Another day, another Otay Mesa drug tunnel

One of my teachers, I can't remember if it was Leonardo or Galileo, suggested that the earthen access ramps used in cathedral construction could be promptly and cost-effectively be removed after use by burying gold under them and letting people excavate it. The savings would be assured by the unlimited (in this case, positive) power of greed. We could use a gold of pot! Perhaps, with de-criminalization, we can get some of the large public excavation projects mentioned above done on pot power. SF to LAX in a levitating vacuum tube, can you dig it? New pipeline from melting Alaska, the long bong. In any case, this news undermines the Great Wall of Donald.
— April 21, 2016 4:53 p.m.

Yeah, whatever you say, Jerry Sanders

Don Bauder: How contrary! You're drifting against the wisdom of the ages, thankfully. We're supposed to become *more* conservative with age. How long will you have to live before you turn into a hippie and give up the opera tickets for DeadHead tie dyed T? Greed is constant in capitalism. Why on earth should a company grow? It would be natural for it to mature, evolve, or even wither but investors require it to increase value faster than the carrot of inflation. Henry Ford, for all his other social misconceptions, understood that his workers needed to make enough money to become customers. Were he alive today, he might expect Foxconn workers to be able to afford iPhones. The fact that they are Chinese and not American shouldn't be a factor. The man that offered his product in black, period, would be appalled at the typical American garage which is filled with hoarded bargains made for wages and under conditions no American would tolerate for a single day. There's no room in that garage for their "domestic" car, maybe a Ford, which made of materials and parts, investments, assemblies, and administrative services from around globe. The international trade balance seen at that level of detail and scope of accounting becomes as complex as forecasting the weather for next month. Talking about it doesn't get closer to the truth. How else can we explain a world wide major recession that caught everybody by surprise. Almost everybody. Enough people that it could occur, certainly. It wasn't the weather, after all, it was a man-made global disaster. Ride the Tiger (reference to Jefferson Starship lyrics, not opera, but heavy, man).
— April 15, 2016 8:27 p.m.

Yeah, whatever you say, Jerry Sanders

Exchange rates paint with the largest brush. It's not international balance of trade, it's about making a living here. Those "big" companies you named don't add up to one Convair or the aggregate of all the sole proprietor businesses that get displaced by big box and online businesses. San Diego's economy always stood on one leg, the Navy. We don't have our share of Fortune 500 or major manufacturing business, so it isn't just balance of trade that's making it tough to make a living here. Beyond quantity of jobs is the quality. Q is hardly the poster child for benevolent HR practices, given its propensity for finding ways to keep employees on tenterhooks with stock deals instead of job security, out sourcing in house, and drop kicking 1500 employees while the big guys accept big bonuses. Hardly a worker's paradise. HP has over a thousand workers on a beautiful campus in Rancho Bernardo, but I'd hate to bet the mortgage on the stability of that company. Jack in the Box is another home grown success but compare their business model with the tuna fleet. (Compare the cultural and health value of the food product too.) Make the comparison easy: Compare Jack, the putative CEO, with any tuna fisherman you ever met. Things just ain't the way they used to be. It's the effect of capitalist values above labor values. The international fungibility of capital and corporate veil tilt opportunity in favor of them that got. The balance isn't between China and US, its between owners and workers. As you say, corporations' constituency are purposely limited to stock holders, which is to say a disembodied pool of owners whose loyalty is to themselves and not the business, its workers, or customers.
— April 14, 2016 5:43 p.m.

Yeah, whatever you say, Jerry Sanders

This being a matter of our local business in the world market and the drift of power from local people to the global plutocracy, consider the poor San Diego worker. We recently had a tuna fleet with services and restaurants, to say nothing of making national products (Bumble Bee) here. We recently made clothes (Ratners) and kept an army of sewing machines humming. We just gave up major factories for aeronautics and all the parts and services that go into them, employing welders, engineers, draftsman, machinists, office workers… This used to be the flower capital of the world, or close enough… Now what can a young San Diegan get a work doing? A part-time job at a national chain business for less than living wage. Was not being able to earn a living worth buying cheap stuff at Walmart? (And no more mom'n'pop stores, either.) So exactly who is Jerry Sanders representing? What San Diego business? Or is he spinning up the death spiral of local economy for the benefit of big business?
— April 12, 2016 4:44 p.m.

