San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s Dishes Up Some Ice Cream for Bernie in San Diego

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Actress Rosario Dawson* will be at two of today’s events

By Staff

Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream will be campaigning for Senator Bernie Sanders at UCSD at noon today and in Hillcrest at 2:30. He will be joined by Black Men for Bernie at the Valencia Park Market at 3:30. Ben will be dishing up free ice cream and explaining why he and Jerry are feeling the Bern. As Ben says “Just like there’s nothing is so unstoppable as a flavor whose time has finally come, there’s nothing as unstoppable as a leader whose time has finally come”.
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‘Love Trumps Hate’ Rally Outside Trump Speech at San Diego Convention Center

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Noon to 4 rally sponsored by the ‘Love trumps Hate Solidarity Network’

By Martin Eder / Activist San Diego

The Friday May 27 rally outside the Trump speech will be part of a mobilization of several thousand. This noon-time rally at 5th and Harbor Drive, across from the San Diego Convention Center will focus on the theme “Tear Down Walls Between Peoples: Unity/Unidad and Solidarity”.

The Love trumps Hate Solidarity Network is committed to a non-violent rally. We are not coming to yell or engage Trump’s supporters. Our focus is on Trump’s incendiary words and actions.

In the call to action the Solidarity Network states “Come participate in democracy in action, 1st amendment in action”. Our rally is a visible response to a real threat.   [Read more…]

Homelessness and Housing by the Numbers – A San Diego Shell Game

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The San Diego Point-In-Time Count is a federally mandated annual report that identifies the number of homeless individuals and families in the county on one particular day. The 2016 report, which was released at the end of April, showed less than a one percent decrease from the previous year in the number of homeless people in San Diego County.
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San Diegans Participate in LA Action to Break Free from Fossil Fuels

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By Nancy Cottingham / SD350

Over a two week period earlier this month, a wave of >Break Free from Fossil Fuels mass mobilizations was held around the globe. The first action saw hundreds of people peacefully shut down the UK’s largest open cast coal mine in Wales. In the Philippines, 10,000 marched demanding the cancellation of a proposed 600-Megawatt coal power plant. In Australia, 2,000 people shut down the world’s largest coal port for a day, with kayakers blocking the harbor entrance while others blocked a critical rail crossing. In Anacortes, Washington, over the course of three days, thousands converged by land and water at the site of two oil refineries. They marched, led by indigenous leaders, and held an overnight sit-in on the train tracks that led to over 50 arrests.

Closer to home, Los Angeles was the venue for a >Break Free from Fossil Fuels action for people from all over California.   [Read more…]

Bob Dylan Turns 75: May Your Song Always Be Sung

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By Abby Zimet / CommonDreams

Bobby Zimmerman of Hibbing, Minnesota turned 75 on Tuesday. Unreal. America’s great troubadour is still on the road, heading for another joint – though, for those around in the bad old days, nothing can beat 1975’s dazzling Rolling Thunder Revue – and this week Bob Dylan also released his 37th studio album, “Fallen Angels.”   [Read more…]

A Chicano Response to Donald Trump

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“Pa Pendejo No Se Estudia!”

By Herman Baca

One has to ask if we number 60 million (17% of the total population), why do we act like we are only 7 million? Politically, the only historical solution I see to end the above is: our peoples own political self-determination. Then and only then will we be able to build the infrastructure to have organized people/money to build the social, economic and political power necessary to deal with the historical issues/problems that afflict our people.

So what can Chicanos/Mexicanos/Latinos do to STOP TRUMP?

The Boy Who Danced on Air at Diversionary Theater

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By Mukul Khurana

Now that we are at war with Afghanistan, we are bound to find out a lot more about their culture. It is a cynical commentary on our society, but we don’t tend to acknowledge countries and cultures until we are at war with them—take Vietnam, Korea, and Iraq for instance—for us, they didn’t “exist” until we bombed them.

The dark aspect fascinating us now about Afghan culture is a practice called Bacha Bazi (known as “boy play” – a centuries old tradition wherein older men engage younger boys as dancers, singers, and, sometimes, sexually…). Ask the men who follow the tradition and they will tell you about mentorship and the chance for a good life they provide the young boys.   [Read more…]

Big Oil Has Spent $25 Million Lobbying in 2015-16 CA Legislative Session

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Oil industry has captured California’s regulatory apparatus

By Dan Bacher / Indy Bay Media

Underneath California’s veneer as a “green leader” is a dark and oily reality — the state is the third largest petroleum producer in the nation and the oil industry is California’s largest and most powerful political lobby.

In fact, last year’s oil industry “gusher” of lobbying expenses ensured that no environmental bill opposed by Big Oil was able to make it out of the Legislature unless it was amended, as in the case of SB 350, the green energy bill. The oil lobby broke its prior spending record, spending $22 million over the past year.   [Read more…]

Gardening Builds Community in the Tijuana River Valley

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By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass

The Tijuana River Valley (TRV) was once filled with vegetable farms, dairies and ranches. As a matter of fact, the famous horses Trigger and Seabiscuit were boarded here. Today, many ranches still pepper the TRV. You can take horse rides out to the beach or buy vegetables at Suzie’s farm stand on weekends. Along the road in this sleepy area, the Tijuana River Valley Community Garden also rents plots to local residents. It’s goal is simple: to promote healthy and fresh grown produce in a diverse community environment.

The community garden is extremely popular and the good news is that open land lies adjacent to the garden that could be used for further expansion. The bad news: expansion costs money and the RCD would need at least $50,000 to install the water system and fencing needed to create the new plots. So far, monies aren’t available for that.   [Read more…]

“Friday Is Going to Be One Crazy Anti-Trump Day in San Diego”

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It’s going to be literally one crazy, anti-Trump day in downtown San Diego on Friday, May 27th. So much is going on that it boggles the mind to try to imagine everything.

First, of course, Donald Trump is arriving at the San Diego Convention Center to speak to his throngs around 2pm. And coming out to see and hear him, of course, will be probably thousands of ticket-holders. There will be long lines of them snaking around the Convention Center – which undoubtedly will be off-limits to protesters. Except those protesters in line with tickets.

Second, there will be thousands of protesters coming out to demonstrate against Trump and all that he stands for.   [Read more…]

Surfing the Zeitgeist in San Diego: Twaddle, a Jagoff and a Corporate Juggernaut

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By Sid

Editor Doug Porter is on vacation for a week and the women at San Diego Free Press–Annie Lane, Barbara Zaragoza and Anna Daniels, are running the show until May 1. Doug not only writes “Starting Line” five days a week, he also edits and publishes submissions two days a week. Yeah, the man deserves a vacation.

The news–local and beyond–continues to serve up cringe inducing reporting, oddities and insights.   [Read more…]

The US Made a Deal With the Devil in Saudi Arabia

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Did Saudi Arabia Aid the 9/11 Hijackers?

All indications are that our biggest buddy in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, was directly involved with the 9/11 hijackers, and what’s more, exports its extreme form of Islam, Wahhabism, to al Qaeda, ISIS and other groups determined to wipe out the West and Western values. The Senate recently passed legislation that allows families of victims of the 9/11 tragedy to sue the Saudi government for any role it played in the terrorist plot.

The Saudis have gone so far as to say that, if the legislation is enacted, they would dump $750 billion worth of US Treasury bonds on the world market. That would blow up not only our relationship with the Saudis, but the world financial system which is predicated on the US dollar being the world’s reserve currency and its being necessary for the purchase of oil.   [Read more…]

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