any Republican but a domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department in the Bush 41 White House. The fix is in with this Republican tax bill that spikes the deficit.
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Issa Report: Bogus IRS ‘Scandal’ Ends in a Whimper, Payday Lenders Fund Campaigns

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Reposted from Escondido Grapevine

Republicans claimed the IRS served as an attack dog for the Obama White House. But inquiries by the House Ways and Means Committee, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and the Justice Department all failed to produce evidence of political interference.

Since at least 2014, Issa has been taking in tens of thousands of dollars from the predatory “payday” lenders industry and, in turn, advocated for their interests.   [Read more…]

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