From rkarch at mcn.org  Fri Dec  1 14:09:25 2017
From: rkarch at mcn.org (Richard Karch)
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2017 14:09:25 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Playbook Interview
Message-ID: <134A3D85-DF43-4874-B0E5-AF8B8687067D@mcn.org>

Politico
November 29, 2017
Playbook Interview: Sen. Marco Rubio

Jake Sherman:  Let's circle back to taxes for a second 'cause that's what you guys in the Senate are going over this week. There's concerns about deficits... it's like Whack-a-Mole... you try to solve one problem and someone else has another issue. Besides the child tax credit, do you have any lingering concerns on the package you're going to vote on, presumably this week?

Sen. Marco Rubio:  Yah, except I analyze it very differently. People look at... Okay... Here's... The argument would be that we can't cut taxes because it would drive up the deficit. That assumes that somehow we could fix the deficit through higher taxes, and we can't. The only way you're going to deal with the debt is you have to do two things. You can't do one; you've got to do both. You've got to... you've got to generate economic growth because growth generates revenue. But you also have to bring spending under control, and not discretionary spending, that isn't the driver of our debt. The driver of our debt is the structure of Social Security and Medicare for future beneficiaries. We still have time, not just to save those programs, but responsibly structure them in a way that doesn't impact current retirees, or people about to retire, but in a way that would probably impact it for me and people younger than me in ways that, quite frankly you really wouldn't notice and you really wouldn't object to, because it's reasonable. And if we did that in combination with growth you could begin to bring the trajectory of the debt to a responsible and acceptable level. That is the only way forward. So I view tax reform as the economic growth component of it. That's what will ultimately help to generate more revenue. You have more people working, you have more taxpayers. You have more taxpayers, you have more revenue. That's the first part, but that alone won't be enough. If you just do that, and you don't do the other piece, you're going to have a debt problem. That's a fact, and we gotta do both. In the absence of that, we're gonna to continue to be in the cycle, one way or another.

https://www.politico.com/video/2017/11/29/full-video-of-playbook-interview-sen-marco-rubio-064454#t=21m45s <https://www.politico.com/video/2017/11/29/full-video-of-playbook-interview-sen-marco-rubio-064454#t=21m45s>

===


Comment by Don McCanne

We've heard it many times. To eliminate the deficit, first we have to stimulate the economy by reducing taxes (for the rich), and then we need to reduce the driver of our debt, Social Security and Medicare.

One version of the tax legislation has already passed in the House, and, as of today, the Republicans have the votes to pass the other version in the Senate. Ironing out the differences in Joint Conference will not be much more than a formality. Then the first cuts in Medicare will soon follow automatically because of existing PayGo requirements.

It should be a great secular Christmas for the billionaires. Maybe we should join the celebration... with a hundred million person march on Washington. Don't forget your placards.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171201/36c0a9ca/attachment.html 

From rkarch at mcn.org  Sun Dec  3 10:17:58 2017
From: rkarch at mcn.org (Richard Karch)
Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2017 10:17:58 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Today: Vigil for the Earth
Message-ID: <E4B6FFCE-D39E-480D-AAAF-28EDEA5A7639@mcn.org>

http://www.oneprayer.org/Who_We_Are.html <http://www.oneprayer.org/Who_We_Are.html>

http://www.oneprayer.org/Who_We_Are.html <http://www.oneprayer.org/Who_We_Are.html>The Prayer Vigil for the Earth



The annual Prayer Vigil for the Earth is now in its 20th year and takes place next to the Washington Monument every fall. An icon of spirituality in our nation?s capital, people of diverse faiths, cultures, ethnic backgrounds and all ages gather together to pray for harmony with the Earth and each other -- and to share knowledge, celebrate, and participate respectfully in multi-faith ceremonies. The Prayer Vigil, a 100 percent volunteer <http://www.oneprayer.org/Volunteer.html>event, continues to expand each year by adding more simultaneous celebrations <http://www.oneprayer.org/Join_Us.html> at various sites in the United States and throughout the world.




For two days, a circle of tipis and structures sacred to other religions and faiths surround a sacred fire in the heart of Washington, between the Washington Monument and the White House. Native American Elders <http://www.oneprayer.org/Elders.html>, who host the event, invite spiritual leaders from all major faiths to join them. The tipis and other holy structures stand as symbols of spiritual community amidst the prominent symbols of our great Nation. The Prayer Vigil exemplifies the joy and benefits of community, creativity, cooperation, and spirituality. The Prayer Vigil?s atmosphere of reverence and gratitude for nature and for the diversity of human experience transcends the cynicism that is too common in our culture today.

The Vigil begins on Friday when a Peace Village comprised of tipis, a Jewish sukkah, a Christian chapel, a Buddhist stupa, an African Ancestral Altar and other structures, is created near the towering Washington Monument, in view of the White House and the Capitol. The wood fire, which burns continuously in the center of the Peace Village, symbolizes the gift of life and the fire in the center of the Earth.

The Vigil is free and open to everyone. People are encouraged to enter the circle and the Village, where they can participate in activities <http://www.oneprayer.org/Invitation.html> including talking circles on a variety of subjects, continuous silent prayer for the Earth, walking the labyrinth, a children?s tipi devoted to drawing pictures of healthy Earth, or listening to the main program. The Peace Village is a place where similarities are highlighted and differences respected.

Within the Peace Village, personal experience with the lore and ceremonies of many different traditions allows participants to identify themselves as part of a global family, and learn the principles of a sustainable world. It is an elevating experience!

Some History About the Vigil ?

Since 1997, one of the key goals for the Prayer Vigil has been to create a continuous prayer circle around the world <http://www.oneprayer.org/Join_Us.html> as the sun rises the morning of the Prayer Vigil. Prayers are focused on the theme for that year's Vigil. In 1997 the theme was: "Working and Praying Together to Provide a Sustainable World for the Generations to Come.? In 1998 the theme was "Gathering to Pray that Present and Future Beings on Earth Know Unity and Love". In 1999 our prayers centered around Youth for World Peace and in 2000 we were focused on creating a worldwide culture of peace. In 2001 our focus was on healing, peace and tolerance after the Sept. 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. 2002 through 2012 have focused on world peace and reconciliation between diverse cultures.

The Prayer Vigil for the Earth was founded in 1993 under the leadership of Grandfather Harry F. Byrd (Lakota Nation), Sharon Franquemont, Betsy Stang and David Berry. All faiths were invited as partners and encouraged to express their own traditions at the Vigil. Since its founding, the Vigil has grown tremendously, attracting hundreds of volunteers who work on all aspects of the event. In addition to Indigenous traditions from North and Central America, Buddhists, Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Hindus, Muslims, members of Shinji Shumeikai, Sikhs, members of the Yoruba tradition, and others are part of The Prayer Vigil community.The two-day program <http://www.oneprayer.org/Program_Schedule.html> facilitates shared experience through ceremony, prayer, song, talking circles and dance from these many traditions.

Among others, Prayer Vigil for the Earth partners are: The Wittenberg Center for Alternative Resources <http://www.wittenbergcenter.org/>; Sacred Space, an organization serving African American and Native American people; Rabbi David Schneyer of Am Kollel <http://www.am-kolel.org/>, Washington, DC; Sheykh Abdul Kerim el-Kibrisi, Osamanli Naks-I?bendi Hakkani Dergahi <http://www.naksibendi.org/>; The World Peace Prayer Society <http://www.worldpeace.org/>, New York; The Interfaith Conference of Washington, DC <http://www.ifcmw.org/>; The United Religions Initiative <http://www.uri.org/>, San Francisco; and the Baha?i Center, <http://www.dcbahai.org/> Washington, DC.

May Peace Prevail on Earth!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171203/be89c4c7/attachment.html 

From annxpress at live.com  Mon Dec  4 11:19:39 2017
From: annxpress at live.com (Ann Rennacker)
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2017 19:19:39 +0000
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Fw: Clearcutting Ban Proposed for Humboldt County
In-Reply-To: <2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9.62b1fd5469.20171204034818.c26ba88364.cccd8cbd@mail97.atl31.mcdlv.net>
References: <2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9.62b1fd5469.20171204034818.c26ba88364.cccd8cbd@mail97.atl31.mcdlv.net>
Message-ID: <CY1PR16MB02810948904805190B072A41DD3C0@CY1PR16MB0281.namprd16.prod.outlook.com>

We need a law in Mendocino County to ban clearcutting also, pass this on!

________________________________
From: Sierra Club Stop Clearcutting Campaign <karenmaki=comcast.net at mail97.atl31.mcdlv.net> on behalf of Sierra Club Stop Clearcutting Campaign <karenmaki at comcast.net>
Sent: Sunday, December 3, 2017 7:48 PM
To: annxpress at live.com
Subject: Clearcutting Ban Proposed for Humboldt County

[https://gallery.mailchimp.com/2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9/images/b4862e25-206d-4a30-8be8-df941cf0fffb.png]



[Clearcut Humbolt] <https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=e7bb624cd6&e=62b1fd5469>

Clearcutting in Humboldt County May Be History


  Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) has submitted a ballot initiative in Humboldt County to ban the destructive forestry practice of clearcutting within Humboldt County and to implement well-recognized principles of sustainable forestry.
Clearcutting and similar forms of management involve the removal of all or nearly all of a forest stand in a single harvest. This extreme forest disturbance harms water quality and wildlife habitat and exacerbates climate change.


READ MORE<https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=608b9b2c6e&e=62b1fd5469>


Two Ways to Help

EPIC is going to need our help! Big Timber is set to fight every step of the way.

1. Spread the news! Forward this email to your friends and let them know that big change is afoot.

2. Volunteer! We need signature gatherers in Humboldt County ASAP! Sign up here to help collect signatures.<https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=c6b43e5da0&e=62b1fd5469>




[https://gallery.mailchimp.com/2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9/images/5ab74eaf-b135-42ce-a8d7-caedcab7f041.jpg] <https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=4ab6821426&e=62b1fd5469>

10th City Passes Resolution to Ban Clearcutting: Yours Could be Next!
By Ruth Stroud

  Are you concerned about climate change but don?t know how to make a difference?
  If you live in a city that?s already concerned about global warming, it?s easy! Just ask your most environment-friendly council member
to ?please carry a resolution calling on the legislature and the governor to ban clearcutting in California forest lands owned by the state and private owners.?
  What is clearcutting, and why is it so harmful?

READ MORE<https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=439ca2b92a&e=62b1fd5469>

________________________________


Steps For Passing A Resolution In Your City

1. Let us know so we can help you by sending an email to: forests at lomaprieta.sierraclub.org<mailto:forests at lomaprieta.sierraclub.org?subject=I%20would%20like%20to%20help%20pass%20a%20resolution%20in%20my%20city!>.
2. Get friends to help.  We can help you find others who want to stop clearcutting who live locally.
3. Decide which city council member is most apt to be supportive.
4. Obtain factsheets to bring to city council members.  We can send you folders of information or you can print them from our website<https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=7da4fb62e1&e=62b1fd5469>.
5. Meet with your council member and ask him or her to shepherd the resolution through the city council (or to pass it on a consent calendar).
6. Attend the city council meeting to show support.

________________________________


[https://gallery.mailchimp.com/2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9/images/0f2dffcd-2f39-4c2e-b7b5-3a93c4dc9cd7.jpg] <https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=95a0113205&e=62b1fd5469>
Gualala River Watershed?s Battle Over Timber Harvest Plan Continues
By Steve Lemig

  The Gualala Redwood Timber Company has submitted a new, revised proposal to log a 402-acre plot of land in the lower Gualala River. This comes just weeks after The California Department of Forestry and Wildfire (CAL FIRE) revoked the timber company?s previous permit due to its incomplete assessment of the environment impact of the logging operation.




READ MORE<https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=1d53b94723&e=62b1fd5469>

________________________________


Thank you for subscribing to the Stop Clearcutting California quarterly newsletter, published by a team of Sierra Club volunteers working to protect California's forests.




[https://gallery.mailchimp.com/2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9/images/04018794-8b11-415d-a508-49ccac5e975f.png] <https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=74510a7788&e=62b1fd5469>

[https://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/icons/social-block-v2/color-link-48.png]<www.stopclearcuttingca.org>


[https://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/icons/social-block-v2/color-facebook-48.png]<https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=e6c9608fec&e=62b1fd5469>


[https://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/icons/social-block-v2/color-twitter-48.png]<https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=06af14a87d&e=62b1fd5469>


[https://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/icons/social-block-v2/color-forwardtofriend-48.png]<mailto:forests at lomaprieta.sierraclub.org>


[https://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/icons/social-block-v2/color-link-48.png]<https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=aee710f31c&e=62b1fd5469>








Copyright ? 2017 Sierra Club Stop Clearcutting Campaign, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you have supported the Stop Clearcutting CA Campaign or signed a petition to stop clearcutting.

Our mailing address is:
Sierra Club Stop Clearcutting Campaign
909 12th St., Ste 202
Sacramento, CA 95814

Add us to your address book


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences<https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/profile?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=ac9b7c55c1&e=62b1fd5469> or unsubscribe from this list<https://sierraclub.us8.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=2d350067f7c40acdaf4ed1ab9&id=ac9b7c55c1&e=62b1fd5469&c=c26ba88364>







-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171204/71b38487/attachment.html 

From annxpress at live.com  Mon Dec  4 11:28:13 2017
From: annxpress at live.com (Ann Rennacker)
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2017 19:28:13 +0000
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Fw: Wells Fargo needs to change
In-Reply-To: <e1f9a5374cca41f6a0b3922354df8b52@johnchiang.com>
References: <e1f9a5374cca41f6a0b3922354df8b52@johnchiang.com>
Message-ID: <CY1PR16MB0281B47433276BD05C8098A3DD3C0@CY1PR16MB0281.namprd16.prod.outlook.com>

Wells Fargo is one of the worst!  Pass this on after you sign.


________________________________
From: John Chiang <bounce at bounce.myngp.com> on behalf of John Chiang <info at johnchiang.com>
Sent: Monday, December 4, 2017 8:31 AM
To: ANN RENNACKER
Subject: Wells Fargo needs to change

Will you join me in calling on federal bank regulators to begin a full, transparent investigation and for Wells Fargo to fire its board members who let this scandal grow?

As a critical supporter of Democrats in California, I wanted to let you know about my campaign for governor. For two decades, I've been working for Californians, serving as state treasurer and controller. I've focused on progressive solutions to get the job done, and I'd like to keep you up-to-date on my ideas and the campaign ahead. But if you don't want to hear from me, let me know:

unsubscribe<https://act.myngp.com/el/bFzAF1WPnjMnvSECuxzX3mab6NStRdXvk9uLBgcMQHg=/5JoVTOMD9YEtBjogWZH6fCFlwOhjT703Y8f6wVPMVgg=>
________________________________

[https://d1kxpthy2j2ikk.cloudfront.net/Uploads/9810/images/Chiang-Logo%202018%20%20small(1).jpg]<https://act.myngp.com/el/bFzAF1WPnjMnvSECuxzX3mab6NStRdXvk9uLBgcMQHg=/ho9tSfpNIn1NFtc1d0k_2fYinK-xO-AsiZXWle7uPk8=?utm_campaign=em17_171121_welcome2_engg_gq_jc&utm_medium=email&utm_source=chiang&ms=em17_171121_welcome2_engg_gq_jc&refcode=em17_171121_welcome2_engg_gq_jc&fn=ANN&ln=RENNACKER&pc=95437&em=annxpress at live.com>

ANN,

Wells Fargo needs to change. Now.

A year ago, they tried to tell the world that they had addressed the scandals that made national headlines. But even in the last few months, new revelations have come to light about veterans and auto-loan borrowers being overcharged.

And now Congress has made it harder for consumers to sue banks like Wells Fargo when they commit fraud, making even more important that our elected leaders here in California hold them accountable.

That's why I extended California's financial sanctions against Wells Fargo for another year -- to pressure them to change their corporate culture of greed. But I need your help to ratchet up that pressure.

