Aside from a litany of Trump’s broken campaign promises, this post includes a feature on Public Banking: what it is, why it is needed, and how to find out more. You will not believe how badly we are being ripped off by the banking industry and how easy it would be to fix this.
Trump’s Litany of Campaign Promises Broken. How many times can Trump break campaign promises before his supporters start to see the light? This list of broken campaign promises is pretty compelling. Compiled by one of our supporters, it could be something to share with that friend or relative who voted for Trump and who just maybe is beginning to have second thoughts. Click here. It is a pretty long list for having only been in office less than two months. For more detail on how Common Sense ranks his ACA replacement plan that was supposed to provide affordable care to everyone and lower costs, click here. Hint: he scores “F” across the board.
Outreach and Organizing: As the Roundhouse concludes today, Retake is going to be focusing upon three forms of activism:
- Expanding our base through a wide range of local and statewide outreach and organizing strategies. We will kick this off with an Outreach & Organizing Team Meeting on Apr. 4, 5:00-7:30 pm. If you are new to Retake or to our organizing meetings, please come at 5pm for an orientation. Others please arrive at 5:30. Click here for details and to RSVP.
- Developing a comprehensive training curriculum that will be available via in-person training activities and through an ongoing series of video, books, and articles to build our communication skills, cultural awareness, and organizing capacities; and
- Local advocacy in support of public banking and the Universal Early Childhood Initiative.
Today’s Actions. In nearly every post, I emphasis the critical importance of taking action every day and of helping us build our base. Today, I ask you to do three things that will take you at most 5 minutes.
- Share this post on your Facebook page.
- Go to a friend’s FB page and make a comment about a post you find that relates to our political situation, then paste this link and make a comment about how useful our website and blog are: RetakeOurDemocracy.org
- Call a friend and invite them to the Outreach & Organizing meeting on April 4.
Making actions like this part of your daily routine is the only way we will build the kind of base we need to resist Trump and effect change in NM.
Public Banking in Santa Fe. Today we feature an introduction to public banking: how the current banking system rips us off, and how we would benefit from City, State, and National Public Banking options. See below.
TODAY, Mar 18, 10am-2pm. Roundhouse Rally: It’s Our House Not Hers!
We Need A Brand New Progressive Roundhouse
Our Governor has made it clear that her loyalty is to the 1% and the corporations who benefit from a slough of tax breaks and regressive tax structures. She would rather bleed the life out of our schools, hospitals, and social services than ask her donors to pay their fair share toward rebuilding our state. And that is what is needed now that she has essentially decimated it. What to do? Join IATSE, Working Families Party, Indivisible Santa Fe, Retake Our Democracy and other groups from across the State in protest on the closing of the Roundhouse Session.
We will convene at 10am today, first filling the gallery above the chamber floor and then forming a line down from the gallery, down the stairs, and out the Roundhouse doors.Our goal is to encircle the Roundhouse. At Noon, we will march to the adjacent Governor’s office, raise our voices, and return to the Roundhouse for a rally with speakers and food from IATSE. IATSE is asking people to wear yellow, and they will provide yellow scarfs. Yellow was selected by IATSE as it is the only color that is not the color of a specific union, and so yellow symbolizes the unification of all unions and people. Click here to RSVP.
Santa Fe County State Central Committee Elections, March 25. The County Central Committee will gather to elect the County Chair, County Vice Chair, and 40 State Central Committee Members. Registration will begin at 9am. Meeting will begin at 10:30am. Center for Progress and Justice. 1420 Cerrillos Rd.
Thurs. March 30, 7-8:30pm. Public Banking Panel and Discussion.
Come to learn about Jewish & Buddhist perspectives on economic justice, and what a Public Bank could mean for Santa Fe. With Mayor Javier Gonzales & SF City Councilor Renee Villarreal plus Elaine Sullivan. Interfaith Dialogue with Sensei Joshin Byrnes of Upaya Zen Center & Rabbi Neil Amswych of Temple Beth Shalom. Click here to RSVP. For a brief on Public Banking and for a video from Ellen Brown, the national leader on Public Banking see below.
Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear: An Interfaith Panel on Finding Common Moral Ground
Thurs. April 6, 7-9pm, Temple Beth Shalom, 205 E. Barcelona Rd, Santa Fe. The rhetoric and actions of the current U.S. Administration have been disturbing on many levels: threats of banning entire religions from entering the country, mass deportation of others, an alarming rise in intolerance and violence against immigrants and communities of certain faiths, and an overall surge in narrow-mindedness and bigotry. Many of our friends and neighbors feel threatened, unsafe, and marginalized because of who they are or what they believe. Listen and participate in a discussion of how communities of faith can help us find common moral ground that unites us, protects us, and builds a powerful force for justice. Click here for more information and to get tickets. The event is free, but to gain admission, YOU MUST REGISTER AND GET A TICKET. It is not a Facebook link.
Panelists:
- Reverend Dr. Antonio Aja, Westminster Presbyterian Church
- Rabbi Neil Amswych, Temple Beth Shalom
- Imam Abdul Aziz Eddebbarh, Chairman, Ibn Asheer Islamic Institute
- Singh Sahib Krishna Singh Khalsa, Sikh Dharma Ministry
- Deacon Anthony Trujillo, San Isidro Roman Catholic Church
- Reverend Blaine Wimberly, Zia United Methodist Church
Moderator: Reverend Gail Marriner, Unitarian Universalist Church
Outreach to Other Communities
Public Banking for Santa Fe NOW and for New Mexico in 2018
For a brief summary from the Public Banking Institute on how public banking works, click here. The graphic at left illustrates how our current process for funding public infrastructure projects works. As you can see, private funding for public infrastructure vastly increases. Chris Hedges wrote an excellent piece describing how this model plays out in real life. Click here for the full article, but see below for just one example of how a school district in CA wound up paying 700% interest on a loan to build a school.
“Public banks also protect us from the worst forms of predatory capitalism. Reporters Trey Bundy and Shane Shifflett last January wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle on how one of Wall Street’s numerous scams works. When the Napa Valley Unified School District in California needed funds in 2009 to build a high school in American Canyon it took out a $22 million loan with no payments due for 21 years. “By 2049, when the debt is paid,” the paper noted, “the $22 million loan will have cost taxpayers $154 million— seven times the amount borrowed.” And Napa, the paper reported, is one of at least 1,350 school districts and government agencies across the nation that have engaged in this form of borrowing, called capital appreciation bonds, to finance major projects. Capital appreciation bonds mean billions in debt for the public and hundreds of millions of dollars for the speculators, the reporters pointed out. And this kind of scam is writ large across the entire society.
“California public schools received $9 billion in loans over the last seven years,” said Armstrong, who is from California. “In 25 to 30 years the interest due on that $9 billion will be $27 billion. This is just one example of the massive societal crisis being caused by big banks. Wall Street investment banks should not be permitted to handle public financing, which has become simply another way for Wall Street to monetize and extract our nation’s wealth.”
More from Hedges:
“In a study prepared in Vermont in support of establishing a public bank it was estimated that a public bank could make loans equal to 66 percent of state funds on deposits, or $236.2 million in credit for economic development in the state. This would expand the total credit supply available for state lending agencies by $236.2 million. Furthermore, the credit would be at a low cost to the state because public banks do not have to borrow money by selling bonds. Public banks make loans based on deposits. Interest returns to the state on loans and deposits. In essence, the state lends money to itself. The availability of $236.2 million in new lending, the study estimates, would create 2,535 new jobs, $192 million in value added (gross state product) and a $342 million increase in state output. “If used to finance state capital expenditures, funding through a public bank could save close to $100 million in interest costs on [fiscal year] 2012-13 capital spending, due to most interest payments no longer leaving the state,” the report says.”
If this is such a great idea, why is North Dakota the only state in the nation with a public bank? Why are the 16 cities (including Santa Fe) currently trying to establish public banks having such a hard time. Three words: The Banking Industry. Why would the corporatocracy want to allow a system that is just, would vastly increase our capacity to rebuild our infrastructure, fund our schools and hospital, and save cities and states hundreds of billions of dollars when the greedy Wall Street bankers could make those hundreds of billions for themselves, with no risk whatsoever. So once again, the needs of the 99% are trumped by the 1%.
