OB Rag

Impeachment and court reform stand out as the most powerful accountability tools Dems will have

By Bill Blum / Common Dreams – Truthdig / Nov 01, 2026 Truthdig

It’s not enough for the Democrats to win the midterms. Whether they take back one or both chambers of Congress, their overriding objective must be to cripple the remainder of Donald Trump’s presidency and dismantle the MAGA movement he leads. Holding Trump and his key enablers to account for their lawlessness and corruption will be the standard for success. Without accountability, there will be no justice and no end to the growing threat of fascism in America.

Of all the accountability tools that will be available should the Democrats prevail on November 3, impeachment and court reform stand out as the most powerful. Both are implicitly on the midterm ballot, and while neither is a magic bullet for checking Trumpism, they can and must be deployed far more aggressively and urgently than in the past.

The road ahead won’t be easy, but the party may never get another opportunity.

Impeachment
The Supreme Court’s 2024 decision on presidential immunity (Trump v. United States), penned by Chief Justice John Roberts, has made it all but impossible to hold Trump accountable through ordinary criminal prosecutions. As legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin has noted, Roberts’ opinion contains language that “suggests the president cannot even be investigated for his official actions,” much less indicted.

Elections are always split in their results; Tuesday’s could be the same

By Bill Eddy / Substack /  Nov 01, 2026

Over the past few weeks, we have seen a flurry of rallies by President Trump around the country, including this weekend, in desperate support of his troubled Republican candidates. It’s tempting to see this effort as futile for him since his approval ratings have now sunk to 30% according to some polls. However, I believe quite the opposite: by making urgent intense emotional attacks on Democrats he will claw back some of his reluctant followers to turn out the vote and dampen any Democratic wave. Remember that his power is based on right brain emotions rather than left-brain logic. (See last week’s blog: Right Brain Politics II.)

How Splitting Works

In 2012, a psychologist friend, Don Saposnek, and I wrote a little book titled: Splitting America: How Politicians, Super PACs and the News Media Mirror High Conflict Divorce. I was working as a family lawyer at the time and we were struck by the similarities of people with high-conflict personalities in high-conflict divorces to some politicians who were entering politics. People with high-conflict personalities tend to have four key characteristics: blaming others, all-or-nothing thinking, unmanaged emotions, and extreme behaviors. “Splitting” is a psychological term for seeing some people as all-good and others as all-bad, which is common for people with high-conflict personalities. As we wrote then:

Last week we ran Debbie Sklar’s post about Devil’s Pot in the Sunset Cliffs area. At that point, no one was certain where it used to be as it no longer exists, what due to the tremendous erosion the cliffs suffer every year.

Then “Larry OB” or Larry O’Brien responded to the post with this:

“In all fairness to Dave Bunnnell, [ed.:who performed a study of sections of cliffs cited by Debbie] back in 2008 he probably wasn’t aware of this (attached) photo of the early development of Sunset Cliffs.  I think Devil’s Pot was filled and buried out in front of the mansion at Osprey Street.”

The San Francisco-based court also said federal officials must stop demanding that ballots from selected voters be segregated.

Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney / rsn – POLITICO / November 2, 2026

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Justice Department to stop threatening state and local election officials with criminal prosecution over their handling of disputes about voter qualifications.

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson also ordered the Trump administration to cease demanding that election workers remove voters from statewide rolls, refuse to issue ballots to specific voters or segregate ballots cast in the midterms based on the administration’s claims that some voters are ineligible.

November 2nd Monday 12 pm – 1 pm Interfaith Vigil for Earth Justice
November 3rd Tuesday — Last Day to Vote in Mid-Terms; protect the vote — keep in tune; be aware of Trump’s efforts to rig the elections. The OB Rag will have an all-day Live Blog. 

November 4th  Wednesday 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm Monthly Social for Makers, Tinkerers and Creatives

November 4th Wednesday 8 pm – 9 pm No Kings Post-Election Call: What Happened In the event of election interference or sabotage,

November 5th Thursday 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm BikeSD’s Gears & Cheer 2026

November 6th Friday 6 pm – 9 pm Boot Scootin’ Boogie fundraiser for SNAP Spay Neuter Action

November 6th Friday 10 am -1:15 pm  FILM SCREENING : WHAT THE RIVER KNOWscajon/

November 6th Friday 5 pm – 9 Final Market! San Diego Sustainable Night Market

By Staff

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

The full City Council is adjourned this week for elections.

Thursday, November 5:

Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, 9:00 a.m.

Agenda:

Item 2: Proposed Revisions to Council Policies 900-20 Naming of City Assets and 000-40 Marketing Partnerships

Why it matters: The proposed revisions appear to strengthen transparency and oversight while maximizing potential revenue. But in a cash-poor city that continues to squander public trust, this issue will always need close scrutiny.

