OB Rag

And now it begins. Hate crimes against people of color are exploding across the country – and in San Diego.

On Wednesday, the day after Trump’s election, a Muslim woman wearing a hijab was walking to her car in a parking structure at SDSU. Two males approached her, reportedly made anti-Muslim comments, grabbed her purse and backpack, and apparently stole her car. The suspects were described as a white man and a Latino male. KPBS

That same KPBS article included a reported about an incident up at UC San Diego at a bus stop, also on Wednesday, where someone had painted a swastika and “Heil Trump” on nearby concrete.

Spontaneous Nation-wide Protests Break Out in Response to Trump’s Election – Including San Diego<

“Not my president,” was a chant that has been heard across the nation, as spontaneous protests broke out across the country in response to the election of Donald Trump. Many thousands protested in all the major cities – including a couple protests in San Diego. At least 25 cities overnight experienced protests . Demonstrations have been targeting Trump’s properties across the country. Protests have also been outside city halls and on college and high school campuses. CNN

But all the big cities witnessed thousands in the streets, chanting and marching: Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, Oakland, LA, Portland, Seattle. Nearly hundred arrests were made nation-wide. ThinkProgress

In San Diego

In San Diego, 18 people were arrested by police at the end of a demonstration in and around Horton Plaza …

By Bob Dorn / San Diego Free Press

The Democratic Party, not the Republicans, died Tuesday night. It took with it to the grave a functional middle class.

From now on smart people will have to find some new ways to avoid the hoi polloi, the downward bound still clinging to their weekend Harleys and storing their AK 47’s in whatever closet they can afford to rent. We’ve watched our tepid and bland Democrats—the Susan Davis’s and Scott Peters—clapping and wiggling their asses to the tunes of corporate advisers for so long that we’ve failed to notice they look and sound just like Republicans.

They just wouldn’t go away, would they? They kept cloning themselves, and droning the same songs of the party of Jefferson. They were forced by political law to live in their districts but we didn’t know where they were, and we knew it wouldn’t be in their local offices. How many pieces of our minds were we unable to give them?

Who’d a thunk the Dems would die first? The Tea Party and the White Nationalists and the End Time Evangelicals were making war on The Blue-Suited Wall Streeters and Corporate Media, and so we thought the Republicans were killing themselves.

Sometime after 2 a.m. eastern standard time – in the middle of the late night, Hillary Clinton – who won the popular vote for President – phoned Donald Trump and made her concession. He had won the electoral vote.

In an historic rebellion of the white, working-class, half of American voters used democratic means to elect a man who does not understand the Constitution, who does not respect the Bill of Rights, and who does not believe in democracy.

It is an irony, then, that a radical regime was voted into power that represents the greatest threat in 40 years to what is left of American democracy. Words do matter. With the threats and promises made by our new President-elect over the course of the last year and a half, it’s clear that not since the time of Richard Nixon have the civil rights of Americans been so openly splayed out on the chopping block as they are now – or will be in a few months.

The OB Rag has been live blogging since 9 a.m. – COME INSIDE FOR THE LATEST ….

9:00 a.m. This is finally it – Election Day, 2016! This is the historic day where American voters have a final say in the Presidential contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

The editors of the OB Rag and the San Diego Free Press are pleased to present our 2016 General Election Progressive Voter Guide.

We believe this is a historic election, one that will set the course of the United States for decades to come. If there ever was an election where voting was important — this is it.

The candidacy of Donald Trump is no accident. It is a consequence of decades of building a constituency for a market-driven political economy by capitalizing on fear, bias, and ignorance.

Lou Hirsh at the San Diego Business Journal reported that an 8-unit apartment complex at 4774 West Point Loma Blvd just sold for $2.15 million. The large building sits on a busy street, right next to a gas station at arguably OB’s busiest intersection.

The complex was sold by Marsha Swanson of San Diego, who reportedly is its original owner, and who recently did some exterior renovations. The buyers were Neel Pujara of Carlsbad and Green Storm LLC of La Palma.

By Jim Miller

Greetings procrastinating progressive poll voters! After you are done voting against Donald Trump and attending to all the high profile races that have received plenty of attention elsewhere, there are a myriad of other issues to decide. Here is my list of good things progressives can do down ballot:

*Vote to Fund Education and Elect Actual Educators to School and College Boards: Of course, the central statewide ballot measure to vote for is Proposition 55, which extends Proposition 30’s taxes on the wealthiest Californians while leaving the sales tax behind.

If you value public education, this is an obvious vote. For more on Prop. 55 see my column here.

Here are some frequently asked questions about election day voting in San Diego County. In order to vote, you must be a U.S. citizen and you must already be registered to vote. There is no same day registration in CA.

For info on candidates and issues on the 2016 general election ballots in San Diego, go here.

OB Rag and San Diego Free Press Progressive Voter Guide here.

When are the polls open?

Polls are open on election day Tuesday, November 8, 2016 from 7am to 8pm. If you are in the line at the polling place prior to 8pm, you have the right to vote.

By Frank Gormlie

On Friday, November 4th, the California Coastal Commission finally gave SeaWorld what it wanted. In what veteran San Diego Union-Tribune writer, Lori Weisberg, called an “easy approval“, the Commission okayed new decorations for its old Orca tanks.

Call them a new backdrop for the set, call them a new stage for a new Orca encounter, call them whatever – the new decor – which will include a “Northwestern” motif, complete with fake fir trees, fake waterfalls, and a fake rock fiberglass facade – will be for the patrons, the visitors – to make them feel better – it won’t be for the Orcas. They’ll still be in the same old tanks.