I'm a nurse in my mid-40s. We absolutely DO NOT use the term "retarded" in the medical field anymore. We use the term developmentally delayed. "Retarded" is considered a slur
This is an actual conversation I had with my oldest nephew when we went to the Boston Tea Party Museum last week.
"If you ever hear people complaining that damaging commercial property during a protest is unacceptable, remember what you learn about the Tea Party today. Our country was literally founded on protests trashing commercial property. And remember that some people complained to them that it was unacceptable too."
See also Dr. King:
"who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action” who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom"
"IIt was the Sons of Liberty who ransacked houses of British officials. Threats and intimidation were their weapons against tax collectors, causing many to flee town. Images of unpopular figures might be hanged and burned in effigy on the town's liberty tree.
Of course, the winners write the history books. Had the American Revolution failed, the Sons and Daughters of Liberty would no doubt be regarded as a band of thugs, or at the very least, outspoken troublemakers."
"A riot is the language of the unheard. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention"
"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White citizens’ “Councilor” or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direst action” who paternistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."
Thank you. People seriously need to stop acting like words don't have meaning and it's impossible for actual fascists to actually exist.
"But whatabout teh mom & pop shops!" was from day 1 a deliberate talking point that existed to delegitimize the very legitimate protests. Do you really think none of the Tea Party contemporaries said the exact same thing about them? "Whatabout those poor sailors who carried that tea who are losing their payday and had nothing to do with the Stamp Act? Whatabout the poor local community merchants who will lose out on all those tea sales now? The Stamp Act is not their fault." Do you really think none of the loyalists were saying that?
We need to face the fact that we have a class of American citizens who continue to suffer under an oppressive police state. Their protests are valid
This is an actual conversation I had with my oldest nephew when we went to the Boston Tea Party Museum last week.
"If you ever hear people complaining that damaging commercial property during a protest is unacceptable, remember what you learn about the Tea Party today. Our country was literally founded on protests trashing commercial property. And remember that some people complained to them that it was unacceptable too."
Some of them literally did that right at the start of the pandemic before everything got shut down for quarantine because "it might scare the patients."
Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. "We get perfection or we want nothing" is a deeply cynical and unrealistic approach to real world governance. You can't change the world overnight. No progress has ever been without flaws. It's still progress.
And I already hear you saying "what did they do with their last majority in 2008?" Easy: They passed the Affordable Care Act, which was the single best healthcare reform legislation in my entire lifetime. Until the REPUBLICANS gutted the individual mandate and the REPUBLICANS refused to accept money for Medicaid expansion in red states.
I'm a nurse. I want single-payer Medicare for All. I think it's economically and morally best for the country. But I also know that we couldn't go from what we had prior to the ACA straight into M4A overnight. It would have been whiplash that left nearly 400,000 Americans unemployed (the estimated number of people working in our current private health insurance administration industry.)
We needed a stepping stone to M4A and the ACA was a really excellent first step.
Ok, so I've had some time to read through this stuff and the most salient point is right there in the first paragraph of your first source:
"This kind of bipartisanship is heartening--and will lead to important investments in roads, bridges, rail, broadband internet and the electric grid. Yet the bill also thoroughly exposes the glaring problem with the Republican Party's opposition to additional taxes on corporations and the wealthy."
The problem is REPUBLICAN obstruction. Why is Republican obstruction a never-ending, seemingly insurmountable problem? Because REPUBLICANS have rigged voting in so many states that they're able to maintain 50% of the seats of power when their constituents are a minority of the American population.
How do we fix this? VOTE DEMOCRAT. Dems NEED a solid majority in both the House AND the Senate to push through anti-gerrymandering legislation, the new voting rights act, DC statehood, getting qualified federal judges on the bench, and I pray to God expanding SCOTUS and appointing a whole bunch more Ketanji Brown Jacksons.
"Since then, several other railroad-related unions have also seen success in negotiating for similar sick-day benefits. These 12 unions represent more than 105,000 railroad workers.
“Biden deserves a lot of the credit for achieving this goal for us,” Russo said. “He and his team continued to work behind the scenes to get all of rail labor a fair agreement for paid sick leave.”"
He didn't back management at all, actually. Biden got those rail workers the paid sick leave they were asking for without a strike that would have crashed the economy. Which is exactly what he said he was going to do.
"Since then, several other railroad-related unions have also seen success in negotiating for similar sick-day benefits. These 12 unions represent more than 105,000 railroad workers.
“Biden deserves a lot of the credit for achieving this goal for us,” Russo said. “He and his team continued to work behind the scenes to get all of rail labor a fair agreement for paid sick leave.”
I'm a nurse in my mid-40s. We absolutely DO NOT use the term "retarded" in the medical field anymore. We use the term developmentally delayed. "Retarded" is considered a slur