California NOW

Monday's Action Checklist

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently issued guidelines requiring insurance coverage for birth control with no co-pays in new insurance plans.  It was a major victory for women's health. Women need access to contraceptives to prevent unintended pregnancies, plan the size of their families, and protect their health. The HHS guidelines will make effective birth control affordable for millions of women an overdue and welcome change.  The new HHS policy also creates a special exception for certain religious employers, allowing them to deny coverage for contraceptive services which religious and anti-family planning groups are using to try to make the exception even broader.  TAKE ACTION NOW:  Contact the HHS to tell them that a broader exception would undermine religious liberty and harm women.

All over the world, women are fighting to earn equality and respect within the fields of math and science. Currently, Forever 21's "Allergic to Algebra" shirt is yet another sexist message aimed at young women telling them that math is uncool -- while bragging about being bad at math is cool. This is similar to Mattel's "Math Is Hard" Barbie, or JCPenney's recent "I'm Too Pretty For Math, So My Brother Has To Do It For Me" tee.  Would these retailers ever consider selling "I Can't Do Long Division!" shirts for boys or men? Or "Proud to be Illiterate!" shirts for either gender? Simply put, "Allergic to Algebra" pushes an ignorant, sexist, and debunked trope about women and math that will not die so long as shirts like these are sold by major retailers such as Forever 21.  TAKE ACTION NOW:  Tell Forever 21 to stop selling clothing with sexist messages.

In Sonoma County, there is a redwood forest that has been trying to replenish itself after taking a huge hit from logging a century ago.  Only 5% of its trees have grown back in over 100 years.  Through these redwoods runs the Gualala River; it contains endangered salmon, a vital part of the area’s ecosystem as well as 50 rare and sensitive plant and animal species. Two wineries, Artesa Napa Winery and Premier Pacific Vineyards, are proposing to clear-cut over 1,900 acres of these redwoods to be replaced by their vineyards.  In addition to its environmental significance, this area also holds great spiritual and cultural significance to a tribe of Native Americans, the Kashia Pomo, who still live there and regard it as a blessed place where their ancestors are buried.  TAKE ACTION NOW:  Tell our elected officials to help us stop Codorniu’s Artesa Napa Winery and Premier Pacific Vineyards from destroying redwoods and the lives of Native Americans for sake of their financial gain.

Every year, international college students spend thousands of dollars to work at globally recognized institutions and experience America, only to find themselves with abysmal treatment and poverty wages. Against all odds, students working for the famous chocolate factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania have gone on strike to fight back against the company's predatory practices and to win fair wages. Their story has inspired national attention and a State Department investigation.  TAKE ACTION NOW:  Sign the petition to demand the end of the exploitation of student workers at the Hershey's plant, return the money they paid for a cultural exchange, and make these jobs living wage jobs for local Pennsylvania workers.

When People Lead, Leaders Follow. It’s Time to Lead!

The problem with the majority of people who are in politics or report on politics is they fail to understand that the debate – the battle for control over our society- is not about method.  It isn’t about a specific policy or program.  Instead, it’s about what type of society we want to live in and who do the institutions that we create serve?  There is no question about where the American people, and frankly no question where the people of the world stand on this question.

The society we want is one that recognizes every human being’s full humanity and the institutions created should (must) serve everyone, not just the chosen few.  And we need to talk about who the chosen few are in this modern age.  They are not the top ten percent, not even the top one percent of the holders of wealth.  Instead, it is the one percent of the one percent who are marching the nations of the world over a cliff into economic chaos and destruction.

It is insanity to discuss wage earners - those who make things, who work for their money.  These individuals are not Aristotle’s idle rich.  It’s the CEO whose stock options are so large they instantaneously make the CEO immune from economic, political and social consequences of their actions, insulating themselves from cause and effect.  No sane person would create a household where one person has no responsibility for their actions and everyone else living in the household must bear the consequence of that one person’s actions.  No one would consent to such a contract – to such a social compact.

This is why the stock market is crashing - because the debt ceiling deal only serves the one percent of the one percent rather than the productive economy or whatever is left of it.  You know those of us who use their efforts to produce goods and services to be shared and exchanged in a free enterprise system.  This debt deal serves the idle rich - those who are shielded from consequences that we the people are being told we must bear alone.

It’s time to stand as one stockholder and worker alike, all those who believe in free enterprise, who believe all human beings are born free, equal in dignity and rights, who believe that no human being has a right to profit from the suffering and subjection of another human being and believe their society should reflect those values.  When the people lead, leaders follow.  And it begins in Wisconsin!

Monday's Action Checklist

Instructed by HHS Secretary Sebelius, the Institute of Medicine, an independent panel of doctors and health experts, issued its report recommending a list of eight preventive services for women that health plans should cover as basic health care without additional costs, eliminating co-pays.  Recommendations include providing the full range of contraception methods and counseling, annual well-woman exams, HIV counseling and screening, and interpersonal violence screening and counseling.  But we need YOU to SPEAK OUT to make these recommendations a reality!     Sign onto Raising Women's Voices Petition and harness your social media prowess by sharing this link via Facebook and Twitter with your friends and colleagues.

