Military

‘It’s Time to Call in the Marines’ and the Rest of the U.S. Military to Deal With Natural Disasters

January 3, 2019 by Source

By David Helvarg / San Francisco Chronicle / Jan. 2, 2019

It’s time to call in the Marines, and also the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard to respond to the growing number of climate-linked natural disasters.

When it comes to national security, no threat compares to our changing climate and its intensification of hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves and other natural disasters. If the rise of Nazi Germany and the nuclear balance of terror with the Soviet Union were the major strategic threats to overcome in the last century, climate change is the major challenge of this one.

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San Diego Warships Leading Charge Against North Korea

April 18, 2017 by Michael Steinberg

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

US Navy warships based in San Diego are moving towards North Korean waters as tensions rise across the region.

Led by the USS aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, whose homeport is North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego harbor, this “strike group” had been heading towards Australia after taking part in “routine” military exercises off the Korean peninsula when it was suddenly ordered back following the US cruise missile attack in Syria recently.

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Obama Commutes Sentence of Chelsea Manning

January 18, 2017 by Source

President Obama has commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, the Army intelligence analyst who leaked American military and diplomatic activities in 2010, and who had become a cause celebre over those years. This act likely saved her life.

According to the New York Times:

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The Body of Missing Navy Wife Elizabeth Sullivan Found Off Liberty Station

December 7, 2016 by Frank Gormlie

It’s been nearly two years since the disappearance of Elizabeth Sullivan, a young Navy wife from Point Loma. There was quite an extensive search for her by both authorities and family.

The search came to a final and tragic end on October 6th this year, when her body was found in Bay waters off the 2600 block of Farragut Road. Police announced today – Dec. 7th – that her identity has been confirmed. Police have re-opened their investigation of Sullivan.

Elizabeth Sullivan was a 31-year-old Navy wife and mother of two young girls – and much more.

Here’s our coverage from October21, 2014:

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OBcean’s 1972 Anti-War Arrest Is Part of La Jolla Photo Exhibit

October 13, 2016 by Frank Gormlie
Thumbnail image for OBcean’s 1972 Anti-War Arrest Is Part of La Jolla Photo Exhibit

OBcean Bob Edwards joined a handful of other former anti-Vietnam war activists at a commemoration of a photo exhibit at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art on Tuesday, October 11th. An exhibit by photographer Fred Lonidier, entitled, “29 Arrests” was on display – as Fred had taken Edwards’ photo at the time of his arrest on May 4, 1972 in front of the 11th Naval District headquarters.

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Activist-Photographer Fred Lonidier’s Photos of 1972 Anti-War Protest Part of Museum of Contemporary Arts Exhibit

October 10, 2016 by Staff
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Way back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were very active social movements stirring in San Diego – and across the country. Here in San Diego, there was always this one guy -the “movement photographer” on the scene – Fred Lonidier, with his long-lens camera dangling from his neck, always there to record it all.

There was one particular and historic event in May of 1972 where 88 students and supporters were arrested for peacefully sitting down in front of the local Naval District HQ in protest of the Vietnam war. Fred Lonidier was also there – but he only had 29 shots remaining in his camera. So, he took 29 photos of those being arrested that day.

And now those 29 photos are part of a larger exhibit, called The Uses of Photography, currently at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla.

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Honorably Discharged then Dishonorably Deported

September 22, 2016 by Source

Campaign Announced In Response to Crisis of Deported Veterans

By Joe Armenta

Deported VeteransThe injustice faced by hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. military veterans who are being and have been deported was the focus of a campaign announced Tuesday, September 20th by a broad coalition of leaders including representatives of the veterans community, elected officials, business, labor and immigrant reform communities.

The coalition pledged to drive change for currently deported veterans and those who are facing deportation. Marine Corps veteran and former California Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher has agreed to serve as Chair of the group and stated the following –

“If you were willing to give your life for your country, your country should be willing to give you citizenship.”

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Kumeyaay Tribes Protest Navy’s Plans to Build SEAL Center in Burial Grounds along Silver Strand

September 2, 2016 by Source

Kumeyaay protest Coronado 83116

Debi Baker at San Diego U-T wrote:

Dozens of Native American Indians staged a protest Wednesday [Aug.31] morning over the building of Naval Base Coronado’s new SEAL training center on what they say is a native burial ground.

The 12 tribes that make up the Kumeyaay Nation want the $1 billion project south of Silver Strand State Beach to be moved a short distance so as not to desecrate what members call a sacred site, said Cynthia Parada, a councilwoman with the La Posta Band of Mission Indians.

The 60-acre campus will add 1.5 million square feet of buildings to the base that includes spaces for SEAL Teams, logistical support buildings, training facilities, classrooms and more.

IIn 2002, human remains of a young boy said to be 7,000 years old were found in the area south of Silver Strand State Beach, Parada said.

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Miramar Air Show Sends the Wrong Message

August 19, 2016 by Source

Editor: The following piece by Dave Patterson ran in the Op-Ed pages of the San Diego Union-Tribune, August 18, 2016.

By Dave Patterson

Given our quagmire in the Middle East it’s high time that we gave some thought to how our politicians and military contractors promote war as the answer to our problems. In San Diego the promotion of war is anchored in the annual Miramar Air Show.

According to the air show Web page, it’s the largest in the world, with as many as 500,000 people attending. What they don’t tell us is that the air show is designed to appeal to our senses, not our intellect, and when we participate we get an adrenaline high and exciting memories to take home. We also take home the potential burden of our military people and civilians being injured or killed just to provide us those thrills. We also forget that the very nature of war is about death and destruction, not fun and games.

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San Diego Veterans to Protest Miramar Air Show

August 18, 2016 by Source

“Bannering” against upcoming airshow on August 18

By San Diego Veterans for Peace

miramarEach year, San Diego hosts the giant Miramar Air Show, which is attended by up to 500,000 people.

This air show is typical of many other air shows around the country in that it attempts to glorify and glamorize war and militarism, as well as being an excellent opportunity for defense contractors and the overall military industrial complex to sell products which lead to the deaths and injuries of so many people on earth.

The San Diego Veterans For Peace, with veteran members of all five services, is opposed to these “war shows” and is asking the public to stay home and to provide more wholesome entertainment to their children and families than the Miramar Air Show provides.

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Liberty Station: Orchid Award Nominations and Free Events in August

August 3, 2016 by Source
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By South OB Girl

Our neighbor to the east, Liberty Station, has been nominated for 2 Orchid Awards. And both nominations are for historic preservation. Plus Liberty Station is packed with free events in August.

The Lot

The first Orchid Award nomination is The Lot and here are quotes from the nominee’s website :

The Lot Liberty Station opened to the public on May 5, 2016, and provides a luxurious, comfortable dining, drinking and cinematic experience to Point Loma’s thriving and vibrant Liberty Station community.

The Lot Liberty Station features unique design elements that pay homage to the building’s original function as the Naval Training Center’s epicenter of military troop training and entertainment

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Ocean Beach and Point Loma News and Notices

June 21, 2016 by Staff

OB OB Pier 50th Art Image
* OB Pier 50th Anniversary Art Show Reception – June 30th
* Ocean Beach Street Fair and Chili Cook-Off set for June 25
* Point Loma Neighbors See Violation of 30 Foot Height Rule in New Construction
* Recent Research Showing Cabrillo as Spanish Ignites Local Controversy
* It’s Back! Artwork Cleaned-Up and Returned to Newport Ave.
* Is Amazon Taking Over the Old Midway Post Office?
* Pipeline Repair and Rehab Project Public Meeting – June 22nd
* Woman Rescued After Falling From Sunset Cliffs …
* Bicyclist Injured by SUV in Fleetridge Area of Point Loma
* PB Residents Argue Whether Crime Rates Gauged to Lack of Local Control Over Alcohol Licenses
* Imperial Beach Is Worried About Sea-Level Rise – Shouldn’t OB Be?
* Fiesta Island’s full-on dog party over soon?
* Americana group Dewey Paul Band will perform their Garcia Van Dylan tribute at Winston’s
* Thousands of Books Collected for Kids Summer-

COME INSIDE FOR ALL THE REST ….

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Much Ado About Raised Fists

May 17, 2016 by Source

cadets

By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos

Here we go again, with yet another “incident” fueling right-wing outrage about black people and symbolism. The latest was over a photograph of 16 black female cadets who had come together to celebrate their upcoming graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

The New York Times reported:

The gesture, posted on Facebook and Twitter last week, touched off a barrage of criticism in and out of the armed forces as some commenters accused the women of allying themselves with the Black Lives Matter movement and sowing racial divisions in a military that relies on assimilation.

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Celebrating 40 Years of the Ocean Beach Planning Board and OB Community Plan

May 3, 2016 by Frank Gormlie

party hats balloon

All this week we will be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the popular vote that established the Ocean Beach Planning Board and the first OB community plan.

It was on May 4, 1976 that thousands of OB residents, renters, property owners and business-owners voted in the very first panel to sit on the very first Planning Board for the community. It was truly an historic occasion because nothing like that had ever occurred in San Diego before.

So, to highlight this history, all week we will be publishing comments, notes, stories and accounts of the May ’76 vote and memories of those who served on the Board back then as well as over its 40 year history.

