Category: Civil Rights

By Jacob Knutson, Jim Saksa / Democracy Docket / August 24, 2026

In a victory for the White House, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed President Donald Trump’s sweeping attack on mail voting to go forward, bolstering his long-running effort to restrict voting access ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

The Court Monday granted emergency appeals filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and a dozen Republican-led states against a lower court’s order blocking the implementation of the president’s March executive order, which sought to increase federal control over mail voting.*

The decision brings the Trump administration one step closer to implementing the order ahead of November’s midterm elections. However, the Court only stayed one of the two court orders restricting the government from effectuating Trump’s decree, a permanent injunction applying to 23 Democratic-led states and Washington, D.C. A separate, nationwide injunction remains in place.

The Court’s three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson writing that the Court’s decision could wreak havoc on the upcoming elections, which are less than three months away.

“This ruling violates well-established precedents concerning this Court’s equitable discretion and needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections,” she wrote.

by Ernie McCray

I sat the other night
squirming in my seat
as a woman,
Tina Cordova,
a co-founder and executive director
of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium,
spoke about our country’s neglect
in respect
to protecting
people who suffered the effects
of the “Trinity Nuclear Test”
in New Mexico,
how since that day
in July, 1945,

By Angelo Haynes

The city of San Diego is a diverse community, home to many cultures that define the identity of America’s finest city; whether it be your favorite local Pho restaurant on El Cajon Blvd. or the murals of Chicano Park and the World Beat Center. San Diego is an embarrassment of cultural riches.

In Southeast San Diego, one woman has been preserving her native Chamorro culture for over 27 years — using her passion for traditional Chamorro art to connect with neighbors in the Skyline Hills neighborhood, all the way to representing Guam in cultural delegations internationally.

Rosemary Mantanona is a local dance group leader or Fafa’nå’gue (Cultural Leader in the Chamorro language) and cultural activist. In this role, she leads by example as a role model for the young men and women who have the opportunity to be in her dance group or “Guma” in Chamorro.

Imåhen Taotao Tåno’, which means “Images of the People of the Land” in native Chamorro language, is the first Guma established in San Diego that focuses on Chamorro cultural preservation. Ms. Mantanona migrated to the US in 1995 and created her Guma in 1999.

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

Monday, August 24: City Council, 2:00 p.m.

Agenda:

Item 200: Proposed FY 2027 Statement of Budgetary Principles

Why it matters: Significant addition: “The Risk Management Department will provide an annual presentation … detailing City’s settlement and judgement payments, including settlements and claim count information for the San Diego Police Department.”

Item 201: Repeal of Measure C Amending Ordinance … to the San Diego Municipal Code and Local Coastal Program

Why it matters: This is an opportunity for the public to speak against Senator Akilah Weber Pierson’s legislative proposals to get around a CA Supreme Court decision that has upheld the 30-foot height limit on the gargantuan Midway Rising project.

>Editordude: We asked D2 candidate Nicole Crosby to send us a position paper and we’d publish it without edit (we also asked Richard Bailey the same) — but at this date, she has not. So, here is a lengthy statement from her campaign website:

Make San Diego More Affordable

Nicole’s vision is for stronger neighborhoods that keep longtime residents in and connected to the heart of our communities by focusing on projects that are community-centered, close to schools, work, recreational spaces, and other essential amenities.

Rein in the cost of living by focusing on projects that expand opportunity for home ownership and keep rents affordable.

Work with the San Diego Housing Commission to create programs that expand housing opportunities and subsidies for seniors and working families.
Programs that help support families and seniors access childcare, healthcare, and essential services needed to thrive in their neighborhoods.

Fix San Diego’s Potholes, Sewers, Sidewalks, and Roads
Our infrastructure in District 2 is in desperate need of repair. As your next Councilmember, she will work alongside our County and State partners to ensure execution of a one year, five year, and ten year roadmap that will deliver world class streets service and infrastructure to our communities. Nicole’s safe street priorities include:

A small group of Mayor Gloria loyalists have attacked Frank Gormlie –“Editordude” at the OB Rag, the Rag itself and Ocean Beach in a recently published book — as well as in online interviews.

