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The Man Who Skipped Breakfast and Found a World of Love

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Charlie Chatman woke up one morning saying to himself, as he had for so many mornings, for eternities: “Lord, give me the strength to put up with these damn peckerwoods one more day.”

The only thing he cared about in his godforsaken life, on a Hawkinsville, Georgia sharecropping plantation, was breakfast, whatever it happened to be, cornbread and scraps of pork, a potato or two, a cup of milk (maybe) – or some stolen boiled corn that the pigs were fed.

Anything to sustain his body and spirit to stand up against the insults to his humanity he had to put up with each day. What kept him alive each day were his daydreams, simple imaginings: sleeping in a nice bed, walking leisurely down a country road, meeting Gabriel on Judgment Day.   [Read more…]

‘Ides of Trump’ Action Aims to Send More Mail Than White House Can Ignore

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By Nadia Prupis / Common Dreams

A new movement is aiming to mail at least 1 million postcards to President Donald Trump on Wednesday, March 15—historically dubbed “the Ides of March” and known as the day Julius Caesar was assassinated—to show “the man, the media, and the politicians how vast our numbers are…to make it irrefutable that the president’s claim of wide support is a farce.”

“He may draw a big crowd with empty promises, but the crowd of those that oppose his agenda is exponentially larger. And we will show up to protest, to vote, and to be heard. Again and again and again,” the group, which calls itself the Ides of Trump, explained on its website and Facebook page.   [Read more…]

Internal White House Analysis of Trumpcare: Even Worse Than CBO Predicted

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70% of those who gained insurance through the ACA will lose their insurance in the first year….

By Mark Sumner / Daily Kos

The Trump White House, in an effort to double-check the ugly numbers coming from the Congressional Budget Office, ran their own analysis to determine the results of the new healthcare bill. And just as they suspected, the CBO is wrong … because it’s worse.

The executive branch analysis forecast that 26 million people would lose coverage over the next decade, versus the 24 million CBO estimates. The White House has made efforts to discredit the forecasts from the nonpartisan CBO.   [Read more…]

Town Halls a la San Diego: Darrell Issa Deflects, Duncan Hunter Sings Off Key

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As town halls in San Diego featuring Representatives Darrell Issa, Duncan Hunter and Susan Davis drew big crowds and garnered national attention, the American Civil Liberties Union rolled out the inaugural event of People Power, with more than 2,200 events in cities coast-to-coast.

Women from all over the region at City College, supporters of Planned Parenthood in Vista, and Muslim youth at UCSD all participated in events responding to the policies and proclamations of the Trump administration. People in North Park filled out protest postcards to mail to the administration, a union local hosted a panel discussing the future of local activism, and health care advocates gathered in Mission Valley to discuss a path forward to a single payer system in California.

And the Huffington Post published what could be the ultimate cautionary tale for activists, pulling together threads about a social media disinformation campaign aimed at promoting divisions during the 2016 presidential campaign. San Diego activist John Mattes’ efforts to uncover the truth about the conspiracy news stories spread through Facebook pages seemingly favorable to candidate Bernie Sanders start off the story.

  [Read more…]

The “Freedom Cities” Campaign: Resistance Through Progress at the Local Level

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By Ronald Newman / Speak Freely ACLU

On Saturday night, people at more than 2,200 events around the nation tuned in for the inaugural event of People Power, a new platform harnessing nationwide grassroots resistance to the Trump administration’s assault on our Constitution and our values. At the event, we announced “Freedom Cities,” a campaign that provides a concrete plan for the People Power team to play offense in cities and towns across the country.   [Read more…]

Where’s The Love? Dehumanization, American Style

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The last time I saw Hunter S. Thompson speak before he died, he threw out a good line about how in the post-AIDS world, the New Right began to flourish because people were afraid to touch each other. And how Thompson mused, can we ever expect people to stand together in any other way when they are afraid to do that?

Now, years later, what seemed like a bit of insightful hyperbole appears to be backed up by social research.   [Read more…]

Wanna Resist Trump? Defeat Trumpcare.