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Michael Moore Says His New Movie Will Change America

February 16, 2016 by Source

“Free universal health care, free university, free day care, taxing and policing hedge fund millionaires—have already happened in nearly every other industrialized country in the world! And I have the evidence—and the film—to prove it!” — Michael Moore

Screenshot from trailer for "Where to Invade Next"CommonDreams

Michael Moore’s newest documentary, Where to Invade Next, presents an uncharacteristically optimistic outlook. (Screenshot)

Filmmaker Michael Moore on Friday is launching the national release of his new documentary Where to Invade Next, which is said to be both his happiest and “most subversive” movie yet.

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An Author Walks Among Us – A Review of “Casualties”

January 8, 2016 by Judi Curry
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This is a review of a novel by Elizabeth Marro

The title of this article is truer than the reader knows.

I first met Elizabeth Marro – “Betsy” – while we were walking our dogs down the streets of Ocean Beach. As dog owners are wont to do, we began talking and I found out that she was an author; was aware of some of my articles for the OB Rag.

She told me she was writing a book, and I offered to read it for her when she was finished with it. It wasn’t long after that that she sent me her draft, and I loved it. I told her that when it was ready for publication to let me know and I’d do a review of it for her and was anxious to see if she had made any changes.

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Can Our Children Learn to Study War No More from Mice?

November 17, 2015 by Ernie McCray

Mural of two young girls writing "PLEASE NO MORE WAR" "LOVE" on a wall (Photo: txindoki/Flickr/cc)

By Ernie McCray

As we opened our hearts, this past Veteran’s Day, to our nation’s warriors with hearty “Thank you for your service” like cliches, alongside heaping praise on them for being strong heroic and brave – I kept thinking of two young men I met a little over a decade ago.

They were among the first to die in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I met them at career fairs at their schools, while I was sitting at a table letting kids know that they …

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A Cry for Ending the Slaughter in the ‘Drone Papers’ Revelations

November 12, 2015 by Source

Drone_papers

By Marjorie Cohn / Truthdig

A new whistleblower has joined the ranks of Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, John Kiriakou and other courageous individuals. The unnamed person, who chose to remain anonymous because of the Obama administration’s vigorous prosecution of whistleblowers, is a member of the intelligence community.

In the belief that the American public has the right to know about the “fundamentally” and “morally” flawed U.S. drone program, this source provided The Intercept with a treasure trove of secret military documents and slides that shine a critical light on the country’s killer drone program.

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The Reader Uncovered Same Navy Waste Water Flushing Over Sunset Cliffs Back Last April

November 11, 2015 by Frank Gormlie
Thumbnail image for The Reader Uncovered Same Navy Waste Water Flushing Over Sunset Cliffs Back Last April

The little flap that we helped uncover recently over Navy waste water being flushed out over Sunset Cliffs and into the ocean seemed to have been the first exposure of this practice by the Navy, the flushing of potable water.

Yet, we have found an article from last April in the San Diego Reader that discussed the very same flushing at the same location.

Look at the photos of the water cascading out from the cliffs. It’s the same location.

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Navy “Waste Water” Running Off Sunset Cliffs Is “Routine Potable Water Flushing”

November 5, 2015 by Frank Gormlie
Thumbnail image for Navy “Waste Water” Running Off Sunset Cliffs Is “Routine Potable Water Flushing”

Back on October 26th, we posted an article about possible Navy waste water flowing down Sunset Cliffs into the ocean – as had been discovered by Andrew, one of our readers, while walking his dog south of the Nazarene college. Andrew took it upon himself to take photos and vid of the possible thousands of gallons of water he witnessed cascading down a gully of the cliffs, also possibly causing erosion of the protected area.

The water appeared to be coming from Navy facilities on Point Loma, directly to the east and up the hill. Andrew and others who surf in that area have concerns about the quality of the water, whether it was toxic or not, or just exactly what was in it.

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Why Is Navy Waste Water Carving Valleys in Point Loma?

October 26, 2015 by Staff
Thumbnail image for Why Is Navy Waste Water Carving Valleys in Point Loma?

One of our local readers, Andrew, was visiting the beaches along Sunset Cliffs on Saturday, October 24th. He was walking way south of Ladera Street with his dog.

It was low tide, so he could walk around the point the cliffs make south of the famous surfing spot known as Newbreak. He wanted the beach all to himself and his dog.

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US Bombing of Afghan Hospital Called War Crime by “Doctors Without Borders”

October 6, 2015 by Source

Editor: Since this article appeared, the Pentagon has changed its story. Now it says that air-strikes were called in by Afghan government soldiers.

By Nadia Prupis / Common Dreams

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on Sunday called the U.S. military’s Saturday airstrike on its charity hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan a war crime and announced it was withdrawing all staff from the beleaguered area.

MSF said 22 people, including medical workers and patients, were killed in the bombing, which occurred around 2:10 am local time and reportedly lasted for at least half an hour.

