OB Rag

You know what I’d really like to do right now? Escape into video games. I’m too depressed to really want to do anything else.

I don’t want to think about this election — the national one — much less write about it. Who wants to think about all the horrible things Trump will do if he wins? I don’t. I’d rather log onto my favorite computer game and get lost in that. Why grow gray hairs worrying about something I don’t have any control over?

Being an editor of a news and opinion blog right now is not very enjoyable. Especially one that is progressive and grassrootie like the Rag. I mean, we’re supposed to be able to give voice and expression to our “progressive” values and perspectives on all that’s relevant locally. One of the strengths of the Rag is its focus on local, local news and events and people and restaurants — our readers really appreciate that.

“Denialism: the practice of denying the existence, truth, or validity of something despite proof or strong evidence that it is real, true, or valid.”

By Barton Kunstler / Nation of Change / October 24, 2024

Faced with an overwhelming threat, our first instinct is often to deny that is exists—”there must be some mistake, this can’t be happening.” That is normal and understandable.

However when large portions of a society live in continuous denial of self-evident truths—like rejecting reams of scientific evidence or insisting an obvious con man is a hero—the entire society suffers. Behind such mass denialism often lies a long-standing corrosive anxiety about the future that can easily turn into paranoia, confusion, and rage until something snaps—it’s reality that must be wrong! It is then that many flock to another template, one that eases their fears and that represents “Truth” no matter how much evidence to the contrary.

Denialism is rampant in America; elsewhere too, but given its role in the upcoming election, it’s of pressing concern here.

By Michael Smolens / San Diego Union-Tribune / October 25, 2024

A new television spot suggests Mayor Todd Gloria has homelessness on the run.

Running in place might be a more apt description, and a charitable one at that.

There’s plenty of evidence that San Diego is actually backsliding in its efforts to reduce homelessness, which continues to grow.

But you wouldn’t know that from the advertisement produced by an independent committee supporting Gloria’s re-election on Nov. 5 against challenger Larry Turner, a San Diego police officer.

The piece relies on selective and dubious statistics to make the case for progress under Gloria, along with pointing to some legitimate, if general, policy advancements.

One candidate can rant about gibberish while the other has to be perfect.

By Eugene Robinson / Washington Post / October 24, 2024

Something is wrong with this split-screen picture. On one side, former president Donald Trump rants about mass deportations and claims to have stopped “wars with France,” after being described by his longest-serving White House chief of staff as a literal fascist. On the other side, commentators debate whether Vice President Kamala Harris performed well enough at a CNN town hall to “close the deal.”

Seriously? Much of a double standard here?

Somehow, it is apparently baked into this campaign that Trump is allowed to talk and act like a complete lunatic while Harris has to be perfect in every way. I don’t know the answer to the chicken-or-egg question — whether media coverage is leading public perception or vice versa — but the disparate treatment is glaring.

This week, it became simply ridiculous.

Editordude: Here is Fox5 reporter Jaime Chambers’ report on the community workshop held by Midway Rising on October 22. Was it well-attended? You decide. (Chambers once told me that he was born in OB during a homebirth.)

By Jaime Chambers / Fox5 / Oct 23, 2024

The long-awaited Midway Rising project is in its full entitlement phase, designing out the nuances which will modernize the face of the sports arena area long beloved but starved for new investment for decades.

“Cities are living things and so now is the time to pivot to a new set of memories, a new set of opportunities,” said Jim Andersen, the Chief Development Officer at Chelsea Investment Corp.

by The Border Chronicle / Times of San Diego / October 23, 2024

For a retired federal employee, Tom Homan, an acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Trump administration, is a very busy man. For the last year, he’s crisscrossed the country with a team of former state and federal law enforcement officers, who call themselves Border911, speaking in theaters and event halls from Phoenix, Arizona, to Mission, Texas, to Ronkonkoma, New York, to promote the propaganda that the U.S.-Mexico border is under invasion and that President Joe Biden and his allies are admitting “llegal aliens” so that Democrats will “be in power for years to come.”