Yeah, whatever you say, Jerry Sanders

Mr Hudson is giving Mr Sanders the benefit of substantial doubt when he "agrees with the concept" of public relations agents. It is unreasonable to expect a busy local politician to be well versed in an issue as complex and obscure as international trade treaties, so he could either have his staff research the issue and write a statement reflecting impact on his constituency or just play dumb. The second option is often the best, honesty being that kind of policy.
— April 11, 2016 4:43 p.m.

Disabled man's "leering" leads to suspension at Cal State San Marcos

I am a community college professor who welcomes students with special needs. It's public education, for and by taxpayers. The stupid, snarky jokes and uninformed pronouncements about this case are typical of people who don't realize that the historical norm of burying "problem" students is no longer acceptable. As to the "rigors of higher education," every class should be spiced up with unusual students to stir up dull normals and up-tight aspirationals, to say nothing of teachers on rails. Remember, the giant steps in civilization were made by outliers, by definition. Learn to appreciate "different." Instead of feeling sorry for punishing citizens for not being "ready" (whatever that means) look to them for contributions you could never imagine. It takes all kinds, and none of us has the right to exclude anyone.
— March 31, 2016 8:06 p.m.

Fox tip-toes out of Bridgepoint's hen house

According to reports in the New York Times and Rolling Stone (Matt Taibbi) over the last few years, the federal government actually makes money on student loans. One of the first things Obama did was cut out some of the middle men. They started busting college whose hard selling school where recruiters were on commission, which came with treble damages for hooking up student loans, further aggravated by the fact that were never likely to get paid off and there was less than nothing to repossess. Yet monkey business continues. It takes a house of mirrors approach to make the taxpayers keep paying for unworthy deals like that. There's no reason executives of public institutions shouldn't be required to open their tax return to at least a discreet review board. Their pay from the state is public record. So should their other associated benefits be, during and for a reasonable period after the revolving door stops.
— March 26, 2016 4:23 p.m.

Clairemont corner eyesore

Looks like an opportunity to exercise eminent domain. It's a perfect location for the new stadium! Too small you say? How big does it have to be if there's no team to play in it! You must have the Vision. The Finest City will start a new trend among Lesser Cities: Unstadia for Unsports. Soon Finer Cities everywhere will turn all the gas stations into Unstadia! They'll kick the football businesses out and put in Unstadia! Do you see the Vision now!!???!! People doing sports instead of watching sports! Unsports! Unstadia! Envision not Television! All made possible by the Eslamians eminence in our domain.
— December 17, 2015 5:01 p.m.

UCSD's $516,000 temporary executive

A modest salary by UC standards. Check it out. Compensation is a matter of public record (transparentcalifornia.com). The big bucks go to our (well, not my) athletic department for leading UC's athletes to the glory that makes California a world leader in… oh forget it. The salary thing makes me so snarky I can't stand me. I'm a college professor and all I ask is that the trash cans get emptied and that's asking too much. The weight of administration isn't just the money they shovel off, it's the counterproductive administration they pile on. It's the weekend before finals and I can't get upset over this. I'm going back to reading about terrorism or curing rare diseases, something that isn't likely to touch my life.
— December 13, 2015 10:01 a.m.

Lights, cameras, money

The old film commission died from many existential issues, any one of which would have been a coup d'grace. Even a quick look makes this a stillborn initiative: increasingly digital film industry, unfavorable union rules for locations outside "the zone," impacts of use in a denser environment, loss of the few favored locations to growth or reduced access, problems authorizing and policing permits, and mostly, cheesey funding offers like the one outlined in the article (compared to other more film-friendly locales). To crew and trades people like Natalie, the withered market and supply of location work and almost nonexistent studio jobs is a status we shouldn't ignore. The old commission worked against a terrible odds that have gotten far worse.
— November 4, 2015 5:36 p.m.