Military

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

November 11, 2015 by Frank Gormlie

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

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

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

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-300x137 By 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

By 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

A 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

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

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.

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Is Chumming Legal Off the Ocean Beach Pier?

June 26, 2015 by Frank Gormlie

Is 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

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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Eduardo Galeano, Sacrilegious Women

April 17, 2015 by Source

Editor Note: Acclaimed author and champion of social justice Eduardo Galeano died on April 13, 2015. Democracy Now! provides a tribute here.

From TomDispatch.com

south america His book Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent came out in 1971 and proved to be the first vampire thriller of our American imperial age. Its blood-sucker of a plot was too outrageous not to be mesmerizing: a country called the United States declares a “good neighbor” policy for those living in its hemisphere because they just look so tasty, and then proceeds to suck the economic blood out of country after country.

Hollywood never topped it. “True Blood” and “The Vampire Diaries” couldn’t hold an incisor to it; Buffy was a punk by comparison.

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Court: Navy Sonar Training Injures Whales, Dolphins and Other Sea Animals

April 2, 2015 by Source

by Big Island Now Staff

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service wrongly approved U.S. Navy training exercises in the Pacific Ocean that would cause widespread harm to whales, dolphins, other marine mammals, and endangered sea turtles.

The Navy’s planned exercises involved the use of explosives, sonar, and vessel strikes over a five-year period, causing an estimated 9.6 million instances of harm to ocean mammals and other marine life.

It was concluded that the training exercises would impact millions of marine animals with injury, death, and disrupted essential habits like mating, rest, and communication.

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Nuclear Shutdown News – March Edition

March 31, 2015 by Michael Steinberg

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the continuing decline of the US nuclear industry, and highlights efforts of those who are democratically working to bring about a renewable energy future. As nuclear plants in the US are approaching or surpassing their 40 year operating life, their ability to operate properly and safely lessens, creating more and more problems across the nation.

Here’s our March report:

Diablo Canyon – Last Nuke Plant in California

On February 20 a Federal Court of Appeals in Washington DC rejected an attempt by Pacific Gas & Electric and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to quash a lawsuit filed by environmental group Friends Of the Earth (FOE). According to FOE, the suit alleges that the “NRC illegally allowed PG&E to alter Diablo Canyon’s nuclear plant license.” …

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Changing Military Recruitment Policies in Schools: One Phone Call and Email at a Time

February 11, 2015 by Source

The Experiences of a Santa Barbara Mother in Finding Alternatives Are Inspiring

By Kate Connell / Draft NOtices

In the spring of 2014, I went to observe a career day at Santa Barbara High School, where my son is enrolled. There were a variety of organizations with representatives and literature tables. The Marines and the Navy recruiters were also there. They were soliciting student contact information.

The Marine’s “survey” form included questions such as, “Did you know that the Marine Corps has a $150,000 scholarship?” and “Did you know that the qualifications for the Marine Corps are higher than the standards of UC Santa Barbara?” I told them that under the school’s existing recruiting protocol they were not allowed to get student information directly from students, and that they had to go through the Santa Barbara Unified School District office.

I turned around and saw the school’s career counselor and approached him, reminding him about the school’s recruiter protocol. He didn’t recall that part of the protocol and said he would talk to the military recruiters about it. I asked, “What about the information they have already gathered from students?”

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The Shame of US Journalism Is the Destruction of Iraq, Not Fake Helicopter Stories

February 10, 2015 by Source

By Christian Christensen /Common Dreams

chopper pilot The news that NBC’s Brian Williams was not, in fact, on a helicopter in 2003 that came under fire from an Iraqi Rocket-Propelled Grenade (RPG) should come as a surprise to no one.

Williams had repeated the lie on several occasions over the course of a decade until a veteran, who was on the actual helicopter that was attacked, had enough of Williams’ war porn and called the TV host out on Facebook. In a quite pathetic effort to cover his tracks, the anchor — who makes in excess of $10 million per year — claimed that his fairy tale was, in fact, “a bungled attempt by me to thank one special veteran and by extension our brave military men and women” who had served in Iraq.

