May 2017

By Brett Warnke

Every Sherlock needs his Moriarty. When Doyle’s great detective called his brilliant nemesis the “Napoleon of crime,” the reader kept reading to see London’s equally matched talents collide.

The great exposers in journalism, like Izzy Stone, America’s first blogger, self-published and changed the conversation when consensus was king. The great haters, meanwhile, purified public outrage at the crimes or embarrassments of those in power, and had the skill to peel the muck of sentiment and the grime of politeness.

Truth is uncomfortable. Facts are ugly. And hate is very real.

Ocean Beach-related Beaches Have Scored “Worst” Beach in 4 Out of Last 10 Years

On May 15th, Surfrider and Coastkeeper released the bad news:

188,000 pieces of trash were removed by more than 6,500 volunteers who cleaned up San Diego County beaches in 2016. 80 percent of all trash removed contained plastic.

But the bad news for OBcean and Point Lomans is that Sunset Cliffs was deemed one of the top two “trashiest” beaches in the County. Sunset Cliffs provided the most refuse on a per- volunteer basis, with an average of 7.65 pounds per person. The other was the Oceanside Pier. La Jolla Shores was the cleanest beach with 0.42 pounds of trash found per person.

By Niall Twohig / The Triton (UCSD) / May 11, 2017

Let’s begin with the bare facts: On May 10, 1970 George Winne Jr. stepped into Revelle Plaza. He held a sign that read “In God’s Name End the War.” Winne doused himself with gasoline, lit a match, and burst into flames. Students saw the burning man from a nearby building. They ran to him, beat out the flames. Winne was badly burnt. He died the next day.

Such facts can be deceiving. They only show the surface of reality. When we focus on the surface, we risk losing sight of the historical context surrounding Winne’s self-immolation. We also miss more profound secrets. I write now to whisper some of these secrets to you, so that you may whisper them to others.

By Curtis Yee / The Triton (UCSD) /May 10, 2017

Kingdom Come

May 10, 1970: M*A*S*H was still on TV, The Guess Who was at the top of the Billboard charts, and a little after 4 p.m., George Winne Jr., a UCSD graduate student, set himself on fire in the middle of Revelle Plaza.

Winne was standing in the the northeast corner of the plaza by Ridge Walk, covered in towels and holding a sign that read, “In the name of God, end the war.” A physics graduate student named Ralph J. Archuleta passed by Winne while he was dousing himself in gasoline. “I thought it was water and that he was just trying to cool himself off,” Archuleta said. He kept walking.

Then Winne set himself on fire.

By Dave Rice

How well can one eat for less than $5 a day? My family is about to find out.

According to the latest available statistics, 285,000 people in San Diego County receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Once referred to as “food stamps,” here the government food assistance program goes under the moniker CalFresh.

By Frank Gormlie

A firestorm of unprecedented proportions has been unleashed. With the FBI Director James Comey firing, Trump has threatened the rule of law in this country and has moved to undermine any Constitutional accountability that his administration has to face.

This is the very first time in our history that an American president has fired an FBI director while the director was investigating the president.