The ad agency that produced the massively popular campaign ad for the recent Democratic primary of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—Means of Production—has produced another one, this time for a Democratic primary candidate in Hawai’i.: Kaniela Ing. The new ad echoes many of the themes of the previous one: health care for all, free college, affordable housing, a green jobs program; but also adds an Hawai’in element. Both are upbeat, positive and unapologetically progressive. Although Ing faces much tougher odds, let’s hope the similarities extend to outcomes, as well. [Read more…]
Earl McNeil: No Justice! No Peace! Riot Police Summoned for National City Council Meeting
Another week has gone by without the National City Police Department coming clean about what happened to Earl McNeil, who never regained consciousness after being taken into custody on May 27. He passed on at UCSD Medical Center on June 11.
The man may be dead, but he’s not been forgotten. The story of his arrest and the lack of transparency about what happened afterward have begun to attract national attention, thanks to the persistence of community activists.
The fourth consecutive protest at a National City Council meeting brought police in riot gear from six agencies around San Diego County. Platoons of cops marched up and down outside the meeting, forcing the two dozen or so demonstrators off the sidewalks for no apparent reason. [Read more…]
San Joaquin Valley in the ‘Destroy Public Education’ Crosshairs
Efforts to privatize public schools in the San Joaquin (pronounced: whah-keen) Valley are accelerating. Five disparate yet mutually reinforcing groups are leading this Destroy Public Education (DPE) movement. For school year 2017-2018, taxpayers sent $11.5 billion to educate K-12 students in the valley and a full $1 billion of that money was siphoned off to charter schools. This meant that education funding for 92 percent of students attending public schools has been significantly reduced on a per student basis.
In July 2017, California’s State Superintendent of Education, Tom Torlakson, announced the revised 2017-2018 budget for K-12 education totaled $92.5 billion. Dividing this number by the total of students enrolled statewide provides an average spending per enrolled student ($14,870). The spending numbers reported above were found by multiplying $14,870 by students enrolled.
The five groups motivating privatization of public schools are:
- People who want taxpayer supported religious schools.
- Groups who want segregated schools.
- Entrepreneurs profiting from school management and school real estate deals.
- The technology industry using wealth and lobbying power to place products into public schools and supporting technology driven charter schools.
- Ideologs who fervently believe that market-based solutions are always superior.
Flames of Ignorance and the Wisdom of the Snail | Seeds of Rebellion, Part 3
After wandering through the Schools for Chiapas Mayan Food Forest incubator in Part I, and witnessing the resistance by the First Peoples of southern Mexico to powerful corporate and governmental forces intent on destroying their autonomy and culture in Part II, we conclude with a look back to a past marvelous and shameful and towards a future carved on the shell of a snail.
“The diet of the people here before the Spanish conquest was so much more than corn and beans,” explains Paco Vazquez, a coordinator with Prodmedios, a media company based in San Cristóbal that empowers local communities all over Mexico to tell their own stories using a wide variety of media. Raised on the outskirts of what was once the Aztec capital, Paco is a direct descendant of the Nahuatl water architects who constructed the floating gardens and aquaculture the Spanish marveled at, and then destroyed. Five centuries have transformed a city once laced by clear running canals into a diesel-choked metropolis; so Paco knows something about lost knowledge. [Read more…]
Why Is The Right So Scared Of A Democratic Socialist? | Video Worth Watching
All In’s Chris Hayes speaks with The New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg, The Majority Report’s host, Sam Seder and The Intercept‘s Briahna Gray about “Why Is The Right So Scared Of A Democratic Socialist?” Chris presents some of the right’s coverage of recent primary winner Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and how it weirdly appears threatened by her stand in favor of health care, education and that “every person in this country [should be] paid a living wage to lead a dignified life”. [Read more…]
Homes for the Homeless in San Diego Will Have to Wait. And It’s Nobody’s Fault. Really?
The people who need housing the most –namely those without– have been shafted again.
Having an affordable and safe place to live shouldn’t be as hard as it is in San Diego. Excuses are made, studies are promised, politicians pledge to take action. And the situation gets worse by the day.
