Ooops. I just posted this on yesterday’s thread.
Just got another email from Maxwell Frost which I can seriously relate to. Gotta throw him another bone. Meanwhile Klein, at Down with Tyranny, is dogging him every day for taking $1million from SBF. I think Klein has another axe to grind.

____, this email is long.

But with my swearing in just one week away I think it is important you understand my (less than conventional) road here, my experience, and what kind of leader I plan to be.

If you’re short on time, I understand, but please consider chipping in to get us closer to our $15,833 goal and keep me fighting for the most vulnerable among us in Congress >>

A victim of the system and enmeshed in trying circumstances, my biological mother turned to drugs and crime while she was pregnant with me.

She didn’t have healthcare during this time and wasn’t able to see a doctor even once.

As the mother of seven, she made the difficult decision to put me up for adoption because she lacked the resources to care and raise another child.

I learned all of this just two months before I announced my run for Congress.

Understanding my biological mother’s story and the circumstances surrounding my birth underscored for me why politics is so important. And it further crystallized my core vision of it – that we need our elected leaders who view the world through the eyes of the most vulnerable.

My community needs a leader like that in Congress and I’m running to be that person – someone that fights every day for and with the marginalized and disadvantaged. A champion for working people.

This isn’t new for me though. I’ve been fighting for my community since I was 15 years old when I became an advocate for ending gun violence following the Sandy Hook shooting.

After the death of George Floyd, I became one of the lead Black Lives Matters organizers in Orlando, where I went out every day to fight for justice and Black lives. I was beaten by cops, tear-gassed, and jailed for those efforts.

In 2018, I helped lead the ACLU of Florida’s fight to win Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to over 1.6 million Floridians who had previous felony convictions.

While at the ACLU in 2020, I worked to win Biden’s support for abolishing the Hyde Amendment, legislation that has limited abortion access for millions of people.

As Organizing Director at March for Our Lives, one of the largest youth political movements in the country, I led an ambitious voter turnout program that helped drive a record number of young people to the polls, helping to hold the House, and win a Democratic Senate, and Presidency.

I share all of this with you, so you understand the kind of leader I am and will be.

____, I didn’t make it this far on my own and I’m going to need your support to continue my fight in Congress. I need to raise another $15,833 before my deadline tonight. Please, if you can, chip in $31 right now >>

one last christmas toon from GQP land

Birdies, please go check out this post at Down with Tyranny about George Santos.
The NRCC May Have Found George Santos’ Lies Funny, But Other Republicans Are Less Amused

https://www.downwithtyranny.com/post/the-nrcc-may-have-found-george-santos-lies-funny-but-other-republicans-are-less-amused

Just a peep –

Among the many lies– education, employment, religion, campaign financing, where he lives, his criminal record, his divorce, a cock’n’bull story about 4 employees who were killed at the Pulse Nightclub, his tax returns, a fake charity he claimed he started but that doesn’t exist, his ponzi scheme at Harbor City Capital, his evictions for non-payment of rent (after spurious claims of owning 13 rental properties), shady relations with a Russian oligarch, a 6-figure bribe/straw donation from FTX, his country of birth– there’s one that no one is talking about. He claims that he was at the J-6 coup attempt and insurrection… but his role there is still kind of murky. He tells different people different things about what he did in DC on January 6. Publicly he claims he was just at Trump’s rally and that he “knows” Trump won the election, but when he’s speaking privately, you’d get the idea that he broke into the Capitol and tried hunting down Nancy Pelosi or AOC. Yesterday, the NY Times reported that McCarthy is refusing to discuss the matter.

This is a email from Bernie

I will soon be taking the gavel as the Chairman of the United States Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), one of the most important committees in Congress.

Let me tell you what’s on my mind and what kind of committee I intend to lead.

Health Care: Today, I am thinking about a country that spends more per-capita for health care than any nation in the world and yet has worse outcomes and lower life expectancy than many developed nations.

A country that has a health care system in which more than 60 million Americans are either uninsured or underinsured; almost 500,000 people declare bankruptcy each year; and 70,000 more die every year because they can’t afford the care they need.

A country where drug companies are making huge profits while people split their lifesaving pills in half because they can’t afford them. And because Medicare doesn’t cover vision, hearing, and dental, we have seniors who don’t have the glasses they need to see their loved ones, hearing aids to have a conversation with them, or dental care to enjoy a meal with family.

This is America. That is truly beyond comprehension.

So yes, we must have the courage to stand up to the greed and recklessness of the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies, substantially lower the cost of prescription drugs, and work to guarantee health care as a right for all of our people.

Education: Today, I am thinking about a country where the billionaire class gets huge tax breaks, but our teachers and children get broken chairs, flooded classrooms, and inadequate staff support – one of the richest countries in the history of the world, yet our teachers are among the worst paid.

A country where hundreds of thousands of bright young people who have the desire to get a college education cannot because their families lack the money and 45 million more are struggling with student debt.

A country with a public education system that is failing our families from a young age and it has only gotten worse since COVID, especially for working class Americans.

So yes, we must work toward creating the best-educated workforce in the world, one that prepares our children to succeed in a highly competitive global economy – one that recognizes a high-quality public education from childhood to adulthood is the right of all, not just the privilege of a few.

Labor: Today, I am thinking about a rigged economy with an unprecedented level of income and wealth inequality. While the billionaires become richer, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and millions are trying to exist on starvation wages.

A country where, at this moment, workers all across the country, at Starbucks, Amazon, hospitals, factories, and on college campuses, are organizing unions in order to receive better wages and working conditions. They are often being resisted by fierce and illegal anti-union actions from corporate America.

So yes, we must raise the minimum wage to a living wage. We must stand up to the extraordinary greed and power of corporate America and make it possible for workers to excessive their constitutional rights to organize unions.

Now I am not naive.

I do not believe that I am going to be able to bang my gavel and pass all of the legislation we would hope to make law in this country.

There are going to be a number of areas where Republicans and conservative Democrats are not going to support us. But I am not going to give up on those issues and together we will continue to make progress on them, as we have over the past several years.

But I am hopeful there are areas where we can find some common ground and make real progress: Reducing the cost of prescription drugs and insulin; expanding early childhood and higher education; raising the minimum wage to name a few.

Because the truth is, it is not just people in so-called “blue states” who are paying too much for drugs, or want better educational opportunities for their children, or who believe the current federal minimum wage is a starvation wage.

Most people believe that in all parts of this country.

So this is going to be a different Chairmanship.

You are going to see us hearing directly from workers.

You are going to see us talking about issues that historically have not been discussed much in Congress.

You are going to see us take our case on the road, not just committee rooms in Washington, D.C.

And you are going to see me asking for your help along the way. Because in order for us to be successful millions of Americans are going to have to stand together in the struggle for economic, racial, social, and environmental justice. These battles will not be won inside the beltway alone. They will require a strong and focused grassroots movement. Let’s do it.

I hope that I can count on your help.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders