Post by mhuttman on Jun 25, 2012 16:01:08 GMT -5
OK guys, this took me hours to get to this point, so please don't be TOO harsh with it
Full list of proposed grievances, re-formatted
(To view the un-formatted list, please visit www.the99declaration.org/full_text)
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FORMAT:
[Grievance numeric-ID] / [CategoryCode & numeric-ID]
[Grievance text]
Possible Solution(s): [solution 1]
[solutions 2-n]
CATEGORIES: I re-grouped these grievances into catagories based on the range of issues that are covered. Ex. Government reform, election reform, corporations, etc.
SOLUTIONS: These are the proposed solutions as listed in the original text. I added a few of my own solution ideas where appropriate. Frankly, this part of the document should be considerd AFTER we vote on which grievances to keep, since I'm sure we all have different ideas for fixing these issues.
NOTE: I gave two IDs to each proposed grievance. These are merely a suggestion for a way that we can more easily label the different grievances when voting, in discussions, etc. This also co-insides with my proposed voting agenda, where we would take paper ballots and write down each of these IDs with our Yay/Nay votes beside them in order to start eliminating grievances... The first ID is if we wanted a simple number to identify each grievance (Ex. grievance #47 on the list would be the 47th grievance on the list.) The second ID also has a letter to group the grievances into categories (Ex. I-2 would refer to the second Immigration-based grievance on the list.)
Also, just because I typed these up does NOT mean that I agree with all of them! In fact, a few of the proposals listed below made me go "WTF?!?" We'll figure out which of these things we all agree on once we get to Philly.
THANKS: The format is based on john's work from another thread. Thanks, john, for getting this started!
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Corporate/1% Abuse
ID 1 / C-1
Grievance: Corporations Are Not People
Possible Solutions: Corporations, unions, political organizations and all entities created by operation of law are not human beings and any law, rule, regulation or court ruling so holding must be overruled, repealed or overturned even if it requires a Constitutional amendment. The justification of essential powers of corporations must be justified by the courts in another way than by deciding the corporations are human.
ID 2 / C-2
Grievance: Money Is Property Not Speech
Possible Solutions: Money is not speech it is property and any law, rule, regulation or court ruling so holding must be overruled, repealed or overturned even if it requires a Constitutional amendment.
ID 3 / C-3
Grievance: Income inequality between the 1% and the 99% has been rapidly growing for 30 years.
Possible Solutions: Since we now have the income inequality of a third-world power we must reverse the destruction of the middle class.
A Progressive tax on gross income, from a minimum tax rate of X% to a maximum tax rate of 3X% could be helpful.
Replacing the bracket income tax system with an exponential formula would more rationally extend progressive income taxation to realistically include the very wealthy.
Revisit the question of tax deductions.
ID 4 / C-4
Grievance: Consumers are not protected from predatory practices.
Possible Solutions: Immediate reenactment of the Glass-Steagall Act; implementation of the regulations required under the Dodd-Franks Act; vigorous enforcement of the “Volcker Rule” and enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in all industries to enhance competition and free speech.
Have the SEC stop merely slapping the hands of criminal corporations; have them impose significant fines, and make the documentation public.
Creation and proper funding of a non-partisan task force specifically designed to regulate mortgage-backed securities and speculative financial instruments and attempt solutions to the home mortgage problem.
ID 5 / C-5
Grievance: Broadcast and cable television, radio and print communications are controlled by a few biased corporations and individuals. This pollutes the national discourse and allows propaganda to unfairly influence elections.
Possible Solutions: New laws and regulations must be passed immediately to fund, authorize and mandate the Anti-Trust Division of the U.S. Justice Department to break-up the 6-10 massive media conglomerates that control virtually all media content which is an existential threat to free thought and speech in the United States.
Public broadcasting licenses granted by the FCC and other regulators must mandate calendar specific dates and specific time slots which are available to candidates for elected federal office at a 90% discounted market rate for the purpose of campaigning whether funded by taxpayers or by private sources.
ID 6 / C-6
Grievance: Foreclosures due to bankers' greedy and deceptive practices are destroying lives and damaging our economy.
Possible Solutions: An immediate freeze on all primary residential home foreclosures (not second homes) and new direct loan mortgages or refinancing to all homeowners by the federal government at the discount window rate (about 0-.25%) less processing fees incurred by the federal government; all lending institutions shall barred from the mortgage writing business in favor of these direct federal loans.
Creation and proper funding of a non-partisan task force specifically designed to regulate mortgage-backed securities and speculative financial instruments.
ID 7 / C-7
Grievance: Corporations have free reign to pursue profits at the expense of ordinary citizens, similar to the way that corporations conducted business in the Guilded Age. Corporations are getting away with criminal activities, hurting Americans and causing ruin for too many families. (Need help wording this one more strongly.)
Possible Solutions: Increased funding for the SEC, FINRA, CFTC, CFPB, and to the Justice Department and State Attorneys General to investigate potential criminal practices of the Securities and Banking industries especially in the areas of mortgage backed securities, hedge funds and speculation
Economy
ID 8 / E-1
Grievance: Citizens who are willing and able to work can't find jobs.
Possible Solutions: Businesses hire when and only when there is demand, when people buy their products. Demand is the major determinant of job creation. Fund infrastructure maintenance to ensure our future and to give the workers buying power. Tax incentives should be created to replace American Jobs with outsourced ones.
Passage of a comprehensive jobs and job-training act like the "American Jobs Act" to employ our citizens in jobs that are available with free relocation services, specialized re-training through partnerships between companies seeking employees and community colleges and other educational institutions.
Re-institution of the Works Progress Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps and similar emergency governmental agencies tasked with creating new projects to provide jobs for the families of the 151 million People living in poverty and low income homes.
Tax incentives granted to companies who partner with educational institutions to re-train workers to work in green energy and new sources of American manufacturing to reduce reliance on imported goods, services and natural resources.
Tax incentives should also be offered to U.S. companies that invest in reconstructing the manufacturing capacity of the United States and hiring our citizens to produce and innovate.
Tax incentives to entice businesses to hire our citizens rather than outsource jobs and a new “outsourcing tax” should be introduced to discourage businesses from sending jobs overseas and companies that continue to outsource will be barred from earning income in U.S. markets.
ID 9 / E-2
Grievance: Women are discriminated against in compensation compared to men.
Possible Solutions: Immediate passage of a law, similar to the “Lilly Ledbetter” bill, requiring equal pay for women with stiff financial penalties imposed on employers for violating the law.
ID 10 / E-3
Grievance: A huge national debt seems irresponsible.
Possible Solutions: Most of our discretionary spending going to "Defense" sets us at a disadvantage with other countries. We might consider restoring the Clinton era income tax rates, increasing the capital gains tax rate, initiation a transaction tax, ending the hedge fund loophole, ending oil and gas subsidies, and mandatory cuts.
