55 Comments

My name is Jane Ann Leeves. I am a 60 yr old psychiatrist in Houston who has lived a life of contrasts. I grew up in rural northeast Texas in Naples. Our population of 2000 shrunk to 1400 after I-30 bypassed us in the 60s or 70s, the loss of steel industry jobs in 1980s and the death blow from Walmart, doing what they do best.

My father was a family practice doctor who grew up in a nice big home that was affordable b/c his father was a pharmacist. My mom's father was a carpenter. They lived in government housing and she became a hairdresser. I started 1st grade with 90% of my high school graduating class. We integrated in the 4th grade. My Paul H. Pewitt class of 57 people was 25% black and included 5 people with doctorate degrees (anesthesiologist, OB/gyn, psychiatrist, dentist and Phd chemist in academia in Chicago, engineers, entrepreneurs who have a class reunion there every year during the Naples Watermelon Festival. We share stories and we love to be together, but we are sad to see what has happened to our community and the despair that lives there. So many of our classmates have died due to drug and alcohol problems.

I graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1983, did medical school and child, adolescent and adult psychiatry training at UT Medical School in Houston. I worked almost 10 years in children's community mental health clinics and now have a private practice seeing people who can't afford to pay me and people with 2nd homes. A friend says I run my practice like it's a charitable organization and I like that.

I hosted a phonebank for Bernie at my office almost every Sunday during the 2016 race, protested in Philly, and am active in Our Revolution Harris County. We progressives are trying to get the bills passed via persuasive arguments. But rational argument does not appeal to people's frozen minds and hearts. Powerful documentaries can. I watched Bowling for Columbine 7 times. I think about it all the time, but I still don't know why we are so violent, but I think it has to do with what Alcoholics Anonymous says, "Hurt people hurt people." We have so many, many levels of trauma.

Mike, I am convinced that watching the documentary Wisdom of Trauma about Dr. Gabor Mate's work will warm the hearts and minds of all our suffering masses and will get the damn bill passed! Please watch the trailer (wisdomoftrauma.com) which is available online. The directors have told me they will send screener to you as soon as I hear from you. I have enormous hope.

Expand full comment

At what point do we show support for Dems/progressives that tried to get us the 3.5 trillion. At what point do we show our anger and frustration for anything less than 3.5 trillion. How do we MAKE the DEMs answer for anything less than 3.5 trillion, How do we hold the Sinema's responsible for LYING to their constituents?

Expand full comment

If Trump can threaten tepid supporters (Republicans) by "primarying" them, why can't the Democrats threaten to Primary Sinema and Manchin to get them on board to help us? They might as well be Republicans because they are essentially FILIBUSTERING our progress!

Expand full comment

I still think voting rights is the most important issue today.

Expand full comment

This is one of President Barack Obama's most fiery speeches that he gave today in Virginia on what we're up against with GOP voter restrictions and redistricting gerrymandering. We can lose our democracy if people are denied the right to vote.

It's pretty powerful how Obama can fire us up and make us laugh and cry. But the things he says are what Michael has been saying long before him. It will take a stronger Democratic majority in 2022 to achieve all that President Biden is calling for to Build Back Better for everyone.

GOP Republicans have no ideas of their own that will help us have the America we've never had as Michael has said. Obama emphasizes this with their efforts to rig our elections. It's no cliche' that our children grow fast as we did. We deserve better than what we're seeing if there's any hope for a better future other than GOP extremists policies that led to the attack on our nation's Capitol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flsBVQx05WY

(23:49)

This is a petition to the US Senate and House for monthly covid stimulus checks that nearly 3 million people have signed, more than any petition on change.org:

https://www.change.org/p/give-2000-month-to-every-american-moneyforthepeople-covid19

Here's Greta Thunberg rickrolling Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up at the climate concert:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI81yqgRWGc

(2:05)

It's fun watching the young people having fun, even tho our generation failed to do more to prevent the climate crisis we're in.

Climate Covid Coup

God Bless Michael

Expand full comment

Once again, thank you for a broadcast that helps me like a group bear hug of essential therapy to cope and contend with reality, spin, denial, magical thinking, and, of course, despair. THE BILL MUST BE PASSED, and what is the point of anything else if our planet is destroyed? How can two low level human beings posing as Democrats retard and stop the entire future for all Americans? Thank you for hosting the bright light Ro Khanna of Cupertino, California, who reminded us how important we and our phone calls truly are.

