I am trying to imagine a white president forced to show his papers at a national news conference, and coming up blank. I am trying to a imagine a prominent white Harvard professor arrested for breaking into his own home, and coming up with nothing. I am trying to see Sean Penn or Nicolas Cage being frisked at an upscale deli, and I find myself laughing in the dark.
Ta-Nehisi Coates (via theatlantic)

Just Released: If No Deal is Struck, Four-in-Ten Say Let the Sequester Happen

pewresearch:

After a series of fiscal crises over the past few years, the public is not expressing a particular sense of urgency over the pending March 1 sequester deadline, according to a new national Pew Research Center/USA TODAY survey. With little more than a week to go, barely a quarter have heard a lot about the scheduled cuts, while about as many have heard nothing at all. 

In addition, If there is no deficit deal by March 1, 49% say congressional Republicans would be more to blame while just 31% would mostly blame the president.

 Read more.

Does the public realize that to “let the sequester happen” would mean really bad things? Not just for the nation, but for a lot of individual people. My mom works for the NIH and she could be forced to take unpaid leave if the sequester happens. My family is very privileged, and my dad has pretty secure private-sector job, but for many other families that furlough could be devastating. People will lose wages.

In addition, places like the NIH do vital research to keep our country healthy. Without the research that the NIH does, there wouldn’t be major progress made on public health crises like the diabetes epidemic, which is what my mom does. If you think that doesn’t affect you, think about how if we can’t do research to cure or at least better treat diseases like diabetes or cancer, more people will end up sick or in the hospital, draining precious medical resources and money and you, yes, you, will feel the effects of that because it could lead to an increase in medical costs and/or a drop in the quality of the medical attention you receive because both human and capital resources will come under pressure.

And yet, Congress would continue to get paid throughout.

The sequester is NOT just about cuts. It could seriously harm the wealth and health of our nation.

(via npr)

Source: pewresearch

It's Hard Enough to Be a Fat Kid Without the Government Telling You You're an Epidemic

Okay, you know what, Lindy West, I’m glad you walk however many miles to your stupid coffee shop and eat your super healthy organic food and are still fat, because these commercials aren’t talking about you!!

Here’s what these commercials are talking about: the people who do actually eat several thousand calories a day too much. And those calories aren’t good calories either. 

You know there’s this thing called medical science. And it’s not just hocus pocus. It’s real. It’s fucking science. And yes, obesity is a fucking problem. And the people who are obese because they do the things that these commercials are talking about are unhealthy. That’s just it, okay. You can be a body-positive person and still understand that some things are good for your body and some are not.

I am not a skinny person either. But I know there is a different between someone who is fat because, well, they’re fat, and someone who is fat because they put bad things into their body.

I’m so sick of seeing “fat-positive” people rant against obesity prevention. My mother works for the federal government and studies obesity and diabetes. She is trying to prevent kids from becoming obese and unnaturally developing a disease for which there is no cure and the cause in children is obesity. And when I see stupid articles like this, what I see is you telling my mother she’s a terrible person.

You know what, fuck you. Because my mother knows BMI isn’t a clear-cut measure of health and fitness. My mother knows that a lot of the people who are affected by the obesity crisis are affected because of socioeconomic (and often racial) factors. In fact she has spearheaded studies on those very topics. My mother knows a lot of things about obesity because she is a fucking scientist with two fucking doctoral degrees and you, Lindy West, are not qualified to talk about the obesity problem in America just because you’re fat. 

I hope you enjoy being fat. I really, honestly, sincerely do. But there are children in this country who are eating terrible things for their bodies, and scientists pointing that out, and the government trying to prevent (which, by the way, totally makes sense because if we want good healthcare that doesn’t cost a fortune or if universal isn’t going to bankrupt the system, we need to focus on preventive medicine and preventative actions like telling people not to feed their children shit) is a good thing. It’s the government actually doing that fucking “providing for the welfare” of the people thing. So stop pretending like everything’s about you, BECAUSE IT ISN’T.

historicity-reblogs:

This is not a historical post, but I gotta say this anyway. Gentile social justice warriors need to stop trying to draw a wedge between the Muslim and Jewish communities in the West. We neither need nor want their false dichotomies and ass grabbed narratives. Don’t speak for either of our communities. Don’t white knight for our communities. Just mind your own fucking business.

-Angry Jewish historian with Angry Muslim and Jewish historian friends, all of whom are SICK of this bullshit

Source: manalapan.patch.com

As a footnote, I need to say that it has been pointed out that cataloging racism is a sight below the standards of this blog. I sort of agree. But over the course of the Obama presidency I have become convinced that no single force exerts a greater pull on his presidency than white racism. Not white resentment. Not white populism. White racism. I don’t know how else to explain a health care denounced as reparations, the rather continuous disrespect, the sense that he is a Kenyan illegitimate or all of the attendant theories. I do not know how else to explain a state like West Virginia, arguably the most racist in the country, where delegates are now refusing to endorse the president.


There will be more on this in the coming months. I don’t want to scoop myself. But my point is I can only stop talking about racism, when it ceases to be a significant force in our politics. When the mere act of being white gives Obama’s opponent “a home-state advantage nationally,” I can’t stop. It would be deeply wrong to stop.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, in a blog entry for The Atlantic about right-wing radio host Barbara Espinosa recently saying of Barack Obama, “I call him a monkey. And I don’t believe in calling him the first black president…. I voted for the white guy myself.” (via theatlantic)

(via theatlantic)

Source: The Atlantic

On “swing states.”

inothernews:

The more I think about this Tumblr the more it annoys me.  It’s like, I get it — the “swing states” are likely the ones where voter sentiment is still up in the air and thus could decide the presidential election.  And so the Washington Post is right in assigning student journalists to cover the issues in each of those states — after all, I guess a Washington-based national newspaper shouldn’t have to cover all 50 states, right?

But how exactly is this different than telling voters in the 38 other states to fuck right off?  That their votes don’t matter?

The media has to do a better job of, essentially, not taking sides in politics.  Which is what thePostis doing here — basically telling these 12 states that their concerns are more important than those in the other 38.  And who’s to say that there’s no deleterious effect here, that of people in those 38 just staying home because their vote — they perceive — doesn’t count?

The “swing state” is less a reality than a self-fulfilling prophecy, a concept nurtured and propagated by the mass media until the voting public’s significance is reduced to Tim Russert’s scribblings on a Dri-Erase board. 

And that is just fucking irresponsible.

I say to the women out there in America, let’s keep this fight going. Put on your lipstick, square your shoulders, suit up, and let’s fight for a new American revolution where women are paid equal pay for equal work, and let’s end wage discrimination in this century once and for all.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) took to the Senate floor for a passionate speech after Republicans blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act. (via think-progress)

(via think-progress)