Will you join me in calling on federal regulators to begin a full, transparent investigation and for Wells Fargo to fire its leaders who let this scandal grow?<https://act.myngp.com/el/bFzAF1WPnjMnvSECuxzX3mab6NStRdXvk9uLBgcMQHg=/ho9tSfpNIn1NFtc1d0k_2fYinK-xO-AsiZXWle7uPk8=?utm_campaign=em17_171121_welcome2_engg_gq_jc&utm_medium=email&utm_source=chiang&ms=em17_171121_welcome2_engg_gq_jc&refcode=em17_171121_welcome2_engg_gq_jc&fn=ANN&ln=RENNACKER&pc=95437&em=annxpress at live.com>

As early as 2013, the Los Angeles Times reported on a problematic sales culture and quotas that lead Wells Fargo employees to sign millions of customers up for bank accounts they didn't want or need. Only last year, when they were fined $185 million by federal regulators, including the embattled Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, did they start to make real headway toward addressing the problem.

But the opaque manner with which Wells Fargo continues to do business and the frequency of new disclosures of wanton greed and lack of institutional control made the decision to continue sanctions so clear that there really was no choice at all -- especially as Washington politicians work to roll back federal consumer protections.

I will not stand by and let them abuse more Californians with their predatory tactics.

Wells Fargo can and must do better, and it's up to us to make them. If Washington won't continue to hold them accountable, it's up to California to choose a different road.

Join me in demanding action now. Add your name.<https://act.myngp.com/el/bFzAF1WPnjMnvSECuxzX3mab6NStRdXvk9uLBgcMQHg=/ho9tSfpNIn1NFtc1d0k_2fYinK-xO-AsiZXWle7uPk8=?utm_campaign=em17_171121_welcome2_engg_gq_jc&utm_medium=email&utm_source=chiang&ms=em17_171121_welcome2_engg_gq_jc&refcode=em17_171121_welcome2_engg_gq_jc&fn=ANN&ln=RENNACKER&pc=95437&em=annxpress at live.com>

Thanks for standing with me,

John




Add your name ?<https://act.myngp.com/el/bFzAF1WPnjMnvSECuxzX3mab6NStRdXvk9uLBgcMQHg=/ho9tSfpNIn1NFtc1d0k_2fYinK-xO-AsiZXWle7uPk8=?utm_campaign=em17_171121_welcome2_engg_gq_jc&utm_medium=email&utm_source=chiang&ms=em17_171121_welcome2_engg_gq_jc&refcode=em17_171121_welcome2_engg_gq_jc&fn=ANN&ln=RENNACKER&pc=95437&em=annxpress at live.com>





Paid for by John Chiang for Governor 2018 ID# 1385799. 16633 Ventura Blvd, #1008, Encino, CA 91436

John Chiang for Governor 2018
1801 Century Park East, Suite 1132
Los Angeles CA 90067 United States

We believe email is the best way to stay in touch with supporters like you. If you think that you've received this communication in error, please unsubscribe<https://act.myngp.com/el/bFzAF1WPnjMnvSECuxzX3mab6NStRdXvk9uLBgcMQHg=/5JoVTOMD9YEtBjogWZH6fCFlwOhjT703Y8f6wVPMVgg=>.





[https://act.myngp.com/el/bFzAF1WPnjMnvSECuxzX3mab6NStRdXvk9uLBgcMQHg=/SpsLVWIfXMc5w0MODkvdBCfFlwK2nsAZ74jfttcEP2s=]
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171204/63e4d933/attachment.html 

From john at cypresshouse.com  Mon Dec  4 14:45:40 2017
From: john at cypresshouse.com (John)
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2017 14:45:40 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] I signed this petition
Message-ID: <00ce01d36d51$9c9bc870$d5d35950$@com>

Occupiers,

 

People all across the country are beginning to reckon with how prevalent sexual harassment and assault really are. 

 

Although some powerful abusers are being held accountable, more needs to be done, starting with Congress. It is time for congressional leaders to create an independent bipartisan commission to investigate systemic misogyny and sexism in Congress, investigate sexual assault allegations against federal officials, including Donald Trump, and hold perpetrators accountable for their actions.

Join me and sign this petition:

https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Sexual_Misconduct_Commission?referring_akid=a297187677.670819.NOCiNk <https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Sexual_Misconduct_Commission?referring_akid=a297187677.670819.NOCiNk&source=conf_email&aktmid=tm55558305.rNgXsk&akid=a297187677.670819.NOCiNk&t=2> &source=conf_email&aktmid=tm55558305.rNgXsk&akid=a297187677.670819.NOCiNk&t=2

Thanks!

John

 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171204/bcdaf77a/attachment.html 

From irenelsm at mcn.org  Tue Dec  5 20:23:04 2017
From: irenelsm at mcn.org (Irene Malone)
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2017 20:23:04 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] ?
Message-ID: <D3F0D407-7374-4E40-8A4C-FAFBF6D26066@mcn.org>

Does someone have contact info for the teacher organizing the speakers for the MLK event?
Please send it to me.
Irene
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171205/aadcc105/attachment.html 

From annxpress at live.com  Wed Dec  6 02:26:18 2017
From: annxpress at live.com (Ann Rennacker)
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2017 10:26:18 +0000
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Fwd: Mark my words
In-Reply-To: <f3f3cf2bf34c643c8fa8295167942876@bounce.bluestatedigital.com>
References: <f3f3cf2bf34c643c8fa8295167942876@bounce.bluestatedigital.com>
Message-ID: <CY1PR16MB02816870692976163556E7F2DD320@CY1PR16MB0281.namprd16.prod.outlook.com>



Please sign Bernie,s petition.

Sent from my U.S. Cellular? Smartphone


-------- Original message --------
From: Bernie Sanders <info at BernieSanders.com>
Date: 12/5/17 10:13 AM (GMT-08:00)
To: Ann Rennacker <annxpress at live.com>
Subject: Mark my words

This is class warfare, led by the Koch brothers and other wealthy Republican campaign contributors.
[Friends of Bernie Sanders]

Ann -

I believe that historians will look back at the early morning hours of Dec. 2, 2017, and conclude that it was one of the great acts of thievery in the history of the United States.

Let me be very clear about what is happening here. It is an extraordinarily cynical "two-step" process. First, Republicans are looting the Treasury. They are stealing trillions of dollars from the American people in order to give huge tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations. Second, as their tax breaks increase the deficit by $1.4 trillion, they will come back and, in the name of "deficit reduction," propose major cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, nutrition, affordable housing and other programs desperately needed by the shrinking middle class.

This is class warfare, led by the Koch brothers and other wealthy Republican campaign contributors. More for the rich. Less for working families. Our job now is to stand up and fight back.

That is why last weekend I spoke to large crowds in Louisville, Kentucky, Dayton and Akron, Ohio, and Reading, Pennsylvania. Over 5,000 people took time out of their weekend to attend these high energy meetings in person and almost one million watched on-line. At these rallies activists heard not only from me, but from working people, DREAMers, nurses, Planned Parenthood patients and others about how this tax bill would negatively impact them, their kids, their parents and the future of our country.

Everyone made it absolutely clear that we need to keep fighting against this disastrous piece of legislation and not stop until we defeat it.

This legislation now goes to something called a "conference committee" where the House and Senate work out the differences between their respective bills. Then, the bill comes back for final passage. That means we probably have about three or four weeks to educate and organize the American people to defeat this dangerous bill. Please, get on the phone to your House and Senate members. Email them. Spread the word to your friends by social media. Talk to your co-workers. In the midst of massive income and wealth inequality, this country does not need more tax breaks for billionaires.

I will not stop until we defeat this disastrous piece of legislation. But I cannot do it alone:

Please sign my petition calling on the United States Congress to vote NO on the Republican tax reform legislation that gives obscene amounts of money to people and corporations who have so much, while laying the groundwork for massive cuts to programs that working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor depend upon.<https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/this-is-class-warfare?source=em171205-ph-full>

[https://s.bsd.net/bernie16/main/page/-/Email%20Images/Bernie%20Email%20Image%20171205%20Ohio.jpg]

(A packed house in Akron, Ohio on Saturday Night.)

One point I made clear at each stop on this trip is that Donald Trump, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have a plan.

Mark my words. Once they pass this bill, they will claim we need to deal with the deficit by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. You don't have to take my word for it. Here is what the New York Times wrote this weekend:

"As the tax cut legislation passed by the Senate early Saturday hurtles toward final approval, Republicans are preparing to use the swelling deficits made worse by the package as a rationale to pursue their long-held vision: undoing the entitlements of the New Deal and Great Society, leaving government leaner and the safety net skimpier for millions of Americans."

You might recall that during the campaign Donald Trump told the American people time and time again that he would not cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. Well, like so much else, it is clear he was lying.

Remember, this legislation has nothing to do with what the American people want. Poll after poll shows that ordinary Americans are strongly opposed to this giveaway to the rich. On the other hand, this "tax reform" has everything to do with what wealthy campaign contributors want. It has everything to do with a corrupt campaign finance system. This bill is nothing more payback time for those who finance the Republican Party.

Please sign my petition calling on the United States Congress to vote NO on the Republican tax reform legislation that gives obscene amounts of money to people and corporations who have so much, while cutting services and programs for working families.<https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/this-is-class-warfare?source=em171205-ph-full>

[https://s.bsd.net/bernie16/main/page/-/Email%20Images/Bernie%20Email%20Image%20171205%20Reading.png]

(Capacity crowd in Reading, Pennsylvania on Sunday)

Make no mistake about it. The political momentum is with us. A few weeks ago, on Election Day, Nov. 7, 2017, Donald Trump's name may not have been on the ballot, but Trumpism was. And it suffered a massive defeat. From coast to coast, in small towns and large cities, working people and young people, many of them first time candidates, ran for office - and won. Voter turnouts in many parts of the country were surprisingly high.

People are fighting back to reclaim their democracy. They are fighting for a government and economy that works for all of us, not just the 1 percent. And now we have got to continue that pressure. Our job in the next few weeks is to make our voices heard louder than ever. Yes. If we do that, we can stop this morally bankrupt bill.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

ADD YOUR NAME <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/this-is-class-warfare?source=em171205-ph-full>













Paid for by Friends of Bernie Sanders

PO BOX 391, Burlington, VT 05402

This email was sent to annxpress at live.com. If you need to update or change your information or email address, click here to update your info<https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/change-your-information?source=email_footer>. Email is one of the most important tools we have to reach supporters like you, but you can let us know if you'd like to receive fewer emails<https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/fewer-emails?source=email_footer&email=annxpress at live.com&zip=95437>. We'd hate to see you go, but if you need to do so, click here to unsubscribe<https://go.berniesanders.com/page/unsubscribe/>.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171206/395ae406/attachment.html 

From rkarch at mcn.org  Wed Dec  6 13:01:11 2017
From: rkarch at mcn.org (Richard Karch)
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2017 13:01:11 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Surge in homeless on west coast
Message-ID: <1EB50371-099D-4B30-9005-17FADC9784E1@mcn.org>

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/us-homeless-count-rises-pushed-by-crisis-on-the-west-coast <https://www.seattletimes.com/business/us-homeless-count-rises-pushed-by-crisis-on-the-west-coast>













 
1 of 12
Homeless tents are dwarfed by skyscrapers as 63-year-old Vincent, who only gave his first name, sorts his belongings Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Los Angeles. Vincent said he thought he was bulletproof and never had to worry... (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) More 
Share story
 <> <> <>
By CHRISTOPHER WEBER <https://www.seattletimes.com/author/christopher-weber/> and GEOFF MULVIHILL <https://www.seattletimes.com/author/geoff-mulvihill/>
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES ? The nation?s homeless population increased this year for the first time since 2010, driven by a surge in the number of people living on the streets in Los Angeles and other West Coast cities.

Related Stories
Packed homeless shelters raise concerns in Colorado Springs <https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/packed-homeless-shelters-raise-concerns-in-colorado-springs/>
WATCH: Q&A with head of Seattle team trying to get homeless campers inside <https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/watch-live-qa-with-the-head-of-the-team-trying-to-get-homeless-campers-inside/>
Before homeless camps are cleared, a Seattle team coaxes people to shelter <https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/before-the-tent-camps-are-cleared-this-seattle-team-coaxes-the-homeless-toward-shelter/>
Marion and Polk counties close to hiring homeless czar <https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/marion-and-polk-counties-close-to-hiring-homeless-czar/>
Homeless man who found, returned $10K check given a place to live <https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/housing-for-homeless-man-who-found-returned-10k-check/>
Woman raising funds to help homeless man who rescued her <https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/woman-raising-funds-to-help-homeless-man-who-rescued-her/>
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released its annual Point in Time count Wednesday, a ?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171206/f2a989aa/attachment.html 

From rkarch at mcn.org  Sun Dec 10 10:05:39 2017
From: rkarch at mcn.org (Richard Karch)
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2017 10:05:39 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Tuesday, December 12   Petra Schulte on KZYX
Message-ID: <EF90E1C7-0847-424E-9852-999FF27878D7@mcn.org>

Forwarded from Agnes Woolsey:

Please circulate to Occupy
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [Fwd: Petra on KZYX This Tuesday at 9 AM]
From:    agnes at mcn.org <mailto:agnes at mcn.org>
Date:    Sun, December 10, 2017 9:41 am
To:      occupymendocino at lists.com <mailto:occupymendocino at lists.com>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Y'all,
Richard, Irene, I and Bob for a short time participated in Petra's class:
Whole Plant Based Foods,with 25 other folks. It's good for your budget,
the economy and helps reduce global warming by leaving methane producing
meat from beef on the hoof, dairy and oils out of your diet as we have
done over 7 weeks of the class. Plus we had free lunches. I plan to sign
up for the free Blue zone class in Preston Hall in Jan. Tune in  to KZYX
on Tues, Dec. 12  to Richard Miller?s radio hour.

In Solidarity,
Agnes

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Petra on KZYX This Tuesday at 9 AM
From:    petra at wholeplantfoods.info <mailto:petra at wholeplantfoods.info>
Date:    Sat, December 9, 2017 10:46 pm
To:      "Petra Schulte" <petra at wholeplantfoods.info <mailto:petra at wholeplantfoods.info>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Class Participants,(Please pardon duplicate emails)
This Tuesday, December 12 please tune into KZYX at 9 AM (90.7 FM, 91.5 FM,
88.1) as I will be a guest on Dr. Richard Miller's Mind, Body, Health and
Politics Show. We will be talking about the Blue Zones and how to live
longer more healthfully.Please forward this info to your friends and
family, so that they may listen in as well.
Have a healthy day!
Petra
Petra SchulteNutrition Educator707-937-4704www.wholeplantfoods.info <http://educator707-937-4704www.wholeplantfoods.info/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171210/c0645c5d/attachment.html 

From john at cypresshouse.com  Mon Dec 11 17:30:36 2017
From: john at cypresshouse.com (John)
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2017 17:30:36 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Meeting Sat.
Message-ID: <003101d372e8$d011c140$703543c0$@com>

Our last meeting of the year takes place this Saturday (12/16/17) at Noon at
the Sr. Center.

We're having a potluck lunch before finalizing plans for MLK celebration on
1/15/18.

Join us.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171211/0ef94c0b/attachment.html 

From john at cypresshouse.com  Tue Dec 12 09:04:32 2017
From: john at cypresshouse.com (John)
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2017 09:04:32 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Emergency Supplies
Message-ID: <010001d3736b$47b51120$d71f3360$@com>

I'm a bit embarrassed. Two months ago I attended a meeting in Caspar and
paid $100 for a barrel of emergency supplies. I can't recall any of the
folks I spoke to about it, and I don't know what progress if any has been
made, but I'm out $100. Any Occupiers in the same boat? I'd appreciate any
info, esp. who to contact about this.

