OB Rag

By Jim Miller

Very hard times are here for our schools and colleges. As expected, the California budget is a train wreck and social services and education will be losing billions of dollars for the coming year at least. To make matters worse, the Republicans in Congress want to starve the states in the midst of the building COVID-19 depression, but that’s just fine with the lords of the tech world. They’ll be turning lemons into extremely profitable lemonade in short order if they have their way.

In fact, NYU Business Professor Scott Galloway predicts in a New York Magazine interview that “the coming disruption” in higher education will enable a handful of elite cyborg universities to monopolize education as the top tier universities prosper and grow by offering vastly expanded online options under their brand, while “second tier colleges” slowly perish.

The above SDU-T chart is from today, Friday, May 15, 2020, with the data good through Thursday, May 14. Compared with last week’s chart published Friday, May 8, with data good through the 7th, we can see the increases in total deaths, total cases and new positive cases. With increased testing, the numbers are bound to go up. Yet, in one week in San Diego County, there were 962 new cases of COVID-19 and 35 additional deaths.

By Marjorie Cohn / TruthOut / May 14, 2020

Donald Trump claims that while he is president, his pre-presidency financial records can’t be subpoenaed and he can’t even be investigated for criminal conduct. The Supreme Court will decide by the end of June whether Trump is indeed beyond the reach of the law.

On May 12, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments about whether Trump can block subpoenas for his tax and other financial records that predate his presidency. Although prior presidents made their tax returns public, Trump has steadfastly refused to reveal his. In 2016, he promised to release them when the purported “audit” is complete. But they remain under wraps.

In April 2019, three committees of the House of Representatives and the New York district attorney issued subpoenas to banks and financial institutions to obtain Trump’s records. Trump sued to prevent the disclosures. Even though all four lower courts that considered the issue ruled that the records must be produced, Trump continues to stonewall, claiming in essence he is above the law.

The San Diego City Council Rules Committee voted yesterday 3 to 1 – with Councilmember Barbara Bry the only ‘nay’ vote – to push Jen Campbell’s measure to rescind the 30-foot height limit in the Midway area towards the November ballot.

The entire Council still needs to vote on it sometime this summer. Councilmember Chris Cate has joined Campbell in recent months pushing the initiative to “open up” the Midway District to more large-scale development.

As KPBS reported, “Councilwoman Barbara Bry, in the midst of a mayoral campaign, voted against putting the measure on the ballot, arguing it was not an urgent need for the city,….” Bry’s opponent for mayor is Assemblymember Todd Gloria, who supports the measure. Again, from KPBS:

by Ernie McCray

Oh, I want so
to be out and about again,
to just grab a hold
of my children and grandchildren
and great-grandchildren
and friends
and hug them
for eternity,
or at least
until my arms fall limp.

Who does have access to the beach and the coast? What’s with the protests to reopen our sandy parks?

Here are some recent commentaries from local San Diego media.

You couldn’t go to the beach? People of color have had access issues for centuries.

By Anela Akiona & Kayla Wilson / San Diego Union-Tribune / May 14, 2020

As Southern California beaches have opened and closed at various points in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, there have been widespread protests by members of predominantly white,

Reopened Beaches Remain Out of Reach for San Diego’s Poor

By MacKenzie Elmer / Voice of San Diego / May 12, 2020

Early in the pandemic, officials debated when and how to close beaches.

Coverage of anti-lockdown protests in San Diego is ignoring one glaring fact

By Andrew Matschiner / San Diego Union-Tribune / May 13, 2020
To put it plainly, these protests attract predominately white San Diegans.

By Colleen O’Connor / Times of San Diego / May 12, 2020

Here we go again. No matter the year, the danger, or the outlook, the most popular city services get cut the most.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are about to unveil another massive spending proposal—of “Rooseveltian” proportions—to counter the national COVID-19 economic collapse.

Meanwhile, San Diego’s politicians are debating how to proceed with their own deficit. Mayor Kevin Faulconer is considering drawing down about $80 million of its reserve funds to offset revenue losses—while simultaneously sitting on a $248 million pile of federal monies cash courtesy of the earlier COVID-19 Relief and Economic Security Act.

Via Steve Zivolich

Has this been an elaborate plan by our dogs to get us to stay home with them more and take daily walks?

Strangest mothers day ever. Sent my wife an ecard; the third try went through and arrived one day late.

Thinking of contacting all the women who told me they would not touch me with 10 foot pole; and asking if the would consider modifying it to a 6 foot pole?

San Diego lifeguards were busy at Sunset Cliffs on Tuesday, May 12, with two rescue operations.

The first rescue was of a 23 year old woman who suffered major trauma when she fell 30 feet off the cliffs to the beach below. The SDFD helicopter was brought in to hoist her up to the bluff top and then she was transported to a local hospital. What the status is of the unidentified woman is unknown at this time. Fox5

The Rules Committee of the San Diego City Council meets Wednesday, May 13 to consider placing a measure that would dismantle the 30 foot height limit in the Midway District on the November ballot.

Councilmembers Jennifer Campbell and Chris Cate are pushing the idea. Campbell represents District 2, of course, which includes the Midway, as well as much of the coastal areas of the city.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the public will have very little say in how the Rules Committee – or the full Council for that matter – votes on this crucial vote, a vote seen as an end-run around Prop D, passed by San Diego voters overwhelmingly in 1972. A group in opposition to this move, Save Everyone’s Access,

By Joni Halpern

We have just completed our Mother’s Day celebration without the traditional reliance on buying power to attest to our love of the women who have mothered us. We have sent online deliveries if we could and zoomed ourselves with varied success into the two-dimensional spaces of each other’s screens. We have texted, phoned, and snail-mailed our greetings. But we have not been able to hug.

How unexpectedly descriptive is the absence of a hug, for in not being available, it emphasizes the importance of an embrace. Two arms wrapped around us, pulling us closer to a loving heart, a gesture that could impart power and conflict, for it often occurs between two beings of varying strength. And yet our surrender to a hug is a relief, a comfort, an admission that we persist in life’s most strenuous endeavors because we are loved.

On the other side of a hug is the fact that we concede our need for others.

OB Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off Cancelled

The 41st annual OB Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off has been officially cancelled for this year. It will be held next year, on Saturday, June 26, 2021. Originally set for June 27 this year, the annual event – like many other things – had to be cancelled due to health concerns. Denny Knox, ED of the OB Mainstreet Assoc which sponsors the fair, told the Beacon:

“We had to make the call. We just couldn’t commit to signing a contract. The risk is too great.
Some OB Businesses Have Limited “Openings”

OB Teacher Concerned About Opening Schools Too Soon

Joanne Ensign who teaches at Ocean Beach Elementary School, says it’s a challenge teaching kindergarten, but “It’s going well. Kids are participating…. kids are doing it, they’re doing it.” But Ensign is concerned about talk of opening the schools in July. She needs a break, she told 7NBC.