Category: Civil Rights

By Angelo Haynes

An emergency ICE Out rally was held at the corner of Fairmount and University Avenues in City Heights in response to a recent surge in ICE raids at various K-12 schools and across the city. The event appears to have been coordinated within 24 hours among some city officials and activist groups, resulting in several hundred people appearing at the busy intersection.

The rally’s purpose appears to be an effort to bring together elected officials, faith leaders, community groups and concerned citizens to highlight the stories of recent civilians abducted by ICE. A recent spike in ICE activity and attempted arrests of minors and parents at streets near schools in the past week prompted this rally. Incidents include a young man who was chased onto City College campus and arrested by ICE, and arrests at city schools Edison Elementary, Marshall Elementary, and Hoover High School.

According to deportationdata.org, since January 2025, there have been 18,000 ICE arrests in San Diego and Imperial Counties,

OB Rag Staff Report

The controversial Midway Rising project will move one step closer to being a done deal on Tuesday, September 22, when the City Council receives a closed session briefing “regarding the price and payment terms for potential long-term ground leases.”

As the Union-Tribune reported August 20, “Although not formally docketed, the proposed real estate deal between the city and the development team is expected to be taken up by San Diego’s Land Use & Housing Committee on Oct. 8, Councilmember Kent Lee, who chairs the committee, told the [newspaper].”

City Hall wants to fast-track the project, but the public must still be heard. Tuesday’s closed session agenda notes that “public testimony … will be taken during the 10:00 a.m. Council meeting.”

For San Diegans who fear that the Midway project will result in overcrowding, traffic congestion, air pollution, loss of naturally occurring affordable housing, and flood risks from a rising water table,

U.S. Military and Defense Dept. Have Hidden Extent of Damage to Aircraft, Buildings and Vehicles

By Cameron Adams / Daily Beast / Sep. 15 2026 

Bombshell leaked photos have exposed the extent of serious damage to buildings, aircraft and vehicles at U.S. positions in the Middle East after punishing attacks by Iran.

President Donald Trump’s war is now in its seventh month, with no clear timeline for when it might end. The damning photos contradict Trump’s repeated claims that the conflict has been “won” and that Iran’s military has been decimated by the U.S.

The photos, leaked to CBS News by active service members on condition of anonymity, tally with an inspector general’s report released on Monday. In it, the Pentagon watchdog revealed that “hundreds” of buildings used by the U.S. and “dozens” of aircraft had been damaged or destroyed by Iranian attacks.

By Nicholas Riccardi and Matt Brown / AP / September 14, 2026

Democratic state parties announced Monday that they are launching an operation for the midterm elections they’re calling the “New Battlefield Project,” intended to recruit 10,000 volunteers to guard polling places in case armed federal officers show up.

Activists are planning mass protests if the Trump administration tries to interfere with voting or ballot counting. And legal scholars are distributing white papers advising judges what they should do if the government tries to seize ballots.

The unprecedented efforts are in response to President Donald Trump’s equally unprecedented moves to interfere in this year’s midterm elections, which include attempts to impose proof-of-citizenship requirements to register to vote and directing the Postal Service to play a central role in deciding which voters should get a mail ballot.

The anxious contingency planning as voting gets underway has become a marker for how fraught democracy has become in the country that once stood as an example to the world.

“We have never prepared for an election sabotage event like we have now,” said Ezra Levin of the left-leaning group Indivisible.

by Ernie McCray

I’m shaking my head,

wishing I could go upside the heads

of a handful of

self-righteous wealthy Silicon Valley tech moguls

I just finished reading about

in a most revealing book, The Nerd Reich,

devious fascist narcissistic eggheads

who, in spite of

their enormous wealth

Project will prepare volunteers across US to monitor polls, encourage early voting and respond to disinformation

From the Guardian / September 14, 2026

The Democrats intend to train tens of thousands of volunteers to monitor the polls and counter possible voter intimidation under a new plan to protect November’s US midterm elections from anticipated interference from Donald Trump and his allies.

The nationwide initiative, dubbed the New Battlefield Project, will help state Democratic committees build up a vast coalition of volunteers to monitor the polls, push voters to cast their ballots early and create a network to respond to disinformation.

The Association of State Democratic Committees (ASDC), an arm of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), plans to train volunteers across 57 states and territories. It hopes to train volunteers for 25% of the nation’s 95,000 election day polling places, focusing on districts with competitive races.

These volunteers will wear blue vests to provide a visible presence intended to counter any voter intimidation, including by federal agents. Thirty state parties have a trained election protection director, with the goal of all states having one in place.

