Howdy folks!

Here is the new and refined super-duper, non-partisan, all-weather list of demands to lob at people who propose to represent us.

To review, briefly, these are (intended to be) populist (things that resonate across parties and ideologies), medium-term demands.

I tried to focus on demands that, if realized, would put power back into the hands of the 99% such that a larger transformation of government is possible for us.

I winnowed the list down to 10 demands, reduced some of the wordings where I could and added a few things that people suggested in the comments a couple of weeks ago.

For this round of comment, if you feel that something vital is missing, please suggest either folding it into another demand or replacing one of the demands.

When we've got some sort of general consensus on the list of demands, we'll put it up as a document that can be linked to, tweeted, facebooked or printed out and mailed or distributed at candidate events, etc. I'll also write a short introduction that can be posted by way of explanation for people who don't regularly participate on C99 about the demands and how to use them and we'll post that for linking as well.

Refined Proposed List of Demands

General principles (unchanged)

From time to time, a people creates a government to perform functions that no other institution is able to. It is vested by the people with significant powers to promote their common interests and the people retain the right to have that government respond without favoritism to the governed. A government should be judged by the quality of life that all of the governed experience, especially those at the bottom of the economic order. Government officials should be ashamed to find that there are citizens that are hungry, homeless, poorly-educated, without means to support themselves, lacking access to healthcare or other necessities of life - and such a government and its officials should be held accountable. Such conditions in a wealthy country are inexcusable.

Demands

1) Fair elections Public financing of elections/return to a reliable, transparent voting audit trail. In any election where a candidate elects to privately finance, all candidates relying on public finance will be granted equal financing. All licensees that occupy the public airwaves are to be required as a condition of their licenses to provide a certain amount of free airtime to candidates that meet a threshold of signatures, as well as free airtime for a set number of debates in the month prior to the election. Faith in elections is slipping; voting processes need to be transparent, verifiable and reliable, even at the cost of slower result reporting. (reworded)

2) Universal health care Single-payer health insurance/Medicare for all. The marketplace has failed. There has never been adequate healthcare for all Americans despite the vast sums of money spent and the decades that the private sector has had to accomplish this task. It is time for US citizens to have what is available in virtually all other first world nations. (unchanged)

3) Fix Social Security Fix Social Security the right way. Index the Income Cap on the OASDI tax rate such that it applies to 90% of all income every year in perpetuity. This should create full funding for Social Security benefits going forward. (reworded)

4) Regulate banking Break up the big banks/re-impose Glass-Steagall and regulate derivatives by repealing Gramm-Leach-Bliley and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. End the revolving door between government service and Wall Street banks. Since the vast greed and corruption of Wall Street bankers crashed the economy in 2007, no serious re-regulation of the banks has occurred, no penalty has been imposed on those who created the failure and Americans are still at risk of another crash. (reworded)

5) Living minimum wage Raise the minimum wage to $15/hour. Implement it now, not incrementally or in full after a period of years. Index it for inflation going forward based on 2012 dollars to diminish the premium for foot-dragging. (reworded)

6) End harmful free trade deals Withdraw from or renegotiate all free trade agreements that include an Investor-State Dispute Settlement "feature." Remove this unconstitutional, anti-democratic, illegitimate legal system dodge. Remove all other, anti-worker, anti-environment provisions or scrap the agreements. (unchanged)

7) Address climate change Address climate change on an emergency basis, it is both a survival issue and a matter of national security - you choose which matters more. End all subsidies for fossil fuel extraction and production, freeze the permitting process for new fossil fuel infrastructure and expedite the conversion to renewable energy sources. Retrain and deploy workers from affected industries to support an expedited national program to manufacture, install, maintain new renewable infrastructure and mitigate the effects of climate events. (reworded)

8) End wars End the war in Afghanistan and all other current wars and actions for regime change/repeal the 2001 AUMF/close Guantanamo/require the President to respect the con stitutional role of Congress in declaration of war. The primary remaining adversary in Afghanistan, the Taliban, are a local movement and have not exhibited ambitions to attack the US in its "homeland." Continuing this war serves no purpose that is greater than the recruiting value it creates for jihadi movements. Guantanamo is similarly a recruiting bonanaza for jihadis, the military commission trials system should be abandoned and those remaining in Guantanamo should be tried in US courts or released. During the so-called "war on terror," the executive branch has failed to respect the limits of the War Powers Act and international law. (unchanged)

9) End militarization of police End the practice of using military methods and equipment on the domestic civilian population. Stop providing surplus military equipment, surveillance equipment and military training to domestic police forces and peace officers. Stop the practice of spreading military propaganda through domestic US media, repeal the portion of the 2013 NDAA that allows this practice to continue. Repeal the Patriot Act and end all warrantless surveillance of US persons (including by the NSA). (reworded)

10) Open media Reverse media consolidation/Repeal Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012/maintain net neutrality. Media ownership is concentrated into far too few hands with just 5 companies controlling 90% of all US media. This is too much power in too few hands, which facilitates the spread of fake news through a system with too few competitors presenting challenges to the narrative of consolidated media. (reworded)

Well, there it is. I am still working on a list of things to organize and/or agitate for on at the state level including an end to gerrymandering, open primaries for states that don't have them, a level playing field for ballot access, ranked choice voting, public funding for state and local elections and legalization of marijuana. I'll try to get to that one of these days soon.

So, the floor is yours...