Passage of a law to reduce the $15 trillion national debt to a sustainable percentage of GDP by 2020 by re-implementing the Clinton era income tax rates, increasing the capital gains tax rate, ending the hedge fund loophole, no oil and gas subsidies, and mandatory cuts in defense and entitlement spending except for social security which is self-sustaining.
ID 11 / E-4
Grievance: Prospective students increasingly cannot afford college.
Possible Solutions: Because education is the only way to secure our future success as a nation, interest on student debts must be immediately reduced to 2% or less (plus the discount window rate currently 0.0 to 0.25%) and repayments deferred for periods of unemployment or illness or disability. Employers will receive a student loan repayment tax deduction for paying off the student loans of their employees.
Outright federal grants provided to those students who pursue and obtain degrees in the sciences, green energy, environmental sustainability, mathematics, technology and engineering.
Public and private universities and colleges that do not reduce tuition to affordable levels so that middle class-families can again afford to send their children to obtain a higher education shall lose all federal funding including grants and loans.
To reduce the principal on all outstanding student loans, a financial transaction surcharge, similar to those fees charged by banks on consumers, will be introduced to banks and securities firms.
ID 12 / E-5
Grievance: China's currency manipulation is damaging our economic recovery.
Possible Solutions: Congress must pass immediate legislation (see e.g. H.R. 639) to encourage China (which undervalues its currency by up to 40%) to end currency manipulation and take additional steps to reduce our massive trade deficit.
ID 13 / E-6
Grievance: The Federal Reserve Bank is corrupting our economy, and needs to be abolished.
Possible Solutions: The immediate formation of a non-partisan commission to audit and investigate the short-term and long-term economic risks and benefits in eliminating the Federal Reserve Bank and transferring all its functions to the United States Treasury Department
ID 14 / E-7
Grievance: The federal budget is not balanced and cannot be balanced while there is a lack of political collaboration in Congress.
Possible Solutions: Passage of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
Passage of the line item veto amendment to the Constitution to prevent "pork" and unpopular amendments from stalling the passage of budget bills.
ID 15 / E-8
Grievance: The GDP figure is not an accurate means to measure our nation's economic health.
Proposed Solutions: The United States government shall begin to measure economic growth by the GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator) rather than GDP (Gross Domestic Product)
Taxes
ID 16 / T-1
Grievance: The current income tax system is unfair, since the richest Americans' effective tax rates can be lower than those with less income.
Possible Solutions: Create a executive task force that will revise the US tax code to eliminate ALL loopholes, deductions, and other means of lowering individual income taxes.
Replace the current income tax with a progressive tax on gross income, from a minimum tax rate of X% to a maximum tax rate of 3X%.
Elimination of all tax deductions except: (1) interest paid on mortgages for one's primary residence; (2) Contributions to charitable institutions, up to a total of one-tenth of annual gross income; (3) Interest earned on bonds issued by the governments of any state, municipality or other sub-division of the federal and U.S. domestic government.
ID 17 / T-2
Grievance: The current sales tax is not sufficient for the United States to generate revenue.
Possible Solutions: A federal consumption tax of 10% on each dollar except for purchases of food, medicine, housing and clothing.
ID 18 / T-3
Grievance: Corporations are avoiding paying taxes in the United States through deductions, loopholes, and incorporating in other countries.
Possible Solutions: Any corporation or entity that does business in the United States and generates income from that business in the United States shall be fully taxed on that income by removing deductions, subsidies and loopholes regardless of corporate domicile or they will be barred from earning their profits in the United States.
ID 19 / T-4
Grievance: Individuals engaged in financial transactions are evading taxes by treating income as "capital gains."
Possible Solutions: The $4 billion per year “hedge fund loophole” which permits certain individuals engaged in financial transactions to evade graduated income tax rates by treating their income as capital gains shall be immediately abolished.
ID 20 / T-5
Grievance: The poorest American families are unfairly burdened with taxes that they cannot afford to pay.
Possible Solutions: No household with an income at or below the poverty line (responsibility for making this calculation having been shifted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) shall be subject to federal income tax action.
Elections/Government
ID 21 / G-1
Grievance: The people's control of elections has been replaced with money control of elections.
Possible Solutions: New legislation to enact a 100% public campaign finance system requiring an immediate ban on all direct and indirect private contributions of money, or anything of value, from all sources including individuals, to all politicians or political parties to be replaced by a "blind" public trust whereby taxpayers will fund all federal election campaigns. Private donors may also contribute to the blind trust for a tax deduction but those private contributions may not be earmarked for a specific candidate or political party.
Adopting Professor Lawrence Lessig's $50 voucher system with $100 private contribution limits in federal political campaigns.
New legislation to impose a $2500 aggregate campaign contributions limit per human being per election cycle. Legal entities such as corporations, PACS, Super-PACS and unions to be barred from making any direct or indirect contributions to politicians.
A total ban on corporate and union political expenditures to or in favor of political candidates or political parties.
Retaining the current campaign finance system but enacting new laws making all direct and indirect political contributions to politicians and political parties completely transparent and published online and elsewhere. Specifically, there must be total transparency for any person, corporation, union or other entity including PACS, Super-PACS or not-for-profit organizations that make political contributions or buy advertising time to advocate for any politician, political party or political view because money is property and not speech.
New laws banning all private expenditures on advertisements endorsing a particular candidate or political party or attacking a candidate or political party
New laws banning foreign money and the use of cash in all federal political campaigns.
ID 22 / G-2
Grievance: Why can't we have a permanent voting registration like other countries instead of periodically disenfranchising voters? Our districts are gerrymandered instead of fairly representing American citizens.
Possible Solutions: Create a permanent voting roll; other countries successfully do it. The federal government could issue free photo identification cards to all voters should voter fraud ever be proven to constitute a significant threat..
Replace the practice of "gerrymandering" with a non-partisan commission to redraw all voting district lines using a neutral, objective mathematical formula or algorithm that does not take into consideration the wealth, party affiliation, race, religion or other demographics of voters.
ID 23 / G-3
Grievance: It is hard to vote incumbents out of office.
Possible Solutions: No new term limits should be imposed but new laws enacted so that Senators will not serve consecutive (six-year) terms and Representatives shall not serve more than two (two-year) terms consecutively.
Senators may not serve more than two terms total. Representatives may not serve more than three terms total.
Supreme Court Justices may serve for up to 10 years (my suggestion to prevent the "political" SCOTUS issue that we have today.)
ID 24 / G-4
Grievance: Voters are disenfranchised because the Electoral College is not as fair of a system as the popular vote.
Possible Solutions: Abolishing the Electoral College In favor of the popular vote In presidential elections.
ID 25 / G-5
Grievance: Many Americans are not able to vote due to work or school obligations.
Possible Solutions: Election day shall becomes a federal holiday requiring employees and educational institutions to provide sufficient time for all eligible persons to vote on that day. (I re-worded this solution a bit to be more inclusive of Americans in general instead of just employees.)
ID 26 / G-6
Grievance: Too few Americans vote, which is causing special interests to win elections instead of the will of the American populace.
Possible Solutions: Compulsory voting with fines imposed on voters for failing to vote.
ID 27 / G-7
Grievance: There is a gender bias towards men in Congress.
Possible Solutions: New election laws and rules, and amendment of the constitution if necessary, to provide for a gender balance in Congress so that 50% of the seats are reserved for people who identify as women and 50% reserved for people who identify as men.
ID 28 / G-8
Grievance: It is too easy for voting machines to be tampered with, causing fraudulent election results.
Possible Solutions: Uniform rules for the mandatory use of verifiable, tamper-proof voting machines in all states supervised by the Federal Elections Commission rather than local political parties.
New federal laws passed authorizing the FEC to impose uniform rules in all states and districts setting forth the criteria for excluding a person from voting and the use of the same verifiable voting systems in all voting precincts; all elections are to be run by employees of the Federal Election Commission only; municipalities will no longer run elections when federal candidates are running for office; the federal government shall pay for this uniform, secure, cost-effective and verifiable voting system. (Note: The way this solution is currently worded can put it in a few places. Its also a bit redundant.)
ID 29 / G-9
Grievance: Some Americans are being denied their right to vote due to political actions & Voter ID laws.
Possible Solutions: New election laws banning all rules in all states that hinder the right to vote whether it is called a test or requiring the presentation of identification; the federal government shall issue free photo identification cards to all voters.
ID 30 / G-10
Grievance: Ballot access laws unfairly keep third party candidates off of the ballots.
Possible Solutions: New election laws banning all rules in all states that prevent equal access to the ballot by giving advantages to certain political parties or penalizing independent candidates for office.
New federal laws requiring that no political party shall be privileged or receive special advantage in any state for their candidates running for Congress or the Presidency.
ID 31 / G-11
Grievance: Political polling is corrupting our democratic process, turning it into a "game."
Possible Solutions: New election laws to ban all publically reported polling two weeks before election day and completely ending the practice of so-called "exit polling" and early return reporting by the media which contaminates the democratic process.
ID 32 / G-12
Grievance: Primaries in many areas are "closed," i.e. that citizens are denied access to vote in every primary race due to a registered party affiliation.
Possible Solutions: Open primaries in all states for all parties in all races for federal office so that all voters may vote in any primary.
ID 33 / G-13
Grievance: The candidates with the most money are running more ads on television, radio, websites, etc. which is creating an unfair advantage over less-funded candidates. This effectively drowns-out the opposing viewpoint, and may negatively influence voters to vote against their interests.
Possible Solutions: Reinstatement of the "equal time" rules so that each candidate for office is given equal free air time on television, radio, cable, or any other medium licensed and regulated by the federal government.
Ethics in Government
ID 34 / GE-1
Grievance: The "revolving door" employment of government employees into companies that they regulated while in office must end in order to prevent corporate corruption.
Possible Solutions: After leaving government service, no federal elected or unelected official shall receive anything of value, for a period of five years, or work in any capacity to influence the actions of the federal government, with the sole exception of exercising their own personal First Amendment right to speak and publish.
The revolving door between the federal government and the private lobbying sector must be closed and no federal employee, official or politicians may ever work as a lobbyist upon leaving office.
ID 35 / GE-2
Grievance: Our elected officials are being bribed by lobbyists and other special interests in order to influence votes, bills, or other functions of government.
Possible Solutions: All federal employees, politicians and officials are entitled to their salary, benefits, pension and nothing else. Any gift or thing of value given or promised to a politician or federal employee or immediate family valued at more than $5 will be deemed a bribe and punished under the criminal laws.
New laws to require mandatory minimum prison sentences for anyone convicted, upon plea or after trial, of public corruption or bribery involving any public official or employee.
No elected or unelected official or their immediate family members may hold stocks of any public company while in office or five years after leaving office unless said stocks are held in a blind investment trust.
No member of the military shall own or hold any stock or share in any corporation or other entity that the official specifically regulates while in service and shall last five years after the term of military service ends.
ID 36 / GE-3
Grievance: Americans do not have enough oversight regarding Congressional corruption and ethical missteps.
Possible Solutions: Amend the constitution to establish an elected "General Public Assembly" as a fourth branch of government to oversee the two houses of Congress in all matters particularly ethics.
ID 37 / GE-4
Grievance: Insider trading is unfair, especially since Congressmen can engage in this practice while it is illegal for other citizens to do so.
Possible Solutions: Immediate passage of laws stating that the trading of inside information shall be a crime for all elected and unelected officials and government employees just as it is a crime for all other Americans. No politician or government employee is above the law.
ID 38 / GE-5
Grievance: The "filibister rule" has gridlocked Congress so that nothing substantial can be passed. This has negative implications for Americans when in-action causes negative effects such as the recent downgrade of the United States' credit rating.
Possible Solutions: New laws enacted to end the so-called “filibuster rule” in the Senate, which requires a supermajority of votes to pass virtually any legislation.
Healthcare
ID 39 / H-1
Grievance: We do not have a single payer universal health care for all like all the non-third-world countries do. Profits drive decisions in health care to the detriment of Americans' personal and financial health.
Possible Solutions: Repeal of prior healthcare laws and immediate enactment of "Medicare for all" or a new single-payer healthcare system. There are enough systems out there to provide models.
ID 40 / H-2
Grievance: Obesity is an epidemic in our schools. Our children are becoming unhealthy due to poor diets and lack of exercise.
Possible Solutions: Reintroduction of compulsory exercise programs in all public schools to combat the epidemic of obesity.
A new law banning soft drinks or other high-sugar foods from being sold or advertised in our public schools.
US Territories Issues
ID 41 / UST-1
Grievance: It is time to grant Puerto Rico statehood.
Possible Solutions: A Congress sanctioned and binding process aimed to fully decolonize Puerto Rico using internationally recognized non-territorial, non-colonial status formulas resulting in statehood, independence or free association.
ID 42 / UST-2
Grievance: "Insular cases" have damaged Puerto Rico and other US territories. (Anyone have some more info on this?)
Possible Solutions: Declaratory relief from the US Supreme Court for citizens residing in Puerto Rico and the four US territories to revise and repeal of the so-called "insular cases".
ID 43 / UST-3
Grievance: The people of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico do not have full representation in Congress.
Possible Solution: Full voting representation in Congress for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
ID 44 / UST-4
Grievance: The people of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are not taxed the same as citizens in the rest of the US.
Possible Solution: Tax reforms to treat the citizens of Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as if they were citizens of any other state.
Veteran's Issues
ID 45 / V-1
Grievance: Veterans currently do not have access to the same health care as active-duty service members, causing many of our heroes to go without healthcare.
Possible Solution: All Veterans and their dependents must have access to the consolidated military health care system just as active duty dependents have access.
ID 46 / V-2
Grievance: Some of our veterans cannot obtain employment due to the economic conditions or missed educational opportunities due to military service.
Possible Solution: Funding must be increased to assist veterans returning to civilian life to pursue their education goals and become gainfully employed.
Foreign Policy
ID 47 / F-1
Grievance: We are always at war with some nation.
Possible Solutions: Fund "Peace Think Tanks."
Enact a surtax to pay for any war. This will allow the populace to soberly reflect on the need for any given war.
Moneys spent on warfare should be transparent.
New laws to reinvigorate the War Powers Resolution to limit the deployment of military forces to only those instances where Congressional approval has been granted by at least a simple majority in both houses.
ID 48 / F-2
Grievance: Too many of our men and women are dying in wars in the Middle East that America should not have started in the first place.
Possible Solution: Immediately recalling all combat troops from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and any other nation in the Middle Eastern region.
ID 49 / F-3
Grievance: The richest Americans are profiting off of wars that the poorest Americans fight in. This is unfair and unjust.
Possible Solutions: Reinstitution of the draft or mandatory public service for males and females without any deferments or exceptions so that the wealthy and privileged who profit from war will be required to send their children to die with the children of the poor and middle class.
New laws to counter the Military Industrial Complex’s mission of perpetual war for profit, particularly in the Middle East, which dramatically benefits the Oil and Gas Industrial Complex due to fluctuations and speculation in the price of oil caused by incessant and unwarranted military intervention.
Amend the Constitution to require all acts of war to be passed by simple majority vote of the American people. (My idea)
ID 50 / F-4
Grievance: We the people no longer want to live in fear of the "Iron Curtain" of nuclear warfare. Nuclear weapons are inhumane and are a danger to the entire human race.
Possible Solution: A new treaty with Russia, China, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Israel and the other countries with nuclear weapons or plans to make nuclear weapons, to reduce the number of nuclear weapons so complete nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation may be achieved by 2020 or sooner.Arrest and extradition to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, any person indicted or charged with war crimes, on upon probable cause, for intentionally and knowingly engaging in warfare based upon a false premise or pretext.
The Justice System
ID 51 / J-1
Grievance: The Criminal Justice System is fostering a “Private Prison Industrial Complex” which is very expensive. We lead the world with the percent of our population in Prison.
Possible Solutions: Curtailing the “Private Prison Industrial Complex” by removing all incentives in the legal system set-up to imprison non-violent drug offenders and the mentally ill rather than treat or provide alternatives to incarceration. Non-violent drug offenders who do not engage in drug sales, and those with mental health issues must be treated rather than imprisoned and adjudicated through specialized drug and mental health courts.
ID 52 / J-2
Grievance: The death penalty is inhumane and needs to be abolished.
Possible Solutions: Abolish the death penalty in all states or lose federal funding for law enforcement.
(NOTE: I skipped "The federal government and all states must provide a free attorney to every criminal defendants at all stages of every criminal case beginning at arrest and arraignment or lose all federal funding for law enforcement." Isn't this already covered under your Miranda rights? Maybe I'm not getting the actual intent of this proposed grievance?)
ID 53 / J-3
Grievance: Marijuana-based convictions and law enforcement is creating a large drain on our economy, enabling corruption, and destroying American lives.
Possible Solutions: Legalization of marihuana for recreational and medicinal use in all US Jurisdictions or loss of federal funding for law enforcement to states and municipalities.
ID 54 / J-4
Grievance: Many accused citizens cannot afford the DNA testing that they need in order to prove their innocence, allowing these cases to be decided on which side has the most funding vs. the truth.
Possible Solutions: Require that all prisoners be granted a DNA test at taxpayer expense in their cases if a genetic sample is available in the particular case.
ID 55 / J-5
Grievance: The United States currently is NOT under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. (NOTE: Does anyone have background on this? Anyone know WHY the US isn't under this jurisdiction?)
Possible Solutions: The United States should sign the treaty submitting to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which tries individuals for committing war crimes.
ID 56 / J-6
Grievances: Felons are unfairly being denied their right to vote.
Possible Solutions: All laws prohibiting convicted felons from voting must be repealed unless the felon was convicted of election or voter fraud.
Immigration
ID 57 / I-1
Grievance: Immigration Reform is long overdue.
Possible Solutions: Congress should immediately pass the “The Dream Act”.
New legislation should be enacted to secure our borders while streamlining the path to US citizenship especially for those qualified to work in high demand industries or skills required in the United States.
Non-citizens who obtain their education in the United States in highly demand fields should be provided an accelerated path to citizenship so the investments made in these students remain in the United States.
Civil Rights
ID 58 / CR-1
Grievance: Freedom of speech is increasingly being attacked via various copyright and security bills.
Proposed Solution: New treaties, laws and regulations must be passed to ensure that the Internet will remain free for all people in the world to use and express themselves without government or corporate interference.
The immediate ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. (What amendment is this talking about? Might want to add some more info here.)
ID 59 / CR-2
Grievance: Portions of the Patriot Act and the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act take away many of Americans' civil rights as provided to them in the US Constitution. (Maybe list the specific Amendments that are violated?)
Proposed Solution: Repeal those portions of the Patriot Act that limit civil rights and repeal of those sections of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that permit indefinite detention of US Citizens.
ID 60 / CR-3
Grievance: The federal government is denying some Americans the rights that other Americans can enjoy, specifically the right to marriage, due to a bias toward Christian beliefs. This is unconstitutional.
Proposed Solution: Repeal the "Defense of Marriage Act."
Environment
ID 61 / EN-1
Grievance: Corporations are making our air, water, and food unsafe in order to increase profits.
Possible Solutions: The rights to clean air, water, safe food, and conservation of the planet for future generations shall no longer be infringed by greed-driven corporations and selfish individuals who care for nothing except money and instant gratification.
New comprehensive treaties, laws and regulations must be immediately enacted to give the Environmental Protection Agency, and other environmental protection regulators around the world, expanded cross-border powers and resources to shut down corporations, businesses or entities that intentionally or recklessly damage the environment.
No “corporate veil” protection for any employee, officer or director of a corporation that is directly or indirectly engaged in the intentional or reckless decimation of the planet for profit.
ID 62 / EN-2
Grievance: Our nation is still greatly involved in "dirty energy" such as coal and oil, which is hurting our environment and our economy.
Possible Solutions: A new federal charter to establish a "Green Bank" to fund "Demand Driven Clean Energy" including electric and low emission vehicles, solar, wind, fusion, hydroelectric, geothermal.
Tax incentives to rapidly transition away from poisonous fossil fuels and nuclear energy {those government subsidies should be eliminated immediately} to safe, non-toxic, reusable or carbon neutral sources of energy such as wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric.
ID 63 / EN-3
Grievance: Recycling and waste management policies are non consistent across the nation, which is leading to increased pollution and more recyclable goods ending up in our nation's landfills.
Possible Solutions: New federal laws enforcing mandatory recycling programs now in effect in some US cities and many countries must be uniformly adopted in the US in addition to controlling the unchecked dumping of waste into our oceans, air and ground by imposing meaningful fines on violators.
ID 64 / EN-4
Grievance: The amount of CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) is the air is too high, and could lead to negative effects on our environment and our health.
Possible Solutions: A new treaty to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from its current level of 392 parts per million to below 350 parts per million.
Full list of proposed grievances, re-formatted
(To view the un-formatted list, please visit www.the99declaration.org/full_text)
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FORMAT:
[Grievance numeric-ID] / [CategoryCode & numeric-ID]
[Grievance text]
Possible Solution(s): [solution 1]
[solutions 2-n]
CATEGORIES: I re-grouped these grievances into catagories based on the range of issues that are covered. Ex. Government reform, election reform, corporations, etc.
SOLUTIONS: These are the proposed solutions as listed in the original text. I added a few of my own solution ideas where appropriate. Frankly, this part of the document should be considerd AFTER we vote on which grievances to keep, since I'm sure we all have different ideas for fixing these issues.
NOTE: I gave two IDs to each proposed grievance. These are merely a suggestion for a way that we can more easily label the different grievances when voting, in discussions, etc. This also co-insides with my proposed voting agenda, where we would take paper ballots and write down each of these IDs with our Yay/Nay votes beside them in order to start eliminating grievances... The first ID is if we wanted a simple number to identify each grievance (Ex. grievance #47 on the list would be the 47th grievance on the list.) The second ID also has a letter to group the grievances into categories (Ex. I-2 would refer to the second Immigration-based grievance on the list.)
Also, just because I typed these up does NOT mean that I agree with all of them! In fact, a few of the proposals listed below made me go "WTF?!?" We'll figure out which of these things we all agree on once we get to Philly.
THANKS: The format is based on john's work from another thread. Thanks, john, for getting this started!
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Corporate/1% Abuse
ID 1 / C-1
Grievance: Corporations Are Not People
Possible Solutions: Corporations, unions, political organizations and all entities created by operation of law are not human beings and any law, rule, regulation or court ruling so holding must be overruled, repealed or overturned even if it requires a Constitutional amendment. The justification of essential powers of corporations must be justified by the courts in another way than by deciding the corporations are human.
ID 2 / C-2
Grievance: Money Is Property Not Speech
Possible Solutions: Money is not speech it is property and any law, rule, regulation or court ruling so holding must be overruled, repealed or overturned even if it requires a Constitutional amendment.
ID 3 / C-3
Grievance: Income inequality between the 1% and the 99% has been rapidly growing for 30 years.
Possible Solutions: Since we now have the income inequality of a third-world power we must reverse the destruction of the middle class.
A Progressive tax on gross income, from a minimum tax rate of X% to a maximum tax rate of 3X% could be helpful.
Replacing the bracket income tax system with an exponential formula would more rationally extend progressive income taxation to realistically include the very wealthy.
Revisit the question of tax deductions.
ID 4 / C-4
Grievance: Consumers are not protected from predatory practices.
Possible Solutions: Immediate reenactment of the Glass-Steagall Act; implementation of the regulations required under the Dodd-Franks Act; vigorous enforcement of the “Volcker Rule” and enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in all industries to enhance competition and free speech.
Have the SEC stop merely slapping the hands of criminal corporations; have them impose significant fines, and make the documentation public.
Creation and proper funding of a non-partisan task force specifically designed to regulate mortgage-backed securities and speculative financial instruments and attempt solutions to the home mortgage problem.
ID 5 / C-5
Grievance: Broadcast and cable television, radio and print communications are controlled by a few biased corporations and individuals. This pollutes the national discourse and allows propaganda to unfairly influence elections.
Possible Solutions: New laws and regulations must be passed immediately to fund, authorize and mandate the Anti-Trust Division of the U.S. Justice Department to break-up the 6-10 massive media conglomerates that control virtually all media content which is an existential threat to free thought and speech in the United States.
Public broadcasting licenses granted by the FCC and other regulators must mandate calendar specific dates and specific time slots which are available to candidates for elected federal office at a 90% discounted market rate for the purpose of campaigning whether funded by taxpayers or by private sources.
ID 6 / C-6
Grievance: Foreclosures due to bankers' greedy and deceptive practices are destroying lives and damaging our economy.
Possible Solutions: An immediate freeze on all primary residential home foreclosures (not second homes) and new direct loan mortgages or refinancing to all homeowners by the federal government at the discount window rate (about 0-.25%) less processing fees incurred by the federal government; all lending institutions shall barred from the mortgage writing business in favor of these direct federal loans.
Creation and proper funding of a non-partisan task force specifically designed to regulate mortgage-backed securities and speculative financial instruments.
ID 7 / C-7
Grievance: Corporations have free reign to pursue profits at the expense of ordinary citizens, similar to the way that corporations conducted business in the Guilded Age. Corporations are getting away with criminal activities, hurting Americans and causing ruin for too many families. (Need help wording this one more strongly.)
Possible Solutions: Increased funding for the SEC, FINRA, CFTC, CFPB, and to the Justice Department and State Attorneys General to investigate potential criminal practices of the Securities and Banking industries especially in the areas of mortgage backed securities, hedge funds and speculation
Economy
ID 8 / E-1
Grievance: Citizens who are willing and able to work can't find jobs.
Possible Solutions: Businesses hire when and only when there is demand, when people buy their products. Demand is the major determinant of job creation. Fund infrastructure maintenance to ensure our future and to give the workers buying power. Tax incentives should be created to replace American Jobs with outsourced ones.
Passage of a comprehensive jobs and job-training act like the "American Jobs Act" to employ our citizens in jobs that are available with free relocation services, specialized re-training through partnerships between companies seeking employees and community colleges and other educational institutions.
Re-institution of the Works Progress Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps and similar emergency governmental agencies tasked with creating new projects to provide jobs for the families of the 151 million People living in poverty and low income homes.
Tax incentives granted to companies who partner with educational institutions to re-train workers to work in green energy and new sources of American manufacturing to reduce reliance on imported goods, services and natural resources.
Tax incentives should also be offered to U.S. companies that invest in reconstructing the manufacturing capacity of the United States and hiring our citizens to produce and innovate.
Tax incentives to entice businesses to hire our citizens rather than outsource jobs and a new “outsourcing tax” should be introduced to discourage businesses from sending jobs overseas and companies that continue to outsource will be barred from earning income in U.S. markets.
ID 9 / E-2
Grievance: Women are discriminated against in compensation compared to men.
Possible Solutions: Immediate passage of a law, similar to the “Lilly Ledbetter” bill, requiring equal pay for women with stiff financial penalties imposed on employers for violating the law.
ID 10 / E-3
Grievance: A huge national debt seems irresponsible.
Possible Solutions: Most of our discretionary spending going to "Defense" sets us at a disadvantage with other countries. We might consider restoring the Clinton era income tax rates, increasing the capital gains tax rate, initiation a transaction tax, ending the hedge fund loophole, ending oil and gas subsidies, and mandatory cuts.
Passage of a law to reduce the $15 trillion national debt to a sustainable percentage of GDP by 2020 by re-implementing the Clinton era income tax rates, increasing the capital gains tax rate, ending the hedge fund loophole, no oil and gas subsidies, and mandatory cuts in defense and entitlement spending except for social security which is self-sustaining.
ID 11 / E-4
Grievance: Prospective students increasingly cannot afford college.
Possible Solutions: Because education is the only way to secure our future success as a nation, interest on student debts must be immediately reduced to 2% or less (plus the discount window rate currently 0.0 to 0.25%) and repayments deferred for periods of unemployment or illness or disability. Employers will receive a student loan repayment tax deduction for paying off the student loans of their employees.
Outright federal grants provided to those students who pursue and obtain degrees in the sciences, green energy, environmental sustainability, mathematics, technology and engineering.
Public and private universities and colleges that do not reduce tuition to affordable levels so that middle class-families can again afford to send their children to obtain a higher education shall lose all federal funding including grants and loans.
To reduce the principal on all outstanding student loans, a financial transaction surcharge, similar to those fees charged by banks on consumers, will be introduced to banks and securities firms.
ID 12 / E-5
Grievance: China's currency manipulation is damaging our economic recovery.
Possible Solutions: Congress must pass immediate legislation (see e.g. H.R. 639) to encourage China (which undervalues its currency by up to 40%) to end currency manipulation and take additional steps to reduce our massive trade deficit.
ID 13 / E-6
Grievance: The Federal Reserve Bank is corrupting our economy, and needs to be abolished.
Possible Solutions: The immediate formation of a non-partisan commission to audit and investigate the short-term and long-term economic risks and benefits in eliminating the Federal Reserve Bank and transferring all its functions to the United States Treasury Department
ID 14 / E-7
Grievance: The federal budget is not balanced and cannot be balanced while there is a lack of political collaboration in Congress.
Possible Solutions: Passage of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
Passage of the line item veto amendment to the Constitution to prevent "pork" and unpopular amendments from stalling the passage of budget bills.
ID 15 / E-8
Grievance: The GDP figure is not an accurate means to measure our nation's economic health.
Proposed Solutions: The United States government shall begin to measure economic growth by the GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator) rather than GDP (Gross Domestic Product)
Taxes
ID 16 / T-1
Grievance: The current income tax system is unfair, since the richest Americans' effective tax rates can be lower than those with less income.
Possible Solutions: Create a executive task force that will revise the US tax code to eliminate ALL loopholes, deductions, and other means of lowering individual income taxes.
Replace the current income tax with a progressive tax on gross income, from a minimum tax rate of X% to a maximum tax rate of 3X%.
Elimination of all tax deductions except: (1) interest paid on mortgages for one's primary residence; (2) Contributions to charitable institutions, up to a total of one-tenth of annual gross income; (3) Interest earned on bonds issued by the governments of any state, municipality or other sub-division of the federal and U.S. domestic government.
ID 17 / T-2
Grievance: The current sales tax is not sufficient for the United States to generate revenue.
Possible Solutions: A federal consumption tax of 10% on each dollar except for purchases of food, medicine, housing and clothing.
ID 18 / T-3
Grievance: Corporations are avoiding paying taxes in the United States through deductions, loopholes, and incorporating in other countries.
Possible Solutions: Any corporation or entity that does business in the United States and generates income from that business in the United States shall be fully taxed on that income by removing deductions, subsidies and loopholes regardless of corporate domicile or they will be barred from earning their profits in the United States.
ID 19 / T-4
Grievance: Individuals engaged in financial transactions are evading taxes by treating income as "capital gains."
Possible Solutions: The $4 billion per year “hedge fund loophole” which permits certain individuals engaged in financial transactions to evade graduated income tax rates by treating their income as capital gains shall be immediately abolished.
ID 20 / T-5
Grievance: The poorest American families are unfairly burdened with taxes that they cannot afford to pay.
Possible Solutions: No household with an income at or below the poverty line (responsibility for making this calculation having been shifted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) shall be subject to federal income tax action.
Elections/Government
ID 21 / G-1
Grievance: The people's control of elections has been replaced with money control of elections.
Possible Solutions: New legislation to enact a 100% public campaign finance system requiring an immediate ban on all direct and indirect private contributions of money, or anything of value, from all sources including individuals, to all politicians or political parties to be replaced by a "blind" public trust whereby taxpayers will fund all federal election campaigns. Private donors may also contribute to the blind trust for a tax deduction but those private contributions may not be earmarked for a specific candidate or political party.
Adopting Professor Lawrence Lessig's $50 voucher system with $100 private contribution limits in federal political campaigns.
New legislation to impose a $2500 aggregate campaign contributions limit per human being per election cycle. Legal entities such as corporations, PACS, Super-PACS and unions to be barred from making any direct or indirect contributions to politicians.
A total ban on corporate and union political expenditures to or in favor of political candidates or political parties.
Retaining the current campaign finance system but enacting new laws making all direct and indirect political contributions to politicians and political parties completely transparent and published online and elsewhere. Specifically, there must be total transparency for any person, corporation, union or other entity including PACS, Super-PACS or not-for-profit organizations that make political contributions or buy advertising time to advocate for any politician, political party or political view because money is property and not speech.
New laws banning all private expenditures on advertisements endorsing a particular candidate or political party or attacking a candidate or political party
New laws banning foreign money and the use of cash in all federal political campaigns.
ID 22 / G-2
Grievance: Why can't we have a permanent voting registration like other countries instead of periodically disenfranchising voters? Our districts are gerrymandered instead of fairly representing American citizens.
Possible Solutions: Create a permanent voting roll; other countries successfully do it. The federal government could issue free photo identification cards to all voters should voter fraud ever be proven to constitute a significant threat..
Replace the practice of "gerrymandering" with a non-partisan commission to redraw all voting district lines using a neutral, objective mathematical formula or algorithm that does not take into consideration the wealth, party affiliation, race, religion or other demographics of voters.
ID 23 / G-3
Grievance: It is hard to vote incumbents out of office.
Possible Solutions: No new term limits should be imposed but new laws enacted so that Senators will not serve consecutive (six-year) terms and Representatives shall not serve more than two (two-year) terms consecutively.
Senators may not serve more than two terms total. Representatives may not serve more than three terms total.
Supreme Court Justices may serve for up to 10 years (my suggestion to prevent the "political" SCOTUS issue that we have today.)
ID 24 / G-4
Grievance: Voters are disenfranchised because the Electoral College is not as fair of a system as the popular vote.
Possible Solutions: Abolishing the Electoral College In favor of the popular vote In presidential elections.
ID 25 / G-5
Grievance: Many Americans are not able to vote due to work or school obligations.
Possible Solutions: Election day shall becomes a federal holiday requiring employees and educational institutions to provide sufficient time for all eligible persons to vote on that day. (I re-worded this solution a bit to be more inclusive of Americans in general instead of just employees.)
ID 26 / G-6
Grievance: Too few Americans vote, which is causing special interests to win elections instead of the will of the American populace.
Possible Solutions: Compulsory voting with fines imposed on voters for failing to vote.
ID 27 / G-7
Grievance: There is a gender bias towards men in Congress.
Possible Solutions: New election laws and rules, and amendment of the constitution if necessary, to provide for a gender balance in Congress so that 50% of the seats are reserved for people who identify as women and 50% reserved for people who identify as men.
ID 28 / G-8
Grievance: It is too easy for voting machines to be tampered with, causing fraudulent election results.
Possible Solutions: Uniform rules for the mandatory use of verifiable, tamper-proof voting machines in all states supervised by the Federal Elections Commission rather than local political parties.
New federal laws passed authorizing the FEC to impose uniform rules in all states and districts setting forth the criteria for excluding a person from voting and the use of the same verifiable voting systems in all voting precincts; all elections are to be run by employees of the Federal Election Commission only; municipalities will no longer run elections when federal candidates are running for office; the federal government shall pay for this uniform, secure, cost-effective and verifiable voting system. (Note: The way this solution is currently worded can put it in a few places. Its also a bit redundant.)
ID 29 / G-9
Grievance: Some Americans are being denied their right to vote due to political actions & Voter ID laws.
Possible Solutions: New election laws banning all rules in all states that hinder the right to vote whether it is called a test or requiring the presentation of identification; the federal government shall issue free photo identification cards to all voters.
ID 30 / G-10
Grievance: Ballot access laws unfairly keep third party candidates off of the ballots.
Possible Solutions: New election laws banning all rules in all states that prevent equal access to the ballot by giving advantages to certain political parties or penalizing independent candidates for office.
New federal laws requiring that no political party shall be privileged or receive special advantage in any state for their candidates running for Congress or the Presidency.
ID 31 / G-11
Grievance: Political polling is corrupting our democratic process, turning it into a "game."
Possible Solutions: New election laws to ban all publically reported polling two weeks before election day and completely ending the practice of so-called "exit polling" and early return reporting by the media which contaminates the democratic process.
ID 32 / G-12
Grievance: Primaries in many areas are "closed," i.e. that citizens are denied access to vote in every primary race due to a registered party affiliation.
Possible Solutions: Open primaries in all states for all parties in all races for federal office so that all voters may vote in any primary.
ID 33 / G-13
Grievance: The candidates with the most money are running more ads on television, radio, websites, etc. which is creating an unfair advantage over less-funded candidates. This effectively drowns-out the opposing viewpoint, and may negatively influence voters to vote against their interests.
Possible Solutions: Reinstatement of the "equal time" rules so that each candidate for office is given equal free air time on television, radio, cable, or any other medium licensed and regulated by the federal government.
Ethics in Government
ID 34 / GE-1
Grievance: The "revolving door" employment of government employees into companies that they regulated while in office must end in order to prevent corporate corruption.
Possible Solutions: After leaving government service, no federal elected or unelected official shall receive anything of value, for a period of five years, or work in any capacity to influence the actions of the federal government, with the sole exception of exercising their own personal First Amendment right to speak and publish.
The revolving door between the federal government and the private lobbying sector must be closed and no federal employee, official or politicians may ever work as a lobbyist upon leaving office.
ID 35 / GE-2
Grievance: Our elected officials are being bribed by lobbyists and other special interests in order to influence votes, bills, or other functions of government.
Possible Solutions: All federal employees, politicians and officials are entitled to their salary, benefits, pension and nothing else. Any gift or thing of value given or promised to a politician or federal employee or immediate family valued at more than $5 will be deemed a bribe and punished under the criminal laws.
New laws to require mandatory minimum prison sentences for anyone convicted, upon plea or after trial, of public corruption or bribery involving any public official or employee.
No elected or unelected official or their immediate family members may hold stocks of any public company while in office or five years after leaving office unless said stocks are held in a blind investment trust.
No member of the military shall own or hold any stock or share in any corporation or other entity that the official specifically regulates while in service and shall last five years after the term of military service ends.
ID 36 / GE-3
Grievance: Americans do not have enough oversight regarding Congressional corruption and ethical missteps.
Possible Solutions: Amend the constitution to establish an elected "General Public Assembly" as a fourth branch of government to oversee the two houses of Congress in all matters particularly ethics.
ID 37 / GE-4
Grievance: Insider trading is unfair, especially since Congressmen can engage in this practice while it is illegal for other citizens to do so.
Possible Solutions: Immediate passage of laws stating that the trading of inside information shall be a crime for all elected and unelected officials and government employees just as it is a crime for all other Americans. No politician or government employee is above the law.
ID 38 / GE-5
Grievance: The "filibister rule" has gridlocked Congress so that nothing substantial can be passed. This has negative implications for Americans when in-action causes negative effects such as the recent downgrade of the United States' credit rating.
Possible Solutions: New laws enacted to end the so-called “filibuster rule” in the Senate, which requires a supermajority of votes to pass virtually any legislation.
Healthcare
ID 39 / H-1
Grievance: We do not have a single payer universal health care for all like all the non-third-world countries do. Profits drive decisions in health care to the detriment of Americans' personal and financial health.
Possible Solutions: Repeal of prior healthcare laws and immediate enactment of "Medicare for all" or a new single-payer healthcare system. There are enough systems out there to provide models.
ID 40 / H-2
Grievance: Obesity is an epidemic in our schools. Our children are becoming unhealthy due to poor diets and lack of exercise.
Possible Solutions: Reintroduction of compulsory exercise programs in all public schools to combat the epidemic of obesity.
A new law banning soft drinks or other high-sugar foods from being sold or advertised in our public schools.
US Territories Issues
ID 41 / UST-1
Grievance: It is time to grant Puerto Rico statehood.
Possible Solutions: A Congress sanctioned and binding process aimed to fully decolonize Puerto Rico using internationally recognized non-territorial, non-colonial status formulas resulting in statehood, independence or free association.
ID 42 / UST-2
Grievance: "Insular cases" have damaged Puerto Rico and other US territories. (Anyone have some more info on this?)
Possible Solutions: Declaratory relief from the US Supreme Court for citizens residing in Puerto Rico and the four US territories to revise and repeal of the so-called "insular cases".
ID 43 / UST-3
Grievance: The people of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico do not have full representation in Congress.
Possible Solution: Full voting representation in Congress for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
ID 44 / UST-4
Grievance: The people of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are not taxed the same as citizens in the rest of the US.
Possible Solution: Tax reforms to treat the citizens of Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as if they were citizens of any other state.
Veteran's Issues
ID 45 / V-1
Grievance: Veterans currently do not have access to the same health care as active-duty service members, causing many of our heroes to go without healthcare.
Possible Solution: All Veterans and their dependents must have access to the consolidated military health care system just as active duty dependents have access.
ID 46 / V-2
Grievance: Some of our veterans cannot obtain employment due to the economic conditions or missed educational opportunities due to military service.
Possible Solution: Funding must be increased to assist veterans returning to civilian life to pursue their education goals and become gainfully employed.
Foreign Policy
ID 47 / F-1
Grievance: We are always at war with some nation.
Possible Solutions: Fund "Peace Think Tanks."
Enact a surtax to pay for any war. This will allow the populace to soberly reflect on the need for any given war.
Moneys spent on warfare should be transparent.
New laws to reinvigorate the War Powers Resolution to limit the deployment of military forces to only those instances where Congressional approval has been granted by at least a simple majority in both houses.
ID 48 / F-2
Grievance: Too many of our men and women are dying in wars in the Middle East that America should not have started in the first place.
Possible Solution: Immediately recalling all combat troops from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and any other nation in the Middle Eastern region.
ID 49 / F-3
Grievance: The richest Americans are profiting off of wars that the poorest Americans fight in. This is unfair and unjust.
Possible Solutions: Reinstitution of the draft or mandatory public service for males and females without any deferments or exceptions so that the wealthy and privileged who profit from war will be required to send their children to die with the children of the poor and middle class.
New laws to counter the Military Industrial Complex’s mission of perpetual war for profit, particularly in the Middle East, which dramatically benefits the Oil and Gas Industrial Complex due to fluctuations and speculation in the price of oil caused by incessant and unwarranted military intervention.
Amend the Constitution to require all acts of war to be passed by simple majority vote of the American people. (My idea)
ID 50 / F-4
Grievance: We the people no longer want to live in fear of the "Iron Curtain" of nuclear warfare. Nuclear weapons are inhumane and are a danger to the entire human race.
Possible Solution: A new treaty with Russia, China, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Israel and the other countries with nuclear weapons or plans to make nuclear weapons, to reduce the number of nuclear weapons so complete nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation may be achieved by 2020 or sooner.Arrest and extradition to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, any person indicted or charged with war crimes, on upon probable cause, for intentionally and knowingly engaging in warfare based upon a false premise or pretext.
The Justice System
ID 51 / J-1
Grievance: The Criminal Justice System is fostering a “Private Prison Industrial Complex” which is very expensive. We lead the world with the percent of our population in Prison.
Possible Solutions: Curtailing the “Private Prison Industrial Complex” by removing all incentives in the legal system set-up to imprison non-violent drug offenders and the mentally ill rather than treat or provide alternatives to incarceration. Non-violent drug offenders who do not engage in drug sales, and those with mental health issues must be treated rather than imprisoned and adjudicated through specialized drug and mental health courts.
ID 52 / J-2
Grievance: The death penalty is inhumane and needs to be abolished.
Possible Solutions: Abolish the death penalty in all states or lose federal funding for law enforcement.
(NOTE: I skipped "The federal government and all states must provide a free attorney to every criminal defendants at all stages of every criminal case beginning at arrest and arraignment or lose all federal funding for law enforcement." Isn't this already covered under your Miranda rights? Maybe I'm not getting the actual intent of this proposed grievance?)
ID 53 / J-3
Grievance: Marijuana-based convictions and law enforcement is creating a large drain on our economy, enabling corruption, and destroying American lives.
Possible Solutions: Legalization of marihuana for recreational and medicinal use in all US Jurisdictions or loss of federal funding for law enforcement to states and municipalities.
ID 54 / J-4
Grievance: Many accused citizens cannot afford the DNA testing that they need in order to prove their innocence, allowing these cases to be decided on which side has the most funding vs. the truth.
Possible Solutions: Require that all prisoners be granted a DNA test at taxpayer expense in their cases if a genetic sample is available in the particular case.
ID 55 / J-5
Grievance: The United States currently is NOT under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. (NOTE: Does anyone have background on this? Anyone know WHY the US isn't under this jurisdiction?)
Possible Solutions: The United States should sign the treaty submitting to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which tries individuals for committing war crimes.
ID 56 / J-6
Grievances: Felons are unfairly being denied their right to vote.
Possible Solutions: All laws prohibiting convicted felons from voting must be repealed unless the felon was convicted of election or voter fraud.
Immigration
ID 57 / I-1
Grievance: Immigration Reform is long overdue.
Possible Solutions: Congress should immediately pass the “The Dream Act”.
New legislation should be enacted to secure our borders while streamlining the path to US citizenship especially for those qualified to work in high demand industries or skills required in the United States.
Non-citizens who obtain their education in the United States in highly demand fields should be provided an accelerated path to citizenship so the investments made in these students remain in the United States.
Civil Rights
ID 58 / CR-1
Grievance: Freedom of speech is increasingly being attacked via various copyright and security bills.
Proposed Solution: New treaties, laws and regulations must be passed to ensure that the Internet will remain free for all people in the world to use and express themselves without government or corporate interference.
The immediate ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. (What amendment is this talking about? Might want to add some more info here.)
ID 59 / CR-2
Grievance: Portions of the Patriot Act and the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act take away many of Americans' civil rights as provided to them in the US Constitution. (Maybe list the specific Amendments that are violated?)
Proposed Solution: Repeal those portions of the Patriot Act that limit civil rights and repeal of those sections of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that permit indefinite detention of US Citizens.
ID 60 / CR-3
Grievance: The federal government is denying some Americans the rights that other Americans can enjoy, specifically the right to marriage, due to a bias toward Christian beliefs. This is unconstitutional.
Proposed Solution: Repeal the "Defense of Marriage Act."
Environment
ID 61 / EN-1
Grievance: Corporations are making our air, water, and food unsafe in order to increase profits.
Possible Solutions: The rights to clean air, water, safe food, and conservation of the planet for future generations shall no longer be infringed by greed-driven corporations and selfish individuals who care for nothing except money and instant gratification.
New comprehensive treaties, laws and regulations must be immediately enacted to give the Environmental Protection Agency, and other environmental protection regulators around the world, expanded cross-border powers and resources to shut down corporations, businesses or entities that intentionally or recklessly damage the environment.
No “corporate veil” protection for any employee, officer or director of a corporation that is directly or indirectly engaged in the intentional or reckless decimation of the planet for profit.
ID 62 / EN-2
Grievance: Our nation is still greatly involved in "dirty energy" such as coal and oil, which is hurting our environment and our economy.
Possible Solutions: A new federal charter to establish a "Green Bank" to fund "Demand Driven Clean Energy" including electric and low emission vehicles, solar, wind, fusion, hydroelectric, geothermal.
Tax incentives to rapidly transition away from poisonous fossil fuels and nuclear energy {those government subsidies should be eliminated immediately} to safe, non-toxic, reusable or carbon neutral sources of energy such as wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric.
ID 63 / EN-3
Grievance: Recycling and waste management policies are non consistent across the nation, which is leading to increased pollution and more recyclable goods ending up in our nation's landfills.
Possible Solutions: New federal laws enforcing mandatory recycling programs now in effect in some US cities and many countries must be uniformly adopted in the US in addition to controlling the unchecked dumping of waste into our oceans, air and ground by imposing meaningful fines on violators.
ID 64 / EN-4
Grievance: The amount of CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) is the air is too high, and could lead to negative effects on our environment and our health.
Possible Solutions: A new treaty to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from its current level of 392 parts per million to below 350 parts per million.