Reddit mentions: The best political leader biographies

> As I said, I had all jobs in the relationship. Looking good, having sex all the time

(in response to, “Besides sex, which includes looks ...”)

> earning money

Same relationship one has with a business partner. That’s not something most men want or care about. Unless that’s something this particular guy actually cared about and valued greatly, that’s not something that was done for him just because you want to feel like it was something you were doing for him. The value is not determined by the POV of the cost of the giver, but by the POV of the value in the hands of the receiver.

> organizing dates, paying for dates, taking care of the transportation, taking care of the romance

Again, not something men care about. We’ll do that for you, not for us. You being happy (the ends) is something we care about. But the dates and romance (the means), not so much. Again, not something that was done for him, even though, no doubt, you did in fact do much of it.

> supporting him emotionally, helping him when he needed help with stuff

So, like a therapist and handyman. Same points as making money above. Not really a bargained for benefit most men are looking for from women. Again, no doubt you actually did all these things and expended all this time and effort. But, “cost/benefit” and “efficiency” principles. You can’t be dumping 90% of your time and energy onto things that make less than a 5% difference for the person on the receiving end of all your time and energy ... and then feeling like, “But I do so much for you!”

That’s like a guy being like, “But I go to the gym 12+ hours a week, have 8-10% bf%, dress well for you, I’m on Cialis and Cypionate and am horny for you all the time and 100% ready and willing to have sex whenever you want and willing to initiate all the time.”

That’s nice. But what about planning for a wedding? Or a vacation? Or getting a nice house? Or the latest iPhone or MacBook? Or going out on a nice date somewhere? Or doing something for me (besides sex) that’s going to make me feel appreciated, loved and cared about ... (drumroll) ... as a woman? Or helping out with the work involved in taking care of a home? Or listening to me and being an emotional tampon like my girlfriends ... they care about my emotional needs as a woman, surely my man cares as much about the same as my girlfriends do? Or helping me with other things I need help with (acts of service)?

> The guy didn't do anything.

No criticism, judgment or anything negative from my end towards you. Just saying this from a place of wanting to help another human being:

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Winning-Negotiating-Create-Disputes/dp/0674012313/ref=rtpb_of_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0674012313&pd_rd_r=5f232b8f-e768-4e93-bf5c-ac76858d8b16&pd_rd_w=qHdyN&pd_rd_wg=ndjWP&pf_rd_p=e63cdf88-70f7-45e9-a935-867bec475cac&pf_rd_r=AC8BNFZBAQS13CPVGJJY&psc=1&refRID=PP0YH424YPG54TTQD3H4

https://www.amazon.com/Bargaining-Advantage-Negotiation-Strategies-Reasonable/dp/0143036971/ref=pd_aw_fbt_14_img_3/134-7622501-1387826?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0143036971&pd_rd_r=8ca3a607-9c32-4911-937b-849a8761702d&pd_rd_w=b8Hxy&pd_rd_wg=ss7u6&pf_rd_p=3ecc74bd-d08f-44bd-96f3-d0c2b89f563a&pf_rd_r=AJPTASB84M6ENTSSZ69V&psc=1&refRID=AJPTASB84M6ENTSSZ69V

It’s irrelevant what the other person is getting in a relationship. It’s not a competition, although that’s always the default “woe to me” theme whenever anyone talks about these situations. The real issue is not that he got so much, or that he got so much more than you. The real issue is that you did not get the utility and value that you wanted from him, not just conventionally or generally, but specifically meaningful and valuable to you as a woman and as the individual you are. That was the issue, not all this other stuff.

> I was saying women can be in relationships where ... the guy offers nothing and we're still happy.

O.o

So, “nothing” makes you happy?

> It sounds like you just think highly of men and lowly of women

No. That’s what it sounds like ... to you ... or to women who read what I wrote and who also have some chip on their shoulder.

> so I want to hear what you think of a relationship where the woman does everything (all of her "jobs" and more) and the guy does nothing.

I’m wondering, what self-esteem issues does this woman have that makes her feel like she doesn’t deserve to want certain things for herself as a woman in this relationship, and has hypnotized herself and buried herself in mountains of rationalizations until she’s successfully convinced herself that she really is perfectly happy with “nothing” (which, in this context, is a fancy way of saying that the only emotional “pleasure” she derived from relationships is by playing the role of a martyr and relishing in self-pity or masturbating to a sense of self-sacrifice).

> Do you just refuse to acknowledge the existence of such relationships because they do not corroborate your worldview that men have systematically more to offer than women do?

Not at all. I handle divorces, and most of my divorce clients are women, and most of these cases are IDV and involve elements of domestic violence.

I’ve had domestic violence victims driven to court ... by their husband ... only to tell the judge that she wants to discontinue the action for divorce ... because her husband wants her to discontinue the action for divorce. Nothing the judge and I can do if the plaintiff doesn’t want to proceed with a divorce.

Respectfully, with zero anger or negative feelings towards you on this end, because I get your reaction all the time ... be mindful of your own assumptions about “men” and what you may be projecting onto what I wrote. Common theme on this subreddit. Women read something written by a man, and even the most intelligent and most jaded by life women give in to the automatic knee-jerk reflex to feel like, “Oh, great, another MGTOW / RP / all men are amazing and all women are evil asshole.”

