San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Why I’ve Become an Activist

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By Sadie Sullivan-Greiner / SanDiego350

When I talk about the danger climate change represents, some of my acquaintances say I’m reverting to adolescence (I protested the ‘dresses only’ policy at my high school, back in my younger days). Others say I’m just reverting to type.

I’ve spent most of my adult life involved with the military in one capacity or another. I’ve observed that as a general truth, the people who have to fight wars are not that eager to start them. I’ve also discovered that, in general, people become aggressive when they are either in fear of something or they are desperate for necessary resources.   [Read more…]

ACLU Criticizes City Council’s ‘Inexcusable Failure’ to Adopt Recommendations Addressing Biased Policing In Independent Study of SDPD Data

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After pleas from the public for action on Monday, the City Council did not seize the opportunity to be a leader in addressing racial profiling.

By Norma Chavez-Peterson, Executive Director / ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties

The majority of the San Diego City Council demonstrated an inexcusable failure in leadership yesterday [February 27] in their decision to accept the 2-year independent study of police traffic stop data, but disregard its recommendations.

The Council had before them the results of an SDSU study, requested by former Councilmember Marti Emerald in 2015 to address community concerns about racial profiling by San Diego Police Department officers, wherein researchers independently examined more than 200,000 records of police traffic stops over two years. Among their findings was clear evidence of racial disparity in what happens after a driver is stopped.   [Read more…]

Nuclear Shutdown News – February 2017

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Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry in the US and abroad, and highlights the efforts of those who are working for a nuclear free world. Here is out February 2017 report:

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

1. Fire and explosion at French nuclear plant.

Various media outlets reported that on February 9, a fire and explosion happened at the Flamanville nuclear plant, forcing the shutdown of one of its two reactors there. The nuke is located in Normandy on that country’s northwest coast, facing the English Channel.   [Read more…]

Subversive: How The Black Panthers Fed Kids For Free And Set A Model For The Government

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By Kelly Macias / Daily Kos

Last week, I wrote a story about how Republicans in Congress are trying to reform the free breakfast program in schools. This is not new. Republicans have been trying for quite some time to cut this and other similar programs like free lunch, citing concerns about fraud and wasted expenses. Of course, just like their claims of supposed “illegal voting” that needs to be stopped, they have no real evidence that fraud of this type exists.

If you look at their motives, this actually has nothing to do with waste and everything to do with the stigmatization of poverty.   [Read more…]

So Presidential You Shouldn’t Believe It

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President Donald Trump’s first address to a joint session of congress was everything his handlers hoped it would be. It was largely based on falsehoods or exaggerations, as fact checks from the Associated Press, the New York Times, and Politifact document, but couched in less threatening rhetoric.

He stayed on script, starting with things Democrats have a hard time opposing like being against hate crimes and for education, then moving to placate the base with Islamic terrorism horror stories and a new homeland security unit for the victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

Most importantly, Trump didn’t attack the media, giving them an opening to normalize the administration and acquire brownie points by saying things like the speech sounded ‘muscular,’ or the occasion marked (yet another) a ‘pivot point.’   [Read more…]

Making It Easier to Build Won’t Generate Affordable Housing

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By Murtaza Baxamusa / Rooflines, the Shelterforce blog

It is often convenient to blame city planners for the affordable housing crisis. After all, those affected have no other public forum to vent their concerns, least of all toward those who are profiting off of the crisis on a project-by-project basis. Sadly, this blame is often misguided, because planners do not produce housing.

A case study of the profit-maximizing, decision-making that is driving the affordability crisis is downtown San Diego. Construction cranes are up all over, and a $6.4 billion development juggernaut is rolling through. Nearly 10,000 new units have been permitted by the downtown planning board over the last four years, and the fast and generous permit approval process is cited as a model by developers for other regions.   [Read more…]

The Age Of Fear And Hiding In North County San Diego

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With increased actions by US Customs and Border Patrol in North San Diego County, residents return to a life of fear and hiding.