Authors Jim Miller and Kelly Mayhew grouped a series of interviews of local San Diegans into a book published in 2025, which included interviews with three individuals who all disparaged the Rag and Gormlie. They include Doug Porter who Gormlie lifted from obscurity after a 30-year hiatus from San Diego into becoming an early writer for the online Rag, and Ricardo Ochoa, a local attorney whom Gormlie has never met and vice versa.

This clique of Gloriaistas has supported and endorsed the mayor over these last six or more years, despite any evidence that he has been worthy of their support, and have opposed those who are critical of the mayor — like Gormlie and the Rag. While the Rag supported Gloria’s opponents, like Democrat Barbara Bry and Geneviéve Jones-Wright (probably the most left-wing mayoral candidate in San Diego’s history), Miller and others dumped on those with the Rag.

The most inflammatory interview by Miller and Mayhew was with Gregg Robinson, a retired college professor, who went on a rant which attacked Gormlie and the Rag in a red-baiting, terrorist- baiting, defamatory screed, filled with lies, half-truths and hypocrisies. (In a 9-page rant, nearly a third was used to attack Gormlie and the Rag.)

For one example where Robinson personally attacked Gormlie, in the interview published online, Robinson without any proof accuses Gormlie of selling drugs at West Point — which Gormlie attended for a couple of years. This was a gross lie, which could be potentially actionable as defamation.

The charges of of red-baiting and worse stem from a series of accusations against Gormlie’s early history as a community organizer in Ocean Beach. Robinson accuses Editordude of being Weather Underground, a militant anti-war group that evolved out of the movements in the sixties and early seventies. Robinson uses the group’s name three times in an obvious attempt at smearing Gormlie. Many in those former movements understand what the group was, but Robinson plays on people’s fears and trepidation with hopes that people will equate the group as a domestic terrorist organization and then, nullify the community work Gormlie did, including launching the original OB Rag newspaper in 1971. This, then, is clearly red-baiting and an example of terrorist-baiting.

The disparagement of Gormlie and the Rag comes at a dangerous time in modern American history, as the Trump administration is going after journalists, progressive media, and attacking progressive groups like the ACLU, Southern Poverty Legal Center and the National Lawyers Guild. Not only that, but centrists Democrats are currently red-baiting Democratic Socialists who have been winning primary elections.

What’s going on here?

By Mat Wahlstrom

Last week was the second anniversary of the publication of this “satire but not really” piece. As the author, I am struck by how those who self-identify as YIMBY continue to double-down on the Orwellian appropriation of words to mean something different from what they are commonly understood. (Which will be familiar to those who remember the Soviet Union and how their definition of the word “peace” was far different from that of the the rest of the world.)

But at the same time, I am gratified to see so many people have learned not to fall for their bad faith arguments and intentional deception any longer.

Read it yourself and see if you agree that what our electeds and their developer fellow travelers say follows this exact pattern of deliberate misrepresentation. In fact, I created a handy bingo card that you can use the next time you listen to our current mayor or anyone in his regime.

Herewith are the common terms with their insider meanings that every YIMBY must know. They are not just received wisdom, but also rote rhetorical devices to denude meaning and nuance from any debate and appear more knowledgeable than our opponents.

ABUNDANCE, ABUNDANT: A state in human history that has only ever been achieved in short bursts as a result of social cooperation and environmental grace; the promise offered by every developer.

ACCESSORY DWELLING UNIT (ADU): A granny flat, with four stories and seven other units having zero setbacks or parking.

By Angelo Haynes

Activists from across San Diego and Riverside counties appeared this week at the county administrative building for a hearing on the Golden Pacific Power Link Project, a new proposed power line that would cross through San Diego County Districts 2 & 5. The project is planned to be a 500-kilovolt electric transmission line that would necessitate a new substation named “North of SONGS” (San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station)  to be built bordering Camp Pendleton in Orange county.

The proposed power lines would be suspended on towers that would be 200 feet tall, or 20 stories, starting with an existing substation near the southern border, south of the 8 in Imperial Valley. The total length of the line would span between 135-145 miles long and would cross through many sensitive habitats and established communities in north and east counties.