Thanks,

John

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171212/19bfa619/attachment.html 

From marksafron at att.net  Tue Dec 12 12:10:58 2017
From: marksafron at att.net (Mark Safron)
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2017 12:10:58 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Occupymendocino Digest, Vol 1456, Issue 1
In-Reply-To: <mailman.17.1513108814.30947.occupymendocino@lists.mcn.org>
References: <mailman.17.1513108814.30947.occupymendocino@lists.mcn.org>
Message-ID: <9874707C-DE8C-4A81-BC55-D4192B49DB06@att.net>

 2. Emergency Supplies (John) They?re still working on it. Send an email to Kris: krisr at mcn.org <mailto:krisr at mcn.org>
and ask her what?s happening.
Regards, Mark 







-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171212/451e8e40/attachment.html 

From rkarch at mcn.org  Thu Dec 14 11:34:45 2017
From: rkarch at mcn.org (Richard Karch)
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2017 11:34:45 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Martin Luther King Jr Day, Jan. 15
Message-ID: <95D937CC-D55E-418C-A60D-A755AE0CD45D@mcn.org>


In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose life is celebrated every year on the third Monday of January, received an honorary degree from Newcastle University, the first African American to be so honored. In his acceptance speech King said, "There are three urgent and indeed great problems that we face not only in the United States of America but all over the world today. That is the problem of racism, the problem of poverty and the problem of war.?

In this, the 50th anniversary of the Newcastle speech, we must acknowledge that not only have these problems persisted, they?ve gotten much worse, due to our current administration?s decrees supporting bigotry, sexism, classism, environmental degradation and more. The fact that poverty and homelessness are at levels not seen since the Great Depression, are indications that equality remains a distant dream.

On January 15, 2018, please join us for our annual march and celebration to overcome racism, poverty, and the persistence of war. Bring your children and grandchildren to see how we can work for peace, justice, and equality for all.

We?ll meet at 11 a.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church (620 E. Redwood in Fort Bragg) for the march through town. Our agenda includes, Will Smith reciting Dr. King's "I have a Dream? speech; a panel of local students from Mendocino and Fort Bragg will discuss Dr. King's legacy; a wholesome meal follows along with our music program. And don?t forget the magnificant MLK birthday cake for all.

There is no fee to attend, though donations are welcome.

Come join us. We look forward to celebrating with you.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171214/4c640a00/attachment.html 

From john at cypresshouse.com  Thu Dec 14 16:32:29 2017
From: john at cypresshouse.com (John)
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2017 16:32:29 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Media raises urgent questions about banning jail
	visits
Message-ID: <004801d3753c$30d3c9b0$927b5d10$@com>

	

Prison Policy Initiative updates for December 14, 2017 Showing how mass incarceration harms communities and our national welfare

 Prison Policy Initiative <http://i3.cmail19.com/ti/r/96/BD2/CD4/004412/archive/logo_white_on_nothing_cropped.png> 

	

 

	
  <http://i2.cmail19.com/ti/r/96/BD2/CD4/004412/archive/androidfixer.gif> 


 <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-c/> The Guardian and Colorado Public Radio raise urgent questions about the video calling industry

by Lucius Couloute

Virtual jail "visits" are quietly sweeping the country. Fortunately, a surge of hard-hitting journalism is pushing back, illuminating the exploitative practice of eliminating family visits in favor of video calls. In two new pieces from  <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-q/> The Guardian and  <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-a/> Colorado Public Radio, the technological glitches, emotional toll, and human rights violations stemming from an expanding jail video calling industry take center stage.

 <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-f/>  <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-f/> Guardian article <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-f/> 

In Shannon Sims' deep dive <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-z/>  into the video calling industry for The Guardian, she investigates the switch from in-person family visits to expensive video calls in one jail outside of downtown New Orleans:

The guards tell me they think the new system will be an improvement - "it's better because you can do a video visit from home now" - but since it is so new, they can't say for sure.

They suggest I check out the new "Video Visitation Center", located about a 10 minute drive down the freeway. For those without access to a smartphone or a computer, the new visitation center is their only option.

There, an old elementary school building has been converted into the center. Inside, three guards are gathered and laughing around a cellphone behind a glass wall, but outside the parking lot is empty. No one is visiting.

As we've detailed before <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-v/> , it's unlikely that people will actually enjoy driving to a jail or offsite terminal just to visit with a computer screen - the entire experience is dehumanizing. But video calling from home - at $12.99 per call - wasn't much better for Tiffany Burns, who Sims visited as she was attempting to receive a home video call from her boyfriend Chrishon Brown:

"OK, so he is supposed to call in eight minutes I guess," she says, staring at her phone, which blinks 6.52pm.

This is her third attempt to video chat with Brown. The first time, she did not know she needed to schedule the call far ahead of time, and the second time, all the slots were filled for the days she was off work. Now, with her slot scheduled and her earphones in, she's wondering if it will all work out.

Finally, she sees a call coming through.

Her face lights up and then slowly fades as she realizes Brown can't hear her. She fiddles with her headphones, waves, tries gesturing to him, but ultimately, he never can hear her voice. The two end up simply giggling at the screen image of each other for the remainder of the time.

Later, I speak with Brown by phone and he explains that he believes he was only the third inmate to try to use the video program at the Jefferson Parish jail, and that the other two also said it didn't work properly.

"We had to pay money for something that didn't work," he complains. "I couldn't even hear what she was saying, and I couldn't really see her."

A thousand miles away in Denver, Colorado, Michael Sakas of Colorado Public Radio explores <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-e/>  the emotional toll that eliminating in-person visits has taken on one mother's incarcerated son, who has attempted suicide multiple times while behind bars:

"He is having an emotional breakdown right now because he can't wait to give me a hug . . . So he wants to plead guilty because he wants to go to prison so that he can give me a hug again."

Since 2005, the only way to speak to an incarcerated person in Denver's jails has been through video chats. But a new movement, sparked by grassroots leaders and a report <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-jh/>  from Denver's Office of the Independent Monitor, is putting pressure on the local sheriff's office, which is now considering a reinstatement of in-person visits. The downtown detention center was built without visitation space, which would make reinstating visits expensive, according to jail division chief Elias Diggins. But the city is moving forward with a $1.4 million dollar contract to update the video calling system.

"Can you imagine being in a cell all by yourself, and only being out for a couple of hours everyday? I mean, I couldn't handle it. Could you?"

The Guardian's article raises another important point that we haven't raised in our own work or seen raised elsewhere: does international human rights law require jails to allow in-person visitation?

"Internationally, multiple legal instruments indicate that it [does]. UN rules call for the allowance of visitors, while the European Prison Rules emphasize that while all forms of visitation may be monitored, maximum contact is the underlying goal: 'Prisoners shall be allowed to communicate as often as possible by letter, telephone or other forms of communication with their families, other persons and representatives of outside organisations and to receive visits from these persons.'"

This reminder about international human rights law adds an international layer to the clear national consensus -- including agreement from editorial <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-jk/>  boards, public <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-ju/>  citizens, professional <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-tl/>  organizations, and policymakers <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-tr/>  -- that erecting unnecessary barriers between incarcerated people and the outside world is bad policy. It's time for American sheriffs to join the rest of the country, and the world.

 


Support our work

A group of donors will match the first $100,000 we can raise, and we are three-quarters of the way there. Can you make a <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-ty/>  gift today to support our work for justice reform in 2018?

Recommended reading

For more local and national coverage of the video calling industry, we recommend:

*         Video <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-tj/>  visitation is replacing in-person visitation in jails, The Huffington Post

*         Mecklenburg <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-tt/>  jail visits are now solely by video, The Charlotte Observer

*         You may <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-ti/>  hug the screen, Bloomberg Businessweek

*         See also: our report <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-td/>  and blog posts on video calling.

  

Our other newsletters

*         Ending <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-th/>  prison gerrymandering

*         Criminal <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-tk/>  justice research clearinghouse

 <http://prisonpolicyinitiative.updatemyprofile.com/r-jrtkiity-BBBCE4F3-ddjytyayh-o> Update your subscriptions.

 

You are receiving this message because you signed up on our website <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-tu/>  or you met Peter Wagner or another staff member at an event and asked to be included.

 

Prison <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-il/>  Policy Initiative 
PO Box 127 
Northampton, Mass. 01061

	

Web Version <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-e-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-b/>  Unsubscribe <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-u-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-n/>  Update <http://prisonpolicyinitiative.updatemyprofile.com/r-jrtkiity-BBBCE4F3-ddjytyayh-p>  address / join other newsletters Donate <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-l-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-ir/>   <http://news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-tw-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh-x/> Twitter iconTweet this newsletter  <http://prisonpolicyinitiative.forwardtomyfriend.com/r-ddjytyayh-BBBCE4F3-jrtkiity-l-m> Forward iconForward this newsletter 

You are receiving this message because you signed up on our website or you met Peter Wagner or another staff member at an event and asked to be included.

Prison Policy Initiative 
PO Box 127 Northampton, Mass. 01061

 

  <https://prisonpolicyinitiative.cmail19.com/t/r-o-jrtkiity-ddjytyayh/o.gif> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171214/aa8da3f1/attachment.html 

From john at cypresshouse.com  Fri Dec 15 10:55:13 2017
From: john at cypresshouse.com (John)
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2017 10:55:13 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] FW: LUDICROUS decision
Message-ID: <002301d375d6$3d583b40$b808b1c0$@com>

 

 




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


SIGN ON:  <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2d/717057196/VEsH/p/eyJKU1ZGVFVGSlRDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20iLCJKU1ZhU1ZBbEpRPT0iOiI5NTQzNyJ9/> Urge the Supreme Court to BAN workplace discrimination ?

  _____  

We?re SICK to our stomachs:

 <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2d/717057196/VEsE/p/eyJKU1ZGVFVGSlRDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20iLCJKU1ZhU1ZBbEpRPT0iOiI5NTQzNyJ9/> The Supreme Court just allowed a Georgia hospital to FIRE an employee because she?s a lesbian. 

That?s a LUDICROUS decision, John!! And it flies in the face of EVERYTHING our justice system is supposed to stand for.

 <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2d/717057196/VEsF/p/eyJKU1ZGVFVGSlRDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20iLCJKU1ZhU1ZBbEpRPT0iOiI5NTQzNyJ9/> 

JOHN FREMONT:  <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2d/717057196/VEsC/p/eyJKU1ZGVFVGSlRDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20iLCJKU1ZhU1ZBbEpRPT0iOiI5NTQzNyJ9/> Need 500 signers from 95437 ?? 


 <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2d/717057196/VEsD/p/eyJKU1ZGVFVGSlRDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20iLCJKU1ZhU1ZBbEpRPT0iOiI5NTQzNyJ9/> Tell the Court: DON?T legalize discrimination ?

Jameka Evans was harassed at work and forced to leave her job as a security guard because she?s a lesbian.

By REFUSING to hear her case, the Supreme Court is saying that businesses are free to FIRE employees just for being LGBT.

That?s NOT what our justice system should stand for!

 <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2d/717057196/VEsA/p/eyJKU1ZGVFVGSlRDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20iLCJKU1ZhU1ZBbEpRPT0iOiI5NTQzNyJ9/> Sign your name to urge the Supreme Court to BAN workplace discrimination: 


 <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2d/717057196/VEsB/p/eyJKU1ZGVFVGSlRDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20iLCJKU1ZhU1ZBbEpRPT0iOiI5NTQzNyJ9/> BAN workplace discrimination ?

John -- The Supreme Court is already considering ANOTHER case that could allow businesses to LEGALLY discriminate against LGBT customers.

And now the Court is saying that businesses can openly discriminate against their LGBT employees too!!

We haven?t come this far in our fight for civil rights to let the courts turn a blind eye to this virulent hatred and injustice.

We won?t stop fighting until EVERY American can attend school, pursue a career, or simply exist in public spaces without fear of expressing their own identity.

We?re counting on allies like you to demand justice.  <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2d/717057196/VEsO/p/eyJKU1ZGVFVGSlRDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20iLCJKU1ZhU1ZBbEpRPT0iOiI5NTQzNyJ9/> Will you sign our petition right away to urge the Supreme Court to BAN workplace discrimination?




 <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2d/717057196/VEsP/p/eyJKU1ZGVFVGSlRDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20iLCJKU1ZhU1ZBbEpRPT0iOiI5NTQzNyJ9/> SIGN YOUR NAME: Ban workplace discrimination ?

 <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2d/717057196/VEsHBQ/p/eyJKU1ZGVFVGSlRDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20iLCJKU1ZhU1ZBbEpRPT0iOiI5NTQzNyJ9/> http://go.fightforequality.org/Ban-Workplace-Discrimination

Equality PAC

 

 



This message was sent to: john at cypresshouse.com
 <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2c/717057196/VEsHBA/p/eyJKU1ZsYldGcGJDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20iLCJKU1ZGVFVGSlRDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20ifQ==/> Click here to receive fewer emails. |  <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2f/717057196/VEsHBw/p/eyJKU1ZsYldGcGJDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20ifQ==/> Click here to unsubscribe. 




 EQUALITY PAC <https://s.bsd.net/equalpac/main/page/-/EqualityPAC_Logo_Gray_300px.png> 


Equality PAC
P.O. Box 15337
Washington, D.C. 20003


PAID FOR BY EQUALITY PAC AND NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE OR CANDIDATE'S COMMITTEE. 


This message was sent to:  <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2e/717057196/VEsHBg/> john at cypresshouse.com | Change or update your email address by  <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a2e/717057196/VEsHAQ/> clicking here. 

Thank you for supporting Equality PAC. We're proud to be funded exclusively by grassroots donors. Your support is critical to helping us promote tolerance, inclusion, and Equality for LGBT Americans. 

Emails are a crucial way to stay in touch with our top supporters. If we're going to fight for Equality, we need you with us every step of the way. 

If you'd still like to unsubscribe from our emails,  <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a21/717057196/VEsHAA/p/eyJKU1ZsYldGcGJDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20ifQ==/> click here. If you'd like to receive fewer emails, you can  <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a20/717057196/VEsHAw/p/eyJKU1ZsYldGcGJDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20ifQ==/> click here. If you'd like to donate to help fund our efforts to promote Equality, please  <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/m/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a23/717057196/VEsHAg/p/eyJKU1ZGYldGcGJDVWwiOiJqb2huQGN5cHJlc3Nob3VzZS5jb20iLCJKU1ZHYVhKemRHNWhiV1VsSlE9PSI6IkpvaG4iLCJKU1ZNWVhOMGJtRnRaU1VsIjoiRnJlbW9udCIsIkpTVkRhWFI1SlNVPSI6IkZvcnQgQnJhZ2ciLCJKU1ZUVkVGVVJWOUJRa0pTSlNVPSI6IkNBIiwiSlNWYWFYQWxKUT09IjoiOTU0MzciLCJKU1ZJVDAxRlVFaFBUa1VsSlE9PSI6IiIsIkpTVlBRME5WVUVGVVNVOU9KU1U9IjoiIiwiSlNWRlRWQk1UMWxGVWlVbCI6IiJ9/> click here. 

>From the entire Equality PAC team, thanks for your support!

  <http://go.fightforequality.org/page/o/7c88c583/62376327/23b15ada/7ef70a22/717057196/open.gif> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171215/1a989458/attachment.html 

From annxpress at live.com  Fri Dec 15 14:10:19 2017
From: annxpress at live.com (Ann Rennacker)
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2017 22:10:19 +0000
Subject: [Occupymendocino] =?windows-1252?q?Fw=3A_=93Democracy_IS_coming_t?=
 =?windows-1252?q?o_the_U=2ES=2EA=2E=94_=28Leonard_Cohen=29?=
In-Reply-To: <20171213135110.26C2C960C99@civismtp.uas.coop>
References: <20171213135110.26C2C960C99@civismtp.uas.coop>
Message-ID: <CY1PR16MB02816BEEFA917EDD52EEC97CDD0B0@CY1PR16MB0281.namprd16.prod.outlook.com>

A message of hope


________________________________
From: Rabbi Arthur Waskow <office at theshalomcenter.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2017 5:51 AM
To: Ms. Ann Rennacker
Subject: ?Democracy IS coming to the U.S.A.? (Leonard Cohen)

[Hands and Globe with Shalom Center Logo]<https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=14427&qid=8736477>
Web:Theshalomcenter.org<https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=14428&qid=8736477>
The Shalom Report

?Democracy IS coming to the U.S.A.? (Leonard Cohen)

Leonard Cohen, a serious unconventional Jew, would have delighted that the people of Alabama created a Hanukkah miracle.  Listen to his song ? it?s determined, devoted, but not simplistic and not frothy.

