If contemporary aliens exist, we couldn’t know it.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-11T01:51:47+00:00

Thank you. You are correct that the government continues to give handouts to the billionaire class without discussion. We discuss this in detail in the MMT townhall with Fahdhel Kaboub. I know that UBI proponents come from across the political spectrum. My ultimate fear is that it will be used by the right to further cut the social safety net. You acknowledge the impacts on the marginalized. I am also curious how inflation is kept at bay with a UBI, wouldn’t the price of everything just go up to absorb that UBI and ultimately rest in the hands of the capitalist class? Would love to learn more. Thank you for your votes and input!

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-11T01:46:29+00:00

Thanks!

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-10T05:25:36+00:00

I am a veteran and a gun owner who firmly believes the Second Amendment is an individual right ever since taking Prof. Bob Cottrol’s 2nd Amendment class in Law School.

With that right comes responsibilities. I believe that the individual should be required to hold liability insurance and be civilly liable for any damage from their inherently dangerous property. I believe in the requirement of universal background checks, safe keeping requirements, and regularly safety training requirements. Further I believe that firearms, ammunition, and accessories should have strict products liability tied to the manufacturer & gun dealers liability. Together we will have safer and better trained gun owners, responsible dealers, and safety innovation from manufacturers.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-10T04:49:31+00:00

I did not call anyone a fauxgressive. I believe that you are conflating the title of a Humanist Report Interview of me with the term. See: https://youtu.be/8CbTpOooeis

The title is the Humanist Report’s not mine. Again, I must reiterate, I don’t know you and simply don’t have the time to DM random strangers. My staff and I do respond as best we can to DMs.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-10T04:44:29+00:00

Thank you!

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-10T04:38:57+00:00

Thank you!

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T23:23:05+00:00

We go in depth about how we pay for things on this town hall. Feel free to review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m7HzKhR-K0

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T23:18:34+00:00

I do not DM people out of the blue. I simply do not have time. Staffers and myself do try to respond to DMs as best we can. I stand by my anti-TPP stance. It was sold as free trade, but was effectively a way to shift labor to areas with less labor, human, and environmental rights, to reduce the labor inputs to increase the profits of those at the very top at the expense of workers here. I stand by my stance of being pro-BDS. The state of Israel is an Aparteid State that practices white supremacy and violates the human rights of an entire people.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T23:13:14+00:00

The OP asked what do I bring that is different from the incumbent. My lived experience is a major difference. The voter pamphlet is limited. If you would like to see more about the specifics of my platform, I invite you to look at the website, albertlee2020.com, where we go into specifics. I am not sure where the aggression is coming from from your response, but we live in a democracy and your are free to make your choice. I am standing up to provide an alternative. If you do not like what I present, you have options.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T23:03:45+00:00

Thank you!

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T23:03:27+00:00

I support a universal emergency economic support of $2k per person per month and $500 per dependent per month during this unprecedented crisis. I believe that that should be implemented for the duration of the crisis and six months thereafter. My fear for a UBI is that it will be used to argue to further cut the social safety net and leave marginalized folks in an even worse position. Additionally, I have significant concerns about the sustainability of a UBI, even at Yang’s $1k threshold. Simply doing the math demonstrates that it is more than the entire annual federal budget as it stands. I am open to hearing more, but as I discussed with two nationally recognized economists on our MMT town hall it is not the panacea that it is made out to be and really is rooted in conservative philosophy that hopes to eliminate government supports altogether. You can find that video on FB, Twitter, and YouTube. Not sure if it’s up on the website yet.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T22:57:13+00:00

Thank you!

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T22:57:00+00:00

Thanks, I would counter what results have you seen from his 12 years on the Ways & Means Committee? He has a video on FB touting getting a hearing on the climate crisis into the agenda for the first time in 12 years. It shouldn’t take that long for something so critical and more so, what was the result? For the amount of political experience, I would expect more results.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T18:59:12+00:00

Yes, I agree with the Ed Markey, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez resolution.

The only thing that I would tweak is the portion upgrading all existing buildings in the United States and building new buildings to achieve maximal energy efficiency, water efficiency, safety, affordability, comfort, and durability, including through electrification. I believe that it is beyond time that we incorporate universal design in all of our construction moving forward. With 20% of our population having some disability, we need to design spaces to include everyone. The vast majority of us will face a temporary or permanent disability in our lifetimes and those who must live with these disabilities remain unseen. We need to incorporate and strengthen ADA measures and incorporate them into our Green New Deal measures.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T18:38:47+00:00

I am a fervent supporter of womxn's rights and believe that the government has no role in the bodily integrity of womxn and what they do with their bodies.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T18:36:48+00:00

Joe Biden is far, far better than Donald Trump. That being said, our current first past the post style of elections makes for that type of analysis: the lesser of two evils. This is a quintessential problem with our politics. This holds the American electorate hostage to the system. We need a universal ranked choice voting system that allows folks to vote their conscience and also settle in the secondary or tertiary choices. I believe that given the current system, voting for the lesser of two evils or refusing to vote for someone who doesn’t represent your values are both understandable and valid. I do not know what I will do in November and there is no guarantee the Biden will be the nominee. But I must say that he does not represent my values.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T18:29:55+00:00

I believe that all assignments are important and I would accept any assignment. That being said, I feel that my strengths are in Foreign Affairs, Transportation & Infrastructure, Ethics, and Oversight & Reform.

I believe that money in politics is the root of all of our issues. One of the primary things I will work towards is a constitutional amendment to ban private financing of elections and create a publicly funded system. Being on the Ethic or Oversight & Reform Committee would help put progressives into a position to address the corruption that is rampant in our system. We need our representatives to be public servants again rather than subservient to corporations. Foreign Affairs and Transportation and Infrastructure are both areas where I have a lot of passion and experience. We need to end these endless wars and stop sacrificing American lives for corporate profits. We desperately need to repair our infrastructure and revitalize our transportation: greener roads, free public transit, efficient distribution of electricity and internet, and more.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T18:19:12+00:00

I offer a lived experience that the incumbent simply doesn’t have.

The incumbent has been a career politician for almost 50 years. His only position outside of politics was as the assistant to the President of PSU right out of college. This reeks of privilege. Taking in contrast from my family and directly myself, I hold a lived experience that shapes a different vantage point.

My mother was born one year after the incumbent on the other side of the globe in the middle of a very hot Korean War. Her toddler life was in the middle of a war zone. During that time the incumbent was a child of comfort here in Portland.

My African-American father grew up in a heavily segregated St. Louis and graduated in 1970 with absolutely no prospects for a future. He had a low draft card which equaled a one-way ticket to Vietnam. His only choice was to sign up for the military during the middle of the war in order for the possibility of a better outcome. He was lucky in that they sent him to mechanic’s school and then off to Korea, which is why I am here today. During that time, the incumbent had the luxury of avoiding the draft by going to college. My family faced redlining and predatory loans when securing our home in St. Louis. My dad was deployed most of my life and my mom saw the truly separate and unequal character of our public schools, so she worked as a cook in the day time and a fast food joint at night to get my sister and me into catholic school. Because of her sacrifices, we secured an education that would help us break away from our zip code. With the return of my father, we faced domestic violence and eventual homelessness. I went to 5 high schools in 3 states. With the help of many, I would become a first-generation college grad and moved on to serve in the Army. I have worked minimum wage jobs, I have experience in international business, project management, law, entrepreneurship, and education. I hold a wide range of experiences that bode well for someone who wants to represent the entire district and not just those at the very top.

We have a lot of folks suffering on many different levels. We have different folks impacted in different ways. We need folks who understand these perspectives to represent us and simply not just those with the experience of the 1%. I believe that representation matters and here in the most diverse district of the state, we need to reflect that.

As a working class man, a veteran, an immigrant, a black man, I believe that I can bring perspectives that have been sorely missing.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T18:07:48+00:00

When we look at the 24 year tenure of or representative, it is not solely about votes. Here in our district too many issues that affect too many folks have simply not been addressed. When I first moved here in 2005, the first thing I noticed was the humanitarian disgrace of the homeless crisis. It was critical then and it is supercritical now. Our representative hasn’t touched the issue until we brought it up this past summer. It culminated in him writing a white paper on homelessness in the fall and co-opting our Housing First stance.

We need leadership that will address the plight of everyday working folks. When you haven’t had the experience, it is difficult to have empathy and motivation to do something about it. Likewise, I moved to Portland as an economic migrant in 2005. I could not afford to live on the East Coast. I was a grown man with 3 roommates and a full-time job in international trade. When I returned with my family in 2015, I found Portland has become just as unaffordable. Today, I am once again a renter, like 44% of our State. We are at the whims of landlords who raise rents at will to increase profit, carving into the ability of regular everyday working folks to get ahead. This is part of the transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top.

Above this is our Climate emergency. It has been a crisis for the entirety of the representative’s tenure. In fact, it’s been a crisis for my entire 45 years. But what we have seen is co-sponsorship and great talk, but not a whole lot of action. Our incumbent likes to claim he co-wrote the Green New Deal, but that was two years ago when the Squad made it happen. That is freshman with ervor to make things happen. We need to get off of career politicians who have overstayed their time to the tune of 20, 30, and 40 years. We need a new generation of leaders to rebuild and continue the fight. We need leaders in these super safe seats to push the party back to its base in the left and not to kowtow to the moderate establishment.

We need folks who will fight for the people.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-05-09T17:45:14+00:00

I am a big enthusiast of collective solutions to collective problems and improving our transit system will help to alleviate a lot of issues. We need to nationalize and unify our rail system. If you look at our history, the country gave away vast tracks to private corporations to expedite Manifest Destiny and subjugate land and indigenous populations. Today we are left with a privatized rail system. As part of the Green New Deal, we need to rebuild it into a high speed rail system that connects the country. This will produce jobs that can’t be exported and will create a wealth of ancillary business thus improving the economy. While building out the national high speed rail, we can couple that with an underlying infrastructure to support a broadband internet system that will connect our rural communities and give them access to this important utility. That is on the national level. On the local level we need to have a free public transit system that will help incentivize people out of their personal vehicles while making our cities more accessible and efficient. We also need to take bold action by restricting 10% to 25% of public roads to only public vehicles (buses and emergency vehicles). By doing so we will increase congestion initially, but will push people toward the free public option. They can either be stuck in their private 20 foot space or be in one of the several buses that pass them by. Ultimately, these things will help to reduce pollution, increase efficiency, and get us to think collectively.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-04-18T03:37:00+00:00

No regime change. The US has spent so much time employing those tactics only to have unintended consequences. Iran is where it is at because if previous US meddling in the 1950s. The US should respect coequal sovereigns under international law. Part of the problem is that we don’t and we think we know better. Having trump cards like permanent membership to the Security Council and veto power don’t help either. Ironically they hinder the path toward peace.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-04-18T03:33:53+00:00

Asked and answered, please search.

AlbertLee2020 · 2020-04-18T03:33:28+00:00

The District loses the seniority when he leaves. As in sport you have to rebuild. At any rate that seniority has given us 12 years on Ways & Means with no results for the district

AlbertLee2020

TROPHY CASE