Scott stood beside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for a photo op along with incoming Republican freshman senators including Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn and Missouri’s Josh Hawley Wednesday morning.
The incoming senators will vote for party leadership as well as pose for endless photos and learn where the restrooms are located.
So the question is, did Sick Rott invite himself or did McConnell?
I was gobsmacked by the photo-op on C-SPAN this morning.
Feel free to post your news via excerpts, tweets, and videos. This also serves as an open thread.
In the past day or so on twitter, there are tweets about what progressives want and especially, what Pelosi must do to garner their support if she wants to regain the Speakership in Congress.
Winnie from People for Bernie started the wish list this way:
David Sirota went outside the box with this thought:
I'm serious here — Democrats could right now nominate @BetoORourke or @StaceyAbrams for Speaker of the House. They have legislative experience, they are from red states, and they have serious national followings. I know it may seem far-fetched, but why would that be a bad idea? https://t.co/0hkUhB5FA2
I’m making this thread separate…something we can chew, nibble, etc.
Personally, I like Sirota’s idea, but given that’s unlikely, I know one thing right away I want: amend the 2017 tax law. I want SALT (state & local taxes) to be completely tax deductible again. Additionally, raise the minimum wage and MFA. Long-game: to add more members to the House to properly represent the American people. The last revision of the numbers in the House was 1911.
I just emailed Sean Patrick Maloney (my House Rep—that happy guy below) about joining the Republicans (and 32 of his Dem colleagues) to roll back banking regulations. I asked him why he supports banks over his constituents and whether his vote has anything to do with the fact that he was the #3 Dem recipient of banking industry donations. I’ll get back to you all with any response to my inquiry. Join me after the jump with any news etc. that you would like to share. …Continue reading →
In 1981, the playwright Zdena Tominová, on an extended visit to the West from her home in communist Czechoslovakia, traveled to Dublin to give a lecture. A critic of her country’s political regime, she was the spokesperson for Charter 77, one of the first dissident organizations to turn human rights into an international rallying cry.
Tominová, however, surprised the crowd. She explained that, growing up as a beneficiary of the state’s communist policies, she felt grateful for the ideals of her youth and their politics of material equality. “All of a sudden,” she remembered of the leveling of classes she witnessed as a child, “I was not underprivileged and could do everything.” This was striking, coming from a woman who’d seen the suppression of the Prague Spring reforms in 1968 and who’d had her head pounded into the pavement for her membership in Charter 77.
But even when government officials urged her to flee the country to avoid imprisonment, Tominová remained true to her generation’s socialism. “I think that, if this world has a future, it is as a socialist society,” she told her Irish audience, “which I understand to mean a society where nobody has priorities just because he happens to come from a rich family.” And this socialism was not just a local ideal: “The world of social justice for all people has to come about.” Tominová made it clear that socialism should not be used as an alibi for the deprivation of human rights. But by the same token, for her nation and for the world, the emergence of a human-rights framework should not serve as an excuse to abandon the fight against inequality.
Today, Tominová’s speech looks ironic: Her human-rights ideals became common sense, but the socialist ones cratered. Data show that texts were overwhelmingly more likely to use the word “socialism” than “human rights” until the late 20th century. The terms’ relative popularity switched right around the end of the Cold War in 1989. As the notion of human rights spread, people found it easier to identify with strangers across borders. Yet at the same time, the liberalization of markets, the reliance on free trade, and the mission of governance to institutionalize both created vast gulfs of inequality. Human rights became our highest moral language even as the rich seized ever more power and wealth.
Some 40 years on, we should reassess how the human-rights movement fits into the growth of this new political economy and redefine our sense of justice to counter the triumph of free-market ideology and the explosion of inequality. We should also ask how we can revive Tominová’s vision, which combined human rights with a broader sense of social welfare without abandoning one for the other.
Sanders and Garcia, a Cook County Commissioner, are close political allies. With Garcia’s help, Sanders only narrowly lost to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Illinois presidential primary. Garcia went on to become a national surrogate for Sanders presidential campaign.
Sanders will headline a rally for Garcia on Thursday at Apollos 2000, 2875 W. Cermak Rd. Doors open at 2 p.m. and Sanders speaks at 4 p.m.
