San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

America’s Finest Tourist Plantation Workers Struggle to Make It … But Nobody’s at the Barricades

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Anger Beneath the Postcard?

It should come as no surprise to anyone who ventures outside San Diego’s hermetically sealed and relentlessly marketed image of itself as a carefree paradise by the sea that the reality of our city is quite different than the happy fantasy.  A recent study by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) confirmed this recently when it released a report that noted of America’s Finest City, “45% of San Diegans fall into an auspicious category: people who work full time and still struggle with poverty.

The local news coverage of this report understandably focused on the poverty numbers and how here and elsewhere in California, people are losing faith in the American Dream.   Digging deeper into the report, we also learn that working Californians suffer great housing insecurity, feel disposable as employees, have negative workplace experiences, and aren’t sure they’ll ever be able to retire.  While these are all noteworthy and grim details, several other things, buried toward the end of the study, give some signs of hope but also present a central challenge.   [Read more…]

Street Scenes of San Diego | A Photographic Look

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As I mentioned last time, and in the great words of lyricist Sammy Kahn: “It very nice to go trav’lin’ … but it’s oh so nice to come home.” That’s especially true when you live in one of the most magnificent and temperate places on the planet.

It’s natural that whenever anyone travels to other places folks who live there always want to know where the traveler is from. When I’m the traveler and I tell them I live in southern California – and in San Diego, no less – the response is often something along the lines of, “It’s so beautiful there; why do you bother to leave?” My answer, by the way, is always: “Just to see how things are different elsewhere.”

Sometimes, I’ll grab my camera and spend some time walking around San Diego as if it were a city I was visiting. I try looking at familiar things and scenes like they were new to me.   [Read more…]

It’s Time to Talk About God | Dear Ohio, Part 9

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Dear Ohio,

The midterm elections are soon to be here. Maybe it’s time to talk about God.

Oh, I know what you’re thinking. Is she nuts? Two topics you’re never supposed to bring up in public – religion and politics – and she wants to talk about them. But here’s the thing, Dear Ohio. It’s not God who is killing this country. It’s religion. Specifically, it’s the desire of some religions to harness the power of government to force us all to do as they believe we should on any issue they choose. It seems as if they want to ban personal conscience if it does not comport with their own beliefs. If they are successful, then much of what we have accomplished as a society will be turned back to a time when the law was unconcerned with the suffering of those who did not hold power.

A list of the conduct religious powers are apt to remove from personal conscience can be garnered from the current public dialogue:   [Read more…]

New California Law Could Force Hungry Humans to Eat Out of Garbage Cans

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NIMBY Law Would Close Down Charitable Feeding Efforts

By Keith McHenry / Food Not Bombs

The sharing of food with the hungry is an unregulated gift of compassion. The purpose of food safety laws is to regulate commercial food establishments that have an economic incentive to serve unsafe food. Until AB- 2178, this concept in law was understood.

August 15, 2018, marked the 30th anniversary of the first arrests of Food Not Bombs for “making a political statement” by sharing free food with the hungry. Nine volunteers were arrested at the entrance of Golden Gate Park by a squad of San Francisco Riot Police as they were about to share lunch with several dozen people.

Thirty years later a new threat that could lead to more arrests is on Governor Brown’s desk. He has until September 30th to sign or veto the bill.   [Read more…]

They Finally Made a Handmaid’s Tale for Men | Video Worth Watching

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The Funny or Die crew strikes again with a pitch perfect send up of the fevered fears of a certain aggrieved segment of the male population.   [Read more…]

In San Diego and Across All Seven Continents, #RiseForClimate Actions on September 8, 2018

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Building on actions that kicked off earlier in the week, activists on Saturday hosted hundreds of #RiseForClimate demonstrations across all seven continents, drawing massive crowds “to demand our local leaders commit to building a fossil-free world that puts people and justice before profits.”

There were more than 900 actions in 95 countries, according to the searchable database that enables those interested to locate protests in their area.

The main event was the Rise for Climate, Jobs, and Justice march in San Francisco, California, which brought together some 30,000 people and is being hailed as the West Coast’s largest climate march ever.   [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: September 2-8

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This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week contains articles, commentaries, columns, and other work by San Diego Free Press regulars, irregulars, columnists, at-large contributors, and locally and nationally sourced writers on Labor Day, #RiseForClimate, Kavanaugh hearings, Obama, extended detention for refugee children, polluted steel mills, reflections on 1968, the sins of Lorie Zapf, high SDG&E bills, and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s feisty, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

Superpod Of Common Dolphins In Monterey Bay | Video Worth Watching

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From the Monterey Bay Aquarium YouTube page:

There are few things more magical in this world than hundreds of dolphins racing through the wild Monterey Bay on a foggy fall morning.

For the last week, a superpod of common dolphins hundreds strong has been racing the Monterey Bay, hot on the tails of billions of baitfish. This video was filmed on Labor Day just off of Point Pinos in Pacific Grove, and is being played back at half speed.

Also a bit more info on HuffPost (h/t to AGD)   [Read more…]

Skin Deep – featuring Buddy Guy | Video Worth Watching

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From the Playing for Change YouTube website:

Playing For Change and Buddy Guy united to record and film his anthem, “Skin Deep” across America. The song includes over 50 musicians from coast to coast featuring Buddy Guy, Tom Morello, Billy Branch, Chicago Children’s Choir, and Roots Gospel Voices of Mississippi. Originally, this was going to be a song across Chicago to bring light to all the violent shootings across the city but as time marched on, along with various shootings across our country, we realized we needed to expand our vision and use this song as a tool to unite our divided nation.

  [Read more…]

People Worldwide Will #RiseforClimate This Weekend | Progressive Activist Calendar September 7 -17, 2018

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People worldwide will mobilize this weekend under the banner of Rise for Climate, a grassroots movement seeking a fossil fuel free world.

More than 600 events are planned in at least 80 countries, with one of the key aims to challenge the decision-makers attending the Global Climate Summit in California on September 12 to escalate decarbonization efforts and targets.

The flagship event in San Fransisco will be the largest climate march the US west coast has ever seen, according to organizers. Nationwide, community groups are finding innovative ways to urge a future in which all energy sources are 100% renewable, including an initiative asking participants to share artworks related to the movement.

There are events in both Downtown and Oceanside on Saturday, September 8 listed in this week’s calendar.
  [Read more…]

San Diego Families Hit By Outrageous SDG&E Bills

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Now is the Time to Adopt Community Choice

By San Diego Community Choice Alliance

San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) customers are already reeling from bills that come in at twice the national average. Even while customers take measures to reduce consumption during this summer’s heatwave, many San Diegans report hardship due to their most recent bills.impact on San Diego families and small businesses, who already suffer the highest rates in the state and some of the highest in the country.   [Read more…]

Torlakson’s California Charter Law ‘Action Team’ Has a Troubling Tilt

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California’s lame-duck Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson, has formed an Action Team to review laws governing charter schools. Six of the thirteen Action Team members work for the destroy public education (DPE) movement. Ninety percent of the state’s students attend public schools yet 23% of the Action Team are charter school management executives. Also, 23% of the team are graduates of Eli Broad’s unaccredited school administrators’ academy.

Torlakson is quoted in the announcement,

“In the past few years, we have updated virtually our entire K–12 education system. Now it’s time to look at the key laws governing charter schools, which have not been significantly changed in 26 years, to see how they can be modernized to better meet the needs of all public school students, including those who attend charter schools.”

This statement is malarkey. The original 1992 law capped charters growth at 100 schools statewide with no more than 10 in any one district.   [Read more…]

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