Please join me on this journey by first listening and watching here: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-RuR-qO4Y&feature=youtu.be>

 I have included the words below to make sure you can hear them all. Please do actually watch and listen to Leonard Cohen sing them.

After that, we will look honestly at what we are facing now.

It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
>From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
>From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on ...

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.



*** **** **** **** ***

NOW --  Leet?s syop this abomination of a Tax Deform. McConnell will probably try to jam it through befpre Senatpr-elect Jones can be seated and other Senatirs change their minds. Let?s flood Senatirs Collins, McCain, Flake,  Heller wth phone calls. And office visits. And sit-ins.



Shalom --  Arthur



Contribute & Sustain<https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=14429&qid=8736477>

Click here to forward this mailing to friends or colleagues<https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/mailing/forward?reset=1&jid=8490&qid=8736477&h=7cc3eaeeb0207d44>.
See us on Facebook<https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=14430&qid=8736477>
Subscribe link<https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/mailing/subscribe>

The Shalom Center
6711 Lincoln Drive
Philadelphia, PA 19119
United States
web: theshalomcenter.org<https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=14427&qid=8736477>/ email: office at theshalomcenter.org<https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=14431&qid=8736477> tel: (215) 844-8494
Click here to unsubscribe from The Shalom Report<https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/mailing/unsubscribe?reset=1&jid=8490&qid=8736477&h=7cc3eaeeb0207d44>.
Click here to stop receiving all email from The Shalom Center<https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/mailing/optout?reset=1&jid=8490&qid=8736477&h=7cc3eaeeb0207d44>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171215/376b6cc8/attachment.html 

From rkarch at mcn.org  Fri Dec 15 22:50:19 2017
From: rkarch at mcn.org (Richard Karch)
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2017 22:50:19 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] drug pricing
Message-ID: <D97E8B3B-41FD-4587-A255-2E633053C465@mcn.org>

The New York Times
December 9, 2017
Prescription Drugs May Cost More With Insurance Than Without It
By Charles Ornstein and Katie Thomas

In an era when drug prices have ignited public outrage and insurers are requiring consumers to shoulder more of the costs, people are shocked to discover they can sometimes get better deals than their own insurers. Behind the seemingly simple act of buying a bottle of pills, a host of players ? drug companies, pharmacies, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers ? are taking a cut of the profits, even as consumers are left to fend for themselves, critics say.

Pharmacy benefit managers, the companies that deal with drug benefits on behalf of insurers, often do negotiate better prices for consumers, particularly for brand-name medications, but that?s not necessarily true for some generic drugs.

As a result of these complicated layers of negotiation ? which are not made public ? different insurers end up paying different prices for individual drugs. Further compounding confusion for consumers, some insurers require a set co-payment for each prescription ? say, $15 or $20 ? even when the insurer reimburses the pharmacy at a much cheaper rate.

Consumers also may face penalties if they don?t use their insurance and pay cash to save money. In many cases, insurers won?t let them apply those purchases to a deductible or out-of-pocket spending maximum.

Still, many find that leaving their prescription card at home is worth it. Some have found a better deal even at pharmacies that are owned by their drug plan, like CVS.

Even as more Americans have health insurance since the Affordable Care Act was passed, insurers are increasingly asking consumers to pay a larger share of their costs. In 2016, about five million people in Medicare hit a stage in which they had to pick up a greater share of their expenses.

Consumers may also pay more if they are covered by plans that require them to pay a set co-payment, no matter the cash price. In some of those cases, the insurers require the pharmacies to send them the difference between what they collect from the consumer and what the insurers have agreed to reimburse the pharmacies.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/09/health/drug-prices-generics-insurance.html <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/09/health/drug-prices-generics-insurance.html>

***

Boston Globe
December 7, 2003
Poison pill
By Jacob S. Hacker and Theodore R. Marmor

Tomorrow, President Bush is set to sign Medicare?s biggest overhaul in 38 years into law. But after watching the shrill yet perfunctory debate that culminated last week in the passage of the bill, even close observers of Washington politics can be forgiven for wondering just what exactly it was all about. On one side, congressional Republicans and President Bush described the $400-billion legislation as a moderate, sensible means of providing long-overdue drug coverage to seniors.

On the other, Democratic opponents ? including most House Democrats, Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, and Senator Ted Kennedy, who led an unsuccessful filibuster ? decried it as a monstrous giveaway to insurers and drug companies. They also charged that it was a ?Trojan horse? aimed at crippling Medicare?s universal benefits in order to foster go-it-alone competition.

All this becomes more understandable when one recognizes that the bill is really two bills. The first provides a much-needed, if modest and excessively complex, drug benefit. But while this new benefit is generous for some low-income seniors, it will end up raising out-of-pocket drug costs for other poor beneficiaries. And because it is poorly designed and does not include effective ways of controlling drug costs, the plan will ultimately leave most seniors little better off than they are today, and some worse off.

The second, darker side of the new Medicare bill is a slew of changes that have little or nothing to do with drug coverage and everything to do with special-interest demands and ideological animus toward Medicare. These include huge new subsidies for private insurers, and provisions that ensure that drug companies will be spared from their greatest fear: that Medicare will use its massive buying power to demand reductions in drug prices. Perhaps most ominous, the bill also contains elements that favor private plans and risk further degeneration of Medicare?s all-in-the-same-boat structure.

What is most striking about the bill is not the consistency of its vision, but its deep incoherence. In the name of greater free-market competition, the legislation offers massive new subsidies to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. In the name of providing greater protection, it threatens Medicare?s guarantee of universal benefits. And in the name of greater cost containment, it encourages the expansion of private plans that have, to date, not saved Medicare money, while creating new budgetary rules that could very well make Medicare less equitable and affordable down the road.

Behind these glaring inconsistencies lies the one great fact of contemporary American politics: partisan and ideological polarization.

It?s also certain to cause political conflict ? which may be the bill?s ultimate contradiction. Republicans hope to take off the table an issue with which they have been battered for years, and they may well do so through 2006. But by pushing through such an unwieldy bill, they are virtually ensuring that Medicare will be the biggest issue in American politics in the coming decades. Sadly, at the present juncture, that seems to promise more acrimony, confusion, and disappointment, rather than the constructive steps forward that Medicare so desperately needs.

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2003/december/poison_pill.php <http://www.pnhp.org/news/2003/december/poison_pill.php>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171215/532026cc/attachment.html 

From rkarch at mcn.org  Sat Dec 16 20:49:59 2017
From: rkarch at mcn.org (Richard Karch)
Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2017 20:49:59 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Fwd: MLK best for Packet
References: <7A8C90DF-5825-4155-B939-1597833811A9@mcn.org>
Message-ID: <63B2C30C-31D7-4DBA-BA49-A02386951523@mcn.org>

The 2017 MLK plans are coming along nicely.  Had a meeting today and will have one more before the event on Jan. 6. at the 2:30 at the Senior Center.
 Agnes is looking for more food offerings for the day. Let us know if you can donate a dish for the potluck or wish to volunteer.   
Thanks, The MLK Committee.

In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose life is celebrated every year on the third Monday of January, received an honorary degree from Newcastle University, the first African American to be so honored. In his acceptance speech King said, "There are three urgent and indeed great problems that we face not only in the United States of America but all over the world today. That is the problem of racism, the problem of poverty and the problem of war.?

In this, the 50th anniversary of the Newcastle speech, we must acknowledge that not only have these problems persisted, they?ve gotten much worse, due to our current administration?s decrees supporting bigotry, sexism, classism, environmental degradation and more. The fact that poverty and homelessness are at levels not seen since the Great Depression, are indications that equality remains a distant dream.

On January 15, 2018, please join us for our annual march and celebration to overcome racism, poverty, and the persistence of war. Bring your children and grandchildren to see how we can work for peace, justice, and equality for all.

We?ll meet at 11 a.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church (620 E. Redwood in Fort Bragg) for the march through town. Our agenda includes, Will Smith reciting Dr. King's "I have a Dream? speech; a panel of local students from Mendocino and Fort Bragg will discuss Dr. King's legacy; a wholesome meal follows along with our music program. And don?t forget the magnificant MLK birthday cake for all.

There is no fee to attend, though donations are welcome.

Come join us. We look forward to celebrating with you.
> 
>  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171216/7b7c4efa/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: MlK-best-parade-shot.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 107495 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171216/7b7c4efa/attachment.jpeg 

From agnes at mcn.org  Sun Dec 17 07:14:51 2017
From: agnes at mcn.org (agnes at mcn.org)
Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2017 07:14:51 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Foreclosure lte did you read the FB Advocate News
Message-ID: <736b4468d5d25997fc6cdb1523002969.squirrel@mail.mcn.org>

Please respond and tell me if you read the 12/7/17 and the 12/14/17
articles on Foreclosure remedies in the Advocate News. If you would like
an email copy of Agnes, et al letter to the FBAd News.
Your Occupier Journalist,
Agnes



From rkarch at mcn.org  Mon Dec 18 17:25:31 2017
From: rkarch at mcn.org (Richard Karch)
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2017 17:25:31 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Winter: Time change for OCCUPY MENDOCINO meeting
	time.
In-Reply-To: <CA+E2Xs4+Prn78A+jhm6PRABLj8QnS4oAOGVcJLc0Ybjco+_E-A@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4B81E3CA-B8EF-44C0-88CE-9064BBE0777A@mcn.org>
	<CA+E2Xs4+Prn78A+jhm6PRABLj8QnS4oAOGVcJLc0Ybjco+_E-A@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <AACB2388-805F-4E58-8755-78890BCA3081@mcn.org>

Meeting change for Occupy Mendocino.  1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month, 2:30 PM at the Redwood Coast Senior Center, 490 N.Harold Street, Fort Bragg <https://maps.google.com/?q=490+N.Harold+Street,+Fort+Bragg&entry=gmail&source=g>.
> 
> Phone 937-0334 for information. 
> On Dec 17, 2017, at 9:17 AM, Chris Calder <editor at advocate-news.com> wrote:
> 
> We've made the change. Thanks for letting up know.
> 
> 
> Fort Bragg Advocate-News
> & The Mendocino Beacon
> 690 S. Main St., Fort Bragg CA 95437
> 707-964-5642
> editor at advocate-news.com <mailto:editor at advocate-news.com>
> 
> 
> On Sat, Dec 16, 2017 at 7:38 PM, Richard Karch <rkarch at mcn.org <mailto:rkarch at mcn.org>> wrote:
> Occupy Mendocino meets 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month, 2:30 PM at the Redwood Coast Senior Center, 490 N.Harold Street, Fort Bragg <https://maps.google.com/?q=490+N.Harold+Street,+Fort+Bragg&entry=gmail&source=g>.
> Phone 937-0334 for information. 
> 
> 
> Thanks
> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171218/e61dafc4/attachment.html 

From blackdantheman100 at gmail.com  Tue Dec 19 10:24:27 2017
From: blackdantheman100 at gmail.com (DANIEL BAKER)
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2017 10:24:27 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Foreclosure lte did you read the FB Advocate
	News
In-Reply-To: <736b4468d5d25997fc6cdb1523002969.squirrel@mail.mcn.org>
References: <736b4468d5d25997fc6cdb1523002969.squirrel@mail.mcn.org>
Message-ID: <CACVey3aCRPQit9rMNdDe-cjCc8x2JdDk069idrXBVh-PmwGYxA@mail.gmail.com>

I NEED TO READF IT TOO.

On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 7:14 AM, <agnes at mcn.org> wrote:

> Please respond and tell me if you read the 12/7/17 and the 12/14/17
> articles on Foreclosure remedies in the Advocate News. If you would like
> an email copy of Agnes, et al letter to the FBAd News.
> Your Occupier Journalist,
> Agnes
>
>
> TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send an email to occupymendocino at lists.mcn.org put
> "Un-Subscribe me" in the Subject line.
> For listserv problems please contact: listmanager at mcn.or
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171219/5574ba30/attachment.html 

From blackdantheman100 at gmail.com  Tue Dec 19 10:27:22 2017
From: blackdantheman100 at gmail.com (DANIEL BAKER)
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2017 10:27:22 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Fwd: [MCN-Announce]- Resistance Potluck & Huddle
 January 10 at Gallery Bookshop
In-Reply-To: <4e5be869d548d169cf5854c1bc907159@127.0.0.1>
References: <4e5be869d548d169cf5854c1bc907159@127.0.0.1>
Message-ID: <CACVey3Zk=UzdnzmuJE_MsvZGxZO7anR9aZYUbxo3wQgdeDuoXA@mail.gmail.com>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <christie at gallerybookshop.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 5:38 PM
Subject: [MCN-Announce]- Resistance Potluck & Huddle January 10 at Gallery
Bookshop
To: "announce at lists.mcn.org" <announce at lists.mcn.org>


Resistance Potluck & Huddle Meeting: Wednesday January 10 at Gallery
Bookshop

The Potluck starts at 5:30. Meet, mingle, have a bite to eat. There's time
for open
announcements about local happenings as well. The Huddle meeting
begins at 6 and ends promptly at 7.

This month's agenda includes planning for the Women's March January 20th
and writing postcards to voters in states with special elections, among
other things.

Top priorities for this group include climate action, single payer health
care, and helping elect progressives in Mendocino county and beyond. We
work on local issues, influence our elected officials, create ways to
connect with other fed-up citizens, and help turn other districts blue
around the state and the country.

This is a work group. Anyone who would like to participate in actively
supporting the group's priorities is welcome. For more information, email
Christie Olson Day: christie at gallerybookshop.com.


__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

Announcement mailing list
announce at lists.mcn.org
The Mendocino Community Network (MCN) provides the MCN Announcement list.
Use of the list is subject to the terms of service at
http://www.mcn.org/email/atos.html

__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

TO POST to this list send emails to announce at lists.mcn.org
TO UNSUBSCRIBE from this list send an email to  announce-leave at lists.mcn.org
*** To complete the process you must reply to the email you receive in
response. ***

For listserv technical problems please contact:
listmanager at mcn.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171219/9cf22526/attachment.html 

From rkarch at mcn.org  Thu Dec 21 08:48:19 2017
From: rkarch at mcn.org (Richard Karch)
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2017 08:48:19 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] When you really need health care
Message-ID: <929EDC70-B700-41D9-AB90-D1136D517353@mcn.org>

LinkedIn Pulse
December 12, 2017
Is Healthcare a Right or an Entitlement?
By Michelle Chaffee, Founder & CEO alska

Some of you who have followed my posts over the past few years know that I am a cancer survivor. It?s been almost two years since I was very unexpectedly diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I have shared some of what it?s been like to suddenly find myself in the position of being a patient after spending a career caring for people who are sick, believing I wouldn't find myself on the other side of this equation. I still struggle with the reality that I have had cancer and that I will have to monitor for it rearing it?s ugly head, for the rest of my life. What I haven?t shared is how the costs of healthcare contributed to my situation, delayed diagnosis and increased my chance for a recurrence. I am sharing it now because as I continue on this journey, I am starting to think the current system is discriminatory and I know it needs to change.

When I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, I hadn?t been to my doctor for my yearly recommended examination for about 20 months. When I called to make my yearly appointment, I was told I had an outstanding bill I had been unaware of because I had moved and they didn?t have my new address. The bill was a result of ?coinsurance? that was from a necessary and fairly routine procedure, still it was substantial enough that I had to set up payments over time because I couldn?t afford to pay it in full. I was told I could not see my doctor until there was a zero balance. I felt fine and had no concerns of any illness so I skipped my routine exam that year. Fast forward almost 2 years later when an unusually potent migraine resulted in a suggestion by my neurologist that I get my hormone levels checked. I contacted a new gynecology group because I couldn?t be seen by my regular ob/gyn because of the balance that still remained. On this routine exam, a very large mass was found on my ovary. So large that even though I was assured it was benign, it needed to be removed. During the surgery, the mass ruptured but the doctor told me not to worry because ?It?s not cancer.? She told me the rupture was because it was so large that it made it difficult to remove. She called me about a week later to tell me it was in fact, cancer and the rupture, unfortunately complicated the staging and made recurrence more likely. The fact is, if I had gone to my regular appointment, it would have been discovered when it was much smaller and may not have ruptured. I am not blaming the doctor or the organization where I received care but, it wasn?t discovered because I owed the clinic money and they wouldn?t see me until the bill was paid. I don?t let myself think about that too much, but it?s the truth and it?s the way healthcare works in our current system.

