#SoakTheRich & Corporate Accountability

Marx correctly said that all profit is theft — meaning that if workers were paid the full value of their labor, there would be no profit. #OurCalifornia’s redress and my plan to End Poverty in California will specifically target the class of people who benefit from this theft.

Roving & intangible properties, from stocks to intellectual capital, enjoy all the state’s protections but with no public benefit as they remain untaxed.

After decades of deregulation and corporate greed, California’s public & private enterprises are the epitome of mismanagement, massive revenue, and lethal icons for their respective industries – be it oil, gas, land speculation, nuclear, electric utility, water, technology, housing, entertainment, private equity, et al. – while #OurCalifornia is exploited with these Corporations intentionally and consistently harmful actions.

After decades of anti-labor legislation, movements & elected officials who favor these Corporations and the select few elites who own them, California’s workforce landscape has become riddled with anti-union law firms proudly promoting “extensive experience representing management in union representation campaigns.”  California’s physical landscape has been burnt, filled with acid, drenched in nuclear leaks, endured exacerbated droughts, reduced low-income housing and devastated frontline communities as a direct result of corporate greed & public unaccountability. Our State has failed to uphold previous rights to organize and upheld union-busting services and techniques applied in Amazon, Apple, Tesla, SpaceX, WalMart & other corporations in our State have acknowledged they use.

These Corporations and the wealthy who own them have  done so with impunity, and their wealth, their success, their investment gains have increased as a direct result of our suffering.

No more.

Without thorough investigations, strengthened laws and substantial sanctions that hold Corporations and the Rich who own them accountable, we cannot ensure California’s current neoliberal nightmare won’t happen again.  I believe we owe #OurCalifornia this assurance for all our futures as we work to build resilient and sustainable communities.

As your Governor, I intend to End Poverty in California, we must #SoakTheRich and I believe these are policies to ensure the corporate accountability necessary for us to achieve this:

• Expanding the legislative authority of the Office of the Attorney General to finally work on behalf of #OurCalifornia and right the wrongs of Corporate Bad Actors, Lobbyists, Corrupt officials and the Rich who own them all;
• Create State of California legislation which challenges the SCOTUS precedent for the sole purpose of overturning Citizens’ United as it erodes our Democracy, the will of the People, and has exponentially expanded the unaccountability of Large Corporations;
• Enforce State of California Tax Evasion of California’s Richest –  Top 4% and their accountability, including tax law reform which penalizes tactics used by the wealthy, their compliance and accountability including, but not limited to:
  • Offshore accounts;
  • Outright refusal to pay taxes;
  • Attempted loopholes;
  • Apply substantial sanctions and utilize forfeiture to seize totals owed to the State and #OurCalifornia;
• Create legislation that enables the State to try Large Corporations  within our State borders for crimes committed abroad, including but not limited to:
  • Tax evasion;
  • Crimes Against Humanity:
    • Military Industrial Complex;
    • Never-ending wars;
    • Environmental pollution;
• Provide my Office of the Attorney General with the resources and support to formally investigate and prosecute Pacific Gas & Electric, Edison, & all other large regional private gas and electric utility corporations for defrauding their customers and the government, Antitrust, lobbying for significant influence and favor of our government officials & corruption, ceasing all contracted use of State land;
  • Investigation & Prosecution sets the foundation to ensure our government has addressed gas and electric utility service empires’ corruption, mismanagement and that our government works to ensure it doesn’t continue. It sets precedent and warns others of the outcomes for bad actors.  It allows the public to again have competitive and ethical markets for consumption of public goods;
  • Applying sanctions when found responsible for violations of the law will include restitution and up to public domain allotments, public trust & forfeiture to transition all large Public and Private electric utility corporations into a customer-owned cooperatives belonging to every resident of #OurCalifornia;
    •  I stand in Solidarity with the 100+ localities currently attempting to convert PG&E into a customer-owner cooperative;
• Provide my Office of the Attorney General with the resources and support to formally investigate and prosecute Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and all other large regional Public and Private telecommunications for defrauding their customers and the government, Antitrust, lobbying for significant influence and favor of our government officials & corruption, ceasing all contracted use of State land;
  • Investigation & Prosecution sets the foundation to ensure our government has addressed telecommunication empires’ corruption, mismanagement and that our government works to ensure it doesn’t continue. It sets precedent and warns others of the outcomes for bad actors.  It allows the public to again have competitive and ethical markets for consumption of public goods;
  • Applying sanctions when found responsible for violations of the law will include restitution and up to public domain allotments, public trust & forfeiture to transition all large Private telecommunication corporations into a customer-owned cooperative belonging to every resident of #OurCalifornia;
• Provide my Office of the Attorney General with the resources and support to formally investigate and prosecute all Private Water Extraction Corporations for defrauding the government, environmental act violations, lobbying for significant influence and favor of our government officials & corruption, ceasing all contracted use of State land;
  • Investigation & Prosecution sets the foundation to ensure our government has addressed private Water Extraction Corporation empires’ corruption, mismanagement of public utilities and that our government works to ensure it doesn’t continue. It sets precedent and warns others of the outcomes for bad actors.  It allows the public to again have competitive and ethical markets for consumption of public goods;
  • Applying sanctions when found responsible for violations of the law will include restitution and up to public domain allotments, public trust & forfeiture to transition all private water extraction corporations into a customer-owned cooperatives belonging to every resident of #OurCalifornia and ending the sale of California’s water to the world to protect the precious resources of our State;
• Provide my Office of the Attorney General with the resources and support to formally investigate and prosecute Waste Management & all other large regional or contracted Public and Private waste collection corporations for defrauding their customers and the government, lobbying for significant influence and favor of our government officials & corruption, ceasing all contracted use of State land;
  • Investigation & Prosecution sets the foundation to ensure our government has addressed waste service empires’ corruption, mismanagement and that our government works to ensure it doesn’t continue. It sets precedent and warns others of the outcomes for bad actors.  It allows the public to again have competitive and ethical markets for consumption of public goods;
  • Applying sanctions when found responsible for violations of the law will include restitution and up to public domain allotments, public trust & forfeiture to transition all large Public and Private waste management corporations into a customer-owned cooperative belonging to every resident of #OurCalifornia;
• Unlike previous spills, hazardous leaks, and toxic sites that remain a public health hazard, publicly funded response and financial liability, in #OurCalifornia’s full and complete transition my government will mandate energy and resource extraction Corporations fully fund future isolations, impoundments, stabilizations, open channel flows, excavations & environmental assessments along any other processes required to address and ensure their Corporations safe withdrawal, harm reduction, complete restoration & stewardship.  It is their responsibility to finally and fully address the harm they have caused us, our communities, our Planet and future generations.  They can more than afford it:
  • To be completed and approved both by the Indigenous Environmental Stewardship & Reclamation Department & California government environmental & restorative agencies;
  • Utilizing the Provide my Office of the Attorney General with the resources to formally investigate and prosecute  all Energy & Resource Extraction Corporations for defrauding the government, environmental act violations, lobbying for significant influence and favor of our government officials & corruption, ceasing all contracted use of State land;
    • Applying sanctions when found responsible for violations of the law will include restitution and up to public domain allotments, public trust & forfeiture to transition all large Public and Private waste management corporations into a customer-owned cooperative belonging to every resident of #OurCalifornia;
    • Energy & Resource extraction corporations will fully fund a resource extraction escrow account *per site* with future funds generated from the interest off that principle.  These funds will be transferred into an operating account, which the State of California will pull from to complete environmentally restorative maintenance and monitoring;
• Provide my Office of the Attorney General with the resources and support to formally investigate and prosecute large entertainment firms and elites in Hollywood for defrauding the government, labor violations, rampant sex abuse, land speculation, lobbying for significant influence and favor of our government officials & corruption;
  • Investigation & Prosecution sets the foundation to ensure our government has addressed entertainment empires’ corruption, mismanagement and that our government works to ensure it doesn’t continue. It sets precedent and warns others of the outcomes for bad actors.  It allows the public to again have competitive and ethical markets for consumption of public goods;
  • Applying sanctions when found responsible for violations of the law will include restitution and up to public domain/asset forfeiture – transitioning all large Private entertainment corporations into a worker-owned cooperatives  or customer-owned cooperatives belonging to every resident of #OurCalifornia;
• Provide my Office of the Attorney General with the resources and support to formally investigate and prosecute land speculation and large housing development firms for defrauding their customers and the government, labor violations, environmental act violations, land speculation, lobbying for significant influence and favor of our government officials & corruption;
  • Investigation & Prosecution sets the foundation to ensure our government has addressed land speculation and housing empires’ corruption, mismanagement and that our government works to ensure it doesn’t continue. It sets precedent and warns others of the outcomes for bad actors.  It allows the public to again have competitive and ethical markets for consumption of public goods;
  • Applying sanctions when found responsible for violations of the law will include restitution and up to public domain/asset forfeiture – transitioning all large land speculation & housing development corporations into customer-owned cooperatives belonging to every resident of #OurCalifornia;
• Provide my Office of the Attorney General with the resources and support to formally investigate and prosecute Big Tech firms and their Corporate Empires for defrauding their customers and the government, violating Constitutional & Civil Rights, eroding our Democracy, Antitrust, Unethical/Illegal Business Practices, and lobbying for significant influence and favor of our government officials & corruption:
  • Investigation & Prosecution sets the foundation to ensure our government has addressed Big Tech and their Corporate empires’ corruption, mismanagement and that our government works to ensure it doesn’t continue. It sets precedent and warns others of the outcomes for bad actors. It allows the public to again have competitive and ethical markets for consumption of public goods;
  • Applying sanctions when found responsible for violations of the law will include will include restitution and up to public domain/asset forfeiture – transitioning all Big Tech corporations in our State into small worker-owned cooperatives or customer-owned cooperatives belonging to every resident of #OurCalifornia;
• Provide my Office of the Attorney General with the resources and support to formally investigate and prosecute Big Agricultural firms and their Corporate Empires for poisoning our air, our land, our water and our foods with pesticides, manure lagoons, hazardous waste dumps & willful pollution.  They must be held accountable for environmental hazards and injustices workers and residents across this State, but especially in Central & Imperial Valley have long endured the painfully physical consequences of these environmental injustices while the toxic practices of these corporations continue to expand their already staggering wealth; for violating Constitutional & Unethical/Illegal Business & Labor Practices, and lobbying for significant influence and favor of our government officials & corruption:
  • Investigation & Prosecution sets the foundation to ensure our government has addressed Big Agriculture and their Corporate empires’ corruption, mismanagement and that our government works to ensure it doesn’t continue. It sets precedent and warns others of the outcomes for bad actors. It allows the public to again have competitive and ethical markets for consumption of public goods;
  • Applying sanctions when found responsible for violations of the law will include restitution and up to public domain/asset forfeiture – transitioning all Big Agricultural corporations in our State into small worker-owned cooperatives or customer-owned cooperatives belonging to every resident of #OurCalifornia;
• Enact State Legislation that addresses and minimizes the existence of Private Equity through legal responsibilities, limitations & deductibility;
  • Create legislation which closes the basic loophole in the federal securities laws (particularly the 1940 Investment Company and Investment Advisers Acts) that allow the private equity industry to exist at all.
    • Require extensive disclosures of financial information from which private equity is now exempt under the basic loophole in the securities laws mentioned above.
  • Simultaneously support my Office of the Attorney General in challenging the Constitutionality of the 1940 Investment Company and Investment Advisers Acts, and their respective basic loopholes, which allow the private equity industry to exist at all.  And call on other States and Attorney Generals to do the same for the well-being and security of their constituents.
  • Create California’s own version of the  Stop Wall Street Looting Act introduced in our 2019 Senate
    • Ensuring State legislation establishes legal responsibility for private equity, by defining a “control person” as someone who owns at least 20 percent of the parent firm. As current laws allow the true owners to evade accountability for their actions. And “control persons” are also made personally responsible for violations of a range of federal laws, including labor laws and pension looting, as well as fraud.
    • Prohibit any capital distributions from target companies to private equity managers in the first 24 months of ownership.  Legislation with the sole purpose of  impeding private equity’s “strip and flip” strategy of getting back all of its money and more on the front end.
    • Prevent abuses of the private equity bankruptcy process which serve shareholders and instead directs the bankruptcy court to approve the offer that provides the best job preservation, wages, and other terms of employment for workers;
    • Unmute the implementation in the “risk retention” provision of the Dodd Frank Act;
• Provide my Office of the Attorney General with the resources and support to formally investigate and prosecute Private Equity firms and their Corporate Empires for defrauding their customers and the government, violating Constitutional & Civil Rights, eroding our Democracy, Antitrust, Unethical/Illegal Business & Labor Practices, and lobbying for significant influence and favor of our government officials & corruption:
  • Investigation & Prosecution sets the foundation to ensure our government has addressed Private Equity and their Corporate empires’ corruption, mismanagement and that our government works to ensure it doesn’t continue. It sets precedent and warns others of the outcomes for bad actors. It allows the public to again have competitive and ethical markets for consumption of public goods;
  • Applying sanctions when found responsible for violations of the law will include restitution and up to public domain/asset forfeiture – transitioning all Private Equity corporations in our State into small worker-owned cooperatives or customer-owned cooperatives belonging to every resident of #OurCalifornia;
• Provide my Office of the Attorney General with the resources and support fully investigating all government officials who have lobbied and/or been bought by Utility, Energy, Resource Extraction Corporations & Private Equity and not acted in the best interest of their represented districts or the People of this great  State:
  • Investigation & Prosecution sets a proper foundation to ensure our government has addressed corruption and works to ensure it doesn’t continue – especially from politicians who have personally profited from it;
  • Applying sanctions when found responsible for violations of the law will include Statewide ban on any current and/or future governmental position, locality and/or State restitution not limited to asset forfeiture – we intend to redistribute the wealth illegally gained and return positions representing the People back to People of our great State;
• Ensure Corporations are compliant with Federal and State safety, health and labor regulations & labor relations laws:
  • Investigation & Prosecution sets the foundation to ensure public utilities will become public customer-owned cooperatives and the public can again have a competitive and ethical market for consumption of public goods;
  • Applying sanctions to Corporations when found responsible for violations of the law will include restitution and up to public domain/asset forfeiture – transitioning all large corporations in our State into small worker-owned cooperatives or the general public belonging to every resident of #OurCalifornia;
• In the true spirit of Upton Sinclair’s End Poverty in California campaign, I will call on fellow Citizens, Socialists, Governors, and fellow Socialist Gubernatorial campaigns across this country to adopt and implement the same.