Sunday, October 13, 2013

Anti-bans Contraband; We Are Thousands Bloggers Strong


The anti-bans contraband has arrived. We will be thousands bloggers strong. Wherever the bag ban supporters go, we will be right behind. We will call out myths & misrepresentations. We will tell opposing view points. We will keep talking until this madness stop, and until the previous damages be reversed.

Remember the prohibition time back in 1920, when alcohol was evil for moral and health? To have a drink, one had to seek out underground speakeasies? Bootleggers were prosecuted. Effective enforcement was difficult. Without widespread public support, it resulted in the growth of criminal activities. It ended in 1933, a good 13 years!

Now that the bag ban and fee are sweeping across our cities and counties. Plastic bags were persecuted fervently as if they were the greatest evil on earth -- the bags which we use to take our purchases home, which we use again for our garbage and pet waste. Doesn’t it feel like déjà vu all over again? So you really think that our governments know better? And the green people know better? That they are our better selves that we shall defer to? Really? I so don’t think so.

Read my 8/13 blog: To Read and To Watch. Just 2 articles by Carson Bruno and Todd Myers and the video: Are You Being Told the Truth About Plastic Bags will convince you otherwise. Sad that these view points were not widely broadcasted.

With the ban madness sweeping across our states and took down city-by-city, our opposing voice felt like a drop of water into the big ocean. But, we must keep faith. This is about staying power. It is about where the public, the majority stands. To give you faith --
I have seen some 20 – 30 protesters blocking 2 branches of traffic at the neck of a Y junction. A pedestrian stood at the end of a block re-directed the traffic to detour. In less than 10 minutes, the blockage was lifted -- the public was with lone ranger.

How many shoppers you saw paid and walked out with bags? You think they were with the ban supporters and with the city governments that forced the law upon them “to shape their behavior for the greater good”? They ignored the law and grudgingly paid.

At this moment, the green people, the activists with a job that pays them for what they do can keep pushing their agenda and earn their keep. But we, the public, we are of much larger population. Even if just 1% of us speak up and stay on – we can stay on forever, we will be louder and stronger. Don’t you think?

We are the greatest democratic country on earth! Law is of the people, by the people, for the people. How could we grudgingly take it without utter a sound of objection? How can we do it to ourselves?

We are the anti-ban contraband! We are the speakeasies of 1920s! I hope that when this onslaught ends, we can looking back and laugh with fascination:
“Alcohol was evil?” “Our wine is world class!” “Our wineries are gorgeous!”
“Plastic bags are evil?” “Merchants are not supposed to bag my purchases?” “Is it not part of customer service?” “What about my trash?”

To be an efficient blogger, here is what you need to do:
  1. Create a nickname. You will use it for blogging and for leaving comments on news / articles. Nickname such as Antibanblogger1, Antibanblogger2, Antibanblogger3, Antibanblogger1000, etc.
  2. Create a new email account; to keep it separate from your personal and professional lives, since every thing is tied to your email account.
  3. Create a new facebook and twitter accounts
  4. Start blogging on blogger.com. Once a blog is published, you can facebook and twit the same blog many times
  5. On facebook, like and make friends. Each time I shared information related to a specific city, I searched for libertarians and republican parties and members in those cities; for these people hate government intervention. Be mindful to not over-do it. Facebook recommends that you make friends with only people you know, else, send a message first. Anyhow, I did it and have so far made 70+ friends all over the States. We were strangers hating this coercive law.
  6. Stay away from hostile social websites – you will find out soon enough which sites are dominated by unruly rude people – especially the young crowd. Facebook, twitter, TV and newspaper are safe sites where you can comfortably leave comments and direct traffic to your blog.
  7. Email City Councils and County Board of Supervisors regularly – biweekly, monthly. Feed them information you find. I use my personal email and name for this purpose since they are official document.
  8. Write to retailers; be it the general managers of local stores or CEOs of the corporations such as Nordstrom, Macys, Gap Inc, Saks Firth, Tiffany that we, the shoppers will boycott shopping bag fee and hold out as long as we can. They need to do their part in putting some senses to the city governments. You can find the CEOs’ names and addresses on Yahoo-Finance page.
  9. Write to newspapers, TVs and radios that we need to hear the opposing view from the plastic bag industry and market based think tanks such as Washington Policy Center. The green people should not have monopoly to media. We need check and balance. We need to hear from the other side now.
  10. Share your blog with friends and families if they are with you. Else, forget about them. I saw people just bury their heads in the sand and refuse to even read the articles from the opposing side. Save your energy.
  11. It is year-end and you will soon receive many calendars and donation requests from environmental non-profits. Lots of them. Write to them: If you support some funky non-profits just to take my plastic bags away, not only I will not give you money, I will tell everybody to not give. The donation money now goes to Market Based Solution such as Washington Policy Center until sanity is restored.
  12. Don’t waste time talking to rocks. They are dead.
  13. Connect with like-minded who can lend moral support. I was a lone ranger from for a good nine months, until I was connected with Craig from Save Our Choice in Seattle, WA and Don from Stop The Bag Ban in San Jose, and Judy from Seal Beach, So Cal. We have wonderful, long distance friendship. We fight hard. We are in this together.

Craig, Save Our Choice, Seattle, WA

Don, Stop The Bag Ban, San Jose, CA

Anthony, Fight the Plastic Bag Ban, Ventura, Ca
fighttheplasticbagban@gmail.com

Kristen, No Durango Bag Tax, Durango, CO
info@nodurangobagtax.com
https://www.facebook.com/nodurangobagtax
Kristen and her friends have successful repealed the ban early Nov'13.
What a power website she has! It maximizes the power of social media and fund raising.

And me, Terry, San Francisco, CA
repealbagfee@gmail.com
blogger. Enthusiast.






Thursday, October 10, 2013

On 10/8/13 San Diego Is Proposing Plastic Ban Ban. Encinitas & Palm Desert Will Be Next.



On 10/8/13 San Diego City Council is proposing to adopt for and 10c per bag fee. Palm Dessert and Encinitas are working on the bans, too.

The ban and fee are bad for:
- businesses: to bag customers purchases is the least of customer services that retailers should provide, especially when it come to discretionary shopping, which is for fun. If it is no fun anymore, why shop? All stores can close, we can all go home!

- residents: Many of us use plastic bags for trash and pet waste. Without them, we will have to buy the much thicker and bigger trash bags. Why is the later better?

- for environment. Plastic bags are the by-product of natural gas, not oil. And they take little to make. Verses paper bags which come from trees. From logging, debarking, chop & dice, add water to make pulp, squeeze water out and flatten to make paper, the whole process takes much more resources and energy and create more greenhouse gases. Why is paper better?

Read my 8/13 blog: To Read and To Watch, I have a collection of articles and videos.

Write to the City Councils now. At this moment, the only people who are talking and talking are the activists. The City Councils needs to hear from us; the public and the businesses. Speak up now before it is too late.

City Council of San Diego:
http://www.sandiego.gov/citycouncil/

City Council of Encinitas:
http://www.ci.encinitas.ca.us/index.aspx?page=98

City Council of Palm Dessert:
http://www.cityofpalmdesert.org/Index.aspx?page=147


Sonoma County, Petaluma Are Under Pressure To Adopt Plastic Bag Bans


Sonoma County and cities in the county are under tremendous pressure from the activists to adopt the plastic bag ban and bag fee to be applied to ALL stores.
The ban and fee are eco-fads, based on myths and misrepresentations. They are bad for:

- businesses: to bag customers purchases is the least of customer services that retailers should provide, especially when it come to discretionary shopping, which is for fun. If it is no fun anymore, why shop? All stores can close, we can all go home!

- residents: Many of us use plastic bags for trash and pet waste. Without them, we will have to buy the much thicker and bigger trash bags. Why is the later better?

- for environment. Plastic bags are the by-product of natural gas, not oil. And they take little to make. Verses paper bags which come from trees. From logging, debarking, chop & dice, add water to make pulp, squeeze water out and flatten to make paper, the whole process takes much more resources and energy and create more greenhouse gases. Why is paper better?

Read my 8/13 blog: To Read and To Watch, I have a collection of articles and videos.

At this moment, it is only the activists who are talking and talking. Write to the County Supervisors and City Councils now. You will be glad that you come to their defense, which is much needed from all of us.

Sonoma County Board of Supervisors:
http://supervisors.sonoma-county.org/content.aspx?sid=1001&id=1000

Sonoma City Council:
http://www.sonomacity.org/default.aspx?PageId=438

Petaluma City Council:
http://cityofpetaluma.net/cclerk/council.html

Santa Rosa City Council:
http://ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/government/council/meet_the_council/Pages/default.aspx


On 10/9/13 Olympia, WA Adopted Plastic Bag Ban. Lacey Will Be Next.



On 10/9/13 Olympia, WA adopted Plastic Bag Ban. It will go for final vote probably next week. Mostly ceremonial.And Lacey will be next.

http://plasticbagbanreport.com/tumwater-plastic-bag-ordinance/
And according to the article above, on 10/11/13, Tumwater adopted the ban and 10c fee to be applied to ALL stores effective 7/1/14.

All these are SO disappointing.

The ban and fee are bad for:
- businesses: to bag customers purchases is the least of customer services that retailers should provide, especially when it come to discretionary shopping, which is for fun. If it is no fun anymore, why shop? All stores can close, we can all go home!

- residents: Many of us use plastic bags for trash and pet waste. Without them, we will have to buy the much thicker and bigger trash bags. Why is the later better?

- for environment. Plastic bags are the by-product of natural gas, not oil. And they take little to make. Verses paper bags which come from trees. From logging, debarking, chop & dice, add water to make pulp, squeeze water out and flatten to make paper, the whole process takes much more resources and energy and create more greenhouse gases. Why is paper better?

Read my 8/13 blog: To Read and To Watch, I have a collection of articles and videos.


At this moment, it is only the activists / environmentalists who are talking and talking. Write to the City Councils now that this is totally eco-fad based on myths & misrepresentatiion. You will be glad that you come to their defense.


Olympia City Council:
http://olympiawa.gov/city-government/city-council-and-mayor.aspx
You can sign a petition to Olympia City Council here:
http://www.bagtheban.com/take-action


Lacey City Council:
http://www.ci.lacey.wa.us/city-government/city-council/city-council-2/meet-the-lacey-city-council

10/1/13 Homer, Alaska - Voters Overturned Plastic Bag Ban


https://fighttheplasticbagban.com/2013/10/05/citizens-of-homer-alaska-overturn-plastic-bag-ban/

The above article states that on 10/1/13, voters of Homer, Alaska cast their votes overturned plastic bag ban which was passed in 2012!

Hurray! The world rejoice! Another great news to dance to!

Let more City Councils see that we DO NOT like the ban. We want our PLASTIC back!


Monday, October 7, 2013

On 10/1/13 Santa Barbara Enacted Plastic Bag Ban. Goleta Will Be Next. Many Cities To Follow


http://www.independent.com/news/2013/oct/01/city-council-enacts-plastic-bag-ban/

According to the article above, on 10/1/13, Santa Barbara enacted plastic bag ban to go into effect in 6 months on big supermarkets and pharmacies. 6 months afterward, it will be applied to small food stores also.

The cost of Environment Impact Report (EIR) of $66,000 was shared by 7 coastal cities in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. Besides Santa Barbara are: Carpinteria, Goleta, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Ventura, I think. "To date, the City of Santa Barbara is the first to approve the EIR, but the County of Santa Barbara is currently in the process of drafting a very similar measure, and activists are pushing the City of Goleta to begin the process, as well. The City of Carpinteria passed a much more restrictive measure two years ago but has since suffered legal setbacks in the courts."

The ban and fee are bad for:
- businesses: to bag customers purchases is the least of customer services that retailers should provide, especially when it come to discretionary shopping, which is for fun. If it is no fun anymore, why shop? All stores can close, we can all go home!

- residents: Many of us use plastic bags for trash and pet waste. Without them, we will have to buy the much thicker and bigger trash bags. Why is the later better?

- for environment. Plastic bags are the by-product of natural gas, not oil. And they take little to make. Verses paper bags which come from trees. From logging, debarking, chop & dice, add water to make pulp, squeeze water out and flatten to make paper, the whole process takes much more resources and energy and create more greenhouse gases. Why is paper better?

Read my 8/13 blog: To Read and To Watch, I have a collection of articles and videos.


At this moment, it is only the activists / environmentalists are talking and talking based on myths and misrepresentation. Write to Counties of Ventura & Santa Barbara, and all the cities in these 2 counties. You will be glad that you come to their defense. 

Board of Supervisors of Santa Barbara County:
http://www.countyofsb.org/government.aspx?id=624

Board of Supervisors of Ventura County:
http://www.ventura.org/board-of-supervisors

City Council of Santa Barbara:
http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/cityhall/council/default.asp 

City Council of Goleta:
http://www.cityofgoleta.org/index.aspx?page=137

City of Oxnard:
http://citycouncil.cityofoxnard.org/3

City of Port Hueneme:
http://www.ci.port-hueneme.ca.us/index.aspx?NID=319
Email the city council: councilwebmail@cityofporthueneme.org

City Council of Ventura:
http://www.cityofventura.net/about/citycouncil


Sunday, October 6, 2013

Tuesday Evening 10/8/13, San Jose Will Do Final Vote On Modification of Bag Ban



On this coming Tuesday evening 10/8/13, San Jose will do final vote on amending plastic bag ban that take effect 1/1/14 that bag fee will remain at 10c instead of rising to 25c. The 10c bag fee will be imposed on all reusable/thick plastic bags, which are currently free.

Email San Jose City Council that you oppose 10c bag fee be imposed on ALL reusable bags. Also, you oppose bag fee be imposed on ALL retailers especially on small merchants and retailers who sell discretionary items such as clothing and accessories. It burden smaller merchants for the 10c per bag is not sufficient to cover their cost for the paper bags. And they are facing shop lifting problem. The fee on retailers selling discretionary items turns off shoppers who expect it as part of customer service. 70% of our economy comes from good old fashion consumer spending. We do not want to turn off shoppers which hurts our economy. 

Also, PLEASE CONSIDER joining several folks from StopTheBagBan on Tuesday night at the city council meeting to speak for 2-3 minutes. Please email Don at stopthebagban@gmail.com if you are available to speak.

Please read my blog on 8/13: To Read and To Watch for articles and movies on this "evil" plastic bag issue.
The more facts you can provide, coupled with personal experience on what you saw and did will make you a more persuasive speaker.

Council members Khamis and Constant are against the bag ban (and will likely vote against this on Tuesday night). The other council members support the bag ban.


SJ City Council’s emails:
Or for you convenience, they are listed here:
For the bag ban (or likely for the modifications):
Mayor Chuck Reed: mayoremail@sanjoseca.gov
District 2: Mr. Ash Kalra: District2@sanjoseca.gov
District 3: Mr. Sam Liccardo: District3@sanjoseca.gov
Disctict 4: Mr. Kansen Chu: District4@sanjoseca.gov
District 5: Mr. Xavier Campos District5@sanjoseca.gov
District 6: Mr. Pierluigi Oliverio: pierluigi.oliverio@sanjoseca.gov
District 7: Ms. Madison Nguyen: District7@sanjoseca.gov
District 8: Ms. Rose Herrera: rose.herrera@sanjoseca.gov
District 9: Mr. Donald Rocha: District9@sanjoseca.gov

Against the bag ban:
District 1: Mr. Pete Constant: District1@sanjoseca.gov
District 10: Mr. Johnny Khamis: District10@sanjoseca.gov



Friday, October 4, 2013

Congratulations to Issaquah, WA & Save Our Choice on Repealing Bag Ban


On 10/3/13 King County Department of Election has completed verification of the signatures submitted for Issaquah Initiative Petition on the Repeal of Plastic Bag Ban and Paper Fee, and a Certificate of Sufficiency has been issued.

Didn’t it make you want to cry? Especially if you have been hating it and working hard to get it repealed? With the wildfire of plastic bag bans sweeping across our nation, don’t you want to put a halt on it and call for reasons, investigations, and evaluations of the bans and fees?

You might not know; this was a long and hard won victory by Craig, Valerie and several dedicated volunteers from Save Our Choice (saveourchoice.us). They sacrificed summer and many leisure evenings. They spent 6+ months on the streets, knocking door-to-door to turn in 3600+ signatures. It came back early September short of 370, and was given 10 days to make up the deficiency. Every evening, they drove to Issaquah on their own expense and knocked on doors again to get more signatures, to register voters, or to get mismatched registrations corrected. They braved rain and darkness and got the work done. With this kind of determination and tenacity, they could move mountain! We really need to thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their hard work and sacrifices.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Below is a poem from Craig Keller in response to Seattle Times endorsing legislature action banning bags statewide, or at least "harmonizing" regulations for those cities which vote in these coercive laws. That, along with his studying MacBeth with his daughter, inspired him to write this letter to the editor -- which understandably, was not published.  
(Fairview Ave. is the Seattle Times' address.  Olympia is the state capitol city at the southern tip of Puget Sound.) 


Oh! oracle of Fairview,

Whence my plastic-bagged news daily flows,

Are the gods of Olympia those who only know?

 Anon! see it arrive clean and dry through fog and filthy air!

Were it not, what reader remnant swift would disappear? 

Oh Titan! drop not our orb of fragile blue,

When learnt all wisdom rises not from that Olympic slough.

Yea, though tomorrow and tomorrow your delphic vapors intoxicate,

Be it a vote, by the people, for the people, we come to celebrate.



Yes! Come to celebrate with Save Our Choice on 10/13/13 from 4pm – 10pm at a dinner party.
Contact: craig@saveourchoice.us for more info.

And make sure you come out to vote in 2/11/2014.
It is a very rare opportunity; a hard fought victory by We, The People.