“What I do know is that we desperately need people like Chuy Garcia in the Congress to stand up for working families who are prepared to take on the billionaire class. . . . He is somebody I look forward very much to working with,” Sanders said.
Garcia is running for the 4th Congressional District seat left open with the retirement of Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., against Sol Flores, a member of the City of Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals and Richard Gonzalez, a Sergeant in Chicago Police Department.
Sanders said he has two goals in his swing through Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa this week: holding meetings to get more people involved in the political process — his “revolution” — and “to do everything I can to elect progressive members to Congress.”
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Asked about running again for president, Sanders told me, “I would not be honest with you if I didn’t say, ‘Am I thinking about it? Yes I am. Have I made a decision? Absolutely not.’”
There is a disconnect between voters and their elected representatives in Washington. In a representative democracy, we elect representatives to bring our voices to the table and speak for us among our fellow Americans. -. It seems that’s no longer happening. Instead, those we elect to Congress conveniently forget about us the moment the last ballot has been cast, and they listen only to those who corrupt the representative democratic process.
We all know this is true. We know that Congress is beholden to the pockets of special moneyed interests, over the interests of the we, voters. That’s why their job approval rating continues to sink down to 20%. We, the voters are their bosses! Would your boss keep you on the job if you did only 20% of the work?
We need change. We need to clean up the corruption. We need campaign finance reform: a 28th amendment to the Constitution that takes big money’s corruption out of our political system.
That won’t happen if we keep electing the same people- people we don’t even trust! We must inject new blood and better ideas in Congress! We need Chris Haulmark.
*Healthcare – We all deserve to be healthy. That’s why Chris Haulmark believes universal single-payer healthcare should be a basic right for all Americans. Your medical attention shouldn’t ever depend on the job you hold or the money you have.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA or “Obamacare”) was a step in the right direction. But it still does not guarantee fully affordable coverage for all Americans. It left key provisions to the states to implement, creating a lot of wiggle room for certain states to shortchange their citizens, including Kansans.
For this reason, Chris Haulmark supports a federally-backed single-payer healthcare for all option. Only this way can we be sure that no American has to choose between one’s home and life-saving medical care.
The single-payer option must include dental, vision, psychiatric, mental, and behavioral health care, along with the numerous preventive and primary care treatment options available on the market, including cannabis and complementary & alternative medicine. We also need to expand federally funded programs for training nurses, doctors, and other healthcare specialists who will work in underserved communities that struggle to recruit and train such professionals.
Healthcare cannot be accessible only as an idea.. It must become reality- available to every single person in every single American neighborhood.
Higher Education – For the first generation in American history, our society owes more in student debt than any consumer debt, so because higher education has become expensive, many promising young people opt out. Those that do go are burdened with such massive debts when or if they graduate, they are in debt slavery for numerous decades, unable to contribute to the other drivers of the American Economy.
That status quo must change. Now. For our country to flourish in these times, we need educated well-trained skilled innovative young people with the right focus in building our country. That means they aren’t just limited in the size of their bank accounts after crushing debt payments garnishing their wages. Our college graduates also want to care, create, and contribute to our society and its economy.
Thus, post-secondary education should not be out of anyone’s reach.
The federal government and the states must boost education subsidies to the point of fully-taxpayer funded education, just as Europe does. We must offer more support for state universities, as well as quality trade and associate degree programs from local community colleges. This combination of special market-demand training and debt-free education is how we can offer meaningful, affordable access to those capable of attending higher education, no matter what their background.
Chris Haulmark met with a group of Deaf refugees yesterday morning. He was able to use international signs to communicate with them and learn more about their background. The staff learned from Chris how to be more visual with gestures to assist in communication. pic.twitter.com/UC3xbBLqLm
As your Congressman, I pledge to bring back individual service for the people in Washington. My office will always be open to you, offering whatever help needed to achieve the promise of America. I know how hard-working, talented, and diverse the people of Kansas Third Congressional District are. You deserve someone who will work for you.
