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Trump’s Black Outreach: Anything’s Better Than Zero

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A couple of weeks back, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump told a largely white audience in Michigan that he’d win 95% of the black vote during his 2020 re-election campaign.

He’s got his work cut out for him. Public Policy Polling released a preview of a new poll on “The Rachel Maddow Show” Monday night showing Donald Trump’s favorability rating among African-American voters at 0 percent. 97% of those polled knew for sure they didn’t care for him. 3% were undecided. And there’s the matter of winning the 2016 election.

Public Policy Polling skews liberal, so it’s best to take this result with a grain of salt. But this isn’t the first survey showing Trump doing extremely poorly with black voters.   [Read more…]

Rising Costs of Living [With an Education] in California

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Tuition and fees for public colleges in the US rose 80 percent between 2000 and 2014 while American household income fell seven percent during the same period, according to recent data published by ProPublica, a non-profit investigative journalism outlet.

The data shows yearly tuition and public schools across the US rose $3,563 in adjusted 2014 dollars, and the median household income was $4,067 less in 2014 compared to 2000.

Using the online tool ProPublica provided, which allows users to obtain information specific to their state, we learn tuition and fees increased 162 percent in California, more than double the average. Students in California paid $5,327 more in 2014 than did an earlier generation of aspiring scholars back at the turn of the millennium. Those attending California colleges and universities paid $1,674 more in tuition and fees than the average American student in 2014.   [Read more…]

A Cliffhanger for California Farm Workers Overtime Legislation

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Will Agribusiness Interests Buy Some Votes by Monday?

The disappointment at the California Capitol building was palpable as the legislature adjourned on Thursday without voting on a bill granting farm workers overtime pay after eight hours or more than 60 hours in a week.

The vote was postponed to Monday in the face of uncertainty about the support of business-friendly Democrats facing political pressure from agribusiness interests. When leaders realized they might be short of the 41 votes they needed, they pulled the bill from the Assembly floor.

Hundreds of farm workers came on buses from around the state came to Sacramento to rally in support of Assembly Bill 1066, authored by Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego.  A similar proposal died in June four votes short of the majority it needed to pass and supporters were there to witness what many assumed would be a turnaround.   [Read more…]

So Long, Suckers! One Million Uber Jobs Going, Going…

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A decision by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen rejecting a legal settlement that would have divided up to $100 million among about 380,000 Uber drivers to resolve claims they’ve been treated as independent contractors instead of employees may be beside the point.

The settlement would have paid as much as $8,000 to some drivers, but the majority would receive $24 or less. And the question of their status would largely remain unresolved.

In any case, it looks like Uber’s planning on just dumping its people. The San Francisco-based ride share company, according to Bloomberg, is rolling out a program to test robo-rides in Pittsburgh this month, with the goal of replacing its one million drivers with automated vehicles as quickly as possible.   [Read more…]

Earth to Humans: My Fever Continues to Rise

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Southern California may have lucked out in 2015 when it comes to the torrential rains associated with El Nino, but that’s about the only good news, according to the State of the Climate in 2015 report.

The 300-page report, utilizing 450 scientists from 62 countries around the world was published by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The bottom line: 2015’s global surface temperature towered over any year preceding it.

The planetary fever underway was linked a record-challenging El Niño event, with warmer-than-normal tropical Pacific Ocean waters heating up the atmosphere. Record-setting concentrations of heat-trapping gasses from human activity were also cited as a cause.   [Read more…]

Defined-Contribution Plans are Inadequate Substitutes for Pensions

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By Ben Valdepena / Californians for Retirement Security

In testimony to the Democratic National Committee’s Platform Committee, Californians for Retirement Security called for national action to address the nation’s retirement security crisis.

Hello, my name is Ben Valdepena. I’ve been a custodian with the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District. California since 1983. Today I represent the 1.6 million teachers, firefighters, nurses, classified schools employees and other public servants who are members of Californians for Retirement Security. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to submit testimony to the Platform Committee.