From San Diego Police Department

Shortly before 8:30 p.m., on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, officers from Western Division responded to reports of a fight between two men on the sea wall at 5000 block of Newport Ave. in Ocean Beach.

When officers arrived, they found Jorge Corona Vilchis, 61, critically injured. Officers gave first aid until San Diego Fire-Rescue arrived and took over. Corona Vilchis was taken to a local hospital, where he died.

Local Artists Associated with San Diego Museum of Art Sponsoring Exhibition

A group of local artists associated with the San Diego Museum of Art are sponsoring an exhibit in downtown Ocean Beach starting Tuesday, November 3rd. The exhibition entitled Takeover: Small-Scale Works will consist of fifty-five paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, and mixed-media works by forty artists, none of which are larger than 16 inches in any direction.

This is all happening at SHIFT Gallery at 4847 Newport Avenue (across the street from Target) by the San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild. Barbara Sexton, nationally known artist and retired Mesa College art professor, selected the art from 221 entries in a juried competition.

Takeover will run November 3 through November 17 at SHIFT Gallery. SHIFT is open seven days a week from noon to six p.m. and by appointment. The public is invited to meet participating artists at a gallery reception on Thursday, November 5, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

By Scott Chipman / Times of San Diego / Oct. 30, 2026

San Diego is preparing to make one of the most consequential public-land decisions in its history. The proposed Midway Rising development would commit nearly 50 acres of publicly owned property to a private development arrangement lasting 105 years.

Before making that commitment, city leaders should answer fundamental questions about housing demand, public subsidies, infrastructure, and whether this project represents the best long-term use of irreplaceable public land.

First, where is the demonstrated demand for thousands of additional housing units?

California has experienced population declines in recent years, while San Diego’s population growth has been modest. Meanwhile, thousands of apartments have recently been constructed throughout the region, with additional developments underway.

Where is the independent analysis demonstrating that San Diego needs this concentration of new housing at this location? How much demand represents genuine population growth versus residents simply relocating from existing neighborhoods?

Relocation doesn’t necessarily create new housing demand. It can leave vacancies elsewhere, potentially undermining existing neighborhoods and property values.

Second, what does “affordable housing” actually mean, and who pays for it?

By Debbie L. Sklar / Special to the OB Rag

Some things can’t help but change even if we don’t like it.

Take Ocean Beach, Sunset Cliffs and the coastline around Point Loma, which surely looks different to locals and maybe even tourists who often visit. One of its most interesting natural features, the Devil’s Pot, has been gone for decades, but do you know why?

The Devil’s Pot was an unusual rock formation along the Sunset Cliffs more than 100 years ago. It was also what geologists call a “littoral sink,” formed through coastal erosion and the collapse of rock above a sea cave. How the Devil’s Pot got its name is unclear, but the unusual formation was a distinctive feature of the coastline, according to NSS News, October 2008. Here’s what it stated about Sunset Cliffs and the Devil’s Pot:

San Diego’s Sunset Cliffs region is pockmarked with a dense series of caves. On the bluffs above is a strikingly circular collapse pit surrounded by a fence, just a stone’s throw from Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. It drops about 40 feet into a short sea cave with a single seaward entrance. The cave is in thin-bedded marine siltstones and sandstones known as the Point Loma formation, and formed along vertical joints.

By Michael Angelo Hernandez

Another man loses his life under the custody of the president’s pseudo-paramilitary force, ICE. On Wednesday, October 28, San Diego County confirmed the name of the deceased inmate as Guillermo Pascual Verganza. The 43-year-old Guatemalan man died inside the Otay Mesa Detention Center on Saturday, October 24. In their official press release, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said:

“At approximately 11:31 a.m. Oct. 24, facility staff observed Jimenez in his assigned safety cell and attempted to wake him after he was unresponsive. Facility staff contacted medical personnel, declared a medical emergency, and called 911. Medical personnel began cardiopulmonary resuscitation at approximately 11:38 a.m. Paramedics from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection arrived at approximately 11:52 a.m. and continued lifesaving measures. A paramedic pronounced Jimenez deceased at approximately 12:23 p.m.”

ICE’s press release originally misidentified Verganza as “Roberto Jimenez Gutierrez” and characterized him as a “criminal illegal alien”. Immediately following the announcement of his death, ICE listed the man’s alleged criminal history, including a 2024 conviction for selling liquor to a minor, prior arrests for battery against a spouse, and child abuse among other charges. Charges which his family insists are all made up.

By Rhea Caoile / Fox5SanDiego / Oct 24, 2026

A woman riding an e-bike in Ocean Beach was seriously injured Friday evening, October 23, after she was hit by a vehicle driven by a man under the influence of alcohol, the San Diego Police Department said.

According to SDPD, a 52-year-old woman was riding an e-bike eastbound in the bike lane near 4700 West Point Loma Blvd. around 7:11 p.m.