Voices
Are dropping down throats
Bands of gold
swallowed by darkness [Read more…]
This Is It Folks, We Have to Vote!
By Gwen Pierce / The Chocolate Voice
If there ever was an election where voting was important — this is it.
Today we have the first viable woman candidate running for president, Hillary Clinton, who in my personal opinion is running against Donald Trump, someone who’s far less qualified and temperamental to say the least. After witnessing his temperament in all three debates, the man is a loose cannon. There, I said it.
I vaguely recall the very first presidential election that I voted in. I was barely out of my teens and hadn’t long moved to California, my residence now for over 35 years. It was the year that President Jimmy Carter who was referred to back then as the peanut farmer out of Alabama, was running for a second term against a movie star by the name of Ronald Reagan. We all know the outcome of that election. Carter lost and Reagan went on to serve two terms as the President of the United States. [Read more…]
Trump Donor Stench Wafts Over District 9 Council Race
Attack mailers alleging District 9 City Council candidate Georgette Gomez is under “investigation” for “failing to disclose finacial interests” paid for by the Encinitas-based Public Safety Advocates PAC appeared in mailboxes this week.
Despite the committee’s name, it’s historically been funded by development interests. Local Democrats were quick to point out the $15,000 in contributions to the group came from individuals who are also funding Donald Trump’s campaign for president. Trump donors supporting the PAC include Republican mega-donors Tom Sudberry and Lance Waite.
Public records indicate that a second mailer from the PAC is in the works, along with another mailer paid for by the San Diego Police Officers Association. The San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce has also ponied up $25,000 to support the anti-Gomez effort. [Read more…]
Dear Hillary Clinton, I haven’t been your biggest fan
I haven’t been one of your biggest fans and I still think that the DNC used some dirty tricks to defeat Bernie Sanders in the primaries, but today I’m ready to put that behind me. Until Wednesday night, my only reason to vote for you over Jill Stein would have been to make certain that Mr. Trump is not elected president of our country.
Since I live in California, I thought I had the luxury of waiting to see how the election was going in the rest of the county before casting my vote. And that was my plan – to wait until the last hour to choose you or Jill Stein. Since California is not a swing state, it was highly likely that I could have used my vote as a form of protest without risking Trump winning. [Read more…]
A Refugee from Nazi Germany Boo’ed, plus National City and San Ysidro Election Troubles
Mayor Serge Dedina retracted the Welcoming City proclamation that had been issued in mid-August. The proclamation was meant to welcome immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers to IB. Why the change of heart?
Protestors at the September 21 IB City Council meeting booed the mayor’s father as he spoke about being a refugee from Nazi Germany and said the U.S. should let in more refugees. Many in the crowd held up “No ISIS” signs and one witness said there was a “riot” outside the council room, according to the San Diego Reader. [Read more…]
CBP Uses Border To Pressure People Into Becoming Informants
The government has been using the border as a dragnet to pressure people into becoming informants
By Hugh Handeyside, Staff Attorney / ACLU National Security Project
Recently leaked documents published by The Intercept show that the FBI and Customs and Border Protection have been using CBP’s authority to search travelers at the border — along with the troves of information collected as a result — to troll for potential sources and pressure people into becoming informants. We’ve gone through the documents, and they heighten our concerns that these agencies are exceeding their authority, targeting minority communities and vulnerable people, and trying to evade accountability for doing so.
These documents also highlight a broader problem with the government’s official guidance on the use of race by federal law enforcement agencies. That guidance purports to ban racial profiling, but it includes exemptions for border screening and national security — exemptions that the leaked documents demonstrate are dangerous and unwise. [Read more…]
The Third Debate Is Over. So Is the Race for President.
(Unless YOU don’t vote!)
The third debate was by far the best of the three. Not that it was fun to watch. Or that voters were offered substantive policy ideas. As was true with all the debates, questions about climate change were left on the cutting room floor.
Moderator Chris Wallace ran a tight ship for the most part (more on this later). Donald Trump lasted for 30 minutes before his blood sugar crashed. And Hillary Clinton showed some real passion on a woman’s right to choose.
There were quips–“nasty woman”, “bad hombre.” There were slips– can somebody please explain GDP to Trump? And there was the drip, drip, drip of Hillary Clinton making the case that her opponent simply wasn’t fit for the job.
In the end, the debate will be remembered for Trump’s refusal at the end to commit to accepting the results of the election. [Read more…]
More Port District Pollution Threatens Barrio Logan
Joy Williams / Environmental Health Coalition
While Port District plans a massive expansion of its operations and diesel emissions from the Tenth Avenue Terminal, the neighboring community of Barrio Logan has been ranked even higher in the newest draft of California’s environmental justice screening model, CalEnviroScreen.
The new draft version three of CalEnviroScreen, released September 6, confirms the pollution hazards and social vulnerabilities in the Barrio Logan/Logan Heights area.
Barrio Logan was already at the very top of the state in version two of CalEnviroScreen – the highest five percent of all 8,000-plus census tracts in the state. The newly released draft version shows diesel hazards a full 15 percentile points higher than previously estimated for this area. [Read more…]
Medical Marijuana Patient Found Not Guilty within 10 Minutes in June, District Attorney Keeps the Cash
Americans for Safe Access – San Diego / SDASA
When medical marijuana patient Shaun Smith won his case with a ten minute not guilty verdict in June, he could not have known the District Attorney had already spent the cash they took from his medical cannabis collective and that the Sheriff’s department would take such a long time to return the motorcycle confiscated from Shaun’s home. But, both Bonnie Dumanis and Sheriff Gore have so far failed to return the property of a vindicated citizen.
In June, Shaun’s case moved through the San Diego North County courthouse very quickly and within 10 minutes a jury had reached a verdict of not guilty on the possession for sale and manufacturing charges the DA had levied after a raid on Shaun’s Oceanside home. Shaun was operating a legal collective and the group was saving for a storefront location. [Read more…]
Measures K and L Make Sense for San Diego
Measures K and L are changes to the City Charter submitted through the efforts of the Alliance San Diego Mobilization Fund and the Independent Voter Project. Both groups have local experience in encouraging voter turnout.
These measures were championed by City Council President Sherri Lightner and placed on the November 2016 ballot by a vote of the City Council.
What they do in a nutshell is to shift the final decision making in elections to November. Measure K says the top two candidates as determined by primary voters for Mayor, City Council seats, and City Attorney advance to the general election. Measure L says citizen-sponsored initiatives and referendums belong on the November ballot. [Read more…]
The Financialization of America: Wall Street Doesn’t Help Homeless
The Business of America is No Longer Business – It’s Finance
The rich today are making money not from making things, but by manipulating money. This is being done in such a way that it is driving the inequality process. It is ruining the middle class while exporting their jobs. The tax structure of the US engineered by Ronald Reagan, Alan Greenspan and their Republican followers has incentivized the creation of great wealth in a few hands while driving the majority of people into poverty.
So-called trickle down economics has only spurted up. While the rich have many ways of escaping paying taxes, middle class people are stuck paying them to a larger and larger extent. The government needs money to operate, and, if the rich don’t pay their fair share, the middle class has to make up for it. US tax policy makes sure that it does. [Read more…]
A Closer Look at the Ebers and Greene Project and the Correction Notice Issued by the City
In Order to Keep Project, Owner May Be Creating “Guest Quarters”
Editor: The OB Rag asked local Geoff Page – former chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board and occasional writer for us – to look at the Ebers and Greene project from a technical standpoint, to review the Correction Notice issued by the city and see what it meant, and any other issues that grabbed his attention.
By Geoff Page / Special to the OB Rag
After reviewing the Correction Notice and a few other things as well, it appears to me that the developer – Curtis Nelson of Nelco Properties – and the City of San Diego are changing this development in reaction to public attention. This means that what they may be doing needs scrutiny.
It looks like they plan to designate one of the buildings a guest quarters and only one of the two buildings could possibly qualify – and that would be the existing house. [Read more…]
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