OB Rag

“Indivisible” Leaders Plan Comprehensive Campaign to Sway Congress

February 7 “Resist Trump Tuesday” Targets Feinstein, Harris, Issa, Hunter

POINT LOMA, CA – More than 60 San Diegans united in Point Loma on Saturday, Jan. 4th to defeat President Trump’s agenda through direct advocacy to members of Congress, and other elected officials.

Representing many of the five dozen “Indivisible” groups that have formed in the San Diego region since the election, the leaders met to network and strategize to maximize their impact through collective action.

The overflow crowd had to move to a larger room at a Point Loma community center to accommodate the attendees, who hailed from Alpine, Ramona, La Mesa, Carlsbad, Capitol Heights, La Jolla, Point Loma, Fallbrook, Tierrasanta and many other communities.

There is a nation-wide group that is organizing a boycott of companies that carry Trump products, or are owned by Trump or have other relationships with him. It’s call #GrabYourWallet and they believe economic push-back by American citizens and others is a very valid form of protest.

Their campaign has already been going on for nearly 4 months now and it has achieved some successes. Here is how they describe themselves and their history:

The #GrabYourWallet movement tracks & boycotts retailers that sell Trump family products as well as corporate leaders who enabled the political rise of the Trump family through fundraising and/or endorsements.

Tenants Are Encouraged to Run as Candidates for Board

Every year community planning boards and committees around the city hold their annual elections – most of them – in March.

And the Ocean Beach Planning Board is no different. The annual election to the panel of OB volunteers who make recommendations about projects that come before it to the city is being held Wednesday, March 15th. The balloting takes place inside the OB Recreation Center.

Any tenant, resident, property owner or business owner in Ocean Beach can take part in the election.

Importantly, everyone from these categories can also be a candidate for one of the seats on the 14-member Board.

So, if interested, check the district map for the district of your residence or business or property. At least one seat in each of the 7 districts is up for election each year.

CANDIDATE ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS INSIDE

On Saturday, February 4, Hodad’s Burgers and AWOL Productions held the annual Ocean Beach Pier Surf Classic. There were a lot of heats with a lot of surfers of every age and gender. The usual Ocean Beach crowd was in attendance, as well as visitors from around Southern California.

Head of Democratic Party Bashes Unions … While American Federation of Teachers Joins Calls for Kasparian to Take Leave of Absence

By Jim Miller

Last week I dedicated my column to outlining how, despite the emergence of inspiring protests in the streets and amongst the progressive base, many key Democratic figures in Congress and in the national leadership of the building trades unions still didn’t seem to understand what time it was. Sadly, it only took a few more days to see a couple of stunning examples of how not to be the resistance right here in San Diego.

On January 26th, Jessica Hayes, the newly elected chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party, took advantage of her presence at a forum hosted by the Democrats for Equality entitled “#The Resistance: Women Lead the Way” to attack not the dangerous plutocrats running the country, but a key element of the Democratic base: unions.

This Is Not an Issue of “Free Speech” for a White Nationalist with Connections to the White House

Risking becoming the lone voice in today’s wilderness, we say today that somebody has to say “thank you” to the UC Berkeley students and community members who demonstrated against the white nationalist Breitbart News senior editor back on Wednesday, February 1st, and helped cause the campus to cancel the talk by Milo Yiannopoulo.

So, thank you.

The whole incident has now blown up, with claims the protesters violated free speech, with Trump threatening to cut off funds to UC Berkeley – which he cannot do unilaterally – and the subsequent push-back against him from school and California officials.

Reader Rant by Rick Dower

On Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 1st, I almost became the victim of an attempted scam which I will call the ‘old Armani leather jacket con’.

I was walking my dog across Pt. Loma Ave at Guizot St. just an hour before I wrote this up as a warning for OB Rag readers, and a guy in a nice white Jeep Grand Cherokee stops in the middle of the street, hails me in a heavy Italian accent. Needs directions to the airport.

He pulled onto Guizot, I gave “Antonio” directions, he profusely thanks me. In heavily accented English, he then tells me he is a designer for Giorgio Armani in Milan, was in San Diego for a big fashion show and is leaving in 2 hours for London for another show.

What-a size are you?” He is so grateful for my help he offers to give –give!– me 3 nice-looking “Armani” leather jackets he designed and brought to town for the show.

Latest data shows more than 1 million people living in families with incomes too low for expenses

Center on Policy Initiatives

A new report from the Center on Policy Initiatives finds that a third (33%) of all household in San Diego County have incomes below the level needed to cover basic living expenses.

Women and children are most impacted, largely because employed women throughout the county earn 74 cents for every $1 paid to men. Among households headed by single mothers, 69% have incomes below the bare-bones level known as the Self-Sufficiency Standard.

By Frank Gormlie

At its monthly public meeting on Wed., January 25, the Ocean Beach Town Council celebrated the New Year and its first public event of 2017 by handing out awards to the winning floats that were in the December OB Holiday Parade.

As is true for many of the OBTC meetings, there was not one over-riding issue that dominated the meeting last week. Usually the audience is peppered with reports from the people who work for our politicians, from community groups, and from the reports of Board members – and this meeting was no exception.

Over 50 people sat in the audience, while half a dozen uniformed men stood off to the side, representing police, fire and lifeguard services. They all had their turn to address the meeting, as did reps from the City Attorney’s office and from Councilwoman Zapf’s office, Assemblywoman Toni Atkins’ office and Congressman Scott Peters’ office. Noticeably absent was anyone representing the Mayor’s office.

Winning Floats of OB Holiday Parade

Trump’s Supreme Court nominee could enact revenge against the EPA

By David Helvarg / Sierra Feb 1 2017

Neil Gorsuch, who won the rose from Donald Trump as one of two finalists for a Supreme Court nomination, is a deeply conservative choice in the mold of the late Antonio Scalia.

He is also the poisoned fruit of a partisan refusal to hold confirmation hearings on Judge Merrick Garland, who was President Obama’s nominee for Scalia’s vacant seat. That constitutional hostage drama played out very well for the hostage takers.

If Gorsuch is confirmed (something that the Sierra Club and groups across the progressive movement have vowed to prevent), his ascendance to the nation’s highest court might also play out as a family revenge-drama against U.S. environmental laws.

Ocean Beach’s own hostel has just won three global awards by the industry’s international association HOSCAR.

Owned and run by USA Hostels, Ocean Beach ranked best in the world in 3 categories. The 15th annual HOSCAR awards, which celebrates the best hostels around the globe just came out. The awards are based on travelers’ reviews of hostels in countries around the world, and this year’s are reportedly based on one million reviews.

The OB hostel won the following awards:

From City Heights Town Hall to Airport Protest

By Anna Daniels / San Diego Free Press

“Tell me what democracy looks like!”

“This is what democracy looks like!”

The chant ran up and down the whole length of Terminal 2 of San Diego’s Lindbergh Airport, up and down the opposite side of the terminal and could be heard on the second floor walkway. Three lines of cars ran between the two and those cars honked their horns while passengers waved flags and held signs outside of the windows.