Category: Politics

Trumpcare effectively destroys access to affordable women’s healthcare services

By Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams

Women’s healthcare providers are readying for a fight. Refusing to back down from its commitment to women’s choice, Planned Parenthood is now at risk of losing nearly 40 percent of its funding—and is calling for a massive mobilization to resist the attack on women’s health.

Ahead of the official release of House Republicans’ the American Health Care Act (AHCA) on Monday evening—which guts funding for any healthcare organization that “provides for abortions”—Planned Parenthood reportedly rejected an offer from the White House to stop terminating pregnancies in exchange for the group to continue receiving federal funds for other essential services.

Profits Can Stay In State, Provide Local Funding

By John Lawrence

Alarmed by the corruption and greed of Wall Street, many US cities and states are studying the feasibility of establishing public banks. Public banks are owned by cities, states or other jurisdictions and serve to keep funds local instead of being deposited on Wall Street. The funds are then used to support local economic activities like small business loans and student loans.

Washington state has already cut its ties with Wells Fargo because they funded …

By Ernie McCray

All I can say about the early weeks of Donald J. Trump’s “First 100 Days” is that he has shown himself, in that time, to be an “Enemy of the People” in so many ways.

And there are those of us who keep saying “Give him a chance,” a rather non-nonsensical idea considering how he abuses chances every chance he gets.

He’s had and still has an enviable chance, as the most known person on the planet, with microphones and video cameras at his beck and call, to guide us in a spirit of love, so that we can be the kind of people Americans should be: tolerant people; caring people, people the rest of the world should be able to depend on.

By OB Rag Editors

Can you imagine a day without a woman?

We join with our fellow editors at San Diego Free Press, in the strike for women on International Women’s Day 2017, and will remain “dark” for the day.

Many of the staff and contributors of the OB Rag are women. 50% of the volunteer SDFP editorial board and 50% of SDFP volunteer contributors are women.

Crowd Demands Answers from Issa on Healthcare Bill

By Indivisible San Diego County

More than 430 constituents of Rep. Darrell Issa (CA-49) rallied outside his district office in Vista this morning to demand answers about the newly released GOP health care bill. The Republican legislation was kept secret from the public by its authors, and alarmed citizens with Indivisible 49 turned to their congressman for clarity. They did not get it.

Led by Reverend Beth Johnson of the Palomar Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, the voters sent a delegation to meet with Issa’s District Director, Bill Christensen.

Wednesday, March 8
A Day Without a Woman

A Message From: The Women’s March on Washington

On International Women’s Day, March 8th, women and our allies will act together for equity, justice and the human rights of women and all gender-oppressed people, through a one-day demonstration of economic solidarity.

In the same spirit of love and liberation that inspired the Women’s March, we join together in making March 8th A Day Without a Woman, recognizing the enormous value that women of all backgrounds add to our socio-economic system…

Anyone, anywhere, can join by making March 8th A Day Without a Woman, in one or all of the following ways:

• Women take the day off, from paid and unpaid labor

• Avoid shopping for one day (with exceptions for small, women- and minority-owned businesses).

• Wear RED in solidarity with A Day Without A Woman

EMERGENCY CALL TO ACTION!!

Donald Trump just signed The Muslim Ban 2.0. He calls it “fantastic”…

It is just as repulsive and as unconstitutional as the first one. We need to come together NOW!! Let us unite together and SEND THE MESSAGE THAT MUSLIMS AND REFUGEES ARE WELCOME HERE!!!

We will be meeting – 6:30pm – at terminal 2! Our theme is NO BAN NO WALL.

Here are more photos from the wonderful “Impeach” and “Resist” event on Saturday, March 4th in Ocean Beach. These are in chronological order, more or less.

By Jim Miller

Many progressives were upset after the national Democratic party leadership recruited Obama’s Labor Secretary Tom Perez to block Minnesota’s Keith Ellison in the race for DNC chair and even more dismayed when Ellison lost very narrowly in the second round of voting.

While Perez immediately made Ellison Deputy Chair and did what he could to foster unity, it was evident to numerous observers that putting in a guy who, despite a pretty solid record on policy, supported the TPP and clearly represented the interests of the Clinton wing of the party was a mistake.

From Indivisible San Diego:

More than six hundred San Diegans marched from Dog Beach to the Ocean Beach Pier this morning with a demand to impeach President Trump. The protesters created a performance art project by standing in patterns to spell the messages “RESIST!” and “IMPEACH!” on the sand. Drone cameraman Caleb Serban-Lawler of Sabre Springs captured the images.

After pleas from the public for action, the City Council failed to lead

By Norma Chavez-Peterson, Executive Director / ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties

The majority of the San Diego City Council demonstrated an inexcusable failure in leadership Monday, Feb. 27th in their decision to accept the 2-year independent study of police traffic stop data, but disregard its recommendations.

The Council had before them the results of an SDSU study, requested by former Councilmember Marti Emerald in 2015 to address community concerns about racial profiling by San Diego Police Department officers, …

A reader sent us this photo, with the message,

“This sign was hung on the pier just in time for the Wednesday farmers market.”