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Source has written 4450 articles for the OB Rag!

Darrell Issa Needs to Resign Unless He Retracts Support for Trump’s Sedition

January 18, 2021 by Source

By Emily Sinsky and Zachary Searight / Times of San Diego / January 17, 2021

If Rep. Darrell Issa is going to uphold his oath to serve the people of the 50th District, he must stop abetting the destruction of our democracy.

An elected representative cannot condemn the violence of groups such as the insurrectionists at the Capitol or Defend East County and at the same time cast a vote in support of their effort to overturn the election results. By voting against the election results certification, Issa essentially attempted to finish the job started by those who stormed the Capitol just hours after he and other Congress members were forced into protective custody before they were able to cast their votes.

In the past, election results have never been partisan. Before this insurgency, it was possible to agree with Trump politically, align oneself with the policies he aligns with, and openly run as a “Trump Conservative,” as Issa did, without abandoning one’s commitment to the democratic process. Those days are over.

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Members of Trump’s 2020 Re-election Campaign Helped Organize Rally that Ignited Capitol Insurrection

January 18, 2021 by Source

by: Associated Press / Jan 17, 2021

Members of President Donald Trump’s failed presidential campaign played key roles in orchestrating the Washington rally that spawned a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to an Associated Press review of records, undercutting claims the event was the brainchild of the president’s grassroots supporters.

A pro-Trump nonprofit group called Women for America First hosted the “Save America Rally” on Jan. 6 at the Ellipse, an oval-shaped, federally owned patch of land near the White House. But an attachment to the National Park Service public gathering permit granted to the group lists more than half a dozen people in staff positions for the event who just weeks earlier had been paid thousands of dollars by Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. Other staff scheduled to be “on site” during the demonstration have close ties to the White House.

Since the siege, several of them have scrambled to distance themselves from the rally.

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The Last Speech of Martin Luther King: ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’ – The Full Text

January 18, 2021 by Source

The day before Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, he gave his final speech, known as ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’ speech. Here’s the full text.

By The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., MEMPHIS, Tenn.,/ April 3, 1968

Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world. And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, “Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?” I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn’t stop there.

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Ocean Beach in 1978

January 18, 2021 by Source

Here’s a Channel 8 news report about Ocean Beach in 1978 by reporter Cathy Clark.

It’s a great journey down memory lane for some – those of us who lived in OB that year.

But also, it’s a reminder of the problems OB has had over the decades. Check out the complaints by residents, businesses and visitors – do they sound similar?

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San Diego’s Right-Wing Extremist Roots, from KKK to QAnon

January 15, 2021 by Source

Hosted by Steve Chiotakis / KCRW / Jan. 14, 2021

The death of military veteran Ashli Babbitt at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 is shining a light on far-right extremism in San Diego County. Family and friends say the Ocean Beach resident was fervent in her beliefs on social media, amplifying QAnon conspiracy theories and anti-immigrant sentiment.

“Our region’s history of reactionary fascism goes back several decades,” says Joel Day, a research fellow at the USC Center for Public Diplomacy who specializes in combating violent extremism and homeland security. “It started with the KKK movement. There was a Grand Wizard in Santee, which is still nicknamed ‘Klantee.’ We saw, during the early 2000s, the rise of the militia movement with the Minutemen at our border. Now it’s spiraled into what I would say is three different silos of right-wing extremism.”

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Gov. Newsom Deploys National Guard to Protect State Capitol

January 15, 2021 by Source

From 13CBS-Sacramento
Gov. Gavin Newsom has deployed the California National Guard in Sacramento to protect the State Capitol ahead of the presidential inauguration. In the week since the attacks on the U.S. Capitol, the FBI has warned capital cities around the nation of potentially armed protests as inauguration day nears.

On Thursday, Newsom announced a series of actions the state is taking to “bolster security.” The governor said California’s State Operations Center is working with federal, state and law enforcement to assess threats and share intelligence “to ensure those disgraceful actions are not repeated here.”

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Santee City Councilmember Should Resign as Backer of D.C. Insurrectionists

January 15, 2021 by Source

Dustin Trotter of Defend East County, was just elected to the Santee City Council (by just 5 votes)

By Matt Jenkins / Times of San Diego / Jan. 15, 2021

In the wake of insurrection at the nation’s Capitol, the reality of who engaged in these acts of domestic terrorism, and how they affect us at home, is something that must be addressed.

We know that local vigilante group Defend East County were posted up on the Capitol steps, less than 100 feet away from the doors that were breached in this insurrection. The group’s Justin Haskins was live-feeding as the MAGA Mob beat law enforcement with flag poles, hockey sticks, crutches and whatever else they had on them.

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Michael Moore: ‘Know This: Fascism Loses. Racism Loses. Right-Wing Crazy Loses.’

January 15, 2021 by Source

By Michael Moore / Michael Moore’s Facebook Page – Reader-Supported-News / January 15, 2021

C’mon, MAGA Nation!

Losing sucks. Give up!

Just meet us half-way!

The reason our side ultimately wins is because we’re on the side of love, peace, science, hip-hop, healthy food, libraries, quilts, gardens, every kid gets a trophy — and we’re the ones working to see that you’ll never pay a doctor bill again, and we’re gonna instantly see that your wage gets DOUBLED at your crappy minimum wage job, and we’re gonna get you that vaccine NOW and fucking kick Covid’s ass for you.

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‘Tomcat’ – OB Blues Musician From the Seventies – Dies of COVID

January 13, 2021 by Source

This will hit die-hard OB blues fans hard. One of OB’s favorite blues musicians from the 1970’s, Tom “Tomcat” Courtney, has just passed after a battle with COVID-19. He was 91.

Here’s the report from NBC7:

Friends, loved ones and local music fans are mourning the death of Tom “Tomcat” Courtney, a Texas transplant and San Diego Music Award winner who was the longtime anchor of San Diego’s blues scene.

Courtney, who died Monday afternoon, was 91. He is survived by his longtime partner, Jojo Riegel, and a large extended family. Riegel told NBC 7 that his death followed a battle with the coronavirus that began in December.

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San Diego Police Sided With Pro-Trump Supporters During Clash in Pacific Beach on Saturday

January 12, 2021 by Source

Some observers questions whether police showed bias in the way they responded to Trump supporters versus counterprotesters, some of whom identified as anti-fascist

By David Hernandez / San Diego Union-Tribune / Jan. 11, 2021

When San Diego police declared an unlawful assembly during dueling protests in Pacific Beach on Saturday, Trump supporters stood on one side of a line of officers. Counterprotesters, some of whom identified as anti-fascist, stood on the other side of the police formation.

The Union-Tribune reported that both sides had skirmished quite a bit that day.

But it turns out the order to disperse applied only to one side — the group of counterprotesters, some of whom threw bottles, rocks and eggs at officers, a police spokesman said Monday.

Three counterprotesters were arrested: two adults who police said failed to disperse and a juvenile accused of assaulting an officer.

The police response to the two demonstrations raised questions among some observers about whether police showed bias based on race and/or ideology.

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Seriously Disturbed by Assault on Capitol Building

January 12, 2021 by Source

Boom!

By K-B Gressitt

Boom! Boom!! Boom!!! Voices raucous and demanding roiled up the hill. Smoke invaded the air.

“They’re rioting on Main Street!” I yelled, leaping from my desk, out the door, and into a combat crouch, armed and ready to defend my town from Trump’s insurrectionists, returned from D.C.

The young man raking live oak leaves from my patio looked at me and said, “It’s just the church.”

I stood, my unloaded Daisy Red Ryder BB gun dangling across my forearm, like Barbara Stanwick’s rifle in The Big Valley, and I realized just how disturbed I was by last Wednesday’s assault on the U.S. Capitol Building.

Seriously disturbed.

Sure, like anyone with even one tiptoe in the social media tulips, I pretty much knew Trump was fomenting a violent disruption of the electoral vote count. Yet I too watched in shock and rage as Trump’s deadly troops breached the building’s impotent perimeters, assaulted its protectors and smeared its walls with the well-digested lies the president and his henchfolk fed them.

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‘Those Who Called Me a Terrorist Are the Real Terrorists’

January 11, 2021 by Source

By Ammar Campa-Najjar / Times of San Diego / January 7, 2021

Wednesday’s terrorist attack was painful to process on many levels. People I love were in the Capitol, hiding under their desks, recounting experiences that reminded me of my own in the war zone of Gaza.

For years, I’ve been called a “terrorist trying to infiltrate congress” by my former Congressman and the outgoing President’s supporters because of my Palestinian-Mexican American heritage. Now, the world has seen who the real national security threats, domestic terrorists, infiltrators are.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11, when patriotic Americans aboard Flight 93 spent their final living moments fighting hijackers to save the Capitol from attack and prevent terrorists from claiming the symbolic victory of smashing the center of American government.

Twenty years later, that same Temple of Democracy came under attack by terrorists who stormed the halls of Congress, forced our elected officials to evacuate, and resulted in four people killed. This time the terrorists weren’t outside fundamentalists recruited by Bin Laden, they were our fellow citizens — fueled by hateful nativism and emboldened by a vacating President’s falsehoods and false hopes.

We’ve done to ourselves what our enemies could only dream of doing, and that is what’s most heartbreaking of all.

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Invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment – Sara Jacobs and Chuck Schumer Are Right

January 7, 2021 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor

In medicine, a malignancy that threatens the life of a patient, must be removed.

So, too, in politics. When an American president threatens the very existence of democracy, he must be removed. And a constitutional remedy does exist.

Rep. Sara Jacobs of San Diego and Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer are correct. The Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet must invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment asap.

Section 4 states that if the vice president and a majority of Cabinet concludes the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” they can put that in writing and send it to congressional leaders.

Once that happens, the vice president immediately becomes acting president.

If the president disputes it, (which he will) Congress decides the matter, with a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate needed to keep the vice president in charge. Surely, that discussion can eat up the remaining 13 days of the Trump presidency and deprive him of more abuses of power.

Quickest solution and should have been triggered last night.

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‘Most of My Predictions for 2020 Have Come True’

January 5, 2021 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor

Exactly one year ago on January 2nd, 2020, I wrote a column with 10 predictions to cover the next 18 months. Checking now, almost all have come to fruition 6 months early.

In order of rank: Wins and Losses.

Best Prediction: “There will be a woman on the Democratic 2020 presidential ticket. Why? Because Nancy Pelosi will insist and California will deliver. That candidate will be Kamala Harris (whether as President or Vice-President).”

Next Up: Mitt Romney will rise to be the “conscience” of the Republican Senate. Indeed, the only GOP member to vote for impeachment; the earliest to confront the “election fraud” allegations; same with the separation of families on the border. And now his quote of the day,” “The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic.”

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January 2021 Events from the Ocean Beach Green Center

January 4, 2021 by Source

January Events All events are online and free unless stated otherwise.

Every Saturday at 10:30 a.m. Climate Mobilization Coalition Zoom Meeting. January 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th.

January 18th Monday 10:30 am – 11:30 am 33rd Annual All Peoples Celebration Alliance San Diego is proud to present the 33rd annual All Peoples Celebration, honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Normally held as a breakfast with more than 1,000 attendees, this year’s APC event will be delivered virtually. We invite you to join us for this meaningful event by reserving your tickets here. $40More info: https://www.alliancesd.org/all-peoples-celebration

January 19th Tuesday 11 am – noon Zero Waste Bathroom Webinar

January 19th Tuesday 7 pm – 8:30 pm How Plant-Based Dieting Combats Climate Change
January 20th Wednesday 12 pm – 2:30 pm San Diego Black Women Entrepreneurs Summit

January 21st Thursday 6 pm – 8 pm Basic Bike Skills

January 23rd. Saturday 7 pm – 10 pm Spacechip Earth (Film Screening)

January 27th Wednesday 5:30 pm – 7 pm State of Green Building

And much, much more – come inside.

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Only thing good happened in 2020!

January 4, 2021 by Source

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New Cannabis Bureau May Loosen City Policies in San Diego

December 31, 2020 by Source

City streamlining enforcement, may consider looser regulations and ideas like consumption lounges

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / Dec. 31, 2020

The new San Diego Cannabis Permitting Bureau launching this winter will streamline regulation of the city’s cannabis businesses, step up enforcement and explore new ideas like “consumption lounges” and delivery-only services.

