Author: Frank Gormlie

Nicole Crosby is “cautiously optimistic,” she told the Rag this morning, the day after her apparent victory over former Republican Richard Bailey for the District 2 city council seat. Currently, she leads Bailey by 9 percentage points and by a little over 3,000 votes. Ballot counting continues.

Crosby leads Bailey 54.5% to 45.6%, with 18,188 votes to 15,218.

Crosby spoke to me this morning when I called to congratulate her. She sounded happy but exhausted.Yet she felt the numbers would hold. She also told me that Bailey had yet to call  her to concede or congratulate her.

Crosby:

“This race has always been about fighting for my neighbors in District 2. From the parents and teachers at my daughter’s school, to the librarians, emergency service workers and skilled trades workers in our community, we did this together. Working families are the backbone of San Diego and we deserve results from City Hall.

>Nov. 3rd:– the Day Americans Take Back Our Country

8:40 pm Democrats take the Senate

Democrats Clinch Senate as Voters Deliver Blistering Rebuke to Trump; Democratic candidates won races in Republican strongholds, flipping Senate seats in

• Kansas,
• Ohio,
• North Carolina,
• South Carolina and even
• Texas. On a night shaping up as a Democratic rout, President Trump told The New York Times that he would accept the election results.

8:14 pm Crosby and Abraham take early leads in San Diego City Council races 2 and 4 with 689,666 ballots counted overall county-wide

Nicole Crosby at this stage has a 9 point lead over Richard Bailey in District 2, 54.5% to 45.5%.

Martha Abraham is in a much tighter race with incumbent Henry Foster III with a 3.3 point lead, 51.7% to 48.3%.

8:05 pm Xavier Becerra is first Mexican-American elected as governor of California

Xavier Becerra, a Democrat and former Biden administration official, began the race for California governor with poll numbers so low that his own party chairman urged him to drop out. Now, Mr. Becerra will become the next governor of the nation’s most populous state, The Associated Press said on Tuesday, a rise that was considered improbable a year ago. Mr. Becerra, 68, is the first Latino elected as governor of California, a milestone that punctuates a decades-long demographic shift in the state.

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.”

It appears that the City of San Diego is getting ready to turn off the automated license plate readers. At a Wednesday, Oct. 21, council budget committee meeting, enough members voted for a proposal to rescind city approval of the use of the controversial technology and end the city’s contract to use ALPR cameras provided by Flock.

Councilmember Kent Lee was joined by Councilmembers Henry Foster III, Sean Elo-Rivera and Vivian Moreno in voting to stop using the readers, reported UT writer Teri Figueroa. Take these four plus Councilmember Stephen Whitburn — who very recently announced that he is withdrawing support for using ALPRs – and you have enough votes for the city to stop using the cameras.

The issue will have to come, of course, before the full council and Figueroa says that any vote could happen before the end of the year. With public opinion heightened on the issue, it’s very likely this being an election year that will happen. Yet, any vote would have to be sufficient to override a possible veto by Mayor Gloria; that’s a 6-3 tally.

Gloria continues to support the cameras.

Alex Gibney’s documentary “Musk” shows a man who has delivered important innovations for the public good, and who now holds a dangerous concentration of power over our data, our democracy and our idea of what it means to be human.

By Rev. Michael J. Christensen

My tech friend Michael Dotson and I watched Alex Gibney’s new documentary “Musk” at Fashion Valley last weekend, so you won’t have to. It runs nearly four hours. It is meticulously researched and theologically provocative. Musk did not cooperate, though his father and other family members did, so Gibney uses an AI-generated avatar to speak Musk’s own recorded words. The effect is eerie, dare I say, demonic, and fitting for a film about a man who wants to remake humanity through technology.

The film credits what Musk has built, with help from administrations of both parties. SpaceX’s reusable rockets slashed the cost of reaching orbit and now carry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. Tesla pushed the auto industry toward electric vehicles. Starlink connects rural communities and disaster zones, and it has been a lifeline for Ukraine since 2022.

But the film also catalogs promises that never arrived: a crewed Mars mission by 2024, a million robotaxis by 2020, and fully self-driving cars that are still “next year.” And it shows a growing pattern of social and political control.

Join the Club’s October 25 Meeting at Point Loma Assembly Hall: City Council Candidate Nicole Crosby will be our featured speaker

Sign in and socializing starts at 3:30, meeting begins at 4 PM. And be sure to mail or drop off your ballot and VOTE no later than Tuesday Nov. 3!

We’re asking this outrageous question: could this month — October of 2026 — actually be the very last month of American democracy?

This is preposterous! How hyperbolic you yell back! What are you thinking!?

How could any intelligent American in our present day country even consider that after 250 years of democracy this particular month is the last one? This headline is just click-bait and whatever follows is really not worthy of my time and energy to even consider.

Um, okay. If you’re still here, perhaps curiosity has forced you to remain. Or maybe you are looking for a laugh, or another example of TDS — Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Yet, there is a growing gnawing in your conscience. You have enough of an understanding of what’s going on in America to know that this is not normal, this whole Trump affair has taken all of us down a dark tunnel and maybe, just maybe there is a kernel of truth in this question — whether this Halloween month is our last one where democracy still exists. And whether it will still exist after the dust and dirt from the mid-terms settle. Can we even consider what this means?

