OB Rag

By Colleen O’Connor

The Friday news dump (pun intended) about former President Trump’s flushing documents down the White House toilet, has gone viral. [Here’s Part 1]

Since news first broke of Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times’ columnist, Maggie Haberman’s revelation in her new book, Confidence Man, about Trump’s habit of throwing torn documents down the toilet (which required “engineers” aka, plumbers to clear the drains), a flood of funnies has occupied the otherwise staid newscasters.

MSNBC commentator, Ali Velsi, used an entire block to cover the bizarre behavior. Uncomfortable – and hilarious.

Clean Up OB Business Districts – Join With the OBMA – Feb.18

Join Ocean Beach MainStreet Association to cleanup the Ocean Beach Business Districts, which include Newport Avenue, Point Loma Avenue and Voltaire Street. Friday, February 18, 2022 – 8:00am to 10:00am; donuts and coffee will be provided … and more. Meet at 1868 Bacon Street.

$8 Million to Get People to San Diego Cuz It’s a “Happy Place”

Rincon Reservation Road Brewery Opens in OB

Why Isn’t Sign Language Taught at PL Nazarene?

OB Pier Advisory Committee to Meet Soon

Pt Loma – OB Democrats to Hold Endorsement Meeting Feb. 20

Retail Center at Canon & Scott Sold for $3+ Million

“Liberty Station” Sold

by Ernie McCray

Here we stand today.
Black folks in the USA.
Still dealing with the same old same old.
Everyday.
It’s like a form of employment,
a job with very little pay.

But the winds of change will still blow.

Even with such as
the “N” word episodes
on a popular podcast show,
the winds of change will still blow.

By Colleen O’Connor

Wow! What a week. The world spun off its axis and nobody noticed, except two GOP leaders, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy.

Their private polls and insider info must have startled them. That news, under the radar, has produced a sizeable political earthquake just now being calculated.

Both McConnell and McCarthy loudly and forcefully exclaimed to the press that the January 6th assault on the Capital was “a violent insurrection,” after wobbling or denying the fact for over a year.

There’s hardly been any piece of current legislation to be considered by the San Diego City Council that has been more anticipated than the city’s sidewalk vending rules.

After Wednesday’s meeting of the council’s Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee approved proposed regulations, there is a real sense of relief as the controversial issue is finally moving forward.

The draft rules are expected to go before the full council on March 1.

For Ocean Beach, the proposal would

By Frances O’Neill Zimmerman

No question Senator Bernie Sanders did a national service by writing this piece for the Guardian. The American press and radio/TV are beating the drums of war with no explanation about past history, so Sanders goes to a British journal to lay out the risks we are taking.

I haven’t seen one word of explanation about NATO’s USA-backed expansion in recent years to the borders of Russia itself.

Instead we hear only that Putin is having a nostalgic fever dream about restoring Russian greatness by reconstituting the old Soviet union.

No mention of any tacit agreement between the USA and Russia in 1990-91 for Russia to accept the reunification of Germany in return for our keeping Ukraine out of NATO.

By Geoff Page
17 Condos and 1 Commercial Space to Be Built – Project Originally Called for 21 Apartments and 5 Commercial

A new project is coming to Voltaire Street and it isn’t going to make affordable housing advocates happy. The old House of Hui Chinese restaurant on the south side of Voltaire, west of San Clemente Street, has been demolished. Some folks may know it as where Coconut Pete’s used to be.

The adjacent lot to the west, where a beautiful old Crafstman style home once stood, is part of the project. This lot has been empty for many years and was once a community garden.

The new project will be 17 condominiums and one commercial space. It is called mixed-use and there must be some benefit to that designation, hence the token one commercial space. Here is the description on the permit application:

One of the reasons SDG&E says its bill are so high, is that the utility company had to take mitigation efforts to prevent their power system from igniting fires in San Diego’s back country.

SDG&E is spending $3.8 Billion on “hardening” their system in East San Diego County. They’ve replaced wood poles with steel and buried lines underground.

Yet, Bill Powers, an engineer with power system experience, interviewed by CBS8, called SDG&E’s $3-billion project – “a boondoggle.” Powers said:

“Poles don’t cause the fires. It’s the wires that hit each other and touch tree limbs and that type of thing.”

With heartburn coming to San Diegans in every bill from SDG&E, and with the confirmation that for some reason San Diegans pay the highest electricity rates in the country, numerous questions have been raised about all of this. For instance.

Which San Diego city council members voted for the SDG&E contract for 10 years, a contract pushed by Mayor Todd Gloria?

If the California Public Utilities Commission approves and sets rates, just who are they?

And just how much do the execs of SDG&E and its owner Sempra make?

The answer to the first is quick and easy; San Diego City Councilmembers who voted for the contract with SDG&E were:

The folks who run Cool San Diego Sights website have posted a number of murals from Ocean Beach. Here’s what one author said:

While I was walking along Bacon Street, I thought I saw what appeared to be colorful graffiti down an alley. So I checked it out.

This delightfully crazy mural depicting a fisherman off Sunset Cliffs, a guy eating a sandwich while riding a shark, and what appears to be a lobster mariachi, was spray painted on the north side of OB Quik Stop Liquor & Deli. You have to proceed down the alley behind the building to view it.

By Bernie Sanders / The Guardian UK / Feb. 8, 2022

I’m concerned when I hear familiar drumbeats in Washington demanding we ‘show strength’, when we’re faced with what could be the worst European war in 75 years

Wars have unintended consequences. They rarely turn out the way the experts tell us they will. Just ask the officials who provided rosy scenarios for the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, only to be proven horribly wrong. Just ask the mothers of the soldiers who were killed or wounded in action during those wars. Just ask the millions of civilians who became “collateral damage”.

That is why we must do everything possible to try and find a diplomatic solution to what could be an enormously destructive war in Ukraine.