For more than a quarter century, Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action (PSARA) has been active in fighting for older Americans, retirees, their children and families through social justice activities. P uget S ound A dvocates for R etirement A ction Working across generations for social justice, economic security, dignity, and a healthy planet for all of us. Thank you to all who attended PSARA's Summer Barbecue Upcoming PSARA Events/meetings Click Here for a complete list of Events and Meetings The Trump Administration is closing Social Security Offices across the country. Click Here for More Perfect Union's report on this Tragedy From Wins to What’s Next – A Recap of the 2026 Legislative Session was presented May 27th If you missed the presentation you can watch the recording here PSARA September Retiree Advocate Click here to read the Advocate online In this issue, we feature Tim Wheeler's account of a plane ride over the Spokane wildfires. Also in this issue: "Social Security on the Ballot," by Steve Kofahl Jeff Johnson's interview with Joe Uehlein An update on our Government Relations Committee's work "Living and Dying with Artificial Intelligence" by Bobby Righi Jeff Johnson's response to Reuvan Carlisle and Mark Mullet on the subject of investments in fossil fuels Katie Harris's analysis of high-tech surveillance tools used by ICE "Carpetbaggers, Scalawags, and Redeemers: White People in the Post Civil War South," by Mike Andrew Health Secretary Kennedy is Attacking Traditional Medicare in Washington State In January, the Trump administration will be rolling out a new control on Traditional Medicare in six states, including Washington State. This program is called WISeR. It will affect Medicare benefits by requiring a new prior authorization for a number of medical decisions. This means your doctor will need to receive prior authorization from the Federal government before you get some medical treatments. C lick Here for more on the WISeR Program and what you can do to stop it. On December 6th PSARA Board Members Robby Stern and Anne Watanabe (hosted by Dan Grey and Evegreen State College) discuss the attacks on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Please listen to the interview and share with your friends: Click here to hear the interview. Download and Read PSARA’s Primer on Leveling the Medicare Playing Field Protecting our Assets Protecting our Asses In the last year PSARA’s Co-President, Jeff Johnson, wrote a series of articles for PSARA’s Retiree Advocate highlighting the need to move beyond fossil fuels and the responsibility of unions to insure that their retirement plans stop investing in fossil fuels not just because its good environmentally but also good economics. Unions can play a key role in jump starting our green future. These articles have been consolidated into a single publication: Protecting our Assets Protecting our Asses. Click here to download the pamphlet or read it online. DOWNLOAD JOIN PSARA in making a difference! Back to Top

The Retiree ADVOCATE The Monthly Publication of PSARA EDUCATION FUND “Uniting Generations for a Secure Future” Advocate Print Version September 1, 2026 Social Security on the Ballot Steve Kofahl "Social Security on the Ballot," by Steve Kofahl Read More Join Us! PSARA Summer Membership Meeting and Potluck Join Us! PSARA Summer Membership Meeting and Potluck Read More Three Roads: Labor, Music, Ecology An Interview With Joe Uehlein Jeff Johnson Jeff Johnson's interview with Joe Uehlein Read More Legislative Session 2027 The Government Relations Committee Wants to Hear From You Pam Crone The 2027 WA State Legislative Session will soon be upon us. Pam Crone provides an update of PSARA’s Government Relations Committee preparations. Read More PSARA Executive Director Mike Andrew Presented With Mother Jones Individual Award by WSLC PSARA’s Executive Director, Mike Andrew was recently presented the Mother Jones award by the State Labor council. Recognizing his many years of building bridges between movements, bringing together labor activists, retirees, and LGBTQ+ workers. Read More Spokane Below My Wings, Lost in Smoke, All Ashes Tim Wheeler Tim Wheeler looks at Spokane's recent tragic fire and the City's labor history. Read More Living and Dying with Artificial Intelligence Bobby Righi Bobby Righi reviews the challenges we face with AI and the Data Centers built to serve AI Read More Fossil Fuel Divestment and Engaging With Corporate Clean Energy Transition Plans Both Necessary Jeff Johnson Jeff Johnson's response to Reuvan Carlisle and Mark Mullet on the subject of investments in fossil fuels Read More The Tech Tools of ICE: Drawing Inferences About Us Katie Harris Katie Harris's analysis of high-tech surveillance tools used by ICE Read More Carpetbaggers, Scalawags, and Redeemers White People in the Post-Civil War South Mike Andrew "Carpetbaggers, Scalawags, and Redeemers: White People in the Post Civil War South," Read More

-5198757490226798476 IMG_0563 20230321_115056_edited -5198757490226798476 1/5 Meetings & Events IMG_0137 (1) IMG_6872 France Giddings Karen Richter, Jeff Johnson and Robby Stern IMG_0137 (1) 1/9 PSARA committee meetings and events will be virtual unless otherwise noted, to attend any of these meetings, email organizer@psara.org for the link. Non PSARA events on this calendar are identified as such and have link to the sponsoring agency in the description. Thursday Sep 3, 2026 2:30 AM Climate & Environmental Justice Comm. Unless otherwise specified all meetings are Zoom. Please contact Organizer@psara.org for Zoom link. Thursday Sep 3, 2026 4:30 AM PSARA Government Relations Comm. Copy Unless otherwise specified all meetings are Zoom. Please contact Organizer@psara.org for Zoom link. Friday Sep 4, 2026 3:30 AM Federal Bldg. 909 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98104 Support our Federal Workforce Support our Federal workers and No Kings Rally. Every Friday at the Seattle Federal Building PLaza. For more information or to support contact: federalbuildingfridays@gmail.com Thursday Sep 10, 2026 9:30 AM Central Co-op 4502 N. Pearl St. Tacoma, WA PSARA Pierce County Organizing Committee You can attend this meeting either in person or via Zoom. Please contact Organizer@psara.org for Zoom link. Friday Sep 11, 2026 3:30 AM Federal Bldg. 909 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98104 Support our Federal Workforce Support our Federal workers and No Kings Rally. Every Friday at the Seattle Federal Building PLaza. For more information or to support contact: federalbuildingfridays@gmail.com Thursday Sep 17, 2026 3:00 AM Race and Gender Equity Comm. Unless otherwise specified all meetings are Zoom. Please contact Organizer@psara.org for Zoom link. Thursday Sep 17, 2026 4:30 AM PSARA Executive Board Unless otherwise specified all meetings are Zoom. Please contact Organizer@psara.org for Zoom link. Friday Sep 18, 2026 3:30 AM Federal Bldg. 909 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98104 Support our Federal Workforce Support our Federal workers and No Kings Rally. Every Friday at the Seattle Federal Building PLaza. For more information or to support contact: federalbuildingfridays@gmail.com Friday Sep 25, 2026 3:30 AM Federal Bldg. 909 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98104 Support our Federal Workforce Support our Federal workers and No Kings Rally. Every Friday at the Seattle Federal Building PLaza. For more information or to support contact: federalbuildingfridays@gmail.com Wednesday Sep 30, 2026 2:30 AM WA State Labor Council Office, 321 16th Ave. S, Seattle Fund Raising Comm. Unless otherwise specified all meetings are Zoom. Please contact Organizer@psara.org for Zoom link. Friday Oct 2, 2026 3:30 AM Federal Bldg. 909 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98104 Support our Federal Workforce Support our Federal workers and No Kings Rally. Every Friday at the Seattle Federal Building PLaza. For more information or to support contact: federalbuildingfridays@gmail.com