The cost of just the surgery to remove the cancer was over $250,000. This included just one night in the hospital and no chemotherapy or radiation treatment. I had a good insurance plan but even with that, my responsibility was over $30,000. I can safely say most Americans would find it a challenge to add that expense to their yearly budget. The ongoing costs of testing for a possible recurrence are approximately $20,000 every year. That is on top of the nearly $10,000 I pay in premiums each year because I am self employed. I can?t afford this so I stretch out the time between scans and labs further than my doctor recommends. 

In the back of my mind I know this could mean I don?t detect something as soon as I should again and that it can literally mean the difference between life or death.

I also know that if I owe a balance again at the hospital where I get my testing, they can refuse to treat me and I have been down that road before. 

So as I write this, I find myself waiting again to find out if something discovered on a diagnostic test done almost 9 months after the doctor ordered it, is something that could take my life. Not only that, I brace myself for the cost of repeated imaging, biopsies and what may follow and I am angry, frustrated and of course, afraid. I know I am not alone and for many, it has been worse. I have worked in healthcare long enough to remember when people were denied insurance coverage because they had an illness like cancer or diabetes or a heart defect. I heard the desperation of new mothers who were grateful their precious newborn had received life saving heart surgery but had already reached their life time insurance maximum and had no idea how they would pay for the ongoing care their child needed to stay alive. The Affordable Care Act changed some of that, at least we aren?t denied coverage but it costs too much and patients can still be denied care if they owe a system money. So we constantly pray we don?t get sick again and try to find the right balance between what we can afford and what will keep us alive. 

For those of you out there who say ?Healthcare isn?t a right,? I tell you to save your breath unless you have faced a condition that could take your life or the life of someone you love. 

To those of you who say patients should forego a smartphone or daily ?fancy? coffee drink in order to pay for healthcare I say, what fantasy world do you live in where eliminating those things would make even a miniscule dent in the healthcare costs millions face? 

You can also put aside the delusion that someone is sick because they did something wrong. I hate to break it to you but just because you exercise, eat healthy or have no family history of disease doesn't mean you are magically immune to a life changing diagnosis. It can happen to anyone and I am walking proof of that reality. I ate right, exercised, never smoked, have no family history of cancer and like millions of others in this country I got sick anyway. 

I find it especially ironic as I travel to other nations and collaborate with healthcare leaders to improve delivery of care to their citizens that I, a struggle to access the care I need in the United States of America. So I pose the following to ponder:

Should we get the same rights as prisoners?

Shouldn?t we at least get the same rights that criminals in this country get? The supreme court has held that those under government control must have ? Adequate food, clothing, shelter, and medical care as a component of the protections accorded by the Eighth Amendment and that ?Deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners constitutes the ?unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain,?... proscribed by the Eighth amendment,? equating this pain with cruel and unusual punishment. Does ?Cruel and unusual punishment? only apply to prisoners? It seems pretty cruel to make law abiding citizens suffer because they can?t afford medicine or treatment or to force them to choose between food or medical care. 

Are we discriminated against if we are sick?

It used to be that healthcare provided through programs like Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP seemed sufficient to mitigate an accusation that there was discrimination based on a citizen?s ability to pay for adequate healthcare. Unfortunately, over time there has been an increasing group of Americans that don?t meet the criteria to receive these supplementary services but also can?t afford the cost of the healthcare available to them. I don?t consider myself poor but I can?t afford $30,000 a year or more for basic healthcare. Do I have the same rights to life and general welfare as anyone else? If treatment to save my life is available, should I be denied it because I don?t have the ability to pay? Did the founders of our country mean to make good health only available to the wealthy? It isn?t just what used to be considered the poor or elderly who can?t afford basic healthcare or medication anymore. Hard working people who have made contributions to their communities and are necessary to our countries security and growth can?t afford necessary care. This is a problem for all of us. 

Where do we draw the line?

For those of you who continually argue that the government doesn?t pay for our car insurance or life insurance I will explain the difference. Driving a car isn?t necessary for survival, neither is providing an inheritance for your heirs. These things aren?t the same as access to professional healthcare services that prevent you from dying. Suggesting these things as examples of why healthcare isn?t a right, is a faulty argument and insulting to anyone who is sick. Our founding fathers and leaders were concerned for the health and welfare of our citizens. Franklin D. Roosevelt even tried to enact a ?Second bill of rights? that included access to adequate medical care and the opportunity to enjoy good health. They couldn?t have imagined how costly healthcare would become as the model ushered in with the advent of health insurance, has progressed and costs have skyrocketed.  I am not even insisting the government cover the cost. Even making it affordable, meaning something I can pay for that doesn?t consume my entire grocery budget for a year is a good place to start. At the very least, insuring people with truly life threatening disease have an opportunity to take advantage of the treatment we can provide seems reasonable to me and maybe it?s time to make it an undeniable right of every American.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/healthcare-right-entitlement-michelle-chaffee/ <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/healthcare-right-entitlement-michelle-chaffee/>

===


Comment by Don McCanne

When President Obama rejected the single payer model of reform, he said that he did not want to disrupt the part of our system that was working well, especially the most prevalent coverage - private health plans.

As Michelle Chaffee says, she had "a good insurance plan," but look where it left her - broke and still struggling to get the additional care that she needs. "It's the truth, and it?s the way healthcare works in our current system."

When the system is not working well for productive individuals like Michelle Chaffee, it has to be a pretty sick system. ACA didn't fix it for her. Time to replace it. Single payer.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171221/6d917d37/attachment.html 

From john at cypresshouse.com  Mon Dec 25 12:20:05 2017
From: john at cypresshouse.com (John)
Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2017 12:20:05 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] FW: Merry Christmas from Congress.
Message-ID: <000a01d37dbd$c09641c0$41c2c540$@com>

This is chilling!

 

From: mzs at mcn.org [mailto:mzs at mcn.org] 
Sent: Monday, December 25, 2017 11:47 AM
Subject: Merry Christmas from Congress.

 


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article> &contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article


 


You Cannot Be Too Cynical About the Republican Tax Bill


 

 <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#story-continues-1> Continue reading the main storyShare This Page

*         Share

*         Tweet

*         Email

*         More

*         Save

1052

Photo



CreditJon Elswick/Associated Press 

The rush to enact the tax bill was designed to mask ? as a break for the middle class ? what is in fact a $1.4 trillion package of benefits for key donors and lobbyists, the richest members of Congress, President Trump, his family and other families like his.

The speed from introduction to passage ? seven weeks, with no substantive hearings ? effectively precluded expert examination of the  <https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-final-version-of-the-gop-tax-bill-is-a-corrupt-cruel-budget-busting-hairball> legislation?s regressive core, its special interest provisions and the long-term penalties it imposes on the working poor and middle class through the use of an alternative  <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/12/11/everything-you-need-to-know-about-chained-cpi-in-one-post/?utm_term=.73cc99b400b0> measure of inflation ? the ? <https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-20/the-big-permanent-tax-increase-inside-the-tax-cut-act> chained CPI.?

Only last Friday, when the legislation came out of  <https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/tax-bill-2017/card/1513378286> conference committeeand was no longer subject to amendment ? and when decisive majorities of House and Senate Republicans had publicly committed to vote for the legislation ? did experts and journalists begin to fully catch up with its defects.

Two days before Congress gave final approval, a group of 13 tax law experts released the most incisive critique of the tax bill to date, a 30-page document called ? <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3089423> The Games They Will Play: An Update on the Conference Committee Tax Bill.?

The primary authors of the report ? Ari Glogower, David Kamin,  <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/opinion/republican-tax-bill-unstable.html?_r=0> Rebecca Kysar, and Darien Shanske ? describe the legislation as ?a substantial blow to the basic integrity of the income tax? that will ?advantage the well-advised in ways that are both deliberate and inadvertent.?

 <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#story-continues-2> Continue reading the main story


 


 <https://www.nytimes.com/column/thomas-b-edsall> Thomas B. Edsall


American politics, inequality, campaign strategy and demographics.


*         



The authors cite a wide range of specific flaws, but their main argument is that the measure is gravely deficient at its core:

The most serious structural problems with the bill are unavoidable outcomes of Congress?s choice to preference certain taxpayers and activities while disfavoring others ? and for no discernible policy rationale. These haphazard lines are fundamentally unfair and inefficient, and invite tax planning by sophisticated taxpayers to get within the preferred categories.

Glogower, Kamin, Kysar, and Shanske argue that some of the most egregious loopholes and schemes permitted by the legislation are that individual taxpayers

will be able to shield their labor income from tax by simply setting up a corporation and having their income accrue in the form of corporate profits. As a result, income that would have been taxed at the high individual rates is instead taxed at the low corporate rate.

Second, the legislation creates a huge incentive for anyone in a position to do so to change his or her status from employee to ?independent contractor or a partner in a firm. The game is clear: Don?t be an employee, instead be an independent contractor or partner in a firm.? The ability to make this shift is available primarily to the well-paid.

The legislation, according to Glogower and his colleagues, also fails to present a coherent rationale:

the fundamental problem is the lack of any underlying logic in deciding who benefits from the pass-through deductions, and who does not. Independent contractors and partners benefit, but not employees. Why? An owner of real estate through a REIT benefits, but not the doctor in the building. Why? An architect benefits in some ways that a lawyer does not. And so on.

The bill encourages tax evasion. Glogower and his colleagues cite

opportunities to use rate differentials and ill-considered transitions to engage in transactions that serve to basically pump money out of the Treasury and into the pockets of well-advised taxpayers.

To provide an example, they use a company that purchased equipment under existing law, which provides them with tax breaks on the cost spread out over the years in a depreciation schedule. The new law allows companies to immediately write off the full cost of buying equipment, known as expensing.

?So,? the authors ask, ?what does that mean??

It means that old property can still get the benefit of expensing, but only if it is sold to another party. If the original owner holds it, they have to depreciate according to the old rules; if they sell it to another party, then suddenly the full cost is eligible for expensing, and the net effect is an immediate deduction of the existing tax basis of the asset. The parties can split the resulting surplus. It appears that the buyer of the asset could even lease it back to the existing owner, so that the property doesn?t even have to go anywhere.

I emailed some of the authors of this report for their individual thoughts.

Mitchell Kane, a law professor at N.Y.U., wrote in response that the bill will

create new incentives to shift tangible assets (and jobs) abroad. Given President Trump?s relentless message about U.S. jobs, it is incomprehensible to me that we are about to pass something that has this effect without any kind of meaningful discussion of the issue.

Daniel Hemel, a law professor at the University of Chicago, raised a crucial question about the long-term effects of the legislation?s adoption of chained CPI,  <https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2017-11-20/why-chained-cpi-has-links-to-u-s-tax-debate-quicktake-q-a> a method of calculating the rate of inflation for the earned-income tax credit and other sections of the tax code that provide breaks to working- and middle-class families.

He noted that

lower and middle-income families, who are especially dependent upon inflation-indexed deductions, credits, and bracket thresholds, will feel the impact increasingly as time goes on.

In the first year, 2018, the changed inflation rate raises a relatively modest $31.5 billion but it grows every year, reaching $37 billion in 2027. ?To be sure,? Hemel wrote, ?this affects everyone to some degree, but most of the burden is paid for by families in the bottom four quintiles.?

In the long term, Hemel argued,

this is a very subtle way to increase taxes on the lower and middle classes and then use those revenues to pay for a massive tax cut for corporations.

What may prove even more significant is that the shift to chained CPI ? a  <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/03/us/politics/five-changes-for-families-in-the-republican-tax-bill.html> less generous, slower-growing measure of inflation than the one currently in use ? would not only result in a tax increase over time, it would set a precedent for Republicans who would like to use the same method to pare back so-called entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. It is, in effect,  <http://www.ncpssm.org/Document/ArticleID/964/Chained-CPI-Will-Hurt-Seniors> a backdoor method of reducing benefits for the elderly and the disadvantaged without public scrutiny or debate.

This full-speed-ahead strategy simultaneously constrained the ability of the press to explore the special interest provisions buried in the legislation.


Newsletter Sign Up


 <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#continues-post-newsletter> Continue reading the main story


 


One exception is the work of three reporters from International Business Times ? Alex Kotch, David Sirota and Josh Keefe ? who have pursued this line of inquiry for the past week.  <http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/republican-senators-will-save-millions-special-real-estate-tax-break-2630037> A recent story disclosed that a provision inserted at the last minute into the bill stands to lower taxes on the income of 14 Republican Senators.

Along parallel lines, a liberal think tank, the Center for American Progress, now estimates that Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, will get an annual tax break of somewhere between $21,500 and $205,000 based on his 2016  <https://efdsearch.senate.gov/search/view/annual/707e1424-a5f3-4a24-998f-f64af848454c/> financial disclosure statement. The center?s calculations are based on Johnson?s reported income from three holdings he said produced a minimum of $215,002 up to a maximum of $2,050,000.

And the 2016  <https://efdsearch.senate.gov/search/view/annual/d41ff99d-4c7f-46d0-b649-c88bf007374e/> financial disclosure statement filed by Senator Steve Daines, Republican of Montana, shows income from real estate holdings of $487,500 to $4,305,000. If Daines? tax cut is computed using the same method that the center used for Johnson, it would be between $47,582 and $430,500.

Not only are many senators direct beneficiaries of the legislation, but 15 of the top 20 Senate recipients of contributions from the real estate industry are Republicans,  <https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.php?ind=F10&recipdetail=S&sortorder=A&mem=Y&cycle=2016> according to Open Secrets, ranging from Marco Rubio at $3.27 million to Chuck Grassley at $276,636.

Perhaps most important, the measure rewards  <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/business/the-winners-and-losers-in-the-tax-bill.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0> those who need it least ? the very wealthy ? while  <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/17/gop-with-tax-bill-finalized-makes-its-case-to-a-skeptical-public/?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_wb-taxbill-1122am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.08dd82519087> leaving those most in need with  <https://www.wsj.com/articles/middle-class-gets-10-of-republican-tax-cut-1513644268> modest and temporary tax breaks. The bill will diminish opportunities for social mobility by  <https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/final-trump-republican-tax-bill-promises-details/548603/> doubling the estate tax exemption, further entrenching generation after generation at the top of the income distribution.

As my colleague Jim Tankersley  <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/republican-tax-plan-simple-tax-returns.html> put it on Dec. 16, the final version of the legislation

offers little redress to workers who have grown to believe that the country?s tax law thicket advantages those with power, political connections and lawyers on retainer. Its evolution undermines a central selling point for a bill that is already  <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/business/economy/tax-survey.html> seen by most Americans as unlikely to benefit them, according to polls.

The accompanying chart, which is based on an analysis done by the nonpartisan  <https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/tcja-would-cut-taxes-average-1600-2018-most-benefits-going-those-making-300000-plus> Tax Policy Center, describes the distribution of the benefits by income groups over the next decade.

 <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#story-continues-5> Continue reading the main story

 <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#story-continues-6> Continue reading the main storyDespite the fact that the measure is a tax cut, the majority of Americans, 53 percent, currently disapprove of the law and 35 percent approve,  <https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-americans-say-tax-plan-helps-wealthy-not-middle-class/> according to a CBS Poll. Most Americans believe the bill will help large corporations (76 percent) and the wealthy (69 percent), while 35 percent believe it will help the middle class and 24 percent said their own families will gain.

A tax expert who insisted on anonymity in order to protect client confidentiality, emailed me his critique of the bill:

(1) The corporate rate reduction is permanent, for individuals only temporary. Completely obnoxious. In effect the money ?saved? within the 10 year budget window by making those individual cuts temporary helped to underwrite the cost of making the corporate/pass though side permanent

(2) Carried interest provision. When Trump was careening around in his populist candidate mode, he promised to end it. Here is one campaign promise that he ?somehow? failed to redeem when the clear and available chance presented itself.

(3) Restriction on state and C local tax deduction ? consciously vindictive imposition of double taxation on citizens of certain Democratic states; corporations and pass through businesses, the darlings of the Republicans, still get to deduct those very same taxes in full.

(4) Expanding the standard deduction but financing the cost of so doing by repealing the personal exemptions is a bit of a bait and switch maneuver. Some people might be worse off.

(5) In a bill in which 100s of billions of dollars were sloshing around to provide steep tax cuts for already wealthy and highly prosperous corporations and pass through businesses, the Republicans could only find the will to raise the refundable portion of the child care tax credit from $1000 to $1400. Rubio wanted it to be raised to $2000 and his Republican brethren refused to even meet him halfway. Pitiful.

(6) Deduction for extraordinary medical expenses ? retention of this deduction did not even get the five-year sunset window applied to all the other individual tax provisions, two years only. Vicious.

(7) Pass through business taxation ? the bill is a massive tax gift to some of the wealthiest people in the country, who are conducting business operations in non-corporate form or are investors in same.

The tax bill not only alters the competitive structure of American industry but includes such major provisions as opening the  <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/climate/tax-bill-wind-solar.html> Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling and the elimination of  <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/business/the-winners-and-losers-in-the-tax-bill.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0> mandatory individual health insurance under Obamacare.

What amounted to three major pieces of legislation were approved by the full House and the Senate Finance Committee, ?two weeks after the bill was unveiled, without a single hearing on the 400-plus-page legislation,? as Thomas Kaplan and Alan Rappeport put it in The Times.

How well does this procedure stand up to the requirements Senator Ben Sasse specified in  <https://www.sasse.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2015/11/senator-ben-sasse-s-maiden-speech> his maiden Senate speech on Nov. 3, 2015? In it, Sasse argued that the Senate was failing in its responsibility to fully air and debate the important issues before the county, calling for what he called ?a cultural recovery inside the Senate?:

One of our jobs is to flesh out competing views with such seriousness and respect that we should be mitigating, not exacerbating, the polarization that does exist ...

Good teachers don?t shut down debate; they try to model Socratic seriousness by putting the best possible construction on arguments, even ? and especially ? if one doesn?t hold those positions.

Or, for that matter, how well does the bill fit with Senator John McCain?s determination to lay down the law on ?regular order,? as outlined in an Aug. 31  <https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/john-mccain-its-time-congress-returns-to-regular-order/2017/08/31/f62a3e0c-8cfb-11e7-8df5-c2e5cf46c1e2_story.html?utm_term=.febef795d919> op-ed in the Washington Post? ?We are proving inadequate not only to our most difficult problems but also to routine duties,? McCain wrote. Or as McCain noted during the debate over legislation to repeal Obamacare, he was calling

for a return to regular order, letting committees of jurisdiction do the principal work of crafting legislation and letting the full Senate debate and amend their efforts. We won?t settle all our differences that way, but such an approach is more likely to make progress on the central problems confronting our constituents. We might not like the compromises regular order requires, but we can and must live with them if we are to find real and lasting solutions.

So far, however, only one Republican senator has suffered real costs for deciding to vote for the tax bill.

Just over two months ago, Bob Corker drew  <http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-10-17-steven-mnuchin-sen-bernie/story?id=50200661> a line in the sand on the bill: if it raised the deficit, he would vote no:

No way that Bob Corker is going to vote for a tax reform bill that I think in any way is going to add to the deficit. It?s not going to happen, never. It?s never going to happen. Never, never, ever.

On Oct. 5, Susan Davis of National Public Radio put Corker  <https://www.npr.org/2017/10/05/555949768/sen-bob-corker-gets-candid-about-tax-cuts-calls-budget-proposal-a-waste-of-time> on record with a series of quotes that he may have come to regret:

This is the most passionate thing for me, period, that I work on. Not foreign policy. Not banking. It?s this deficit issue.

For Corker, this issue went way beyond routine politics: ?Deficits matter,? he forcefully asserted. ?They are a greater threat to us than North Korea or ISIS.?

This past week Corker has decided that the deficit is no longer ?the most passionate thing for me.? Instead, he voted for a tax bill that will increase the deficit by  <https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-latest-rubio-threat-to-vote-no-imperils-tax-bill/2017/12/14/2b3702a0-e13a-11e7-b2e9-8c636f076c76_story.html?utm_term=.dd9bb41ec94f> $1.46 trillion over ten years.  <https://www.corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-list?ID=5FBCEA10-ABE4-47D4-A16B-035263C985F7> In a statement, Corker declared:

In the end, after 11 years in the Senate, I know every bill we consider is imperfect and the question becomes is our country better off with or without this piece of legislation. I think we are better off with it.

All of this raises a basic question. How could nearly every Republican representative ? and all 52 Republican senators ? support the tax bill? The best answer may be the most cynical: because it benefits key leaders, their friends, their heirs and their donors.

After looking at the legislation in its entirety ? its substance and the procedures used to get there ? it is difficult to conclude that the motivations of its sponsors are either benevolent or somehow in the best interests of the country. More likely it is hypocrisy and venality mixed up into one awful bill.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171225/74680e0f/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 83782 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171225/74680e0f/attachment.jpe 

From ndevall at mcn.org  Mon Dec 25 17:26:36 2017
From: ndevall at mcn.org (Norman de Vall)
Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2017 17:26:36 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] FW: Merry Christmas from Congress.
In-Reply-To: <000a01d37dbd$c09641c0$41c2c540$@com>
References: <000a01d37dbd$c09641c0$41c2c540$@com>
Message-ID: <292E19BC-65E3-4B93-948A-6282D02FD176@mcn.org>

My take on this is that the tax bill/tax evasion/money talk is all a cover
for the social/society issues built within the bill.  My prediction:  We?ll
all be working for $9.00 an hour in the new future.  The society changes
will trump any tax relief/benefits or debt.


> On Dec 25, 2017, at 12:20 PM, John <john at cypresshouse.com> wrote:
> 
> This is chilling!
>  
> From: mzs at mcn.org <mailto:mzs at mcn.org> [mailto:mzs at mcn.org <mailto:mzs at mcn.org>] 
> Sent: Monday, December 25, 2017 11:47 AM
> Subject: Merry Christmas from Congress.
>  
> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article>
>  
> You Cannot Be Too Cynical About the Republican Tax Bill
>  
> Continue reading the main story <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#story-continues-1>Share This Page
> ?         Share
> ?         Tweet
> ?         Email
> ?         More
> ?         Save
> 1052
> Photo
> <21EDSALL1-master768.jpg>
> CreditJon Elswick/Associated Press 
> The rush to enact the tax bill was designed to mask ? as a break for the middle class ? what is in fact a $1.4 trillion package of benefits for key donors and lobbyists, the richest members of Congress, President Trump, his family and other families like his.
> 
> The speed from introduction to passage ? seven weeks, with no substantive hearings ? effectively precluded expert examination of the legislation?s regressive core <https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-final-version-of-the-gop-tax-bill-is-a-corrupt-cruel-budget-busting-hairball>, its special interest provisions and the long-term penalties it imposes on the working poor and middle class through the use of an alternative measure of inflation <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/12/11/everything-you-need-to-know-about-chained-cpi-in-one-post/?utm_term=.73cc99b400b0> ? the ?chained CPI <https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-20/the-big-permanent-tax-increase-inside-the-tax-cut-act>.?
> 
> Only last Friday, when the legislation came out of conference committee <https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/tax-bill-2017/card/1513378286>and was no longer subject to amendment ? and when decisive majorities of House and Senate Republicans had publicly committed to vote for the legislation ? did experts and journalists begin to fully catch up with its defects.
> 
> Two days before Congress gave final approval, a group of 13 tax law experts released the most incisive critique of the tax bill to date, a 30-page document called ?The Games They Will Play: An Update on the Conference Committee Tax Bill <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3089423>.?
> 
> The primary authors of the report ? Ari Glogower, David Kamin, Rebecca Kysar <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/opinion/republican-tax-bill-unstable.html?_r=0>, and Darien Shanske ? describe the legislation as ?a substantial blow to the basic integrity of the income tax? that will ?advantage the well-advised in ways that are both deliberate and inadvertent.?
> 
> Continue reading the main story <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#story-continues-2>
>  
> 
> Thomas B. Edsall <https://www.nytimes.com/column/thomas-b-edsall>
> American politics, inequality, campaign strategy and demographics.
> ?         
> 
> 
> The authors cite a wide range of specific flaws, but their main argument is that the measure is gravely deficient at its core:
> 
>> The most serious structural problems with the bill are unavoidable outcomes of Congress?s choice to preference certain taxpayers and activities while disfavoring others ? and for no discernible policy rationale. These haphazard lines are fundamentally unfair and inefficient, and invite tax planning by sophisticated taxpayers to get within the preferred categories.
>> 
> Glogower, Kamin, Kysar, and Shanske argue that some of the most egregious loopholes and schemes permitted by the legislation are that individual taxpayers
> 
>> will be able to shield their labor income from tax by simply setting up a corporation and having their income accrue in the form of corporate profits. As a result, income that would have been taxed at the high individual rates is instead taxed at the low corporate rate.
>> 
> Second, the legislation creates a huge incentive for anyone in a position to do so to change his or her status from employee to ?independent contractor or a partner in a firm. The game is clear: Don?t be an employee, instead be an independent contractor or partner in a firm.? The ability to make this shift is available primarily to the well-paid.
> 
> The legislation, according to Glogower and his colleagues, also fails to present a coherent rationale:
> 
>> the fundamental problem is the lack of any underlying logic in deciding who benefits from the pass-through deductions, and who does not. Independent contractors and partners benefit, but not employees. Why? An owner of real estate through a REIT benefits, but not the doctor in the building. Why? An architect benefits in some ways that a lawyer does not. And so on.
>> 
> The bill encourages tax evasion. Glogower and his colleagues cite
> 
>> opportunities to use rate differentials and ill-considered transitions to engage in transactions that serve to basically pump money out of the Treasury and into the pockets of well-advised taxpayers.
>> 
> To provide an example, they use a company that purchased equipment under existing law, which provides them with tax breaks on the cost spread out over the years in a depreciation schedule. The new law allows companies to immediately write off the full cost of buying equipment, known as expensing.
> 
> ?So,? the authors ask, ?what does that mean??
> 
>> It means that old property can still get the benefit of expensing, but only if it is sold to another party. If the original owner holds it, they have to depreciate according to the old rules; if they sell it to another party, then suddenly the full cost is eligible for expensing, and the net effect is an immediate deduction of the existing tax basis of the asset. The parties can split the resulting surplus. It appears that the buyer of the asset could even lease it back to the existing owner, so that the property doesn?t even have to go anywhere.
>> 
> I emailed some of the authors of this report for their individual thoughts.
> 
> Mitchell Kane, a law professor at N.Y.U., wrote in response that the bill will
> 
>> create new incentives to shift tangible assets (and jobs) abroad. Given President Trump?s relentless message about U.S. jobs, it is incomprehensible to me that we are about to pass something that has this effect without any kind of meaningful discussion of the issue.
>> 
> Daniel Hemel, a law professor at the University of Chicago, raised a crucial question about the long-term effects of the legislation?s adoption of chained CPI, a method <https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2017-11-20/why-chained-cpi-has-links-to-u-s-tax-debate-quicktake-q-a> of calculating the rate of inflation for the earned-income tax credit and other sections of the tax code that provide breaks to working- and middle-class families.
> 
> He noted that
> 
>> lower and middle-income families, who are especially dependent upon inflation-indexed deductions, credits, and bracket thresholds, will feel the impact increasingly as time goes on.
>> 
> In the first year, 2018, the changed inflation rate raises a relatively modest $31.5 billion but it grows every year, reaching $37 billion in 2027. ?To be sure,? Hemel wrote, ?this affects everyone to some degree, but most of the burden is paid for by families in the bottom four quintiles.?
> 
> In the long term, Hemel argued,
> 
>> this is a very subtle way to increase taxes on the lower and middle classes and then use those revenues to pay for a massive tax cut for corporations.
>> 
> What may prove even more significant is that the shift to chained CPI ? a less generous <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/03/us/politics/five-changes-for-families-in-the-republican-tax-bill.html>, slower-growing measure of inflation than the one currently in use ? would not only result in a tax increase over time, it would set a precedent for Republicans who would like to use the same method to pare back so-called entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. It is, in effect, a backdoor method <http://www.ncpssm.org/Document/ArticleID/964/Chained-CPI-Will-Hurt-Seniors> of reducing benefits for the elderly and the disadvantaged without public scrutiny or debate.
> 
> This full-speed-ahead strategy simultaneously constrained the ability of the press to explore the special interest provisions buried in the legislation.
> 
> Newsletter Sign Up
> Continue reading the main story <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#continues-post-newsletter>
>  
> One exception is the work of three reporters from International Business Times ? Alex Kotch, David Sirota and Josh Keefe ? who have pursued this line of inquiry for the past week. A recent story? <http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/republican-senators-will-save-millions-special-real-estate-tax-break-2630037>disclosed that a provision inserted at the last minute into the bill stands to lower taxes on the income of 14 Republican Senators.
> 
> Along parallel lines, a liberal think tank, the Center for American Progress, now estimates that Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, will get an annual tax break of somewhere between $21,500 and $205,000 based on his 2016 financial disclosure statement <https://efdsearch.senate.gov/search/view/annual/707e1424-a5f3-4a24-998f-f64af848454c/>. The center?s calculations are based on Johnson?s reported income from three holdings he said produced a minimum of $215,002 up to a maximum of $2,050,000.
> 
> And the 2016 financial disclosure statement <https://efdsearch.senate.gov/search/view/annual/d41ff99d-4c7f-46d0-b649-c88bf007374e/> filed by Senator Steve Daines, Republican of Montana, shows income from real estate holdings of $487,500 to $4,305,000. If Daines? tax cut is computed using the same method that the center used for Johnson, it would be between $47,582 and $430,500.
> 
> Not only are many senators direct beneficiaries of the legislation, but 15 of the top 20 Senate recipients of contributions from the real estate industry are Republicans, according to Open Secrets <https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.php?ind=F10&recipdetail=S&sortorder=A&mem=Y&cycle=2016>, ranging from Marco Rubio at $3.27 million to Chuck Grassley at $276,636.
> 
> Perhaps most important, the measure rewards those who need it least <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/business/the-winners-and-losers-in-the-tax-bill.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0> ? the very wealthy ? while leaving those most in need <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/17/gop-with-tax-bill-finalized-makes-its-case-to-a-skeptical-public/?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_wb-taxbill-1122am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.08dd82519087> with modest and temporary tax breaks. <https://www.wsj.com/articles/middle-class-gets-10-of-republican-tax-cut-1513644268> The bill will diminish opportunities for social mobility by doubling the estate tax exemption <https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/final-trump-republican-tax-bill-promises-details/548603/>, further entrenching generation after generation at the top of the income distribution.
> 
> As my colleague Jim Tankersley put it on Dec. 16 <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/republican-tax-plan-simple-tax-returns.html>, the final version of the legislation
> 
>> offers little redress to workers who have grown to believe that the country?s tax law thicket advantages those with power, political connections and lawyers on retainer. Its evolution undermines a central selling point for a bill that is already seen by most Americans as unlikely to benefit them <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/business/economy/tax-survey.html>, according to polls.
>> 
> The accompanying chart, which is based on an analysis done by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center <https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/tcja-would-cut-taxes-average-1600-2018-most-benefits-going-those-making-300000-plus>, describes the distribution of the benefits by income groups over the next decade.
> 
> Continue reading the main story <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#story-continues-5>
> Continue reading the main storyDespite the fact that the measure is a tax cut, the majority of Americans, 53 percent, currently disapprove of the law and 35 percent approve,? <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#story-continues-6>according to a CBS Poll <https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-americans-say-tax-plan-helps-wealthy-not-middle-class/>. Most Americans believe the bill will help large corporations (76 percent) and the wealthy (69 percent), while 35 percent believe it will help the middle class and 24 percent said their own families will gain.
> A tax expert who insisted on anonymity in order to protect client confidentiality, emailed me his critique of the bill:
> 
>> (1) The corporate rate reduction is permanent, for individuals only temporary. Completely obnoxious. In effect the money ?saved? within the 10 year budget window by making those individual cuts temporary helped to underwrite the cost of making the corporate/pass though side permanent
>> 
>> (2) Carried interest provision. When Trump was careening around in his populist candidate mode, he promised to end it. Here is one campaign promise that he ?somehow? failed to redeem when the clear and available chance presented itself.
>> 
>> (3) Restriction on state and C local tax deduction ? consciously vindictive imposition of double taxation on citizens of certain Democratic states; corporations and pass through businesses, the darlings of the Republicans, still get to deduct those very same taxes in full.
>> 
>> (4) Expanding the standard deduction but financing the cost of so doing by repealing the personal exemptions is a bit of a bait and switch maneuver. Some people might be worse off.
>> 
>> (5) In a bill in which 100s of billions of dollars were sloshing around to provide steep tax cuts for already wealthy and highly prosperous corporations and pass through businesses, the Republicans could only find the will to raise the refundable portion of the child care tax credit from $1000 to $1400. Rubio wanted it to be raised to $2000 and his Republican brethren refused to even meet him halfway. Pitiful.
>> 
>> (6) Deduction for extraordinary medical expenses ? retention of this deduction did not even get the five-year sunset window applied to all the other individual tax provisions, two years only. Vicious.
>> 
>> (7) Pass through business taxation ? the bill is a massive tax gift to some of the wealthiest people in the country, who are conducting business operations in non-corporate form or are investors in same.
>> 
> The tax bill not only alters the competitive structure of American industry but includes such major provisions as opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/climate/tax-bill-wind-solar.html> in Alaska to oil drilling and the elimination of mandatory individual health insurance <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/business/the-winners-and-losers-in-the-tax-bill.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0> under Obamacare.
> 
> What amounted to three major pieces of legislation were approved by the full House and the Senate Finance Committee, ?two weeks after the bill was unveiled, without a single hearing on the 400-plus-page legislation,? as Thomas Kaplan and Alan Rappeport put it in The Times.
> 
> How well does this procedure stand up to the requirements Senator Ben Sasse specified in his maiden Senate speech <https://www.sasse.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2015/11/senator-ben-sasse-s-maiden-speech> on Nov. 3, 2015? In it, Sasse argued that the Senate was failing in its responsibility to fully air and debate the important issues before the county, calling for what he called ?a cultural recovery inside the Senate?:
> 
>> One of our jobs is to flesh out competing views with such seriousness and respect that we should be mitigating, not exacerbating, the polarization that does exist ...
>> 
>> Good teachers don?t shut down debate; they try to model Socratic seriousness by putting the best possible construction on arguments, even ? and especially ? if one doesn?t hold those positions.
>> 
> Or, for that matter, how well does the bill fit with Senator John McCain?s determination to lay down the law on ?regular order,? as outlined in an Aug. 31 op-ed in the Washington Post <https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/john-mccain-its-time-congress-returns-to-regular-order/2017/08/31/f62a3e0c-8cfb-11e7-8df5-c2e5cf46c1e2_story.html?utm_term=.febef795d919>? ?We are proving inadequate not only to our most difficult problems but also to routine duties,? McCain wrote. Or as McCain noted during the debate over legislation to repeal Obamacare, he was calling
> 
>> for a return to regular order, letting committees of jurisdiction do the principal work of crafting legislation and letting the full Senate debate and amend their efforts. We won?t settle all our differences that way, but such an approach is more likely to make progress on the central problems confronting our constituents. We might not like the compromises regular order requires, but we can and must live with them if we are to find real and lasting solutions.
>> 
> So far, however, only one Republican senator has suffered real costs for deciding to vote for the tax bill.
> 
> Just over two months ago, Bob Corker drew a line in the sand <http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-10-17-steven-mnuchin-sen-bernie/story?id=50200661> on the bill: if it raised the deficit, he would vote no:
> 
>> No way that Bob Corker is going to vote for a tax reform bill that I think in any way is going to add to the deficit. It?s not going to happen, never. It?s never going to happen. Never, never, ever.
>> 
> On Oct. 5, Susan Davis of National Public Radio put Corker on record <https://www.npr.org/2017/10/05/555949768/sen-bob-corker-gets-candid-about-tax-cuts-calls-budget-proposal-a-waste-of-time> with a series of quotes that he may have come to regret:
> 
>> This is the most passionate thing for me, period, that I work on. Not foreign policy. Not banking. It?s this deficit issue.
>> 
> For Corker, this issue went way beyond routine politics: ?Deficits matter,? he forcefully asserted. ?They are a greater threat to us than North Korea or ISIS.?
> 
> This past week Corker has decided that the deficit is no longer ?the most passionate thing for me.? Instead, he voted for a tax bill that will increase the deficit by $1.46 trillion <https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-latest-rubio-threat-to-vote-no-imperils-tax-bill/2017/12/14/2b3702a0-e13a-11e7-b2e9-8c636f076c76_story.html?utm_term=.dd9bb41ec94f> over ten years. In a statement <https://www.corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-list?ID=5FBCEA10-ABE4-47D4-A16B-035263C985F7>, Corker declared:
> 
>> In the end, after 11 years in the Senate, I know every bill we consider is imperfect and the question becomes is our country better off with or without this piece of legislation. I think we are better off with it.
>> 
> All of this raises a basic question. How could nearly every Republican representative ? and all 52 Republican senators ? support the tax bill? The best answer may be the most cynical: because it benefits key leaders, their friends, their heirs and their donors.
> 
> After looking at the legislation in its entirety ? its substance and the procedures used to get there ? it is difficult to conclude that the motivations of its sponsors are either benevolent or somehow in the best interests of the country. More likely it is hypocrisy and venality mixed up into one awful bill.
> 
>  
> TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send an email to occupymendocino at lists.mcn.org <mailto:occupymendocino at lists.mcn.org> put "Un-Subscribe me" in the Subject line.
> For listserv problems please contact: listmanager at mcn.or <mailto:listmanager at mcn.or>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171225/a60fbd50/attachment.html 

From rkarch at mcn.org  Tue Dec 26 16:26:51 2017
From: rkarch at mcn.org (Richard Karch)
Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2017 16:26:51 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Health Care Big Priority of Citizens
Message-ID: <8FF939A6-9D4F-4211-9597-1BF299816978@mcn.org>

The Christian Science Monitor
December 21, 2017
Poll says US citizens worry most about health care
By Emily Swanson and Ricardo Alsonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press

As President Trump completes his first year in office, Americans are increasingly concerned about health care, and their faith that government can fix it has fallen.

A new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 48 percent named health care as a top problem for the government to focus on in the next year, up 17 points in the past two years.

The poll allows Americans to name up to five priorities and found a wide range of top concerns, including taxes, immigration, and the environment. But aside from health care, no single issue was named by more than 31 percent.

And 7 in 10 of those who named health care as a top problem said they had little to no confidence that government can improve matters. The public was less pessimistic in last year's edition of the poll, when just over half said they lacked confidence in the problem-solving ability of lawmakers and government institutions.

Rumblings of discontent have political repercussions for next year's midterm elections and the presidential contest in 2020, said Robert Blendon, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who follows opinion trends on health care.

"It's the issue that won't go away," said Professor Blendon. "Given the news cycle, taxes should be first, the economy should be second, and this health care thing should be buried."

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2017/1221/Poll-says-US-citizens-worry-most-about-health-care <https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2017/1221/Poll-says-US-citizens-worry-most-about-health-care>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171226/6ff2a2bb/attachment.html 

From blackdantheman100 at gmail.com  Wed Dec 27 10:55:17 2017
From: blackdantheman100 at gmail.com (DANIEL BAKER)
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2017 10:55:17 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Fwd: [MCN-Announce]- Warning: Tech Support Spam
 Pop up mimicking a message from MicroSoft
In-Reply-To: <CAB-EJte_9=DUgygbh46HwhqOVx0nbs9s5eDPDBc7dUwJ=FTSWw@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAB-EJte_9=DUgygbh46HwhqOVx0nbs9s5eDPDBc7dUwJ=FTSWw@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CACVey3ZfFjv-sB5C2Y5bqi-0x6fpMk91owZpi-ontEaRZRVuoQ@mail.gmail.com>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Redwood Mary <redwoodmary at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 4:33 PM
Subject: [MCN-Announce]- Warning: Tech Support Spam Pop up mimicking a
message from MicroSoft
To: announcements <announce at lists.mcn.org>


Warning:  There is a Tech Support Spam Pop up message from MicroSoft with
audio .

There are plenty of these scams running and Microsoft does not  send
alerts  via popups.

To get out of the pop- close the window. It will go away.

Do not call the number such as 877- 829-2924  that appears in the  pop-up
as a virus warning.  It is a tech support scam and not a microsoft tech.


--
In solidarity with Mother earth and all her creatures-
Redwood Mary
??
redwoodmary at gmail.com
*?mrkaczorowski?* <http://goog_1752199789>



*?@gmail.com
<http://%E2%80%8B at gmail.com>https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrk2008
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrk2008>twitter  @mrk46*http://facebook.com/
redwood.mary <https://www.facebook.com/redwood.mary>
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

Announcement mailing list
announce at lists.mcn.org
The Mendocino Community Network (MCN) provides the MCN Announcement list.
Use of the list is subject to the terms of service at
http://www.mcn.org/email/atos.html

__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

TO POST to this list send emails to announce at lists.mcn.org
TO UNSUBSCRIBE from this list send an email to  announce-leave at lists.mcn.org
*** To complete the process you must reply to the email you receive in
response. ***

For listserv technical problems please contact:
listmanager at mcn.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171227/8d06b36f/attachment.html 

From blackdantheman100 at gmail.com  Wed Dec 27 11:00:03 2017
From: blackdantheman100 at gmail.com (DANIEL BAKER)
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2017 11:00:03 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Fwd: [MCN-Announce]- Fwd: RESISTANCE ACTION IF
	MUELLER IS FIRED!
In-Reply-To: <38A9C158-8559-44F1-BAC9-7E347DBBE80E@mcn.org>
References: <6E09BCF3-CAD3-489E-9F61-2AF92C804750@mcn.org>
	<38A9C158-8559-44F1-BAC9-7E347DBBE80E@mcn.org>
Message-ID: <CACVey3b96D7_jH-mSh5vLZCCG5=7wcJu1vion9N5b4rsxcZv3Q@mail.gmail.com>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: susan allen nutter <sanutter at mcn.org>
Date: Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 8:29 PM
Subject: [MCN-Announce]- Fwd: RESISTANCE ACTION IF MUELLER IS FIRED!
To: MCN Listserve <announce at lists.mcn.org>


Congresswoman Jackie Speier verbalized a rumor in D.C. that Trump plans to
fire Mueller this Friday when Congress will have gone home.

HERE IS CURRENT LOCAL PLAN:

>
> ACTION PLANNED IF MUELLER IS FIRED:
>
> A protest rally is (contingently) planned for Fort Bragg IF MUELLER IS
FIRED. Check this link  https://act.moveon.org/event/
mueller-firing-rapid-response/18731/signup/?source=&s= <
https://act.moveon.org/event/mueller-firing-rapid-response/
18731/signup/?source=&s=>
> for timing details.
>
> The date/times listed at the above site currently are placeholders only -
this event is planned to occur IF Robert Mueller is fired. Rallies will be
held around the country, beginning hours after news breaks of a Mueller
firing: If Mueller is fired BEFORE 2 P.M. local time ?> events will begin @
5 P.M. local time If Mueller is fired AFTER 2 P.M. local time ?> events
will begin @ noon local time the following day. We'll meet in front of Fort
Bragg Town Hall.
>
> OTHER POSSIBLE ACTIONS:
>
> I have asked Huffman?s local aide for suggestions and emailed Indivisible
to see what they suggest in addition to the response above.  I will phone
Jackie Speier?s office tomorrow to see if they have any suggestions as to
who to call, email, tweet, etc. for maximum effect.
>
> susan
>
>

__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

Announcement mailing list
announce at lists.mcn.org
The Mendocino Community Network (MCN) provides the MCN Announcement list.
Use of the list is subject to the terms of service at
http://www.mcn.org/email/atos.html

__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

TO POST to this list send emails to announce at lists.mcn.org
TO UNSUBSCRIBE from this list send an email to  announce-leave at lists.mcn.org
*** To complete the process you must reply to the email you receive in
response. ***

For listserv technical problems please contact:
listmanager at mcn.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171227/e3d661d3/attachment.html 

From blackdantheman100 at gmail.com  Wed Dec 27 11:01:29 2017
From: blackdantheman100 at gmail.com (DANIEL BAKER)
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2017 11:01:29 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Fwd: I'm asking for your help today
In-Reply-To: <2c1291-2909-5a43e1df@list.democracyforamerica.com>
References: <2c1291-2909-5a43e1df@list.democracyforamerica.com>
Message-ID: <CACVey3ZfCnZsYcoNgOrS8Wq9xjN_vPw-352EhOs1=JKnj9Zd2A@mail.gmail.com>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bernie Sanders <info at democracyforamerica.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 27, 2017 at 10:09 AM
Subject: I'm asking for your help today
To: Baker Daniel <BLACKDANTHEMAN100 at gmail.com>


[image: Take Action!]
<https://act.democracyforamerica.com/go/25835?refcode=g-berniem4a1227.d-20171227.m-10505.s-38576&akid=10505%2E2888337%2EG3BqT9>

Baker --

This is a crucial moment in American history.

*Do we, as a country, join the rest of the industrialized world to
guarantee comprehensive health care to every person as a human right?* Or
do we maintain a system that is enormously expensive -- and is designed to
maximize profits for huge insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies,
and Wall Street?

The good news is that, every day, more and more Americans are waking up and
realizing that health care is a right worth fighting for.

The Republican push to take health care away from millions of people, led
by Donald Trump, has made one thing very clear: We need a Medicare for All
single-payer health care system -- and the fight to make that system a
reality will be a defining issue for Democrats and for Republicans in the
2018 campaign cycle, in 2020, and beyond.

*Democracy for America has always been a pivotal partner of mine in the
fight for Medicare for All and a single payer system. That's why I'm asking
you to do something important right now in the fight for justice:*

*Please chip in $27 to support DFA's work in 2018 to elect progressive
candidates like me who will relentlessly fight for Medicare for All from
the campaign trail to Congress. Together, we can make it not just a right
-- but a reality.*
<https://act.democracyforamerica.com/go/25835?refcode=g-berniem4a1227.d-20171227.m-10505.s-38576&akid=10505%2E2888337%2EG3BqT9>

Multiple times over the course of this year, Republicans tried to take
health care access away from millions of Americans. *And every single time,
DFA members fought to stop them. *

Fighting back against Trump's endless attacks on health care is important.
But it's not enough. We have got to go forward, not backward. While the
Affordable Care Act was a step forward, it is not enough.

Today, more than 28 million Americans have no health care at all and even
more are underinsured with high deductibles and co-payments. We also pay,
by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.

*The status quo is not working. Our health care system is rigged to provide
big insurance companies and drug companies with billions of dollars in
profits at the expense of everyone else, and that needs to change.*

That's why I, along with 16 other Democrats, introduced a Medicare for All
single-payer bill earlier this year -- and why tens of thousands of DFA
members signed on in support of this historic bill.

Now, we're not going to pass my Medicare for All legislation as long as
Republicans are in charge. And there are some establishment Democrats who
would rather not see it pass, either -- I know that very well.

The only way we are going to make a Medicare for All single-payer system a
reality is if we have a revolution in our political system, where millions
of Americans stand up to the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical
industry by electing representatives who will fight for the people, not
just big corporations and the billionaire class.

