Category: Election

By Wendy Fry and Jeanne Kuang / CalMatters / Dec. 27, 2024

California’s southern border, long ‘ground zero’ in the fight between federal and local officials over immigration policy, is now at the center of renewed controversy over how far local leaders can go to protect people from deportation.

After San Diego County took steps earlier this month to strengthen safeguards for undocumented residents, an organization led by President-elect Donald Trump’s adviser Stephen Miller sent a letter warning that elected leaders and employees of “sanctuary” jurisdictions could be “criminally liable” if they impede federal immigration enforcement.

By Arturo Castañares / La Prensa San Diego / December 29, 2024

When San Diego County Supervisor Nora Vargas announced last week that she will not be taking office for her second term on January 6th, she set into motion political maneuvering among possible replacements for a coveted political seat that has only been up for grabs once in the past 29 years.

Vargas, who claims she’s resigning to protect her personal safety, is stepping down just weeks since winning re-election to her second four-year term after first being elected to the seat in 2020 to replace Supervisor Greg Cox who had held the position since 1995.

The five-member Board of Supervisors oversees the functions of over 20,000 employees and approves an annual budget of over $8.4 billion.

By Ernie McCray

Excuse my French,
as they say,
but it just seems as though
everything today
is ass-backwards.
In so many ways.
And that puts us in a bind,
considering that we’ve got a man
who, in a very short time,
will be taking us through whatever
is going to go down
down the line,

There’s an illuminating recent article by Jake Kincaid at inewsource about Awaken Church in San Diego and how it celebrated Trump’s election all the while enjoying its non-tax status. The church and its 7 local churches push the idea that “God” has called upon Christians to take America back and reshape it into its view of Biblical principles.

Here are some excerpts:

The day the 2024 election was called for Donald Trump, there was a palpable atmosphere of celebration at Awaken Church’s Kearny Mesa campus. Pastors at Awaken had been telling their congregations to pray — and vote — for Trump. From the pulpit, congregants were encouraged to exchange high fives and say, “we won.” They had just shared an unfounded claim that election monitors in Pennsylvania had narrowly stopped what one speaker called a “wicked scheme” to steal the election with truckloads of fake ballots.

The outlook for America is very dismal if Trump carries through on his threats to deport millions of undocumented people – which he made again this week in a TV interview.

Specifically, California’s agriculture will close down if the people who pick the vegetables and fruits are removed from the fields. And, notably, the costs of those foods will skyrocket, even if offset by the missing mouths of those deported.

Since the pandemic, foreign-born workers have taken positions in such sectors as construction, agriculture, technology and health care, fields where domestic labor supply has been a challenge for those looking to hire. Immigrant workers made up 18.6% of the workforce last year, a new record, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

From 2021 to 2023, 1 in 3 workers in California were immigrants, according to the California Budget & Policy Center. Certain sectors, such as agriculture, are closely watching developments on immigration plans, as the industry has increasingly relied on H-2A workers on temporary visas to fill roles in production.

Plus, there would be a ripple effects from deportation, such as the closure of farms in the state and the reliance on importing food from overseas due to a dwindling labor force. That means higher costs to the consumer.

by Ernie McCray

I always thought
I was hip to what’s going on
but I sure
got this past election wrong.

I mean I spent a day
just a week before election day
sitting in a chair,
on a patio
at the Crystal Pier
breathing in
the Pacific Ocean’s
breezy air,
a strawberry margarita
and a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips in my reach,
as my eyes followed the activities
playing out on the beach,
frisbees flying
waves being ridden,
lovers strolling hand-in-hand
in the sand.

By Carlos Acuña / Calexico Chronicle / November 27 –November 29, 2024

Psst. Want to know something? I hate political writing, despite all the schadenfreude and subliminal and not so subliminal virtue-signaling that weighs down each ponderous sentence much like the angst-inducing coal in Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “16 Tons.”

But the coming holidays lead my mind to funny places, to ask less than funny questions.

We’re supposed to live in a Constitutional republic, a democracy. For the better part of my adult life it sure hasn’t felt like it. In a democracy, the People rule. Period.

Where does the Constitution give the 1 percent of the population the entitlement to the distribution of resources over the remaining 99 percent? Where in this sacrosanct document does one read that unless one complies and submits to the arbitrariness of silly, insecure managers and supervisors, one must find one’s way to the exit door and starve, go homeless, penniless, deprived of the minimal decent healthcare and even clean water?

By James Downie / MSNBC Opinion Editor / Dec. 4, 2024

Just before 11 p.m. local time Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in a televised address to the nation. Shortly after, Gen. Park Ahn-Soo, the martial law commander, announced that “all political activities” would be banned and that “all media and publications will be subject to the control of the Martial Law Command.”

[Go to original for links]

Within three hours, lawmakers and protesters gathered outside the National Assembly, as soldiers tried to bar the entrances. Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party, livestreamed himself clambering over a wall to enter the building. Within five hours, 190 legislators unanimously overturned Yoon’s decree. And within six hours of the president announcing his power grab, Yoon made a second television address ending his declaration of martial law. By Wednesday afternoon, the opposition had introduced articles of impeachment against Yoon, with a vote possible as early as Thursday.

The heroics of South Korea’s Democratic-led opposition were a welcome and riveting sight for supporters of democracy around the world. And they provided a lesson for Democrats and other Trump opponents in America.

by Ernie McCray / November 26, 2024
 
The other night,
after I had laid my head down to sleep,
I transitioned into that stage
where one loses consciousness
before their dreams kick in
and then
a sign above a lab door appears
that reads
“Mad Scientist at Work”
and I cautiously tip-toe through the portal,
to music with an eerie unsteady beat,
and before me
a Frankenstein-looking-dude
puts the final touches on
a spine-chilling orange-faced man

By Mexico News Daily Staff / November 19, 2024

United States President-elect Donald Trump confirmed on Monday [Nov. 18]  that he plans to use the U.S. military to carry out his proposed mass deportation operation, an initiative that could result in millions of immigrants being sent to Mexico.

On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump shared a Nov. 8 post by the president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton, who, citing “reports,” wrote that the incoming Trump administration is “prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.” Above the post he shared on his personal account in the early hours of Monday morning, Trump wrote: “TRUE!!!”

The former and soon-to-be president of the United States stated during the presidential election campaign that he planned to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history,” but until Monday he hadn’t indicated that he would use the military to execute it.

By David Helvarg / The Progressive Magazine / November 21, 2024

For those of us committed to protecting the ocean, it’s always been clear that restoring healthy seas will be the work of our lifetimes, and that of others who’ll come after us.

Unlike the majority of Americans, I believe the Biden Administration did a decent job, particularly in responding to the climate emergency we’re currently living through. During his term, Biden signed into law two major pieces of legislation: the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Nonprofit groups including Blue Frontier, which I founded, created an “Ocean Climate Action Plan” which helped in adding $10 billion to the IRA law, with a focus on coastal resiliency, including $3 billion for greening ports.

By Steve Anderson / The Point of PLNU / Nov 13, 2024

Steve Anderson is a fourth year journalism major and opinion editor for The Point. Anderson grew up in the christian church and is a self proclaimed follower of Christ.

Similarly to just about half of Americans, I was disappointed in the results of the 2024 presidential election. I found it hard to believe that the country thought Donald Trump was the more qualified leader. I don’t write this as a rebuke or to convince you that I’m right and you’re wrong but rather, I’d invite you to simply hear me out.