A handful of stories published in the local press in recent weeks taken together highlight just how bad things really are. I have two thoughts on the subject: excuses are for losers, and housing ought to be treated as a right rather than a goal. [Read more…]
‘Black Identity Extremists’ Report Is FBI’s COINTELPRO 2.0 | Video Worth Watching
From the NOW THIS YouTube page:
Decades ago, the FBI targeted Black activists who were fighting for equality — now, this sad chapter of history is repeating itself.
A 2017 report identified “black identity extremists” as a threat to law enforcement. Critics say this report is eerily similar to the FBI’s counter intelligence program, a.k.a. COINTELPRO, which was established in the 50’s by J. Edgar Hoover to specifically target African-Americans who were fighting for justice and equality, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and many members of the Black Panther Party.
John Cox Can’t Escape Trump’s Shadow in the Race for California Governor
Gubernatorial candidate John Cox is the latest in a long line of business executives who believe their experiences in the boardroom make then qualified to run the state of California.
To be sure, he was the less extreme of the GOP candidates with name recognition in the June 5 primary. His approach is less bombastic than Travis Allen, but that’s just a matter of rhetoric.
A debate between the two men (and Doug Ose, who dropped out shortly thereafter) in February turned into a bragfest about who supported The Dear Leader the most. [Read more…]
The MS-13 Gang, A Straw Man for Republican Racism
By Hunter / Daily Kos
Donald Trump’s support is based on racism. And the racism is based on Republican conspiracy theories. And those conspiracy theories are now, thanks to White House propaganda, taking root within his racist, gullible base.
A majority of people who voted for President Donald Trump consider criminal gang MS-13 a threat to the United States, a new poll finds, indicating the Trump administration may be succeeding in inflating the perception of the gang’s national risk.
Specifically, 85 percent of Trump voters call MS-13 a “very” or “somewhat” serious threat to the United States, and roughly half of them are worried MS-13 is going to target them or their families personally, which is a ludicrous, asinine theory based entirely on Trump-peddled propaganda. Before Trump’s team settled on “MS-13” as their stand-in for Violent Ethnic People Coming To Get You, it would be a fair bet to say that precious few among Trump’s base would even know what MS-13 was. Now half of them are worried that MS-13 is hiding under their floorboards. [Read more…]
Summer Chronicles 2018 #6: Thinking of Bukowski at Del Mar
Every year, opening day at Del Mar brings out the beautiful people. Handsome, well-heeled (or at least trying to look that way) young men and women get dressed to the nines and parade around the track, seeing and being seen. It is a classic San Diego moment: shiny happy people in an elegant place on a perfect summer day.
Not a trouble in the world.
Until they start betting and losing and betting and losing. And, eventually, if you look away from the glamorous women in their fabulous hats, you’ll start to notice them–the old-time track denizens in not chic shabby clothes. Their rolled-up papers and grim expressions, their studied disdain for the loud crowd of novice gamblers.
A dying breed to be sure. [Read more…]
San Diego in National Spotlight: Failure to Prohibit Section 8 Discrimination Hurts Homeless Veterans
By Parisa Ijadi-Maghsoodi / UrbDeZine
Achieving Housing Choice and Mobility in the Voucher Program: Recommendations for the Administration is in the latest edition of the American Bar Association Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law (Vol. 27-1).
The article recognizes the Housing Choice Voucher Program as vital to helping homeless individuals and low-income families’ overcome barriers to housing stability and a powerful tool to deconcentrate poverty and decrease racial segregation in our nation’s communities. While acknowledging the program’s potential to improve individual lives, families, and communities, the article discusses the program’s failure to meet its housing and community goals:
Tenants with a voucher disproportionately live in low-rent, racially segregated neighborhoods. In fact, almost a quarter million children in the voucher program live in neighborhoods of extreme poverty. Many voucher families are unable to obtain rental housing outside of areas of poverty and, in some cases, fail to lease up at all. [Read more…]
Wealth — Not Enrollment in Private School — Increases Student Achievement, According to New Study
By Steven Singer / Common Dreams
Students enrolled in private schools often get good grades and high test scores.
And there’s a reason for that – they’re from wealthier families.
A new peer-reviewed study from Professors Richard C. Pianta and Arya Ansari of the University of Virginia found that once you take family income out of the equation, there are absolutely zero benefits of going to a private school. The majority of the advantage comes from simply having money and all that comes with it – physical, emotional, and mental well-being, living in a stable and secure environment, knowing where your next meal will come from, etc. [Read more…]
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