Investor Kicked Out, WellPoint Refuses Further Disclosure of Toxic Political Spending
BofA Dealt Punches from 99%, Shareholders Tell their Side
Faith Leaders Criticize GE, Global 1% in Direct Action
Dear Rahm, You Want Accountability?
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel celebrated his first year in office on Wednesday by touting his accomplishments and work towards greater transparency in city government. He even sent an email out to his list entitled, “Hold me Accountable” but the ability to do just that is a near impossible task.
Larger media outlets highlighted Emanuel’s first year with headlines like this from the Chicago Tribune – “An impatient mayor who always wants to be in control” or Crain’s “A new mayor lives up—and down—to his multifaceted reputation” while the Sun-Times notes he may have ambitions of higher office… even the White House. If I had the chance to title a one-year review of the mayor, it would be short and to the point, “God Save Us.”
Emanuel’s political team put together a report on his first year calling it “Changing Chicago Together.” The together part is troublesome. It is like saying we when you really mean I. Maybe this whole report is just one big pat on the back to his administration. One thing is clear though – the people are not part of this togetherness his team mentions. They could point to high approval ratings but it misses the broader picture of what just one year of Emanuel’s rule has done to this city.
He broke campaign promises:
He pledged to stem a chronic financial crisis without tax hikes, then unleashed a menu of new and increased fines and fees so broad that Chicago is more expensive for most.
He vowed an end to insider politics, yet gave the hard sell to a controversial speed-camera program that could benefit his onetime campaign manager.
He is the self-proclaimed champion of transparency who has proved to be secretive.
But that is just like most politicians. Things get left to the side or conveniently forgotten.
More so this:
“I’m not in the position of analysis,” the mayor said last month. “I’m in the position of getting things done.”
Recklessly moving ahead just for the sake of forward motion is akin to putting the car in drive while still sitting in the garage. As the Sun-Times notes:
Former independent Ald. Dick Simpson (44th) said he is troubled by Emanuel’s now-familiar pattern of hatching plans without public input, then making minor tweaks to make it appear that he’s compromising.
“He’s not really good at democracy. … What Rahm prefers to do is announce what he’s done for us, rather than consulting with us on what ought to be done,” said Simpson, head of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Emanuel is a magician when it comes to appearances. He touts private jobs coming into the city but more than 600 employees lost their own jobs in the last year. He increased the cost of living in this city with higher fines and fees after promising not to do so. His move to reassign a 1,000 cops doesn’t seem to have done much to curb homicide in the city – it has actually increase dramatically.
The impatient mayor has pushed the buttons of labor leaders. After years of mismanagement and borrowing against city employees pension funds Emanuel now wants to use the employees retirement funds as the scapegoat. Emanuel is pushing for legislation at the state level that would punish hard working city employees, force them to retire later, and prevent them from cost of living increases promised to them in their contracts. Some might say that the city employees are a bloat on taxpayers and they don’t deserve it. Well that is buying into the right-wing narrative.
All employees deserve quality pay and retirement packages for years of dedicated service. Reneging on contractual obligations makes the word of the mayor’s office worth nothing. Emanuel is doing nothing more than following Daley’s dictator-like rule for two decades. The mayor’s first year has proven that he listens to only himself and those who can help him get where he wants.
Over the last year the mayor ignored the librarians, the mental health advocates, government watchdogs, and public school teachers. Last fall the Chicago Reader published a story that dived into the people important enough for the mayor’s personal time. Millionaires.
Where were the grassroots activists? In the cold, protesting for a place at the table. A progressive organization has not met with mayor, or at least publicly said so. Mental health advocates have resorted to occupying closing clinics because patients are being hospitalized due to their therapists losing their jobs.
Teachers face the mayor’s wrath all because they want to be properly paid for a longer school day. Yet, the administration says there is not enough money to fund the school system but they happily hand it over to charter schools once run by members of his administration. The speeding cameras received little public input and now stand to benefit a former campaign manager. The Trust initiative promises profits for private companies – a promise that will be kept, unlike the one made to public employees, at the expense of user fees for Chicago residents and visitors. Did an advocacy organization meet with the mayor? None that we know of.
I haven’t even touched on your handling of Occupy Chicago or the pending NATO conference. You’ve refused to hear from everyday people and yet you dare ask for accountability when you’ve shown your disdain for us.
