Category: Election

By Bob Dorn

I’ve got two explanations for the Trump phenomenon. They’re both a little hollow.

The first is, he’s the leading example of white privilege, and he’s proud of it. He’s got so much money he wouldn’t know how to fry an egg for himself if he were starving.

People like Trump have so much money and have been rewarded by media for so long they’ve lost track of what real people experience. They’ve become isolated. After decades of going out only to places where they can think and play with people whom they agree with these guys don’t have to watch what they say any longer.

By Jim Miller

There’s been a lot of moral indignation recently in light of Donald Trump’s repugnant call to halt Muslim immigration and his fond remembrance of the American internment camps of the WWII era.

Indeed, some folks have even started using the “F” word, rightly noting the fascist tendencies that the Donald’s inflamed rhetoric appeals to and accurately comparing his calls to ban refugees to the shameful exclusion of Jews fleeing the Nazis.

But as righteous as it is to call out Trump’s ugly racism and xenophobia, there is something suspect about the assertion heard in many quarters that somehow now this outlier has “gone too far.” Indeed, the frequent portrayal of Trump as an aberrant figure who has stepped outside the boundaries of mainstream American political discourse simply protests too much.

Newsom and Husband to Divorce

Gretchen Newsom issued the following statement on her blog yesterday on her decision to withdraw from the mayor’s race, December 11th:

“I have decided that I will not run for Mayor. My husband and I have recently decided to divorce on an amicable basis and, therefore, I need to focus on our son. I appreciate everyone’s respect of our privacy.”

The following are the prepared remarks for a speech given by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at Georgetown University on Thursday, November 19th, 2015.

In his inaugural remarks in January 1937, in the midst of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt looked out at the nation and this is what he saw.

He saw tens of millions of its citizens denied the basic necessities of life.

He saw millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hung over them day by day.

He saw millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children.

He saw millions lacking the means to buy the products they needed and by their poverty and lack of disposable income denying employment to many other millions.

By Jim Miller

Recently I noted how movements like the Fight for $15 and the insurgent Bernie Sanders campaign have revealed a widespread thirst for an overtly left politics that makes the battle against the billionaire class a central rallying cry.

Indeed, Sanders has continued to force Hillary Clinton to tack to the left on multiple issues, and he has had a genuinely transformative impact on the national political discourse by unashamedly bringing democratic socialism to the stage.

This is why Harold Meyerson argues that the Sanders’s campaign represents “the largest specifically left mobilization—and by ‘specifically left’ I mean it demands major changes in the distribution of income and wealth and major reforms to U.S. capitalism—that the nation has seen in at least half a century.”

Pot taxes to fund school construction and substance-abuse programs

By Walter Einenkel / Daily Kos

Colorado voters agreed on how to spend $66 million of the revenue generated by the legal sale of marijuana.

The measure sends the first $40 million to school construction and $12 million designated for youth and substance-abuse programs.

A rally and march in support of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is on for Saturday, November 7th in San Diego’s Balboa Park.

Billed as the “Enough is enough” rally for Southern California supporters of Sanders, organizers expect more than 2,000 people to attend. (Which means parking will be tight.)

The main gathering and rally at the fountain in front of the Science Center starts at 11 am, with speeches, and then a march begins around 12:30.

Starting at 10 am there will be booths of local activist groups and political initiatives.

Come inside for the formal announcement:

In polling run-offs with Mayor Kevin Faulconer, Gretchen Newsom did the best compared to other possible Democratic mayoral candidates.

We ran a series of polls for a week and over a hundred readers participated in most of them. We asked people to choose between big-name Democrats for their pick for a candidate, and then ran a poll on each probable Democrat candidate against Faulconer.

In every poll contest her name was listed, OB Town Council president Gretchen Newsom came out on top. Of course, this could be expected – a following for the local town girl.

These polls are not scientific and we cannot determine if participants live in the City of San Diego or not. But the results do reflect the opinions of our readers – and with Newsom being favored so clearly, it’s obvious that home-town readers predominant. (Although there was one poll with David Alvarez, where Newsom had just 2 percentage points more.)

By South OB Girl

Have you seen the KPBS round table footage from Friday Oct 30th, discussing Ocean Beach Town Council President Gretchen Newsom’s candidacy for mayor?

(Discussion of the mayoral campaign begins at 10:35 in the above link.)

One panelist, Tony Perry– San Diego Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times– referred to Ocean Beach as the People’s Republic of Ocean Beach (a long-time “nickname” favored by certain mainstream reporters). Perhaps some find that appealing. Perhaps some find that appalling.

The panel leader, Mark Sauer, commented that Gretchen Newsom and Gavin Newsom, California lieutenant governor, have the same last name. And he also commented that Ms. Newsom is “pretty,” like Gavin Newsom.

Part 2

By Frank Gormlie

While it participated deeply in the negotiations during the remainder of 1974 and into the next year, the Community Planning Group had enough depth to juggle its activism and successfully respond to new construction projects—mainly large, bulky apartments—still coming down the development pipeline. Over this period CPG was able to block the construction of eight five-story high-rise apartments, most of them aimed for the fragile edges of Sunset Cliffs.

With the limited consensus reached on certain issues in Spring of 1975 the city published a brand new Precise Plan—this confirmed the city’s rejection of the worst of the original plan; no mini-Miami Beach, no marina, no high-rise along the coast.

It’s the OB Rag Poll Time, again.

This time, it’s all about who you would vote for as the mayor of San Diego? Kevin Faulconer? Any Democrat? OB’s own Gretchen Newsom?

Here’s your chance to take part in our numerous surveys below. You will be able to vote in each poll – and you will see the vote totals once you’ve voted yourself.

And please, read each option before you decide. We will keep these polls alive for a week. Have fun.

By Matthew Wood

Gretchen Newsom insists her announcement to run in the San Diego Mayoral election at the San Diego County Democratic Convention on Saturday night was anything but scripted.

“I’ve been having many conversations over many months with many people to find someone to run for mayor who would stand up for the voices of the people that need them,”

– the current Ocean Beach Town Council President and neighborhood leader said.

“I was very disappointed with what I heard.”

Call it an epiphany. A moment of clarity. Or even just an inspiration to do what she does best. She calls the decision her time to step up and lead a bigger constituency.