OB Rag

Why Can’t Humans Be More Like a Tortoise?

By Colleen O’Connor

Avoid the rush. Escape the dreary news and get to the San Diego Zoo’s 140th birthday for “Grandma” Tortoise!

Seriously, “Grandma” Tortoise is celebrating her 140th birthday on November 15th.

She is an “endangered species” from the Galapagos Islands. Only 15,000 of the 200,000 of these magnificent creatures remain on the islands where Darwinian “evolutionary” history began.

Even today, those ten Galapagos islands shelter only 12 remaining species of Tortoise.

Hey, If You Can Kill 20 Million Native Americans, Enslave 12 Million Africans, and Let Biden Fund the Slaughter of 40,000 Women, Children and Elderly…
— Of Course You Can Install a Rapist/Felon/Fascist as your President! In the Meantime, Breathe, Take Care of Yourself, Read a Good Book.

By Michael Moore / Nov 14, 2024

If you stop and think about it, we’ve come up with a lot of doozies in our history. Like the genocide of 20 million Native Americans. Or the enslavement of 12 million kidnapped Africans. Or us invading Vietnam and killing 4 million Asian people for no reason at all. We are not a good people.

We have a non-stop cavalcade, a sordid laundry list of evil deeds that led us directly to last week, to the point where we the people, by popular vote, elected a 34-time convicted felon, a fascist, and a civilly-charged and convicted sexual abuser to be our 47th president of the United States. And we did so after he clearly and quite honestly warned us that he was going to do a mass round-up and deportation of nearly 15 million people. And that he would consider executing people he referred to as “the enemy within” (i.e. his political opponents and those who were disloyal to him).

from Le Temps — November 10, for French speakers of Switzerland

An important 5-year study just completed of the sources of human waste in the San Diego River has found that by far most — 90%– was caused by sewage spills, and not the homeless. As the following outlines,

“… people experiencing homelessness contribute the smallest relative quantities, less than 0.25%, of human fecal bacteria in the San Diego River.

This determination hopefully puts to rest long-standing assertions by local municipalities and water agencies that unhoused encampments in the San Diego River watershed are a potentially significant source of bacterial pollution in the river.”

By Spencer Higgs – San Diego Coastkeeper / November 13, 2024

A five-year study conducted by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (“SCCWRP”) to assess sources and volumes of human fecal bacteria in the San
Diego River reveals a disturbing reality – spills, leaks, and subterranean seepage from public sanitary sewer systems are, by far, the largest contributors to human fecal contamination throughout the entire urbanized portion of the San Diego River watershed.

Another influential politician has come out against the 22-story so-called “Pencil Tower” being proposed for Pacific Beach. This time, Senator Catherine Blakespear of the California 38th District — a Democrat — has written a letter coming out in “strong opposition” to the proposal, called “Project Vela”, for 970 Turquoise Street.

The 38th Senate District encompasses coastal North County south through PB.

Blakespear wrote the public letter to Gustavo Velasquez, Director of the California Department of Housing & Community Development and agreed with other electeds that “this project undermines state law by permitting a project that includes only 10 affordable homes alongside 139 visitor accommodation units and 74 other market rate residential units.”

By Paige Austin / Patch Staff / Wed, Nov 13, 2024

Republicans are one win away from taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives, giving the party control of all branches of government, and liberal California may very well be the state that delivers it to the GOP this week.

Though NBC News declared Republican victory in the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday and Data provider Decision Desk HQ projected Republicans to win the house, the Associated Press and other major outlets have not called it yet. That’s because a handful of races, including three in California, remain too close to call.

The Republican chances of victory in the House depends on still uncalled races in Arizona’s District 6 in the Tuscon area, Iowa’s District 1, Alaska’s District 1, and California’s Districts 13, 45, and 47.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Associated Press had not declared a victory in Orange County District 47, but on Tuesday night, Republican Scott Baugh conceded the race to Democrat Dave Min.

What is going on with the San Diego Sheriff’s Department these days?

First of all,  County Sheriff Kelly Martinez is being accused of slowing down and even ignoring data requests from the people who were hired to research why so many people die in local jails. This slow-down has cost San Diego taxpayers nearly $20 million in legal settlements this year alone. This allegation is but the latest dispute between the region’s largest law enforcement agency and the civilian office charged with monitoring its practices.

Second — and to a lesser degree –, questions are being raised about the millions of dollars generated by a prisoners’ welfare fund, specifically the Sheriff’s commissary that serves the 3,800 or so people locked up in San Diego County jails. The millions generated are supposed to pay for the benefit, education and welfare of people in custody, but millions from the welfare fund are used to pay sheriff’s employees’ salaries and benefits, to pay for office supplies, equipment, cleaning, food, postage and other services that might normally be considered routine jail operational expenses, according to the San Diego UT.

by Dan Plante / Fox5News / Nov 12, 2024 /

After a long and memorable life on the Ocean Beach pier, everything must go.

Not to the landfill or some garbage dump, but from this storage container to the highest bidder.

“You know how many people have been on this pier, ate at that cafe, played the games, fished with their fishing poles. We’ve acquired everything that you’ve seen, and that’s what’s going up for auction, because there’s a lot of memories here. It’s not a joke, it’s real, and guess what, we get to be part of it,” Fiore Garippo, Latter Reign Ministries.

By Larry Turner

Cynthia and I, first and foremost, would like to thank every San Diegan who stepped forward to make our city a better place; everything we accomplished in this campaign was because of the amazing volunteers, contributors, and voters who joined in the fight.

We started out as a no-name, grassroots campaign surviving on $5 donations, taking on “the system,” and became a force to be reckoned with, knocking the high-profile incumbent to less than 50% in the Primary Election, and 55% in the General Election.

Even though we were outspent by special interests and developers who directly benefit from City actions, our election margin was still closer than any of the other high-profile campaigns in the region, including for City Attorney, City Council, or County Supervisor.

Nearly our entire campaign team was made up of unpaid volunteers, and what we accomplished through sheer grit and determination is amazing.

By Kate Callen

Amidst the 2024 election gloom, glimmers of hope have emerged. The brightest spot locally was the 79th Assembly District race, where educator LaShae Sharp-Collins beat attorney Colin Parent 53% to 47%. And both are Democrats.

It was an unexpected outcome in an unusual race. Parent, the CEO of Circulate San Diego and a La Mesa City Councilmember, won the March primary outright. Sharp-Collins edged out Lemon Grove Mayor Racquel Vasquez for second place. They both trailed Parent by 10 points.

Parent raised twice as much money as Sharp-Collins. Between January and June 1, he took in $687,600 to her $318,835. His donors included real estate developers. Hers included teachers and doctors.

By Marjorie Cohn / Truthout / November 12, 2024

[Please see original for important links]

Employing federal troops to suppress domestic protests and deport immigrants from U.S. soil en masse would be illegal, but Donald Trump has been pushing to do so since his first administration. The recent Supreme Court decision granting presidents nearly absolute immunity for official acts has created a situation with far fewer guardrails to prevent Trump from abusing his authority in his second presidential term.

Trump and his allies have reportedly drafted plans for him to deploy the military against civil demonstrators on his first day in office, according to a Washington Post report from November 2023. And Trump, who promised to carry out the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, has also indicated that he will use the military to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

Residents in Point Loma are fed up with street lights that don’t work. Entire neighborhoods have lacked working street lights for years – many of them are placed in the middle of streets – and residents have filed numerous Get It Done complaints with the city. Still, years later, many remain off.

The city says the situation in Point Loma is complex due to multiple points of damage and a lack of replacement parts. In the meantime, the city has installed some solar lights in the area, but repairs needed for a more permanent solution are currently unfunded.

Other neighborhoods, like in North Pacific Beach and South Park, have similar issues with the non-functioning street lights. In North Pacific Beach, entire blocks have been without functioning street lights for years.