Why Sanders' Medicare for All approach is seen as a threat. A public option is a better way forward.

This is my story. It's not unlike millions of other people out there.

Job Lock, staying at a company because of insurance benefits, made me miserable and scared. The ACA fixed that. Bernie comes across as a threat to a better life that the ACA brings.

What I would like to say to Sanders is bring more people into the system as quickly as your can; Don't break what's working for millions of us.

I stayed on a great career path for more than twenty years, and had an enviable job. Yet I was so unhappy being there. I would come home drained and, over time, became more and more depressed and anxious.

Knowing that I would put me and my disabled husband at risk by not having insurance, I stayed at my job. That's until the breakdown happened. I found myself curled up on the floor and sobbing every day for more than two weeks. I couldn't do it anymore. I was broken.

The ACA was there to catch me, though. I was able to get a plan through the exchange and branch out on my own business using what I had learned. That was three years ago, and I've bought my insurance through the exchange ever since. Using your words, I have free agency.

More than 20 million Americans have insurance through the ACA. We only have 8 percent of the population to go for full insurance.

That why people like Bernie, who advocate a Medicare-for-all-or-bust approach bring back feelings of anxiety and dread. Don't get me wrong: I'm for universal, single-payer coverage. I disagree with Bernie, though, on how to get there. A public option is a bridge to get there since it builds off the ACA as a platform. The Medicaid portion needs fixing. And scaring people about losing health insurance through their job is a recipe for disaster. Some people like their job-provided coverage. It didn't work for me, though.

I want a system that covers everyone. It can be patchwork if need be, and can grow over time. And if it changes to Medicare for all one day, that's fantastic.

Oh, and my disabled husband finally won his disability case. He has Medicare now. And while I drool over the options in the guide to his open enrollment period, my benefits have been superior at times. My specialist co-pay is less, and the drug formulary is larger than his Medicare Advantage provider. He has a premium that comes off his disability income each month.

Sanders' plan is not Medicare. His approach is something else entirely; Sanders is only keeping the name.

Pete Buttigieg on How He Plans to Win the Democratic Nomination and Defeat Trump

Mayor Pete is now. Mayor Pete is the future. Mayor Pete connects with people from all walks of life.

And most of all, he is a role model to the millions of GLBT kids out there who need to know that anything is possible in America.

When I was coming of age in the 80s, I didn't have a gay role model. To be sure, there were some out there, fighting on the front lines for AIDS research and doing the hard work of winning rights. But the mainstream media didn't write about them. Invisible, they were not featured on TV. I did not know about them, and thought I was alone.

I well up with tears when I think about how far the gay community has come, and how much further we have to go. And, I'm so happy that kids today -- all kids, not just the ones who feel queer -- see someone running for president who is a little bit like themselves.

This is a great article about Mayor Pete's strategy for beating Trump. I want to hear about strategy from each of the dem nominees, and Mayor Pete has set a high bar for them to clear.

Kamala Harris is going to have a rally in Atlanta on Sunday at 4

What time do you think I need to get there to get in line? I haven't been to a rally in a while, but I'm guessing security is tighter these days.

And for Georgia DUers, join in! Details here: https://www.mobilize.us/kamalaharris/event/88218/

Trump Plans to Declare National Emergency to Build Border Wall

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump plans to declare a national emergency so he can bypass Congress and build his long-promised wall along the border even as he signs a spending bill that does not fund it.

The move would effectively end a two-month war of attrition between the president and Congress that closed much of the federal government for 35 days and left it facing a second shutdown as early as Friday, but it could instigate a new constitutional clash over who controls the federal purse.

“President Trump will sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action — including a national emergency — to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/us/politics/trump-national-emergency-border.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

A speech of cookies and dog poop - you go, Van Jones!!

Wake up to the Supreme Court's delegitimization of itself

The Court has turned into a partisan institution where the justices are treated as some kind of god-like figures. While we have made some meager gains (striking down parts of DOMA, kind of saving Obamacare, etc.), the court has proven itself to be on the side of the monied and tyrants.

The writing was on the wall with Bush v. Gore. Bush allowed 9/11 to happen by ignoring the "imminent threat" warnings, thereby replacing criticism of government with hollow patriotism.

Conservatives are worse than liars and snakes. They are cruel, backward authoritarians who seek to strip women of their agency for reproductive rights. They hide behind a fig leaf of textualism, where they can use the constitution like prophesies from Nostradamus -- where they make the constitution fit whatever whim they have pulled from their collective ass.

So fuck the GOP. Fuck conservatives. Fuck everything about them and their judges. The court helped make some progressive gains, but it hasn't been on our side for more than two decades.

Unless we change the makeup of the court, it is a barrier to progressive ideals. Therefore, we either change the institution when we have power, or we wake up and treat the court as it has cast itself and how the GOP has shaped it -- as a corrupt cancer on the body politic.

And we will have political power again. We are the majority. We have the fire of resistance burning in our bellies. The vote in November is our opportunity to start turning the worm.