a handkerchief sandwich

birdwings:novh: 031411 - Big Pimpin (via Instagram: @novh)

Some people think it’s funny to use the word “pimp” to illustrate how cool they are, but sex trafficking is actually a huge problem in our world today.

I know it’s “not cool” to be offended by words, especially from people I don’t know on the internet, but perpetuating stereotypes and misconceptions about really serious issues is something that we have the power to change.

Ugh, white males. 

mohandasgandhi:washingtonpoststyle:

The United States has fallen 27 places in the Press Freedom Index. The reason? The many arrests of journalists covering Occupy protests.

El Salvador, which is tragically plagued with horrific violence, and Japan, guilty of censoring the press over Fukushima, placed well above the United States. Incredible.

(via pnasty)

(via think4yourself)

The Evangelical Rejection of Reason (via azspot)

(via think4yourself)

“It must be tough for Republicans to love America so much, but hate three-quarters of the people living in it” -Jon Stewart (colormekate:stfuconservatives:)

(via think4yourself)

vart:the53:

America is the land of OPPORTUNITY - not GUARANTEES!  If you want something you have to go out and get it!  Stop whining!

I don’t know whether to laugh or be pissed off about how uninformed “the 53%” are about their own social status.  You know what makes up that 99%?  The 53% who are also getting dicked over but are too stupid to realize it. Unfortunately the republican party/conservatives are using this to their advantage to divide people.

vanishingevocations: Cornel West <3

robertreich:

THE SEVEN BIGGEST ECONOMIC LIES

The President’s Jobs Bill doesn’t have a chance in Congress — and the Occupiers on Wall Street and elsewhere can’t become a national movement for a more equitable society – unless more Americans know the truth about the economy.  

Here’s a short (2 minute 30 second) effort to rebut the seven biggest whoppers now being told by those who want to take America backwards. The major points:

 

1. Tax cuts for the rich trickle down to everyone else. Baloney. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both sliced taxes on the rich and what happened? Most Americans’ wages (measured by the real median wage) began flattening under Reagan and has dropped since George W. Bush. Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke. 

 2. Higher taxes on the rich would hurt the economy and slow job growth. False. From the end of World War II until 1981, the richest Americans faced a top marginal tax rate of 70 percent or above. Under Dwight Eisenhower it was 91 percent. Even after all deductions and credits, the top taxes on the very rich were far higher than they’ve been since. Yet the economy grew faster during those years than it has since. (Don’t believe small businesses would be hurt by a higher marginal tax; fewer than 2 percent of small business owners are in the highest tax bracket.)  

 3. Shrinking government generates more jobs. Wrong again. It means fewer government workers – everyone from teachers, fire fighters, police officers, and social workers at the state and local levels to safety inspectors and military personnel at the federal. And fewer government contractors, who would employ fewer private-sector workers. According to Moody’s economist Mark Zandi (a campaign advisor to John McCain), the $61 billion in spending cuts proposed by the House GOP will cost the economy 700,000 jobs this year and next.

 4. Cutting the budget deficit now is more important than boosting the economy. Untrue. With so many Americans out of work, budget cuts now will shrink the economy. They’ll increase unemployment and reduce tax revenues. That will worsen the ratio of the debt to the total economy. The first priority must be getting jobs and growth back by boosting the economy. Only then, when jobs and growth are returning vigorously, should we turn to cutting the deficit.

 5. Medicare and Medicaid are the major drivers of budget deficits. Wrong. Medicare and Medicaid spending is rising quickly, to be sure. But that’s because the nation’s health-care costs are rising so fast. One of the best ways of slowing these costs is to use Medicare and Medicaid’s bargaining power over drug companies and hospitals to reduce costs, and to move from a fee-for-service system to a fee-for-healthy outcomes system. And since Medicare has far lower administrative costs than private health insurers, we should make Medicare available to everyone.

 6. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Don’t believe it. Social Security is solvent for the next 26 years. It could be solvent for the next century if we raised the ceiling on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. That ceiling is now $106,800.  

 7. It’s unfair that lower-income Americans don’t pay income tax. Wrong. There’s nothing unfair about it. Lower-income Americans pay out a larger share of their paychecks in payroll taxes, sales taxes, user fees, and tolls than everyone else.

 

Demagogues through history have known that big lies, repeated often enough,  start being believed — unless they’re rebutted. These seven economic whoppers are just plain wrong. Make sure you know the truth – and spread it on.

(via think4yourself)

cheguevaraslovechild:

“In terms of types of financial wealth, the top one percent of households have 38.3% of all privately held stock, 60.6% of financial securities, and 62.4% of business equity. The top 10% have 80% to 90% of stocks, bonds, trust funds, and business equity, and over 75% of non-home real estate. Since financial wealth is what counts as far as the control of income-producing assets, we can say that just 10% of the people own the United States of America.” - Source

(via think4yourself)

House Sets Up Battle on Labor, Education and Health Funding - NYTimes.com

Because what we really need is to make education even less accessible.

(via lethalforthecity) And send millions of young adults spiraling into debt - the kind of debt that has consumed an entire generation preceding them. (via takesamuscle)

(via takesamuscle)