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Navy Pledges to Restore Point Loma Shoreline After Removing Fuel Pipeline from La Playa Trail

January 30, 2015 by Source

By Tony de Garate

Trenches and jackhammers could be coming to Rosecrans Street by year’s end to relocate several miles of an aging Navy fuel line, according to the commanding officer of Naval Base Point Loma (NBPL).

It’s a two-year project to replace the first five miles of a 17.3-mile pipeline that carries diesel and jet fuel from Point Loma to Miramar, said Capt. Howard Warner, who assumed command for a three-year term last August.

Warner earlier this month addressed two local groups — the Peninsula Community Planning Board and Midway Community Planning Group — in an attempt to assure citizens that the $26 million project will cause inconvenience but won’t prevent residents and businesses from using the Peninsula’s most congested and well-traveled artery.

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The American Sniper As Hero

January 26, 2015 by Source

By FDRDemocrat/ Daily Kos

The controversy over the movie American Sniper has predictably reopened the divide among many Americans over the Iraq War. What is more interesting is how the choice made by director Clint Eastwood to choose a sniper as a heroic archetype unravels classic notions of what is considered heroism.

The concept of heroism has been with humanity since the beginning. At it’s heart it contains a common thread where the hero (or heroine) risks themselves for the sake of others.

How then to adapt the heroic archetype to the profession of sniper? This is no easy task.

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Women’s Perspectives and Changing Roles In the US and Iraq War

November 17, 2014 by Source

By Lori Saldaña

In March 2010, Katherine Bigelow made history at the Academy Awards, by winning in the Best Director category. This was the first time a woman had done so in the Academy’s history. She won for her film “Hurt Locker,” about men who disarm IED’s (improvised explosive devices) in Iraq.

“Hurt Locker” was also was named Picture of the Year, and won for Best Sound Editing- so congratulations for all that, too, Ms. Bigelow. Well done.

If you haven’t seen it, “Hurt Locker” is an amazing and suspenseful film — with hardly a woman character in it.

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Ocean Beach CDC Unveils 3D Models of New Veterans Plaza

November 12, 2014 by Frank Gormlie

At yesterday’s fundraising event for the new OB Veterans Plaza, the lead organization behind the project, the OB Community Development Corporation, rolled out its 3-dimension models of the planned memorial.

A hundred people – including many biker veterans- joined the CDC and a color guard from Point Loma High School at the unveiling of the Plaza and the kickoff for fundraising for it on Tuesday, November 11th – Veterans Day.

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Veterans Day 2014

November 11, 2014 by Source

In observance of Veterans Day 2014, we turn to a series of posts that our online media partner, San Diego Free Press, has been running this week, “War and Peace Week”.

War and Peace Week at the San Diego Free Press by Anna Daniels

Drill Team (a paean, not to the war machine) by Jay Powell

…MORE INSIDE …

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Twelve Years Ago Today OB Held Its Largest Peace Rally This Century

October 27, 2014 by Marc Snelling

By Marc Snelling

Last month Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama, who was elected to end two wars, addressed the nation to announce an open-ended bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria. As the Afghanistan War (now the longest in American history) and the conflict in Iraq continue it is clear Obama has failed to live up to his election promises.

Not only has his administration failed to live up to it’s word to end two wars and close Guantanamo prison, he has even changed his tune about the initial invasion. The US “sought to work within the international system” he said earlier in March of this year at a speech in Brussels. Obama further declared the the US had “left Iraq to it’s people in a fully sovereign Iraqi state that can make decisions about it’s own future.”

