From wrolley at charter.net Wed Jul 1 08:49:33 2015 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2015 08:49:33 -0700 Subject: [GPSCC-chat] Fwd: [G-C-F] Fwd: [SonomaGreens] Help urgently needed to stop AB 57 which removes local control over cell towers In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <55940C0D.7040803@charter.net> Typical corporate strategy when they don't like what local governments are doing is to take the controls away from local government and move them to state or federal. In this case, a local Santa Clara County legislator, Jim Beall, is sitting on the committee holding hearing on AB 57. Let him know what you think he should do. The other side of the corporate strategy is to demand that "onerous" federal or state legislation be left to the local jurisdictions because they are the ones who know what is happening. -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [G-C-F] Fwd: [SonomaGreens] Help urgently needed to stop AB 57 which removes local control over cell towers Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2015 18:38:32 -0700 From: Jared Laiti To: cal-forum at cagreens.org ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: *Jenny Miller* > Date: Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 5:16 PM Subject: [SonomaGreens] Help urgently needed to stop AB 57 which removes local control over cell towers To: Sonoma Greens > Deadline is Wednesday for getting formal opposition to the committee. The hearing is? July 8, 9:30 AM. > From: Kevin M > > Date: June 29, 2015 11:28:26 AM PDT > Subject: *Need Help NOW Fighting AB57 Fast Tracks ALL Cell Towers-BOOK FLIGHT NOW-Kevin Mottus* > > Without any local input at all, wireless companies will be able to put a cell tower anywhere in your community and add transmitters to current towers if local governments take too long to process applications which governments have already said they cannot process given limited resources.? The wireless companies will swamp local governments with cell tower applications and place them near you.? file order front hearing > > *PRIORITY-Arrange to be at AB57 hearing in Sacramento Capitol July 8th at 9:30am Room 112; you will have 1-3 mins to speak.*? ? There was only one person opposing during last committee hearing.? ? ? They believe every person represents one million voters.? ? Your presence will count.? ? Southwest has cheap flights if you book NOW 866-281-8464 .? Hotwire has hotels for $50/night 800-845-4026 .? ? Sacramento is very easy to navigate.? ? *WE NEED YOU THERE.? BOOK NOW*.? Last committee Analyst only documented hundreds of calls and emails as "Several" individuals oppose in her analysis.? You need to come to hearing to make a difference. Come a day or two early to personally lobby members of the committee as I am going to do.? Let me know if you are coming by email. > > *Email in your opposition to AB57 to brian.weinberger at sen.ca.gov AND anton.favorini-csorba at sen.ca.gov by this Wed at 5 pm to be officially included in the bill's committee analysis and to be officially recorded as IN OPPOSITION*.? If you are part of any group please include the name of the group you are calling from because they will list group names separately (stoplacelltowers for instance). > > Call and email all 7 senators that sit on this tiny committee.? The office number and aide handling this issue are listed below.? Call and Email.? But calling and emailing are not enough; *please come to the hearing*.? *They expect you to come if you care about opposing the legislation enough*. > > > Governance & Finance Committee Members: > > Senator Robert M. Hertzberg (Chair) Van Nuys, CA Phone: (916) 651-4018 - elizabeth.bojorquez at sen.ca.gov staffer > > Governance and Finance Committee Office- 916-651-4119 Analyst-Anton Favorini-Csorba and Brian Weinberger; room 408 in Capitol. brian.weinberger at sen.ca.gov AND anton.favorini-csorba at sen.ca.gov > > > Senator Janet Nguyen (pronounced Win) (Vice Chair) Santa Ana Phone: 916.651.4034 ? Brandon.ebeck at sen.ca.gov staffer ? > > Senator Jim Beall San Jose, Cupertino, Los Gatos, etc Phone: (916) 651-4015 sarah.larson at sen.ca.gov staffer ? > > Senator Ed Hernandez-West Covina- Phone: (916) 651-4022 susan.reyes at sen.ca.gov staffer ? > > Senator Ricardo Lara-Long Beach- Phone: (916) 651-4033 megan.baier at sen.ca.gov staffer ? > > Senator John M. W. Moorlach-Irvine- Phone: 916.651.4037 victoria.stewart at sen.ca.gov staffer ? > > Senator Fran Pavley-Calabasas- Phone: (916) 651-4027 Andrei.gribakov at sen.ca.gov ? ? ? staffer > > Some points you can make if you like: Oppose AB57 > -Facilitates placement of cell transmitters and it decreases property values > -They are an eye sore and clutter up the landscape