Hello. I hope this email finds you healthy and happy. I hope everyone enjoys a great holiday season, whether you are celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or something else. However many people won't be. Since the economic shutdown began, most of us have been given $1200 to stretch out for many months, as compared with countries, like Canada, which gave it's people direct payments of $2000 Canadian dollars ($1400 USD) per month. Many small businesses have been forced closed as big corporations have thrived. The stock market is up, but so is homelessness, joblessness and the number of people without healthcare.

14.6 million people have lost their employer-based health insurance since March, and with more and more business still closing those numbers will continue to rise. And for nine months, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has refused to bring Medicare For All up for a floor vote, which will allow debate on the subject. Nancy Pelosi should be ashamed at blocking healthcare during a pandemic in which 300,000 people have lost their lives. This session of Congress is about to close and they weren't even going to give people another check until Senators Sanders and Hawley objected. The $900 billion stimulus bill Congress is working on will bring the total stimulus to $3.3 trillion, of which most of us will have received a piddly $1800 total over a 9 month period. If Congress had given everyone $1000 per month directly, it would have cost about the same, would have helped all of us a lot more, and would have been far more stimulating for our economy.

But I digress. Congress is about to go home and end session, but hasn't so much as had a vote on Medicare For All, during a pandemic, with 44.6 million uninsured, despite the fact that Medicare For All is supported by 70% of all Americans, 53% of Republicans and 88% of Democrats. Why the hell not?

Jimmy Dore made a video, where he demands that any member of the House who calls themselves progressive should withhold their Speaker vote for Nancy Pelosi unless she allows a recorded floor vote on Medicare For All before the end of the session. It's not only a smart idea, it's basic politics to get something for your vote. It's what should have been happening already. Here is that video, but please continue reading after the video.
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Pretty good idea, huh? So Thom Hartmann had the co-Chair of the Progressive Caucus, Mark Pocan, on his show and asked him what he though about Jimmy Dore's idea. Mark's response was to play dumb, make excuses, and to pretend that he didn't understand how Jimmy came up with 15 Reps (which is how wide the Dems majority will be in 2021). He inadvertently made Jimmy's point when he said "the margin may be even smaller."

San Diego Chargers running back, Justin Jackson, who is a fan of Jimmy's, responded to one of Jimmy's tweets that if AOC and the Squad don't do this, they will be revealing themselves.
AOC hadn't responded to Jimmy at all, but she responded to Justin, and made some excuses like there not being any thought given to step 2 and that committee assignments and rule changes were more important than legislation.

Jimmy responded to that by making a video showing AOC's own words from before she won election, and how what she is saying now is radically different from the AOC that we elected. Yes he IS hard on progressives that don't keep left.

Many other important lefties have stepped up and joined Jimmy in this push to force the vote, including both founders of the Justice Democrats (Kyle Kulinksi and Cenk Ugyur), Justin Jackson, Kristal Ball (from The Hill), Briahna Joy Gray, (Sen. Sanders' former National Press Secretary), Marianne Williamson, Susan Sarandon, Medea Benjamin, Katie Halper (from Rolling Stone's Useful Idiots podcast), Danny Haiphong (Black Agenda Report), Aaron Mate (Greyzone, the Intercept), Max Blumenthal (Greyzone), Caitlin Johnstone (Rogue journalist) and Fiorella Isabel (of the Convo Couch).
Here is a 2 minute video, using AOC's own words to push for #ForceTheVote.
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I have also been neck-deep in this, tweeting to most of the mentioned people, tweeting to House Members including Mike Thompson (even though he is not in the progressive caucus), Jared Huffman, Mark DeSaulnier and many other caucus members asking them to tell Nancy Pelosi that they won't vote for her for Speaker unless she allows a recorded floor vote on Medicare For All. And I've been asking everyone else to do the same, and people have been. #ForceTheVote has been trending on Twitter for 5 straight nights. This is really catching on, and I'd like to ask you too, to please contact Mike Thompson (or Jared Huffman or Mark DeSaulnier or John Garamendi) and ask him, or whomever your Rep is, to please leverage their vote for Speaker in exchange for a recorded floor vote on Medicare For All.

As you might suspect, we've had some criticism- most of it isn't worth the time of typing or reading it in this email. But I DO want to address what happens. A Speaker candidate will require a majority of House votes to win. If a majority is not achieved, another ballot occurs, and another, and so on until a Speaker is elected. Other candidates can enter the contest if she doesn't win on the first ballot, so it's in Nancy Pelosi's own interest to hold a vote on Medicare For All. Someone else might defeat her, a Ro Khanna or a Barbara Lee. There is no risk of the Republican achieving a majority.

The last time a Speaker vote required more than one ballot was 1923, almost 100 years ago! Before that, every fifth Speaker election required more than one ballot. Interesting that it seems so unheard of to us, isn't it?
BREAKING: Cornel West and Jimmy Dore announce that they are joining the People's Party Advisory Council.

Together we are launching a petition and organizing campaign to #ForceTheVote ([link removed][0]=AZXmhC04EUI1MXg_uG1A2EpS1JN0SQWrEksAcuqjwgPeRaxbneuD3K_n8bQXau-W4Vn4vM_gf_7Z4cpYOYdr6koNl96J7515buyZt5Ak1tM7PjUhGoqX98t0uFvLVa6CoXTRnuBkI39kCMbYF7qubwR1r1fG92qA7_gTRAoQLwSKhWnDaD8-GhHprTWWsXpZQn4&__tn__=*NK-R) on Medicare for all.

Add your name and share!
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Jason Kishineff for Congress 2018 . 100 Via Belagio . American Canyon, Ca 94503 . USA

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