San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Compassion as a Radical Act

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By Dave Patterson / Vets for Peace

On a cold night in January I joined Stan Levin and Gil Field delivering sleeping bags to the San Diego homeless, what we call the compassion campaign. Dealing directly with the homeless is painful because there they are in our faces with their cold, hunger and suffering laid bare. What’s surprising is the number of people with just a thin blanket that will decline a sleeping bag because others nearby need it more. How ironic that people with nothing can have more compassion than those of us with plenty.   [Read more…]

PETITION: Use Qualcomm Stadium Parking Lot as a SafePark-Camp for the Homeless

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By Women Occupy San Diego

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer touts the 640 of 3000 miles of City street repaired during his 32 months in office. Good for you, Mr. Mayor, this shows you can accomplish something when you set your mind to it.

NEXT UP: Get people made homeless by the past 6 years’ replacement of 10,000 units of affordable housing by market-rate housing, vacation rentals, hotels, offices and retail OFF THESE STREETS.   [Read more…]

Trump Executive Order Vandalizes Obamacare

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While the press obsesses over Alt-Truths (the same kinds of lies being told all along), the deconstructing of the United States safety net has begun.

Our thin-skinned President has busied himself between tantrums by signing executive orders inspired by likes of the Heritage Foundation, which has long held that our national wealth would be better served if it were in the pockets of the very wealthy.

First up will be the elimination of government spending on anything other than national security and corporate welfare. Second up will be privatized replacements for programs deemed irreplaceable wrapped in the swaddling of alternative truths about how beneficial this will be.   [Read more…]

40,000 San Diegans at Women’s March – Photo Gallery

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with additional photos by Lisa Mix, Judith & Wayne Starker, Patty Jones, Byron Morton, Linda Taggert

January 21, 2017, was a historic day in San Diego – and around the nation and world – with the Women’s March.  According to San Diego Police, the crowd in downtown San Diego at the rallies and the march down Broadway was 40,000 women, men, and children of all ages and all hues.

It was definitely one of the largest demonstrations in San Diego’s history – matched probably by the huge immigration march of nearly a decade ago.

Here are photos from yesterday’s march – taken by this reporter and by a number of friends who sent them to us.   [Read more…]

The Final Assault on Public Education is On in Earnest

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During the halcyon days of the Trump transition period, the Education Committee confirmation hearing of Betsy DeVos stood out as perhaps the most jarring example of the craven cynicism that defines the new regime.

The headlines said it all, with nearly every major media outlet noting DeVos’s scant qualifications and terrible performance with extreme skepticism. The New York Times expressed “Big Worries About Betsy DeVos” while the New Yorker outlined “Betsy DeVos and the Plan to Break Public Schools.” Over at the Washington Post, they wrote “Six Astonishing Things Betsy DeVos Said—and Refused to Say—at her Confirmation Hearing” as Esquire opined that “The Betsy DeVos Hearing Was an Insult to Democracy.” The Los Angeles Times editorial, “Betsy DeVos Embarassed Herself and Should Be Rejected by the Senate” pithily observed that “what disqualifies her is her lack of understanding of existing law and policy, and her inability to address them thoughtfully.”

But, of course, the new leader of the free world was undaunted by all of this as he signed a stack of executive orders, one of which was his formal nomination of DeVos for Secretary of Education, saying simply, “Ah Betsy, Education. Right?”   [Read more…]

‘I Am Not Your Negro’ Will Introduce James Baldwin to a New Generation

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By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos

There are voices we all need to hear. At a time when the United States is once again faced with our chilling legacy of racism and other ills including sexism, homophobia, and economic inequality, one of the most powerful voices from our recent past is speaking out again through the medium of documentary film.

It is the voice of James Baldwin. The film, I Am Not Your Negro, will be opening in movie theaters on Feb. 3.   [Read more…]

North County San Diego Women’s March Surprises Organizers

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Organizers of the North County San Diego Women’s March believed. As part of a nationwide effort of ‘Sister Marches’ to the Washington DC Women’s March, they created a local event for those who wouldn’t be able to attend other events due to reasons such as immigration status, transportation issues, or poverty.

North County San Diego has in the past not been very friendly for demonstrations or political activism with a progressive bent, but things are changing. Down ballot elected positions are becoming more diverse. The once invincible Congressman Darrell Issa had to struggle to get reelected this year, and challenger Doug Applegate is already building a campaign for 2018.

Organizers for the event, which started at San Marcos City Hall and ended at Palomar College, hoped for 2500 attendees. Heavy rains the day before and showers predicted for the day of the event didn’t dissuade them. Their faith was rewarded.   [Read more…]

Creativity, Solidarity Mark San Diego Women’s March

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I’ve been to a few demonstrations in my day: Los Angeles, Berkeley, Madison, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Washington DC, but mostly in San Diego. (Hey, I’m a child of the sixties!) And Saturday’s Women’s March through downtown takes the cake for the unity and overwhelmingly positive energy I felt.

I know more than a few people in San Diego’s activist circles and saw almost nobody I knew. That’s when I knew something really big was going on. Another clue was that the cellular networks couldn’t keep up.

The best part was the absence of any sense of personal alienation, despite being surrounded by a crowd of strangers. We were one. People were polite and caring. Strangers weren’t quite so strange. For a few hours we were wrapped in a cocoon of solidarity.   [Read more…]

Who Are You Going to Believe? Trump, Truth, Citizens and the Press

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The unveiling of the Ministry of Truth

There are 1,457 days left in the Trump presidency, assuming that he doesn’t get bored and quit, is impeached or that the skies rain glass upon us all.

Trump’s inaugural address “(Liberal) Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” made it clear that he is only interested in his adoring base–the 46% of the voting public who narrowly installed him in the White House. The strategy among his handlers is clearly to let Trump be Trump while they roll up their sleeves and dismantle our democratic institutions.

The massive Women’s March in Washington on the first day of the Trump presidency was successful on many levels, not the least of which is that it got under Trump’s thin skin–bigly. The half million or so people who showed up were not Trump’s adoring base.   [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: Jan 15-21

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This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week features articles, commentaries, columns, toons, and other work by San Diego Free Press regulars, irregulars, columnists, at-large contributors, cartoonists, and sourced writers on: the end of the world as we know it AKA Trump’s inauguration, the protests, the Women’s March, the community campaign against Kasparian, ethically challenged Repugs, rising up, MLK, dissent, the Chicano perspective of Trump, free college in NY, and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s friendly, neighborhood, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

Women’s March San Diego: Somewhere Near Sanity

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At 9:30 the No. 7 bus driver stopped for us even though he’d lighted the “Out of Service” banner. He told us with a smile “room for two more.” Passengers were butt to butt and belly to belly. A woman said she loved my hat: I’d cut out the letter N and O, for NO, and taped them to the red baseball cap I hadn’t been wearing lately out of fear I’d be considered a TrumpLump.

By the time we’d arrived at Broadway at the 12th Ave. Transit Center crowds on foot were already heading toward the Civic Center. Cars and buses could only inch along beleaguered Broadway. So we jumped off the bus at 4th Ave. and headed north to B St.

We went over chains at parking lots, and squeezed through 5-inch gaps between walls and fence posts in order to get closer to the main crowd — we were probably 200 or 300 feet from the speakers’ stand. We couldn’t see them, so it’s impossible to say how far away we were from the center. Looking south on 2nd Ave. we could see the crowd on Broadway couldn’t move.   [Read more…]

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