and disfigure buildings they are on > -FCC itself refuses to grant this type of automatic approval and the state should refuse as well. > -Many cities and counties oppose including Los Angeles and San Francisco that passed a resolution against AB57-taking away little control local govts have to protect vulnerable residents > -Not a good idea to pass with outstanding questions about the health and safety of wireless transmitters-Need real safety standards to be updated now 30 years out of date.? No safety buffer set for cell towers or transmitters.? Proliferating World Helath Organization Class 2B Carcinogen. > > Background: > > AB57: This bill would provide that a colocation or siting application for a wireless telecommunications facility is deemed approved, if the city or county fails to approve or disapprove the application within the time periods established by the commission and all required public notices have been provided regarding the application. > > Specifically AB 57, as amended, Quirk. Telecommunications: wireless telecommunication facilities. > Existing law requires a city, including a charter city, or county to administratively approve an application for a collocation facility on or immediately adjacent to a wireless telecommunications collocation facility, as defined, through the issuance of a building permit or a nondiscretionary permit, as specified. Existing law prohibits a city or county from taking certain actions as a condition of approval of an application for a permit for construction or reconstruction for a development project for a wireless telecommunications facility. > > Under existing federal law, the Federal Communications Commission issued a ruling establishing reasonable time periods within which a local government is required to act on a colocation or siting application for a wireless telecommunications facility. > > This bill would provide that a colocation or siting application for a wireless telecommunications facility is deemed approved, if the city or county fails to approve or disapprove the application within the time periods established by the commission and all required public notices have been provided regarding the application. > > THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: > > SECTION 1. > >? Section 65964.1 is added to the Government Code, to read: > > 65964.1. > >? (a) A colocation or siting application for a wireless telecommunications facility, as defined in Section 65850.6, shall be deemed approved if both of the following occur: > > (1) The city or county fails to approve or disapprove the application within the time periods established by the Federal Communications Commission in In re Petition for Declaratory Ruling, 24 FCC Rcd. 13994 (2009). > > (2) All public notices regarding the application have been provided consistent with the public notice requirements for the application. > > (b) The Legislature finds and declares that a wireless telecommunications facility has a significant economic impact in California and is not a municipal affair as that term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California Constitution, but is a matter of statewide concern. > > Thanks for all you do to protect our rights and do what is right.? ? Kevin Mottus? kmottus at gmail.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ecological Wisdom ~ Grassroots Democracy ~ Social Justice Nonviolence ~ Decentralization ~ Community-based Economics Feminism/Post-Patriarchal Values ~ Respect for Diversity Personal & Global Responsibility ~ Sustainability/Future Focus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ cal-forum mailing list cal-forum at lists.cagreens.org http://lists.cagreens.org/listinfo/cal-forum_lists.cagreens.org From snug.bug at hotmail.com Sun Jul 5 13:07:30 2015 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian) Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2015 13:07:30 -0700 Subject: [GPSCC-chat] Social Forum and Plenary Message-ID: I'd like to hear reports from anyone who attended. If you got a social forum program booklet printed on goldenrod paper, I printed it. My 20-year-old Laserjet is still chugging along--and also an OKI color laser printer very kindly donated to me by Spencer. Brian -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carolineyacoub at att.net Sun Jul 5 20:36:51 2015 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2015 03:36:51 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [GPSCC-chat] Social Forum and Plenary In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <264642138.1317627.1436153811351.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> I was at the forum from early morning to late afternoon Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. worked registration for two hours in the morning to "pay" for tabling for the Green party. Went to a healthcare thingSaturday afternoon, and set up and provided food for the plenary. I do have the program. I won't be able to share my experiences at the Green meeting because my son is coming to town for four days. If you want to talk about it, give me a call.Caroline On Sunday, July 5, 2015 1:07 PM, Brian wrote: I'd like to hear reports from anyone who attended. If you got a social forum program booklet printed on goldenrod paper, I printed it.?? My 20-year-old Laserjet is still chugging along--and also an OKI color laser printer very kindly donated to me by Spencer. Brian _______________________________________________ sosfbay-discuss mailing list sosfbay-discuss at lists.cagreens.org http://lists.cagreens.org/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss_lists.cagreens.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From j.m.doyle at sbcglobal.net Tue Jul 7 18:14:21 2015 From: j.m.doyle at sbcglobal.net (Jim Doyle) Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2015 18:14:21 -0700 Subject: [GPSCC-chat] semi annual fppc filing Message-ID: <559C796D.4080809@sbcglobal.net> I am pleased to report that the semi annnual fppc filing is in the mail. Certified mail with the traciking number 7015 0640 0000 1074 2986 From gerrygras at earthlink.net Tue Jul 14 21:08:06 2015 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2015 21:08:06 -0700 Subject: [GPSCC-chat] SF Mime Troupe Tomorrow Message-ID: <55A5DCA6.7020807@earthlink.net> At Mitchell Park, Palo Alto, music 6:30, show 7:00 http://www.sfmt.org/schedule/ Gerry From WB4D23 at aol.com Sun Jul 19 16:49:39 2015 From: WB4D23 at aol.com (WB4D23 at aol.com) Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2015 19:49:39 -0400 Subject: [GPSCC-chat] Draft Agenda Proposal for GPSCC Monthly Meeting July 23rd (4th Thursday) Message-ID: <124ac2.78fc2d2e.42dd9192@aol.com> GREEN PARTY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY Draft Agenda for Monthly General Meeting July 23, 2015 San Jose Peace and Justice Center, 48 South 7th Street, San Jose, CA (Between Santa Clara and San Fernando Streets) 7:00 pm ? Speaker: None announced as of July 19, 2015 (date of this agenda draft) 7:30 pm ? Begin meeting -- Select Facilitator, Note taker, Time keeper, and Vibes watcher(s); Select Agenda Preparer for next meeting; Affirm or modify draft agenda (5 Minutes) Introductions and Announcements (10 Minutes) Treasurer?s Report ? Jim Doyle (5 minutes) Reports on US Social Forum events (10 Minutes) Reports on GPCA Plenary items (10 Minues) Discuss SGA delegates vacancies and invitation for volunteers (5 Minutes) Begin discussions re outreach for gathering signature petitions for GPCA U.S. Senate candidate in January 2016 -- Warner(10 minutes) Follow-up discussion re use of GPSCC web page(s) (5 minutes) Discussion of GPSCC email list issues ? (20 minutes) Discussion of status of tabling supplies ? (10 Minutes) Discuss how to respond to request for survey responses from San Jose Peace Fair organizers (10 Minutes) Plans for Tabling ? Need to identify events coordinators -- (10 Minutes) Report on Single Payer Work ? Caroline and Sandy (5 Minutes) Report on Climate Change Work -- Caroline (5 Minutes) (2 Hours Estimated Cumulative Times. Goal: Adjourn by 9:30 pm) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gerrygras at earthlink.net Thu Jul 23 15:49:00 2015 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2015 15:49:00 -0700 Subject: [GPSCC-chat] "Socialism, American-Style" Message-ID: <55B16F5C.8050904@earthlink.net> FYI, "Socialism, American-Style" http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/opinion/socialism-american-style.html "In 2013 President Obama proposed privatizing the T.V.A., but local Republican politicians, concerned with the prospect of higher prices for consumers and less money for their states, successfully opposed the idea." Gerry From perrysandy at aol.com Thu Jul 23 22:40:09 2015 From: perrysandy at aol.com (perrysandy at aol.com) Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2015 01:40:09 -0400 Subject: [GPSCC-chat] GPSCC Draft Minutes 7-23-15 Message-ID: <14ebe936c79-aef-10be0@webstg-m02.mail.aol.com> GREEN PARTY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY Minutes 7-23-15 San Jose Peace and Justice Center, 48 South 7th Street, SanJose, CA 7:00pm ? No Speaker 7:30 pm? Begin meeting ? Facilitator Warner, Note takerSandy, Agenda Preparer Warner. Agendaapproved. Introductionsand Announcements: Homeless advocates will bring a proposal forsanctioned encampments to the County Homeless Task Force on Aug. 7. Rentersrights leaders gearing up for a fall campaign in San Jose. Treasurer?s Report ? Jim Doyle. $10 collected. Jim will pay the annual SJPJCdonation. He will hold off on the Coalition for a Healthy California donationuntil a discussion at the August meeting. Reports on US Social Forum events. Smaller attendance(about 1000) than previous forums. Many excellent workshops & assembliesincluding one by Richmond Progressive Alliance. Reports on GPCA Plenary items. About 40 attended theSaturday budget session, 20 the Sunday session. Sunday session received reportsfrom action groups. 2016 GPCA US Senate candidate endorsement process adopted. Discuss SGA delegates vacancies and invitation forvolunteers. Sandy volunteers and is appointed, Warner will notify SGA. Begin discussions re outreach for gathering signaturepetitions for GPCA U.S. Senate candidate in January 2016. Warner will beginpreparing a data base of registered Santa Clara County Greens and volunteers foruse in the campaign. Follow-up discussion re use of GPSCCweb page. Drew will add Lucia Maldonado?s button art to the site (withappropriate credit). Discussion of GPSCCemail list issues. Tian is the administrator and should be contacted if peoplehave a problem with emails bouncing or with being dropped from the list. Tianwill send them a link to where on our web site they can re-enroll. He will sendout an email with that link to all subscribers within the next month, allowinganyone who has been dropped to re-enroll. To be discussed in the future: policyon whether or not individuals from out of Santa Clara County may subscribe.Currently the list is open to all. Discussion of status of tablingsupplies ? tabled. Discuss how to respond to request forsurvey responses from San Jose Peace Fair organizers: County Council memberswill decide how to organize our response. Plans for Tabling ? tabled. No known plans between now &our August meeting. Tian volunteered to be available for tabling once a month.Tabling continues at De Anza as events happen there. Report on Single Payer Work ? Caroline and Sandy. Wriiten report by Caroline distributed. Sandyannounced the 50th Anniversary of Medicare rally for Medicare forAll in Oakland at Frank Ogawa Plaza at 11 am Thurs. July 30. Buses leave SanJose from South Bay Labor Council, 2102 Almaden Road at 9:30 am. Call Greg at4508-254-3311 to reserve a seat. Report on ClimateChange Work -- No report this month. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rob.means at electric-bikes.com Fri Jul 24 09:47:57 2015 From: rob.means at electric-bikes.com (Rob Means) Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2015 09:47:57 -0700 Subject: [GPSCC-chat] article ties together the Pope, Bernie Sanders and ACD Message-ID: <1437756477.3013.26.camel@robs-laptop> Hi Folks, The following article was printed in this week's Milpitas Post. -- Other Voices article printed in July 24, 2015 Milpitas Post You probably heard about Pope Francis?s Encyclical Laudato Si? (On Care for Our Common Home). The Encyclical is a remarkable document addressed to everyone of conscience. Pope Francis pulls wisdom from his Church?s teachings, principals of modern physics, an understanding of the complexity of the global ecology, and above all our moral obligation to our young. With particular attention to global warming or Anthropogenic Climate Disruption (ACD), the Pope wrote: ?14. I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.? Last year marked the 37th consecutive year of above-average global temperature. And, it was another year that the rich and powerful have prevented a transformation of the U.S. energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energies. As the Pope noted ?181.A healthy politics is sorely needed, capable of reforming and coordinating institutions, promoting best practices and overcoming undue pressure and bureaucratic inertia.? More recently, while in Bolivia, Pope Francis said time was running out to save the planet from perhaps irreversible harm to the ecosystem. "Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change." Within a month, the Dalai Lama endorsed the Pope?s encyclical on climate change. The Buddhist leader spoke at a panel on climate change, praising the encyclical and saying it was the duty of everyone to ?make more of an effort, including demonstrations. ? It is not sufficient to just express views, we must set a timetable for change in the next two to four years.? Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders also commended the Pope. He was ?delighted that the Pope has recently made this into an encyclical and told the world how important this issue is. ? We have to take on the fossil fuel industry and transform our energy system.? (Listen to his 3-minute audio at MeansForDemocracy.org/bernie-acd.mp3) Bernie doesn't just talk about the need to transform our energy system, he proposes sensible legislation. In 2013, Sanders introduced ? along with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) ? the Climate Protection Act. It would tax carbon and methane emissions and rebate three-fifths of the revenue to citizens, then invest the rest in energy efficiency, climate resiliency and sustainable energy (including investments in wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and plug-in vehicles). Recently, he put forth a bill aimed at making it easier for low-income families to take advantage of solar power. In the words of environmental activist and founder of 350.org Bill McKibben, Sanders is ?the ultimate what-you-see-is-what-you-get politician. ? Bernie?s been in the forefront of all the crucial environmental fights of recent years, always willing to knuckle down and do the hard work of fighting the big corporations.? Frankly, when I first heard about Bernie running for President, I doubted his chance to win either the Democratic Party nomination or the Presidency. Now I think differently - because the 2016 election is not about Bernie. It is really about creating a popular movement to change the direction of our government. In the first major speech of his campaign, Bernie said: "Here is my promise to you for this campaign. Not only will I fight to protect the working families of this country, but we're going to build a movement of millions of Americans who are prepared to stand up and fight back." Milpitas residents stood up and fought back against the casino and the landfill expansion. Let's come together now as part of a movement that promises free college, equal pay for women workers, clean energy, more/better jobs, health care for all, and a tax system where the rich pay their fair share. Are you ready to start a political revolution to save our country and our planet? If so, attend the local kickoff meeting for Bernie's campaign. Perhaps,though,you question whether Bernie is the right candidate for you. Then, ?Take the Quiz? at http://www.isidewith.com/ to discover which of the 15 announced presidential candidates most agrees with your policy opinions. If you find, as I did, that Bernie best represents your views, plan to join other Milpitas Bernie Boosters at the home of Rob Means, 1421 Yellowstone Avenue on Wednesday, July 29, at 7:00pm. Please register to attend at https://go.berniesanders.com/page/event/share/wsw -- Rob Means, Vice-President Santa Clara County Democratic Club 408-262-0420 rob.means at electric-bikes.com 1421 Yellowstone Ave., Milpitas, CA 95035-6913 www.democraticclub-scc.org/ a progressive organization ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From snug.bug at hotmail.com Sat Jul 25 17:59:26 2015 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian) Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2015 17:59:26 -0700 Subject: [GPSCC-chat] FW: [gpca-forum] Why is the traffic here so thin? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I know we're not supposed to cross-post from the gpca to the local list, but it's not like we're being buried under emails in either forum, and I've seen Gerry cross-post frequently and nobody has severed his head yet. A couple of weeks ago I supposed I must have been kicked off the gpca list because I wasn't getting any emails from it. Can we have some vision and optimism please? Is it time to have a discussion about burnout? It's been ten years of full time activism for me now, and what I've accomplished is pretty much limited to helping to take down a few 9/11 con artists, doing what I could to promote 9/11 activists with whom I don't always agree, developing some video skills I no longer have the energy to use, and running up many, many thousands of dollars in credit card debt. I could really use a pep talk and I'm not hearing much from people (you know who you are) who might have the capacity to cheer me up. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: ATT00001 URL: From peacemovies at gmail.com Sun Jul 26 09:00:16 2015 From: peacemovies at gmail.com (John Thielking) Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2015 09:00:16 -0700 Subject: [GPSCC-chat] FW: [gpca-forum] Why is the traffic here so thin? In-Reply-To: References:

Message-ID: Here is a cross posting from Occupy Eugene (OE). Enjoy. John Thielking Interim Report On My Article On Fair Trade for the OE Newsletter and Informal Contact Point for Saturday 7-25-15 I'm starting the process of writing a research article for the next issue of the OE Newsletter. Today I started on the interviews of the vendors at the Saturday Market in downtown Eugene to see how their experiences with their crafts businesses compare to the production environments in the US and the crafts and production environments overseas. In general, it seems that the people selling their wares at the Saturday Market are often not getting a fair rate of return at anything close to minimum wage for all of the hours that they put into both producing and selling their wares. The exception to this general rule appears to be the cases where production of the items are handled mostly by machine and when the item sold is fairly popular. For instance, I was able to make a profit of about $9 per hour selling my Peacestickers(dot)net bumper stickers in front of the library for a couple of Saturdays in February. One of the vendors at the Saturday Market claimed that she sells a whole bunch of her electrical switch plate covers that have high quality artwork prints on them. The prints are in the form of stickers and are made by machine as are the base plastic switch plates. She says that she has had a steady demand for those switch plates for the past 15 years. Week to week sales performance at the Saturday Market is spotty, however, even for this vendor. Weather and competing events randomly add or subtract from the usual number of customers week to week. I did a little more research to follow up on the one article I read about sweatshop labor that claims that even if you double the wages of t-shirt production workers in the US or Mexico the labor cost of producing a typical shirt is only 6% or less of the retail price of the shirt. One article, located here http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/02/focus-3 claims that the productivity of workers in China and India is only 17% and 10% of the workers in the USA respectively, as of 2012. China has gained massively in productivity over the years, but even after all those gains, they still come in at only 17% of USA productivity as a GDP per worker figure. That makes me even more interested in proving my preconceived notion that there may be some reason other than (at least next quarter) cost savings as a reason for why companies are moving production to low wage areas such as India and China. I need to examine the figures in more detail before making too many conclusions as I'm not sure if the relative GDP per worker figure is an appropriate apples to apples comparison of the actual production output of workers in different countries when the value of the same items or services produced in each country also depends upon which country the items or services were produced in. I also attended the OE Saturday informal gathering spot today. I talked with three 'customers' today. One was saying that the Hare Krishnas are cool because they claim that people can be enlightened simply by hearing their chants/vibrations. I also talked with an old OE person named Martin Williams. He went on for a bit about how he was the sole protester to oppose the construction of the ugly Lane Community College building across the street from the library. His claim is that the building was built without proper authorization of the use of bond funds by the voters. He also claims that Rosa Koire of Democrats Against UN Agenda 21 provided him with a key piece of the puzzle about why the building was built. He also recommends the web site www.divulgence.net. Another thing that was going on at the same time was the effort by several people to gather pledge cards to support calling for Oregon to have a $15 per hour minimum wage. I had a conversation with one of the pledge card gatherers about my awkward misgivings about the consignment contracts I have with vendors at Indoor Marketplace in Springfield and Crafter's Alley at Gateway Mall. I asked him what he thought of having a contract of 10% commission plus $200 rent for 144 sq ft of space for one contractor at Indoor Marketplace who makes most of her money (presumably at or above minimum wage) by running her own vending space selling snow cones and DVD's inside the same store. She does a brisk business most of the time, so I'm feeling confident that she is likely making a living wage return on all of her work at the store, taken as a whole. However, it seems that it is difficult to avoid the typical case of a fair trade crafts store that is run essentially by volunteers, at least on a marginal compensation basis as is the case here. I'm also paying the Indoor Marketplace vendor an extra $20 per month for 3 minutes of work per day to put my A-frame advertising sign out in the morning, take it inside in the evening and to restock the block of ice in the wine cooler unit that holds my free cold water dispensers so that it runs 10 deg cooler than without the ice on a hot day. She took that deal ($20 extra per month) instead of increasing her commission to 15% instead. At the rate that I'm not selling stuff at Indoor Marketplace, she will make out like a bandit on that deal, comparatively speaking. At Crafter's Alley, I'm paying $65 per month for a 5 sq ft x 7 ft high space plus 15% commission. Each vendor is required to help staff the store for 3 hours per month in the off season, 6 hours in November and 9 hours in December. I'm still not clear how much the cashier is being paid or if that person is also a volunteer. At both places, I do all the work of restocking products and putting pricing labels on products. All the sales are handled by the vendors. The $15 per hour petitioner guy I talked to didn't have a definite opinion one way or the other about paying people by contract the way I'm doing it instead of hiring dedicated people at $15 per hour to monitor tiny spaces 52 hours per week that so far generate less than $100 per month in sales. He claimed to be a Communist who thought that Capitalism was in its death throes. He said that he didn't like the CP USA because they were too reactionary, but when I asked him about Bob Avakian and Rev Com he couldn't clarify for me the difference between Rev Com and CP USA. If anyone here has an opinion about contract commissions vs minimum wage, I'd love to have your input. I figure that paying only 10-15% commission plus rent will result in the vendors getting far more in total earnings than the typical 50% consignment commission with no rent, in part because at 10-15% commissions I can afford to lower prices 50% or more which results in 4x or more total dollar volume in sales. John Thielking On Sat, Jul 25, 2015 at 5:59 PM, Brian wrote: > I know we're not supposed to cross-post from the gpca to the local list, > but it's not like we're being buried under emails > in either forum, and I've seen Gerry cross-post frequently and nobody has > severed his head yet. > > A couple of weeks ago I supposed I must have been kicked off the gpca list > because I wasn't getting any emails from it. > > Can we have some vision and optimism please? > > Is it time to have a discussion about burnout? It's been ten years of > full time activism for me now, and what I've > accomplished is pretty much limited to helping to take down a few 9/11 con > artists, doing what I could to promote > 9/11 activists with whom I don't always agree, developing some video > skills I no longer have the energy to use, and > running up many, many thousands of dollars in credit card debt. > > I could really use a pep talk and I'm not hearing much from people (you > know who you are) who might have the > capacity to cheer me up. > > > _______________________________________________ > sosfbay-discuss mailing list > sosfbay-discuss at lists.cagreens.org > http://lists.cagreens.org/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss_lists.cagreens.org > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gerrygras at earthlink.net Wed Jul 29 16:59:44 2015 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2015 16:59:44 -0700 Subject: [GPSCC-chat] Maps & Animations of SF Bay Area traffic Message-ID: <55B968F0.2070502@earthlink.net> "How do you map a city with no centre? Commuting patterns in the San Francisco Bay area" http://www.citymetric.com/transport/how-do-you-map-city-no-centre-commuting-patterns-san-francisco-bay-area-1245 Gerry From gerrygras at earthlink.net Thu Jul 30 07:05:18 2015 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2015 07:05:18 -0700 Subject: [GPSCC-chat] Big Brother tries again (surveillance bill) In-Reply-To: <55BA2EF0.6010103@earthlink.net> References: <55BA2EF0.6010103@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <55BA2F1E.6060100@earthlink.net> There's an attempt to pass another surveillance bill disguised as a cyber security bill. EFF and Free Press and ACLU and many others are opposing it. https://www.stopcyberspying.com/ https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/07/stop-cisa-join-eff-week-action-opposing-cyber-spying-0 https://www.aclu.org/blog/washington-markup/surveillance-bill-any-other-name-smells-just-foul http://www.freepress.net/blog/2015/07/28/cyber-bill-gives-companies-perfect-cover-gut-your-privacy Gerry From gerrygras at earthlink.net Fri Jul 31 12:34:42 2015 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2015 12:34:42 -0700 Subject: [GPSCC-chat] Ellen Brown on the Greek "Coup" In-Reply-To: <55BBCD8C.10001@earthlink.net> References: <55BBCD8C.10001@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <55BBCDD2.5050008@earthlink.net> FYI, "The Greek Coup: Liquidity as a Weapon of Coercion" by Ellen Brown http://commondreams.org/views/2015/07/31/greek-coup-liquidity-weapon-coercion (the creditors as mafia) Gerry