Donkey Dispatch

Democratic Club of Leisure World

September 4, 2023

“Upcoming Club events” on top;

Celebrate Labor Day and news on bottom

Aruna is coming to our September meeting: The Democratic Club is proud to announce that MD Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller will kick-off the 2023-2024 season of events. She will be at the Clubhouse 2 Auditorium at 7pm on September 12.  Also, she will answer questions from the audience. (Note: This date and program is in lieu of our Sept. 7 meeting. Also, the venue is the CH 2 Auditorium, which is a departure from our normal location.

Ms. Miller, who was born in India, lived most of her adult life in Montgomery County and served in the General Assembly. She and Governor Moore have moved Maryland to the forefront of progressive governing in the United States, including innovative programs addressing climate change, hate crimes, income inequality, racial equity and much more.

If you wish to join via zoom, a link will be in the “Donkey Dispatch” by the end of this week.

“Winning Wednesdays” resume on the second Wednesday (September 13th) and continue on the 4th Wednesday (9/27) of every month. Please note this new time and location: From 1-3 pm in the Norbeck Room, Clubhouse 2. Join us as we write postcards, letters, emails and texts to neighboring Virginia, which holds its state legislative races November 7.

We write for voter registration, education and turnout. The program will continue on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays until the end of 2023. There are many voters who need to be reached prior to next year’s presidential election which, as most commentators say, will be the most important election of our lifetime.

News for Labor Day

Many of the benefits we take for granted today were won for us over generations by organized labor. Minimum wage laws, number of hours in a workday, rules against child labor, health care, medical assistance for senior citizens, disability compensation, unemployment benefits, paid holidays, severance pay, and social security have all been won by union representatives who lobbied, legislated, fought, and even died to obtain these rights now guaranteed all Americans by law.

The history of the labor movement is about how working people and their unions achieved these rights which have improved the quality of our lives. (Labor Folklore)

MD Teachers organize: Two new public employee unions had extra cause to celebrate this Labor Day weekend. The full-time faculties at Howard Community College and Frederick Community College are the first to organize in Maryland after the General Assembly passed a collective bargaining bill in 2021, over the veto of former Gov. Larry Hogan (R). On Wednesday, the faculty members were recognized as members of AFT-Maryland.

The American Federation of Teachers Maryland now represents about 18,000 employees across the state. The community colleges are among 54 new units organized this year by the AFT, the nation’s largest higher education union. Its total membership is now at a record high of 1.72 million, union leaders said. (Maryland Matters)

When is too much too much? 70 years ago, the average CEO made about 20 times what the average worker in this country did. Just a few days ago, we put out our annual Executive Paywatch report. Any guesses what it is today? 272 times. A CEO makes 272 times what the average worker does. Let me ask every person in this room: Is that because they work 272 times harder than we do? (AFL-CIO Pres. Schuler)

CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1965: 20-1 CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1989: 61-1. Corporations and CEOs refuse to stop consolidating wealth and power. This is why thousands of workers across industries are striking, or planning to strike. (Former Labor Sec. Reich)

Wretched excess (con’t.): Does it make sense to anyone in this room…that Jeff Bezos makes in seven seconds what an Amazon warehouse worker makes in a year? That he has enough money to rocket himself into space…while half this country lives paycheck to paycheck? (Former Labor Secy. Reich)

Bidenomics: The average billionaire in America pays 8% in federal taxes. Teachers and firefighters pay more than that. That’s why I proposed a minimum tax for billionaires. Republicans are against it, but I’m going to keep fighting for it. (Pres. Biden)

Making corporations act responsibly: The National Labor Relations Board issued new rules Friday that will make it easier for workers to form unions—and much more difficult for companies to stop them. If a majority of workers ask a company to recognize their union, the company must now immediately recognize the union or petition for a union election. (AFL-CIO)

Corporate crime: Starbucks fired 150 pro-union baristas and closed a dozen unionized shops. Chipotle shuttered a store in Maine when workers tried to unionize. Amazon spent $14.2 million on anti-union consultants in 2022 to stifle organizing. Common theme: they’re terrified of worker power. (Frm. Sec’y. Reich)

Support a living wage: This year, Maryland raised its statewide minimum wage to $13.25 an hour—but the minimum wage for tipped employees has remained stuck at $3.63 for almost a decade. If passed, a proposed bill would raise it to $4 and then to $8 by July of next year, followed by annual $2 increases through 2028. (Maryland Matters)

More Bidenomics: “Half of US states were experiencing record-low unemployment — or very close to it — in June, underscoring the strength of the nation’s labor market,” Bloomberg reports.