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents July 2026 Mary Metlay Kaufman: Anti-Fascist Hero Tim Wheeler Mary M. Kaufman A few nights ago, I watched the Netflix film, “Nuremberg,” featuring actor Russell Crowe in the role of Nazi Reichsmarshall, Herman Goering, on trial for genocide at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal in 1947-48. This was the first ever war crimes tribunal and established the basic principles of international law that outlaws war crimes and crimes against humanity. It enshrined the “Nuremberg Principle” that if a person engages in acts of genocide, they cannot plead that they were just lowly subordinates “obeying orders” given to them by someone above. Everyone is responsible to stand up against genocide. A name popped into my head as I watched this film: Mary Kaufman. I knew her. I heard Mary Kaufman speak more than once at meetings in New York of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Mary Metlay Kaufman was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1947-1948. She was a founder of the National Lawyers Guild, a lawyer who defended leaders of the CPUSA in the Cold War anti-communist witch hunt trials of the 1950s. Her clients were Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Claudia Jones, and Betty Gannett, all leaders of the CPUSA tried and convicted under the infamous Smith Act, incarcerated for years at Alderson Federal Women’s Penitentiary in remote southeast West Virginia. Mary Kaufman made the arduous trip down to visit her clients at Alderson many times and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn painted a loving portrait of Kaufman, Claudia Jones, Betty Gannett and other inmates in her book, “Alderson Story: My Life as a Political Prisoner.” Mary Kaufman defended women and men arrested for protesting the military draft and the war in Vietnam---which included my wife, Joyce, arrested along with about twenty other women in a sit-down protest against the Vietnam War and military conscription in front of the Whitehall Induction Center in New York City. Mary Kaufman was also one of the main organizers of the National Committee to Free Angela Davis and it was in that role I heard her speak. Mary Metlay Kaufman, born poor in Atlanta to Jewish refugees from Czarist Russia, was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, one of six or seven women on the prosecution team led by Brigadier General Telford Taylor and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson. Kaufman was assigned to prepare the indictment of top executives of the I.G. Farben Chemical Trust, one of the richest corporations in Germany that poured millions of Reichsmarks into Nazi coffers bankrolling Adolph Hitler’s “Thousand-Year-Third-Reich.” Her research helped expose the hundreds of millions of Reichsmarks squeezed from millions of Jewish, Russian, Polish, French, Dutch, Belgian, French, and Italian “prisoners of war” by these Nazi banks and corporations during World War II. It was a system of outright slavery, one of the defining characteristics of Nazi rule along with mass extermination. The task assigned her had a title: “De-Nazification.” The aim was to dismantle the Nazi-infested banks and corporations that put Hitler and the Nazis in power. Later, this principle was embraced by Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill and Harry Truman at the Pots-dam Summit. Yet within months of the end of the Nuremberg Tribunal, Cold War anti-communists were plotting the return to power of these very same banks and corporations that squeezed billions in profits from slave labor and extermination in Nazi Germany. Kaufman returned from Nuremberg burning with the conviction that never again must we sit idly by while fascists, funded by billionaire banks and corporations, scheme to seize power in a fascist coup d’etat. She looked around her and saw mean, cunning, lawmakers like Rep Martin Dies instigating their fascist-like witchhunt against the Communist Party, against the labor movement, against the Civil Rights movement and people of color. It smelled to her like a repeat of the Nazi rise to power in Germany. She had just completed an assignment revealing the role of giant German banks and corporations in the rise of fascism. Her life motto was, “FASCISM NEVER AGAIN!” She plunged into the fight-back and gave every ounce of her energy to the defense of these women and men who, like her, were fighting against the fascist threat to our freedoms. Mary Metlay Kaufman was an anti-fascist hero. She should be honored and revered for her lifelong struggle to defend democracy, the rights of workers, the poor and the oppressed. Yet I look around me: Where is the statue dedicated to Mary Metlay Kaufman? And why not books celebrating her life and explaining the principles she stood for? There is mostly silence. Even the film, “Nuremberg,” a worthy effort to expose the fascist danger has not a single line about Mary Kaufman and the case against I.G. Farben, Alfried Krupp of Kruppstahl and the other Nazi billionaires. There is a concerted effort to hide this central truth about fascism enunciated by the great anti-fascist, Georgi Dimitroff, who defined fascism, as the “open terrorist dictatorship of the most chauvinist warlike sections of finance capital.” I am now gathering background information for a biography of Mary Metlay Kaufman. Her papers are at the Sophia Smith Archives at Smith College in Northampton, MA, with the papers on the Nuremberg tribunal forwarded to the Lillian Goodman Law Library at Yale. I am reading the transcript of the I.G. Farben trial online at the Harvard Law School Nuremberg Trials Project. It is chilling to read the thousands of pages in this document that exposes just how gruesome the Nazis were in their greed for profits. I am already pondering the title to the book. “MARY METLAY KAUFMAN: ANTI-FASCIST HERO.” Dear reader, if you have information about Mary Metlay Kaufman, please share it with me. It will go in my book. greenpastures164@gmail.com Tim Wheeler is a veteran activist and journalist and a leader in PSARA's Clallam County organizing committee. A version of this article first appeared in People's World. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents April 2026 GiveBIG Challenge, 2026 Robby Stern GiveBIG 2026 is just around the corner. We ask you to please donate as generously as you can to support the PSARA Education Fund as we meet the threats of this difficult time and move forward with determination and hope. The fascist policies and actions of our federal government require educational programs and action. We have joined as a founding member with the local affiliate of Standing for Democracy, and also participate in a statewide anti-fascist network, Free Washington. On February 4, 2026, we helped to organize and co-sponsored a webinar entitled "Organizing the Resistance, Voices from Minneapolis." It was an outstanding webinar where we learned much from the sisters and brothers in Minnesota. On March 4, at the request of a few of our members, we sponsored a well-attended “Know Your Rights” training with an emphasis on building power in our communities. More educational events and actions are in the planning stages. Meanwhile, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, programs essential to the lives of seniors, people with disabilities, children, and low-income adults are under significant attack. Many members of the broader communities are unaware that these programs are being seriously undermined. Others know there is a serious problem but do not know the nature of those attacks and what can be done. The PSARA Education Fund’s publication of the Retiree Advocate combined with multiple presentations in Western Washington provide important information to diverse communities. We have provided information about the attacks by the Trump regime on Social Security. Access to field offices has been significantly impacted by staffing reductions. The Trump administration laid off 7,000 workers in the Social Security Administration with plans to force beneficiaries to get answers through AI. In Washington State, staffing has been reduced by an average of 11 percent, with some WA Congressional districts suffering more than a 30 percent reduction according to the union that represents the Social Security workforce. The Commissioner is determined to push Social Security beneficiaries into communicating with Social Security online. We also now know that critical data about Social Security beneficiaries has been breached. We will continue to provide information about these attacks while working with allies to support positive legislation that addresses the financial needs of the program and of beneficiaries and rectifies inadequate staffing. A recent example of the value of our educational and advocacy work is the campaign we initiated to educate the public and our elected officials about the WISeR program and the threat it represents to all current and future Medicare beneficiaries. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had no process to get input about WISeR from the people it impacts, including Medicare beneficiaries and health care providers. Our educational work about WISeR has had a significant impact. Many more people now know about WISeR. Sen. Murray and Rep. DelBene introduced legislation barring the WISeR program, and seven of our eight Washington Democratic Representatives and both Washington Senators are opposing the implementation of the WISeR pilot program. The Education Fund is publishing a second printing of the pamphlet, Protecting Our Assets, Protecting Our Asses , articles written by our co-President, Jeff Johnson. We are part of the fight for the future for all generations against the severe consequences of burning fossil fuels. We will also publish in 2026 a selection of the many of the insightful articles written by our beloved brother, Michael Righi, a progressive economist who wrote monthly and served on the editorial board for the Retiree Advocate . We are very excited that, as a result of our educational work; advocacy by our members and our lobbyist, Nancy Sapiro; the support of our allies in the legislature; and support from other organizations; SJM 8002 passed both houses of the 2026 Washington State Legislature. The education and advocacy required to pass the resolution was led by PSARA and the PSARA Education Fund. Senator Bob Hasegawa, a PSARA member, was the Prime sponsor of SJM 8002 and he did a great job. As a result, Washington State is on record supporting leveling the playing field between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage. Our goal is to give all Medicare beneficiaries a genuine choice of programs without suffering the additional cost of purchasing supplemental insurance. Leveling the playing field would also add dental, vision, and hearing benefits to Original Medicare. Having the financial resources to continue and expand our work is critical. Your generous financial assistance is needed. GiveBIG day is May 5. Early online giving for GiveBIG starts on April 28. Donations can be made on the GiveBIG website from April 28 through May 5. The fundraising goal for the 2026 GiveBIG campaign is $30,000. Here is the link for donating through GiveBIG. https://www.wagives.org/donate/PSARA- Education-Fund You can also make a GiveBIG donation at PSARA's website https://www.psara.org/ anytime between now and May 6. For members who prefer not to donate online or want the Education Fund to receive the full amount of your donation, you can send a check to the PSARA Education Fund any time between now and May 5. Write in the memo line, GiveBIG, so we know it is in response to the GiveBIG campaign. Mail your check to the PSARA Education Fund, 321 16th Ave. S., Seattle, 98144. Choosing this option saves the PSARA Education Fund a small processing fee PSARA pays for online donations. Thank you for your support. Robby Stern is President of the PSARA Education Fund and serves on the PSARA Executive Board. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents February 2025 Trump and His Neighbors to the South Cindy Domingo Donald Trump announced that Florida Senator Marco Rubio is his choice for Secretary of State and Carlos Trujillo for Assistant Secretary of State. This signals that the Trump administration will pursue a foreign policy in the Caribbean and Latin America focused on increased sanctions, regime change, and increased economic suffering for the peoples to our south who have cho- sen an alternative form of government away from capitalism. Rubio and Trujillo are both Cuban Americans and have a long history of disdain for the leaders of Caribbean and Latin American countries who advocate for their country’s sovereignty. Trujillo was Trump’s US Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), an international body that has displayed hostility especially towards Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Rubio was Trump's lead advisor, along with Senator Bob Menendez, in crafting Cuba policy during Trump’s first term. During that term, Trump reversed many of former President Barack Obama’s Cuba policies that re-established diplomatic and people-to-people relations with Cuba. This included policies that relaxed the travel restrictions for US- people, which resulted in over 500,000 people from the US traveling to Cuba by expanded air travel and cruise ships. The most damaging policy that Trump and Rubio instituted was placing Cuba on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. This policy increases restrictions on Cuban trade and access to foreign markets and banking systems. It continues to devastate the Cuban economy. Despite international pressure for Biden to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, Biden only announced on January 14, 2025, that Cuba would finally be removed on January 29, since there was no mate- rial basis for Cuba to remain on the list. This decision was made after a massive international campaign and the intervention of Pope Francis. (However, by the time this article goes to print, this policy will undoubtedly be reversed by Trump at the advice of Rubio and other conservative Cuban American Trump advisors before it can get implement- ed.) In 2019, Trump recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as its president, despite Nicholas Maduro’s election. Today, even though Maduro was recently elected president again, Biden has disputed the Venezuelan election and recognized Edmundo Gonzalez as president-elect, a move that Trump will also probably