*Democracy for America has a long history of standing with candidates who
will fight to make health care a right for everyone.* For example,
Democracy for America members made 2.5 million calls in 2016 using DFA
Dialer to elect candidates like *Sen. Kamala Harris* and *Rep. Pramila
Jayapal* -- and now they are two of most important leaders we have on
Capitol Hill fighting for Medicare for All.

Right now, DFA is laying the groundwork for a huge Medicare for All push in
2018. They're already supporting many of the Senate co-sponsors of my
Medicare for All bill, including *Sen. Elizabeth Warren* and *Sen. Tammy
Baldwin.* And DFA is backing union member *Randy Bryce*, another big
Medicare for All supporter, to unseat House Speaker Paul Ryan.

*DFA has played a critical role in building our political revolution from
the beginning. And if we work together, we can make a huge difference in
our political system by electing a strong slate of Medicare for All
champions in 2018.*

*So I?m asking you -- can you contribute $27 (or whatever you can afford)
to support my friends at DFA today? It would mean a great deal to me.*
<https://act.democracyforamerica.com/go/25835?refcode=g-berniem4a1227.d-20171227.m-10505.s-38576&akid=10505%2E2888337%2EG3BqT9>

In solidarity,

Sen. Bernie Sanders
DONATE
<https://act.democracyforamerica.com/go/25835?refcode=g-berniem4a1227.d-20171227.m-10505.s-38576&t=201&akid=10505%2E2888337%2EG3BqT9>
Paid for by Democracy for America, http://www.democracyforamerica.com and
not authorized by any candidate. Contributions to Democracy for America are
not deductible for federal income tax purposes.

This message was sent to BLACKDANTHEMAN100 at GMAIL.COM. Click here to
unsubscribe
<http://act.democracyforamerica.com/cms/unsubscribe/unsubscribe/?akid=10505%2E2888337%2EG3BqT9>
from further communications.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171227/0d1bf1c0/attachment.html 

From rkarch at mcn.org  Thu Dec 28 11:01:11 2017
From: rkarch at mcn.org (Richard Karch)
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2017 11:01:11 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Fwd: qotd: Page and Gilens: Democracy in America?
References: <CACPk_a=UD=nUzxu1in6NJeK0G0D35LBf9bgv6h3OtCd+z1nGRw@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <D679D1D5-C66E-4FE4-8DF7-27ED11EF1673@mcn.org>


> Subject: qotd: Page and Gilens: Democracy in America?
> 
> The University of Chicago Press
> November 2017
> Democracy in America?
> What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It
> By Benjamin I. Page and Martin Gilens
> 
> From the Introduction
> 
> Today the United States faces a number of daunting problems. Economic inequality has reached levels not seen for a hundred years. While the wealthy keep piling up riches, many Americans are hurting from job losses, low wages, high health-care costs, and deteriorating public services. Whole communities have been devastated by factory closings. Our public schools are neglected. Our highways and bridges are in disrepair.
> 
> Well-designed government policies could help deal with these problems. Large majorities of Americans favor specific measures that would be helpful. Yet our national government often appears to ignore the wants and needs of its citizens. It pays more attention to organized interests than to ordinary Americans, and it gets bogged down in gridlock and inaction.
> 
> In this book we argue that gridlock and inaction in Washington result from two main causes: clashes between our two sharply divided political parties and obstructive actions by corporations, interest groups, and wealthy individuals. The many "veto points" in our complex political system (that is, the many opportunities for one or another political actor to thwart policy change) are used to prevent the enactment of policies that most Americans want.
> 
> The nonresponsiveness and dysfunction of government are closely related to undemocratic features of our political system.
> 
> It follows that our problems can be more effectively addressed if we reform our political system to achieve more democracy: more equal opportunity for all citizens to shape what their government does and policies that better address the needs of all Americans.
> 
> Why Democracy
> 
> We define democracy as policy responsiveness to ordinary citizens - that is, popular control of government. Or simply "majority rule."
> 
> How This Book Unfolds
> 
> In the next chapter we note certain patterns in American history, from Alexis de Tocgueville's 1830s onward. Democracy has tended to flourish in times of relative economic equality but has withered when there are big gaps between rich and poor.
> 
> In part 2 of the book we examine more closely what has gone wrong and what is obstructing democratic responsiveness now.
> 
> Chapter 3 shows how undemocratic the United States is today. Ordinary citizens have little or no influence on public policy, while affluent and wealthy Americans and organized interest groups - especially business groups - often get their way.
> 
> In chapter 4 we examine just how much political clout wealthy Americans have (a great deal), what techniques they use to exercise it, and what sorts of government policies they want and get.
> 
> Chapter 5 documents the substantial political influence of organized interest groups and explains how they exercise it. Corporations and business associations do particularly well, while "mass-based" groups have relatively little clout.
> 
> Chapter 6 explores the vexing problems of highly polarized political parties, gridlock, and policy inaction.
> 
> We then turn, in part 3, to the question of what sorts of political reforms might be effective for making government politics more responsive to ordinary citizens.
> 
> Chapter 7 discusses a number of "equal voice" reforms that would move all citizens toward equal political influence. Campaign finance regulation - or (even without such regulation) public funding - could greatly reduce the power of private political money. Other reforms could curtail the impact of interest groups. Still others could encourage voting by citizens who are currently not well represented in the electorate - especially lower-income people and racial and ethnic minorities.
> 
> Chapter 8 considers how to overcome policy gridlock and, more generally, how to make our political institutions more democratic. It notes undemocratic features of Congress that our legislators could easily improve if they felt sufficient pressure to do so. It also discusses undemocratic electoral arrangements that will be harder - but far from impossible - to change. And it mentions certain particularly difficult but important-to-address problems, including the extremely unrepresentative, rural-heavy nature of the Senate, and the tendency of the Supreme Court to overturn (without, in our opinion, sound justification) certain policies backed by large majorities of Americans.
> 
> Part 4, the final section of the book, addresses the difficult question of whether and how major democratic reforms can actually be enacted. Big obstacles stand in the way, especially the need to persuade, pressure, or replace officials who have been elected in an undemocratic system and would be happy to keep it that way. Major changes will likely take a long time and a lot of work. But we are optimistic that they can be achieved.
> 
> Chapter 9 addresses the idea of a special movement for Democracy. Some important improvements can be accomplished through simple changes in rules or laws that policy makers might be pushed to adopt through conventional political pressure. Ultimately, however, we believe that the most important major reforms can probably be won only by means of something new: a large-scale, long-term social movement for Democracy. The chapter draws lessons from past social movements - especially the Populists, the Progressives, the labor movement, and the civil rights movement - to suggest what sorts of strategies and tactics might lead to success. And it points to groups that are already beginning to work together toward democratic reforms and might help form the core of a Democracy movement.
> 
> Chapter 10 highlights democratic reforms that are currently being achieved on the state and local level. By building on these efforts, we believe that that a successful social movement for more Democracy can eventually transform America, enhancing both the quality of our politics and the quality of our lives.
> 
> http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo27316263.html
> 
> ===
> 
> 
> Comment by Don McCanne
> 
> It is imperative that all caring Americans join together in a social movement for Democracy. In "Democracy in America?" Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens explain why and how. It will be difficult, but we must do it.
> 
> Read this book. Then act! Inertia is no longer an option.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Quote-of-the-day mailing list
> Quote-of-the-day at mccanne.org
> https://pairlist2.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/quote-of-the-day
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171228/b1355777/attachment.html 

From rkarch at mcn.org  Thu Dec 28 12:48:09 2017
From: rkarch at mcn.org (Richard Karch)
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2017 12:48:09 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Trump and Tips
Message-ID: <0E28B834-015A-4FEC-9243-58B824F67DEB@mcn.org>

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/add-your-name-to-tell-department-of-labor-we-wont-let-you-take-workers-tips?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171228/add40106/attachment.html 

From john at cypresshouse.com  Fri Dec 29 12:20:44 2017
From: john at cypresshouse.com (John)
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2017 12:20:44 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] The Trumps on the cover of Time
Message-ID: <01f301d380e2$81a0f550$84e2dff0$@com>

 

 

 

HAPPY HOLIDAZE

 

 

 

 



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171229/fbc2cfdd/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 88595 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171229/fbc2cfdd/attachment.jpe 

From john at cypresshouse.com  Sat Dec 30 11:58:00 2017
From: john at cypresshouse.com (John)
Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2017 11:58:00 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] FW: Saturday, January 6 meeting
Message-ID: <01d901d381a8$7f18d8e0$7d4a8aa0$@com>

 

 

From: Linda Jupiter [mailto:jupiter at mcn.org] 
Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2017 9:04 AM



Greetings, all,

Our final MLK organizing meeting will be next Saturday, January 6, at 2:30
(not the usually noon time) at the Senior Center in Fort Bragg.

It's important that we show up and organize all last-minute issues.

If you have anything for the agenda, please let me know.

Onward,

Linda

 

-----------

Linda Jupiter Productions

P.O. Box 2822 

Fort Bragg, CA 95437

phone 707-964-8985

www.lindajupiter.weebly.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171230/86e12e60/attachment.html 

From john at cypresshouse.com  Sun Dec 31 16:41:26 2017
From: john at cypresshouse.com (John)
Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2017 16:41:26 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Happy New Year
Message-ID: <00d501d38299$418d1ad0$c4a75070$@com>

Our first meeting of the new year will take place on Sat., Jan. 6 at 2:30
(not the usual noon to two) at the Senior Center in Fort Bragg.

We'll deal with any last-minute issues having to do with the annual
celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and look forward to addressing
local and national issues. The next few meetings will also start at 2:30
p.m. Make a resolution to attend Occupy meetings in 2018.

 

If you have anything for the agenda, please let me know. 

 

Have a safe, happy, fruitful New Year!

 

John

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171231/1d3ec8a6/attachment.html 

From rkarch at mcn.org  Sun Dec 31 20:40:44 2017
From: rkarch at mcn.org (Richard Karch)
Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2017 20:40:44 -0800
Subject: [Occupymendocino] The Fight of our Life
Message-ID: <01B4D676-3934-413D-87A4-1C0BFDEBCD01@mcn.org>


I don?t know if this appropriate on New Year?s Eve? Paul Krugman?s alert. rk


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/10/1632194/-Paul-Krugman-Issues-A-Warning-About-What-We-All-Know-Is-Coming?detail=emailclassic



Sign This Petition
Sign if you agree: Enough is enough. Trump must be impeached.

 <https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/petitions/sign-if-you-agree-enough-is-enough-trump-must-be-impeached>Welcome back, Richard!
Not Richard? Click here <https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/sign-if-you-agree-enough-is-enough-trump-must-be-impeached?clear_id=true&source=widget>.

By submitting a letter you are agreeing to receive occasional emails on this and related campaigns from Daily Kos. You may of course unsubscribe at any time. Here's our privacy policy <http://www.dailykos.com/privacy>.


In September of 2001 the Administration of George W. Bush was running into trouble. A President who had lost the popular vote, installed into office only through a hotly contested Supreme Court decision, had nonetheless behaved from the start as if he possessed a mandate, eagerly dismantling his predecessor?s achievements and turning the country on a hard rightward course, following a strategy that had been carefully concealed from the public during the campaign. 

The public reaction was swift and negative?Bush?s own popularity tanked precipitously as the public reacted to an agenda most had not realized they had voted for. Prior to September 11th his approval levels had dropped to the lowest? <http://www.gallup.com/poll/7591/bush-approval-drops-below-60-first-time-since-911.aspx>of his still-young Presidency.

All of that was transformed in a matter of hours, as the nation witnessed the worst terror attack America had ever experienced. Before the rubble had even been sifted to identify the bodies, Bush?s popularity skyrocketed to 90%. Within a matter of weeks he began the process of lying us into an unnecessary war that had been planned prior to the attacks, using those same attacks as his justification.  That war destabilized the entire Middle East and resulted in hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pointless deaths.

Meanwhile, here at home, dissent was shouted down as unpatriotic. The Right Wing media outlets labeled protesters as traitors, and nearly all the so-called conventional news sources either abetted or encouraged the Administration?s efforts, which soon instigated torture as an accepted practice, threw out the Geneva conventions, and instituted a web of foreign and domestic surveillance, the parameters of which are still undisclosed. Despite the fact that we were spending a trillion dollars for war, massive tax cuts were instituted benefitting only the wealthy.

Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, writing for the New York Times <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/opinion/when-the-fire-comes.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0>, believes the situation we now find ourselves in, with Donald Trump holding the levers of power, is incomparably worse than anything the country faced with Bush or Cheney:

We?re only three weeks into the Trump administration, but it?s already clear that any hopes that Mr. Trump and those around him would be even slightly ennobled by the responsibilities of office were foolish. Every day brings further evidence that this is a man who completely conflates the national interest with his personal self-interest, and who has surrounded himself with people who see it the same way. And each day also brings further evidence of his lack of respect for democratic values.
The one positive thing that can be said about the Bush Administration is that it did not provoke the attacks of 9/11. Despite clear and well-documented early warning signs (which were ignored by Bush), the attacks, however carefully planned, were a shock to everyone, Bush included. And when the Courts began to rein in Bush and Cheney's abuses of power, while they were surely displeased?even irate--they never stooped so low as to undermine the basic institution of the Judiciary.  As a result, the country slowly returned to a sense of normality because our institutions held up against the onslaughts.

Trump has already gone out of his way to provoke another terror attack on this country. By vilifying and demonizing not just Muslims by attempting to bar their entry into the country, but even equating those those who cross the Mexican border with the worst types of criminals imaginable, he has deliberately  laid the groundwork for some type of retaliation. He has, in fact, invited it. And, as Krugman notes, he seems to want it: 

The really striking thing about Mr. Trump?s Twitter tirade, however, was his palpable eagerness <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tweets-on-so-called-judge-after-travel-ban-stay/> to see an attack on America, which would show everyone the folly of constraining his power:
Krugman is referring to this ?Tweet?:


What Trump has done in attacking the very Judges and Courts that have (thus far) placed restraints upon his arbitrary abuse of power is to tie those restraints directly to the potential for further acts of terrorism against the country. He is telling us, in a very cold, cynical way, that he will consider himself blameless if we are attacked, with the unmistakable implication that such an attack would justify abandoning any constraints or limitations on his own powers:

Never mind the utter falsity of the claim that bad people are ?pouring in,? or for that matter of the whole premise behind the ban. What we see here is the most powerful man in the world blatantly telegraphing his intention to use national misfortune to grab even more power. And the question becomes, who will stop him?
It is abundantly clear that the malevolent cast of characters who make up his ?inner circle? will do nothing to stop Trump from taking full advantage to exploit the public?s fear and grief in the event of a large-scale terror event.  His closest advisors, a white supremacist with a history of anti-Islamic hatred, and a general obsessed with Islamophobia in charge of the military,  appear absolutely thrilled at the prospect of provoking an attack.  They will not help us. In fact they would author the Orders that would attempt to initiate deportations and surveillance, limit speech and assembly, or otherwise revoke or ?suspend" Due Process for certain ?targeted? groups.

Neither will the Republican-dominated Senate, which, for all its phony pretensions of disapproval, is well on the way to confirming the most abominably incompetent President?s cabinet in the nation?s history.  Neither they nor their ideological compatriots in control of the House of Representatives are going to lift a finger to help us.

The Judiciary does stand in his way, for now. But the nature of the Judiciary is not to be proactive but to react, most often after the damage has already been done. Trump is doing his best to undermine the Judiciary by his now-constant attacks on Judges who stand in the way of his exercise of arbitrary power.  Ultimately they can only do so much.

No, when the terror attack comes?and Trump and Bannon are making damned sure that it does come?it will only be the common people, banding together, that will be able to stop him. If we let fear affect our judgments, an aftermath with rules imposed by people who have nothing but contempt for our institutions will be worse than anything terrorists could do to destroy us.

In the end, I fear, it?s going to rest on the people ? on whether enough Americans are willing to take a public stand. We can?t handle another post-9/11-style suspension of doubt about the man in charge; if that happens, America as we know it will soon be gone.
We need to be ready. What is coming will literally be the fight of our lives
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20171231/d7355d92/attachment.html 