And in Maryland

Maryland man among Georgia defendants: At the end of a historic week at the Fulton County jailhouse, the criminal case against former President Donald Trump and his 18 allies also accused of subverting Georgia’s 2020 presidential election is just beginning. Harrison Floyd, a Maryland man who was director of Black Voices for Trump, was the only defendant who remained in jail when booked (due to prior offenses). (Maryland Matters)

Gov. Moore recently signed into law the Child Victims Act, which would remove the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse lawsuits and allow survivors to file lawsuits regardless of when their abuse happened. (The Baltimore Sun)

MD Worker Friendly: Maryland ranks as one of the best states for workers, but there is still room for improvement, according to an annual ranking from Oxfam, a global organization focused on inequality and poverty. Maryland ranked 14th overall in the 2023 Best States to Work Index. California ranked first; North Carolina ranked last.

Oxfam’s index takes into account worker-friendly policies in three areas: wages, worker protections and the right to organize. Maryland has improved its standing in the index in recent years, rising from a 17th place showing in 2020. (Maryland Matters)

Beltway/270 update: The Moore-Miller administration announced its intention to seek federal funding to “address mobility and access challenges along the American Legion Bridge, I-495 and I-270 to improve transit, multimodal access and spur inclusive economic growth. The project would reconstruct the American Legion Bridge, and would include improvements for bikers and pedestrians including a path across the new bridge.” For more info go to the MD DOT website. (MoCo360)

Donkey Dispatch

Aug 8, 2023

“Upcoming Club events” on top;

News and humor on the bottom

 

Club’s Annual Summer Social, August 17, 4-6 pm, Maryland Room of Clubhouse 1: Get set for a professional DJ, karaoke, dancing, refreshments and much more. Bring a friend. Whether they are a member or not, they are welcome to our party.

Aruna is coming to our September meeting: Mark your calendars now for this super start for our 2023-2024 series of programs! The Democratic Club is proud to announce that Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller will kick-off the 2023-2024 season of events. Our club proudly supported the Moore/Miller ticket last November. The slate won by a landslide with 64.5% of the vote. She will be at the Clubhouse 2 Auditorium at 7pm on September 12.  Also, she will answer questions from the audience.

“Winning Wednesdays” resume on the second Wednesday (September 13th)  and continue on the 4th Wednesday (9/27) of every month. Please note this new time and location: From 1-3 pm in the Norbeck Room, Clubhouse 2. Join us as we write postcards, letters, emails and texts to neighboring Virginia, which holds its state legislative races November 7. We aim at voter registration, education and turnout. The program will continue on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays until the end of 2023. There are many voters who need to be reached prior to next year’s presidential election.

News

Strength in collective action: Support for unions by the public is at 71%, the highest since the early 1950’s. (CNN)

MD teacher shortage: The teacher shortage remains, though better than last year. Teachers around the state and nation struggled to teach in partially staffed school buildings last school year. To fill the gaps, Maryland school districts offered bonuses, raised salaries, held dozens of job fairs and tried improving work culture to keep the they have and hire new ones. Bigger school systems still found themselves with hundreds of teacher vacancies this summer, but are reporting improvements. (Kristen Griffith/The Baltimore Banner)

Fact: 10,000 Americans turning 65 each day (Alliance for Retired Americans)

Reminder: Behind every “self-made” billionaire is inherited wealth, government subsidies, tax loopholes, and labor exploitation. (Former Labor Secretary)

Helping youth: Amid recent alarm over the post-pandemic youth mental health crisis facing Montgomery County and beyond, one beacon of help is gaining traction with young residents—the 988 helpline’s text function. Since the helpline’s launch last year, experts say Maryland has seen a tenfold increase in text interactions among youth seeking support in dealing with everything from relationship breakups to suicidal ideation. (MoCo 360)

Humor Republicans would like to ban

“I used to call him a pig but at least a pig has bacon.” — Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), speaking about Donald Trump on Twitter/X.

“Paul Singer sets record by catching 200 pound Supreme Court Justice”: ALASKA (The Borowitz Report)—The billionaire Paul Singer set a sport-fishing record by catching a Supreme Court Justice who weighed in at approximately two hundred pounds. The Justice, who was estimated to measure over sixty inches, became Singer’s catch during a luxury fishing trip to Alaska in 2008.

“Clarence Thomas’s RV stranded after engine runs out of caviar”: MADILL, OKLAHOMA (The Borowitz Report)—Clarence and Ginni Thomas became stranded over the weekend after the engine of their quarter-million-dollar recreational vehicle suddenly ran out of caviar. The R.V. was passing through Madill, Oklahoma, when the Thomases made the unfortunate discovery.

After their attempt to buy enough caviar in Marshall County for their beluga-powered motor home proved fruitless, the couple was forced to reach out to their roster of super-donor friends for a new shipment of roe. Ginni Thomas said that the caviar mishap had ruined their summer vacation. “After a grueling year as a Supreme Court Justice, this was the last thing I needed,” she said.

“Half of all GOP voters wish party would nominate some other criminal rather than Trump”: WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Although Donald J. Trump holds a commanding lead over the rest of the Republican Presidential field, approximately half of all G.O.P. voters wish that their party would choose a different criminal, a new poll indicates. “No disrespect to Donald Trump, who has been an amazing perpetrator,”

Carol Foyler, a poll respondent who lives in Tempe, Arizona, said. “But it would be great to see a fresh crook in there.” “When he was President, Trump committed crimes at an incredible rate,” Tracy Klugian, who resides in Columbus, Ohio, said. “But he’s older now, and I worry that he won’t be able to keep up that pace.”

“Don’t get me wrong, Donald Trump deserves major credit for all the laws he’s broken,” Harland Dorrinson, who lives in Springfield, Missouri, said. “But it’s time to pass the torch to a new generation of felons.”

 

Donkey Dispatch

Democratic Club of Leisure World

May 25, 2023

Upcoming Club events above;

Other news below. 

Monthly: The Legislative Advocacy Committee meets via zoom. To join contact Barbara Levin at bubbiebarb1123@gmail.com. 

In other news:

From Jamie: “My doctors declared me cancer-free and ready-to-rock.” 

Powerful words from our governor: “Our history is our power. And right now across the country, we are seeing an attempt to hollow out our future by ensuring that anyone who has ever been a part of the American story is wiped away.

“A threat to any history is a threat to all history.”

More Moore: Gov. Moore on Maryland’s new gun control law: “We don’t need guns in elementary schools. We don’t need them in nursing homes.”

Good day sunshine: “A good day today in America. We’re in this together.” (Commentator Joyce Vance on Trump verdict and Rep. Santos charges)

The Washington Post’s bogus polling: “Getting a lot of questions about the ABC News/WaPo poll.  Thoughts: 

– it’s early, stick to the averages, never base any analysis off one poll, look for trends over time/across polls. This poll had a lot of problems.  

– No chance Trump is leading w/youth, Biden w/elderly

– move on” (pollster Simon Rosenberg, who correctly predicted “no red wave” in 2022)

Additional critique about same poll: “Of course Trump can win again (if nominated). Obviously. More likely than not, another close election. But you really shouldn’t be updating your beliefs much in either direction based on a poll 18 months ahead of the election.” (Nate Silver of 538.com)

eBay workers demand a union, but company fights them: In March, workers at eBay-owned TCGplayer organized with Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1123. They became the first eBay workers to unionize in the United States. These workers help bring popular games like Magic: the Gathering and Pokémon into homes across the world. Since the union election, management has taken several blatant anti-union actions. It fired the worker who organized the union and has filed multiple appeals to throw out the election results. TCGplayer management also began disciplining workers for minor infractions that were not previously enforced, unilaterally changing working conditions and refusing to respond to the union’s requests. (AFL-CIO)

Florida is such a mess: “NAACP issues travel warning in Florida: the state ‘has become hostile to Black Americans’!” (commentator Maya Wiley)

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—Capping several quarters of robust profit growth, Ginni Thomas has announced that she will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Investors are expected to snap up shares in Thomas, who is believed to be the first spouse of a Supreme Court Justice also to be a major corporation. Harland Dorrinson, an analyst with Morgan Stanley, rated Thomas as a “strong buy,” telling CNBC, “I’m urging institutional investors to get out of the banking sector and into Ginni. Unlike the banks, Ginni doesn’t have to disclose where her revenue comes from.” He said that Mrs. Thomas’s listing on the N.Y.S.E. was a “cause for celebration” for all investors. “Billionaires have been buying and selling Ginni Thomas for years,” he said. “This will make it possible for smaller investors to get in on the action.” (The New Yorker)

An addition to the Kevin McCarthy Hall of Shame: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who was shot during a mass shooting at the 2017 Congressional Baseball Game, asked if he cares about what motivates mass shooters: “Not really … This is not a moment for politics. It should be a time for prayer.”

Moms demand action against guns: Wear Orange on Saturday, June 3. Montgomery County Moms Demand Action holds a “Wear Orange 2023” action. They will gather as a local group to honor gun violence survivors and rededicate to the work of preventing gun violence. After the meeting is a clean up of a local park. As part of the event, we’ll be holding a donation drive to support our partner, the Montgomery County Family Justice Center (FJC). FJC is an organization that promotes safety, wellness and healing for victims of intimate partner domestic violence in our county. Please bring donations of toiletries (full size shampoo, conditioner, soap or shower gel, lotion, toothbrushes, and toothpaste) that they will make available to victims’ families. The Montgomery County Wear Orange Picnic is 10 – 1:00 PM at Johnson’s Local Park, 18000 Washington Grove Lane, Gaithersburg.

Donkey Dispatch

Democratic Club of Leisure World

May 11, 2023

Tonight!

Thursday, May 11, Legislative Town Hall, 7pm in CH 1, Crystal Ballroom:  The Annapolis delegation, chaired by State Senator Ben Kramer, will be our guests in Clubhouse 1. State Senator Kramer will be joined by Delegates Crutchfield, Stewart and Cullison.

If you cannot attend in person, here’s the zoom registration link for the meeting, where you also can posting your questions: bit.ly/dclw-05-11

Bills that passed include a crackdown on spam calls, making prescription drugs affordable, cleaning up the environment, combating hate crimes, and much more.  Non-members, as always, are welcome, so bring a friend.

At the 7 pm start of the meeting Club members will elect a new Board for 2023-2024. Only dues-paying members can vote. The doors will open at 6:15 pm so you can register to vote. The slate recommended by the Nominations and Elections Committee, chaired by Karen Brooks, is in the Democratic Club article in the May 5 Leisure World News.

Yes, we will say “hello and goodbye” to our friend, Sen. Ben Cardin, June 8, 7pm, Crystal Ballroom: We are looking forward to his thoughts on his past 50 years of public service, the future of the Senate, the primary for his Democratic replacement, and a lively Q&A session. We also will swear in a new Board.

Donkey Dispatch

April 9, 2023

“Upcoming Club events” on top;

“In the news” and “Humor” on bottom.

Thursday, April 13, 7pm in Clubhouse 1, Crystal Ballroom:   “Teachers Leaving Profession … Books Banned … Schools Under Assault by Politicians … Arm Teachers With Guns”. Come hear Dr. Lorretta Johnson, American Federation of Teachers Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus, discusses “Right Wing Attacks on Education, Teachers and Unions.” You may also participate and submit questions via Zoom. Register at: bit.ly/dclw-04-13

The club’s Nominations & Elections Committee will reveal its slate for the Board’s May elections for 2023-24.

Every Friday, 11 am, while Annapolis is in session: The Legislative Advocacy Committee meets via zoom. Join our group and become an effective advocate on crucial issues. Contact Barbara Levin at bubbiebarb1123@gmail.com.

Thursday, May 11, 7pm in CH 1, Crystal Ballroom: “Annual Report from Annapolis” by State Sen. Kramer and Delegates Crutchfield, Stewart and Cullison. Learn what happened in this year’s session and how it affects us. Afterwards, we will hold our Club’s elections for the new Board.

Sen. Ben Cardin, June 8, 7pm, Crystal Ballroom: A Q&A session will follow. Also, we will install new officers for our club.

And in the news …

Social Security benefits well-liked: A new AP-NORC poll finds 79% of Americans say they oppose reducing the size of Social Security benefits and 67% are against raising monthly premiums for Medicare.

How about a retirement age of 70 or higher? “The closely watched effort by a club of Senate moderates to craft a bipartisan Social Security reform plan may be stalling out for the foreseeable future,” Semafor reports.

“Semafor previously reported that the group, which is led by Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, had eyed establishing a new investment fund to finance future benefits and gradually raising the retirement age to nearly 70, among other options. But King, an independent, is struggling to amass support from his Democratic colleagues, with whom he caucuses. That’s contributing to a holdup in releasing a bipartisan framework.”

Anti-abortion a big loser: “Having made the criminalization of abortion a central axis of their political project for decades, Republicans have no obvious way out of their electoral predicament. A decisive majority of Americans — 64 percent, according to a recent Public Religion Research Institute survey — believe that abortion should be legal in most cases. A decisive majority of Republicans — 63 percent, according to the same survey — believe that it should not.”

“When abortion bans were merely theoretical, anti-abortion passion was often a boon to Republicans, powering the grass-roots organizing of the religious right. Now that the end of Roe has awakened a previously complacent pro-choice majority, anti-abortion passion has become a liability, but the Republican Party can’t jettison it without tearing itself apart.” (Columnist Michelle Goldberg)

The truth behind the unsolicited, online ads: Researchers at Carnegie Mellon and Virginia Tech studied the consumer welfare implications of targeted ads and found that the products pitched to people online were usually lower quality and more expensive than products that appeared in a simple web search. The researchers were so taken aback by the result that they repeated the study. Same result. (NY Times)

Shades of “Suppose they gave a war and nobody came”: “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) arrived to protest former President Donald Trump’s arrest in front of a New York City court Tuesday — and left within a few minutes after counter-protesters drowned out her comments with whistles and boos,” Semafor reports.

“Greene’s comments could not be heard through her megaphone over the noise, and eyewitness reports and tweets from the scene showed the congresswoman leaving the area with her bodyguards.”

If you imbibe: What do Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark and Southern Comfort whiskeys have in common? They’re all made by unionized workers who get a livable wage, safe working conditions and health/retirement benefits.

Wake up: “If I were white, I’d want my kids to learn about Indian boarding schools and the Native American genocide. Not to make them “woke.” But to help them grow into intelligent, compassionate, well informed adults.” (Lakota Man on twitter)

Republican humor just keeps bubbling up …

DeSantis hoisted on his own petard: “Months since it took effect, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature law to censor books in Florida schools has found an unintended target: his own book,” the Daily Beast reports.

“In a clever bit of trolling, Florida Democrats are subjecting DeSantis’ new tome—The Courage To Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival—to the rules that he and GOP lawmakers established to weed out books with allegedly inappropriate content on race, sexuality, and gender from school libraries.”

Or seen in another light:  “Trump, allies say, seems set on ‘Ron DeSanctimonious,’ even though others around him don’t think it’s a bullseye. Some of the new ideas the former president’s entertained: ‘Ron DisHonest.’ ‘Ron DeEstablishment.’ Or even, ‘Tiny D.’

“His team has spent weeks trying to dig up dirt on DeSantis’s record as governor; his wife, Casey, a former television journalist; his year teaching at a boarding school in Georgia and his record as a member of Congress, including support for raising the US retirement age and partly privatizing Medicare as part of then-Speaker Paul Ryan’s conservative budget plan…” (Politico)