Category: Politics

‘The Democratic leadership in the House and Senate,’ says filmmaker Michael Moore, ‘needs to bring a halt to all business being done in the name of this potential felony suspect, Donald J. Trump.’

By Jon Queally / Common Dreams

Documentary filmmaker and political activist Michael Moore on Wednesday said it’s time for the Democratic Party in Congress to “declare a National Emergency” and put a stop to all legislative activity—including the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch

A San Diego City Council committee is posed to hear three different options for short-term vacation rentals being proposed by the Planning Department this coming Friday, March 25th.

The Smart Growth and Land Use Committee of the Council will meet in the morning at the Jacob Center and attempt – once again – to juggle the contentious issue of how to deal with these particular types of rentals, an issue that the Council and city staff have bounced around now for 2 years.

The issue of short-term rentals have roiled the beach areas and Ocean Beach in particular.

March (and sing!) for homeless San Diegans on March 18, be an advocate for compassion and solutions on March 20

By Women Occupy San Diego

On Saturday, March 18, join the “March of Voices” for a Safe Living Space for Every San Diegan. People will begin gathering at 10 a.m. at the San Diego Civic Concourse/City Hall (3rd Avenue & B Street).

The march begins at 10:30 a.m., and will be led by the San Diego Women’s Drum Circle.

From the Ocean Beach Town Council

In the past few months there has been an explosion of political activism across the country. Grassroots advocacy organizations are steadily gaining new members and civic engagement is high. A national discussion is taking place, and it is our responsibility as citizens to be fully engaged through voting, representation in Congress, and actively speaking out on the direction of our nation. …

To foster democracy and further our civic engagement and community activism, the Ocean Beach Town Council is hosting an Engage OB forum to invite individuals and organizations to speak on ways in which community members can get involved in political advocacy at the local and national levels. The next OB Town Council public meeting, held 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, will be dedicated in part to hearing from activists on a wide variety of current political issues.

By Freewayblogger / Daily Kos

How mad do you need to get? How many lies do you have delivered straight to your face by this administration? How long do you just sit there and take it?

San Diego Congressman Duncan Hunter just said some crazy sh*t at his Ramona town hall meeting on March 11th over last weekend. And he said it in front of a raucous crowd of hundreds.

There’s a good transcript and video of what he said, thanks to Indivisible San Diego’s four and half minute video and Dan Weisman’s annotated transcript at Escondido Grapevine’s Duncan Duane Hunter town hall (annotated).

You have to see it to believe it (the video is inside). But read the crazy stuff first.

We “will overwhelm Washington…and we will bury the White House post office in pink slips, all informing the president that he’s fired!”

By Nadia Prupis / Common Dreams

A new movement is aiming to mail at least 1 million postcards to President Donald Trump on Wednesday, March 15—historically dubbed “the Ides of March” and known as the day Julius Caesar was assassinated—to show “the man, the media, and the politicians how vast our numbers are…to make it irrefutable that the president’s claim of wide support is a farce.”

Senators Feinstein and Harris Asked to Host Town Halls in San Diego – Duncan Hunter to Be Called Out on Ethics Violations

From Indivisible San Diego Media Team:

SAN DIEGO – Following a successful weekend mobilizing thousands of members at four congressional town halls, San Diego Indivisible will rally this week to stop the TrumpCare legislation proposed by Republicans to replace the Affordable Care Act and to call out Rep. Duncan Hunter for his ethics violations. They will also ask California’s two U.S. senators to hold town halls in San Diego during the April recess.

I am afraid. And I am not the only one.

By Anonymous Is a Woman / San Diego Free Press

A handful of Democratic women saw each other at the ADEM elections for the first time since the holidays. For some, it’s the first time they had come out for an event since the election. For others, this was their third event that weekend.

After a few minutes of small talk and “Holy-crap-the-world-is-ending” Trump commentary, the conversation becomes a bit more hushed when one of the women asked, “So what do you think about this Mickey Kasparian situation?”

Voices automatically lower.

San Diego City lifeguards and their union are seriously considering getting out from under the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

The lifeguard union leader claims that recent changes in dispatching procedures initiated by the new fire chief, Brian Fennessy, now route all water-related 911 calls to the fire department instead of directly to lifeguards- who have historically made all water rescues.

This is leading to longer response times and a waste of resources, says Sgt Ed Harris of the lifeguard union.

In a recent Op-Ed piece in the OB Rag, Harris wrote:

“We cannot afford to have the Fire Department divert our trainers, personnel and budget. … Teaching Fire Fighters how to swim and perform river rescue is not acceptable.”

By Murtaza Baxamusa / UrbDeZine

Having invested a billion and a half dollars of public funds in downtown redevelopment, it is worth asking if it helped or hindered in solving the affordable housing crisis that San Diego faces.

From the catalytic start of downtown’s boom with the construction of the ballpark to the unceremonious demise of tax increment financing under Governor Brown, there has been a lot of change.

Census data shows that from 2000 to 2015, downtown’s housing stock doubled. About half of downtown’s current stock of 25 thousand housing units has been built during this time frame. About 5 thousand renter-occupied housing units were added to the stock. Of the total housing stock almost 18 percent (over 4 thousand units) are vacant, compared to 9 percent vacancy back in 2000. This indicates a greater share of investor-owned units or second homes that are not occupied.

In terms of affordability, downtown is at a tipping point.

At the most recent OB Town Council meeting, a friend who is active in Ocean Beach and an OB Rag supporter, took me aside, and said, “You’re killing me with all the national news.” He was complaining that he felt the OB Rag was straying from its focus on local, OB news and material.

I explained to him that we had to do both, be the source of uber news for the village and the Peninsula and provide news and analysis about what’s going on nationally – especially now in the time of Trump.

Ever since we began trying to be the online newspaper for OB and providing a platform for the community, we’ve experienced a tension between covering really local stuff about OB and Point Loma versus both throwing out our news net for wider issues, more city and county related issues – and being a source for progressive views and analysis on national and international news and goings on.