OB Rag

By Thelma Sawyer

With only days left until November 5, I contemplate each presidential outcome and what it means for antifascists. One thing I feel deeply is that we will all be punished for our opinions should fascism win the electoral college.

The seething disdain for people who have decided Trump should never be president divides the American people in ways I’ve never seen. MAGA now agrees that if you don’t like Trump, you are an enemy and will be punished on day one of a fascist administration.

How and if that punishment is met, ironically will be up to the various law enforcement agencies. Will the San Diego sheriffs, with their disdain for Black Lives Matter, protect us against white supremacists? Will SDPD change their ways or will  white nationalists still be favored at all protests where they show up or host?  Will the DA still cherry-pick which defendants arrested at protests get charged and which do not?

There’s one week until Election Day, November 5th, and law enforcement officials across the country are having to deal with a rising wave of threats to election workers and political activists, plus having now to contend with fires in mailboxes — all foreshadow a presidential contest hurtling toward an aftermath that could include unprecedented violence and disturbances.

According to today’s Union-Tribune:

Last week, the Justice Department unsealed a complaint against a man in Philadelphia who had vowed to skin alive and kill a party official recruiting volunteer poll watchers. The next day, the police in Tempe, Ariz., arrested a man in connection with shootings at a Democratic campaign office, which resulted in no injuries, and other acts of political vandalism.

The news that neither the Washington Post nor the Los Angeles Times will endorse Kamala Harris for president has shaken the media world and shows clearly the risks of billionaires owning major newspapers — especially during this crucial, nation-defining moment.

According to KQED

Both newspapers’ editorial boards, which operate independently of the newsrooms, had reportedly drafted endorsements of Vice President Kamala Harris. But the decisions to not endorse ahead of a neck-and-neck race between Harris and former President Donald Trump were influenced by the outlets’ billionaire owners, whose other businesses have lucrative contracts with the government.

“No dog whistles, no plausible deniability,” wrote one historian. “It’s a show of power and an another attempt to make this look and feel normal.”

By Jake Johnson / Common Dreams / Oct 28, 2024

From start to finish, Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night was a torrent of bigotry and fascistic rhetoric, with the former president and a bizarre lineup of preceding speakers trashing Puerto Ricans and Palestinians, condemning the press, and casting their political opponents as a satanic “enemy from within.”

The New York City event, held on the second to last Sunday before the November 5 election, amounted to a closing pitch for a candidate who has pledged to wield the power of the federal government—including the U.S. military—against those he views as obstacles to his ascent to power and his political project, which includes a large-scale deportation campaign, massive deregulation for industry, and another round of tax cuts for the wealthy.

Join and watch Charles Landon’s video of the Ocean Beach Pier Renewal workshop held on Saturday, October 26, at the Liberty Station conference center. His daughter Alise also assisted in its production.

There’s another community in San Diego that feels like they’ve been victimized by a huge apartment complex coming in without any neighborhood input. This time it’s the community of Golden Hill where residents are feeling very agitated by a “stealth” 8-story, 180-unit complex planned for the 2900 block of A Street. And the residents feel abandoned by the City of San Diego.

Three adjacent lots on that block have been recently sold and are all now behind wire fences. And neighbors feel like the city has forgotten about the families who live around there and now favors big developers.

Prompted by a resident’s concerns, local TV station CBS8 looked into it and searched the City’s website. There’s a proposed development in the preliminary stage of the process at 2935 A Street, they reported.

By JW August

I’ve been so distracted of late because of the threat to our institutions and way of life that appears at risk with the coming election and its aftermath. It’s not an exaggeration, this threat of a post insurrection is as real as a heart attack.

A recent email chain with colleagues included a long time friend upset about the Communists taking over if Trump is not victorious. That is so wrong on so many levels, it speaks to the importance of an informed public and the internet changed everything. It describes one of the numerous fairy tales in Trump’s Fables.  (See Amazon for a copy.  Those who support  Trump are willing accomplices to the turmoil he seeks.

You will see editorials and stories coming out listing his sins, each and everyone, but the truth is, the former president’s fan club sees no sins; it’s all explained away because Trump’s is a victim of xxxxxx (fill in the blank).

By Kate Callen

I am always delighted to get an assignment from Frank Gormlie. Writing for the OB Rag is the best reporting gig I’ve ever had. But when Frank asked us to think about the aspects of democracy we will miss if Donald Trump is elected, my brain shut down. I just could not go there.

In 2016, the prospect of Trump becoming president was unthinkable. Eight years later, it’s all we seem to think about.

It’s making us despondent. And here’s the kicker: It might not even happen. We’re obsessing about something that might not take place.

By Dani Miskell / 10News / Oct 25, 2024

Locals noticed something bizarre inside USPS drop-off mailboxes: a sticky substance found on the delivery door. Reports came from locals using mailboxes at USPS stores in Point Loma and La Jolla.

Judy Chayka, of Point Loma, went to the USPS store on Canon St earlier this week to drop off her and her husband’s ballots. Chayka said she noticed her mail wasn’t falling down the chute. Instead, they were sticking to the back of the delivery door.

“Both of them had like a severe, sticky glue type substance on them,” Chayka said.

By Joni Halpern

When the Donald Trump was elected President, he stood at a podium and said, “I wonder what my father would think of me now.”

We cannot know the answer to that inquiry, because we know little about the intricacies of the Trump family’s relationships within their own household.  The facts we do have suggest it was not a warm-hearted, nurturing household in which moral character was an imperative.  It seems to have been more of an intense training ground in how to triumph over all obstacles that threaten the achievement of riches, notoriety, class standing, and acclaim.

There were winners and losers in that struggle, the losers being abandoned to future irrelevance, the winners moving on to ever larger prizes of fame, glory and ardent followers.

What might be a better measure of what Donald Trump has achieved is what our own fathers would think if one of their children had achieved what Donald Trump has achieved — extreme wealth, political power, and millions of followers who have openly conceded that a complete loss of decency is a small price to pay for the political environment they seek.

I can’t speak for anyone else’s father, but I know what my dad would think of me or my siblings if we had risen to fame and fortune by the same means as Donald Trump.

Last “Workshop” Under-Attended Partly Due to Refusal of Union-Tribune to Announce It

By Geoff Page

The City of San Diego held the final Ocean Beach Pier Renewal workshop, concerning the eventual replacement of the San Diego Municipal Fishing Pier, Saturday, October 26, at the Liberty Station conference center. This event was not nearly as well attended as the previous four workshops. The Union Tribune was partly responsible for that — and ironically, so was the City.

It seems word of this last pier workshop did not get out as well as it had for prior events. The OB Rag published the event information ahead of time on for over a week before the event.

The Union Tribune not only did not carry any advance notice of the event, the newspaper actually refused to run the notice when requested. Jon Schmid, of Cook and Schmid, the consulting firm that has handled the public outreach efforts, confirmed that the UT was asked to run an advance notice and refused, with no explanation.