The bureau also may focus on loosening city policies under New Mayor Todd Gloria and a Democrat-dominated City Council, who are expected to take a more permissive approach to legalized cannabis.

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City Council Okays Gloria’s 5-Month Extension With SDG&E

December 31, 2020 by Source

By Rob Nikolewski / San Diego Union-Tribune / Dec. 31, 2020

The San Diego City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a proposal brought forth by Mayor Todd Gloria to extend the city’s existing franchise electric and gas agreement with San Diego Gas & Electric by an additional five months.

The extension, which runs through June 1, continues the terms of the current agreement that was set to expire Jan. 17 and is designed to give city officials more time to negotiate a new deal while clearing up uncertainty regarding the millions of dollars SDG&E pays to the city in franchise fees.

Gloria’s proposal to the council comes after the newly elected mayor and his staff negotiated with the utility over the Christmas holidays. On Tuesday, SDG&E’s board of directors agreed to add five months to the existing contract.

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Trump Incites Chaos for Jan. 6, Both Inside and Outside the Capitol

December 31, 2020 by Source

JANUARY 6, the day Congress meets in a joint session to accept the results of the presidential election, should be a testament to America’s enduring democracy.

Yet it may become a demonstration of its poor health. President Trump, along with craven enablers such as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), is seeking to upend what should be solemn but largely perfunctory proceedings to ratify the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.

The result could be a shameless show of support by numerous congressional Republicans for erasing the votes of millions of Americans — and, perhaps, mayhem incited by the president in the streets of D.C. “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!,” Mr. Trump tweeted earlier this month in an appeal to his supporters to come to the capital to buttress his campaign to overturn the election results.

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Mayor Gloria Proposes 5 Month Extension With SDG&E – City Council Votes Today Wed.

December 30, 2020 by Source

From the San Diego Union-Tribune, Wed., Dec. 30, 2020

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has worked out a proposed extension of the city’s soon-to-expire franchise agreement with San Diego Gas & Electric that will add just over five months to the current deal — through June 1.

Gloria will present the proposed extension before the City Council in a special meeting scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

“I urge the City Council to support it during their special meeting tomorrow,” Gloria said in a statement. “I thank SDG&E for working with me in a collaborative process.” In order for the proposed extension to go into effect, the city council has to approve it on a two-thirds vote — meaning at least six of the council’s nine members have to vote yes.

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County Health: Avoid Coastal Waters for 3 Days After Tuesday’s Rain

December 30, 2020 by Source

General Rain Advisory in Effect

The Department of Environmental Health has issued a GENERAL RAIN ADVISORY for the coastal waters of San Diego County due to contamination by urban runoff following rain.

Swimmers, surfers, and other ocean users are warned that levels of bacteria can rise significantly in ocean waters, especially near storm drains, creeks, rivers, and lagoon outlets that discharge urban runoff.

Activities such as swimming, surfing and diving should be avoided for 72 hours following rain.

The most recent rain event occurred December 29, 2020.

The GENERAL RAIN ADVISORY for urban runoff contamination applies to beaches from San Onofre State Beach south to Border Field, including Mission Bay and San Diego Bay. While many coastal outlets are posted with permanent metal warning signs, additional temporary signs are not posted for General Advisories.

When a General Advisory is issued:

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‘The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia’ – Or Maybe Back On

December 30, 2020 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor

Yes, it is a song, but a song that might presage the entire fate of the country.

The lyrics tell of a Gothic murder, lots of jealousy, infidelity, and an innocent man hanged.

Then ends with a bizarre twist, with the real murderer (the “little sister” of the man hanged) who confessed and warned,” Don’t trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer, ’cause the judge in the town’s got blood stains on his hands.”

The surprise ending or literary “plot twist” in this song, or any story, requires misdirecting the audience with “fake” information. The finale depends on the element of surprise.

The many surprises coming from Georgia begin with the two U.S. Senate races on January 5th. The outcome will determine not just the control of the U.S. Senate, but choice between deadlock and progress.