follow. And while Latin America has had new conservative leaders in Argentina and Paraguay since 2021 when Trump left office, many left governments re- main in power, including Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia. In Columbia, Gustavo Petro, Columbia’s first leftist leader, was elected in 2022. In 2023, Lula da Silva from the Workers’ Party was reelected as Brazil’s president. US hostility to our southern neighbors, including Mexico, will continue to intensify under Trump as the inter- national body BRICS gains momentum. BRICS is an intergovernmental organization that was formed in 2009 as an alternative to the G7 bloc of the world’s largest economies. The founding countries include Brazil, Russia, India, and China and has now expanded to 10 country members. Cuba and Bolivia are now partner countries along with 11 other partner countries who joined in October 2024. Mexico has been considering requesting membership for a few years. BRICS country members account for 46 percent of the world’s population. The developing countries are using BRICS as a method to use their local currencies on the international markets, thus weakening the US dollar. With China at the center of BRICS, they bring an economic clout unmatched by any other country, including the US. While Trump can continue to wage war against our southern neighbors through tariffs and increased sanctions, BRICS and its member countries will pursue building its alternative organization and becoming an alternative economic development resource for those developing countries. BRICS principles based on non-interference, equality, and mutual benefit run counter to Trump’s foreign policy, which seeks a return to the Monroe Doctrine where everything belongs to the US. This includes the Panama Canal, Greenland, and the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” At the same time, the continued harshening of sanctions will have the effect of increased economic refugees fleeing to the US. Since 2013, eight mil- lion Venezuelans have left the country. Many have gone to the US, due to the economic hardships created by US sanctions that include punishing other countries for trading with Venezuela. In the 2021-2023 period, one million Cubans left their country seeking better economic opportunities. Most of the Cubans who left have come to the US in the most significant migration wave in Cuban history. This massive migration presents another problem for Trump, who has promised to stop migrants coming into the US and to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants, the majority of whom come from coun- tries south of the US border. Like so many of Trump’s MAGA policies that he wants to implement, Trump’s Caribbean and Latin America policies will face heavy opposition in this ever-changing world, where US influence continues to decline. Cindy Domingo is PSARA's Co-VP for Outreach, and a long-time activist in LELO (Legacy of Equality, Leadership, and Organizing) and APALA (Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance). < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents May 2025 Autoworkers, the UAW, Trump, and Trade Tariffs and the Autoworkers Michael Righi Our orange king has put 25 percent tariffs on imported cars and trucks. Wait! They are suspended for a couple months, but not for all countries. Not for China, of course. And maybe special consideration for parts made in Canada and Mexico. By the time you read this, who knows what the situation will be? But a couple things are clear. While Trump and Miller and the rest of them blather on about bringing industry back to a bunkered USA, their broad and haphazard tariffs are leading straight to recession and job loss. Uncertainty will crash business investment. Intermediate goods that firms need will cost more, and they will cut back and lay workers off. Tariffs are a tax that falls most heavily on goods bought by working families. So they will feel both the inflation and the job loss. Trump says “we” will need to suffer a little pain in the short run. Except not Apple or purchasers of I- phones or computers, they are exempt. Blow Up Free Trade Fundamentalism We should not mourn the end of so- called “free trade." Neoliberal economists, corporate Democrats and many NY Times pundits are howling about the end of the postwar trading system. But we do not want the corporate trade model that is embodied in the North American Free Trade Agreement and the opening of trade with China. That has allowed multinational corporations to exploit foreign workers and environments, moving factories overseas and devastating working class communities in the US. NAFTA and trade with China have led to a loss of 70,000 manufacturing plants in the US and millions of jobs. To quote Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, “Our union is hell bent on ending the free trade disaster of the last 30 years.” It is workers who have borne the brunt of trade dislocations, not the auto companies. During the 1980’s the US Big Three – Ford, GM, and Chrysler (now Stellantis) – faced sharp competition from Japanese cars. Tariffs and quotas were enacted to stop imports and force foreign car companies to locate plants in the US. They built factories in non-union states. Then, with NAFTA in the 1990’s, the automobile corporations moved many parts and assembly factories to Mexico, and a little bit to Canada, setting up complex supply chains. A typical car sold in the US today has parts that have crossed borders several times. Most have 40 percent or more “foreign content.” The top 10 global automakers raked in $70 billion in profit in 2020. Now that has doubled, to $150 billion, as they raised prices 30 percent during the Covid crisis. Over the last 15 years, they have bought back $370 billion in stock from their wealthy investors. Meanwhile, workers’ wages were stagnating until the recent UAW con- tract made significant gains. But those wage increases apply only to union workers, and the majority are non-union. Now, 43 percent of car parts and assembly jobs are in Mexico, where workers average $3 an hour. That’s down from $6 an hour in 1993, before NAFTA. NAFTA opened up Mexican markets, especially corn, to US agribusiness, driving down prices and driving families off the land. Many headed north to maquiladora auto parts and assembly plants, pushing down wages. Moving jobs to Mexico, in this race to the bottom, is still going on. One example: Stellantis recently moved Ram truck production from Warren, Michigan, to Mexico. Instead of paying $37 an hour, the company pays $3. They don’t lower prices, they just send more profit to Wall Street. The UAW has calculated how much US factory capacity is sitting idle. Enough to build two million cars and hire 50,000 more workers. Every auto assembly job creates seven more in the supply chain. So Tariffs Would targeted tariffs on imported cars and trucks help bring autoworker jobs back? The UAW thinks so. (Just to be perfectly clear, Shawn Fain and the UAW, while in favor of auto tariffs, are opposed to 99 percent of the Trump agenda, including the detention of union members and protestors.). But tariffs are only a first step – the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada (formerly NAFTA) must be renegotiated. It must include provisions for a minimum manufacturing wage way above $3 an hour. It must have a labor board to enforce labor organizing and bargaining rights. In the long run, the UAW wants to be making the electric cars and batteries we need. That will require strong government action forbidding stock buybacks and excessive CEO compensation, and forcing the auto companies to invest and innovate. Trump wants trade chaos and scapegoats. Corporations want free trade and profit. We want fair trade, so that all workers can make a living on a living planet. Michael Righi is a retired economics professor and a member of the Retiree Advocate editorial board. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents September 2026 Fossil Fuel Divestment and Engaging With Corporate Clean Energy Transition Plans Both Necessary Jeff Johnson On July 26, 2026, former Washington State legislators Reuven Carlyle and Mark Mullet wrote a response in the Seattle Times to a July 10 op-ed, regarding divesting state funds and public pension funds from fossil fuels, written by Jeff Johnson, former President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO and Greg Devereux, former Executive Director of the Washington Federation of State Employees. What follows is a letter Jeff Johnson sent to Reuven and Mark in response. Dear Reuven and Mark, Let me begin by saying I commend you both on your years of public service in the legislature. Having worked the legislature for over 30 years, I recognize the personal sacrifice and commitment that you both made, to make the state a better place to live. I found your July 26 argument short-sighted, inadequate to address the financial responsibilities of the state in a world increasingly defined by climate chaos, and in some ways just plain misleading. Fossil fuel assets have been significantly underperforming the market for the past decade. In spite of exogenous price shocks by Putin’s war in the Ukraine and Trump’s war in Iran, the declining value of fossil fuels relative to other more profitable assets should be concerning from a fiduciary perspective. Nonetheless, as climate chaos has literally set parts of the world on fire, caused an increasing decline in bio-diversity, threatened water and food sufficiency, increased ocean acidification and warming, and fueled a climate refugee crisis, the financial industry has recently invested trillions into growing and developing the fossil fuel industry. The Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) and Washington State, with its $8 billion plus investments in fossil fuels, are part of this problem. The hidden costs, or what economists call externalities, of climate chaos are extraordinary but not often spelled out. The rising cost of property insurance, food and water costs, lost jobs, housing, public infrastructure, uncompensated health care costs due to climate change added to the personal and public costs of mitigating climate disasters are eating up greater and greater chunks of personal and public budgets. This impacts every level of government and every worker and retiree. A few extra dollars in a weekly paycheck or a monthly pension payment increasingly falls short of in-creased costs due to climate change. You argue that “evidence decisively” shows that divesting from fossil fuels will not increase state or pension returns nor help fight climate change. You cite academics who show that divestment from fossil fuels has not raised the cost of capital and therefore not constrained the operations of fossil fuel companies nor cut emissions. This is not surprising given that banks, insurance companies, and bottom-feeding private equity corporations continue to rapaciously invest in fossil fuels. But this misses the real point. No one is arguing that divesting from fossil fuels will immediately cause emissions to fall. Nor is anyone arguing that it isn’t important to engage with non-fossil fuel companies over clean energy transition plans. What we are arguing is that public and private institutional investors can meet their fiduciary responsibilities to protect their assets (pension or otherwise) and tackle climate change head on. Over 1,700 institutions worldwide, managing over $40 trillion in capital assets, have made commitments to not purchase fossil fuel assets and divest from existing fossil assets. Of these 1,700 plus institutions, 35% are faith based, 15% are educational, 12% + are philanthropic, 12% are pension funds, 11% + are governmental, and about 9% are for-profit companies. What these organizations recognize is that both budgets and investment portfolios are moral documents at the same time that they realize they can meet their fiduciary duty without holding fossil fuel assets. Given the existential crisis climate change presents, you can no longer say, with a straight face, that we will address climate change only through legislative change, and continue to negate that work through the financial investments we make. The accelerating climate chaos that our world faces requires us to use every tool at our disposal to stop this assault on the existence of our planet. Relative to climate change, it is a false dichotomy to say the work of the legislature and the work of Washington State Investment Board must remain in two separate lanes and never the two shall meet. Climate chaos is accelerating at such an alarming pace that legislative policy fixes are just not enough. While the Climate Commitment Act and Clean Energy Transformation Act were good first steps, they are by no means a reason to feel content. As the state law requiring all electricity in Washington State to be carbon-free by 2045 approaches, utility companies in the state are making plans to greatly expand power plants fueled by natural gas. While this will lower carbon emissions, it will create more methane emissions, which heats the atmosphere even more quickly. This is unacceptable. Given the declining value of fossil fuel assets, divesting these assets over a five-year period of time can increase our pension and state fund returns, while meeting the fiduciary obligations of the WSIB. That’s what the NYC pension funds found when they divested from $4 billion of fossil fuel assets. According to Monte Tarbox, Chief Investment Officer, since divestment, the NYC pension funds have seen an improvement in returns. There is no reason to scare our hardworking public sector teachers, firefighters, or state employees that divesting from fossil fuels will reduce their pension benefits. Divestment is a tool. I would like to see Washington State catch up with the over 1,700 institutions sending a message to the fossil fuel industry and to the financial industry that major sectors of civil society reject the false narrative that divestment will lower portfolio returns, that one can’t have a profitable and diversified portfolio without fossil fuels, and that, when it comes to our very existence, we should leave what we invest in to the bean counters. I will close this letter with a statement from Archbishop Desmond Tutu from a press conference at the 2014 United Nations Climate Summit. "Climate change has become the human rights challenge of our time. I commend the individuals and institutions who are announcing divestment of their assets from fossil fuels and are investing instead in the clean energy needed for human survival." Finally, I want to be able to, someday, tell my nine-month-old grandson, Alessandro, that I am truly sorry for what we have done to this planet and that we finally woke up and did everything we could to reduce the destruction that is caused by fossil fuel induced climate change. Best, Jeff Johnson, Retired union leader, pensioner, garlic and flower farmer, and Co-President of PSARA. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents July 2025 Rural Protestors Urge Senate to Kill Trump Medicaid Cuts Tim Wheeler Senior citizens stood near Clallam County’s only full service public hospital, June 7, holding signs proclaiming “85% of OMC Patients on Medicaid, Medicare” and chanting “No Cuts to Medicaid or Medicare.” The vigil, initiated by PSARA, attracted 18 participants who lined First Street a couple of blocks south of the Olympic Medical Center (OMC), a public hospital that serves 111,000 on the isolated, rural Olympic Peninsula. The protesters held up their signs and waved as passing motorists honked and gave thumbs-up salutes. In the crowd were two candidates for the OMC Board of Commissioners constantly struggling with millions of dollars in debt due to the low reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid. The vigil was in protest against President Trump’s “Big Beautiful” budget bill passed by the House and now pending in the US Senate. The bill would inflict $715 billion in cuts to Medicaid and $300 billion in cuts to the SNAP nutrition programs to defray the trillion dollar tax cut for billionaires and millionaires. Laurie Force, a retired nurse and a candidate in the August primary for the OMC Board, was holding a sign as was her husband, Larry, whose hand-lettered message was “Stop the Steal.” Her campaign slogan is “A Force For OMC.” The other candidate for the OMC Board, Dr. Gerry Stephanz, Medical Director of the Olympic Peninsula Community Clinic, pointed out that Trump’s budget bill is a grave risk to rural hospitals across the nation, including the OMC, that are totally dependent on Medicare and Medicaid payments to stay afloat financially. OMC, he said, should file to be designated a “Rural Health” provider, like the hospital in Port Townsend. If recognized as a rural hospital that provides life and death services to more than 100,000 people, OMC would enjoy far higher reimbursement rates for the 85% of its patients now covered by Medicaid and Medicare. The vigil took place one week after a “town hall” meeting, also organized by PSARA at the senior Shipley Center in nearby Sequim. Speaking at the Shipley Center in Sequim on May 24, PSARA leaders Robby Stern and Anne Watanabe urged fightback against President Trump’s so-called budget “reconciliation” bill that will inflict hundreds of billions in cutbacks to Medicaid, the SNAP food stamp program and other human needs benefits while handing trillions in tax cuts to themselves and their billionaire cronies. Said Watanabe, “The GOP ‘big, beautiful bill’ means that by 2034, 8.6 million lose health insurance because of cuts. Another 5.1 million lose health insurance through loss of tax credits….13.7 million total will lose healthcare insurance.” She cited the disastrous impact the cuts would inflict in Clallam County where 20,866 children, 38 percent of youngsters, are protected by Medicaid and 21 percent of those 55 years or older. In neighboring Jefferson County 7,641 people, over 29 percent of children and 27 percent of those 55 years are older are enrolled in Medicaid. Rural hospitals, she said, like the Olympic Medical Center (OMC) in Port Angeles that serves 111,000 people, are at grave risk of closing or losing their public status, being privatized through merger with private for-profit hospitals like Providence, a Catholic hospital chain that bans abortions and other reproductive health care. These hospitals, she charged, are being forced into bankruptcy due to ruinously low reimbursement rates for their Medicaid and Medicare patients. In the past twenty years, 200 rural hospitals across the nation have been forced to close due to this crisis in rural America. OMC is the only full service hospital in an isolated region two hours drive from Silverdale or Tacoma and a long ferry ride from Seattle. Treatment for a heart attack or delivery of a baby is care needed instantly not after a two hour drive. Enactment of the Trump-MAGA budget bill will be a death sentence for tens of thousands of low income people, children, immigrant and native-born alike. Already approved by the House, Stern and Watanabe urged the crowd to bombard the U.S. Senate with mes- sages demanding the Senators vote down the budget scam, the most sweeping attack on federal human needs programs ever. Both Stern and Watanabe addressed the issue of defending traditional Medi- care from privatization by so-called “Medicare Advantage.” Stern described in detail the life-threatening struggles by PSARA member Richard Timmins, of Whidbey Island, who was forced to undergo intense treatment for skin cancer because his so-called Medicare Advantage (MA) provider refused to approve in time treatment by a dermatologist despite his physician’s recommendation. By the time the MA provider reversed course and approved examination, the tumor had metastasized into cancer. Stern told of his own family forced to file multiple appeals against a Medicare Advantage provider to win skilled nursing coverage for a parent/ grandparent in a nursing home. Medicare Advantage was authorized in 1982 said Watanabe. “The intention was to lower the cost of Medicare and improve outcomes for patients. So what happened?” Corporate insurers paid a per patient capitation fee, seek to inflate their profits through massive overcharges, false claims, "upcoding" in which patients are over-diagnosed to allow MA providers to receive higher capitated payments from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The total overcharges by MA is estimated to be $80 billion to $140 billion annually. Much of this corrupt profiteering has been exposed by the MEDPAC, a commission that oversees Medicare and Medicaid. PSARA is part of a nationwide coalition seeking to preserve Medicare against privatization by “leveling the playing field,” enacting reforms that allow traditional Medicare to offer the same extra benefits offered by MA like dental, vision, and hearing, and capping out-of-pocket costs for traditional Medicare enrollees. PSARA also supports “Medicare For All” or universal publicly paid healthcare for every person in the U.S. native born and immigrant, said Watanabe. Ellen Menshew, a member of PSARA and also Chair of the Clallam County Democratic Party (CCD), and Lisa Dekker, an Outreach Vice President of PSARA from Clallam County, introduced the guest speakers from Seattle. Dekker told the crowd that PSARA members and other volunteers are standing in front of the Federal Building in Port Angeles every Friday at 1 p.m. to protest the Trump-Musk attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid focused now on demanding that the U.S. Senate reject the MAGA-Trump budget bill. It was Memorial Day weekend and many in the crowd came directly from a “Hands Off Our Veterans” protest by hundreds at the main intersection in Sequim denouncing cuts by Trump and unelected Elon Musk to the Veterans Administration, and sharp reductions in healthcare and other benefits for war veterans and their families. In the audience were members of PSARA from Sequim, Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Gig Harbor, and Tacoma. US Army vets, and active union members were present. Tim Wheeler is a veteran activist, journalist, and a leader of PSARA's Clal- lam County organizing committee. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents January 2025 40 Years of the Retiree Advocate Advocate Editorial Board Readers might have noticed that with this January issue, we’ve made the transition to Volume XL of the Retiree Advocate. That’s not “XL” as in extra large – although we like to think PSARA has an extra large impact – it’s XL as in 40. That’s right, we’re beginning the fortieth year of the Retiree Advocate. That’s a remarkable achievement for any independent publication, but even more remarkable for one like the Advocate that relies solely on subscriptions and doesn’t accept advertising of any kind. We owe our success primarily to you, our readers, who have supported us for 40 years. But we also need to acknowledge two outstanding working-class journalists who guided the Advocate through its formative years and shaped it into the publication we know today. Max Roffman (1910-2003) edited the Advocate even before it was the Advocate. He came to Seattle in 1984 from Hawaii, where he’d spent 21 years organizing the United Public Workers Union (UPW), and another 10 working for the Center for Labor Education and Research at the University of Hawaii. When he came to Seattle, Max became a leader of the Puget Sound Council of Senior Citizens (PSCSC) and was the first editor of Senior News – the predecessor of the Retiree Advocate. In 1994, Max retired as editor, although he continued to write for the publication, and Will Parry (1920-2013) took on his editorial responsibilities. Will had been a writer for The New World and People’s World, until 1956, when the McCarthy persecutions deprived him of his ability to make a living as a journalist. Will then went to work for a box-making company and became a leader of Western Pulp and Paper Workers (AWPPW) Local 817. Will went on to edit the AFT-WA newsletter, and when he retired, became involved in the PSCSC and Senior News. When he became editor in 1994, the publication was only a four-pager that came out every other month, and was written mainly by Max and Will. In 1998, the Senior News became a monthly and expanded to six pages. The National Council of Senior Citizens was relaunched as the Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA) in 2001, and Senior News became the Retiree Advocate in 2002. Will retired as editor in February 2013, and died the following May 13, having seen the Advocate through a period of sustained growth. The Advocate hasn’t come this far and had the extra large impact it’s had without the constant support of our as a journalist. Will then went to work for a box-making company and became a leader of Western Pulp and Paper Workers (AWPPW) Local 817. Will went on to edit the AFT-WA newsletter, and when he retired, be- came involved in the PSCSC and Senior News. When he became editor in 1994, the publication was only a four-pager that came out every other month, and was written mainly by Max and Will. In 1998, the Senior News became a monthly and expanded to six pages. The National Council of Senior Citizens was relaunched as the Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA) in 2001, and Senior News became the Retiree Advocate in 2002. Will retired as editor in February 2013, and died the following May 13, having seen the Advocate through a period of sustained growth. The Advocate hasn’t come this far and had the extra large impact it’s had without the constant support of our readers. Many of you have written for the publication, many have volunteered your time to help us mail the Advocate or to distribute it to friends and neighbors, and all of you have contributed dues to help keep us running. Thank you! As we begin 2025 with a second Trump administration in the “other Washington” we’ll need the Retiree Advocate more than ever. We'll keep bringing you hard-hitting analysis of the major issues, let you know what PSARA is doing about them, and how you can help. Together we’ll keep pushing for a positive vision of a future that benefits all of us. And we will resist the temptation to “moderate” our agenda in order to accommodate the Trump regime, or Elon Musk, or whoever. We know we can do it because we've been doing it for 40 years, and we look forward to continuing our run for as long as it takes. Advocate Editorial Board < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents September 2026 Living and Dying with Artificial Intelligence Bobby Righi “AI is at once a consummation of technological control and a new level of cultish delirium. The designers themselves are often incapable of explaining what their systems are doing.” (June 22, 2026, The New Yorker ). What is artificial intelligence (AI) and why do we need it? The billionaires who are convincing investors to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into expansion and development of AI have no answers to these questions. They tell us that their version of AI will change everything, but they are divided on whether AI will rule the world benevolently or decide to kill off humanity. They are confused, but they are marshalling billions of dollars for computer chips, thousands of acres of farmland, and millions of gallons of water to build data centers to teach their Large Language Model (LLM) machines about the world. The input for this teaching is everything found online: all social media, literature, encyclopedias, math books, vast amounts of copyrighted material, and our chats and online transactions. This includes disgusting and violent language and pornography, so people in poor countries are hired to edit and clean up the input. They get low wages and mental distress from looking at the hateful images and language that comes off of platforms like X. Generative AI, like ChatGPT from Open AI and Claude from Anthropic, can speak, write reports, produce videos, write novels, etc., when given a prompt. Humans train them to try to make sure they don’t include nasty ideas and images from X and other hateful platforms in their responses. They have been known to wave Nazi flags, promote child pornography, and encourage teenagers to commit suicide. These deviations are called “hallucinations." Generative AI (GAI) can converse with us, “see” and make sense of visual material, and can create drawings, novels, music, and videos, and write code for new programs. Writers, film makers, journalists, programmers, as well as most office workers, can all be replaced. According to the New York Times of July 10. 2026, even many science PHDs, medical doctors, financial advisers, and others in high level professions are now being paid by the hour to train GAI programs like ChatGPT and Claude how to do their jobs. Workers at all levels will be replaced. Building God? Five big corporations – Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon – are racing to be the first to develop something called AGI or “artificial general intelligence”. This AGI is a program/ machine that knows everything and thinks like a human, but faster and better. Would it be creative, intuitive, and curious in the way that humans are? Doubtful. There is no definition of what AGI might be so it is anyone’s guess. These five partner with the model makers OpenAI (Sam Altman), Anthropic (Dario Amodei), and xAI (Elon Musk) to build AGI. Each corporation is racing to get computer chips, out-spend, out-build, and out-hype the others so they can be the first to put this mystical holy grail, AGI, on the market and control the world. Oh, and get there before China! Trump has declared that there be no regulation on AI – it is a question of national security. Massive data centers are planned on vast tracts of land here and in other countries where they will drain fresh water reserves to cool the acres of machines that feed information. They will need to generate more electricity, letting the locals pay the bills and try to irrigate their food crops with