Not at all the point or purpose of what I said.

The Other Big Surprise of 2016 Is the Return of Democratic Socialism

Lawrence Wittner - May 25, 2016

Democratic socialism used to be a vibrant force in American life. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, the Socialist Party of America, headed by the charismatic union leader, Eugene V. Debs, grew rapidly, much like its sister parties in Europe and elsewhere: the British Labour Party, the French Socialist Party, the Swedish Social Democratic Party, the Australian Labor Party, and dozens of similar parties that voters chose to govern their countries.

[http://www.amazon.com/Socialist-Party-America-History/dp/B0000CJD9I/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463446052&sr=1-3&keywords=the+socialist+party+of+america%2C+shannon]

Publicizing its ideas through articles, lectures, rallies, and hundreds of party newspapers, America’s Socialist Party elected an estimated 1,200 public officials, including 79 mayors, in 340 cities, as well as numerous members of state legislatures and two members of Congress.

Once in office, the party implemented a broad range of social reforms designed to curb corporate abuses, democratize the economy, and improve the lives of working class Americans.

Even on the national level, the Socialist Party became a major player in American politics.

In 1912, when Woodrow Wilson’s six million votes gave him the presidency, Debs―his Socialist Party opponent―drew vast, adoring crowds and garnered nearly a million.

[http://depts.washington.edu/moves/SP_intro.shtml]

This promising beginning, however, abruptly came to an end.

[http://www.amazon.com/Socialist-Party-America-History/dp/B0000CJD9I/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463445006&sr=1-2&keywords=David+shannon%2C+the+socialist+party+of+america]

Socialist Party criticism of World War I led to a ferocious government crackdown on the party, including raids on its offices, censorship of its newspapers, and imprisonment of its leaders, including Debs.

In addition, when Bolshevik revolutionaries seized power in Russia and established the Soviet Union, they denounced democratic socialist parties and established rival Communist parties under Soviet control to spark revolutions. In the United States, the Socialists fiercely rejected this Communist model.

But the advent of Communism sharply divided the American Left and, worse yet, confused many Americans about the differences between Socialists and Communists.

Although the Socialist Party lingered on during the 1920s and 1930s, many individual Socialists simply moved into the Democratic Party, particularly after its New Deal programs began to steal the Socialist thunder.

The Socialist Party’s situation grew even more desperate during the Cold War.

With the Communists serving as cheerleaders for the Soviet Union, Americans often viewed them as, at best, apologists for a dictatorship or, at worst, subversives and traitors.

And the Socialists were often mistakenly viewed the same way.

By the 1970s, the once-thriving Socialist Party was almost non-existent.

Some of its remaining activists, led by Michael Harrington, broke away and organized the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, which later morphed into Democratic Socialists of America―a group that dropped third party campaigns, called attention to the value of democratic socialist programs, and worked with progressive forces in the Democratic party to secure them. But, for several decades, it made little headway.

[http://www.dsausa.org/a_brief_history_of_the_american_left]

And, then, remarkably, democratic socialism began to revive.

Of course, it had never entirely disappeared, and occasional polls found small-scale support for it.

[http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/aug/16/ben-carson/ben-carson-says-number-americans-who-believe-socia/]

But, in December 2011, a startling 31 percent of Americans surveyed by the Pew Research Center said that they had a positive reaction to the word “socialism,” with young people, Blacks, and Hispanics showing the greatest enthusiasm.

[http://www.people-press.org/2011/12/28/little-change-in-publics-response-to-capitalism-socialism/]

In November 2012, a Gallup survey found that 39 percent of Americans had a positive reaction to “socialism,” including 53 percent of Democrats.

[http://www.gallup.com/poll/158978/democrats-republicans-diverge-capitalism-federal-gov.aspx]

Why the rising tide of support for socialism in recent years?

One key factor was certainly a popular backlash against the growing economic instability and inequality in America fostered by brazen corporate greed, exploitation, and control of public policy.

[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/29/why-are-there-suddenly-millions-of-socialists-in-america]

In addition, college-educated young people―saddled with enormous tuition debt, often under-employed, and with little recollection of the Soviet nightmare―began to discover the great untold political story of the postwar years, the remarkable success of European social democracy.

[http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/aug/16/ben-carson/ben-carson-says-number-americans-who-believe-socia/]

Of course, Bernie Sanders played an important role in this public reappraisal of democratic socialism.

[http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Bernie-Sanders-Vision-America/dp/1603586679/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0EVNJBM695E9B7Z5V6M9]

Once a member of the Young People’s Socialist League, the youth group of the old Socialist Party, Sanders forged a successful political career as an independent, serving as a popular mayor of Burlington, Vermont, a U.S. Congressman, and, eventually, a U.S. Senator.

During these years he consistently attacked the greed of the wealthy and their corporations, assailed economic and social inequality, and stood up for workers and other ordinary Americans.

For many on the American Left, he provided a shining example of the continued relevance of democratic socialism in America.

Sanders’s plunge into the Democratic presidential primaries, though, drew the attention of a much larger audience―and, as it turned out, a surprisingly sympathetic one.

Although the communications media were quick to point out that he was a socialist, a fact that many assumed would marginalize him, he didn’t run away from the label.

[http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/bernie-sanders-makes-his-pitch-for-socialism/416913/]

Perhaps most important, he presented a democratic socialist program in tune with the views of many Americans: universal healthcare (Medicare for All); tuition-free public college; a $15/hour minimum wage; increased Social Security benefits; higher taxes on the wealthy; big money out of politics; and a less militaristic foreign policy.

This sounded good to large numbers of voters.

In June 2015, shortly after Sanders launched his campaign, a Gallup poll found that 59 percent of Democrats, 49 percent of independents, and 26 percent of Republicans were willing to support a socialist if he were the candidate of their party.

[http://www.gallup.com/poll/183713/socialist-presidential-candidates-least-appealing.aspx]

This included 69 percent of Americans 18 to 29 years of age and 50 percent of those between 30 and 49 years of age.

To the shock (and frequent dismay) of the political pundits, Sanders’s poll numbers rose steadily until they rivaled those of Hillary Clinton, the presumed Democratic nominee, and he won 20 of the Democratic state primaries and caucuses conducted so far.

[http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-national-democratic-primary]

Indeed, polls showed that, if he became the Democratic nominee, he would win a landslide victory in the race for president.

[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_sanders-5565.html]

But whether or not Sanders reaches the White House, it’s clear that democratic socialism has made a comeback in American life.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/05/25/other-big-surprise-2016-return-democratic-socialism

In addition to Shattered, I also read Chasing Hillary which I actually preferred because it was a bit more ‘human touch’.Here are my Kindle highlights from this book.


On the author working from the NYT offices


>“I just feel like the election isn’t happening in my cubicle,” I pleaded to Very Senior Editor, who—hand raised as if answering a question in science class—reminded me that the Times’ Upshot election model gave Hillary a 93 percent chance of winning. “But it’s over,” Very Senior Editor replied.


On Hillary’s first trip to Iowa


>Then she gave the photographers a smile so open mouthed and amplified that, looking back on it, I should’ve seen it as a cry for help. The entire Democratic Establishment should’ve seen it. The image screamed all at once, How long do I have to act like I enjoy this shit? and Why the fuck am I back in this state? and Dear God, what am I doing?


On Hillary’s press conference about her email crisis


>One of Trump’s close associates told me Trump had been baffled watching the spectacle unfold on CNN. It was one of the first times he knew that if he ran, he could beat her. Trump said he would’ve ended the first press conference with an emphatic “I’m DONE talking about this.”


On reporting the email issue in 2015


>I never agreed with Hillary that her email server was a nonstory, especially after the FBI opened its investigation, but I would regret—and even resent—that it became the only story. But that was months later, when the emails swallowed everything.


On Hillary’s video announcing she was running, but not explaining why


>The best historical analogy was to Edward M. Kennedy, a front-runner ahead of the 1980 election who’d been reduced to incoherence when CBS News’ Roger Mudd asked him, “Why do you want to be president?”


On Hillary as a candidate in 2008 vs 2016


>Indeed, by the time she first ran for president in 2008, Hillary was a hands-on senator constantly in touch with her upstate constituents. That was her frame of reference during the ’08 primary when the press all crammed into a living room in a prefab home in a predominantly white suburb in Indiana to see Hillary sit at the kitchen table and listen for over an hour to a proud Sheet Metal Workers Local 20 member who’d lost his job. Or when I heard her tell an unemployed waitress on the rope line in Columbus to personally follow up with her about her hysterectomy.


>But by her second campaign, Hillary had spent four years traveling the world, meeting with the likes of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon—a long way from Rochester. Hillary seemed like Rip van Winkle, awoken after a seven-year slumber to find a vastly different country.


On her over-engineered and poll-tested lines


>[Hillary] complained to aides that the poll-tested lines they kept handing her were duds. What, she wondered, does “I want to make the middle class mean something again” mean?

…

>It took six staffers and a focus group to compose an official tweet, signed with an “H.” (“FOR APPROVAL: Slight Edit to Tweet,” the emails read.)

…

>Even if Hillary could’ve attracted the same all-you-can-eat buffet of random rallying cries, her corporate campaign regularly confiscated homemade signs. Brooklyn thought it best that the Everydays hold professionally produced signs that displayed the message du jour rather than something made with love and some finger paint and magic marker. In Phoenix, I watched a young Clinton staffer rip from the hands of a little girl an I <3 HILLARY sign she’d drawn in crayon in art class that afternoon. They gave her a blue BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS sign with the campaign’s H-arrow logo and hillaryclinton.com at the bottom.


Hillary on the the press


>Hillary also reminded the newer aides about her fraught dynamic with the New York Times. She’d seen this movie before, she told them. “They’ll absolutely hammer me over emails and then they’ll give me the biggest wet kiss of an endorsement and it won’t matter by then,” she said.

…

>The campaign’s press shop assembled an album with all our faces [the press corps following her campaign full time], names, and news outlets. Hillary studied the Face Book with her briefings not so that she could occasionally say, “Hi, Tamara,” or “How are you today, Monica?” or “Good morning, Hannah,” but so that she wouldn’t mistake us for voters and—gawd forbid—accidentally interact with us when we approached her on the rope line.


