Remarksman

think-progress: The terror gap, explained Nice...

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:30:16 -0400

think-progress:

The terror gap, explained

Nice explainer.

Thanks, NRA, for helping supply terrorists with guns.

Nice explainer.

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:55:14 -0400

Nice explainer.

In Boston, our bloated surveillance state didn’t work

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:39:02 -0400

In Boston, our bloated surveillance state didn’t work:

The past decade has seen presidents, politicians — conservatives and liberals alike — champion preemptive policing laws such as the USA Patriot Act, FISA, NDAA 2012 and 2013, to Transportation Security Administration security practices and searches, to “See Something, Say Something” practices — all in service to fighting the War on Terror. As a cable-news talking head cooed Friday morning: “There are cameras and social media everywhere. There is nowhere to hide!” That statement seemed indisputable: store cameras, street cameras, private cellphone cameras and videos could be integrated to give an astonishingly wide record of the tens of thousands of people who were at last Monday’s event. Yet, the most important truth of that day seemed to be lost in the gush of self-congratulation: The explosion of the bombs confirmed that a massive extension of the surveillance-state did not protect people in Boston.

THE OLIGOPOLY PROBLEM

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 21:29:42 -0400

THE OLIGOPOLY PROBLEM:

The real problem in America isn’t monopolies, it’s oligopolies. Here’s how the F.C.C. and other government agencies should fight them.

cheatsheet: The rucks were filled with Camelbacks of water,...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:47:45 -0400

cheatsheet:

The rucks were filled with Camelbacks of water, extra uniforms, Gatorade, changes of socks—and first-aid and trauma kits. It was all just supposed to be symbolic.

Mother Jones has the story of a group of soldiers who ran the Boston Marathon wearing 40-pound packs, then saved lives.

[Photo: Military Friends Foundation]

Impressive

cheatsheet: Choose your own adventure! (via) Also read...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 11:39:38 -0400

cheatsheet:

Choose your own adventure! (via)

Also read Morrissey’s thoughts on Thatcher.

think-progress: Good use of time Nice “graph”...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 23:52:24 -0400

think-progress:

Good use of time

Nice “graph” presentation.

Good job, media! Because of course it is all about the politicking.

dailycrack: World Order- 2012 the song is ok, but i’m posting...

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 00:47:46 -0500

dailycrack:

World Order- 2012

the song is ok, but i’m posting this for two reasons: the choreography is wonderful; and one of these guys was a professional fighter. he was awesome.

-the skinny miracle

Impressive choreography!

Only Obama can enact the shit GOP ideas that the public just rejected. Austerity now. Insanity later

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 00:42:00 -0500

Only Obama can enact the shit GOP ideas that the public just rejected. Austerity now. Insanity later:

wilwheaton:

Obama is the only person in America who can give the Republican party what they can not win in elections. Massive budget cuts, more privatization, more drownings to appease Grover Norquist, and again the President negotiating with himself against a GOP that doesn’t give a flying fuck about 99% of America and is willing to wreck this country as long as Obama takes the blame.

I can’t stop Obama from blowing his second term by enacting more shit GOP policy.

Another GOP hostage demand, and Dems play along, and the GOP gets to keep the hostage and exact further demand, budget cuts that will cripple the economy for which Obama will be blamed for, all cuts on the poor, now tax hikes on the rich and if their are tax hikes let them all be shouldered by those who have the least.

Obama wants a deal! Let’s just keep giving the GOP what they can’t win an election on. Let’s pretend they are sincere and genuinely care about the country whose fate they keep holding hostage, let’s pretend this isn’t all about the obvious goal, destroying the New Deal and then bringing about the Billionaire’s dream economy, no labor rights, no voting rights, no regulations, it sounds just like the worst of the Great Depression, doesn’t it? More austerity for the 99%, more corporate profits and golden parachutes for the 1%, and Obama keeps giving away a little more, a little more, how many 11th hour deals do we need? The GOP is getting their agenda passed piecemeal by a President who keeps insisting on a deal where he gives up something and gets nothing in return, and it is hurting the American economy by putting all of the burden of austerity on those who are already hurting the most.

I was just thinking last night about how great it would be if President Obama cared as much about protecting Medicare and Medicaid as he cares about making a fucking “grand bargain” with lunatics who have a 10% approval rating from the country.