By Don Greene / djgreene.net

On February 20th, the Department of Homeland Security released two new memorandums for its agents. The memorandums increase the arbitrary authority of the agents in the field and reduce the rights of those who are arrested to almost zero. The ghost of immigration policies past is slowly creeping into our national dialogue once again. Though the Obama administration racked up a high tally of undocumented immigrants it deported, those who were deported were criminals or those who had deportation orders issued.

Over the last week, the Trump administration has begun a crackdown on undocumented immigrants of all sorts and those who had been able to come out of the shadows of fear and anxiety are quickly heading back to those all too familiar places. We have only begun to see what steps the current administration is willing to take to carry out campaign promises of “building a wall” and getting rid of some “bad hombres.”   [Read more…]

Amazon Go: The End of Jobs?

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Amazon Go is the latest job destroyer by virtue of the fact that it is a grocery store with no check-out lines. High tech devices will monitor every item you put in your high tech grocery basket so you just load up and go. Your credit card will be charged the correct amount. It isn’t clear if a robot will bag your groceries or if you’ll do that yourself. This feat of automation is only the harbinger of things to come. With artificial intelligence and robots, jobs will be automated out of existence except for a few software engineers who will design the various systems.

So far there is only one store open and that’s in Seattle, but soon … soon check-out cashiers can kiss their jobs good-bye. By the same token, truck drivers will be losing their jobs to self-driving trucks.   [Read more…]

Disdain for Human Rights “A Disease That’s Spreading,” Warns UN Chief

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Warning comes as Trump administration reportedly considers pulling out of UN Human Rights Council

By Nika Knight / Common Dreams

“Disregard for human rights is a disease, and it is a disease that is spreading,” warned United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a keynote address as the U.N. Human Rights Council (OHCHR) opened its main session on Monday.

“We are increasingly seeing the perverse phenomenon of populism and extremism feeding off each other in a frenzy of growing racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim hatred and other forms of intolerance,” Guterres said, referring to growing intolerance in the U.S. and Europe as far-right figures such as President Donald Trump gain power.   [Read more…]

‘Playing Politics’ and ‘School Choice:’ Code Words for Bigotry and Ignorance

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Republicans on the San Diego City Council united yesterday to oppose an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit before the United States Supreme Court involving the rights of transgender students.

The brief supports Gavin Grimm, a transgender student suing a county district in Virginia for the right to use public facilities, including boys bathrooms, in public schools.

Support came from the council’s five Democrats. Council members Chris Cate and Mark Kersey abstained. Lori Zapf simply didn’t show up. Republican Scott Sherman, who is termed out, voted to oppose the motion.   [Read more…]

Issa Walks Back Support for Special Prosecutor

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There’s some kind of a sick and nefarious game being played out on national politics right now. It’s called, “Special Prosecutor, Special Prosecutor, Who’s Got the Special Prosecutor?”

Even as Congressman Darrel Issa walked back part of his solitary Republican call for a special prosecutor to look into Trump’s ties to Russia, White House press spokesguy Sean Spicer, was denying the need for one and that it would all be a waste of time. When pressed by a reporter to respond to Issa’s call for a special investigator, at a news briefing Monday, Feb. 27, Spicer said:

“A special prosecutor for what?”   [Read more…]

Building a Network of Sanctuary Homes in San Diego

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By Dianne Lane

Two activists hosted a Sanctuary House Party/Teach-in at their home in Ocean Beach on Saturday, February 25.

The impetus for the event sprang from a “Teaching Positive Alternatives to Trump Teach-In” last month in Balboa Park. The aim is to build a San Diego network of sanctuary homes in resistance to Trump’s fascism and to corporate capitalism. Over the next few months, a series of neighborhood house parties throughout San Diego will help define and create this vital new network of hope and resistance. The goal is to form real connections during these social /educational events.   [Read more…]

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