Stonewall Jackson’s
amputated arm
clawed itself
out of the grave it was given
after succumbing
to friendly fire
When the rebel General
fell ill from pneumonia,
he summoned the limb
that never refused an order
—be it to shoot
bootless deserters
or exchange money
for slaves— [Read more…]
This excerpt from Thursday’s All In features great lively discussion among Chris Hayes, Rebecca Traister and Vanita Gupta on the Kavanaugh hearings. Rebecca notes that his testimony included language designating contraceptives as “abortion inducing drugs” and reminds us that birth control was only legalized by the Supreme Court for married couples in 1965 and for single women in 1972! Also some reflections on the committee’s response to the continuing protests and disruptions. [Read more…]
Having been stymied in attempts to circumvent the 1997 Flores ruling which set standards for children in immigration detention centers, the Trump administration is proposing new federal regulations with sweeping implications.
The more than 200-page proposed regulation would give the administration much broader authority over how undocumented immigrant children are treated in its care. Publication of the proposal in the Federal Register on Friday will kick off a 60-day window for the public to comment, after which the administration can move to certify the regulations as final.
Meanwhile, Pro-Publica Illinois and Mother Jones have jointly published a story based on confidential documents providing an overview of the inner workings and life inside one of the country’s largest shelter networks for unaccompanied minors, [Read more…]
Two years ago who would have thought that then President Obama’s number one tormenter –Rep. Darrell Issa– would be on the sidelines as a Democratic Blue Wave threatened to flip his district? It’s 2018, and here we are. All that’s needed is an energized electorate.
The former President, who’s enjoying a post-term surge in popularity, is coming to California to appear with key House candidates for a rally in Irvine on Saturday.
Obama is set to appear alongside Democrats Mike Levin, who is running to win CA-49, the House seat vacated by the retirement of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista); Harley Rouda, running against Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) in CA-48; Katie Porter, opposing Rep. Mimi Walters (R-Irvine) in CA-45; Gil Cisneros, vying for Rep. Ed Royce’s (R-Fullerton) open seat in CA-39; Katie Hill, challenging Rep. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale) in CA-25; Josh Harder, opposing Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) in CA-10; and T.J. Cox, who is running against Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) in CA-21.
[Read more…]
The junior United States Senator from California–Kamala Harris–is a boss. Her unrelenting questioning during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brent Kavanaugh was extraordinary. And things have gone uphill from there.
Now, the nomination that was supposed by a slam dunk, doesn’t look so easy anymore. Other United States Senators of the Democratic persuasion are no longer playing “the get along to go along” game.
I don’t care at this point who is or isn’t running to be the Democratic nominee for President. I care that elected officials are growing a spine. It’s about time. The GOP started out with enough votes to confirm Kavanaugh, who is clearly being positioned to obstruct proceedings against the President in addition to serving as the deciding vote on making this country re-live the not-so-good old days again. [Read more…]
Zig-Zags on the 30 Foot Height Limit
These days, it does appear Councilwoman Lorie Zapf is a strong supporter and defender of the sacrosanct 30-foot height limit for San Diego’s coastal and and beach communities. She did come out against a 4-story monstrosity on Emerson Street in the Roseville neighborhood of Point Loma, and along with Mayor Faulconer, issued a joint statement announcing a “stop-work” order for the project :
“Mayor Faulconer and Councilmember Lorie Zapf strongly support the coastal height limit and protecting coastal views. Further review of the Municipal Code has determined that this [Emerson Street] project does not conform to the City’s development regulations. Today the City issued a stop work order on the project to ensure it follows all codes and regulations.”
However, we have to note, as we reported then in June 2016:
The stop work order comes after a community protest by nearly a hundred residents … and after a widely-attended town hall meeting about the huge duplex … after a facebook page was set up and after an online petition to stop the project was begun – … it had close to 550 signatures. It came after the OB Rag and other media shown spotlights on the project.
Above the din of disturbing news – that discordant banging you’re hearing, steadily getting louder and louder, that you can no longer ignore – that’s the drumbeat of the unfree.
Dehumanized by the labels “prisoner,” “inmate,” and “convict,” even reduced to serial numbers like Victor Hugo’s Jean Valjean in “Les Misérables,” these men and women are, just like you and me, or any mortal – irrespective of flaws, frailties, even felonious acts and misdemeanors – endowed with the right to be treated with dignity, decency, and respect.
Advancing 10 specific demands as a rallying cry in prisons nationwide, these brave incarcerated souls are striking by: not eating, refusing to do prison work, engaging in sit-ins, and taking part in myriad other acts of nonviolent resistance that could, nonetheless – given the carceral, contentious environment they’re taking place in – quickly trigger violence (even reprisals, including the nefarious, all-too-frequent imposition of solitary confinement).
So what can you do? At a minimum, read the list of demands; they’re not long and considerable thought and effort went into crafting them. Since the very act of striking places the safety of the strikers in greater jeopardy, it’s the least you, as a civic-minded, compassionate citizen, can do. The complete list is inside: [Read more…]
By Sher Watts Spooner / Daily Kos
Whatever happens to Donald Trump, however long it takes before he’s out of office, there’s one area where it will be hard to stop the spread of his poisonous politics: his stoking of racial hatred.
Trump and Republicans keep trying to turn the murder of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, allegedly done by an immigrant who may have been in the United States illegally, into a campaign issue, trying further to stir up anger and raise fears about immigrants among Trump’s base. But they conveniently ignore the murder of 18-year-old Nia Wilson on a BART train in Oakland, California, allegedly committed by a white supremacist.
It’s not hard to figure out their reasoning: Tibbetts was white, and her accused killer is Latino. Wilson was African-American, and her accused killer is white. Crimes by “others” are by definition bad and scary, to a racist’s way of thinking. Crimes by whites must be a sign of mental illness, right? [Read more…]
From the Brave New Films YouTube website:
Brave New Films, and the Proposition 10 campaign, have released a new short film – Corporate Landlords: The Fight for Affordable Housing in California (Paid for by BRAVE NEW FILMS 501(C)(4))– exposing the greed and abuses of corporate landlord, Blackstone. The film shows how Prop. 10, if passed, could be a lifeline for countless tenants across California struggling to get by.
Moldy walls, leaky roofs, rising rents. That’s what tenants of Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone CEO, are living with. It’s time to repeal Costa-Hawkins. It’s time to rise up for rent control. Vote YES on Prop 10!
By Gil Field / San Diego Veterans for Peace
Local veterans, friends and supporters from the San Diego Veterans For Peace are in their third year of a five year educational outreach encouraging the public to stay home and not attend the annual Miramar Air Show this month.
Veterans believe that the Miramar Air Show glorifies war with an exciting show of speed, power and noise. It celebrates the skills and machinery that exist to kill, maim and destroy. The show is very dangerous …. 10% of all Blue Angel pilots have been killed in shows or accidents. Miramar jets have already crashed in San Diego neighborhoods. Lastly, the show is a misleading recruiting tool for our youth and exists to allow defense contractors to showcase and sell their latest tools of death. [Read more…]
By Rev. Richard Lawrence
1968 came back to me when I stood with Martin Luther King, III, at the Border on August 28 and listened to folks on the other side of the Border holler in pure delight that the day had finally come when a black leader stood tall in the fight for a just immigration policy.
King, III, took us back to his father’s “I Have a Dream Speech” fifty-five years ago and reminded us that there’s no room for leaders who separate children from their parents in the world his father envisioned. No. Dr. King wanted to build bridges, not barriers, to freedom. [Read more…]