Stay tuned as Retake Our Democracy is going to take a very active stand in support of public banking. This can be our testimonial to the life of local social justice hero the late Craig Barnes who was a fierce advocate for public banking as reflected in this Albuquerque Journal article from 2014. Click here.
Ellen Brown is the primary leader behind the Public Banking movement. Her talk below describes why public banks are so important and how they could save American’s hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Santa Fe has completed a feasibility study, and is now initiating a Task Force to explore options for a public bank in Santa Fe.
Categories: Economic justice
Paul,
You need to retract the claim you made yesterday about PNM power plant—they haven’t said they’d close anything down. They’ve said they’d consider it for 2016 or some very future date like that.
Lois
From: Retake Our Democracy <comment-reply@wordpress.com> Reply-To: Retake Our Democracy <comment+e1vsxmdhlg8dzg6rabnwf__m@comment.wordpress.com> Date: Saturday, March 18, 2017 at 9:50 AM To: Lois Rudnick <lois.rudnick@umb.edu> Subject: [New post] What Trump Promised vs. What He is Doing – Quite a List
paulgibson51 posted: “Aside from a litany of Trump’s broken campaign promises, this post includes a feature on Public Banking: what it is, why it is needed, and how to find out more. You will not believe how badly we are being ripped off by the banking industry and how easy it”
Yes, I saw that after seeing the initial report that PNM was closing it.
Hi, Paul,
Enjoy your getaway. We are inside the NM House of Representatives in our Yellow scarves. Quite a few Retake buttons, folks have spoken to me because I’m wearing my button.
Thank you for all you do.
Judy
Sent from my iPhone
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Hello!
Went to Roxanne Allen’s meeting this am. Wonderful!
Presenter Wendy Parker-Wilson (980-8283) from Nasty Women ABQ shared that they are focused on getting Dem precinct chairs filled [an aim of Our Revolution also, and also NM Progressive Coalition] and other actions that will make the party more progressive . She unrolled a large map of Bernalillo they have already coded so they proceeding with reinvigorating the precincts . They, too, are interested in bringing in younger people.
Kathy Brown (228-4599) from from Indivisible ABQ shared that their group, locally as well as across the nation, organized with the purpose of resisting Trump. Their working document was prepared by Congressional/Senate staff to advise strategy based on the success of the T Party. The group is primarily made up of people who have not been active before; they have focused on local work — getting turnout for the School District elections is a recent success. They do weekly rallies which are now attended not only by activists (in decreasing numbers) but staff from Udall, Heinrich, and, I believe, Lujan-Grisham. The congressional staffers communicate to Indivisible activists what the legislators are doing, and the reasoning behind their actions. (What an example of accountability to a constituency!) They emphasized that contacting Congressional offices help the Representatives/Senators justify Progressive votes and choices — “Oh, thank your for your comment, but I have heard from 2000 constituents who want me to vote the other way.”
Kathy, at the end of the meeting, added a comment: Retake Our Democracy blog is FANTASTIC; later, when I spoke with her, she again complimented me on how organized the group is.
Nobody signed up to volunteer with our group, but I know from the Ward meeting previous to presentations, that most everyone attending is actively engaged, mostly in making the Dem Party more progressive. I passed around flyers, for anyone to take who was interested.
An long-term citizen-activist (John Padilla 873-3960 — phone number for my record; name NOT for public recognition) reported on the legislation against predatory lending. He has been doing citizen advocacy for 40 years and he said that this was one of the most complex deals he had been a part of. He said that, in general, the local owners of these businesses were reasonable, while the businesses whose ultimate owners were powerful US banks were fiercely opposed. He waid that at meetings there were high powered attorneys from out-of-state and NM’s attorney general (or maybe a representative there-of).
He requested at the end of the meeting that we all call or e-mail the Governor with the following message, and I told him I would ask you to post on the blog:
Pass the Budget, HB202 Without ANY Vetos.
In particular, make sure HB347, “Installment Loan Fee Limits and Financial Literacy Programs” is allowed to become law.
Phone # 505-476-2200
e-mail: go to the following site and scroll down until you can enter information for your message: http://www.governor.state.nm.us/Constituent_Services_1.aspx ,
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