On Mook’s use of data and not listening the single best political mind of his generation


>Many months later, during the general election, Brooklyn resisted dispatching resources to Michigan and Wisconsin, despite on-the-ground pleas from labor unions that Trump was gaining there. Ed Rendell, the cocksure former Pennsylvania governor who has butt-dialed me more than once, urged Brooklyn to spend more to reach suburban and rural parts of his state, but he was always told no. Three weeks before the election, Brooklyn stopped polling altogether in Pennsylvania, Florida, and other states. By one estimate, the campaign ended with $20 million in unused funds, which could’ve paid for a pile of yard signs and polling and targeted ads in the Rust Belt but instead partly went to Jill Stein’s recount efforts in Wisconsin.

…

>Robby was an Organization man; Bill Clinton, the ultimate Enthusiasm guy. “What’s the data and organization for if voters don’t like Hillary?” Bill would say to anyone who would listen. “They need to see the person I know.”

…

>By late February, Bill went red in the face on almost daily conference calls trying to warn Brooklyn that Trump had a shrewd understanding of the angst that so many voters—his voters, the white working class whom Clinton brought back to the Democratic Party in 1992—were feeling. He’d wanted Hillary to speak at Notre Dame, as he and Obama and Biden had all done. But Robby told him white Catholics weren’t the demographic she needed to spend her time talking to.

…

>Behind his back, Robby did a Bill impersonation (“And let me tell you another thing about the white working class …”) waving a finger in a Clintonian motion. Mook’s mafia would laugh. Any Democratic operative under forty knew that those white voters were never coming back. The Hillary Coalition was built on suburban women, minorities, and the young. Trump had insulted so many voting blocs (women, Muslims, Mexicans, the disabled, Diet Coke drinkers, etc.) and provided such a veritable feast of offenses that Hillary, her top aides, and the DNC didn’t think they needed to overthink the strategy.


How the Press were given a bus to follow her campaign…while Hillary ignored them and took a plane- meaning they missed lots of her events


> I found myself somewhere on I-80 perched over the back of my seat pleading with the [Clinton staffers on the bus] to let me watch their video feed of Hillary’s town hall. Because Hillary preferred to fly to her events (and really, who wouldn’t?) the bus-bound Travelers couldn’t make it to the Cedar Rapids and Osage stops. Our only option was to live-stream Hillary’s Iowa events from the press bus in Iowa.


BernieBros
>I initially brushed Bernie off with such casual nonchalance, such ill-informed, elite-media snobbery that I almost canceled our first one-on-one coffee because I didn’t want to miss abs-and-back day at boot camp.

...

>Bill Clinton had gone off message. He told a crowd in Milford, New Hampshire, that Bernie was a “hermetically sealed” hypocrite. “When you’re making a revolution, you can’t be too careful with the facts,” he said.

…

>[after Bernie had mathematically lost] The Bernie Bros didn’t want to accept this reality. They flooded my inbox with the literary flair of an unemployed liberal arts major whose prime interests were Holden Caulfield, the presidential campaign, and Internet porn.

…

>AS FOR HILLARY, she was so done with her Esteemed Opponent that she could hardly stand to be on the same stage as Bernie at the Brooklyn debate. She didn’t see any real difference between Bernie’s peddling of empty promises to his hordes of sexist supporters and Trump’s campaign, except that people seemed marginally better groomed at Trump rallies. One person who talked to Hillary about her views on Trump crowds vs. Bernie crowds broke it down to me as “at least white supremacists shaved.”

Hillary’s Schedule


>As she headed for the door, Hillary looked back at the ten or so of us and said, “I love being in Wisconsin! I look forward to being here, meeting with people. We’re just going to work hard.”

>[Hillary’s schedule after stating the above]

>Wednesday, 3/30—HRC will be campaigning and attending fundraising events in New York City.

>Thursday, 3/31—HRC will be likely campaigning in New York and attending fundraising events in Massachusetts.

>Friday, 4/1—HRC will be attending a fundraising event in New Jersey.

>Saturday, 4/2—HRC has no events scheduled at this time.

>Sunday, 4/3—HRC has no events scheduled at this time.

>That was Hillary’s last trip to Wisconsin.

Dogs and humans have spent the last roughly 15,000 years (or longer) living alongside one another. It's true that we have intervened a lot (especially over the last few hundred years!), but at the same time much of their desire/willingness to affiliate with humans is an innate quality... anthrozoologists think is just as likely to be a causal factor of how they've become so intertwined with humanity, as it is to be a product of it. We've surely enhanced their affiliative desires with selective breeding, but in all likelihood some of it was there in the "starter dough" for today's domestic dog.

They have a number of capabilities for interacting with humans that are unique in the animal kingdom. For example, eye tracking and oxytocin studies tell us that they read human facial expressions using the same gaze pattern humans use; these same studies show good evidence for canine ability to accurately interpret expressions. They also understand pointing, which is something not even Chimps can do.

I've been a lifelong dog lover and am an active trainer and competitor in dog sports, but I've only recently become aware of lots of the cool research that has gone on in the canine cognition/anthrozoology front over the last decade and a half.

For anyone interested in this topic, I highly recommend the book Dog Sense for a deeper dive. :)

Edit to add: remember, dogs aren't wolves! They didn't even evolve from wolves. Rather, dogs and wolves evolved from a common ancestor, whose behavior we obviously cannot observe as it no longer exists. Anthrozoologists think this common ancestor was, from a behavioral perspective, a midway point between the two (less bold than modern dogs, less human-averse than modern wolves). This "common ancestor" is easy to overlook, and many folks want to think of dogs as wolves we have domesticated. They aren't, which is one of many reasons their behavior is so different.

Definitely not my book, but I can highly recommend the Essential Bernie Saners and His Vision to America to all Bernie supporters. It's an excellent, really well-written book, and it's especially great for people who like having conversations with others about Bernie. Reading this will boost your knowledge and help you discuss Bernie's vision with others.

Best of all, you can pick it up for $10 on Amazon right now.

> healthcare used to only be economically viable through an employer

And employers offered healthcare, costs were lower. Now that everyone has insurance, true costs are hidden and thus have been allowed to skyrocket.

Personally, I think we should:

• eliminate incentives for businesses to offer healthcare, and encourage salary as the primary means of competing for employees (WW2 wage controls caused high health care prices; here's the history of health insurance benefits)
  
• disallow group plans and force insurance to be bought by each individual/family to level the playing field
  
• reform the patent system to reduce prices of drugs
  
• limit awards to medical malpractice suits
  
  To make healthcare cheaper, we need to make it more transparent and competitive. If patients don't see the true cost of insurance (e.g. costs are hidden behind insurance premiums), they won't look for a cheaper solution, so they'll take whatever the doctor recommends. Insurance should only cover real emergencies (e.g. you don't insure your car for oil changes), which means that they'll pay cash for routine procedures, which will allow smaller clinics to specialize and drive down prices.
  
  Ron Paul has a good section on this in The Revolution: A Manifesto (here is his stance on his website). A quote from Gary Johnson:
  
  > “We want Stitches-R-Us,” he said. “We would have Gallbladders-R-Us. We would have advertised pricing with advertised outcomes.”
  
  Now, after we've opened up competition in health care and made everything more transparent, we can talk about what to do with the poor. I think that having something like Basic Income would work out because it doesn't play favorites in the market and it allows people to choose how to allocate their money (e.g. how much health care they want vs other things in their lives).
  
  > what the ideal healthcare situation would look like in the US
  
  The ideal situation is inexpensive, world class healthcare without government interference. The less than ideal situation is to help the poor afford inexpensive healthcare.

Have you read The Secret History? I loved it and it looks to be right up your alley. Thing is, I'm betting you've read it.

What about a throwback? Agatha Christie?

The above two, I've read. The next one, I have not, but it just looks like something you would like, based on your wishlist. For that matter, it should probably be on mine, too, next time I get a chance to read. In the Garden of Beasts

Good luck! Hey, I'm a nursing student. I noticed you're a nurse. Fun.

Also, hope you have a great time in the states. What will you be doing here?

• Jane McAlevey, the single most brilliant, provocative (in a great way), and incisive thinker and organizer on unions in the US. Wrote "No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age.". She makes excellent critiques of the fastfood strikes: fastfood organizing under the auspices of SEUI and AFL-CIO are often Public-Relations stunts that do not empower workers to take matters into their own hands, etc. She explains it far better than I can- listen to her interview on Behind the News with Doug Henwood (an excellent podcast for socialists btw).
  
  
• Cinzia Arruzza, organizer of May Day and International Working Women's Day actions in NYC, guest on Behind the News.
  
  
• Sam Miller, more of a Leninist, writes for Jacobinmag, has this excellent piece with Harrison Fluss on The Legacy of Eleanor Marx and her own piece on women in the alt-right: Lipstick Fascism
  
  
• Liza Featherstone, social-democratic writer for The Nation. She has a great socialist advice column. Here's an example, " Asking for a Friend: Is It Me or Is It Capitalism?:  In the first installment of our new advice column, Liza answers readers’ questions about depression and the ethics of cleaning apps." She also edited the compilation of essays "False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton" which also features Yasmin Nair and Belen Fernandez, mentioned below.
  
  
• Silvia Federici, Marxist Feminist, wrote the brilliant Caliban and the Witch, which you can read in full via Libcom and because she anti-copyrighted it. I have the paper edition, it'll radically change your understanding of the Witch Trials, medieval era, and the beginnings of capitalism or proto-capitalism. She really makes primitive accumulation so much more meaningful and consequential.
  
  
• Jodi Dean, writer of many books including The Communist Horizon, which I've read and is an excellent psychological analysis of Communist desire and organizational structure.
  
  
• Yasmin Nair, critic of bourgeois gay marriage equality, writer in Chicago.
  
  
• Belen Fernandez, wrote an excellent takedown of Thomas Ferguson and his neoliberalism, The Imperial Messenger. A delight to read.
  
  
• Melissa Gira Grant, frequent writer on sex work for Jacobin, critic of liberal anti-sex-worker do-gooders, wrote *Playing the W**e: The Work of Sex Work.

Now i'm not too familiar with any books whose entireties cover the issue, but I do own Bernie's Our Revolution.

He throws in many references to single payer throughout the book, coalescing into Chapter 4 of Part 2 (Pages 318 to 338) which is entitled Health Care For All.

He of course throws in great explanations for everything and probably does the best job possible for 20 pages.

I'm sure others have dived into single payer literature but I can only recommend what I have experienced and Bernie himself definitely helped in his book!

Ah, you're a lady. I've noticed that women tend to be a little more wary of coming off as pushy or greedy when asking for a raise, but asking for what you deserve is not greedy at all. If anything, your manager has been greedy for not offering you a raise already when you clearly deserve it, but can you blame him? Right now you're a bargain.

Rather than just saying, "about that raise", I suggest you confidently ask for a particular amount. Your friend makes 25k more than you right, and you think you are equally qualified? Then by all means ask for 25k, and do it with confidence. At this point you have proven your worth and you are not going to be easy to replace.

I've had to coach my own wife to ask for a raise more than once and she's always surprised when it works. I don't want to give you an excuse to put this off any longer... but I found this book useful before asking for a raise, Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People, but really all it's going to tell you is to figure out what you can reasonably ask for, and then to ask for it with confidence.

I'm in the middle of Homo Deus currently. Its great so far, Yuval is a great writer and his books are a lot more accessible than traditional history books. I'm sure there are a lot of liberties taken with some of the history but I think Sapiens is a must-read. Homo Deus is more assumption based on current reality but its very interesting so far.

Gulag Archipelago is one I read based on the recommendation of Jordan Peterson. Awesome book if you are into WW1-WW2 era eastern europe. being an eastern european myself, i devour everything related to it so this book tickled my fancy quite a bit. good look into the pitfalls of what peterson warns against.

Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning is another history book discussing that time period and how it all transpired and the lesser known reasons why WW2 went down the way it did. some surprising stuff in that book related to hitler modeling europe around how the united states was designed at the time.

apologies for inundating with the same topic for all my books so far but Ordinary Men is an amazing book chronicling the people that carried out most of the killings during WW2 in Poland, Germany and surrounding areas. The crux of the argument which I have read in many other books is that Auschwitz is a neat little box everyone can picture in their head and assign blame to when in reality most people killed during that time were taken to the outskirts of their town and shot in plain sight by fellow townspeople, mostly retired police officers and soldiers no longer able for active duty.

for some lighter reading i really enjoy jon ronson's books and i've read all of them. standouts are So You've Been Publicly Shamed and The Psychopath Test. Highly recommend Them as well which has an early Alex Jones cameo in it.

>He will actually honor his oath of office (to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution) via a strict constructionist/Jeffersonian interpretation

It's worth noting, of course, that every President honors the oath of office to protect and defend the constitution according to their interpretation of what the constitution means. To say Ron Paul is different in this regard is to claim that his interpretation is somehow "more right" than others, which is debatable at best.

So, the irony is that from my perspective, Ron Paul would not be honoring his oath of office by writing laws to make it impossible to bring federal suit over state violations of privacy, equal protection, or religious freedm. So, let's stop this whole "he's great because he'll actually protect the constitution" crap, when the entire argument is whether we agree with his interpretation of the constitution.

>If you want a good starting place for understanding who Ron Paul is and what he believes, check out his book "The Revolution - A Manifesto" - [1] http://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Manifesto-Ron-Paul/dp/0446537519

If you want to know what a man believes, don't listen to what he writes as a way of garnering support for himself. Look for what he does. Look at the laws he's written. Look at the causes he's championed. Ron Paul doesn't stand for anything close to individual liberty; he stands for state power, plain and simple.

This photo is similar to the one on the cover of his book"Crippled America" and he explains why:

"Some readers may be wondering why the picture we used on the cover of this book is so angry and so mean looking. I had some beautiful pictures taken in which I had a big smile on my face. I looked happy, I looked content, I looked like a very nice person, which in theory I am. My family loved those pictures and wanted me to use one of them. The photographer did a great job. But I decided it wasn’t appropriate. In this book we’re talking about crippled America that’s a tough title. Unfortunately, there’s very little that’s nice about it. Hence, the picture on the cover. So I wanted a picture where I wasn’t happy, a picture that reflected the anger and unhappiness that I feel, rather than joy. There’s nothing to be joyful about. Because we are not in a joyous situation right now. We’re in a situation where we have to go back to work to make America great again."

> What I don't hear about much though is what will happen once the Federal Reserve Bank is acually abolished.

If this topic interests you, I highly suggest you read Ron Paul's End the Fed, used copies go for as little as a penny on Amazon. The last chapter he talks about how the entire system is built on the Fed and we can't just dismantle it cold turkey, so he gives some suggestions on how to phase it out over time.

> What will my paycheck look like?

The fed is the master of inflation. Inflation is one of the cruelest of taxes. It helps the rich get richer while it destroys the savings of the middle and lower class. Without the Fed, currencies would only inflate at a rate of how fast gold and silver could be mined, which is a very low rate. Most likely savings in increased productivity would outpace inflation meaning your paycheck would have more purchasing power. This is what happened from most of the post-civil war era till the end of the 19th century.

> What will my investments look like?

There would be less booms and busts in the market place making investing more lucrative.

> What will minimum wage be?

Ending the Fed wouldn't change the minimum wage, only congress can set that rate, however as mentioned above, productivity would outweigh inflation making the purchasing power of the dollar worth more.

> Will there be competong currencies, and if so won't that complicate evem the simplest financial transaction?

If congress allows competing currencies with in the US then sure, but more than likely the government will want to keep their monopoly on "coining" (more like printing) money. In this case they will convict people who try to use competing currencies, which they already have. BitCoin is out of government's jurisdiction so it will be interesting to see how that pans out. As mentioned in another comment, credit card companies can easily perform currency transactions with east at little or no cost to the consumer- CapitalOne already does on an international scale for free.

> but a century or so of economically leading the planet is a pretty tough trend to beat. How will ending the fed improve that trend?

The booms and busts of the 20th century are bigger and greater than ever. I wouldn't consider this an improvement over the 19th century business cycle. Pretty much you need to choose your damage. Enormous booms and busts that occur every 7-12 years and devastates an entire economy (as the US has shown since 1913 when the Fed was created), or smaller more frequent (3-5 years) booms & busts that are more industry specific and don't detriment the entire economy. I don't know about you but I'd rather end the fed and deal with smaller industry specific booms that occur more often than the big ones fueled by the Fed that cripple the economy.

I'm glad you linked to this again—looks like some good reviews have been added in the last couple of days! Check out the main page...

>I bought this thinking it would be a how-to book. I wanted "How to set up your own Foundation for fun and profit." Also, would like to have seen a chapter on "Ten easy steps to setting up your own secure server in a bathroom." I do hear there's going to be a sequel, tentatively called "The Art of the Shakedown." Should be interesting.

And 318 people like this:

>This could be the first "book" in history to have more reviews on amazon the actual sales bwwwwaaaahAAHA lol

Theory of Continuous Groups by Loewner. This book is based on lecture notes which Loewner was planning to turn into a larger book. Unfortunately he passed away before getting much done so some of his colleagues edited and compiled the notes into this book. I'm only quarter of the way in but so far it's given me a really unique perspective into group actions. I'm loving it but it doesn't hold my attention for long spans of time.

Geometry of Polynomials by Marden. Marden is my idol, and I plan to devote my life to studying the zeros of functions. That said, this book is the hardest goddamn book I have ever read. Hell, some of the exercises he gives were actual topics of published research 60 years ago. That seems a little mean to me. Anyway I still love this shit.

Mr. Tompkins in Paperback by Gamow. Alternates between stories about a character transplanted into hypothetical worlds where particular laws of physics are exaggerated and semi-rigorous lectures about the physics itself. The section on gravity as curvature of space was especially enlightening. The author uses the idea of a merry-go-round spinning at relativistic speed, so that straight lines on the surface (i.e. geodesics) are in fact curved to outside observers. You can then imagine that the merry-go-round is walled off from the outside, so that on the inside the centrifugal force can be thought of as gravity toward the edge. This is the concept of acceleration of reference frame being equivalent to gravity. For a non-physicist this kind of explanation is AWESOME.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein. My first Heinlein, just started it but I'm enjoying it so far. I honestly confused him with Haldeman... I loved The Forever War and I wanted to get another book by the author. Oh well.

Yeah so what I'm a nerd.

Sanders Trump crossover supporter. The biggest issue with politics is legal bribery where certain industries like Wall Street contribute millions to both Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz's campaign. Sanders and Trump understand that this is a broken system and are fighting for campaign finance reform.

• Campaign Finance Reform: Doesn't have any special interests groups funding him unlike the other candidates besides Sanders. Has called for all candidates to return the money they're getting back to Super PACs and to remove special interest groups from our election process, including the ban of super PACs.
  
  
• Foreign Policy: No more nation building in the Middle East. He was also calling the Iraq War a mistake way before it was viewed positively to do so. Interested in investing in our crumbling infrastructure instead.
  
  
• Non-interventionist based foreign policy. (e.g. if it is in our interest to let Putin bomb ISIS, so be it, instead of threatening to shoot Russian planes down). Calls for U.S. to stop this hostility against Russia with NATO.
  
  
• Economy: Focus on American middle class jobs. Protectionist and won't allow favorable economic policies that encourage companies to ditch operations in the U.S. to move to China, Mexico for cheap labor. Desire to put America labor first in trade deals instead of pure Wall Street globalism that exploits third world workers abroad and destroys domestic jobs.
  
  
• He's genuinely against TPP, saying the U.S. will lose even more middle class jobs outside of manufacturing to other Asian countries working for pennies on the dollar. Has been critical of our economic policies screwing over Main Street for decades.
  
  
• Testified against Reaganomics, saying it would negatively hurt the Middle and Lower classes. Not only is he very knowledgable in economics and investment, but the tax structure he offers up back in 91' seems relevant even today to help alleviate some of the complaints we have about 1%'ers and wall street.
  
  
• Education: Doesn't want the government charging interest on student loans: "That’s probably one of the only things the government shouldn’t make money off. I think it’s terrible that one of the only profit centers we have is student loans". Open to student loan
  forgiveness programs.
  
  
• Wants complete education reform to let our graduates be competitive in a global market. He cites that we spend the most per student but have the worst results of any developed country.
  
