General Meeting June 26, 2021
Presentation by Diane Benscoter
Diane Benscoter is the founder of Antidote.ngo and the author of Shoes of a Servant – My Unconditional Devotion to a Lie. She is a speaker and workshop facilitator. Drawing from her own experience inside a religious cult and later as a deprogrammer, Diane came to realize the need for an organization that recognizes psychological manipulation as a public health problem. Her experience in the technology industry informs her understanding of the need to utilize technology, and especially social media, to reach those who are most at risk of being taken advantage of. Antidote is the result of her many years of effort to find a comprehensive solution to the problem of psychological manipulation.
Diane spoke to the club about how to speak to family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers who have fallen prey to the psychological manipulation used by recognized cults and incorporated into today’s divisive political discourse. This is a program you do not want to miss.
For more information on Diane, go to:
Solvable Podcast – https://www.pushkin.fm/episode/psychological-manipulation-is-a-solvable-problem/
All Things Considered – https://www.npr.org/2021/03/03/971457702/exit-counselors-strain-to-pull-americans-out-of-a-web-of-false-conspiracies
TED Talk – https://www.ted.com/talks/diane_benscoter_how_cults_rewire_the_brain
General Meeting April 24, 2021
Presentation by Congressman Scott Peters and Mayor Serge Dedina
Congressman Scott Peters serves California’s 52nd Congressional District, which includes the cities of Coronado, Poway and most of northern San Diego. First elected in 2012, Scott has worked across the aisle to fix a broken Congress and stand up for San Diego’s military and veterans community. After a 15-year career as an environmental lawyer, Scott was elected to the San Diego City Council, where he later became the City’s first City Council President. Scott also later served as chairman of the San Diego Unified Port District.
Scott earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and worked as an economist for the United States Environmental Protection Agency before attending New York University School of Law. During his time in Congress, Scott has passed legislation to give the military the advanced technology it needs to fight terrorism, to level the playing field for small businesses competing for government contracts, and has succeeded in getting the federal government to make changes to the homelessness funding formula that disadvantages San Diego. Ranked the 4th most independent Democrat in Congress by the National Journal, Scott Peters understands that business problems have bipartisan solutions, and is never afraid to work across party lines to build consensus and get things done.
Serge Dedina is the Mayor of the City of Imperial Beach. He is also co-founder and Executive Director of WILDCOAST. Before co-founding WILDCOAST back in 2000, Serge was the founding Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Baja California – Sea of Cortez Program where he helped to initiate successful efforts to protect Loreto Bay National Park, Espiritu Santo Island Reserve and Cabo Pulmo National Park. He grew up in Imperial Beach, California, and spent his childhood helping to preserve the Tijuana Estuary as a National Wildlife Refuge and has worked on water quality issues in the San Diego – Tijuana region since 1980. He is the author of Saving the Gray Whale, a book based on the three years he lived in the gray whale lagoons of Baja California. Serge has a Ph.D. Geography, University of Texas at Austin; M.S. Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison; B.A. Political Science, University of California, San Diego.
CDC 2020 Scrapbook
Download a PDF of the Scrapbook
SPECIAL EVENT
Phone Banking
Presented by Donna Manning and Terry Zack
Annual Meeting March 13, 2021
Presentation by Supervisor Nora Vargas
On November 3, 2020, Supervisor Nora Vargas was elected to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, representing District 1. Supervisor Vargas was sworn in on January 4, 2021, and elected Vice-Chairwoman of the Board.
Supervisor Vargas’ priorities include mitigating the impacts of the pandemic and focusing on economic recovery, while ensuring equity and inclusivity.
Prior to her election to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Vargas was as an elected member and President of the Southwestern College Governing Board, the only public institution of higher education in San Diego’s South County. Supervisor Vargas served on the Board of Southwestern since her appointment in 2013 and was elected twice to the position.
Supervisor Vargas also served as the Vice President of Community and Government Relations at Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, where she worked to increase access to safe, quality healthcare, and education for women and families across California.
In 2015, Governor Jerry Brown appointed her to serve on the 12-member California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), the largest educator-only pension fund in the world and the second largest pension fund in the United States. Supervisor Vargas became the first Latina to be appointed in the board’s history. In that capacity, she was charged with securing the financial future of California’s educators, providing retirement, disability and survivor benefits for California’s educators and their families.
For the last 25 years, Supervisor Vargas has worked to drive positive change and serve her community through public service. She is committed to ensuring that marginalized voices are included in the public dialogue regarding important issues such as health access, education, technology, energy, consumer protection, the environment, civic engagement, and pensions. Committed to community service, Supervisor Vargas has served on numerous local, statewide, and national boards and commissions. She currently serves as a Board member for California Women Lead, Mothers Out Front, and the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) and is an Advisory Board member for Retirement Security for All, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE), Equality California and the South Bay Youth Center.
Supervisor Vargas is proud to serve the more than 630,000 residents of District 1 which
encompasses the incorporated cities of Coronado, Imperial, Beach, Chula Vista, National City and communities within the City of San Diego, including Barrio Logan, Chollas View, Grant Hill, La Playa, Lincoln Park, Logan Heights, Memorial, Mount Hope, Mountain View, Nestor, Otay, Palm City, Point Loma, San Ysidro, Shelltown, Sherman Heights, Southcrest, Stockton, Sunset Cliffs and part of Downtown San Diego. The district also includes the unincorporated communities of Bonita, Sunny-side, Lincoln Acres and East Otay Mesa.
