Eric Guerra gets union endorsements

Eric has the endorsement of Los Rios College Federation of Teachers, the California Nurses Association, the Sacramento Progressive Alliance, and more. 

One of My Priorities for District 6 -- Safe Streets, Safe Neighborhoods

Fight to ensure all District 6 neighborhoods receive their fair share of public safety funding.

Ensure that Measure U funds are spent wisely to increase and strengthen our police force and fire department.

Reinstate community policing like the POPS Program.

Work with neighborhood associations to strengthen and grow community visibility and our neighborhood watch programs.

‪#‎VoteEricGuerra‬ ‪#‎VoteApril7‬ ‪#‎District6‬

For those who live in City Council District 6. 

The People's Budget vs.Republican Budget

By Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Lawrence Mishel - 03/24/15 08:00 AM EDT


The annual federal budget debate typically doesn’t excite many folks outside the Washington beltway. And with good reason – the Republican budget process is intended to lull the public to sleep by staying short on details and long on damaging provisions that will hurt low-income and middle-class families.

But folks should pay attention to the debate because budgets have consequences – and if done right, they can truly move our country forward. The “People’s Budget,” which we both helped prepare, is a bold and responsible alternative to the Republican plans that take from working families while giving more to corporations and the wealthy.


The GOP budgets proposed in Congress would cut about $5 trillion over the next decade. The overwhelming burden would fall on programs that boost working families: education, Medicare and Medicaid, college aid, job training, medical research and rebuilding roads and bridges. Tens of millions of Americans would lose health insurance and millions more would lose food stamps or be priced out of college.

How the Super Rich Dominate California Politics for Their Own Benefit

Bill Raden

The condition of California’s battered middle class is the result of policies paid for by a statewide fraternity of corporations, trade groups, lobbyists and wealthy individuals. Together, they have blocked needed initiatives through a network of Capitol lobbyists, political action committees, think tanks and libertarian advocacy organizations with a national reach.

In Sacramento, the fate of legislation that could most benefit the great majority of Californians is often sealed behind closed doors by corporate and trade lobbying long before a bill can ever see a floor vote. Numbers released this month by California’s Secretary of State showed that, in 2014, top lobbyists representing big oil and gas, the health care industry, utilities, manufacturing and business interests, together outspent organized labor nearly four-to-one ($28.4 million to $7.7 million).

For their $28.4 million, state policy powerbrokers were able, among other things, to block attempts to aid education and improve the quality of life.  Their target list is revealing, beginning with a proposed law that would have brought California in line with other petroleum-rich states’ tax policies.

Capital & Main

http://capitalandmain.com/latest-news/issues/labor-and-economy/one-percenters-handful-california-power-brokers-work-inequality/

Cesar Chavez March for Justice

Act for Prosperity - The Robin Hood Tax

I'm glad to tell you that Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) Advisory Board Member Congressman Keith Ellison reintroduced The Inclusive Prosperity Act (H.R. 1464 in the current Congress) on March 19. PDA has been working for this legislation since its introduction in the prior Congress. Please tell your Representative to cosponsor H.R. 1464, and your Senators to sponsor a Senate version.

Rep. Ellison explained, "America's working families need their country to invest in them again. The money raised from a wafer-thin tax on Wall Street's high frequency trades could raise hundreds of billions of dollars to invest in our families, protect our environment and increase opportunity for all Americans. If the United States joins the dozens of other nations already benefiting from a financial transaction tax, we can create millions of jobs, while also reducing dangerous market volatility." 

If enacted, it would ask securities traders to pay a sales tax of .5% or 50 cents per $100 on certain financial transactions. Ordinary people pay sales taxes 10 times that on many things we buy. It's time for flash traders to join the rest of us.

The Inclusive Prosperity Act represents the principles and goals of the U.S. Robin Hood Tax Campaign, with the backing of 172 national organizations representing millions of members including labor unions, religious groups, health advocates, consumers, housing activists, environmentalists, small businesses and others. Save the date! The RHT Campaign is organizing events around the nation on April 8th. 

Senator Warren Leads against Fast Track

The AFL-CIO enlisted Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to pen an op-ed opposing the president's trade agenda, and the labor federation is recruiting more big names to do the same. "We are making some headway in communicating to the American public the destructive nature of Fast Track," reads an AFL-CIO email solicitation. "We need your help. Could you write an opinion piece or op ed column for a local newspaper or other publication explaining the problems with Fast Track and opposing its passage?"

In response, the president has "deployed cabinet officials, including Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, who is leading the administration's effort, to talk to Democrats,"

Blockupy: Thousands Protest in Frankfurt Calling on Eurozone to Dismantl...

March 19, 2015

Kill the Messenger

Campus Progressive Alliance

The Freedom School Project Presents

“KILL THE MESSENGER”

“Renner’s best performance since 

The Hurt Locker.” – Radio Times

“Skillfully made… exciting.” – Irish Times

6pm -- Thursday, March 19

 Folsom Hall 1063

Sacramento State University

More Info: paulb@csus.edu

Drug War Capitalism

Drug War Capitalism proposes that the war on drugs is a tool for social control, and outside of the United States, it tends to create social and political conditions which are beneficial for the expansion of global capitalism. In the U.S., social control linked to the drug war is exercised in large part through police and prisons, disproportionately affecting communities of color. In Mexico, Colombia, and Central America, social control linked to the war on drugs is exercised primarily through the use of terror.” 

I recently interviewed her for the Monthly Review Zine here: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2014/sandronsky131214.html.)   

Dawn is unable to come to the U.S. for this talk, so she will by present by Skype in an informal Q&A session.  We will provide good snacks for the people physically in attendance, and copies of her book will be available for purchase. This event is co-sponsored by Sacramento Area Peace Action and Sacramento Action for Latin America.

 

Support Eric Guerra - District 6

 The Sacramento Progressive Alliance supports Eric Guerra for Sacramento City Council, District 6.
Special election.  April 7, 2015.
Contract the Guerra campaign on Facebook.
The decision was made at our board meeting on Feb.21.

Cesar Chavez- Film

Campus Progressive Alliance

The Freedom School Project Presents

“CESAR CHAVEZ”

"Powerful." -- Claudia Puig, USA Today

 "Rousing and Empowering Film."

           -- Dwight Brown, Huffington Post

Free Admission! Everyone Welcome!

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Shorts – 6:00pm     Feature - 6:30pm

Discussion to follow film

 Buckeye Hall, (FL3 173)

Folsom Lake College

Info: lfaulkner@pacific.edu

Community meeting- Washington Elementary School

The 3 most important parts of Obama's emotional sp...

Choosing Democracy: The 3 most important parts of Obama's emotional sp...: Sorry about the ads.

How Scott Walker Defeated Unions in Wisconsin

by Ned Resnikoff

Ten years ago, the notion that traditionally union-friendly Wisconsin could become a right-to-work state would have been almost unthinkable. By last week it was inevitable. Republican Gov. Scott Walker made it official Monday when he gave final approval to legislation that bars unions from collecting mandatory representation fees.

That legislation, which was hurried through the Wisconsin legislature over the past two weeks, dealt a significant blow to the state’s already beleaguered labor movement. And it was a major victory for Walker, despite his earlier insistence that he was not interested in pushing right-to-work legislation. Although he never said he would oppose such a law on the merits, he repeatedly indicated that he did not want to get involved in the sort of political battle it would likely provoke.

Now that the battle is over, the Republicans in the statehouse have passed the legislation and Walker has given it his signature, he is more than happy to claim ownership. Last week he for the first time said that right-to-work legislation was something “we” proposed in early 2015 — “we” meaning Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature, not just the latter.

Selma and today

Yesterday morning, the church service at First Baptist in Montgomery started the way so many church services start – with warm hellos and plenty of donuts and coffee in the church basement.

But then I met an elderly man who told me he had been in that basement for 11 hours in May of 1961, along with hundreds of people, while a mob outside tried to burn down the church.

Selma today.  http://www.dsausa.org/dl_selma_review

This was Dr. Ralph Abernathy’s church, the Brick-a-Day Church. It had been a center for civil rights organizing, and a sanctuary for Freedom Riders and others in the movement who were under attack.

The elderly man described the calls from the church phone, placed by Dr. King to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, asking for help. He said that at first Kennedy had promised to call out the National Guard, but the Guard was local, and many of those men were now part of the mob. The people trapped in the church needed the Army, and Kennedy promised to send it from a military base several hours away. So the man described what it was like to wait in the sweltering basement, listening to the mob outside.  

CSU- Ivy League Talent; Bush League Wages

by Seth Sandronsky 

The good news for the professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches employed by California’s State University system is that their salaries stand out from those paid to them in the years 2004-13. The bad news is why they do. The “why” is to be found in a research report titled Race to the Bottom: CSU’s 10-Year Failure to Fund Its Core Mission, which the California Faculty Association (CFA) produced collaboratively with state university faculty members, and released on Tuesday. In it, the 23,000-member union faults administrators of the 23-campus system for allowing faculty salaries to stagnate over the past decade. (Disclosure: The CFA is a financial supporter of Capital & Main.)

“We hold all the 23 CSU campus presidents accountable for the current state of affairs as well as the system leadership,” Lillian Taiz, CFA president, told Capital & Main by phone. “When faculty are hired onto a campus, it is the campus president who sets the tone for salaries.”

The CFA report is the first of four Race to the Bottom papers that, according to the union, “analyze the impact of California State University administration’s priorities and decisions on CSU faculty, students and public higher education.” Tuesday’s report, in part, compares faculty pay over 2004-13 between the state’s higher education systems.

Bill O'Reilly clashes with Al Franken "SHUT UP!" 1/2

O'Reilly Lies

Yes, O'Reilly's Fabrications Are Damaging Fox News Eric Boehlert February 27, 2015 Media Matters for America Year after year, newsroom embarrassments like O'Reilly's undermine Fox's credibility to the point where it seems more and more journalists today start with a working assumption that Fox is not a legitimate news operation. That represents a major shift from President Obama's first year in office and it's a key reason why O'Reilly's fabrications matter. As questions continue to mount surrounding Bill O'Reilly's many embellishments about his reporting career, a parallel media debate has formed over the long-term consequences of the controversy, and specifically whether being tagged as a liar even matters to Fox News hosts. A common refrain goes like this: O'Reilly the entertainer isn't going to be fired by Fox News for his transgressions because it doesn't hold employees accountable. If O'Reilly's standing is secure and he's going to turn the allegations around and use them for political gain, do the confirmed fabrications even matter? And since Fox News relishes bare-knuckle fights, aren't Fox and O'Reilly the real winners?