Friends and Comrades

The discourse and daily life in SD is intensifying, as I suspect it is everywhere. Yesterday, Fran Zimmerman, one of two unbought board members on the San Diego school board, commented that the board's leadership runs parallel to fascist leadership.

Zimmerman is no radical. She believes in standards, high stakes tests, etc, but she also recognizes that the incredible regimentation of the San Diego schools has a historical base, in fascism, and I think she is right. Zimmerman, you may remember, was opposed in the last board election by an influx of nearly $1/2 million, from outsiders---companies not located in SD. This was an astonishing intervention, in itself, as was her later victory.

Here is the link from the Union Tribune, up til about two months ago edited by Nixon's former press secretary, Herb Klein (war criminal in my book). http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20040930-9999-7m30fran.html

Meanwhile, SD is the only large city in the history of the US to have its credit rating, not dropped, but abolished. The city is in debt at at least twice its current assets, and the Mayor is, of course, saying that will have to come out of the pockets of working people----with the notion of taxing rich developers, the NADAQ millionaires, the casinos, etc completely unspoken. There really can be no question that the city fathers (as that is what the boys think they are) will come after the SDEA members health benefits, soon.

SD sits inside CA, the worlds sixth largest economy, as the second largest city in the state. CA has a budget deficit of what I believe is nearly 35 billion.

That state sits in the US, whose resources are being blasted away in Iraq, from which there is no retreat for the ruling class.

If we are to assume that fascism would not always look the same from nation to nation, from decade to decade, and that it would not just appear overnight, but would be developed, and if we understand that fascism has often been very popular, it may be that Fran Zimmerman has a good point, and she deserves some notes of support, or just kindness, for having guts.

Simplified, I think this is a fair approximation of what fascism has been in the past

best r