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Will District Elections Loosen the Grip of Carlsbad’s Old Guard?

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Two years ago Carlsbad’s city Council voted unanimously to let a billionaire Los Angeles developer bring a traffic-laden supermall nightmare to the unsullied shores of the city’s Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

The Council could have allowed 30 days for citizen feedback before approving the project, or schedule a special election to determine its fate. But all five council members chose to ignore the pleas of outspoken opponents at the Aug. 25, 2015, council meeting. Mayor Matt Hall claimed naysayers were led by outside interests.

He was wrong. Citizen action launched an initiative drive leading to the defeat of Measure A, a special election that stopped the developer in his tracks, wrangled an apology from the mayor, and replaced a hapless council member with the election of Cori Schumacher, a leader in the “No on A” campaign.

Fast-forward to this year’s May 9 meeting, where city leaders, on a 3-to-2 vote, bowed to the threat of a lawsuit charging the city with violating the California Voting Rights Act with its at-large elections.   [Read more…]

NAACP Issues Travel Advisory For Missouri | Video Worth Watching

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We’ve all heard about travel advisories issued by our State Department for U.S. citizens planning to travel abroad, but this NAACP advisory is truly a first. To be clear, this is not a directive that tells folks not to go to Missouri. This is a warning that if you are a minority and for some reason you find that you will be traveling through Missouri, there are safety concerns and risks that you need to be aware of. Check out this coverage by Charles P. Pierce at Esquire and Nancy Coleman at CNN for more details on the trajectory of the issuing of this advisory. A clue to the nature of the situation can be found in the the state attorney general’s annual report where it is documented that black drivers were stopped by police at a rate 75% higher than white drivers. Got bail?   [Read more…]

Meet the Democrats Vying for Rep. Duncan Hunter’s Job – Part Two

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By Rick Mercurio / Alianza North County

This is the second of a two part series highlighting Democratic challengers in the 50th Congressional District. Last week we featured three of the six candidates.

With the primary election less than a year away, six motivated Democrats are maneuvering to gather support from the party faithful — as well as disenchanted Independents and Republicans — all with the aim of challenging Duncan Hunter, the embattled GOP incumbent in the 50th Congressional District.

Democrats vying in the 2018 primary are Glenn Jensen, Pierre Beauregard, Gloria Chadwick, Josh Butner, Ammar Campa-Najjar, and Malloy. This week Butner, Campa-Najjar, and Mally are interviewed.   [Read more…]

Sex and the Evangelical Republican

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The Republicans seemed always to have maintained the fiction that all of them live in one big uprighteous tent.  Donald Trump, alone above public figures, has proved that even the Republicans can’t restore credit to that myth.

It took someone as outrageous as Trump to bring down this shibboleth.  Somehow, for some reason, they survived their own fetid combination of industrial-strength exploitation of working people with imagery of their own responsible, sober natures.  All this survived until the mixture became impossibly hypocritical.

Republicans began to curdle after Ronald Reagan left his lifeguard gig in the White House. Something about his aw-shucks self rang untrue.  He made patriotic training films about war and John Wayne made Hollywood films about it.  Neither of them joined the fight; both were Republicans.   [Read more…]

SANDAG’s American Values Problem

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A tweet from Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez pushed me over the edge on the subject of SANDAG, regional planning organization for San Diego County.

Gonzalez was responding to a statement from El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells at an SANDAG board meeting last week seemingly questioning her origins and, by implication, her citizenship.

A further communication between the Assemblywoman and the Mayor, also posted on twitter, clarified his intention: to say she was somehow against “American values.”   [Read more…]

Trump Explained: Master of Metaphor or Reality TV Star? | Video Worth Watching

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Master of Metaphor or Reality TV star? Dessert topping or floor wax? Or both? Two, two, two things in one!! Ari Melber speaks with George Lakoff (metaphors) and Michael Hirschorn (reality TV) on The Beat.   [Read more…]

I’m Not a Patriot

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I’m not a patriot. I’m just a citizen.

A citizen who pays taxes on time, and watches out for people attempting to cross busy streets by way of blinking crosswalks placed as memorials to those once killed by a sports sedan driven by someone in a hurry.

I haven’t been a patriot for a very long time. Not since Vietnam, when a leading general was caught in the crosshairs of a confusion so profound that he actually said:

In order to save the village we had to destroy it.

Who benefited from that transparent oddity?  Certainly not the general, for he unintentionally revealed the damage our patriotic vainglory does to common sense.  Long ago sense was made uncommon so that money could be made instead.   [Read more…]

Meet the Democrats Vying to Unseat Rep. Duncan Hunter – Part One

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By Rick Mercurio / Alianza

With the primary election less than a year away, six motivated Democrats are maneuvering to gather support from the party faithful — as well as disenchanted Independents and Republicans — all with the aim of challenging Duncan Hunter, the embattled GOP incumbent in the 50th Congressional District.

Hunter’s latest hurdle came in March when the Justice Department announced an investigation into possible campaign violations. That comes on top of earlier allegations into Hunter improperly using thousands of dollars in campaign funds for personal use, prompting an investigation by the House Ethics Panel. The investigation was recently turned over to the FBI.   [Read more…]

Everything Old Is New Again | Video Worth Watching

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[NSFW: language]
Everything old is new again. A cabinet embroiled in illegal/improper activities. A Department of Justice fixated on swelling the prison population and against street crime—provided that street isn’t Wall Street. An FCC attempting to strip away protections from public communication outlets. An administration that claims to not want to be on your back—just in your womb. Religious institutions that want to be exempt from civil responsibilities. For Moral Majority substitute Evangelicals; for cocaine substitute medical marijuana. George Carlin, circa 1990, or today?
And yes, George’s language can get quite raw. Not for tender ears.   [Read more…]

You Don’t Want to Look In There … | Video Worth Watching

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According to the New York Times, “Asked if Mr. Mueller’s investigation would cross a red line if it expanded to look at his family’s finances beyond any relationship to Russia, Mr. Trump said, ‘I would say yes.’ ” As Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post quipped on last night’s MSNBC “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams”, that part of the interview “was like being pulled over by a cop and saying ‘Fine officer, whatever you say, but whatever you do, don’t look in the trunk.’ ” Here’s Parnell from “Repo Man” warning a trooper that “You don’t wanna look in there.”   [Read more…]

Ayn Rand – How is She Still a Thing? | Video Worth Watching

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Much of the discussion regarding recent efforts in Congress to pass the latest tax cut, er, I mean health care legislation, <sarcasm> for some reason </sarcasm> puts me in mind of the late Ayn Rand. As I’m also a big fan of the “Last Week Tonight” show, I now draw upon them to help me convey my exasperation and incredulity that somehow she is still a thing.   [Read more…]

Politics Against the People: The Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2017

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By Lindsey Pasieka

I used to tell people, “I don’t care about politics. I don’t know enough to have a discussion about it.”

I felt almost proud that it didn’t matter to me. I didn’t have to argue with people about economics and laws, and I could sit quietly, unfazed by the 2 a.m. rantings of friends who knew more. I felt safe, confident in what our country stood for, where it was going, and that it was all going to be okay.

I don’t feel that way anymore.   [Read more…]

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