April 11, 2019

A positive message is being delivered.

We have a lot of great candidates sweeping the country. Going from town to town delivering the message that there is a better way.

A message letting people know that the federal government isn’t your enemy under the proper control, it is an institution for positive change.

They are highlighting racism and bigotry and what can be described as systemic governmental oppression. They are talking about the ways the government can curb inequality instead of upholding it.

All of our candidates are hitting on climate change and the need to act.

Taxes taxes taxes. Calling out the tax scam and talking about the need to increase revenues to pay for the common good.

Health care as a right and a path to get there.

The list goes on and on. The message is being delivered in front of crowds with local media present. Most of the local news organizations cover the excitement and content, not the negative national media hype.

Presidential primaries is one of the most important times for progressives. Our message really gets out. It’s easy to look at the national and often negative narrative. Our candidates are crushing it at the local level in town after town.

This is starting off as a great primary. I think we have a handful of Presidential people running. For me personally, that is a first. Even those I don’t find to be Presidential are out there doing a great job of promoting our message. If you get the chance go read the platform of Marianne Williamson. It’s a work of art. A non-starter for President yet the platform she is promoting on a lesser level than some of the others is truly great.

The national media and internet discussion will often promote the negative in a very passionate manner. I take part in it. It’s a part of it and adds excitement and a feeling of being “in it.”

Locally our candidates are crushing it and it’s only going to get better.

April 10, 2019

Kamala Harris' teacher pay proposal gets its first testing ground: South Carolina

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris wants to show her presidential pitch is resonating in South Carolina, and a freshman state legislator from that critical early presidential primary state wants to help her make her case.


On Wednesday, freshman S.C. Rep. JA Moore, D-Berkeley, will introduce a bill that puts the substance of Harris’ recently announced education platform into legislation.

The bill has almost zero chance of passing. South Carolina’s GOP-controlled legislature will have little interest in advancing a Democratic presidential hopeful’s agenda, especially as they face a Wednesday deadline for moving bills from one chamber to the other.

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article229025704.html

Make the GOP shoot these ideas down. Great job by Rep JA Moore. From the Presidency to city council we need to fight in every district and every state. It's how we win over time. No fear of failure. Make the GOP oppose that which society as a whole supports.

April 9, 2019

Biden Foundation Pillar: Ensuring LGBTQ Equality

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL

In America, everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of who they are or whom they love. Over the past decade, we’ve made remarkable progress on the journey toward full equality. LGBTQ people are now protected by a federal hate crimes law, no longer banned from serving in the military, and free to marry nationwide.

But important work remains if we are to achieve equality for all Americans. The LGBTQ community still lacks protections in employment, housing, and public accommodations. LGBTQ youth face discrimination and harassment every day in their classrooms, communities, and even in their own homes. Transgender people are not only being targeted by legislators challenging their right to exist in public spaces, but they also continue to face pervasive violence in their daily lives. And in many places around the world, LGBTQ individuals still face criminalization, torture, and even death, simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

We are at a critical juncture in our nation’s history. Now is not the time to back down. Now is the time to stand up and keep fighting for equal treatment, dignity, and justice for all people — both here at home and around the world. Vice President Joe Biden has played a unique role throughout his years of public service, championing progress and prosperity for all. The Biden Foundation will build on that work, continuing Joe’s fight for equality that began in the civil rights era and extends to his leadership on LGBTQ equality today.

Biden Foundation

Vice President Biden receives Courage Award for lifetime of anti-violence work

Here at the Biden Foundation, we seek to expand equality and fairness for all people. This guiding principle informs our work in two key areas — ending violence against women and securing LGBTQ equality — and the powerful intersections between them.

Joe Biden often refers to the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) as his proudest legislative achievement. Signed into law in 1994, the legislation was groundbreaking in raising awareness about domestic and sexual violence, and directing resources to states and local communities. Joe Biden said from the beginning that the law was only a first step and would improve over time as we learned more about gender-based violence. In 2013, in response to new data showing equally high rates of violence in LGBTQ communities, Congress added nondiscrimination language into VAWA to ensure that LGBTQ survivors would be served in all VAWA programs.

The significance of this cannot be understated — it was the first, and is still the only — time that anti-discrimination protections based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity were enshrined in federal law.

The New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP) led the coalition of advocacy groups that helped push these VAWA nondiscrimination provisions through Congress. Since 1980, AVP has been empowering LGBTQ communities and allies to end all forms of violence through organizing and education, and supporting survivors through counseling and advocacy.

Medium

A letter to my son

By Deborah Munn

Note: This blog post is a letter from Deborah to her son Charlie, one of two men denied service at Masterpiece Cakeshop. Deborah, who works in human resources, lives in the San Francisco Bay area, and has been a volunteer advocate for more than 40 years for religious freedom, wildlife, civil rights, and equal rights. She is the mother of three sons and three wonderful grandchildren.

Read The Letter Here: Biden Foundation

April 9, 2019

Philadelphia Student Receives National Biden Courage Award For Stopping Sexual Assault

The Indiana University of Pennsylvania student was celebrated for stopping a sexual assault by actively confronting six to eight men and physically removing the potential victim from the situation.

CBS

Adrianna Branin

April 9, 2019

Harris Reintroduces Legislation to Provide Relief to Americans Facing Skyrocketing Cost of Rent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) on Tuesday reintroduced the Rent Relief Act, legislation to provide much-needed support to middle class and working Americans who are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of rent. The legislation creates a new, refundable tax credit for households whose housing costs exceed 30% of their income, including rent and utilities. Unlike existing tax credits, Americans who qualify would receive the benefits every month. Harris was joined by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) in reintroducing the legislation.

“Housing is a human right, and we must act now to end the affordable housing crisis and provide relief to working families who are worried about making each month’s rent,” said Harris. “Right now, nearly half of Americans couldn’t afford an emergency $400 expense – these families need help now. This is about more than just economics—it’s about the basic security and dignity that every American deserves to have in their own home.”

Under the Rent Relief Act, a household’s credit would be determined by their income and the amount spent on housing costs (rent, utilities) in excess of 30% of their gross income.

According to the Columbia Center on Poverty and Social Policy, the Rent Relief Act, which was first introduced in 2018, would reduce the poverty rate by as much as 2.4%, lifting 7.8 million Americans out of poverty, including more than 2 million children. Approximately 21 million Americans spend more than 30% of their earnings on rent, with a disproportionate and rising burden falling on families of color.

East County Today

April 8, 2019

When will negotiations start between Bernie 2020 and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400?

We are three weeks out from his workers unionizing and going with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 as representation. I see nothing with respect to even the start of negotiations.

April 4, 2019

Democratic Primary Front Runner Joe Biden Takes A Shot At The NRA

And shows his support for the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1111383490832945152

Support for the Paycheck Fairness Act. Thank you Rep Rosa DeLauro!

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1111332228129325057

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1104176453560819715

April 4, 2019

The Biden Foundation - ENDING THE SCOURGE OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Since Joe Biden wrote the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, our culture has changed for the better. Gender-based violence is no longer considered a private issue or a “family matter,” and the fight to end it is now front and center in our national dialogue.

But there is more work to be done. Despite significant progress — annual rates of domestic violence decreased by 64 percent from 1994 to 20101 — the figures have remained all too high for our nation’s young people.

Biden Foundation

Beau Biden's Legacy

The Biden Foundation will continue to support Beau’s belief and work that all children should be free from the threat of sexual abuse. Beau always said that adults have a moral and legal obligation to stand up and speak out for children who are being abused, as they often cannot speak for themselves.

The Foundation will carry on the shared passion of Joe and Beau, collaborating with the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children, building on successful strategies, and finding new ways to advance and sustain child safety across the country.