I keep thinking about how great it would be of the Obama the GOP keeps talking about — the one who wants to give universal healthcare to Americans, strongly regulate industry, and ensure everyone has a fair shot to make something out of their lives even if they’re not born rich and white — was actually our President. I mean, that’s the guy the majority of Americans voted for in 2012, and it would be great if he showed up. Or existed at all.

But this guy, who refuses to hold the torturers and Wall Street criminals accountable (but punishes whistleblowers) claims the right to assassinate any American, anywhere, without due process (but won’t tell Americans why), and cares more about making a deal with a party that refuses to accept anything other than what a Romney presidency would have given us (something resoundingly rejected by voters)? This guy sucks. At this point, Occam’s Razor says that Barack Obama isn’t getting rolled or negotiating against himself. Occam’s Razor says that he is this guy, and that’s a profound disappointment.

What else can you say? Obama is not what the Obama campaign suggested.

John Yoo to Rand Paul: Leave Barack Obama Alone on Targeted Killing!

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 00:32:21 -0500

John Yoo to Rand Paul: Leave Barack Obama Alone on Targeted Killing!:

wilwheaton:

John Yoo, the author of the Bush administration legal memos justifying the use of torture, thinks President Obama is really getting too much grief over targeted killing. And he wants Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)—who filibustered Obama’s nominee to head the CIA for 13 hours on Wednesday—to lay off.

“I admire libertarians but I think Rand Paul’s filibuster in many ways is very much what libertarians do, they make these very symbolic gestures, standing for some extreme position,” said Yoo, now a UC Berkeley law professor, who once suggested it was okay for the president to order a child’s testicles be crushed. .

When John Fucking Yoo is on your side, you are on the wrong side, Mister President.

Can’t comprehend how this guy still has a job.

durnesque-esque: fuckyeah-nerdery: sigfodr: A version for...

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 00:22:55 -0500

durnesque-esque:

fuckyeah-nerdery:

sigfodr:

A version for tumblr that can be read without opening a new tab, since plenty of people would scroll past this story otherwise.

The bravest woman on Earth.

Today is Women’s Day- a good day to celebrate this incredible young woman.

Amazing.

"Social Security has not contributed, is not part of and never will contribute to the deficit. So..."

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:30:42 -0500

“Social Security has not contributed, is not part of and never will contribute to the deficit. So those who like to meddle in it and try to combine it into this deficit talk are just playing games with our seniors and disabled in this country.””

- U.S. Senator Mark Begich (D. AK)
Truth not heard during almost any deficit discussion.

wilwheaton: laughterkey: section9: heistdoc: The Results of...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:28:43 -0500

wilwheaton:

laughterkey:

section9:

heistdoc:

The Results of Drug Tests on Welfare Recipients in Florida:

Drug testing only benefits the testing company. Typical on conservatives to waste time and money trying to stop a fake issue.

You have to love how they pander to the “everyone on welfare is a mooch and a druggie” types in order to get public support for such a wasteful program - that did nothing but line the pockets of the owners of drug testing facilities.

You know what would be really crazy? If the Governor who signed the law that introduced drug screening, founded one of the largest companies in Florida that provides drug screening.

Fucking Rick Scott.

Tea Party America, ladies and gentlemen. It’s crony capitalism at it’s finest, and the rubes who vote for these shitbags just clap louder and louder while people like Rick Scott fuck them over.

Robert Reich: Why There's a Bull Market for Stocks And Bear Market for Workers

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:24:04 -0500

Robert Reich: Why There's a Bull Market for Stocks And Bear Market for Workers:

robertreich:

Today the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 14,270 – completely erasing its 54 percent loss between 2007 and 2009.

The stock market is basically back to where it was in 2000, while corporate earnings have doubled since then.

Yet the real median wage is now 8 percent below what it…

This is where the U.S.A. is — Wall St. winning, everyone else not doing so well. Nothing is surprising if you look at tax policy and the political climate.

Corporations Write Our Laws and Profit From Our Misery

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:26:22 -0500

Corporations Write Our Laws and Profit From Our Misery:

wilwheaton:

“The United States, from 1970 to 2005, increased its prison population by about 700 percent, according to statistics gathered by the ACLU.”

