In case this wasn't already clear for everyone:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/10/9/1705409/-Mike-Pence-spent-a-million-dollars-to-watch-one-minute-of-a-football-game-and-you-paid-for-it
Friday, October 13, 2017
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Why the World Is (Still) Better Than You Think—New Evidence For Abundance
Some positive news for those who think the world is going to hell in a handbasket:
https://singularityhub.com/2017/10/12/why-the-world-is-still-better-than-you-think-new-evidence-for-abundance/
https://singularityhub.com/2017/10/12/why-the-world-is-still-better-than-you-think-new-evidence-for-abundance/
Global Warming Scenarios: When temperatures rise between 1 and 6 degrees
This puts the real danger we're in into perspective:
https://futurism.com/images/global-warming-scenarios/
The scariest part...if we don't keep warming below 2 degrees, the feedback loop will likely destroy almost everything.
https://futurism.com/images/global-warming-scenarios/
The scariest part...if we don't keep warming below 2 degrees, the feedback loop will likely destroy almost everything.
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Why the "tax cuts for the rich stimulate the economy" conservative mantra is bullshit
Article by Nick Hanauer (founder of Civic Action, zillionaire):
The Republican tax plan is a scam—a massive and destructive financial giveaway masquerading as pro-growth tax reform. Which is why our first response must be to demand not one penny of tax cuts for big corporations and rich guys like me. In fact, if I were Benevolent Dictator, I would substantially raise taxes on myself and my wealthy friends. Why? It is the only way to sustainably grow the economy, boost productivity, increase business opportunities and create more and better jobs.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: That’s crazy talk! For decades, rich guys like me have been selling you tax cuts on the merits of pure economic stimulus. The rich are “job creators,” we’ve told you. The more money and incentives we wealthy few have to invest in creating jobs, the better the economy is for everybody—especially you.
That’s a lie.
There is is simply no empirical evidence nor plausible economic mechanism to support the claim that cutting top tax rates spurs economic growth. When President Bill Clinton hiked taxes, the economy boomed. When President George W. Bush slashed taxes, the economy ultimately collapsed. It wasn’t until after most of the Bush tax cuts expired during the Obama administration that the post-Great Recession recovery started to pick up steam—an ongoing recovery that, as uneven as it has been, has grown into one of the longest economic expansions in U.S. history.
And then, of course, there’s Kansas.
In 2012, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback famously embarked on what he called “a real live experiment,” pitting pure trickle-down theory against economic reality. Unfortunately for Kansans, reality won. Kansas has dramatically underperformed its neighboring states and the nation as a whole both in economic growth and in job creation since slashing taxes on individuals and corporations to as low as zero. Compare that to California, which in 2012 elicited the usual apocalyptic warnings from trickle-downers by daring to raise its top income tax rate to a highest-in-the-nation 13.3 percent. By 2015, California had the fastest-growing economy in the nation. Kansas? Dead last.
And the evidence is more than just anecdotal. Multi-decade statistical reviews by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, and the highly-regarded Brookings Institution have all failed to find any negative correlation between top tax rates and growth. And the same holds true of every other economic indicator the trickle-downers like to go on about: tax revenue growth, investment growth, employment growth, productivity growth, real median income growth. If they show any statistically significant correlation between top tax rates and growth, the slope is positive, suggesting that raising taxes on the rich is actually pro-growth. “The argument that income tax cuts raise growth is repeated so often that it is sometimes taken as gospel,” the Brookings authors conclude. “However, theory, evidence, and simulation studies tell a different and more complicated story.”
President Trump boasts that the “biggest winners” from his tax cuts for the rich “will be the everyday American workers as jobs start pouring into our country, as companies start competing for American labor, and as wages start going up at levels that you haven't seen in many years." But the Republicans’ problem is that they have economic cause and effect reversed: Low wages and rising inequality are not symptoms of slow growth, low wages and rising inequality are the disease that causes slow growth—and inequality cannot be cured by creating even more inequality. In reality, our modern technological economy is best understood as an evolutionary feedback loop between innovation and demand. Innovation is the process through which we evolve new solutions to human problems, while consumer demand is the mechanism through which the market selects and propagates successful innovations. And it is economic inclusion—the full participation of as many people as possible in as many ways as possible, as innovators, entrepreneurs, workers and robust consumers—that drives both innovation and demand. The more we invest in the American people—in our wages, our education, our healthcare and our infrastructure—the more dynamic that feedback loop, and thus the faster and more prosperous our economy grows. But the Trump/Ryan tax cuts—which promise to slash rates for the wealthy and the corporations they run—would do nothing to increase innovation or demand.
Today, wealthy corporations and investors already have more money than we know what to do with—literally trillions of dollars of hoarded cash just sitting in U.S. bank accounts doing absolutely nothing—and yes, that includes the several trillion dollars of foreign earnings the Trump administration wants to “repatriate” tax free. The truth is, these “overseas” reserves are largely an accounting trick. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, much of this money is already held in U.S. bank deposits, in U.S. Treasury notes, and in dollar-dominated corporate securities. That’s why the last time Congress enacted a foreign earnings “tax holiday,” far from boosting the economy, the biggest corporate beneficiaries actually cut thousands of domestic jobs, choosing instead to funnel their after-tax windfall into (surprise!) stock buybacks and dividends. Every “$1 increase in repatriations was associated with an increase of almost $1 in payouts to shareholders,” Harvard and MIT researchers concluded. Obviously, a tax holiday can’t possibly deliver an economic boost from bringing home dollars that are already here.
The real problem with our economy is that we are concentrating wealth in the hands of people who aren’t spending or investing it, while starving working and middle-class Americans of the ability to invest in themselves—not to mention sapping the consumer spending power that accounts for 70 percent of GDP. We rich Americans may not all be idle, but these days, much of our money is—and you will not get it flowing back through the economy again by cutting our taxes even further. I already earn about 1,000 times more per hour than the average American, but I couldn’t possibly buy 1,000 times more stuff. I only own so many pairs of pants. My family and I can only eat three meals a day. We enjoy a luxurious lifestyle, but we already own several houses, a private jet, and one too many yachts (turns out, the optimal number is two). Cutting our taxes will make us richer, but it won’t incentivize me or my venture capital partners to spend or invest more than we already do. What’s holding us back isn’t a shortage of cash, but rather a shortage of demand—from you.
That’s why I join the Not One Penny campaign in opposing any effort to cut taxes on wealthy people like me. The American tax code is already rigged in favor of the rich and powerful, and the Trump/Ryan tax plan would only make it worse. If we truly want an economy that works better for all Americans, we need to move in the other direction.
We should create more tax brackets, not fewer, with substantially higher tax rates on our wealthiest households and our largest inherited estates. As for simplifying the tax code, here’s an idea: Let’s treat all income equally. For example, I’d eliminate the cap of $127,000 on payroll taxes, apply it to all income, and then slash the rate, increasing the spending power of most Americans. Rich people like me make most of our money from dividends and capital gains, and it’s just plain crazy that I pay a lower tax rate on investment income than a truck driver or school teacher pays on their hard-earned wages or a small businessperson pays on her hard-won profits. As for the corporate income tax rate, cut it if you want—but only if those cuts are more than offset by eliminating corporate tax loopholes. As a percent of federal tax revenue, corporate income taxes already account for only a third of what they did in the 1950s, despite years of record profits. What corporate America needs and deserves is a fairer, simpler, more predictable tax code, not a cheaper one.
More importantly, what our economy needs now, at this moment in time, is a massive reinvestment in expanding and enriching the working and middle class. Tax the rich to put money back in the hands of the American people, and corporations will expand production and payrolls to meet the resulting spike in consumer demand. Tax the rich to invest in roads, transit, bridges, healthcare, schools and basic research, and America will rebuild the physical and human infrastructure on which innovation and thus our collective prosperity relies. Tax the rich not just because it is fair, but because experience teaches us that in America fairness and growth always go hand in hand.
The trickle-down myth on which the Trump/Ryan tax plan relies represents much more than just a fundamental mischaracterization of how market capitalism works. It is, in fact, a scam and an intimidation tactic. When rich guys like me tell you that if you cut our taxes we’ll invest in creating more and better jobs, that is a scam. When we tell you that if you raise our taxes (or your wages) you might lose your job, that is a threat. Either way, if we can get you to believe that taxing the rich is bad for you, then we will get richer. The beauty of this con job is that it hides our true intent: We’re rich, you’re poor, and we’d like it to stay that way. And like any good con, rather than stealing your money, we just persuade you to hand it over voluntarily.
But we’ve been playing this con so long that we rich folk have started to con ourselves into believing that there is no limit to how much we can enrich ourselves at your expense. This epidemic of greed is crushing new investment opportunities before they can arise. The irony is that it was always you who enriched us, not the other way around. Back when we paid our fair share and invested in growing the middle class, prosperity always trickled up.
So please, don’t just raise taxes on me because it’s good for you. Do it for me and for all my rich friends. Raise our taxes. And watch America grow.
The Republican tax plan is a scam—a massive and destructive financial giveaway masquerading as pro-growth tax reform. Which is why our first response must be to demand not one penny of tax cuts for big corporations and rich guys like me. In fact, if I were Benevolent Dictator, I would substantially raise taxes on myself and my wealthy friends. Why? It is the only way to sustainably grow the economy, boost productivity, increase business opportunities and create more and better jobs.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: That’s crazy talk! For decades, rich guys like me have been selling you tax cuts on the merits of pure economic stimulus. The rich are “job creators,” we’ve told you. The more money and incentives we wealthy few have to invest in creating jobs, the better the economy is for everybody—especially you.
That’s a lie.
There is is simply no empirical evidence nor plausible economic mechanism to support the claim that cutting top tax rates spurs economic growth. When President Bill Clinton hiked taxes, the economy boomed. When President George W. Bush slashed taxes, the economy ultimately collapsed. It wasn’t until after most of the Bush tax cuts expired during the Obama administration that the post-Great Recession recovery started to pick up steam—an ongoing recovery that, as uneven as it has been, has grown into one of the longest economic expansions in U.S. history.
And then, of course, there’s Kansas.
In 2012, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback famously embarked on what he called “a real live experiment,” pitting pure trickle-down theory against economic reality. Unfortunately for Kansans, reality won. Kansas has dramatically underperformed its neighboring states and the nation as a whole both in economic growth and in job creation since slashing taxes on individuals and corporations to as low as zero. Compare that to California, which in 2012 elicited the usual apocalyptic warnings from trickle-downers by daring to raise its top income tax rate to a highest-in-the-nation 13.3 percent. By 2015, California had the fastest-growing economy in the nation. Kansas? Dead last.
And the evidence is more than just anecdotal. Multi-decade statistical reviews by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, and the highly-regarded Brookings Institution have all failed to find any negative correlation between top tax rates and growth. And the same holds true of every other economic indicator the trickle-downers like to go on about: tax revenue growth, investment growth, employment growth, productivity growth, real median income growth. If they show any statistically significant correlation between top tax rates and growth, the slope is positive, suggesting that raising taxes on the rich is actually pro-growth. “The argument that income tax cuts raise growth is repeated so often that it is sometimes taken as gospel,” the Brookings authors conclude. “However, theory, evidence, and simulation studies tell a different and more complicated story.”
President Trump boasts that the “biggest winners” from his tax cuts for the rich “will be the everyday American workers as jobs start pouring into our country, as companies start competing for American labor, and as wages start going up at levels that you haven't seen in many years." But the Republicans’ problem is that they have economic cause and effect reversed: Low wages and rising inequality are not symptoms of slow growth, low wages and rising inequality are the disease that causes slow growth—and inequality cannot be cured by creating even more inequality. In reality, our modern technological economy is best understood as an evolutionary feedback loop between innovation and demand. Innovation is the process through which we evolve new solutions to human problems, while consumer demand is the mechanism through which the market selects and propagates successful innovations. And it is economic inclusion—the full participation of as many people as possible in as many ways as possible, as innovators, entrepreneurs, workers and robust consumers—that drives both innovation and demand. The more we invest in the American people—in our wages, our education, our healthcare and our infrastructure—the more dynamic that feedback loop, and thus the faster and more prosperous our economy grows. But the Trump/Ryan tax cuts—which promise to slash rates for the wealthy and the corporations they run—would do nothing to increase innovation or demand.
Today, wealthy corporations and investors already have more money than we know what to do with—literally trillions of dollars of hoarded cash just sitting in U.S. bank accounts doing absolutely nothing—and yes, that includes the several trillion dollars of foreign earnings the Trump administration wants to “repatriate” tax free. The truth is, these “overseas” reserves are largely an accounting trick. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, much of this money is already held in U.S. bank deposits, in U.S. Treasury notes, and in dollar-dominated corporate securities. That’s why the last time Congress enacted a foreign earnings “tax holiday,” far from boosting the economy, the biggest corporate beneficiaries actually cut thousands of domestic jobs, choosing instead to funnel their after-tax windfall into (surprise!) stock buybacks and dividends. Every “$1 increase in repatriations was associated with an increase of almost $1 in payouts to shareholders,” Harvard and MIT researchers concluded. Obviously, a tax holiday can’t possibly deliver an economic boost from bringing home dollars that are already here.
The real problem with our economy is that we are concentrating wealth in the hands of people who aren’t spending or investing it, while starving working and middle-class Americans of the ability to invest in themselves—not to mention sapping the consumer spending power that accounts for 70 percent of GDP. We rich Americans may not all be idle, but these days, much of our money is—and you will not get it flowing back through the economy again by cutting our taxes even further. I already earn about 1,000 times more per hour than the average American, but I couldn’t possibly buy 1,000 times more stuff. I only own so many pairs of pants. My family and I can only eat three meals a day. We enjoy a luxurious lifestyle, but we already own several houses, a private jet, and one too many yachts (turns out, the optimal number is two). Cutting our taxes will make us richer, but it won’t incentivize me or my venture capital partners to spend or invest more than we already do. What’s holding us back isn’t a shortage of cash, but rather a shortage of demand—from you.
That’s why I join the Not One Penny campaign in opposing any effort to cut taxes on wealthy people like me. The American tax code is already rigged in favor of the rich and powerful, and the Trump/Ryan tax plan would only make it worse. If we truly want an economy that works better for all Americans, we need to move in the other direction.
We should create more tax brackets, not fewer, with substantially higher tax rates on our wealthiest households and our largest inherited estates. As for simplifying the tax code, here’s an idea: Let’s treat all income equally. For example, I’d eliminate the cap of $127,000 on payroll taxes, apply it to all income, and then slash the rate, increasing the spending power of most Americans. Rich people like me make most of our money from dividends and capital gains, and it’s just plain crazy that I pay a lower tax rate on investment income than a truck driver or school teacher pays on their hard-earned wages or a small businessperson pays on her hard-won profits. As for the corporate income tax rate, cut it if you want—but only if those cuts are more than offset by eliminating corporate tax loopholes. As a percent of federal tax revenue, corporate income taxes already account for only a third of what they did in the 1950s, despite years of record profits. What corporate America needs and deserves is a fairer, simpler, more predictable tax code, not a cheaper one.
More importantly, what our economy needs now, at this moment in time, is a massive reinvestment in expanding and enriching the working and middle class. Tax the rich to put money back in the hands of the American people, and corporations will expand production and payrolls to meet the resulting spike in consumer demand. Tax the rich to invest in roads, transit, bridges, healthcare, schools and basic research, and America will rebuild the physical and human infrastructure on which innovation and thus our collective prosperity relies. Tax the rich not just because it is fair, but because experience teaches us that in America fairness and growth always go hand in hand.
The trickle-down myth on which the Trump/Ryan tax plan relies represents much more than just a fundamental mischaracterization of how market capitalism works. It is, in fact, a scam and an intimidation tactic. When rich guys like me tell you that if you cut our taxes we’ll invest in creating more and better jobs, that is a scam. When we tell you that if you raise our taxes (or your wages) you might lose your job, that is a threat. Either way, if we can get you to believe that taxing the rich is bad for you, then we will get richer. The beauty of this con job is that it hides our true intent: We’re rich, you’re poor, and we’d like it to stay that way. And like any good con, rather than stealing your money, we just persuade you to hand it over voluntarily.
But we’ve been playing this con so long that we rich folk have started to con ourselves into believing that there is no limit to how much we can enrich ourselves at your expense. This epidemic of greed is crushing new investment opportunities before they can arise. The irony is that it was always you who enriched us, not the other way around. Back when we paid our fair share and invested in growing the middle class, prosperity always trickled up.
So please, don’t just raise taxes on me because it’s good for you. Do it for me and for all my rich friends. Raise our taxes. And watch America grow.
“I Hate Everyone In The White House!”: Trump Seethes As Advisers Fear The President Is “Unraveling”
Is Trump losing it? Is this a good thing or a potential disaster?
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/donald-trump-is-unraveling-white-house-advisers
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/donald-trump-is-unraveling-white-house-advisers
Energy Companies Don't Like the Clean Power Plan — or President Trump's Plan to Kill It
At least industry is pushing back against it, and the EPA has to move against global warming:
http://time.com/4976455/clean-power-plan-repeal-scott-pruitt-trump/
http://time.com/4976455/clean-power-plan-repeal-scott-pruitt-trump/
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Sunday, October 8, 2017
I have been a gun owner for more than 30 years
How to be both pro-gun and pro-gun control:
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2012/12/15/1170178/-I-have-been-a-gun-owner-for-more-than-30-years
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2012/12/15/1170178/-I-have-been-a-gun-owner-for-more-than-30-years
Armed vet proves NRA wrong, explains why he didn't confront Oregon shooter with his 'good guy' gun
Why the claim that it takes a good guy with a gun to take out a bad guy with a gun is wrong:
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2015/10/03/1427420/-Armed-Vet-proves-NRA-wrong-and-explains-why-he-didn-t-confront-Oregon-Killer-with-Good-Guy-Gun
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2015/10/03/1427420/-Armed-Vet-proves-NRA-wrong-and-explains-why-he-didn-t-confront-Oregon-Killer-with-Good-Guy-Gun
Trump Is Filling Court Seats With Anti-LGBTQ, Anti-Abortion Judges
Next to a potential nuclear war, filling courts with overly conservative judges is the WORST thing about Trump:
Friday, October 6, 2017
Senator destroys a Trump EPA nominee unable to acknowledge facts
See the video. This is how climate change deniers should be treated:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/10/5/1704384/-Senator-destroys-a-Trump-EPA-nominee-unable-to-acknowledge-facts
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/10/5/1704384/-Senator-destroys-a-Trump-EPA-nominee-unable-to-acknowledge-facts
Thursday, October 5, 2017
One Undeniable Factor In Gun Violence: Men
Conservative white guys aren't just the racist and serial killer demographic...they're also the most gun-crazy:
http://time.com/4968842/one-undeniable-factor-in-gun-violence-men/
http://time.com/4968842/one-undeniable-factor-in-gun-violence-men/
Interior Whistleblower Quits, Lambastes Ryan Zinke’s ‘Resume Of Failure’
History won't be kind to this dickweed administration:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joel-clement-resigns-interior-department_us_59d52f63e4b0cde45872936d
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joel-clement-resigns-interior-department_us_59d52f63e4b0cde45872936d
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Voting Rights Roundup: GOP launches group to raise tens of millions for 2020s redistricting battles
This is one of the biggest political issues of our time:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/29/1702759/-Voting-Rights-Roundup-GOP-launches-group-to-raise-tens-of-millions-for-2020s-redistricting-battles
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/29/1702759/-Voting-Rights-Roundup-GOP-launches-group-to-raise-tens-of-millions-for-2020s-redistricting-battles
Texas taxes for family planning services were illegally spent by forced-birther group
The end result? "Rates of gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia are on the rise. Texas health officials report alarming “clusters” of HIV transmission popping up in 16 areas of the state. The rate of second-trimester abortions, which are more painful and expensive, is on the rise as women in the state have more difficulty getting contraception and early-term abortions. Texas now has the worst maternal mortality rate in the developed world and has fallen behind the rest of the country when it comes to the decline in teen births. The state’s Medicaid system is straining as the number of births to low-income women rose, in part because they lack affordable or convenient access to contraception."
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/28/1702514/-Complaint-Texas-taxes-okayed-for-family-planning-services-diverted-to-crisis-pregnancy-centers
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/28/1702514/-Complaint-Texas-taxes-okayed-for-family-planning-services-diverted-to-crisis-pregnancy-centers
Media framing of Las Vegas shooter shows the bias in how violence perpetrated by whites is covered
And now it's media hypocrisy. Should white men now apologize for the Las Vegas shooting?
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/10/3/1703725/-Media-framing-of-Las-Vegas-shooter-shows-the-bias-in-how-violence-perpetrated-by-whites-is-covered
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/10/3/1703725/-Media-framing-of-Las-Vegas-shooter-shows-the-bias-in-how-violence-perpetrated-by-whites-is-covered
Rep. Tim Murphy, popular with pro-life movement, urged abortion in affair, texts suggest
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Sunday, October 1, 2017
President Trump Compliments Kim Jong Un, Makes Case For North Korean Nukes
Perhaps a plausible solution to the North Korea problem?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/president-trump-compliments-kim-jong-un-makes-case_us_59cfcf9ee4b034ae778d4b01
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/president-trump-compliments-kim-jong-un-makes-case_us_59cfcf9ee4b034ae778d4b01
Stephen Chu shares some sobering climate change math
Things could be a lot worse than we think:
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/26/1701649/-Stephen-Chu-shares-some-sobering-climate-change-math
You're welcome....
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/26/1701649/-Stephen-Chu-shares-some-sobering-climate-change-math
You're welcome....
Friday, September 29, 2017
The DOJ’s new anti-gay legal posture just got shut down in federal court
An interesting detailing of the arguments and decision:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/09/the_doj_s_new_anti_gay_legal_posture_just_got_shut_down_in_federal_court.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/09/the_doj_s_new_anti_gay_legal_posture_just_got_shut_down_in_federal_court.html
Thursday, September 28, 2017
Charlie Sykes: Roy Moore Signals the End of the Republican Party
Too true, but not in a good way if Democrats can't capitalize on it:
http://time.com/4961230/charlie-sykes-roy-moore-gop-republicans/
http://time.com/4961230/charlie-sykes-roy-moore-gop-republicans/
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
The racial wealth divide is worse than people think—and it’s growing
A major cause of social and political instability:
https://qz.com/1087711/the-racial-wealth-divide-is-worse-than-people-think-and-its-growing/
https://qz.com/1087711/the-racial-wealth-divide-is-worse-than-people-think-and-its-growing/
Sunday, September 24, 2017
You Won’t Like Mexico When It’s Angry
Yeah, Trump's attacks on Mexico aren't just pointless...they're dangerous:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/11/donald-trump-us-mexico-relations-215594
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/11/donald-trump-us-mexico-relations-215594
Saturday, September 23, 2017
A Federal Agency Just Put America's Solar Power Industry in Danger
It's like the Republicans WANT to destroy the planet...
MIT Study Predicts Thresholds for a Sixth Mass Extinction
Another reason to get rid of Trump and go all out on alternative energies:
https://scitechdaily.com/mit-study-predicts-thresholds-for-a-sixth-mass-extinction/
https://scitechdaily.com/mit-study-predicts-thresholds-for-a-sixth-mass-extinction/
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
The Sponsors Of Obamacare Repeal Are Trying To Fool America — And Fellow Republicans
And more hypocrisy. Can you imagine how the Republicans would have howled if the Democrats had tried to sneak the ACA through the Sentate?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/graham-cassidy-obamacare-repeal_us_59c16c28e4b0f22c4a8d3c77
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/graham-cassidy-obamacare-repeal_us_59c16c28e4b0f22c4a8d3c77
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Republicans go to ludicrous lengths to pass a 'healthcare' bill that deliberately harms blue states
The Republicans need to be shitcanned for their truly evil behavior:
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/18/1699530/-Republicans-go-to-ludicrous-lengths-to-pass-a-healthcare-bill-that-deliberately-harms-blue-states
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/18/1699530/-Republicans-go-to-ludicrous-lengths-to-pass-a-healthcare-bill-that-deliberately-harms-blue-states
Monday, September 18, 2017
Study Says Americans Mistrust One Another
No duh, but this puts some numbers on it:
http://www.atheistrepublic.com/news/study-says-americans-mistrust-one-another
http://www.atheistrepublic.com/news/study-says-americans-mistrust-one-another
Database: the link between extremism and islamic scripture
A useful collection of data against Islam (long document, slow loading):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IIheRz1JI6J-D_P4K7scvvWJKBVt8kLeUsCj2PwHV2E/mobilebasic
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IIheRz1JI6J-D_P4K7scvvWJKBVt8kLeUsCj2PwHV2E/mobilebasic
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Islamic Scholar Outlines Islam's Intentions for America
Islam's scripture is more brutal toward non-Muslims than Christianity's is against non-Christians, which makes their fundamentalists even worse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JJeVLTGYX8&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JJeVLTGYX8&feature=youtu.be
Trump is trolling conservatives. Here are 4 theories why.
Or he's just an idiot. Cozying up to Democrats will piss off his base, and he lost Democrats long ago:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/14/politics/trump-pelosi-schumer-deal/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/14/politics/trump-pelosi-schumer-deal/index.html
It's finally dawned on Trump how much people 'hate' him — and he's pivoting to a new strategy
Interesting, but I'll believe it when it lasts more than a week. Maybe:
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-pivots-after-realizing-how-much-people-f-ing-hate-him-2017-9
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-pivots-after-realizing-how-much-people-f-ing-hate-him-2017-9
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
America Is Less White and Christian Than Ever. How Is This Changing Us?
Evangelical Christianity had been rising until relatively recently. Glad to see it shrinking, and I'll take a tiny fraction of the credit for that, thank you!
How Americans Could Have Cheap Health Care Almost Instantly
This is an intriguing alternative to expanding Medicare:
http://time.com/4937691/americans-cheap-healthcare-instantly
http://time.com/4937691/americans-cheap-healthcare-instantly
Monday, September 11, 2017
Major news networks are failing to explain that Hurricane Harvey was fueled by climate change
Major news stations not reporting on something because it may be politically charged is a dangerous trend:
https://qz.com/1073580/major-news-networks-are-failing-to-explain-that-hurricane-harvey-was-fueled-by-climate-change/
https://qz.com/1073580/major-news-networks-are-failing-to-explain-that-hurricane-harvey-was-fueled-by-climate-change/
Why Millenials Are Extremely Liberal
American's youth is "terrifyingly liberal":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjqSeNcQokI&feature=youtu.be
Nice!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjqSeNcQokI&feature=youtu.be
Nice!
What do scared House Republicans know that we don't?
When incumbent Republicans quit, the chances for a Democrat replacement increase:
http://www.eclectablog.com/2017/09/what-do-house-republicans-know-that-we-dont.html
And Trott has already said he won't run again:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/11/dave-trott-michigan-no-reelection-242556
http://www.eclectablog.com/2017/09/what-do-house-republicans-know-that-we-dont.html
And Trott has already said he won't run again:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/11/dave-trott-michigan-no-reelection-242556
Saturday, September 9, 2017
The First White President: The foundation of Donald Trump’s presidency is the negation of Barack Obama’s legacy.
An interesting and depressing perspective:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/
With some further commentary:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/09/10/whose-white-president/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/
With some further commentary:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/09/10/whose-white-president/
Friday, September 8, 2017
Hurricane Harvey Is Just The Latest In Facebook’s Fake News Problem
With conservatives so vulnerable to fake news, how does one compete with the truth?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-hurricane-harvey-fake-news_us_59b17900e4b0354e441021fb
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-hurricane-harvey-fake-news_us_59b17900e4b0354e441021fb
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Noam Chomsky's Surprising Take on the Russia Scandal
I think that the Russia investigation could potentially bring down Trump through ancillary discoveries, so I think it's still worth pursuing. But Chomsky does have some good points:
http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/noam-chomskys-surprising-take-on-the-russia-scandal
http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/noam-chomskys-surprising-take-on-the-russia-scandal
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
More Evidence Donald Trump ‘Pee Tape’ Exists: Russian Politician Reveals That Russia Has Blackmail Material
I'm not into pee porn, but I'd pay $100 to see Trump watching it happen:
Those 3% of scientific papers that deny climate change? A review found them all flawed
So even those climate change deniers who claim those 3% of studies prove them right just had the rug pulled out from under their justification:
https://qz.com/1069298/the-3-of-scientific-papers-that-deny-climate-change-are-all-flawed/
https://qz.com/1069298/the-3-of-scientific-papers-that-deny-climate-change-are-all-flawed/
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Trump, GOP demand blue state payback
Liberals subsidize conservatives, yet conservatives want liberals to pay even more:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/3/1694868/-Trump-GOP-demand-blue-state-payback
There should be a big "fuck you" in response.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/3/1694868/-Trump-GOP-demand-blue-state-payback
There should be a big "fuck you" in response.
Monday, September 4, 2017
Why Do Most American Conservatives Still Refuse To Believe In Climate Change?
An old article, but important to understanding why otherwise rational people can go off the deep end on certain topics:
http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/why-do-most-american-conservatives-still-refuse-to-believe-in-climate-change
http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/why-do-most-american-conservatives-still-refuse-to-believe-in-climate-change
Saturday, September 2, 2017
From atop his Dumpster fire, raging Trump 'turning on people that are very close to him'
This is just nice to hear:
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/1/1695298/-From-atop-his-dumpster-fire-raging-Trump-turning-on-people-that-are-very-close-to-him
He can't get much done if he's spending all his time battling himself and his own administration.
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/1/1695298/-From-atop-his-dumpster-fire-raging-Trump-turning-on-people-that-are-very-close-to-him
He can't get much done if he's spending all his time battling himself and his own administration.
Friday, September 1, 2017
Perspective on Trump's $1 million donation to Houston
Just a little meme I whipped up to put things into perspective:
I think my numbers are pretty conservative. I just saw a similar calculation that pegged the equivalence at $5.
I think my numbers are pretty conservative. I just saw a similar calculation that pegged the equivalence at $5.
Fox News Poll: Americans Think Donald Trump Is An Unstable, Dishonest, Immoral Bully
It's especially nice that this is from Fox News, his sycophants:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-unstable-bully-fox-news-poll_us_59a8d931e4b0dfaafcef376a
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-unstable-bully-fox-news-poll_us_59a8d931e4b0dfaafcef376a
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Hundreds Of Christian Leaders Denounce Anti-LGBTQ ‘Nashville Statement’
Glad to see Christians attacking Christians for being too divisive and conservative:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hundreds-of-christian-leaders-release-lgbtq-affirming-response-to-nashville-statement_us_59a71bcee4b0a8d14572cf35
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hundreds-of-christian-leaders-release-lgbtq-affirming-response-to-nashville-statement_us_59a71bcee4b0a8d14572cf35
Mayor Of Hell, Inspired By Trump, Declares Heterosexuality Illegal
More epic-level trolling. I'm so glad our side has all the creative people:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hell-michigan-elijah-daniel-heterosexuality_us_59a735fde4b07e81d354ffa6
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hell-michigan-elijah-daniel-heterosexuality_us_59a735fde4b07e81d354ffa6
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Chris Christie: Ted Cruz Is Lying About Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill
It's the hypocrisy that pisses me off the most:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chris-christie-ted-cruz-hurricane-sandy_us_59a667e5e4b084581a1449eb
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chris-christie-ted-cruz-hurricane-sandy_us_59a667e5e4b084581a1449eb
Fox News Pulled Off The Air In UK Because No One Watches It
Sounds like a great start! But it comes with some bad news too:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fox-news-uk-pulled_us_59a67451e4b063ae34d9ebf3
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fox-news-uk-pulled_us_59a67451e4b063ae34d9ebf3
Monday, August 28, 2017
Florida's Textbooks Are a New Battleground in America's Fight Over Facts
Since when should minority dissenting opinions from non-scientists have any say in science topics in schools?
http://time.com/4910125/textbook-law-florida/
You don't teach astrology in astronomy classes, nor alchemy in physics classes, nor phrenology in neuroscience classes, nor magic in physics classes!
http://time.com/4910125/textbook-law-florida/
You don't teach astrology in astronomy classes, nor alchemy in physics classes, nor phrenology in neuroscience classes, nor magic in physics classes!
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Trump Cybersecurity Advisors Resign, Citing His ‘Insufficient Attention’ to Threats
Trump keeps losing valuable advisers due to his egregious behavior:
http://fortune.com/2017/08/26/trump-cybersecurity-advisors-resign/
http://fortune.com/2017/08/26/trump-cybersecurity-advisors-resign/
Thursday, August 24, 2017
Disco isn’t dead: It’s being used as a secret weapon for disarming British neo-Nazis
A great way to troll white supremacists:
https://qz.com/1059410/disco-isnt-dead-its-being-used-as-a-secret-weapon-for-disarming-british-neo-nazis/
But this is the best:
http://www.upworthy.com/a-town-came-up-with-a-brilliant-hilarious-way-to-troll-neo-nazi-marchers-take-note
https://qz.com/1059410/disco-isnt-dead-its-being-used-as-a-secret-weapon-for-disarming-british-neo-nazis/
But this is the best:
http://www.upworthy.com/a-town-came-up-with-a-brilliant-hilarious-way-to-troll-neo-nazi-marchers-take-note
Democracy in North Carolina Could Disappear. Is Your State Next?
This is also scary:
http://time.com/4891560/north-carolina-elections-supreme-court/
Gerrymandering, voter suppression, sowing distrust in the major media sources, buying up local media to control their message... Getting the Dems into power is the only hope for reversing these trends.
http://time.com/4891560/north-carolina-elections-supreme-court/
Gerrymandering, voter suppression, sowing distrust in the major media sources, buying up local media to control their message... Getting the Dems into power is the only hope for reversing these trends.
Trump Takes Authoritarian Stance In Portraying Journalists As Anti-American Enemy
This is seriously dangerous. I wonder what the rabid, uneducated Trump supporters will do if and when Trump is kicked out of office? It'll be an utter shock to so many of them who believe the bullshit that he's doing such a great job:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-portrays-journalists-as-anti-american_us_599da653e4b0d8dde99a844c
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-portrays-journalists-as-anti-american_us_599da653e4b0d8dde99a844c
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
FEAR & UNbalanced: Confessions of a 14-Year Fox News Hitman
We always knew Faux News was irrationally biased to the right, but here one of their own insiders shows how it was carefully orchestrated, scripted and presented. It's an amazing read:
https://medium.com/@tobinsmith_95851/how-roger-ailes-fox-news-scammed-americas-la-z-boy-cowboys-for-21-years-1996ee4a6b3e
https://medium.com/@tobinsmith_95851/how-roger-ailes-fox-news-scammed-americas-la-z-boy-cowboys-for-21-years-1996ee4a6b3e
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