San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

You are here: Home / Archives for Politics

Are Carlsbad’s Good Old Boys Losing their Grip?

by

According to the city’s 2016 survey, only one in four Carlsbad residents are “very confident” that their city leaders will make the right decisions for them. That’s down from one in three in 2014. Overall, the share of residents who have confidence in city government dropped from 84 percent to 74 percent in the last two years.

The level of satisfaction varies by ZIP Code. North Carlsbad residents (92008 coastal and 92010 inland) were almost twice as likely to lack confidence in city leadership (27% and 36%) than those living in South Carlsbad (92011 coastal: 17 percent and 92009 inland: 15 percent).

It’s a tale of two cities.   [Read more…]

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: A Story about Extremism and Complacency

by

By Doctor RJ / Daily Kos

I am a man. I state this because my perspective on what it means to be a woman within our society is limited in some ways. However, from the outside looking in, it’s been my observation that most women are forced to walk a very narrow balance when it comes to public perceptions, which is fundamentally unfair and contributes to some of the glass ceilings.

For example, in almost all respects of life, confidence and strength are character traits people respond to—whether it’s a leader outlining a plan of action, or someone trying to sell their attraction in order to get a date. But for women, show too much strength and get called a bitch, or act too nice and be regarded as weak.   [Read more…]

Collapse: Against ‘Fierce Democratic Opposition’ Trump Surrenders on Funding for His Wall

by

By Mark Sumner / Daily Kos

Donald Trump still insists that Mexico is going to pay for the border wall. Except Mexico stubbornly refuses to send an up-front check for something that would cost as much as their national budget, is designed to wreck their economy, and is basically the world’s biggest and “most beautiful” screw-you. So until Trump figures out exactly how to get Mexico to shell out for a giant slap in the face, there’s the problem of finding that money in your pocket.

Last week Trump budget director, and chief torturer of both reason and common decency, Mick Mulvaney, proposed that Trump might let slip a dollar worth of health care for every dollar that Democrats provided for hate concrete. Mulvaney insisted that the Wall was a must-have, take-it-or-leave-it item, but his healthcare for hardware exchange was not exactly a deal anyone rushed to embrace.

As it turns out, there was no need to, because faced with the idea of hitting a government shutdown on Day 99 of his regime, Donald Trump appears ready to fold like a gaudy gold napkin in the Mar-a-lago dining and strategic planning room.   [Read more…]

The Inevitability of Universal Health Care

by

By Bill Adams

Universal health care in the U.S. is inevitable. It’s inevitable as long as this country remains among the league of economically developed countries.  This inevitability stems from the answer to the fundamental moral question: Do all persons, regardless of wealth, deserve medical treatment? This question is essentially a rhetorical question.

The only acceptable answer in a modern civilized country is “yes.”  Yet, the barbaric U.S. health care system tolerates the death of thousands of people per year attributable to lack of health coverage.  Even after the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA” aka “ObamaCare”) in 2010, millions remain uninsured or under-insured leading to fatal delay or avoidance in obtaining treatment for treatable and curable illnesses.

The U.S. lags all countries that provide universal health care in every major measurement of health and curing illnesses.  Ironically, the U.S. consumer who can afford health insurance receives no benefit for this bloodletting.  U.S. health care is the World’s most costly but provides only average medical results – even for those who can afford it.   [Read more…]

Attention, Please: We Can Guarantee Healthcare for All Californians

by

By Deborah Burger / Common Dreams

With continued uncertainty in Washington over the fate of the Affordable Care Act, California has a unique role to play in charting a new path on health care reform – legislation that would guarantee coverage for all Californians, at much lower cost.

SB 562, the Healthy California Act, introduced by state Senators Ricardo Lara and Toni Atkins, with the California Nurses Association as lead proponent, will receive its first legislative hearing Wednesday, April 26 before the Senate Health Committee.

Excitement over the proposed law is already escalating around the state. Scores of nurses and healthcare activists have held multiple town halls, rallies, marches, and engaged in conventional lobbying including neighborhood canvassing and calls to legislators.   [Read more…]

Beyond the ‘Golden Gulag’: Film Screening and Panel Discussion at SDSU to Focus on Prison Abolition

by

By Lydia P. Wood and James K. Anderson

Author and prison abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore coined the term “Golden Gulag” in her 2007 book by the same name to label and critique what, despite destroying lives, has become a disturbingly normal way of life in the “Golden State” of California.

“I called my book ‘Golden Gulag,’” Gilmore says in the documentary film, “Visions of Abolition: From Critical Resistance to a New Way of Life,” “in order to resonate with the images of totalitarian state incarceration … to emphasize that the ‘gulag’ is not simply a building with cages in it, but it is an entire way of life, an entire way of political and social and economic life. It extends from the places where prisoners come from to the places where prisons are built.   [Read more…]

Ghoulishness Envelops Arkansas’ Mass Execution Schedule

by

Ghoulishness envelops Arkansas’ decision to pump deadly drugs into eight men over the next fortnight. Although two of the eight scheduled executions have definitively been stayed — and judges have issued orders halting the remaining six — the state has been vigorously appealing these roadblocks.

Articles about “midazolam,” the drug whose expiration date prompted Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson to schedule this unprecedented mass execution are abuzz on the internet and social media. By this point many Americans have heard or are generally aware that while midazolam is supposed to render the condemned unconscious and insensate, it has been linked to a number of gruesome and botched executions in the United States.   [Read more…]

Democrats Have Uphill Battle in ’18 and Need to Elect Governors to Fight Gerrymandered GOP Monopoly

by

The Dems failed so badly during the Obama years, it may be a long time before they break the GOP lock in many states

By Steven Rosenfeld / AlterNet

Since President Donald Trump and the GOP-led Congress took office, Democrats are taking to the streets to defend women’s rights, immigrants and Obamacare, and thousands are contacting party officials and progressive groups to explore running for state and federal office in 2018. But do these would-be candidates, fired-up grassroots groups and energized party officials know how steep and difficult their climb back into power will be?

Yes, say the party organizers who assure skeptics they’re paying attention to the electoral nuts and bolts in a way not seen during a Democratic presidency when they lost nearly 1,000 state legislative and House seats.   [Read more…]

Democratic Momentum in Georgia Race Signals Shifting Electoral Tide

by

In Georgia’s special election contest, Jon Ossoff continues to gain ground, putting the GOP on the offensive in other local contests

By Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams

In the closely-watched race for Georgia’s sixth district, said to be the first test of whether backlash against President Donald Trump will propel Democratic candidates to seize traditionally conservative seats, documentary filmmaker Jon Ossoff continues to gain ground, putting the GOP on the offensive in other pivotal local contests.

After 10 days of early voting for Georgia’s special election to fill the House of Representatives seat vacated by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Democratic voters substantially outpaced Republicans, New York Times’ Upshot reporter Nate Cohn observed this weekend.   [Read more…]

America’s Abortion Divide

by

Deborah Klugman / Capital & Main

Produced and directed by Tracy Droz Tragos, the HBO documentary Abortion: Stories Women Tell shares the experiences of women living in the Bible Belt and coping with unplanned pregnancies. The film is unlikely to change the thinking of firm believers on either side of the issue, but for viewers whose opinions waiver, who are unsure of the morality of abortion or are unclear about the motives behind it, the film will be educational and illuminating.

Tragos grounds her documentary in her home state of Missouri, where one abortion clinic serves the entire state. While Missouri has some of the most draconian restrictions in the nation, it’s hardly alone in limiting abortion access. Since the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973, over half the states have enacted some form of restriction.   [Read more…]

Will 2018 Election End Carlsbad Cronyism?

by

There’s a sign that “times they are a-changin” in North County’s little Village by the Sea after Cori Schumacher was elected to the Carlsbad City Council in November. A leading activist in the successful campaign to stop a billionaire LA developer from despoiling the natural beauty of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon, Schumacher has already established a new model for a council member’s responsibilities.

In the absence of a job description, Schumacher has written her own. Her newsletter to constituents within days of each meeting describes the issues that were up for a vote, gives background from her research on each, and explains her support or opposition. She hosts town hall meetings to invite feedback on the issues, as well as her decisions.   [Read more…]

No. 45, in the Locker Room

by

Believe me, we’re all Donald Trump. It’s true. He’s like us. You can take that to the bank. I wouldn’t be saying this if I didn’t know it’s true, about you and about me.

Let me give you a for instance.   [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry