San Diego Free Press

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From Mission to Microchip: An Interview with California Labor Historian Fred Glass. Part 3

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It seems like a million years ago now, but back in my Labor Day column, I gave a shout out to Fred Glass’s seminal new labor history of California, From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement.

To learn more about this story and what about it is most important, I am pleased to present the third and final installment of my three-part interview with Fred Glass, author, teacher, union member, and long-time Communications Director for the California Federation of Teachers.

The entirety of this interview was conducted before the election which brought disastrous news for the American labor movement that will surely be dealing with a multiple-front assault from the Trump administration and an unchecked Republican Congress bent on imposing right to work nationally, overturning Obama’s pro-labor executive orders, threatening the very existence of public sector unions in particular, and stacking the Supreme Court with anti-labor judges for a generation. In light of this dire outcome, I contacted Fred to see what he thought of labor’s chances of surviving the onslaught in California. The interview ends with that answer.   [Read more…]

Indigenous Resolve ‘Stronger Than Ever’ as Feds Order DAPL Protest Camp Shut Down

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By Deirdre Fulton / Common Dreams

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Friday informed Indigenous water protectors and their allies that they have nine days to vacate the main Dakota Access Pipeline protest camp—or else face arrest.

“This decision is necessary to protect the general public from the violent confrontation between protestors and law enforcement officials that have occurred in this area, and to prevent death, illness, or serious injury to inhabitants of encampments due to the harsh North Dakota winter conditions,” Col. John Henderson of the Corps said in a letter to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe chairman Dave Archambault II.

The Oceti Sakowin camp, on the banks of the Cannonball River, will be closed Monday, December 5, the letter warned. Any individuals found on Army land north of the river after that date would be considered trespassing and could be prosecuted.   [Read more…]

Pay More and Get Less: The Ryan Plan to Privatize Medicare

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By David Akadjian / Daily Kos

One of the fights likely to come up early during the next administration is privatizing Medicare.

Tom Price, chairman of the House Budget Committee, has indicated Republicans will try to privatize Medicare in a budget reconciliation bill (a sneaky filibuster proof attack).

You’re going to hear a lot about “choice” and “efficiency” and the amazingness of markets, but Ryan’s plan basically comes down to two things: 1) you will pay more, and 2) you will get less.   [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: November 20-26

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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, and sourced writers on: County Sup contest, anti-Trump groups, SD activists mobilizing, the end of the world, Standing Rock, Gregory Canyon, angst to action on climate change, the internet of things, unmet housing needs, and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s friendly, neighborhood, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

Reader’s Write: San Diego’s Unmet Housing Needs of 32,275 Units

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By Rev. Richard Lawrence

It is a huge mistake for the Union Tribune to throw rocks at the glass house in Sacramento, as it has recently done, while ignoring our local shrine of good government.

Somehow, the City of San Diego was able to dissolve the “State of Emergency due to a Severe Shortage of Affordable Housing” without having taken any substantial actions of any kind—most specifically ignoring the Affordable Housing Task Force (AHTF) Report of 2003. That Task Force, chaired by former City Manager Jack McGrory, was organized to address the housing crisis and recommended measures to address the unmet housing needs of 32,275 units and the additional annual need for 8,415 housing units.   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces: Vapor

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Mercury plunges
Water drops rise into air
Opposites react   [Read more…]

From Postcards to Picket Lines, San Diego’s Activist Community is Mobilizing

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Progressive Calendar for San Diego, November 25- December 4

Responses to the election results continue to dominate activist actions in San Diego in the coming weeks. There are also strikes, a union-sponsored diaper drive, and a critical hearing on the racial profiling practices of the San Diego Police Department.

The City of San Diego released a long-awaited report on the SDPD late on Wednesday afternoon right before Thanksgiving.  Of course, most folks were already on their way to other events. Coincidence? I don’t think so.   [Read more…]

Jill Stein Raises Millions for Recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania

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“We deserve elections we can trust,” Stein said.

By Nadia Prupis / Common Dreams

Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein on Wednesday called for a ballot recount in Wisconsin, Michigan, and and Pennsylvania, and apparently took less than a day to raise more than her campaign’s initial goal of $2 million.

“After a divisive and painful presidential race, in which foreign agents hacked into party databases, private email servers, and voter databases in certain states, many Americans are wondering if our election results are reliable,” Stein said in a statement. “That’s why the unexpected results of the election and reported anomalies need to be investigated before the 2016 presidential election is certified. We deserve elections we can trust.”

In total, the campaign raised $2.5 million in time to reach Wisconsin’s filing deadline of November 25 and fee of $1.1 million. The extra funds are enough to pay for Pennsylvania’s filing fee, and part of Michigan’s.   [Read more…]

Trump Appoints Big Oil Director to Lead Interior Transition Team

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By Dan Bacher

The incoming Trump administration appears to be dedicated to plundering the nation’s fish, wildlife, rivers, lakes, bays, oceans and natural resources more than any other presidential regime in recent history, as evidenced by his appointment of corporate agribusiness advocates, oil industry shills and other anti-environmental extremists to his transition team.

On November 21, President-elect Donald Trump again shook up his transition team, naming Doug Domenech, the director of a pro-Big-Oil think tank, to lead his Interior Department advisory group, the Center for Biological Diversity reported.

Domenech replaces David Bernhardt, a lawyer and Westlands Water District lobbyist who co-chaired the natural resources department at the firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and served as a George W. Bush Interior Department official, as the head of the Interior Department team. Bernhart represented the Westlands Water District on litigation involving the Delta and the Endangered Species Act.   [Read more…]

The Truth of the Matter: Worldview, Facts and Climate Change

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By Mark Hughes / San Diego 350

One of humorist Will Rogers’ signature lines was: “Well, all I know is what I read in the papers.” In subtext, he’s saying he trusted what he read, so it seems reasonable to believe that in those days newspapers lived and died by getting the story right. What a simpler time; if Will was reading papers and the Internet and watching TV today, depending on the sources he chose, some to much of what he learned would be either misleading or just plain false. The information portal guardians have been overrun by hordes bearing rocket-propelled innuendo, guided missile conspiracy theories, and bandoleers bristling with self-serving lies. But that was only the first wall to fall. In this country, those hordes are no longer raging outside governmental gates; soon they will be the government itself.

Welcome to the newest incarnation of the world. The rules, as they always do, have once again changed, and the eternal response is demanded: what do we do about it? How do we live now?   [Read more…]

Should You Apply for DACA Following the Election?

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By Ignacia Rodriguez, NILC immigration policy advocate / National Immigration Law Center

There are many concerns about what could happen to the DACA program—and DACA recipients—once President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump said during his campaign that he intends to end the DACA program, though he has not said exactly if, how, or when this might actually occur. We also won’t know until after Trump takes office on January 20, 2017, what Trump administration officials might do with the information that DACA applicants have submitted on their applications.   [Read more…]

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