Together, we can do so much! We can enact smart, reasonable solutions that serve everyone. We can rebuild and protect the middle class, as well as our clean air, water, and environment. We can demand accountability in Washington.
America is stronger than the problems facing it. Let us not steer by the stars but toward them.
In Southwest Virginia, we know all too well what happens when economic decisions are made by and for Wall Street; when farmers, small business owners and working folks are neglected by both political parties; when great teachers and smart students have to hold fundraisers just to get the basics; when coal mining communities are left for dead; when the playing field for ordinary people is steeper than a Wise County hillside.
I wrote a book about building healthy economies from the bottom up, because I know that good work almost always starts with local communities. That’s true whether we’re revitalizing downtown Galax, manufacturing energy efficient building products in Radford, tackling drug addiction in St Charles or building infrastructure to help farmers in Duffield. We’re “bootstrap” people, with a strong commitment to taking care of ourselves and our neighbors. The problem is that too often, the rules that come out of Richmond and Washington undermine rather than support effective local initiatives. That’s ridiculous. Public policy should help us help ourselves, as individuals and communities.
I’m running to help level the playing field for the 9th District of Virginia; to put people and communities first. To restore our land and rebuild our livelihoods. To build a strong, diverse and resilient economy from the bottom up. That’s the work I’ve been doing for more than 30 years, as a farmer and an entrepreneur, here in Southwest Virginia and many other parts of our region. I want to take that experience to Washington DC as your representative.
Trickle-down economics just doesn’t work. Forty years of cutting tax rates for the wealthiest people and the biggest corporations has not led to widespread prosperity. On the contrary, it has made a few people unimaginably rich, while diverting resources away from fixing serious problems and building real wealth. Nowhere could this be more true than in Southwest Virginia.
I’ll continue to work with leaders around the region to:
*Level the playing field for workers, local businesses and the community banks that lend to them
*Expand broad band access, including support of public providers where appropriate
*Bring both public and private investment to innovative manufacturers creating products that make us more resilient and productive
*Focus investment and support on retaining and expanding existing businesses rather than subsidizing transient corporations
*Expand workforce and technical training, closely connected to area businesses and employers
*Foster and support entrepreneurship, especially among younger people
*Reinvigorate anti-trust laws to reverse the extraordinary concentration of power held by a handful of giant corporations
Dramatically Improving our Health Care System – Obamacare didn’t create this mess; it’s been going on for a long time. It’s time for us to move away from incremental steps that do nothing to improve health or challenge the power and profits of the insurance industry and Big Pharma. It’s time to begin the transition to a system of universal health care, or “Medicare for all”. I will support this shift over the next several years, and in the interim fight for:
*Medicaid expansion so that the working poor, young people and elderly people in nursing homes receive quality care.
*Expanded support for community clinics and rural hospitals, tied both to Medicaid expansion and debt relief opportunities for young doctors and health care professionals
*Innovative educational and action programs in schools to improve eating, health and wellness among young people
*Expanded, community-based treatment for mental health and addiction
Yes this is another example of where we are highlighting multiple candidates In the same district. Site users can make up their mind who/if any that they want to support, but it cannot be said that we don’t provide options, and some pretty great ones like Janet Everhard.
Gynecologic Physician and Surgeon, managing her solo private practice since 1993, creating work-life balance for her employees, and promoting the health of women across southern Ohio. (She prematurely retired in 2011 due to the loss of use of her hands)
Volunteer Veteran Outreach Coordinator, Event planner, ACA Instructor, and Photographer for Team River Runner since 2010 using paddlesports as a recreational therapy tool for veterans afflicted with PTSD, severe physical disability, chronic homelessness and substance abuse www.teamriverrunner.org
Activist/founder of the USA Works Community to return the balance of power to the people www.usaworkscommunity.org
Founder of Tri-State Kayakers (now 3000+ members), introducing many women to a new sport www.meetup.com/Tri-State-Kayakers
Team member of New Richmond Economic Development, developing “Walk New Richmond”
Author/photographer of the Facebook blog “The CURE for Adventure Deficit Disorder”
Dr. Janet’s goal is to be an effective champion for the people of the second district versus an incumbent whose priority is supporting the wealthy and well-connected. We the People deserve a seat at the Washington table so we can swing open the doors of opportunity for our health and wealth.