There are more than 80,000 farms in California and less than 200 inspectors. It would take the state over 70 years to inspect every farm just once if the state inspected farms for heat illness violations at the current rate of annual inspections. Farm workers need a tool to protect themselves NOW.  There's a new law (SB 104)  that gives farm workers the tools to protect themselves and enforce the laws that the government cannot. This new law will make it easier for farm workers to have a union and thus have the opportunity to speak up and protect themselves. The truth is, farm workers in California are being put at risk on a daily basis due to unscrupulous growers and labor contractors and the administration just doesn’t have the manpower or ability to be out there policing every one of California’s fields. Tell the governor to sign the "Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act" when it reaches his desk again later this year.

Last week, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), along with more than 100 of her colleagues, introduced the Global Democracy Promotion Act (GDPA) (H.R. 2639). The GDPA would permanently repeal the Gag Rule and ensure that U.S.-funded organizations can continue to deliver lifesaving information and services that meet the needs of women and young people around the world. The GDPA will ensure that women in developing countries have greater access to contraceptives, fewer unintended pregnancies, and reduced risk of dying from complications following unsafe abortion.  We need your help to ensure that Congress understands the importance of permanently repealing the Global Gag Rule and fully funding UNFPA in order to protect the health, lives, and dignity of women and young people around the world.  Click here to ask your Representative to support a permanent repeal of the Global Gag Rule and protect funding for UNFPA!

This year, 18 state legislatures tried to rush through laws that would require voters to be turned away from the polls unless they can show government-issued photo identification. More than 21 million Americans don’t have such IDs, and a disproportionate number of them are African-American, elderly, students or voters with disabilities.  Laws were passed in South Carolina, Alabama and Texas with Florida coming up next. If Attorney General Eric Holder determines that these laws violate the Voting Rights Act, he can deny the approval needed for them to go into effect. Help protect the right to vote. Urge Attorney General Holder to uphold the Voting Rights Act and reject this effort to undermine democracy.

Many women who face an unintended pregnancy search for a local health clinic where they can get information about all their options.  But anti-choice groups actually try to block women from going to legitimate health centers. Instead, often they use deceptive ads that lure women to so-called "crisis pregnancy centers," fake clinics that often push an anti-choice agenda.  Stand up to the deception.  Click here to ask your members of Congress to cosponsor a bill that would end these misleading ads.

Why California Needs to Create a State Bank

Recently Dylan Ratigan and the Huffington Post began a series entitled, “America For Sale: Is Goldman Sachs Buying Your City?”

In the first paragraph Dylan states, “In Chicago, it’s the sale of parking meters to the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi.  In Indiana, it’s the sale of the northern toll road to a Spanish and Australian joint venture.  In Wisconsin it’s public health and food programs, in California it’s libraries.  It’s water treatment plants, schools, toll roads, airports, and power plants.  It’s Amtrak.  There are revolving doors of corrupt politicians, big banks, and ratings agencies.  There are conflicts of interest.  It’s bipartisan.”

Ratigan’s investigation shows that Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and numerous other banksters are seeing “increased opportunity in ‘distressed assets’ (i.e. cities and states gone broke because of the financial crisis)” a crisis caused by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the other banksters!

America and every other sovereign nation is on the  distress sale auction block, with groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) being so brazen as to have on their webpage, “select your game square” ALEC will help you privatize one of seven sectors: government operations, education, transportation and infrastructure, public safety, environment, health, or telecommunications.

These public assets must not be sold.  Instead, California should follow the eleven other states in beginning the process of creating a state bank.  Californian’s assets should be put to work for the people of California – for the benefit of Californians.  That’s why California NOW strongly supports AB 750 and urges the California Legislature to vote in favor of this vital piece of legislation.

As Ellen Hodgson Brown testified in support of AB 750, “State and local governments across the United States have huge amounts of capital that could potentially be leveraged into loans.  They collectively own trillions of dollars’ worth of assets accruing by virtue of their citizens’ tax dollars.  Besides tax revenues and real estate holdings, they maintain a variety of funds, including pension funds and “rainy day” funds.  This money is currently invested at very modest interest rates, largely in Wall Street financial institutions.  This capital could instead be leveraged into loans, if it were invested as equity in the state’s own bank.  At an 8% capital requirement, a bank can leverage capital by a factor of 12.5, so long as it can attract sufficient deposits (collected or borrowed) to clear the outgoing checks.”

Ellen went on to point out that “Making credit available to county and city governments, school districts and other agencies currently facing heavy debt loads that result in interest and principal payments filling the coffers of out-of-state lenders cannot help but benefit the state by keeping such moneys in-state.  One way to accomplish this is for the state to buy up the bonds and other debt instruments held by out-of-state parties and have the bond issuers pay the state instead.  The state could then set whatever interest rate it deems appropriate, which in some cases may mean the difference between the agency being able to continue to support its debt or go into default.   Regardless, the state and its citizens benefit by whatever interest is paid, as all of it would go to the state and not outside entities.

We can also look to the model in North Dakota where the state is buying up real estate loans from community banks. The collapse of the real estate market has had a huge negative effect on loan portfolio assets throughout the country, significantly impacting banks’ ability to lend. With the Bank of North Dakota buying up these loans from their community banks, those banks are in a better position to provide lending to small businesses and others than they could with those loans still on their books.”

Benefits deriving from the creation of a state bank are many, not the least of which is providing loan support to community banks that lend to California small businesses.  According to the most recent Census Bureau Survey of Business Owners (2007), the number of women-owned businesses grew by 20.1 percent between 2002 and 2007, compared to 5.5 percent for men-owned firms. In 2007, the Census counted 7.8 million women-owned business, representing 28.7 percent of all nonfarm businesses in the US.  See 2011 DOL Women’s Bureau Report    In California, that translates to 1,351,087 women who own businesses, employing nearly 1.9 million people and generating $318.2 billion in sales.  Having a source of lending that is dedicated to growing California small businesses including women owned small businesses would greatly enhance their growth and opportunities. 

Private banks just won’t do it.  In a June 30 article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Smaller Businesses Seeking Loans Still Come Up Empty,” Emily Maltby reported that business owners rank access to capital as the most important issue facing them today; and only 17% of smaller businesses said they were able to land needed bank financing. Why QE Failed:  The Money All Went Offshore.

The five largest banks now hold 40 percent of all deposits and 48 percent of all bank assets. These banks—Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and PNC—currently control more deposits than the next largest 45 banks combined.  They are big, they are powerful, and they have lost interest in local lending. In the past three years, the four largest banks have cut back on small business lending by a full 53 percent. The two banks that were the largest recipients of TARP funds, Bank of America and Citigroup, have cut back on local lending by 94 percent and 64 percent, respectively.

Why? In 2010, the six largest bank holding companies made a combined $75 billion; and of this, $56 billion was in trading revenues—income from speculating in derivatives, futures, commodities, and currencies. If the too-big-to-fail banks win on these bets, they win big and can pocket the proceeds. If they lose, the federal government can be relied on to bail them out. In those comfortable circumstances, why lend to risky local businesses that might go bankrupt, or to homeowners who might default?

The legislature and the Governor have an opportunity to begin to take control of California’s future for all the people of California.  There are enormous problems facing this state and our country – creating a state bank is a corner stone in building a solid foundation for a bright future.  Contact  your legislator today and urge them to vote YES on AB 750.

Click here to watch a thoroughly entertaining but equally informative video on this subject.

WTF Democrats?

I’ve always believed that our Democratic leaders had our backs.  That they are the ones who stand up for the middle class in this country and for our unions.  Isn’t that what we always hear in their campaign slogans each election cycle?

Don't Democrats always work FOR us – not AGAINST us?

I'm unfortunately seeing a negative trend whereby Democrats are beginning to side with the Republicans.  Lately, they've been choosing Goldman Sachs and international banksters over the American worker. Rachel Maddow has repeatedly pointed out that Democrats need to stand with public employees and working families but too many of them don’t seem to be listening.

Instead, as writers Matt Taibi and Dylan Ratigan have discussed in recent months, Democrats have been joining Republicans in selling America at the state level for 10 cents on the dollar. Why? Maybe it’s because when they leave public office, they accept lucrative positions in the same private companies they just sold public assets to on the cheap.

In my home state of New Jersey, the Democratic legislature is now actually helping the Republican Governor, Chris Christie, dismantle collective bargaining rights with regard to negotiating health benefits. State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), a union iron worker himself, seems to have bought into the ridiculous notion that New Jersey’s budget crisis was caused by paying fair wages and offering health benefits to workers in his state.  Of course the real reason Christie wants to dismantle the unions is so he can begin selling his state to the lowest bidder.

Recently Dylan Ratigan and the Huffington Post began a series entitled, “America For Sale: Is Goldman Sachs Buying Your City?” In the first paragraph Dylan states, “In Chicago, it’s the sale of parking meters to the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi. In Indiana, it’s the sale of the northern toll road to a Spanish and Australian joint venture. In Wisconsin it’s public health and food programs, and in California it’s libraries. It’s water treatment plants, schools, toll roads, airports, and power plants. It’s Amtrak. There are revolving doors of corrupt politicians, big banks, and ratings agencies. There are conflicts of interest. It’s bipartisan.”

Ratigan’s investigation shows that Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and numerous other banksters are seeing “increased opportunity in ‘distressed assets’ (i.e. cities and states gone broke because of the financial crisis).”  The irony of course is that this crisis was caused by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the other banksters!  They created the crisis and are now profting from it.

Adding insult to injury, in 2010 Goldman Sachs almost doubled the pay package of its CEO to almost $30 million while lawmakers continue to blame the financial crisis on public employees asking for health care benefits.

So let’s get back to my original question. WTF Democrats? It’s time to pick a side. Are you going to go back to what you've done in the past and stand up for the American worker?  Or are you going to instead protect the banksters?  Which side are you on? It’s time to choose!