But human beings matter little in the corporate state. We myopically serve the rapacious appetites of those dedicated to exploitation and maximizing profit. And our corporate masters view prisons—as they do education, health care and war—as a business. The 320-bed Elizabeth Detention Center, which houses only men, is run by one of the largest operators and owners of for-profit prisons in the country, Corrections Corporation of America. CCA, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, has annual revenues in excess of $1.7 billion. An average of 81,384 inmates are in its facilities on any one day. This is a greater number, the American Civil Liberties Union points out ina 2011 report, “Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration,” than that held by the states of New York and New Jersey combined.

The for-profit prisons and their lobbyists in Washington and state capitals have successfully blocked immigration reform, have prevented a challenge to our draconian drug laws and are pushing through tougher detention policies. Locking up more and more human beings is the bedrock of the industry’s profits. These corporations are the engines behind the explosion of our prison system. They are the reason we have spent $300 billion on new prisons since 1980. They are also the reason serious reform is impossible.

“The two largest private prison companies in 2010 received nearly $3 billion in revenue. The senior executives, according to the ACLU report, each received annual compensation packages worth well over $3 million. The for-profit prisons can charge the government up to $200 a day to house an inmate; they pay detention officers as little as $10 an hour.”

The prison-industrial complex in America does not get the attention it deserves, and that has got to change.

Whenever locking people up is a profit motivation for some business, corruption is almost guaranteed.

Robert Reich: Showdown Fatigue

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 00:33:40 -0500

Robert Reich: Showdown Fatigue:

robertreich:

We’re one week away from a massive cut in federal spending — cuts that will hurt millions of lower-income Americans who’ll lose nutrition assistance, housing, and money for their schools, among other things; that will furlough or lay off millions of government employees, reduce inspections of the…

Indeed, “Why not limit the mortgage interest deduction to $25,000 a year, so the rest of us don’t have to subsidize mansion mortgages?”

upworthy: This Makes Homework Look A Whole Lot Easier As bored...

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 00:24:07 -0500

upworthy:

This Makes Homework Look A Whole Lot Easier

As bored as you were during cursive lessons, at least you weren’t stuck in a coal mine!

(Original by The Other 98%.)

Apparently taken for granted by 99.99% of middle school students in this country today.

wilwheaton: (via Daily Kos: Media Carnival)

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:39:33 -0500

wilwheaton:

(via Daily Kos: Media Carnival)

What if gun control laws were like abortion laws?

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:35:39 -0500

What if gun control laws were like abortion laws?:

maxistentialist:

The Examiner:

What if gun rights were regulated like abortion rights? Here’s a list of just some of the hoops you’d have to jump through before you could own a gun:

Only one store in the entire state would sell guns. (See: Mississippi, Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming for states with only one abortion provider.)

You’d have to fill out an enormous personal background check including intrusive personal information that has nothing to do with your ability to own or use a gun. Then you’d have to wait at least 72 hours and come back to the store. (Remember, it’s the only one in the state. You better hope you don’t live on the other side of Wyoming.)

Upon your return, you’d have to sit through intensive mandatory counseling. Your counselor, regardless of his personal beliefs, would have to tell you that gun ownership is actually a bad idea, and that it would negatively effect your mental health to own a gun. (This, despite there being no scientific evidence to support the claim.)

Next, you’d sit through a gruesome movie showing the actual aftermath of domestic gun crimes. You’d see people with half a head. You’d see dead children in their beds. You’d see the bloody aftermath of a school shooting. You’d be shown statistic after statistic warning you that you’d be contributing to this morally degenerate sanctioning of murder.

If you lived in Virginia, you’d have to come back (again) for an invasive and uncomfortable fMRI (which costs around $300 out of your pocket) to ensure your honesty in answering all the background check information and your intentions to use your gun responsibly. (This was as close as I could get to the invasive transvaginal procedure included in the recently passed Virginia bill.)

Oh… and if you were married, your spouse might have to sign off on your gun ownership.

Once you jumped through all these hoops, you could buy a gun. In a week, if you wanted another gun, you’d have to start over at Step 1. No exceptions.

(via fuckyeahfeminists)

Don’t forget that it is mostly “pro-life” politicians who think it should remain as easy as possible to get a gun.

“Too Big to Fail has become Too Big for...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 11:09:31 -0500

“Too Big to Fail has become Too Big for Trial”

Elizabeth Warren exposes our nation’s so-called regulators of the financial system for the Wall Street partners they actually are.

Contrast this with the way minor drug offenders are prosecuted.