Expand full comment

Elder care support is important to me and many others who have lived long enough. While I support the credits for children, not all of us have children, but all of us will need elder care in our old age. My brother and I paid $8,000 per month for 5 years for our dad. I guess that says it all.

Expand full comment

3:08, 10/22/21: i’ve tried sending a pleading email to my Representatives (as this Moore email recommends), using the democracy.io system but the email won’t go through. Its been 10 minutes. However, this is happening in Alabama so go figure.

Expand full comment

Why all the hallabaloo over these bills? There are 3 issues: the do nothing republicans; the ignorance of ego centric sinema; and fossil fuel joe m!!! No need to keep asking democrats and commentators what’s going on!!

Expand full comment

"The bill has so much support for families who have gone through such a terrible time, and deserve to have support. And things that are way overdue, like paid family leave and support for quality child care-- things that other countries that like us have been doing for years and we are way behind in catching up," Hillary Clinton said. #InfrastructureFuture!

Expand full comment

The Rethuglicans have passed state bills that force women seeking abortion to watch ultrasounds of the fetus inside of them, seeking to humiliate us.

I wish we progressives could mandate the watching of Wisdom of Trauma by every person who wants to deprive any of our citizens of the right to have everything in the 3.5 T bill. They effectively murder anyone they call “them.” The majority of front page stories in newspapers & stories that lead tv broadcast news come down to greed and some kind of maltreatment of human beings or animals.

My mom once told me when I was a kid that the best thing JFK ever did was to get assassinated. I was brainwashed. I became free of it one night in my 20s working in an ER seeing a woman who was poor and I realized she was just like me except she didn’t have any money. How can our rulers who were actually elected to be our representatives be so cruel? Because they learned it in their childhood homes & they grow up and become bullies, oppressors. Eventually, invariably the oppressed rise up.

Bernie told us in 2016 that a nation will not survive morally or economically when so many have so little & so few have so much. The damn bill aims to do what the Americans with Disabilities Act did—level the playing field. It’s time for the rich to take care of us after all we’ve done for them.

Expand full comment

To set the record straight, to curtail out of control offensive ranting, and to present facts, Alameda County is in the 'East Bay', across the San Francisco Bay from San Francisco. The East Bay contains Oakland, California, which you may recall Gertrude Stein made reference of. Jack London lived in Oakland and honed his writing skills there. It was once the home of The Oakland Raiders, and you can find The Oakland A's and The Golden State Warriors flourishing there right now. It is a great area, and the breezes from the San Francisco Bay blow in, flapping the prayer flags in People's Park. Ask Vice President Harris. She grew up there.

A little bit about Barbara Lee: Barbara Jean Lee is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 13th congressional district. Now in her 12th term, Lee has served since 1998, and is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 9th district from 1998 to 2013, is based in Oakland and covers most of the northern part of Alameda County.

The 'South Bay', south of San Francisco, is sometimes referred to as 'The Peninsula'. 'Silicon Valley' is a loose term used to signify the industries, not towns, beginning with Hewlett Packard, whose founders sprang from Stanford University, located in Palo Alto. Silicon Valley is not a place. Napa Valley, sixty miles north of San Francisco in Napa County, is an actual place, Mill Valley, located within Marin County, on the other side of The Golden Gate Bridge, is a real place, but Silicon Valley is a television show that ran for six seasons.

Expand full comment

But her emails …

Expand full comment

great listening, but I find it continuingly frustrating to try to get through to these folks: first I got a guy who sounded half asleep, then a woman who sent me off to Jerry McEnerny (love the guy but he's not in my zip code) and finally compose an email and have it disappear. will try again tomorra.

Expand full comment

Fearless Leader Koch bought off Boris Manchin and Natasha Sinema and now Boris Manchin even is on record saying he wants no bill (Thanks to Jon Tester for disclosing this)!

Expand full comment

I'm tired of kissing the GOP Crooks a$$! Get it done or get voted out ! My stance !! Fuckin Truth is not allowed ! 🥳🥳🥳

Expand full comment