Write On, Coronado Dems
How many of us have been inspired to write a letter to the editor? Maybe we’ve sat down a typed a beginning but weren’t sure how to proceed. Or perhaps we’ve sent one in and were disappointed when it wasn’t published.
If you want some instructions as to how to write a publishable letter, zoom into the Coronado Democratic Club’s tutorial. Club member Jean Seager will give you some tips.
Coronado Democratic Club General Meeting – February 27, 2021
View Video of Presentation by Kathay Feng
Download PDF of Slide Presentation by Kathay Feng: 2021 Coronado Redistricting HR1 CA and US KF 0227
Kathay Feng, is Common Cause’s National Redistricting Director. Feng has led Common Cause’s work to challenge partisan and incumbent gerrymandering, through litigation, state-based organizing around ballot initiatives and legislation, and creating new platforms for community-based redistricting. As Executive Director of California Common Cause, she championed and won election and redistricting reforms, stronger government sunshine and accountability laws, campaign finance reforms, stronger net neutrality laws, and the voting rights of traditionally disenfranchised communities. Kathay is the architect of California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission, leading the multi-year effort to study, write, and pass the two initiatives, Propositions 11 and 20, that created the commission and new community-focused process. She also led efforts that secured passage of California laws bringing online voter registration and same-day registration (called conditional voter registration) to the state.
Coronado Democratic Club General Meeting – January 30, 2021
View Video of Presentation by Geneviéve Jones-Wright
Geneviéve Jones-Wright is the Executive Director of Community Advocates for Just and Moral Governance (www.moralgovernance.org). Community Advocates for Just and Moral Governance (MoGo) promotes good governance. MoGo is committed to engaging in litigation and various forms of advocacy that will make government more just and fully accountable to all people, particularly those who have been marginalized from society. Geneviéve will speak to the club about police reform and why it is necessary. This talk will also include a discussion on electronic surveillance and systemic racism since both issues have been triggers for the calls for both police reform and increased oversight.
Geneviéve was raised by her single mother in a low-income home in San Diego, California where devotion to family and self-respect was cultivated. In the fourth grade, Geneviéve decided to follow in the steps of Justice Thurgood Marshall and become a “social engineer.”
In keeping with the vision, Geneviéve obtained a J.D. from Howard Law after graduating from the University of San Francisco with a B.A. in mass media communications. She obtained an LL.M. in Trial Advocacy in a one-of-a-kind program specializing in federal criminal defense from California Western School of Law. She has practiced in federal court in both the Southern and Central Districts of California, and proudly served San Diego County as a public defender for 13 years where she represented poor people charged with serious crimes. She now serves the Community as the Founding Executive Director of MoGo.
Beyond the courtroom and policymaking, Geneviéve serves on the Board of Directors for the David’s Harp Foundation, is Vice President of the Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association, and is a volunteer attorney for the California Innocence Project. Geneviéve serves on the city of San Diego’s Commission on Gang Prevention and Intervention and is an adjunct professor at Point Loma Nazarene University.
Geneviéve’s life goal is to use the law as a tool for our most vulnerable groups and to advance society as a whole. For this reason, her most beloved title is community advocate.
View Video of Coronado School Board Candidate Forum
View Video of Coronado City Council Candidate Forum
View Video of Coronado Ballot Propositions Presentation by the League of Women Voters
Slide Presentation on Coronado Ballot Propositions by League of Women Voters
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Coffee Talk #4: Racism: What’s Really Going On…And What Can We Do?
Download a PDF of the Slide Presentation
In this 4th session, Abdimalik Buul will provide participants with a safe, interactive space to learn, develop and share practical tools for identifying and transcending forms of bias, microaggressions, racism and begin to prepare us as change agents. He will start by defining its source and how it manifests. Dr. Buul will introduce a systematic approach utilizing a social justice, race-conscious framework to assist participants in unearthing bias and harm and planting seeds of justice to produce fruits of accountability and equity. A survey will be sent to our members as a pre-assessment to discover prior knowledge for customized responses.
Part One: Coffee Talk: The Start of Healing
Download the Slide Presentation
Watch the video:
Let’s get started with movies that will educate and solidify your commitment to long-term involvement:
- 13th (Ava DuVernay) — Netflix
- American Son (Kenny Leon) — Netflix
- Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 — Available to rent
- Blindspotting (Carlos López Estrada) — Hulu with Cinemax
- Clemency (Chinonye Chukwu) — Available to rent
- Dear White People (Justin Simien) — Netflix
- Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler) — Available to rent
- I Am Not Your Negro (James Baldwin doc) — Available to rent or on Kanopy
- If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins) — Hulu
- Just Mercy (Destin Daniel Cretton) — Amazon Prime Video
- King In The Wilderness — HBO
- See You Yesterday (Stefon Bristol) — Netflix
- Selma (Ava DuVernay) — Amazon Prime Video & Netflix
- The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution — Available to rent
- The Hate U Give (George Tillman Jr.) — Hulu with Cinemax
- When They See Us (Ava DuVernay) — Netflix
General Meeting 5.30.2020
Dr. Christian Ramers presentation on Covid-19
Download a PDF copy of Dr. Ramers Covid-19 slide presentation:
