SIGN THE PETITION: It's time for Congress to move on Medicare For All. 23JAN18

IN a Christian nation, as so many republican politicians and voters claim this country was and must be again, healthcare would be a right and access to healthcare would not be determined by one's ability to pay. So why are so many republican politicians and voters committed to defeating Medicare for all and where is the Christianity in denying adequate healthcare to those who need it? Would Jesus deny healthcare to everyone who can not afford it? Sen Bernie Sanders I VT is holding a Medicare For All town hall tonight at 7:00 PM ET / 1900 ET , click the link to sign the petition from the PCCC / Progressive Campaign Change Committee and MoveOn.org   calling on Democrats to make Medicare For All a consensus position for the 2018 and 2020 elections and to get a link to the town hall tonight.

PCCC Brothers and Sisters,

The government shutdown and budget fight in Washington shined the spotlight on the vast difference in priorities between progressives and Republicans.

Republicans use their power to hurt kids and tear families apart. They want massive increases in military spending while refusing to address the crises we face in health care, education, college affordability, infrastructure, and more.

We must continue to make clear for the American people our vision for the future. This includes continuing our fight for the Dreamers and for issues like Medicare For All.

I want to invite you to attend a special event I'm hosting tonight in Washington DC at 7pm. Along with progressive media outlets The Young Turks, ATTN:, and NowThis, we're holding a groundbreaking Medicare For All Town Hall at the Capitol Visitor's Center. Can you RSVP on Facebook to join us at 7pm tonight?

And, please add your name as a supporter of Medicare for All so we know who we can count on to advance this vision.

Tonight, we are going outside the traditional media to take our message directly to the people. And we're taking questions from the audience, which will be seen by people across the nation.

Now is the time for us to join every other industrialized country on earth, and guarantee quality healthcare to every man, woman, and child in our country.

The insurance companies, the drug companies, and Wall Street won’t be on our side in this fight.

But the American people are with us. Together, we understand that it is absurd that we spend almost twice as much per capita on health care as any other country and that we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.

That's why tonight's event connecting issue experts and leaders directly with the American people is so important.

Please sign up to join us at 7pm tonight Then, add your name as a supporter of Medicare for All so we can take action together.

I'm working with the PCCC and other progressive groups to highlight the growing movement in support of Medicare For All to my colleagues and the media. The time is now to address one of the great crises our nation faces. I am glad the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is with me in this fight.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Secret Recording Reveals GOP Lawmaker Freaking out About 'Going down with the Ship' for Trump 9JUN17

IF these republicans don't want to possibly loose their seats in the US House all they have to do is have the courage to stand up against the immoral and destructive policies of the drumpf/trump-pence administration. For them to remain silent is proof they are republicans first and Americans second, and so they do not deserve to be re-elected. rep barbara comstock r VA (10th congressional district) is one of these republicans feigning concern about (NOT MY) pres drumpf/trump, but is she standing up to him on the issues she supposedly disagrees with?NO. She is just organizing her propaganda campaign to save her political ass while supporting the drumpf/trump-pence administration's class warfare against the majority of the American people. From AlterNet & Tucson Weekly.....

Secret Recording Reveals GOP Lawmaker Freaking out About 'Going down with the Ship' for Trump

As the president continues to unravel, Republicans are beginning to panic.

By Brad Reed / Raw Story

June 9, 2017, 5:31 AM GMT

Although Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ) may be publicly supporting President Donald Trump, in private she seems to have a lot of concerns.

Tuscon Weekly has obtained a leaked recording of McSally meeting with the Arizona Bankers Association, in which she said that President Donald Trump’s tweeting habits were making life vastly more difficult for Republican lawmakers — and could spark a massive electoral backlash against the GOP in 2018.

“It’s basically being taken out on me,” she said of Trump’s erratic behavior. “Any Republican member of Congress, you are going down with the ship. And we’re going to hand the gavel to Pelosi in 2018, they only need 28 seats and the path to that gavel being handed over is through my seat. And right now, it doesn’t matter that it’s me, it doesn’t matter what I’ve done. I have an ‘R’ next to my name and right now, this environment would have me not prevail.”

McSally then complained that liberal activists were completely tying her to Trump, thus making it impossible for her to tout her own independent record as a member of Congress.

“The environment has changed and some of it changed on January 20,” she said. “There’s just an element out there that’s just, like, so against the president. Like they just can’t see straight. And all of a sudden on January 20, I’m like his twin sister to them. And I’m, like, responsible for everything he does, and tweets and says. And they want me to be spending my time as a pundit. ‘I disagree with that. I agree with this.’ I have a job in the legislature!”