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Lessons from Cointelpro – Many Learned in OB and San Diego in the Seventies

October 13, 2014 by Source

Editor: The following is taken from a talk given by Professor Peter Bohmer at the Radical Ecology Conference, in Portland, Oregon on September 6, 2014. Bohmer currently is a faculty member in Political Economy at the Evergreen State College in Washington state. He lived in Ocean Beach in the Seventies and taught at SDSU. Many of the lessons Bohmer learned were from experiences here in San Diego and OB during the heady days of the 1970s.

By Peter Bohmer

I have been asked to share my experiences and knowledge of government repression with you not to scare you but so that we can deal with it and build stronger and more effective movements today for social, environmental and economic justice, locally, nationally and globally.

First a few comments.

We live in a society that is very unequal and growing more so. 50 million are below the official poverty line, and 10 million are officially unemployed and another 10 million have given up looking or are working part-time and want to work fulltime.

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Obama: Europe’s biggest disappointment

October 3, 2014 by Frank Gormlie

Why Europeans fell out of love with Obama – and the United States

by Christian Christensen / Aljazeera America / October 2, 2014

As we approach the 2014 midterm elections in the United States — the unofficial start of Barack Obama’s lame duck presidency — it is worth considering how the once giddy European love affair with Obama will come to a close. It might not be in an acrimonious George W. Bush–style divorce, but it is likely to end in disappointment and regret.

Europe had great expectations when Obama became president. A few were met, but most were not.

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Marjorie Cohn: Obama Declares Perpetual War

September 23, 2014 by Source

By Marjorie Cohn / Truthout / Sept. 15, 2014

President Barack Obama escalated the drone war he has conducted for the past five and a half years by declaring his intention to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, or ISIL. Since August 8, Obama has mounted at least 154 airstrikes in Iraq. He will send 475 additional US troops, increasing the total number in Iraq to about 1,600.

Obama announced he would conduct “a systematic campaign of airstrikes” in Iraq, and possibly in Syria. But, not limiting himself to those countries, Obama declared the whole world his battlefield, stating “We will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are . . . if you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.”

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What really happened at the Battle of San Pasqual? Come to OB Historical Society Presentation – Sept. 18th

September 18, 2014 by Staff

Come to the OB Historical Society presentation, Thursday, September 18th for “the Battle of San Pasqual – Looking Through the Haze of Gunsmoke” – featuring local historian Richard L Carrico.

Ever wonder what really happened at the Battle of San Pasqual on Dec.6-7, 1846? Who really won the battle between Andres Pico and the Californios and General Kearny and the American forces?

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Air Force Helicopters Too Close to Ocean Beach Residents

August 20, 2014 by Staff

A local OB man has complained to the media about low-flying military helicopters. Jim Baird sent a video to Channel 10News and was interviewed by their reporter.

Baird claims the helos are flying under 200 feet, whereas experts say the aircraft must be no closer than 500 feet to vessels, people or buildings. His video confirms his observation. Baird told the station:

“They were scary close. I mean, you could feel the pulsation of the blades on your body. And I was just standing there with my palms up and my hands out like this asking them, ‘What are you doing?!’ And they flew by.”

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Our Communities Are Not Warzones

August 18, 2014 by Source

Tell the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Justice: Stop funding the siege on communities of color.

By American Civil Liberties Union

Last week, local police fatally shot an unarmed African-American 18-year-old named Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. In the days that followed, there have been massive protests in Ferguson and heavily armed SWAT teams are roaming the streets in response. Our communities are not warzones.

And yet the police, armed to the teeth, treat us like the enemy, especially if we’re black, young, poor or homeless. Tanks are rolling through our towns. What will it take for police to start protecting communities of color, not waging war on them?

The Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Justice are funneling billions of dollars to state and local law enforcement agencies every year to help them purchase military weaponry and equipment. What business do DOD, DHS, and DOJ have funding a war here at home?

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Two Billion At Risk: The Threat of Limited Nuclear War

August 12, 2014 by Frank Gormlie

Robert Dodge, Ira Helfand / Common Dreams

As physicians we spend our professional lives applying scientific facts to the health and well being of our patients. When it comes to public health threats like TB, polio, cholera, AIDS and others where there is no cure, our aim is to prevent what we cannot cure. It is our professional, ethical and moral obligation to educate and speak out on these issues.