Over the last few decades, as pensions have all but disappeared for private sector workers, retirement security has been sliding further and further out of reach for many Americans. The shift toward 401(k)s has proved a failure for providing retirement security for all except the very wealthy. This trend has been particularly harmful to women, people of color, low-income workers, and young people who are already burdened with student loan debt.   [Read more…]

The Gig Economy: OK If the Profits Went to the Giggers

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There’s nothing inherently wrong with the idea of working a job here and a job there according to the worker’s convenience and other activities. The problem is that the profits go to some centralized corporation rather than being spread out among all the giggers in proportion to their participation in the system.

If Uber or Lyft were a co-op, the profits would go to all the worker/owners instead of a handful of investors. Then the gig economy would offer not only a technique for working at one’s convenience and fitting into one’s schedule whether that schedule might be educational or child care or surfing or whatever.

In other words making up one’s own work schedule so it fits into your life is not a bad thing as long as the enterprise is co-operatively owned and provides not only convenience but worker protections.   [Read more…]

Pre All-Star Game Homeless Purge Continues Amid Heat Wave

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The mayor’s campaign to rid downtown of homeless humans in the days leading up to Baseball’s All-Star Game continues, even as record heat blanket’s the region.

Advocates for the homeless are operating a ‘cooling station’ at 14th & L, offering cold water, shade, and bandanas, serving more than 200 people on Sunday. They are asking for volunteers to help in offering support during the heat wave.

The San Diego Police Department and the California Highway Patrol have been deployed to sweep up encampments.   [Read more…]

A Bad Climate?: The State of Social Justice Efforts in the Labor and Environmental Movements

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Among the stories that you may have missed during the stretch run of the primary season was some significantly bad news out of labor on the national front when several large unions in the building trades came out against a plan by some of the biggest public sector unions to join forces with environmentalist Tom Steyer in order to fund a major anti-Trump get out the vote operation in the fall. The New York Times noted that:

Two of the Democratic Party’s most loyal constituencies, labor and environmentalists, are clashing over an effort to raise tens of millions of dollars for an ambitious voter turnout operation aimed at defeating Donald J. Trump in the November election.

The rift developed after some in the labor movement, whose cash flow has dwindled and whose political clout has been increasingly imperiled, announced a partnership last week with a wealthy environmentalist, Tom Steyer, to help bankroll a new fund dedicated to electing Democrats.

  [Read more…]

One Thing Trump is Good At: Not Paying People

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I don’t why it’s taken so long to get around to hearing about this, but opposition files on presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump are finally making their way into media. This is just basic research, done by every campaign.

Sixteen Republican presidential contenders lost out to The Donald and not one of them squawked about the more than three thousand, five hundred lawsuits filed against the New York billionaire. I guess these court actions were considered inconsequential by the GOP types because so many of the had to do with small business and workers not getting paid.

Also: Week Calendar of Progressive Events   [Read more…]

Public Pays for Hedge Funds’ Profits

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By Donald Cohen / Capital & Main

What do 82 public libraries, a Texas beef-processing company and a string of Pizza Huts across Tennessee and Florida have in common?

They’re all managed by the same private equity firm.

Fifteen of those libraries are in Jackson County, Oregon, where public officials are starting to raise concerns over the firm’s ownership of the private contractor that manages them. Facing budget issues in 2007, the county contracted with Library Systems and Services (LS&S), the country’s largest library outsourcing company, to try to save money—but LS&S is owned by Argosy Private Equity, whose mission is to “generate outstanding returns” and “substantially grow revenues and profits” for the businesses it owns.   [Read more…]

The Death Gap

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The richest Americans now live 10-15 years longer than the poorest.

By Sam Pizzigati / OtherWords

Rich people live longer than poor people. No big news there — we’ve known that health tracks wealth for quite some time now.

But here’s what we haven’t known: The life-expectancy gap between rich and poor in the United States is actually accelerating.

Since 2001, American men among the nation’s most affluent 5 percent have seen their lifespans increase by more than two years. American women in that bracket have registered an almost three-year extension to their life expectancy.

Meanwhile, the poorest five percent of Americans have seen essentially no gains at all.   [Read more…]

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