SDG&E states that the line is needed to strengthen the regional power network and maintain power effectiveness in compliance with future policy goals of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the Calif Independent System Operator (CAISO). The CAISO is an independent transmission planning authority that manages the flow of electricity across 80% of California’s grid in addition to a part of Nevada’s grid.

By Joni Halpern

When I was a kid
Know what I did?
I stole things.
Things like penny candy, cookies
cake and ice cream.

My mom would get angry.
My dad would yell and scream.
But I would get hungry.
So when I was a kid,
know what I did?
I stole things.

—Olen Purnell, 1976

When I was a kid, there were no food stamps.  My dad was a working man, a carpenter  who worked six days a week, but still could not buy enough food for his children.

Oh, he tried.  He shopped sales, bought off-brands, made deals with the local grocer to buy the rough outer lettuce leaves that were trimmed before the tender heads were set out for customers.  He bought moldy cheese removed days earlier from the dairy display.  He measured our milk by the mouthful so it would last longer, until by the third week of the month, it was sour.  We still drank it.  He scoured the rural areas outside our town to pick up lugs of damaged fruit and vegetables that couldn’t be sold at market.  Meat was scarce.

By Robert Welsh

Here is a quote from the City’s Clairemont Community Plan, dated 1989: “In summary, Clairemont Mesa is an urbanized community and for the most part is built out.” It must be said, that Clairemont has not gotten less “built out” in the 37 years since then.

Recently I was in a discussion about excessive apartment building development in Clairemont Mesa, noting 8 locations where significant developments had been completed, were under construction or were planned. I decided to visit each location in person, to get a first-hand view, and these are my observations.

I was both surprised and shocked with what I found.

I was surprised to find that 2 of the notorious cul-de-sac ADU builds (12 units @ Shoshoni, and 17 units @ Almayo) did not look as awful from the front as they did while under construction. You might easily drive by them without noticing the depth of their development, from front-to-back. Of course, you wouldn’t be driving past them because they are both in cul-de-sacs, and the parking problems are obvious and extreme. There simply is no parking for these locations.

I was shocked to see how many smaller (4-8 unit) ADUs existed or were under construction around Clairemont ! Unless you drive around and look, you will not fathom the incredible amount of construction that has been or is being undertaken.

My focus here will be on the large builds.

By Angelo Haynes

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors convened a meeting at the County Administration Center to discuss ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) use of county property and facilities for firearms training. A period of public comment was held on Agenda discussion item #24, which drew 57 public comments with 38
being in person. Many giving public comment in attendance represented groups from all over Riverside and San Diego counties, in some cases, working in coalition.

This issue of training of ICE and CBP officers at county facilities was brought about by a recommendation from County Supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer (District 3) and Pro-Tem
Paloma Aguirre (District 1). This was in response to the growing number of violent encounters in communities being targeted by ICE and CBP raids. The discussion was for whether or not the county should continue allowing ICE and CPB use of our facilities for training.

Groups represented in the meetings proceedings included: Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), San Diego Legal Aid Society, San Diego Immigrants Rights Consortium (SDIRC), Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) and CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations). Many of the comments were in support of the Aguirre’s and Lawson-Remer’s proposal.

Bailey says the city should ‘return to 2015 staffing levels’ by cutting 1,054 employees and the services they provide.

By Michael Zucchet Voice of San Diego

City Council candidate Richard Bailey continues to promise budget fantasyland to San Diegans.  He says the answer to San Diego’s persistent budget shortfalls includes no new fees, no increased taxes, and no service cuts whatsoever – in fact he claims that somehow service levels will magically improve – if we simply “return to 2015 staffing levels” in the city of San Diego.

Bailey moved to San Diego last year, changed his political party affiliation this February, and within days announced that he was running for City Council.  Since then, and again last week in an interview with NBC’s “Politically Speaking,” he has repeatedly claimed that if we just “return to 2015 staffing levels,” the city’s general fund budget will swing from what he says is a $100 million annual deficit to more than a $300 million surplus with “no need to cut any services.”