By Alexandra Hutzler / Democracy Docket / September 14, 2026

In a major win for voters, the Supreme Court Monday rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to reinstate its mail voting restrictions ahead of November’s pivotal midterm elections.

The justices declined to lift a block on the measure that a lower court judge has said is likely unconstitutional.

“The Government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the District Court’s preliminary injunction,” the court said in a brief, unsigned order. “And the equitable factors applicable for obtaining emergency relief from this Court do not favor a stay.”

The ruling* was 6-1-2, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh writing a concurring opinion and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissenting.

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this bulletin to keep our members and the general San Diego public informed about important Council hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, September 14: City Council, 10:00 a.m./2:00 p.m.

Agenda:

Item 200: Award a Construction Contract with Skanska USA for the El Camino Real to Via De La Valle Project

Why it matters: Awarding $57.4 million for a 9-year relocation and upgrade of a deteriorating half-mile road makes sense. But given San Diego’s sorry record of capital project management, any city endeavor of this size needs close and constant scrutiny.

Item 201: A Resolution to Demand Local Control in the Deployment of Autonomous Vehicles

Why it matters: The city plans to develop a process for tracking and monitoring AV violations and impacts on public safety.

NY Times Editorial Board – RSN / Sept. 9–11, 2026

President Trump has a long record of threatening rather than protecting the integrity of American elections. At his worst, he sought to overturn the 2020 results. Now he is menacing the midterms, with an executive order that would throw voting by mail into chaos if it went into effect.

It is up to the Supreme Court to prevent that. Nearly one in three voters now vote by mail. Mr. Trump’s order has already sowed doubt about whether Americans can continue to trust the Postal Service to deliver their ballots and prompted bipartisan alarm from states and local election officials. The sooner the court puts Mr. Trump’s ill-advised directive to rest, the better.

Mr. Trump’s order is illegal. He does not have the authority to set the rules for election administration. The Constitution gives that role to the states, with Congress providing oversight. “The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations,” Article I states.

As a bipartisan task force said in 2021 in response to a relatively minor executive order from President Joe Biden, “Presidents don’t have much of a role in how elections are run — and that’s a good thing.” Nevertheless, Mr. Trump ordered the Postal Service in March to decide which voters would receive mail-in ballots, a decision that states have always made for themselves.

Join veterans and others to protest the ongoing war in Iran …. time to bring the troops home.

By Marc Elias / Democracy Docket / September 8, 2026

We are less than two months until Election Day for the most important midterms of our lifetime. Ballots have already started to be sent out. The threats to free and fair elections are real and growing more serious by the day.

What once seemed like an abstract threat has now become concrete. The risk of a rigged election is no longer unthinkable. The need for action can no longer be delayed or denied.

I have often said that Donald Trump’s plan is to make it harder for you to vote and easier for him to cheat. Now we know what that will look like in 2026.

Donald Trump issued an executive order claiming powers over federal elections that he does not have. In response, the U.S. Postal Service is trying to ram through a rule that will make voting by mail more difficult while requiring states to turn over sensitive voter data.

The Postal Service has not been shy in making clear that it is taking these steps to allow federal law enforcement to conduct criminal investigations of alleged voter fraud.

That is not all the USPS has done to make voting more difficult. A series of smaller changes have resulted in slower mail service and delayed postmarks on envelopes. While these are not limited to returned ballots, the results have been devastating for those trying to vote by mail.

Claiming Democrats are “communists” is another fantasy crisis.

Bill Eddy / Substack / Aug 17, 2026

Remember the 2016 election campaign when Donald Trump repeatedly called Hillary Clinton “Crooked Hillary” and the entire Republican Convention chanted “Lock Her Up”? Yes, she improperly used a personal server for her emails sometimes for government business—just like many Republicans in government did without consequence. She was not prosecuted for this, but less than two weeks before the election, the Director of the FBI, James Comey, notified Congress that they were investigating an unrelated laptop that suddenly showed up with some of her emails. This gave the bogus claim extra credibility at the worst time. Trump won the election and the issue promptly vanished. Trump’s con was highly effective and may have won him the Presidency.

Now It’s Communism?

In August, 2024, at a press conference while gearing up for the Presidential Election against Kamala Harris, Trump explained his strategy: “All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody who is going to destroy our country.” He then branded her “comrade Kamala” as his favorite label throughout the campaign. Reports indicate that he used this term somewhere between 30 and 80 times in his speeches in the fall of 2024. And he won the election.