“We have already seen the progress that can be made when society commits to shining a bright light on a crime like domestic violence, and the same can be accomplished if we continue shining that bright light on child abuse.” Beau Biden

Biden Foundation

Youth Leads

Youth LEADS (Leverage, Energize, and Define Solutions) is a Biden Foundation initiative to combat gender-based violence among youth by providing young leaders with the platforms, network, and organizational support they need to create change. Youth LEADS looks to young people to drive the solutions that will change the culture and end violence in their communities.

Despite decades of progress towards ending gender-based violence, time seems to have stood still for young people. Eighty percent of sexual assault victims experienced their first assault before they were 25. But while teens and young adults face the highest rates of domestic and sexual violence, they are rarely tapped to identify solutions to this problem.

EMPOWERING YOUNG LEADERS

In 2018, the Biden Foundation launched Youth LEADS to include young voices in the ongoing conversation around gender-based violence. The Youth LEADS team facilitated 15 listening sessions across the country, working directly with young leaders and organizational partners to:

Identify trends that perpetuate cycles of violence
Amplify the voices of youth within their communities
Educate policy makers and stakeholders about the needs of youth

Biden Foundation

Biden Foundation Launched to Continue Former Vice President's Work

Former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, have announced the launch of the Biden Foundation, a charitable organization committed to advancing rights and opportunities for all people.

Building on the Bidens' previous work in government and the private sector, the foundation's priority areas will range from shaping foreign policy, advancing the Obama administration's "moonshot" cancer initiative, and supporting community colleges and military families, to protecting children, ensuring equal rights for all, ending violence against women, and strengthening the middle class.

Former Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-DE), Valerie Biden Owens, Mark Gitenstein, Mark Angelson, and Jeffrey Peck will serve on the foundation's board, while Louisa Terrell will serve as executive director. Initial funding for the foundation comes from private donations, including gifts of between $500,000 and $1 million from the Bohemian Foundation, Scott Miller and Tim Gill, Gerret and Tatiana Copeland, and Peter and Georgia Angelos. To be headquartered in Washington, D.C., the foundation does not and will not accept contributions from foreign citizens, organizations, or governments.

"We look forward to this new chapter where we will continue our work to ensure that everyone — no matter their income level, race, gender, age, or sexuality — is treated with dignity and gets a fair shot at achieving the American dream," said the couple in a statement. "That's why we are honored that a group of long-time friends and supporters have begun the work of founding the Biden Foundation to build on our lifelong commitment to issues that have always motivated us."

Philanthropy News Digest

April 2, 2019

In Biden's Defense

Readers and a political scientist take exception to the outrage.

Over the weekend, my colleague Ian Prasad Philbrick and I went looking for articles arguing both sides of the Joe Biden question. We found numerous pieces upbraiding Biden for touching people while interacting with them, and several of them argued that his likely presidential campaign should suffer for it.

Finding articles making the opposite case wasn’t so easy. (The closest we came was a Medium essay by Stephanie Carter, whose husband served in the Obama administration with Biden.) But if the media consensus this weekend was a condemnation of Biden, the reaction on Monday — both in the media and among readers — was different. It was substantially more mixed and less negative.

You can see some of that view in the letters that The Times received from readers. “Men were acculturated to behave in ways that ignored the sensibilities of women, and that is no longer acceptable,” Laura Petiford wrote. “I … struggle to understand how it is helpful to render men like Mr. Biden ‘unfit’ because of behaviors that were so deeply woven into the social fabric of this country that we are only now beginning to address them contextually.”

NYT

The coordinated attack against Biden is going to backfire.

April 2, 2019

3-15 "negotiations for their first collective bargaining agreement will begin as soon as possible."

Has anyone seen when the negotiations are going to start?

The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 website mentions negotiations are about to start between themselves, Safeway and Giant Food. I don't see anything about negotiations with Daddy2020.

http://www.ufcw400.org/