So, “Hold me Accountable” he says. Just how are we supposed to do that when you don’t come back on the ballot for nearly another three years?
Morello, Nurses Kick Off Weekend of Protests in Chicago
Groups like Occupy Chicago and anti-G8 organizations have marched and rallied the last few days but the real start to massive protests surrounding the G-8 and NATO meetings is tomorrow. THe National Nurses United union and guitarist Tom Morello will rally at Daley Plaza in which they expect more than 2,500 people. AlterNet published my piece about the rally. The nurses want to see a financial transaction tax on Wall Street. They created the problem and they should help fix it.
Morello spoke with Rolling Stone about it:
Morello first became involved with the National Nurses United through his friendship with group member Donna Smith, who was featured in Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary Sicko. He previously played in support of the group in Boston in 2008. “My support for the working class is well documented but, in particular, the grotesque economic inequality that plagues our country and our planet needs to be addressed head-on,” he says. “The Nurses Union are the one of the louder voices doing it.”
Morello also spoke with Bill Moyers.
Let’s just say that I am looking forward to this event tomorrow.
Investor Kicked Out, WellPoint Refuses Further Disclosure of Toxic Political Spending
WellPoint executives hemmed and hawed at questions pertaining to political spending at Wednesday’s annual shareholders’ meeting. Health plan members and union leaders, who represent members with WellPoint health insurance, wanted to ask CEO Angela Braly why the company spends money to influence policy that contradicts their business model. Outside a group of people wearing white jumpsuits labeled “WellPoint cleanup crew” took care of the toxic money coming from the company’s political spending. They were denied entry to the hotel and had to leave the toxic mess upstairs.
“WellPoint and its subsidiaries give financial support to the anti-union governors of Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio, who are trying to nullify the Affordable Care Act and roll back workers’ right to bargain for a better life,” said the organization Health Care for America Now.
The Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, mandates individuals to purchase health insurance and thus providing millions of more customers to companies like WellPoint. Nonetheless, WellPoint’s CEO serves on the board of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a group that contributed $86 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s fight against health insurance reform. This despite the company endorsing key provision the chamber was against.
Three-quarters of their political contributions went to Republicans in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles. Chief architect of the Republican budget agenda, Paul Ryan, received $15,000 in the last two cycles alone. Ryan proposed a budget that would essentially do away with Medicare and has blasted Obama’s health care plan. WellPoint has spent $4.4 million dollars on campaign contributions since the 2006 cycle, according to records from OpenSecrets.
“They use our money to fund other organizations that are fighting collective bargaining rights, workers’ rights, and immigration rights,” said Michael Torres, AFSCME Local 3395 that represents Indianapolis librarians. Torres and others were able to ask questions during a question and answer session at the end of the meeting after everything had already been voted on. Not content with that one person took to the mic and encouraged shareholders to vote against the board. Michael Pryce-Jones, of CTW Investment Group, wanted to speak to the shareholders about a few of the board members conflicts of interest. He was denied the opportunity and escorted out of the meeting by security. More on the group’s reasoning can be found here in the pdf and in a short interview with Pryce-Jones below.
As it stands WellPoint does not have a committee to oversee its political spending. This can lead to serious conflicts of interest without proper oversight. It also serves as a cause of why WellPoint participated in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s campaign to prevent the passage of the Affordable Care Act when the company endorsed it.
One shareholder presented Braly with 15,000 signatures on petition asking for more disclosure. The vote on greater disclosure took place prior to the open question and answer session. Shareholders overwhelmingly rejected the idea of greater disclosure but then again most shares tend to be held by executives.
Between 60 and 70 people marched outside of the hotel chanting “WellPoint get off it. People over politics.” “This is what democracy looks like.” Meanwhile a large balloon blimp calling for a stop to corporate greed floated above. At roughly 9 a.m. the meeting adjourned and executives walked out glaring at the protesters. Activist shareholders soon followed and lead a march to WellPoint’s headquarters a couple blocks away. The insurance company has nearly 34 million customers, trailing only UnitedHealth Group, and runs Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliates in 14 states.
WellPoint security locked down the building as protesters carried yellow tape declaring a quarantine of the area due to the toxic money that dropped from the ballon.
“They skirted around the issues,” said Dave Wallace, President AFSCME, Local 1117 in Los Angeles. “I wanted to ask why they are using our members premiums to fund legislation that will cause our demise.”
Over the last four years Braly has received $21.63 million in total compensation while the stock price of her company has dropped three percent. No word on what they have received on their investment of $4.4 million to dozens of federal politicians but things look good for the company… not for the people.
“15 Crucial Facts NEVER Heard On The Mainstream Media”
Wow! Lee Camp lays it all out there in this one. This is the sad truth of our media whose role is supposedly to inform us. In reality, it just entertains and helps push us past these sad truths. I wrote about comedians becoming a better source of news with a quote from Camp. It’s true. Stewart, Colbert, the late night shows and more comedians are performing the job of watchdog better than CNN, Fox, and MSNBC.
To stay informed on what is actually happening please check out Project Censored and keep reading alternative media!
Sporadic Writing
Thanks for always reading and visiting the site. I appreciate you taking the time to see what I am reporting on or have to say about political issues. I am trying to get better about more content on a more regular basis – so please bear with me. Lots of stuff will be coming up in the next few weeks. More shareholder meetings, NATO, Netroots Nation and a few articles published in other outlets. Good times!!!
Although, today I will work on one of those articles and continue creating an editorial calendar. In the meantime please go and read the post “What would it take?” Leave a comment that hopefully answers the question. Let’s get a discussion started!
What would it take?
Despite my desire to write about damn near everything I do not have the uncanny ability to churn out piece after piece. I would love to write up personal stories from victims of the foreclosure crisis, people’s wages stolen by their employer, or the near impossibility to climb up the economic ladder. I know I will develop better habits and energy will come back as this battle with depression becomes an after thought.
But this post is not about me or how productive my fingers are on the keyboard.
I want to know about you. What would it take for you to take to the streets? Thousands have done so outside of corporate shareholder meetings. Thousands more will be out protesting the global one percent as NATO comes to Chicago.
Elected leaders continue to blame public employees for deficits in pensions. Vital assistance programs continue seeing massive cuts.
Corporations spend a tremendous amount lobbying lawmakers while hardly anyone thinks of the rest of us.
You are working more than full-time while making less than you deserve. A family member got laid off and the CEO took home a multi-million dollar bonus. The system is rigged and it prevents you, me, and others from living a Bette quality life.
So, seriously! What would it take?
No Success Despite Education & Hard Work
I’ve said this before but my generation has figured out that the American Dream as told to us is nothing more than a lie. And we are pissed.
Parents told us, because they believed it too, that working hard and obtaining a college education are the two keys to success. We would graduate with a good job and more than likely in a field that we wanted to spend our time in. It would be the foundation for the life we would build with our loved one and even live in a nice home. Now college graduates between 2006 and 2011 find themselves without a full-time job and massive student loan debt. The American Dream became the American Nightmare for many of them.
The study from Rutgers University shows that just half of graduates in the six-year timespan have full-time jobs. Additionally, more than half carry loan debt exceeding $20,000. As a result more than half still receive help from their family in meeting their basic needs. One in four live with their parents.
“The cream of the crop of America’s youth, graduates of four-year colleges and universities, believe the American dream of upward economic mobility may have stopped with them,” says the report.
The economic crisis, caused by reckless banks and an unaccountable Wall Street, crushed the dreams of millions of 20 somethings. It left many, like myself, to wonder how in the hell to get life back on track. Thousands of young people took to the streets in Madison followed by Wall Street and dozens of major cities around the nation. The anger that was initially aimed at the lie turned towards the cause. Corporate interests and a small minority of wealthy interests stole the dream through the purchase of our democracy.
There is one way to get it back. Organizing together. United together we stand… divided we fall right? Well for decades everyday people fought against each other for the next promotion or for the better tax rates by moving around. It forced this race to the bottom and corporations were only too happy to push harder.
As Robert Struckman notes, the equation lacks a vital variable. Workers must have leverage. Collective bargaining and collective action.
It’s well-documented that when workers—young or older—bargain together in unions, the result is better jobs, better pay, better benefits, more job security and the possibility of a secure retirement.
But that has been taken away over the last few decades. I’ve already written about what that has done to our workforce. We are more educated but yet we earn less. This is not a recipe for a burgeoning middle class or a thriving economy. It is more akin to one for the creation of a debtor nation. So get involved. It matters to you and even your child.