no water. This, understandably, has caused widespread resistance from across the political spectrum. What matters is who is using it. AI is being used for good and bad. The bad: using AI to find bombing targets in Iran and Gaza, to throw people off of healthcare rolls, to track immigrants for ICE, and to promote ethnic violence with fake images posted on the internet. The good: it is being used to further medical research and develop vaccines, to tackle complex questions about climate change, and to restore Indigenous languages before they are lost forever. The good comes from communities of people using AI to solve problems important to them and the society where they work and live. The bad and deadly uses are linked to a mad scramble by a half dozen billionaires who think they know best what is good for us and who want to be the first to get their product on the market and increase their power, no matter the disastrous side effects. This is yet another example of why we should not have billionaires and how important decisions about our lives have been taken out of our hands. More to come: the resistance in our state. Bobby Righi is Co-Chair of PSARA's Climate and Environmental Justice Committee. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents August 2026 Sen. Murray's Speech to Senate Urging End to Trump Administration’s WISeR Program that is Delaying and Denying Seniors’ Health Care The Retiree Advocate reprints her speech in full: Senator Patty Murray “I wanted to talk today about not just how Republicans are making health care more expensive, but also how they are making it just plain worse for seniors. President Trump came into office saying that he wouldn’t cut Medicare. But that was clearly a lie. Because right now, his administration is trying to privatize Medicare — in part, by putting AI between Medicare beneficiaries and their health care! “In January of this year — under Secretary Kennedy’s and Dr. Oz’s leadership — CMS began this pilot program that uses AI to require prior authorization in Traditional Medicare. For the first time ever. And it is set to run for 6 years. They call it the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction model — well, they got the wasteful and inappropriate part right! “The ‘WISeR’ Model uses AI to deny vulnerable seniors the care they need and that their doctors recommend. Not only that, but the for-profit contractors that conduct this prior authorization are paid a percentage of the cost of care that they deny. They are literally incentivized to rip health care away from seniors because that is better for their bottom line. When your business model relies on denials, denials are what seniors are going to get — and that is perverse. “WISeR was rolled out in the beginning of this year in my home state of Washington and five other states, without safeguards, and without any transparency, and without the best interest of Medicare beneficiaries at the heart of the program. “President Trump is saying: forget the doctors who went to medical school and took an oath to do no harm — AI knows better when it comes to health care decisions for our seniors. The consequences of that poor judgement are real and they are life threatening. “I hear from Medicare patients in Washington state all the time who are suffering in debilitating pain for weeks because they are not getting the care they need, thanks to this harmful model. “Patients like Joanne—she’s a Medicare beneficiary from Quilcene, Washington. She went to her doctor for severe pain and an MRI showed that a herniated disc was pressing on her sciatic nerve. Joanne’s doctor prescribed an epidural injection to help ease that pain. This was standard, routine care — care that, before this year, she would have been able to get quickly after it had been recommended by her doctor. “But because of this WISeR model, she had to wait 6 weeks to get approval. That means that thanks to WISeR, Joanne had to deal with unnecessary, un[treated] pain for six weeks. Because of this nonsense delay, her day-to-day life was disrupted — and the burden fell on her then to fight for the care she needed. “This is simply outrageous! But that is also WISeR working by design. And that is a direct impact of the Trump administration’s actions. “We’ve seen way too many stories like Joanne’s from states that have been selected for this pilot program — no way should an algorithm decide if seniors should get the care that they need. “That’s why I joined my colleagues in introducing a resolution to overturn this model. And I want all of my colleagues to join me in voting for it so we can make sure seniors in my state and all over this country can once again receive their health care on time, without interruption. “Let’s just use our common sense: it is clear as day that some AI model should never be at the wheel making health care decisions left and right. “And it’s not just patients I hear from, I’ve met with health care providers all over my state. Whether it’s a rural hospital or a doctor in Seattle—no one has had anything good to tell me about prior authorization in Traditional Medicare. “Now I ran for office exactly because I believe regular people deserve a say in how their government is run—and that is especially true when it comes to the government deploying AI technology. “I don’t know any senior, Republican or Democrat, who asked President Trump to let AI decide if their doctor-recommended treatment was necessary. Of course, AI can help make things more efficient or do good things, but that’s not what the WISeR model is doing! “So, let’s get to the crux of it, as a country, we make a promise to American seniors: if they paid their taxes throughout their careers, they earned their Medicare coverage. Full stop. WISeR breaks that promise to seniors with these senseless, AI driven prior authorizations that deny and delay care. “Let me be clear, many seniors choose traditional Medicare over other options because traditional Medicare rarely requires prior authorizations. People choose traditional Medicare because they want to make their health care decisions with their doctor—not with a private company that’s out to make a profit. “Simply put, the WISeR model — which again delays and denies necessary care to Medicare patients — it is reckless and irresponsible. “I want my Republican colleagues to join us in voting to get rid of WISeR once and for all, because Mr. President, this should not be a partisan issue. “We all have seniors in our states that deserve the highest level of care, without having to deal with red tape and delays. Thanks to Trump, AI is getting in between seniors and their health care: in Arizona, in New Jersey, in Ohio, in Oklahoma, in Texas, and my state of Washington. “We have an opportunity to stop this harmful, experimental pilot program before more seniors are harmed. No senior in America should have to appeal their pain and suffering to a machine. “To my colleagues, if it was your spouse or parent who needed care, who would you want to decide if they get their treatment? Their doctor or a for-profit algorithm? Would you want them to suffer in pain for weeks for care they are entitled to? “I know what my answer is. Let’s maintain the promise of Medicare. Let’s pass this resolution.” The Retiree Advocate thanks Sen. Murray for her advocacy on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries and her staff for sending us a copy of her speech. Senate Republicans unanimouly defeated the eflort to terminate the WISeR pilot. < Back to Table of Contents