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U.S. Navy to Limit Sonar Testing to Protect Whales

September 16, 2015 by Source
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Forbidden Waters Include Blue Whale Areas Near San Diego

ByVirginia Morell / Science / September 16, 2015

The U.S. Navy agreed this week to limit its use of sonar and other activities that unintentionally harm cetaceans and other marine mammals.

A federal court on 14 September approved the settlement of two cases brought by environmental groups that challenged the Navy’s training and testing activities off the coasts of southern California and Hawaii.

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Back to Homeless and Hopeless in San Diego

September 11, 2015 by Source

homelesswomenvets-300x137By Jeeni Criscenzo / San Diego Free Press

A week ago, I was sitting in the Denny’s across the street from Howard Johnsons in Chula Vista, waiting for Tracy (name changed), an Army veteran Amikas had been assisting for almost a year.

The good news was that Amikas, a non-profit that I started five years ago to help homeless women and children, was going to cover the next five days at the hotel for Tracy and her three children. But I wasn’t looking forward to this conversation – where this family would go after those five days was anybody’s guess.

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One Day Soon, That Drone Overhead May Be Pointing a Taser at You

September 9, 2015 by Source

droneBy Marjorie Cohn / Truthdig

North Dakota has just become the first state to legalize police use of drones equipped with “less than lethal” weapons, including rubber bullets, Tasers, tear gas, pepper spray and sound cannons.

Now, police will be able to remotely fire on people in North Dakota from drones, much as the CIA fires on people in other countries.

Although drones in North Dakota will be limited to “less than lethal” weapons, some of these devices can cause injury or even death, …

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City Targets Orchard Cave for Emergency Slope Repairs – Still a Month Away

September 3, 2015 by Frank Gormlie

OB Orchard Cave SDMemo1-edA memorandum – or actually, a Notice – was made available last night at the OB Planning Board meeting that indicates the City of San Diego is ready to move on the dangerous Orchard Cave, as it is now set to enact “emergency slope repairs” at the site in OB.

Actual repairs, however, are a month away, the Councilwoman Zapf representative estimated at the meeting.

This is the same cave in dangerous condition investigated by the OB Rag earlier this week – where it appears people are living – .

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Improving Parks in Ocean Beach – 2 Projects, 1 Area

July 13, 2015 by Source
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Report on the OB CDC Meeting

By Lois Lane

The Ocean Beach CDC met Thursday, July 9, at the OB Rec center, as usual. The meeting was called to order by the President, Tom Perotti, with the primary topic being, the usual, the Veterans Plaza and the Children’s Play / Lifeguard Fitness

Plans for the Veterans Plaza has been submitted to the City of San Diego Development Services Department (DSD). This is called the “Ocean Beach Veterans Plaza-CDP”, an application for a Coastal Development Permit, submitted on 16 June.

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Reader Rant: The Mainstream Media and the Push for Endless War

July 3, 2015 by Jeff Stone
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By Jeff Stone

Why is the mainstream media only in hysterics over ISIS and the “terrorist threats” from Muslims? Could it be that they are being manipulated, or even directed by our government agencies?

Before you accuse this writer of paranoia realize that there are only six corporations that collectively control U.S. media today: Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., CBS Corporation and NBC Universal. Together, the “big six” absolutely dominate news and entertainment in the United States.

A

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Is Chumming Legal Off the Ocean Beach Pier?

June 26, 2015 by Frank Gormlie

OB pier fishingIs chumming legal or allowed off the Ocean Beach Pier?

Okay, you ask, what’s “chumming”?

There’s a variety of modern slang-type of definitions, but in relation to fishing, it’s when people fishing off the pier or in the ocean cut up large chucks of bait and throw them over the railings or overboard in hopes of attracting large fish – like tuna – or like sharks.

If the fisherman or fisherwoman is trying to attract sharks while fishing off the OB Pier – or any pier – when there are surfers and swimmers nearby – that makes it an extremely dangerous activity.

It was suspected that chumming may have been partially responsible for attracting the sharks that attacked children off Oak Island in Southern North Carolina back in mid-June, where two kids each lost a limb. The incidents – 2 miles apart – were followed by calls to regulate chumming off a local pier.

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The Connection Between the OB Rag and the Vietnam War

April 30, 2015 by Frank Gormlie
Thumbnail image for The Connection Between the OB Rag and the Vietnam War

The War in Vietnam Formally Ended 40 Years Ago Today

By Frank Gormlie

There is a direct connection between the OB Rag and the Vietnam War – which formally ended 40 years ago today when the National Liberation Front finally captured Saigon – the then-name of the capital.

Or I should say, there’s a direct connection between the OB Rag and the anti-war movement against the Vietnam War. I was a militant member of the anti-war movement on my campus at UCSD from 1968 to 1970 when I graduated – along with hundreds and even thousands of other students.

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