San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

San Diegan Takes on Tax Loopholes for the Wealthy

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By Sam Pizzigati / Inequality.org

Tax law professors don’t normally have much of a public profile. Victor Fleischer does. In fact, one business journalist has just tagged this ace analyst from the University of San Diego “the closest thing the tax world has to a rock star.”

Most rock stars have big break-out hits. Fleischer’s big break-out came about a decade ago when his scholarship exposed an incredibly lucrative tax giveaway to the rich that hardly anyone knew existed. The “carried interest” loophole, Fleischer detailed, was helping private equity and hedge fund billionaires chop their tax bills by nearly half.   [Read more…]

It’s Been a Rough Week for Donald J. Trump

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The Donald is desperately trying to shake off incidents demonstrating his lack of awareness about things other than his massive ego. It’s not going so well.

The GOP’s nominee for President has been busy proving Hillary Clinton’s assertion that he’s easily baited, going ballistic after a critical speech by the father of a fallen soldier who just happened to be both an immigrant and a Muslim.

His lack of knowledge about the world revealed itself on Sunday when it became apparent he was unaware that the Russians had invaded the Ukraine two years ago.

And now Trump’s apparently looking for excuses not to debate his Democratic opponent by making the claim that two of the televised events will be overshadowed by broadcast football games.   [Read more…]

2016 Summer Chronicles 7: Outside Spaces, Hacienda del Sol, Cocktails, and Eternity

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As I noted last week in my reminiscence about my Ocean Beach hideaway, the contemplation of outside space is sometimes intensified when put in sharp contrast with a small inner space. And the quality of immensity that comes with this is, à la Bachelard, a kind of meditation, “Far from the immensities of sea and land, merely through memory, we can recapture, by means of meditation, the resonances of this contemplation of grandeur.”

So if the sea provides local access to immensity on the coast, the Anza Borrego Desert is the home of our immensity of land. Vast, varied, and full of wonder, the largest desert state park in the United States covers 600,000 acres from the Lagunas to the lowest point of the floor below sea level. While lovely during the periods of spring wildflower bloom, one might best experience the solitary heart of the desert during the peak of the scorching summer heat.   [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: July 24-30

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This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week features articles, commentaries, columns, and other work by San Diego Free Press regulars, irregulars, columnists, at-large contributors, and sourced writers on: whether Trump will arrest Clinton if elected, doing whatever it takes, Fiesta Island’s future, love and meritocracy, Chicana pioneer Andrea Skorepa retiring, storm clouds over Illa Del, healthy communities in National City, and lots of other inspiring, grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s friendly, neighborhood, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

Jackasses to the Rescue!

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Geo-Poetic Spaces: Appropriate Withdrawal

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Fatigue
tackles the fittest flowers

Blossoms
turn inward

Petals fold
compress
color
into perfume   [Read more…]

It Behooves Progressives to Support Clinton, Avoid Neo-Fascist Takeover

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Progressives must rescue the Democrats from their strategic errors, such as choosing Tim Kaine as their vice-presidential nominee. Our movements will have more space to grow and better chances to enact reforms if we avert a Trumpian police state.

By Joe Wainio

Hillary Clinton’s choice of Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate is a slap in the face to progressives and a strategic error. It confirms Senator Bernie Sanders’ criticisms that Hillary represents Wall Street, and is reminiscent of past tone-deaf vice-presidential choices of the mainstream Democratic establishment such as Michael Dukakis’ selection of Lloyd Bentsen or Al Gore’s pick of Joe Lieberman.

While Clinton’s decision is certain to make her path to victory in November more difficult, it behooves progressives to work for her election anyway.   [Read more…]

The Kerfuffle Over Rehiring Marcuse at UCSD

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The UCSD campus is again tense. In the wake of the anxiety and anger created by the Regents’ decisions last November, the battle concerning the rehiring of Dr. Herbert Marcuse is adding new fuel to the already strained administration-student and university-community relationships.

Contrary to what most people think, at this point it is not the student dissidents that are seeking campus confrontations, but the extreme Right, particularly in San Diego. Thus, Governor Reagan has been consistently quoted in the press as saying that “the time for a confrontation on the campuses is here.” He, his government and his right wing allies have consistently acted to bring that confrontation about in order to be able to implement repressive measures with the goal of stifling the student movement.   [Read more…]

Mayor Serge Dedina: Head of Water Commission Should Be Fired …

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… Bonita Vista High School Band Director Arrested on Molestation Charges, and South Bay Hosts Several Outdoor Summertime Events

Breaking News this week in Imperial Beach.

Mayor Serge Dedina, who is also the Executive Director at WildCoast, announced at the City Council meeting he thought Ed Drusina should be fired. Drusina is the head of the International Boundary & Water Commission (IBWC).

His problem: the IBWC has done nothing to solve the sewage problem coming from Mexico. WildCoast estimates that Mexico dumps, both legally and illegally, about 30 to 50 million gallons of sewage into the ocean everyday. Instead of cleaning up the problem, Drusina is focusing on a Presidential Permit to have the Otay Water District get water from the Rosarito Desalination plant.   [Read more…]

Whatever It Takes

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Sometimes I read something that someone I thought I knew posts on Facebook, that is so incongruent with my previous perception of them as an intelligent and decent person, that I just have to shut it down and walk away, because I feel like my head is going to explode.

Whatever It Takes (WIT). The first time I heard that expression I was uncomfortable with what it implied. There has to be a limit, a line you won’t cross, even if that’s the only way to win. But it seems that there is a growing percentage of the population who think that when winning is at stake, there are no lines too sacred to cross. If you want to be a winner, you must be willing to do WIT, even if that means you break the rules, lie and cheat and hurt innocent people. Right?

I always thought it was subliminally biased that the conservatives got to be called The Right – as in, “They are right and we are wrong” and the liberals were stuck with being The Left, as in, “That’s all you got left?” Well now it’s the Left acting like the Right, so I guess that makes everybody right.   [Read more…]

Open Letter to San Diego Port Commission About ‘World Class Waterfront’ Development Proposals

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Provided by Bill Adams / San Diego UrbDeZine

Dear Chairman Merrifield and Commissioners:

On behalf of the San Diego Environment + Design Council, we are submitting the following comments.

The San Diego Environment + Design Council is a coalition of organizations whose primary interest is to promote environmentally-sustainable land use policies that create healthy, green neighborhoods and great public spaces in the San Diego-Tijuana region. We provide an open venue for diverse organizations and interests to come together and develop recommendations to improve how our communities live, work and play.

We have reviewed the six development proposals regarding the subject 17-acre site occupied by Seaport Village. In keeping with our mission, we offer the following comments.   [Read more…]

San Diegans Voice Concerns to State Officials About Air Quality, Environmental Justice, and Climate Change

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By David Harris / San Diego 350

What do you get when you bring together 120 environmental activists and residents from environmental justice communities in a room with a dozen state regulators? If you’re lucky, dozens of ideas for incentivizing renewable energy, improving public transit, and protecting neighborhoods from toxic industrial fumes.

This is exactly what happened on July 14th when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) sponsored a workshop on climate change at the beautiful new Cesar Chavez campus in Barrio Logan. Local residents, whose voices are rarely heard by policy makers in Sacramento, came out in force to speak out about air pollution from local industry, the need for better transit options, and the impacts of climate change on communities already impacted by poor air quality.
  [Read more…]

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