Nagasaki A-bomb That said, the greatest imminent existential threat to human survival is potential of global nuclear war. We have long known that the consequences of large scale nuclear war could effectively end human existence on the planet.

Yet there are more than 17,000 nuclear warheads in the world today with over 95% controlled by the U.S. and Russia.

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Mat Wahlstrom April 24, 2024 at 7:38 pm on City Council Committee Sides With Upstart Planning Group in Uptown and With Existing Group in La JollaTook the words right out of my mouth, kh – literally and figuratively, from almost three years ago: https://obrag.org/2021/11/another-assault-in-the-war-on-san-diegos-community-planning-groups/
Chris April 24, 2024 at 6:15 pm on Students at PLNU Are Angry With Administration For Disrespecting Gay Community and Chilling Free SpeechNot to excuse the administration, but why did these students choose a school with a known anti LGBTQ stance due its religious affiliation?
kh April 24, 2024 at 5:55 pm on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’Not making false pipedream promises would be a start. I wish I could locate that press release from Todd Gloria as a councilmember where he...
kh April 24, 2024 at 5:53 pm on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’Sure. And vary widely based on zoning as well. I just checked two recently sold homes in Mira Mesa, and what they were reassessed at....
kh April 24, 2024 at 5:38 pm on Planning Groups Forced to Pay New $1,000 Fee to Appeal Projects Stifles Community DemocracyI know one of the appeals from 2022(?) was on the Inn at Sunset cliffs, and the appeal prevailed at city council. It was not...
T April 24, 2024 at 5:03 pm on Planning Groups Forced to Pay New $1,000 Fee to Appeal Projects Stifles Community DemocracyThis is great info. Last week at the PBPB meeting their planner was talking about the new $1000 appeal charge and why the city thinks...
gilbert field April 24, 2024 at 4:47 pm on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’Getting back to the original comment, which was what Larry Turner would do to reduce homelessness, I am still not sure what he means or...
kh April 24, 2024 at 3:38 pm on California Leaders Take Sides in ‘Most Important Supreme Court Case on Homelessness in 40 Years’Count me in the last group. Glad to see Governor Newsom has come around to my side and finally figured out that letting people die...
chris schultz April 24, 2024 at 3:34 pm on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’Exactly, land gets more expensive the closer to the coast generally speaking. The same standard doesn't apply everywhere.
CARL M ZANOLLI April 24, 2024 at 3:32 pm on Students at PLNU Are Angry With Administration For Disrespecting Gay Community and Chilling Free SpeechParents spend so much $$$ to send their kids to PLNU because they weren't accepted elsewhere.
Gail April 24, 2024 at 3:10 pm on Planning Groups Forced to Pay New $1,000 Fee to Appeal Projects Stifles Community DemocracyI agree, these are land use issues heard at community planning meetings, by volunteers. There is a $500 stipend offered by the City for the...
kh April 24, 2024 at 3:02 pm on City Council Committee Sides With Upstart Planning Group in Uptown and With Existing Group in La JollaThis whole process is trash. Some goons at the planning dept wasted a whole lot of community members' time on this farce. The city made...
kh April 24, 2024 at 2:22 pm on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’Assessed value can be far from the true value unless you just purchased it. The land value of my property in OB is over 85%...
Dr. Jack Hammer April 24, 2024 at 11:35 am on Students at PLNU Are Angry With Administration For Disrespecting Gay Community and Chilling Free SpeechBut isn't that why the parents pay so much $$$ for this education? So their little darlings can be protected from the 'evils' of the...
Gilbert Field April 24, 2024 at 10:23 am on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’I looked at Zillow for a typical home in Claremont. House is 1200 square feet and the price is $1 million. 1200 time $250 =...