Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Clown Cars And Illusionists

Catch The Faulconer & Sherman Show Before Somebody Gets Mauled

The San Francisco Democratic Party has a brilliant idea. On Thursday, August 6th, they're having a Republican Debate and Circus Watch Party. The folks in San Francisco know the horrified fascination children and thinking adults have when the clowns start spilling out of the small car and pull out their individual, yet surprisingly similar, versions of anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT, anti-worker, anti-environment, anti-people bags of tricks and start to juggle. In San Francisco, watching a bunch of killer clowns debating who can bring the Country down to their levels fastest is entertainment, not politics. After all, San Francisco has not elected a Republican to the Board of Supervisors since 1973.

In San Diego though, Republicans are still in office and acting more like magicians, not clowns. How else do you explain making a billion dollars disappear from the City's General Fund and reappear in the profit statement of the Carson Chargers/NFL? Pay no attention to the potholes hidden behind the "victory" of keeping a highly profitable business even more profitable without expending any of that money for the benefit of the City.

See? Nothing Need Be Cut To Keep The Chargers

Take away Sigfried & Roy's sparkly costumes and white tigers, and you've got Faulconer & Sherman, Illusionists Extraordinare.

For decades, the powers that be, raided the City employees' pension funds to attract a Republican Convention and other circus acts to San Diego. Then Republicans came to power nationally and destroyed the economy - hey, it may not be glamorous, but it's what Republicans do. Because of Bush's Great Recession, pension funds lost value and could no longer be raided. Imagine the horror the great Faulconer & Sherman team felt when the audience noticed the cut-backs to City services required to pay back the pension funds.

But like all great illusionists, Kevin Faulconer and Scott Sherman are sure you won't notice that they're at it again. Sure, we may have to close libraries and let parks go to seed. We won't be able to catch up on street/sidewalk and sewer maintenance - hell, it may even get much worse. But, that won't happen until the Faulconer & Sherman show has moved on to other showrooms. After all, isn't the very definition of a great illusionist to get you to wonder how they got your wallet out of your pocket - not that they stole your wallet?

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Celebrate 40 Years of Activism by Joining the Club

Democrats for Equality had a very successful June and we're well on our way to our goal of 400 members to celebrate our 40th Anniversary. Much of the progressive change in San Diego and in our community can be traced directly or indirectly through the work of our members.

We're not finished and we need you to get the job done. If you've let your membership lapse, NOW would be a good time to renew. If you want to be a part of the change, join NOW. Our members make history. Join us.

The Club depends on membership dues to keep the lights on and promote our candidates and issues to the community. A large number of community members depend on our Voters Guide to help them make an intelligent choice when marking their ballots so your membership renewal is critical to ensure those Guides get into those hands. At the risk of sounding like a Public Television pledge drive, if you depend on our endorsements, Voters Guide, newsletters, social media posts and programs, you should be a member!

If your membership has lapsed or if you know your membership is soon to expire, please re-up now. You might also consider upgrading your membership to a higher level.

Dems for Equality would like to welcome Brittany Bailey, Betty Ball, Susanne Bonfils, Eve Boyer, Jennifer Brooks, David Cieslack, Jennifer Cieslack, Sydnie Elias, Charles Elster, Mary Ann Fink, Lora Folsom, Howard Greenstein, Spencer Guerena, Russ Hamm, David Hicks, Ann Hix, Michael Hix, Jolie Kalfian, Katherine Keach, Janice Lord, Jerry Malamud, Christine Mcdonagh, Renee Mitchell, Marien Robin, Emily Rose-Weber, Leslie Simmons and Myrna Zambrano as new members of the Club.

We'd also like to welcome back Howard Tedd Bunce and Joel Trambley for another year as members of Democrats for Equality.

NOTE: We had a huge number of new and renewal members in advance of the June 30th endorsement meeting. If you don't see your name above, it will be there within the next few weeks as we get caught up.

You can find out more about the Club's membership levels and benefits online HERE. You can also join/renew with a credit card there. If you would prefer to use a check, send the check, made out to Democrats for Equality to:

San Diego Democrats for Equality

PO Box 33050

San Diego CA 92163

Note that in order to comply with Federal and State election laws, please include your full address where you are registered to vote and your job title/employer with your check. Telephone number and email address would be nice too!

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Like Us, Really Like Us

San Diego Democrats for Equality's Facebook page has been number 1 among County Democratic Clubs for a while now. Even so, we've got quite a few new members so we're putting this out again. Please Like Us! Facebook includes the number of likes on a page as part of their complex algorithm to decide if our posts should be widely distributed or not. If you like us now, more people will see our Voter's Guide in their timeline next year. Twitter has different rules, but the effect is the same. The more people who follow us on Twitter means more people seeing our Tweets.

If you are on Facebook or Twitter and you haven't already liked/followed us, please do it now.

https://www.facebook.com/dems4equality

@SDDems4Equality

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Pride Was Incredible

Speaker Toni Atkins - Club Founder Bob Lynn - Councilmember Todd Gloria

We got our Pride on and celebrated our 40th in the best way possible - with a party. Great Maple treated us well will wonderful food, the drinks were great and the company greater. Councilmembers Myrtle Cole and Todd Gloria joined us, as did SDUSD Board Member Kevin Beiser and endorsed candidates for the 3rd and 9th City Council District, Chris Ward and Georgette Gomez. Other officeholders, candidates and Club members and friends filled out the room for a great reception to kick-off Pride. Highlight of the event was Speaker Atkins presenting San Diego Democratic Club founder Bob Lynn with the Club's award. Citation on the Award:

San Diego Democrats for Equality salutes Our Founder

Robert Lynn

Everything we've become, everything we've accomplished

Is because of you

This year's Pride parade went off without a hitch. Even the almighty showed Pat

Robertson was full of it when the heavens opened up and drenched Southern California with much needed rain - no doubt to show approval for marriage equality.

Because we were limited to 138 marchers, we estimate the number of marchers in our unit at 138. We had local and some not so local officeholders marching with us including Members of Congress Scott Peters and Mark Takano (D-Riverside), Chula Vista Mayor Mary Salas, San Diego Council Members David Alvarez and Myrtle Cole, SDUSD Board Member Kevin Beiser as well as Club founder Bob Lynn and endorsed candidate for 9th Council District Georgette Gomez.

Representatives from the County Party, County Democratic Club members and supporters of many candidates filled out the huge contingent and helped to show the Democratic Party has been, is and will be a supporter of the LGBT community. And, knowing that a warm, dry recovery was to follow, a good time was had by all.

And we had special treats for the Pride Festival too. In addition to Club, Party and Candidate information, between raindrops, we registered voters and showed video greetings from some of our favorite office holders and a short history of the Club's accomplishments.

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We're Proud of our 40th Anniversary -

East County Democrats is Celebrating 50

Come celebrate with the East County Democrats. Everyone is invited to attend our 50th Anniversary Celebration Day at the Races. The Clubhouse at Del Mar is ready to host our 50th Anniversary Celebration. Seats are reserved for great viewing. Includes program & goodies. Betting tips will be shared. Come for great fun and camaraderie. Only $12.00 a person. First come, first served. Your check is your reservation. RSVP: name(s), address(es), phone(s) and $12 per person.