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By Ian Reifowitz / Daily Kos

This is it. The battle over Trumpcare (and the fact that the White House doesn’t want you to call it that is all the more reason to do so) is the mother of all battles. If you want to resist Donald Trump, now is the time and this is the place. Progressives need to harness the energy demonstrated by the people who took to the streets—not to mention airports—to express their opposition to Trump’s agenda.

There are a lot of us. The Women’s March drew at least three times more people to Washington, DC—even though they were also held all over the country on the same day—than did the inauguration of popular vote loser Donald Trump. Counting all locations, the Women’s March appears to have been our country’s largest single-day protest ever. The long-term success of those marches will be measured in terms of increased engagement with the political process, because it is through politics—i.e., pressuring elected officials and, ultimately, winning elections—that progressives can stop Donald Trump right now.   [Read more…]

Progressive Calendar for San Diego Activists, March 10 – 21, 2017

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Wow. Here’s another calendar packed full of events for local activists. I’ve made some cosmetic changes this week, including icons to make events more recognizable.

So what will you do? Check out this week’s Progressive Calendar listings below. Following those listings are upcoming events of national importance, along with opportunities for organizational involvement and a few reading suggestions.

Get your event listed: I try to list the next 10 days or so of mostly non-commercial events I think our readers might find of interest. I source my material from social media listings and press releases.   [Read more…]

Local Democrats Have a Woman Problem

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I am afraid. And I am not the only one.

By Anonymous Is a Woman

A handful of Democratic women saw each other at the ADEM elections for the first time since the holidays. For some, it’s the first time they had come out for an event since the election. For others, this was their third event that weekend.

After a few minutes of small talk and “Holy-crap-the-world-is-ending” Trump commentary, the conversation becomes a bit more hushed when one of the women asked, “So what do you think about this Mickey Kasparian situation?”

Voices automatically lower.   [Read more…]

Darrell & Duncan Staging Saturday Town Halls in Oceanside & Ramona

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Persistence pays, I think the woman said. Two previously shy Congressmen have now scheduled forums where constituents will (maybe) have the opportunity to share their thoughts on the destruction of guardrails along the road towards Making America Great Again.

GOP Representative Darrell Issa made it official yesterday, pulling permits for a Saturday morning forum at Junior Seau Recreation Center in Oceanside. One hour sessions are scheduled for 8:30 & 10am, with reservations for residents of District 49 being accepted at Issa’s website starting at noon on Thursday.

Rep. Duncan Hunter’s town hall, announced on February 24, is also scheduled for Saturday, March 11. It is being held at the Ramona Mainstage, a venue best known as home for the local Tea Party affiliate. Doors are scheduled to open at 9:15; the Congressman will answer question cards collected from the audience in advance starting at 10am.   [Read more…]

Return of the Freewayblogger!

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By Freewayblogger / Daily Kos

How mad do you need to get? How many lies do you have delivered straight to your face by this administration? How long do you just sit there and take it?

I’ll be honest with you, if it wasn’t for a bizarre set of circumstances I’d never have started doing this. And if someone else had I’d think it was a great idea. I’d cheer them on, but I wouldn’t start doing it myself. Why? I don’t know. Same reasons most of you don’t I suppose: it’s too dangerous, I’d probably get caught, it’s just something I don’t do.   [Read more…]

Why the Only Way to Fix the Muslim Ban Is Not to Have a Muslim Ban

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The revised executive order has the same fundamental flaws. We’re going to keep fighting it.

By Cody Wofsy, Skadden Fellow, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project / ACLU San Diego & Imperial Counties

Today President Trump signed a new Muslim ban. The new executive order is a major retreat by the administration, reflecting that, as courts around the country have recognized, the original order was deeply flawed and totally unjustified. But the fundamental truth of this new order, like the old one, remains unchanged: The president promised to ban Muslims from the United States, and the ban is his attempt to make good on that unconstitutional and indefensible goal.   [Read more…]

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