Jan 2014 - Gray Panthers

GRAY PANTHERS OF SAN FRANCISCO
Membership Meeting
Tuesday, January 21, 12:30-3PM
Unitarian Universalist Center 1182Franklin@Geary
Join in a Discussion of Actions for 2014
GRAY PANTHERS COMMITTEE MEETINGS & EVENTS
All meetings and events take place at 2940 16th Street 200-4, unless otherwise noted
Board Meeting Wednesday, Jan
8,12:30PM, Library, 100 Larkin, 3rd floor,
Martin Paley Room
Book Club Monday, January 27, 10:30Noon Celtic Café, 142 McAllister
(between Hyde/Leavenworth)
Newsletter Committee Thursday, Jan 9,
Noon
Call For compassionate release of Lynne Stewart
Director of Bureau Prisons Samuels (202) 307-3250/3062, Attorney General
Holder(202) 353-1555, President Obama (202) 456-1111
Our Holiday Party!
January Meeting
Come join in our round table discussion of what
we Gray Panthers want to plan for 2014. Share
your story of when and why you joined and the
actions you participated in. We will also hear a bit
of history about Gray Panthers
Letter to Editor from GP member
Excessive waste of resource
Our holiday party was a rip-roaring success! Good
food, good people, lots of them, and good cheer. A
van load of unexpected & welcomed guests arrived
from assisted-living home, AgeSong. One bit of business was transacted; new members of the GP board
were approved by acclamation and include Deetje,
David A., Denise, Kay, Rhoda, Kaye. (more pictures at
GP Website)
Thirty-five years of peaceful assembly to honor the
memory of George Moscone and Harvey Milk is
shattered by the presence of hundreds of police.
The police were not menacing. What was menacing was the waste of precious resources. Resources that should be used for pressing issues
such as the rising number of people without
homes.
The police presence and the whirring helicopter
above was an insult to the memory of Moscone and
Milk who came into office with a sense of genuine
compassion and hope for all San Franciscans. The
police in our day are hardly a symbol of hope and
compassion. Instead they are the opposite. This is
brought out daily when homeless people are harassed and minority youth are killed, all mostly to
protect the one percent’s property and pathways.
What is needed is a better deployment of our police to help and protect and not menace our citizenry. Our legislators need to seriously consider
how we deploy our police force and calculate the
cost.
The original idea to surround the celebrants of
Moscone and Milk at the memorial may have been
to help and guide traffic but it was done in excess,
costing tens of thousands of dollars. How does a
helicopter fit into this picture?
Denise D’Anne San Francisco
Call for her compassionate release
Attorney General Holder(202) 353-1555,
President Obama (202) 456-1111
And our representative, Pelosi 415-556-4862
¡Presente!
Nelson Mandela
Reminder
Board Members
Notice January Board Meeting
Main Library —3rd floor,
Martin Paley room
“Education is the most
powerful weapon which
you can use to change
the world."
2
powers to abrogate the collective bargaining contracts of public-sector unions to avoid a bankruptcy altogether. Orr wants a new $350 million
loan (with a $120 million service fee) from Barclays to pay off Bank of America and UBS! Governor Rick Snyder appointed Orr under legislation
promoted by ALEC, the organization that funneled
big money into his election. One of Orr’s solutions
to the pension crisis is to freeze Detroit’s two pension funds — a move that would stop city workers
from accumulating any more service time and shut
out new employees from existing plans. This is a
new 401(k)-style pension plan that would be set
up. This idea comes directly from ALEC which set
this as part of their priority legislation agenda this
year. Pensions are deferred wages, money due
workers as cash in their regular paychecks for labor supplied to the city that is set aside. This same
attack on pensions is also taking place in Chicago.
Detroit:Canary in the Pension Mines
Our fourth
largest city
was forced
into bankruptcy.
This could
be a template
for
gutting city
funds and pension plans to satisfy the hunger for
profits by Wall Street banks. Corporations like
BofA & UBS have put in place the ability to take
priority over other bankruptcy claims—mainly
pension funds. Detroit's retirees could lose about
80 cents on the dollar. Moody Credit rating agency
even stated that if Detroit cuts its pension obligations, other cities could follow the example. Over
the past 5 years, 2,350 public jobs have been cut to
solve a crisis workers did not cause. The federal
government can bail out Wall Street, Chrysler,
GM, but not Detroit—Motown—the home of automobile manufacturing and strong unions.
Judge Steven Rhodes, handling the city’s Chapter
9 case, decided to ignore a Michigan Constitution
provision barring any reduction in pension benefits
to already retired public sector workers. He ruled
that pensions were “contractual obligations,” no
different from any other bill the city owes but
lacks the money to pay.
Real Cause of Detroit’s $18 Million Debt
The crisis is not the city’s pension fund obligation.
Detroit, like many cities, took out loans with low
short-term interest rates under banks’ risky lending
based on the deceptive practices of swaps & derivatives. After the financial crisis of 2008, Detroit’s property values fell by 77%, causing lower
tax revenues. At the same time interest rates on the
city’s debts from borrowed loans rose. As Andrew
Elrod on Al Jazeera English explains, “Under the
terms of the swap, the interest rates the city was
paying were fixed to higher pre-recession levels,
while the interest payments the city received from
the banks in return were pegged to the Federal Reserve's new post-recession lower interest rates,
which dropped precipitously as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to stimulate borrowing in
the resulting recession.” In 2009, Detroit’s credit
rating was downgraded allowing BofA & UBS to
cancel swaps and demand $450 million dollars immediately! Unable to pay, the city agreed to increase the amount of its fixed payments, and allow
an insurance company to guarantee its debt by a
lien on some tax revenues. Kevyn Orr, Detroit's
emergency manager, has been granted expanded
Better Solutions
Call for corporate banks to renegotiate loans, especially in hindsight to the credit crisis brought on by
these very banks. Detroit, like SF, could demand
more tax revenue from corporations given tax
breaks, collect unpaid taxes and close corporate
loopholes. The American Federation of State, City
and Municipal Employees has filed for an appeal
of Rhodes’ ruling. The Detroit Institute of Arts
(DIA) proposed a federally mediated deal that
would protect its art from sale and disconnect the
museum from city ownership into an independent
nonprofit. The deal would raise roughly $500 million from a consortium of national and local foundations and funnel the money into retiree pensions
on behalf of the value of the art at the DIA.
Labor unions all over the country need to take
this threat seriously, mobilize, and join with
community organizations. If left as a precedent,
all retirees both public and private sector workers could face unacceptable consequences.
3
Some Things to Watch in 2014
Money Matters
1)City College:the accrediting commission wants
to close it. At least three law suits are trying to prevent closure, filed by the City of S F, the California Federation of Teachers, and the Save City College coalition of students and employees. Meanwhile the locally elected college board has been
replaced by an appointed overseer.
2) Warriors Basketball Arena proposed for the
waterfront. Not only would it take over Piers 30
and 32. It includes building high-rise luxury condos and a high-rise luxury hotel on lot 330 across
the street (8 Washington on steroids) and a 2.3
acre parking lot across the Embarcadero. It would
cost the City up to $120 million which the Warriors say SF would get back in rents and property
taxes.
The US government bailed out General Motors 5
years ago with $49.5 billion dollars. It has recovered $39 billion of that and considers the matter
closed, losing $10.5 billion. GM now is sitting on
$28.6 billion in cash. Home city Detroit is bankrupt. (see p.3)...US bank regulators have approved
the Volcker Rule which prohibits big banks from
making risky bets for their own profit (called proprietary trading) with customers’ FDIC-guaranteed
deposits - the kind of trading that 5 years ago led to
government bailouts. Accordingly to Bartlett Naylor of Public Citizen this is a step forward but "it's
really up to (federal) supervisors to enforce it and
that is a matter of choice."… Speaking of banks,
here is a partial round-up of some of the fines various big banks owe or have paid for all kinds of
fraud. Bank of America:over $50 billion covering
the past 13 years.Citigroup:$1.4 billion to Freddie
Mac and Fannie Mae, the US-owned mortgage
firms. Wells-Fargo: $869 million to Freddie Mac.
And JP Morgan-Chase: $13 billion. Of that $13
billion $222-261 million will go to CALPERS, the
California Public Employees Retirement System,
and $19.5 million to the California State Teachers
Retirement System - plus interest. SAC Capital, a
hedge fund, was fined $1.8 billion for insider training. No bigwigs have gone to jail… Speaking of
bigwigs, John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems,
was paid $21 million in 2013 in salary, bonus and
stock. He made $11.7 million in 2012. And
McKesson Corporation CEO John Hammergen got
$50 million in 2012 and his pension benefits are
valued at $59 million.
3) PG&E. The state Public Utilities fined PG&E
$8.1 million for substandard inspections of welded
pipelines. The company also faces fines of more
than $2 billion for the 2010 San Bruno pipeline
explosion and multiple examples of inadequate
record keeping. So far they haven't paid any of the
penalties. Do you suppose they ever will?
4) Medicare. Instead of constantly defending the
current Medicare we should go on the offense and
demand its expansion and improvement. Full coverage, not 80%. Cradle to grave, not over 65 -or
66. No co-pays. Drug coverage - and the price of
all medicines negotiated with big Pharma. Just to
begin with. Make it a true single payer.
5)Social Security. Not a part of the national debt a separate, solvent fund. No chained CPI that reduces COLA. No cuts. No raising the eligible age
to 66 or 67 - instead lower it to 60, remove the cap
on income which pays social security tax (now
$113,700),charge a SS tax on all other income.
6)We have been in Afghanistan for 12 years.
We've been saving Iraq since 2003. A new record
for growing opium was reached in Afghanistan in
2013. Iraq is a killing ground. Who has benefited
besides the military-industrial complex?
7)Fracking. not only poisoning us & our environment, but wasting water in the midst of a drought.
4
Meet Ron Conway
The Man Stealing
SF!
New Path to Medicare For All
SF Gray Panthers and CARA are members of the
Campaign for a Healthy California, the state-wide
coalition for single-payer healthcare in California.
He is one of Mayor
Lee’s closest advisors
and has put more than
a million dollars into
our local elections.
Conway is also a premier Silicon Valley “angel”
investor, backing Google, PayPal, Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb, Zynga, and those tech companies that
have made living in SF too expensive for most of
us. Conway heads the Mayor’s taskforce including
tech CEOs, SF Planning & Urban Research
(SPUR) & “members” of the Board of Supervisors, who will “discuss” our City’s future! Absent
is any progressive community organization.
The Campaign’s strategy is to have a ballot initiative for single-payer on the November 2016 Presidential election, in anticipation of 2017, when
Obamacare lets states petition the US Congress to
allow states to put federal Medicare and Medicaid
payments into alternative plans like single-payer.
There is no single-payer bill in the California legislature now, because nobody in the Senate or Assembly will be an author, knowing Democratic
legislators won’t challenge Obamacare. Last year,
the Democrat-led Senate wouldn’t even allow a
vote on SB 810, the first time in years.
Tech companies arrange private buses which pay
no fees to the city and transport employees back
and forth to Silicon Valley (SV). A good example
of how Ron and others get perks for SV is BART’s
recent announcement of a 5.2% fare hike for the
future BART Silicon Valley extension. Tech employees tend not to eat at local restaurants as food
is supplied at the job site. Ron Conway’s, advocacy “non-profit” group, sf.citi, pumped $275,000
into passing Prop E, which changed the S F payroll
tax into a tax on gross receipts for businesses in
“selected” revenue brackets. Thus tech startups,
which often run without profits for many years,
will end up paying less taxes. “The payroll tax was
a disincentive to place more jobs in San Francisco,” Conway proclaimed. But San Francisco got
the least possible benefit from additional “jobs”
the proposition touted.
So the Campaign plans, in 2014, to sponsor a Patient Bill of Rights that would plug the huge holes
in Obamacare. The Bill could allow the insurance
commissioner to regulate premiums, or it could
require insurers to meet standards of care, or outlaw useless high-deductible high-co-pay policies.
Insurance companies will scream bloody murder,
and during the uproar, the Campaign plans Town
Hall meetings and a media campaign to demonstrate that it’s the insurance companies, not government incompetence, that’s making Obamacare
not work, and that we need single-payer to get rid
of the insurance companies.
A problem in recent years has been the lack of current data on the potential economic costs and benefits of single-payer, and assembling that data is a
huge job. The Campaign will push the Legislature
to put together a quasi-governmental Payers’ Commission composed of large healthcare purchasers
like CalPERS, the fifth largest purchaser in the
US, city governments, health departments, and
corporations, to investigate the economic impact of
single-payer. In 2015, the Payers’ Commission
would hold hearings across the state, which would
publicize single-payer’s economic benefits.
Conway’s non-profit, sf.citi.com, declares its purpose is ...“to encourage our membership in the implementation process along with the City Treasurer
and other city financial agencies including the City
Controller’s office.” In 2012, tech CEOs came together to imagine a “smarter San Francisco... “to
leverage power of the tech community around city
action. . . collaboratively with City government.”
So Conway gets non-profit status to market his
businesses while subsuming government function,
i.e., privatizing it in form of business-government
partnership. In 2010, Conway, at a Bay Area
Council, said.”We have to take the city back from
progressives.”
In 2015-16, the Campaign would sponsor a state
bill for the November 2016 ballot measure, saving
the huge expense of a signature campaign, and giving supporters a focus for the political campaign.
5
Gray Panthers of SF
Nonprofit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
San Francisco, CA
Permit No. 12977
2940 16th Street, Room 200 – 4
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-552-8800
http://graypantherssf.igc.org/
graypanther-sf@sonic.net
ADDRESS SERVICE
REQUESTED
We believe ALL people are
entitled to certain fundamental
rights:
meaningful employment
economic security
decent and affordable housing
quality health care
a life of dignity from birth to
death free from fear and abuse
a world in peace
Visit our Website or Call for membership
information.
Age and Youth in Action
Printed in House
January 2014
Actions and Events
Thursday, January 9, 9:30-Noon, SDA meeting,
discussion on Disability access in housing.
Friday, January 10, 12 Noon, State Building in
SF: 350 McAllister St, “Building a Road Out of
Poverty” California Partnership, a coalition of
seniors disability, children’s, and poverty groups
(including CARA) demand the budget surplus for
healthcare, welfare, IHSS, and services that have
been drastically cut in recent decades. Dress up as
Wizard of OZ characters!
Wednesday, January 15, 6:00PM, the San
Francisco Public Library. 100 Larkin Street
Kadir Nelson and his new book on Dr. King’s
famed “I Have a Dream” speech.
Wednesday, January 15, Richard Wolff,
“Economic Crisis and System Decline: What
We Can Do”, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley,
KPFA benefit. $12 advance tickets 800-838-3006
Marcus Books & Modern Times. Or $15 /door
Friday January 17, Noon-4PM, SF Main Library, West Coast Day of Action, Fight for a
Homeless Bill of Rights, Info 415-346-3740
Tuesday, January 21, Martin Luther King Jr.
Day.
Wednesday, January 22, SFConnected Swap
Meet, 9:30 AM sessions begin 10:00AM, UU,
1187 Franklin “Got Skills Need Skills Want to
Barter?” resource tables, information and presentations Must Register: 415-821-1003, FREE
Save Marcus Bookstore in the
Filmore, Sign the petition:
https://www.change.org/
petitions/keep-the-country-soldest-black-owned-bookstore-insan-francisco