Dear friends,
The Heritage Foundation has generated a proposal to insure that the next president will cut the legs off the energy transition in order to protect the fossil fuel industry. It might be hard to fathom if you didn’t know that Charles Koch — billionaire businessman and climate change denier — was behind the proposal.
The appalling context for this is the era of global boiling, which you may be experiencing right now. We have already discussed the insane denialism of the various Republican candidates for president.
It seems unlikely that the hottest month in recorded history has softened their support. Two-thirds of those surveyed also want the nation to prioritize alternative energy sources over fossil fuel production.
Tell the President that it’s past time to declare a climate emergency! This action is updated.
Another repeat action which needs your attention:
Tell the WMO and NOAA: Name climate disasters after the fossil fuel companies that cause them! This quick action is from 350.org.
Time to step back for a little social studies lesson:
a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control.
In the US, we know the score: At the intersection of wealth, political power, and corporate control, there are folks who seek to rule the rest of us. Some of these folks are also famous, but some lurk in the shadows.
What makes oligarchies conceptual is that the structure is not explicit; it is not based on a constitution or even a readily understood tradition. What is undeniable is that they are anti-democratic and dangerous to those of us who want to address the very real problems we face.
The best acronym ever for a law to tax wealth is the OLIGARCH Act. It stands for Oppose Limitless Inequality Growth and Reverse Community Harms. The legislation, co-sponsored by four progressive members of the House, includes
a wealth tax that would automatically rise during periods of surging inequality and fall once inequality moderates.
The lowest wealth tax rate — 2 percent — kicks in for folks earning between 1000 and 10,000 times median household wealth.
In December 2022, the median was $121,700; this means that households with less than $121.7 million in assets would not be affected by this tax. (Phew!) The rates go up to 8 percent for those with a million times the median.
Furthermore, the bill summary states that
"In the unlikely event median household wealth fell below $50,000, the thresholds would be fixed at $50 million, $500 million, $5 billion, and $50 billion respectively."
The law would also require those who are subject to the wealth tax to also pay an audit tax on income, since the wealthiest Americans are the biggest tax cheats; together, they game the system for an estimated $175 billion annually.
Tell your Congressional representative to co-sponsor the OLIGARCH Act! This quick action is from Patriotic Millionaires.
Clarence Thomas’s behavior has been most egregious, as far as we know, and he has had to amend two decades of financial disclosures. He has not taken responsibility for his actions, and that is why we badly need guardrails. He claimed to have “inadvertently omitted”
disclosing years of his wife’s employment when Virginia Thomas was paid $686,589 by the conservative Heritage Foundation and Hillsdale College.
Them again.
Tell Congress that Supreme Court justices need term limits and an ethics code. This quick action is from Public Citizen.
To illustrate the problematic three-way intersection between wealth and political and corporate power, I present these two sentences from an email I received from my state Senator today:
Last week, we learned of an $800 million state contract awarded to a vendor just one week after making a campaign donation to the Governor.
Tell your state legislators that you want to reign in pay-to-play donations.
One of the disturbing trends of the weird ‘parental rights’ movement is that it places parents between their children and the world in a way that is unhealthy and which disrespects the rights of children.
That’s why you’ve got book bans designed to keep information about gender and sexuality out of the hands of young people and parents demanding control of curriculum that makes them uncomfortable.
A principal I know cautioned me against homeschooling many years ago because she remarked that
children belong to the world.
I agree with her, and though we did homeschool our child for one year, we never tried to shelter them from the world or keep them from independent discovery.
Let Grow is a project dedicated to childhood independence. They encourage parents to stop hovering and overprotecting in order to allow children to play and experiment without the excessive supervision and guidance that has become all too common.
I think we could use a little more good news. This story from Let Grow made me smile.
Let Grow has an advocacy angle and was actively engaged with parents and legislators in three states — Virginia, Connecticut, and Illinois — all of which passed “Reasonable Childhood Independence” laws with unanimous, bipartisan support.
The bill clarifies that "neglect" is when you put your kids in obvious, serious danger -- not any time you take your eyes off them.
The best part of this story is the kicker, which is that legislators in Montana —unbeknownst to Let Grow advocates — downloaded Let Grow’s model bill and passed their own law.
It’s nice to see good ideas propagating.
with love,
L