San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

UPDATED: Arsonists Torch Office for ACCE Rent Control Activists

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A Chula Vista office for Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, a community organizing group closely involved with statewide and local recent recent control initiatives was torched early Saturday morning.

Police have confirmed the fire was a deliberate targeted attack. The fact that the arsonist(s) removed the organization’s bright yellow tee shirts from the building and torched them seperately was, no doubt, a convincing clue.

In recent months ACCE activists across California had been working to pass the statewide ballot measure Proposition 10. The San Diego branch of the organization also focused on a local rent control initiative, Measure W, for National City.   [Read more…]

Thinking of Walls That Could Be Walked Through

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The other night I went to a Border Angels event, in celebration of their years of honoring their creed: “Love Has No Borders,” leaving water, among the things that they do, to keep people from dying trying to cross deserts where awaiting them is a sun that shows no mercy.

It was so nice just sitting there among people who believe deeply in the idea of rights for all human beings.

I was as kickbacked as I could be through all the welcomings and honoring dignitaries and congratulating people who give of themselves tirelessly towards the making of a better world – sipping on a margarita that was mixed just right, not too sour, not to sweet, smiling broadly, one moment, while a beautiful woman with a beautiful voice sang a beautiful song. What could go wrong?   [Read more…]

Get To Know Your Changing Congressional Body | More Video Worth Watching

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The Stephen Colbert crew use the Public Service Announcement format to poke some fun at the current Congress. They note that “Your Congressional body is almost 240 years old now and it’s going through some changes … ”   [Read more…]

One Veteran’s Dream – Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘War In Reverse’ | More Video Worth Watching

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Kurt Vonnegut’s experience of surviving the fire-bombing of Dresden as a prisoner of war provided a fundamental component of the raw material for his novel “Slaughterhouse Five”. In this video Vonnegut reads a passage from the novel accompanied by remarkable imagery using archival footage in an unconventional way and suggests how Vonnegut may have longed for that history to have been rewritten.

(BTW, today, November 11th, is Vonnegut’s birthday. He would have been 96.)   [Read more…]

Armistice 11.11.1918 by Philip Wilby | Video Worth Watching

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From the Nidd Chorale YouTube web page:

Nidd Chorale commissioned this anthem from the renowned composer Philip Wilby, to commemorate the centenary of the ending of World War I. The words were specially written by choir member, and former Master of the Royal Armouries, Guy Wilson who has had much of his poetry set by Phil, including the choir’s last commission Spring Madrigals. The inspiration for the words came from soldiers’ letters written from the front to family members in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire where the choir is based.

  [Read more…]

Alice Coltrane – ‘Turiya And Ramakrishna’ | Video Worth Watching

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“Turiya and Ramakrishna” appears on the album Ptah, the El Daoud.   Wikipedia notes: The title track is named for an Egyptian god, Ptah, “the El Daoud” meaning “the beloved”. “Turiya”, according to the liner notes, “was defined by Coltrane as “a state of consciousness — the high state of Nirvana, the goal of human life”, […]

Triumph of the Lyin’ Kings: Deny, Deflect, Dismiss | Progressive Activist Calendar Mid-November, 2018

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A deceptively edited video –released by a conspiracy theorist associated with the crackpot site InfoWars– depicting the effort of a White House staffer to take a microphone away from CNN reporter Jim Acosta during an exchange with President Trump is being held up as the truth.

Multiple outlets consulted experts, who found the video shared by White House Press Secretary Sanders was sped up to exaggerate a hand movement by the CNN reporter, giving the impression it was more forceful than footage broadcast on CSPAN.

  [Read more…]

Finding My Voice | Geo-Poetic Spaces

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I found my voice
and it won’t be shutdown
iced over
stamped out
by bullets striking stones

My voice
can’t be invaded
bricked up
pulled under
by coyotes howling
walls   [Read more…]

Veterans to Set Up ‘Hometown Arlington West’ Memorial on Saturday

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By Gil Field / San Diego Veterans for Peace

On Saturday, November 10th, 2018 (Veterans Day), the San Diego Veterans For Peace will be setting up its respected “Hometown Arlington West Memorial” on the front lawn of the USS Midway Museum, 910 N. Harbor Drive, near the corner of Broadway, in downtown San Diego. Chapter veterans from all five services will be honoring our 300+ fallen brothers and sisters from Southern California who have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with special memorial markers. The public is asked to stop by, read their names, honor the ultimate sacrifice made by these local fallen veterans, and to reflect on the overall costs of these two ongoing wars.   [Read more…]

Are We Really a Divided Nation? Let’s Look at the Facts | Video Worth Watching

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From the MSNBC YouTube web page:

In a Special Report, Ari Melber breaks down how Democrats had a decisive victory in the 2018 midterm elections, winning more House seats than they have in 40 years. Melber examines the myth of divided Government and shows how Americans have not been going back-and-forth in deciding which party should win the White House, but have in fact, by popular vote, preferred a Democrat for President in 6 of the last 7 Presidential races.

  [Read more…]

#ProtectMueller Protests Take Place in San Diego and Hundreds of Cities Nationwide | Photos

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President Trump’s post-election purge at the Justice Department triggered demonstrations on Thursday in hundreds of cities around the country.

Months ago, the Nobody Is Above The Law coalition set up an emergency action plan should the administration fire Special Counsel Bob Mueller or otherwise impede the investigation.

  [Read more…]

Democrats Won Some House Seats, Diversity Won the Election | 2018 Midterms

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It’s taken taken a day or so for me to digest the results of the midterm elections. Many races are undecided, still. Contests in Florida and Georgia are plagued with accusations of foul play, missing ballots, and just plain old voter suppression. We won’t know for sure about California contests for weeks, with as many as one million votes still uncounted.

I suppose we’ll be expected to believe racism has nothing to do with Georgia’s non-functioning voting machines in black precincts, and the discovery one day after the election of 700 still-wrapped voting machines in a nearby warehouse.

And, hey, did anybody notice how the MIGRANT CARAVAN disappeared off the media’s radar yesterday? The Pentagon has now directed U.S. military commanders to stop calling the deployment of active-duty troops to the southern border “Operation Faithful Patriot.” I guess you can tell grampy to stop worrying about brown people burrowing up into the basement.   [Read more…]

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