San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Donald Trump’s Campaign Status: Sad!

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Just a few weeks ago, prospective Republican nominee Donald Trump was boasting about the status of his campaign. He went so far as to announce “… that my campaign has perhaps more cash than any campaign in the history of politics…” Today I’ll look at the 936 or so stories showing up in Google search that seem to think otherwise.

The release of Federal Election Commission filings on Monday told a different story. The campaign is impoverished, relatively speaking, little-to-no effort has been made to establish a financial operation that can compete at the national level, and much of the spending has been directed to entities owned by Trump.

An ongoing turf war within the campaign went public with the dismissal of campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. Heading into the general election, the Trump campaign is underfunded, understaffed, and historically unpopular.   [Read more…]

People of Color and the Future of the Democratic Party

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By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos

The complexion of the United States has shifted over the last few decades, and the future will demonstrate an even more varied set of racial and ethnic demographics. Little wonder why there is a rabid response of racism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration rhetoric from the Republican Party—which we might as well call “The White People Party,” since, according to Gallup “non-Hispanic whites accounted for 89% of Republican self-identifiers nationwide in 2012.” From my perspective they are no different from the White Citizens’ Councils of the past, who were the public face of the Klan.

This shift presents a challenge, and not just to white Americans. It also highlights inter-ethnic positions and tensions. Let’s not fool ourselves: Developing fusion politics with whites and erasing friction between and among peoples of color is a challenge. We can look to movements like Moral Mondays in North Carolina for an example of how fusion is being put into practice outside of the electoral realm.

We’ve seen some of the obstacles play out during this Democratic primary season, which Issac J. Bailey explores in “How Bernie Sanders Exposed the Democrats’ Racial Rift.”   [Read more…]

The Gig Economy: OK If the Profits Went to the Giggers

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There’s nothing inherently wrong with the idea of working a job here and a job there according to the worker’s convenience and other activities. The problem is that the profits go to some centralized corporation rather than being spread out among all the giggers in proportion to their participation in the system.

If Uber or Lyft were a co-op, the profits would go to all the worker/owners instead of a handful of investors. Then the gig economy would offer not only a technique for working at one’s convenience and fitting into one’s schedule whether that schedule might be educational or child care or surfing or whatever.

In other words making up one’s own work schedule so it fits into your life is not a bad thing as long as the enterprise is co-operatively owned and provides not only convenience but worker protections.   [Read more…]

Crossing the Line: A Marriage Across Borders

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This immigration love story does it the ‘right way’

By Sharon Kha

“It’s not that we don’t want Mexicans to come to America,” the woman in the coffee shop said. “It’s just that we want them to do it the right way.”

The right way? And what would that be? Should we advise them to do exactly as we did?

When we were the ones on the other side of the fence wanting to settle in this new country, we cheated the people who were living there at the time — the Indians. We herded them into reservations and broke every treaty we made with them. When all else failed, we gave them disease-infected blankets that killed them off.
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Pre All-Star Game Homeless Purge Continues Amid Heat Wave

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The mayor’s campaign to rid downtown of homeless humans in the days leading up to Baseball’s All-Star Game continues, even as record heat blanket’s the region.

Advocates for the homeless are operating a ‘cooling station’ at 14th & L, offering cold water, shade, and bandanas, serving more than 200 people on Sunday. They are asking for volunteers to help in offering support during the heat wave.

The San Diego Police Department and the California Highway Patrol have been deployed to sweep up encampments.   [Read more…]

2016 Summer Chronicles #1: In the Dark Forest of the Self

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Summer is here and it’s time to take a break from my usual column and stretch the form a little with some chronicles. As I explained last year, the chronicle is a literary genre born in Brazil…

So on this first day of summer, the day after Father’s Day, I will dedicate some time to what my wife calls “the sublime and heartbreaking art of parenting.”

For the most part, being the father of my only, much beloved son has been a delight. He is a smart, good natured boy who does well in school, gets along with other kids, and likes to hang out with grown-ups. Other than the usual daily struggles of parenthood from sleep deprivation to the multitude of anxieties, humbling failures, and moments of deep self-doubt that go with the territory, it’s been a piece of cake.
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Another Ten Minute Acquittal Against DA Dumanis in Medical Cannabis Trial

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The thin-as-air manufacturing case against medical cannabis patient and collective operator, Shaun Smith swept so quickly through trial that before we knew it, Attorney Michael Cindrich had queued up his third cannabis-related not guilty verdict in four months.

The Cindrich winning streak started with defendant John Mazula in El Cajon, moved north to LA and then touched down in San Diego County’s Vista yesterday – surely making waves in District Attorney’s office and changing the landscape for medical cannabis patients.   [Read more…]

Burmese Family’s 20 Year Journey to US Citizenship

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By Nile Sisters

In 1996, memories of a recently passed high school examination quickly faded as San San N., seven family members, and 35 others fled to the Burmese jungle to escape government troops. With their food supplies exhausted after 22 days, they quickly learned to forage for edibles in the jungle.

Approaching the Thai border, they slid down a mountainside to the river’s edge only to set off buried land mines along the shore, one exploding near San San. The terrified group had never before experienced such deadly weapons, which killed two members and injured several others with shrapnel. Miraculously, San San and her family crossed the river by boat and arrived alive in Thailand.   [Read more…]

The Noose

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Dump Trump?

Trump dumps.

49 Dead, and one dead Hater,

50 Dead’s a better headline.

ConVisAdium a skyward island   [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: June 12-18

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This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week features articles, commentaries, columns, satire, and other work by San Diego Free Press regulars, irregulars, columnists, at-large contributors, cartoonists, and sourced writers on: Bernie, Trump, Orlando, guns, All Star rocks for the homeless, changing Carlsbad’s politics, cross border dental friendships, the need for a public use of old library, League of Women Voters talking trash, ACLU and AUMA, and lots of other inspiring (and sometimes depressing), grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s friendly, neighborhood, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.
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Geo-Poetic Spaces: Report

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It’s time to leave
when guns grow on trees
orange blossoms cut down

Kiss the dream good night
alarms set
locked in gated housing   [Read more…]

The Weaponization of Hate

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History is filled with the consequences of silence and passivity.

By Thom Hartmann / AlterNet

This is a particularly interesting week to be traveling across the French countryside, as news fills the papers and the airwaves of another assault weapon-of-war used in another mass shooting done by another frightened—and thus hate-filled—American.

The Europeans know well the wages of hate and fear. And it goes way back into the dim mists of history, well before the era of the names we all know so well from the 20th century.

“The Other” is the key.

Once a demagogue successfully turns a person, a group, a gender (or gender preference), a region, a nation, or a race into the Other, the consequences are terribly but consistently predictable.   [Read more…]

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