Please join Team Everhard to make Congress Blue Again and reserve a seat at the Washington table for the citizens of OH-2!
*to bring back power from the 1% of the 1% to the People
*to ensure our families’ education, safety, health, and wealth
*to demand integrity from public servants and each other
*to care for our neighbors next door and around the globe
*to learn to tread lightly on our planet
*to realize our pledge of liberty and justice for ALL
My name is Richard Crosby; I am a husband, father, attorney, and entrepreneur, and now I’m running to be a voice for citizens of Ohio’s 2nd congressional district.
I was blessed to grow up in a household where the values of hard work, dedication, and public service were instilled in me at a young age. My father was a Commander with the Columbus Police Department where he proudly served for over thirty-three years. My mother managed a dental office where she exhibited an unparalleled work ethic. Growing up in a union household, I know that when hard work meets perseverance and determination, anything is possible.
It is with these values that I live my life. I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Ohio University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Dayton School of Law. I was then privileged to clerk for one of the most distinguished Common Pleas Judges in the State of Ohio before working as a Prosecutor for the City of Cincinnati and subsequently moving to a firm.
I am running for Congress because I want to serve. I want to create solutions for the people of our district and country instead of simply managing problems. I want to be the leader that the constituents of this district deserve! No longer will we be divided; No longer will we stand idle; From this point forward, we stand together.
-Richard
Crosby’s Priorities Page is still being developed, but here’s a bit:
Economic Growth: One of my top priorities will be to create new jobs, opportunities, and prosperity for everyone in the district. For America to have the ability to create jobs and succeed in an ever-changing society, we must be willing to support our local businesses and companies, while making our area appealing for new investors and entrepreneurs. Simple, strategic changes can make our district flourish, such as implementing legislation that allows all new businesses to defer payroll taxes for their first year if they hire locally. The extra costs are often cited by business owners as the biggest deterrent for hiring employees. For example, if an employer hires an employee, on average, that employer will pay 18%-26% more than the employee’s salary in payroll taxes. We need to encourage hiring, defer these taxes, and allow employers to invest in their companies.
Education: With rapid expansion in advanced manufacturing, life sciences, clean energy, and health care, we need to have an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in our school systems. STEM is essential to ensuring our students are prepared for the future and ready to compete and excel in a global workforce. We must also be willing to fight and protect our college students from crushing debt, with the first step to doing so being a lower cap on both government and private student loan interest rates.
When I asked about his position on Medicare For All and The Fight For $15, this is what I received:
Send me to Congress and I will stand up for the families in Washington’s 8th Congressional District. These are the families I’ve had the pleasure of serving for the past 16 years as a pediatrician in Issaquah, and I know how to listen. I will look at the issues facing our district as a scientist, doctor, and parent, with an eye towards making sure that the patients I take care of today have access to great, affordable healthcare, clean air and water, an excellent public education, and a shot at the American Dream. I am not a slick career politician. I am a pediatrician, a wife, and a mom who thinks it is time to bring some basic common sense to Congress.
I am the daughter of an elementary school teacher and an aerospace engineer. I have been a pediatrician in Issaquah for 16 years, and I am committed to my community. Since the age of 16 when I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, I have understood what it means to worry about health and health insurance. I believe that healthcare is a right, not a privilege. My family and friends span the political spectrum, and I’ve spent my life bridging divides. I have been fortunate to benefit from excellent public primary and secondary education, including my degrees in Astrophysics and medicine. I met my husband, David, at our 10-year high school reunion, and we teach our 8-year-old son, Sam, how important it is to stand up for things that matter and pursue a life of purpose.
Dr. Tran has a big fight ahead of her against not only Ed Royce, but self-financed Insurance executive (but single-payer advocate with a knack for making great ads) Andy Thorburn but she certainly has the resume and the message to win this race.
Congressman Royce has turned his back on us, and his vote for Trumpcare is a giveaway to big insurance companies and the wealthy at the expense of families struggling to afford basic care.
As a physician I am saddened by Ed Royce’s callousness, as a mom I am hurt, and as a citizen I am angry. Americans deserve better and I want to do something about it.
In addition to the forty or so times he’s voted to boot tens of thousands of his own constituents off affordable health coverage, he recently voted to wipe away guaranteed protections for those with pre-existing conditions – and to put a massive new tax burden on Californians who would have to pick up the bill.
Even if the State of California does find a way to create and afford new so-called high risk insurance pools, the premiums for those with pre-existing conditions will absolutely skyrocket.
There is simply no way many of the families that I serve as a pediatrician will keep their insurance coverage.
Congressman Royce is not just wrong on healthcare. He’s voted with Donald Trump nearly 96 percent of the time.
He has taken millions of dollars from corporate special interests and has a failing record on safeguarding our environment from climate change and pollution.
He’s failed us on women’s rights, human rights and common sense gun safety too.
Congressman Royce cannot justify earning an A rating from the NRA, especially considering the devastating gun violence we’ve experienced in San Bernardino, Riverside and throughout our State and Country.
Ed Royce’s votes to slash funding for our K-12 public schools, colleges and universities strip too many kids of the same opportunities that allowed me and millions of others to strive toward our American Dream.
Almost none of Congressman Royce’s stances on the issues make sense for Southern California. It’s not who we are and I’m ready to force him into a real debate on these critical issues.
The voices of working and middle class communities who live across California’s 39th district have been missing in Washington and they need a strong voice now more than ever. Our campaign will be about them.
I’m a teacher and former diplomat who served with distinction in Iraq, and my family has had a farm in the Hudson Valley since I was a boy.
We the people of New York’s 19th District are in the fight of our lives. We’ve formed a grassroots uprising that has shaken the powers that be. After organizing and rallying in our movement, I’m leading a people’s campaign to win us back our voice in Congress. This is not my first fight or my first turn to government service. I’ve been fighting for our country and what I believe in all my life.
After my service overseas, I returned to my family’s farm here in the Hudson Valley to raise my family, raise livestock and answer a call to teach. Today I live in Woodstock where my wife Suhayr and I both teach and our two sons attend school.
From here in our home in the Hudson Valley – and in homes with supporters around the district – we are putting together a people’s campaign to unite our community and take our fight to the Capitol. We’re doing it because we refuse to stand by while the America we were raised to believe in is weakened by incompetence and dishonesty at the top. The very wealthiest in our country are manipulating our system to steal from the rest of us and hollow out the American Dream. We won’t give up on that dream. It’s the dream of equal opportunity for ourselves, a good education for our children, a living wage for our workers, a clean environment, and health care for our sick and our elderly.
I used to believe democracy was something we fight for overseas. Today, I believe we have to fight for our democracy here at home. We’re uniting for that fight now. I hope you’ll join us.
Beals is running on a platform that I think most of us here could agree with:
Unite to provide Medicare for all.
Unite to lower prescription drug prices.
Unite to increase Social Security benefits.
Unite to rebuild our infrastructure.
Unite to develop rural jobs, small businesses and local farms.
Unite to fight income inequality and a rigged economy.
Unite to make public education tuition free.
Unite to face climate change with science and sustainable energy.
Unite to end racial injustice, bigotry and violence.
Unite to protect women’s reproductive health.
I believe that healthcare is a human right and the best way to fulfill this duty is a single-payer system. In my first year of medical school, I learned countless lessons, but perhaps the most important was that healthcare is a human right. Working in the student run Equal Access clinic, a place where I provided care for people without insurance, was one of the most formative experiences of my career. Unfortunately, my ability to provide the best care for my patients is not entirely up to me. Many times, my plans are blocked by a for-profit insurance company denying payment for my patient’s treatment plan. The Center for Economic and Policy Research estimates America wastes over $100 Billion each year on private insurance overhead costs, more than 12 times of what Medicare spends on operating costs. The bottom line is this: insurance companies are motivated to maximize profits and bonuses for their executives, not improve our health. “Medicare for all” should do more than just insure all Americans, it should tackle the unsustainable rising costs of prescription medications and healthcare, and even more importantly, make us healthier and more secure.