The Voice of San Diego opened today with a salvo against Mayor Todd Gloria’s percentages of increasing homeless shelter capacities. It is alarming. Here it is:

Mayor Todd Gloria wants you to know an important fact: He has increased shelter capacity by 70 percent.

Only, he hasn’t.

Across the airwaves and in his ballot statement, voters are blasted with the 70 percent figure. It’s a key reason, Gloria wants San Diegans to vote for him.

The Voice’s reporter, Will Huntsberry, found that Gloria has increased shelter capacity by only roughly 32 percent. The online newspaper says, “That’s not too shabby. Nor is it anywhere near 70 percent.”

by Yue Stella Yu and Jenna Peterson / CalMatters / October 24, 2024

In summary

Only one-third of the California GOP congressional delegation has pledged to accept the 2024 presidential election results. And only two incumbents in office in 2021 voted to certify President Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump in the 2020 race. [Please see original here for important links. Here’s the total California House delegation]

In January 2021, seven of the 11 California Republicans in Congress refused to certify the 2020 presidential election results, boosting former President Donald Trump’s false claim that he lost in a rigged vote.

By Colleen O’Connor

I have to “believe,” as President Reagan often prefaced his remarks.  I have to “believe” there are more good Americans than not.

I have to “believe” that Speaker Emeriti, Nancy Pelosi, has the “coup” threat covered.

Her strategic genius in all things political, culminating in the ousting of President Biden, already prove the case.  Add the huge campaign contributions to Democrats, the down-ballot strategy (already working), the broadening of the coalition to include superstar entertainers, economists, GOP Governors, and former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney’s non-stop appearances in red state suburbs alongside Harris, have achieved bi-partisan “lift-off.”

by Lynne Miller

We are advised “do not remove the label.”  We see that warning on our new mattress, pillow, or hair dryer. Do we leave the label on forever? What happens if we cut off the label immediately?

My advice, “remove the label”!

We are likely to make big decisions based on labels.  Who we vote for is probably impacted by the labels we identify with.

I did an experiment once many many years ago in a class of high school students.  We had a presidential debate.  The rules were: facts had to be identified, opinions also, and NO labels.  Many words become labels, and during this class debate these words could not be used, they were buzzed if used. Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, right, left, progressive. (Today I would add , woke, conspiracy, MAGA.) Pejoratives like Nazi, fascist, and racist were not allowed.

During the recent Peninsula Community Planning Board meeting, a suggestion was raised to compile facts about the proposed development at 1004 Rosecrans, the 56-unit apartment complex at Rosecrans and Talbot. Since then neighbors and local residents did just that and here they are.

Plus a Town Hall Meeting has been organized about the project for Tuesday, October 29 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm at S.E.S Portuguese Hall.

DEVELOPMENT FACTS

Michael Contreras owns Northstar LP, the apartment bulking on Ulric its registered at, EKIM Builders which is the builder of record, and Whitesands LLC, the holding company for the Ulric apartment.

The property record in Accela lists NorthStar Homes LP as the owner. The address listed for NorthStar Homes is 2249 Ulric St, San Diego. The CA SecState business number for NorthStar Homes is 201621400018. That address is multifamily apts, with no “offices” for NorthStar Homes. Michael Cotreras is listed as the company’s registered agent at that address.

No project in the Coastal Overlay Zone is eligible to exceed 30 feet in height.

By Amita Sharma / KPBS / October 21, 2024

As the presidential race nears its finish, Project 2025 continues to be a lightning rod.

The Heritage Foundation’s 922-page, 30-chapter document subtitled “Mandate for Leadership, The Conservative Promise” lays out a plan to dramatically reshape the federal government starting on day one of the next conservative president’s term.

“The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before,” Project 2025 states.

If carried out after the election, Project 2025 could have broad local impacts, including drastic upheavals in school funding, which cases federal and state prosecutors pursue, and climate warnings.