OB Rag

Thoughts on Some Primary Results and Their Meaning for the Beach

The June Primary is over, the dust is settling and the pundits are buzzing. What does it all mean? Well, we’re going to take a crack at the question by looking at a few race results and how they affect residents of Ocean Beach and Point Loma and other nearby communities. And there is some good news. Consider these ….

District 2: Zapf vs Campbell in November

First of all the results show Lorie Zapf is in a run for her political life for the City Council District 2 seat. Incumbent Lorie Zapf (45%) will go against Dr Jen Campbel (2l%), a Democrat, in November. Campbell, a relative new-comer to San Diego politics, had enough of a base in Clairemont and within the district’s traditional Democratic Party enclaves to propel her past Democrats Bryan Pease (18%) and Jordan Beane (9%).

Jen Campbell will face off with incumbent Lorie Zapf next November for the District 2 City Council seat. Zapf ended up with about 8400 votes or 44.6% of the primary vote and Campbell had just over 4000 votes for 21.3%.

Today – Primary Day in California – is a good day to vote against the self-proclaimed emperor, Donald Trump.

Yesterday, June 4, Trump tweeted, “I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, …” This is akin to what a monarch, a king believes – the view of a dictator, an emperor.

“In this view the president is like kings and emperors of ages past. By definition, he cannot violate the law. It’s not that he is above the law. As president, the argument goes, he is the law.”

That’s not of the OB Rag – that’s from the Los Angeles Times editorial in today’s paper.

By Timothy P. Holmberg

In 1998, as a cub reporter for the Gay & Lesbian Times, I was asked by then-publisher Michael Portantino to interview aspiring Superior Court judge candidate, and openly lesbian Republican, Bonnie Dumanis.

I arrived at Hamburger Mary’s (now Mo’s) dutifully on time at 11am sharp, with PR photo of Dumanis in hand, to find her already seated and waiting. Her signature hair was exactly as in her photo, and exactly the same as it is to this day.

Here’s a quick and easy way to vote in the June 5, 2018, primary election.

Many San Diego County races, including District Attorney, Sheriff, and Assessor will be decided in this election since any candidate getting better than 50% gets a pass on the November election. City and State races, on the other hand, allow the top two finishers to go on to November.

The Ocean Beach Planning Board meets this Wednesday night, June 6, at the OB Recreation Center, at 4726 Santa Monica Avenue at 6pm. And it appears the have a full agenda: there’s the return of a granny flat project at 4715 Cape May, plus discussions and possible actions on whether the city will remove parking on West Pt Loma to allow an unprotected bike lane, and on a project at Voltaire and Froude.

Nuclear Shutdown News May 2018

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry in the US and beyond, and highlights the efforts of those working to create a nuclear free future. Here is our May 2018 report.

Cape Cod: Colonial Folly To Nuclear Demise

US history indoctrination begins early in our lives. Before formal education even begins we are taught to look forward to the Thanksgiving holiday, an annual celebration that upon sober reflection really celebrates gluttony, greed and genocide.

This makes sense. The NFL is big business in a capitalist political economy, thus class conflict is expected and not new. Over the decades it has produced a NFL Players Union (NFLPA), player and game officials’ threatened and real strikes, a management lockout and lots of strikebreaking scabs.

If you are part of that dwindling tribe who (like me) still prefer to show up at your polling place to vote in person, here are a few final reminders for the procrastinating progressives out there:

Defeat the Lincoln Club: There is only one way to foil the plans of the Lincoln Club in the San Diego County Board of Supervisors race and discourage them from spending big money to intervene in San Diego Democratic politics in the future: Don’t Vote for Lori Saldana. See Doug Porter’s column on this race here. See my column here.

By Colleen Cochran

OB voters, be on the watch for fake campaign materials in your mailboxes. In particular, be wary of the cardstock flyers that portray checklists of recommended candidates. They’re called slate mailers, and they’re designed to deceive you.

Slate mailers look like official candidate endorsements. They appear to be sent by political parties or organizations that support a particular ideological point of view. For instance, they’re labeled as guides for Democrat or Republican voters or for those who support Latinos, teachers, firefighters, the military, the environment, etc.

Upcoming “Ocean Beach Where Land and Water Meet” Events:

Saturday, June 2, 2 PM. – Ocean Beach Library: Book Talk

By Murtaza Baxamusa / SanDiegoUrbDeZine

San Diego does not have a homeless problem, it has a housing bed inventory problem in comparison to other large cities. The region’s homeless as a percentage of the total population is 12^th in the nation, and the five-year trend is relatively flat when including both sheltered and unsheltered homeless. Yet, despite the public outcry, there are still about five thousand unsheltered homeless sleeping on our streets, sidewalks, canyons, riverbeds, parks and open spaces.