Medicare for All

So... as we discussed over the weekend, the DCCC and the Beltway consultants are telling their client candidates in tough primaries to just lie about healthcare. They tell the conservatives they back that the words "Medicare for all" don't really mean anything and that it's OK to use them as long as they don't get tied down in a pledge to sign onto John Conyers' H.R. 676, the actual very specific Medicare-For-All bill.

I know it's hard to imagine but there was a time when the DCCC used to give their candidates my contact info and tell them to talk with me about progressive issues. That was almost a decade ago. Today they tell their candidates to avoid me at all costs-- or else! And many of their candidates do... but not all.

Liberal meritocracy in action. Slick new buses like these ferry high tech workers to and from Bay Area jobs, using city bus stops as pickup points.

The other day I was talking with a first-time Democratic candidate who has a bit of a reputation as a centrist, although he insist-- at least to me-- that he's a progressive. I'm not persuaded. He says he's kind of, sort of good with Medicare-For-All but there's no way he'd say he's going to co-sponsor John Conyers Medicare-For-All bill.

The jumpy video above is from a CA-45 (Orange County) Democratic Forum hosted by the Laguna Woods Democratic Club. Notice Brian Forde, an "ex"-Republican using Republican talking points about "access." Access means anyone can buy health insurance-- if you're rich enough to afford it. Forde may have switched his party affiliation a few weeks or hours or months ago and may be trying to appeal to low-info Democrats but... he's still just a Republican. Right after he spoke, Kia Hamadanchy, a former staffer for Sherrod Brown, talked.

When I was a kid my father owned a small clothing store in Bed-Stuy, which was part of the Assembly district Shirley Chisholm represented. I used to work there frequently.

Welcome to the DCCC morgueWhy aren't there more members of Congress like Barbara Lee? And why has Pelosi consistently blocked her from becoming part of party leadership and promoting Garbagecrats-- think Crowley, for example-- over her?

Kamala Harris-- just like Obama... but without any substanceSaturday afternoon we noted the new book coming out by Phillip Anderson, The Case Against Andrew Cuomo, with a post entitled Anybody But Cuomo? Well Almost Anybody.

Like Trump, a liar and manipulatorA couple years ago, I was driving out to City of Hope in Duarte and was able to listen to a whole segment on KPCC, an interview with in-coming Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. He spoke very eloquently and forcefully about environmental abuses and dangerous industrial and commercial pollution in working class residential communities.

Last night we embedded a graphic from the ABC News poll showing that although a growing number of Americans really don't like Trump at all, a majority and disappointed that the Democratic Party doesn't stand for anything other than opposition to Trump.