Nasty Women fight for human rights!

Yep.

FUCK TRUMP

Time to revive the Thinking Liberally blog. So exhausted by all the horrible things happening since Hillary lost the election. I cannot believe this malignant narcissist is our president. I go between rage and depression, wanting to fight the destruction of so many of the values I hold dear, and wanting to just hide my head in the sand, plug my ears and sing "LALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

Sigh.

Mostly, I think blogs are pretty much dead, and Facebook has taken over the internet. It's where I share everything. But I can use Diigo to bookmark, annotate, and tag political posts so they will auto-post here again.  Not too hard, with a Chrome extension and a phone app. So here we go.

#RESIST!

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

• Do guns save lives? – Venkat Srinivasan – Aeon

  The best science indicates that more guns leads to more deaths

  tags: politics science violence sanity life

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

• What I Learned About Stop-and-Frisk From Watching My Black Son - Christopher E. Smith - The Atlantic

  tags: race thought justice politics

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

• The Science of Guns Proves Arming Untrained Citizens Is a Bad Idea: Scientific American

  Science, bitches. It works.

  tags: politics thought science violence

• Why We Should Choose Science over Beliefs: Scientific American

  The scientific process was invented to overcome our tendencies to have irrational beliefs, logical fallacies, and mental traps. He mentions a couple of them - confirmation bias is, of course, huge today, when you can watch news shows tailored to how you already think. While I don't have faith in scientists (they are fallible humans, after all), I trust in the scientific *process* - especially when that process is repeated through many different sources and methods.

  tags: politics science brain climate violence thought

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

• Scientists’ depressing new discovery about the brain - Salon.com

  tags: politics thought science brain

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

• What Snowden and Manning Don't Understand About Secrecy - Mark Bowden - The Atlantic

  tags: politics thought security

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

• The Science of Guns Proves Arming Untrained Citizens Is a Bad Idea: Scientific American

  Facts vs. Fantasy. 

  tags: science politics violence

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

• More Guns = More Killing - NYTimes.com

  Somehow, seeing armed guards everywhere has never made me feel "safe."

  tags: politics violence thought

  • “Generally, if you live in a civilized society, more guns mean more death,” said David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. “There is no evidence that having more guns reduces crime. None at all.”
  • “Guns are not a defense, they are a risk.”
  • do I really want my kid’s teachers packing a weapon?

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

• How a Gun-Loving West Texas Girl Learned to Fear Assault Weapons | xoJane

  Powerful, excellent, from the heart and the gut. The difference between a shotgun and semi-automatic handguns and assault weapons - not just how many bullets and how fast, but how easy it is to divorce yourself from what they are and what they do.

  tags: politics violence thought

• Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States

  "If roads were collapsing all across the United States, killing dozens of drivers, we would surely see that as a moment to talk about what we could do to keep roads from collapsing. If terrorists were detonating bombs in port after port, you can be sure Congress would be working to upgrade the nation’s security measures. If a plague was ripping through communities, public-health officials would be working feverishly to contain it.  Only with gun violence do we respond to repeated tragedies by saying that mourning is acceptable but discussing how to prevent more tragedies is not. “Too soon,” howl supporters of loose gun laws. But as others have observed, talking about how to stop mass shootings in the aftermath of a string of mass shootings isn’t “too soon.” It’s much too late."

  tags: politics violence thought

• Fareed Zakaria: The solution to gun violence is clear - The Washington Post

  tags: politics violence thought

• Newtown Shooting: Why Did He Do It?

  tags: politics religion violence thought

• A Sportsman's Viewpoint: We Need a Moderate Alternative to the NRA | TIME.com

  Good idea!!

  tags: politics

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

• Letter to a future Republican strategist regarding white people

  tags: politics

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

• The New Yorker’s Endorsement of Barack Obama : The New Yorker

  2012 offers nothing like the ecstasy of taking part in a historical advance: the reëlection of the first African-American President does not inspire the same level of communal pride. But the reëlection of a President who has been progressive, competent, rational, decent, and, at times, visionary is a serious matter. The President has achieved a run of ambitious legislative, social, and foreign-policy successes that relieved a large measure of the human suffering and national shame inflicted by the Bush Administration. Obama has renewed the honor of the office he holds.

  tags: politics

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

• Two Presidents, Smoking and Scheming - NYTimes.com

  This. Is. Awesome. Bartlet for President! 

  tags: politics

  • Mr. President, your prep for the next debate need not consist of anything more than learning to pronounce three words: “Governor, you’re lying.”