BofA Dealt Punches from 99%, Shareholders Tell their Side
“Bank of America, Bad for America” went the chant of protesters outside of the Charlotte headquarters with a large ball and chain marked with the word “DEBT” sitting it the background. Meanwhile shareholders piled into the annual meeting that serves as a formality of transparency for publicly traded companies . Unlike previous years, executives experienced something more than formality as people armed with shares of the big bank came to the mic demanding answers and accountability for Bank of America’s alleged fraudulent mortgage practices, funding in predatory payday loan stores, investing in dirty coal, and crashing the economy. The laundry list of wrongdoing by the bank cost millions of families their homes and their health.
According to a Bloomberg report from the inside a shareholder complained of his stocks loss of value and called the bank a “felon.” CEO Brian Moynihan responded with a loaded defense saying, “We abide by the law every day.” That is anything but true.
Even after spending millions upon millions of dollars in lobbying fees over the last few years the banks efforts to write the laws failed them. If, as Moynihan suggests, the bank followed the law then why did they need to settle a foreclosure fraud case with the federal government? The illegal practices of the bank, and others because BofA did not act alone, caused tremendous personal harm to hardworking people.
Maria Reyes came from California to tell her heartbreaking story. Before Bank of America bought Countrywide her family bought a home in Hayward, located in the Bay Area, but the conditions of the loan were later found to be deceitful. Countrywide put down her husband’s income as $5,000 a month when he was actually on workers’ compensation. To make matters worse her two sons, also living in and paying for the home, lost their jobs in the construction business during the economic collapse. She only had the house for five years before Bank of America refused to work with her and foreclosed on the home. You can hear Maria tell her story through a translator in the video below.
Robert Kerns, a lawyer in Las Vegas, works with families experiencing similar problems. One client that he could talk about consisted of a outright lies and fraudulent practices against an Ethiopian couple that had become naturalized citizens. During the process to obtain a mortgage for their first home they were told one thing while paperwork said another. After they handed over their life-savings for a down payment their proposed mortgage payment doubled. When they threatened to go elsewhere the bank told them they would have to forfeit the down payment. An outright lie but only detectable with the knowledge of the law like Kerns practices.
These stories are not unique to just a few people. It is a story shared by millions of American homeowners who banks knowingly misguided in order to profit. At the same time Moynihan has received millions in compensation, including $7 million last year alone, while the stock price of the bank has dropped in half since he started in 2010. Prior to the financial collapse Bank of America paid a 64 cent dividend, it now sits at a penny.
A mic check commenced after two hours of questions from activist shareholders and dodging by Moynihan.
“Many of you people may think there are a lot of crazies here today, but this is a pushback,” an attendant told Moynihan moments before. “You’re hearing despair.”
Moynihan’s practiced answers gave little comfort to people struggling to stay in their homes or the one’s fighting for cleaner air. According to Sonny Garcia of National People’s Action, victims of the foreclosure crisis stressed the difficulty in working with Bank of America’s customer service and loan modification process. Moynihan responded with the feel good answer of talking with bank representatives after the shareholders meeting. Quick on their feet an organizer from Garcia’s organization responded appropriately:
“So what we have to do to get loan modifications is to buy a stock, stand in line for two hours, get shook down by the police, get intimidated by other security just so we can get a loan modification.”
Photo by New Bottom Line
It contrasts with their recent announcement that the bank is sending out 200,000 letters asking for mortgage holders to apply for principal write down. But digging deeper into the announcement reveals it at a nice publicity stunt as David Dayen notes.
Protesters want to highlight the hypocrisy coming from Bank of America executives and other billion dollar corporations. Their continued ownership of our nation’s democracy has harmed the lives of many of the protesters. Prior to the rally on Wednesday, organizers staged a boxing match titled “Bank versus America” which pitted a person portraying BofA CEO Brian Moynihan and another representing the 99 percent. In the end, the 99 percent won but for now the fight continues.
The youth burdened with massive student loan debt. Homeowners pledged by banks unwilling to work with them. Asthma, cancer, stroke, heart disease added to communities due to dirty coal and mountaintop removal. Neighborhoods and communities destroyed because of a big bank’s desire for profit over everyday people.
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