How could a country with such an experiment in democracy begun by our founding fathers and mothers a quarter of a millennium ago — bogged down with slavery and the mass extinction of native peoples — tested by our bloodiest war ever, the Civil War, tossed about by world wars and the wars of imperialism, by recessions and depressions, floods, earthquakes and wildfires, now still standing by all the reforms of the 20th century, be currently and fatally challenged by the worst and most corrupt and authoritarian president in our history?

How could we be in this place? How could this have happened despite all of our better angels guiding us out of the promise and morass of our history?

But that’s the whole point! This is where we’re at.

Due to all the threats and actions taken by Trump and all his allies they have brought us here.

And just where is that exactly?

We’re on the precipice of the one of the most dangerous moments in modern American history.

On September 22, local news reported that there had been four rapes and one sexual assault at or near the campus of California State University San Marcos. Given the heightened awareness these days of how universities treat such sexual assaults like at Cornell, one would think that the local media would be on top of the most up-to-date news of the cases, their investigations, possible suspects.

Yet it’s been a full two weeks since the last news report of the scandal in San Marcos. And according to our take on the media, there hasn’t been anything.

The rapes and assault all occurred within a month — three on campus and one at an on-campus residency hall.

The only announcement coming out of the university administration is what they’re going to do to prevent future assaults.

The four incidents of rape reportedly occurred from Sept. 5 to 18, Cal State San Marcos representative Jerry McCormick said.

• Sept. 5 incident happened at The Quad Residence Hall
• Sept. 6 incident happened at the University Village Apartment
• Sept. 13 incident happened at Black Oak Hall
• Sept. 18 incident happened at The Quad Residence Hall
• Sept 21 sexual assault in Black Oak Hall.

All incidents are unrelated, and in each case, the people involved knew each other, except for the most recent incident.

The OB Rag is endorsing Martha Abraham for the District 4 seat on the San Diego City Council. Abraham is a registered Democrat running in a intra-party race (two Democrats) and her core campaign endorsement roster features major environmental, healthcare, and labor organizations.

Over the last year or so, careful observers of City Hall have noticed Abraham’s activism which is rooted in her community. She has shown a commitment to responsible planning and growth, environmental justice, historic preservation, and putting residents first. She has voiced opposition to some of the City’s poorly thought out upzoning policies (like the Bonus Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Program and the under-the-radar rezoning in her community known as Footnote 7), which were supported by past and current City Councilmembers.

She believes San Diego can address its housing needs while protecting the character and qualities that make each neighborhood unique. These words, “People first, always,” express her community service mindset and desire to help build a better San Diego for all.

About Martha Abraham
Martha Abraham is a registered nurse (who works in a hospital neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)),

At a campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, while discussing the war with Iran and its economic effects, Trump suggested that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego as a “small price to pay.”

“It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe,” Trump said. “They can take out a city, let ’em take out Los Angeles, let ’em take out San Diego.”

The comments drew cheers, laughter and applause from the relatively small sized rally. But they laughed and cheered anyhow at the thought that Iran could bomb and wipe out up to 10 million people who live in the two cities. Because they’re only blue — they / we don’t matter.

They laughed in Nebraska, but no one in California was smiling. Here’s some of the reaction, as compiled by Patch San Diego.

Gov. Gavin Newsom responded on social media, pointing to Trump’s previous deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to California before criticizing the president’s latest remarks.

“Donald Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego,” Newsom wrote. “He is deranged and dangerous.”

Newsom’s press office also condemned the remarks, noting that more than 10 million people live in the two metropolitan areas.

“Let’s be clear: The President is advocating for an attack on 10+ million U.S. residents in two of America’s largest cities,” the governor’s press office wrote on social media. “This is not normal. None of this is. And we will continue to remind folks of that every day.”

Democrat With Local Roots Outshines Triple-Time Trump Voter and Carpetbagger Richard Bailey

Candidate Nicole Crosby has won the OB Rag’s endorsement for the general election to be held in 30 days. Coming to this stance, I looked at Nicole’s campaign website, my experiences over the last year with Richard Bailey, reviewed candidate debate reports from the U-T, Times of San Diego and our own Rag account.

Bailey has been campaigning for over a year and has polished off a number of campaign phrases — he’s into policies not politics, and the city doesn’t have a money problem, it has a spending problem. Yet, of course, he’s into politics.

Although not perfect, Crosby has a more compassionate heart than Bailey does when you compare their positions on San Diego’s homelessness, rent-control, city staffing,Trump’s immigration policies and the constitutional rights of all citizens in the area.

Of note are Crosby’s local roots — they particularly stand out in heavy contrast to the current District 2 officeholder, Jen Campell. Crosby and her family have lived in Clairemont for many years; she was the president of the PTA for her daughter’s school and was the chair of the Clairemont Town Council. This is also a huge contrast between her and the other candidate, Richard Bailey. Bailey

There was a photo accompanying today’s San Diego U-T report on last night’s District 2 candidate forum at the Point Loma Library. But the photo is very suspicious. It’s very unflattering of Nicole Crosby — it shows her with her face all scrunched up, furrowed brow as she jabs her finger while being very emphatic while Richard Bailey sits there cool as a cucumber (which he is not, by the way).

The photo is a reflection of the old sexist attitudes about women —