Brad Reed is a writer living in Boston. His work has previously appeared in the American Prospect Online, and he blogs frequently at Sadly, No!

The Skinny 

By Jim Nintzel @nintzel

click to enlarge

• mcsally.house.gov
• U.S. Rep. Martha McSally told a group of bankers last week that if an election were held today, she would lose office.

Behind Closed Doors

A secret recording shows U.S. Rep. McSally has some concerns about reelection

Congresswoman Martha McSally may be in more political trouble than she's been letting on.

Team McSally has been poo-pooing recent polls showing that more than half of the voters in her district disapprove of her job performance, while her approval has fallen down to the mid-30s, percentage-wise, and that she was losing to a generic Democrat by 7 percentage points.

But last week, in a private talk to the Arizona Bankers Association, McSally conceded that in the current political environment, she has some real challenges in next year's election.

McSally complained that President Donald Trump and his tweets were creating troubling "distractions" and "it's basically being taken out on me. Any Republican member of Congress, you are going down with the ship. And we're going to hand the gavel to Pelosi in 2018, they only need 28 seats and the path to that gavel being handed over is through my seat. And right now, it doesn't matter that it's me, it doesn't matter what I've done. I have an 'R' next to my name and right now, this environment would have me not prevail."

Admittedly, McSally was making these comments as she was asking the bankers to open their checkbooks for her reelection campaign, so it could well be that she was just doing the ol' fear-mongering-for-dollars act.

McSally's comments came to light after some of McSally's critics—including Kristen Randall, the leader of Indivisible Southern Arizona—ordered tickets to a talk McSally was giving at a luncheon for the Arizona Bankers Association.

Someone on Team McSally, however, appears to have taken a closer look at who was attending the event, because four of the five members of the group received emails about two hours before the lunch informing them that their tickets had been revoked. "They caught onto us," Randall says with a laugh.

But the fifth member (whose identity The Skinny is not privy to) did manage to appear bankerly enough to crash the party—and the spy recorded McSally's entire speech for the Randall's group, and from there, it fell into our hands.

McSally was more blunt in many of her comments behind closed doors than she typically is when questioned on the issues. In fact, she expressed frustration that the media and her constituents ask her to comment on what President Trump says and does.

"The environment has changed and some of it changed on January 20," McSally told the crowd. "There's just an element out there that's just, like, so against the president. Like they just can't see straight. And all of a sudden on January 20, I'm like his twin sister to them. And I'm, like, responsible for everything he does, and tweets and says. And they want me to be spending my time as a pundit. 'I disagree with that. I agree with this.' I have a job in the legislature!"

Randall says she does expect McSally to speak up when Trump does something offensive.

"That's her job," Randall says. "When there's going to be a vote, we want a statement. We want a dialogue. And she's not giving it to us. She seems really put out. ... She's a leader in our community and that is part of her job. There's a human component to her job that she very obviously does not enjoy."

In her talk, McSally acknowledged that the job comes with a lot of frustration. She said serving in Congress had gotten a lot harder since Trump's election last year and that she's forced to "navigate in the political theater, but I don't breathe life into it and I don't enjoy it, just to be frank with you. It actually drains me."

As she was talking to bankers, McSally focused on the latest GOP efforts to repeal the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that regulated banks after the 2007 economic collapse. She characterized Dodd-Frank as a hindrance to banks that needs to be repealed.

"Within the public, there is often a perception that we had the financial meltdown and then Dodd-Frank was good and it was, you know, saving us from future financial meltdowns," McSally said. "You guys are all experts in the industry and you know that's not the truth. Really, what Dodd-Frank did, was it provided additional compliance and legislative regulations and more burdens upon you. It doesn't actually protect the consumer anymore, it just adds more paperwork and compliance."

McSally also had a lot to say about healthcare, but we don't have room in the column this week—so look for that online at The Range at tucsonweekly.com.

Randall says she's still hoping McSally will do some open town halls in Tucson so her group won't have to resort to subterfuge to try to find out her positions.

"I'm pretty angry that she was willing to talk to out-of-district bankers but she's not willing to talk to us," Randall said.

In the meantime, Indivisible Southern Arizona will be back to the protest beat at 8 a.m. Friday morning outside McSally's midtown offices, 4400 E. Broadway. This time, the group will be expressing unhappiness about McSally's support for overturning Dodd-Frank—and they'll have loudspeakers to play McSally's comments about the law to the bankers.