• Don’t Mess With Big Bird - NYTimes.com

  Big Bird is the man. He’s 8 feet tall. He can sing and roller skate and ride a unicycle and dance. Can you do that, Mr. Romney? I’m not talking about your fox trot away from the facts. I’m talking about real dancing.

  tags: politics

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

The Rumble 2012: Bill O'Reilly vs Jon Stewart (Full)

Sharing Political Links in Absentia

Since I haven't been posting to this blog for some time, except for the occasional political bookmark in the right sidebar, I decided to set Diigo to auto-post my political links as weekly blog posts. I have not had much time to keep up with things, since I am in nursing school full-time, but the auto posts should at least give some interesting reading! (If anyone but me actually reads this blog - ha)

Enjoy!

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

• 90 DAYS, 90 REASONS

  Excellent site with real food for thought. 90 reasons to re-elect President Obama. 

  tags: politics

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

More On "Class Warfare"

I couldn't miss this Elizabeth Warren quote that's been making the rounds with my Facebook friends - I love her. She is plain-talking, smart and sensible and can communicate her ideas well. The whole "class warfare" BS the right is accusing Democrats of is ridiculous - they are the ones who are at war on those of us who make less than $250,000 a year, which, by the way, is about 98% of us!! They are at war not only on the middle class, but are taking away the support needed to simply survive for so many in the lowest echelon of our socioeconomic structure. They ARE Big Brother, using doublespeak to convince people to vote against their own best interests.

Anyway, here is Elizabeth Warren explaining the social contract, if you haven't seen this clip yet, it's worth watching:



Two articles below make some good points about her as a candidate (for senate in Massachusetts) - why aren't other Democrats as good as she is in communicating these ideas?
Class Warfare, Elizabeth Warren Style (Washington Post) and The Underlying Social Contract (Washington Monthly)

Here she is on Morning Joe (MSNBC) in a long interview - she says, "it's about economics, but it's also about values." Damn straight.

Lets be clear - I'm not talking about "socialism" but about supporting the functioning of this country and the people in it in a fair and healthy way. But another Facebook friend posted this fantastic quote from Steinbeck today, which is so perfect:

This is exactly what I was talking about in my last two posts (minus the socialism part)!! The middle class and poor are convinced to vote against their own best interests because they see themselves as "temporarily embarrassed millionaires."

Ending some tax breaks for the wealthy is NOT going to make them un-wealthy. But removing social services and supports for the lowest tiers of our society WILL send more people into poverty and despair. There needs to be a happy medium - a balance of policies that encourage business and entrepreneurs while at the same time not abandoning those who have little hope.

I think reminding people of the social contract of helping to "pay it forward to the next kid" is a good start.

World of [Class] Warfare

This is awesome... but at the same time it made me want to throw up. The Tea Party Media are reprehensible, disgusting, heartless monsters. Watch and see what I mean:

The Daily Show - World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

A couple more links relevant to the above video for background and further information:

• Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com
  
  Awesome. Buffet is my favorite Billionaire. Bill Gates is my second favorite. Sometimes it's the other way around. Wealthy people who recognize the benefits of our society and government that have helped them get where they are, and want to give back, and pay their fair share.


• Why Half of Americans Pay No Income Tax: It's the Subsistence, Stupid : Mike the Mad Biologist
  
  Related to the Jon Stewart clip, "World of [Class] Warfare" - more details on why 50% of Americans pay no *Income* tax. (hint: it has to do with their income.)

A few articles pertinent to the current economy

These articles seem to touch on common themes - the widening gap between the haves and have-nots, and now we are cutting services to those who can least afford it, yet not removing the tax breaks for the wealthy... This disparity was summed up by a friend of mine thusly:

"Things America used to be able to afford, but can't any more: retirement, medical care, education, highway maintenance, infrastructure, food safety, environmental protection, space exploration, college. But for some reason we can't add tax cuts for the rich on that list."

Yes, apparently we can still afford tax breaks for the rich, even when we are trillions of dollars in debt and the economy is in crisis.

The Hijacked Crisis - NYTimes.com

Paul Krugman - some key points:

• "what we’re seeing now is what happens when influential people exploit a crisis rather than try to solve it"

• "When you’re bleeding profusely from an open wound, you want a doctor who binds that wound up, not a doctor who lectures you on the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle as you get older. When millions of willing and able workers are unemployed, and economic potential is going to waste to the tune of almost $1 trillion a year, you want policy makers who work on a fast recovery, not people who lecture you on the need for long-run fiscal sustainability."

• "What would a real response to our problems involve? First of all, it would involve more, not less, government spending for the time being — with mass unemployment and incredibly low borrowing costs, we should be rebuilding our schools, our roads, our water systems and more."

My thoughts on this: This is one of the reasons I voted for Obama - he talked about *investing* instead of cutting. Rebuilding instead of tearing down. What happened to that guy?

• "The usual suspects will, of course, denounce such ideas as irresponsible. But you know what’s really irresponsible? Hijacking the debate over a crisis to push for the same things you were advocating before the crisis, and letting the economy continue to bleed."

Why London Is Burning (Hint: It’s Not Just Thugs)

Patrick Smith of the Fiscal Times agrees with Krugman:

• "austerity without policies that spur demand and ameliorate its negative effects on ordinary people are not merely incomplete: They will lead—as now we see on our front pages—to violent backlashes."

• "In no case have ideology and faith proven substitutes for good, detached economic and social thinking. And this time—check the videos and news photos from Britain—we are playing with fire."

My thoughts: I believe the London riots are disgraceful opportunistic violence - people stealing things they wanted - that distortion of the dream to mere desire for money. And the violence and looting and burning are inexcusable. But at its roots, not an excuse, but an attempt to understand what happened, at its roots is that disparity between the haves and have nots. And by haves and have nots, I'm not just referring to money - also education, status, opportunity, purpose. The simmering resentment reached a flashpoint, and it could happen here, too. I'm not saying we should be afraid, but we should be aware of the harm, real harm, we are causing others by the cuts we are making. We should consider who the various measures will hurt, and try to hurt the fewest people, the least amount. There are far more poor than rich, and cuts hurt them far more than raising taxes would the rich. The least harm to the fewest people would be to raise taxes.

And while we are on the subject - let's make corporations pay their taxes - if they are "people, too" as Mitt Romney affirms, they need to pay up! Yes, we have one of the highest tax rates on corporations in the developed world, so lets reduce our corporate tax rate, but remove the loopholes so they all have to pay! Huge profits, ridiculously overpaid CEOs, combined with layoffs and tax loopholes make corporations one of the few that it would hurt least... tax them.

The rich are different — and not in a good way, studies suggest - Health - Behavior - msnbc.com

Brian Alexander from MSNBC hits a nerve:

• "the philosophical battle over economics, taxes, debt ceilings and defaults that are now roiling the stock market is partly rooted in an upper class "ideology of self-interest.""
  

  
  
• "Because the rich gloss over the ways family connections, money and education helped, they come to denigrate the role of government and vigorously oppose taxes to fund it."

• "a strong allegiance to the American Dream can lead even regular folks to overestimate their own self-reliance in the same way as rich people."

My thoughts on this:

In addition, the "American Dream" itself has become distorted. It used to be about creating something, being an entrepreneur, achieving a personal accomplishment. Now it's just about being rich. It's like every American baby is born with a lottery ticket, and they're all hoping to hit it big...

This allegiance is because they are actually "failed rich people" - they are delusional about their own ability to become rich someday, so they consistently vote against their own self interest in favor of the interests of the wealthy.

• "most people could quickly tell you how much they paid in taxes last year but few could put a dollar amount on how they benefited from government by, say, driving on interstate highways, taking drugs gleaned from federally funded medical research, or using inventions created by people educated in public schools."
  

  
  
• "Last year, research at Duke and Harvard universities showed that regardless of political affiliation or income, Americans tended to think wealth distribution ought to be more equal."

• "The problem? Rich people wrongly believed it already was."

Recommended Reading for "clueless" rich people:

Nickled and Dimed - on (not) getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich

The combination of ideology, playing politics, pandering to campaign contributors, and willful ignorance keeps that gap between the haves and have nots growing larger than ever.

The Truth About the Economy - in 2 minutes