Already, this race is the most expensive contest in congressional history

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When Greta Thunberg Met Margaret Atwood… on Zoom

December 29, 2020 by Source

When Greta Thunberg met Margaret Atwood… on Zoom

This is what happened when teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and veteran author and environmentalist Margaret Atwood were brought together on a radio station.

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Where Sunset Cliffs Got Their Name

December 29, 2020 by Source

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Sports in 2020: They Should Have Been Stopped or It Was the Year the Champions Thrived

December 29, 2020 by Source

Editordude: Here’s two views of sports in 2020: sports should have been halted during the pandemic versus ‘everything was weird – except who won.’

2020: The Year Sports Should Have Stopped

In this awful year, sports didn’t deliver normalcy. But they did nudge us toward justice.

By Dave Zirin / The Nation / December 2020

This cursed year of 2020 should be remembered as the time when sports was put in a meat grinder, mixed with all manner of offal and served to us as hope.

Professional sports, we were told, represented a “return to normalcy” in a time that was anything but normal. “The games must go on” was the mantra, with athletes presented as “essential workers” by sports leagues and colleges desperate for their billion-dollar fix of television cash.

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105 Years Ago Charles Hatfield Made It Rain in San Diego. The Problem Was He Couldn’t Make It Stop.

December 29, 2020 by Source

By Allison McNearney / Daily Beast / Dec. 27, 2020

Since the beginning of time, humans have sought to stage-direct our environment. The drama of history may have proceeded through act after act, but the trickster in the story has remained the same: the weather.

Over the centuries, our methods for trying to control the elements have gotten ever more sophisticated, and outlandish. We’ve tried to dance the rain down, blast precipitation from the skies, give the atmosphere an electrical wake-up shock, and seed the clouds with chemicals to bend them to our will.

The pseudo-science of what was later dubbed pluviculture, or man’s attempt to artificially bring about rain, began to develop more rapidly in the early 20th century.

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OB – On a Winter’s Day

December 28, 2020 by Source

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Democracy and Education

December 23, 2020 by Source

By Thomas Ultican / Tulican / Dec. 19, 2020

Democracy and free universal public education are foundational American ideologies. They have engendered world renowned success for our experiment in government “by the people”. Two new books – Schoolhouse Burning by Derek Black and A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door by Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire – demonstrate that these principles which were integral to the American experiment are shockingly under serious attack by wealthy elites.

After his father Fred died in 1967, Charles Koch took a disparate set of assets – a cattle ranch, a minority share in an oil refinery and a gas gathering business – and stitched them together. Today it is the second largest privately held corporation in the world. In the excellent 2019 book, Kochland, Christopher Leonard states, “Koch would eventually build one of the largest lobbying and political influence machines in US history.”

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Look What the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ Gifted Us

December 22, 2020 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor

The amazing planetary “conjunction” of Jupiter and Saturn, aka, the “Star of Bethlehem,” appeared Monday in the morning and evening sky. And will be visible for several more days.

Not seen for over 800 years, this vision portends amazing graces. Just as the Three Wise Men witnessed the Star and trudged for days, through the desert to meet the newborn Savior; so, too has the current apparition lifted the aspirations of many to a higher level.

Hope.

Just look at the gifts that have already been unwrapped.

No, not the thousands of telescopes and binoculars purchased and put to early, good use as an introduction to astronomy; all thanks to the “conjunction.”

Nor the “Zoom” apps or the new game toys, cookbooks or bicycles.

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How Will the Ocean Fare Under a Biden Administration?

December 22, 2020 by Source

By David Helvarg

In 1890 the Census declared the frontier closed but in 1983 President Ronald Reagan established a new frontier, an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) stretching 200 miles out from America’s shoreline. At 3.4 million square miles it’s an area larger than our continental landmass.

Unfortunately for almost four years President Trump has treated the nation’s ocean frontier as little more than a gas station and a garbage dump as he attempted to open up 90 percent of U.S. coastal waters to oil and gas drilling despite bipartisan opposition from governors of coastal states. His administration also undermined environmental laws and regulations from clean water standards to mercury emissions in ways that continue to threaten U.S. coastal jobs, wildlife and seafood.

So, what can we expect from a Biden-Harris administration when it comes to our public seas and blue economy that’s worth an estimated $373 billion?

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