  
• Marijuana: Wants to allow states to legalize marijuana: "Marijuana is such a big thing. I think medical should happen - right? Don't we agree? I think so. And then I really believe we should leave it up to the states."
  
  
• Healthcare: Likes universal healthcare, is open to replacing America's broken system with something similar to Canada by gradually expanding Medicare. In the short term, will increase bidding competition to lower insurance costs.
  
  
• Social Issues: Moderate on social issues (e.g. affirmative action, women's health, gay rights). Socially liberal from life experience as Democrat in New York.
  
  
• Diversity: he employed women in leadership roles before it was popular to do that. And he did it in the construction industry of all places.
  
  
• Immigration He has absolutely nothing against legal immigration, he's encouraged it many times. His grandparents are immigrants, his wife is an immigrant, several of his closest business partners in New York are immigrants. He is against uncontrolled, illegal immigration because it gives cheap labor to exploitative international corporations and stagnates lower class wages and lowers employment of existing U.S. citizens.
  
  
• Successful businessman and job creator, knows how to manage money, how to invest for the future. Always underbudget and ahead of schedule, especially with the campaign. He spent the least amount of money in the political race of any candidate and has the best results. He makes outlandish comments time to time for free press, but through the attention, people look into his actual stances like from his campaign book, Crippled America.
  
  
• Nonpartisan. Has been both a Democrat and Republican. Proven negotiator that can work with both parties to get things done.
  
  
• Not afraid to call out corrupt polticians for puppeting for special interests, especially the Koch Brothers

You strike me as reasonably intelligent person, who just so happened to get caught up by the neo-con/RINO propaganda. I started out as a toe the party line republican myself so I know where you're coming from.
I think a good economics refresher is what's called for first here.
I highly recommend "Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell and if you're up for it check out r/austrianeconomics.
If you really think Paul's ideas on the Fed are oddball, I encourage to at least skim over his book "End the Fed".For some economic brilliance you can absorb right now, check out Milton Friedman, a nobel prize winner and genius thinker.

"The left" is extremely broad. If there are any particular subjects you're interested in I'm sure you could find leftist writing them. That said, if I had to suggest a list of general leftist readings that provide a good framework for the ideas on economics, journalism, history, race, and sexuality expressed in the Chapo-verse I would say:

• David Harvey's A Brief History of Neoliberalism
  
• Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent
  
• Something that addresses Marx's Capital. The actual text is massive and takes forever to read, but if you're just looking for a condensed overview David Harvey has a companion to Capital based off lectures he gave about the book. There are also many youtube videos and podcasts that break down specific parts of Capital.
  
• Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States. It seems like this is a lot of people's first exposure to leftist ideas as it provides such a contrast to the things that you're told in the education system (my experience).
  
• Any of James Baldwin's essay compilations
  
• I'm very uneducated when it comes to intellectual feminism, but I've read False Choices which not only has Amber and other Chapo guests as contributors, but does a great job at applying feminism to a broad range of contemporary topics. Also Catherine Liu is very active in my local DSA chapter, she kicks ass.

Running around telling people they need a math course is the surest sign you're missing the bigger picture. I'll pass on returning your ignorant insults and instead try to help.

Here, educate yourself. And I'd be happy to entertain any info you have that supports the view the Federal Reserve is acts in best interest or the American people rather than in their owners best interest (hint: it's not owned by us or the USA)

Warren Buffet's "Squanderville"

Republican Congressman Ron Paul's book. "End The Fed" tell him he needs a math course.

And a litany of documentaries on the the history, unconstitutionality, and shady dealings of the Federal Reserve. Just go to Google video and type in "Federal Reserve"

Most of these are very early cyberpunk, the progenitors of the genre if you will. As such I'm not sure if they can be described as necessarily obscure but I don't see many of them mentioned that often (admittedly I'm somewhat new to /r/cyberpunk so you guys might talk about them all the time, in which case please disregard). As a final note not all of these are available on the Kindle market. Nevertheless here's a few that leap to mind -

1. When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger which has two sequels if you enjoy it, the third being better than the second imo.
   
   
2. The Ware Tetrology by Rudy Rucker
   
   
3. Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling. He also edited the early cyberpunk anthology Mirrorshades which is worth checking out along with a several of his other works.
   
   
4. Mindplayers by Pat Cadigan who also wrote a few others worth looking at.
   
   
5. Frontera by Lewis Shiner.
   
   
6. I hesitate to mention this one as it's hardly obscure but if all you have seen is the film which is based off it, it is definitely worth getting Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick.
   
   
7. Vurt by Jeff Noon.
   
   
8. Farewell Horizontal by K W Jeter along with his other novels Glass Hammer and Dr. Adder.
   
   
9. Someone else mentioned Walter Jon Williams novels which I would also highly recommend.
   
   
   
   
   
   

It's reassuring to me that you are out there. Please dear god do your best to show your friends the truth. I didn't stand up for what I believed in when I was your age and fell into the bitter Marxist ideology and it set my career back years (Im 31 now).

If you aren't aware of Dennis Prager yet, please check out his book Still the Best Hope. Also check out Andrew Breitbart's book Righteous Indignation. They are so important.

And since you also seem to be interested in conspiracy, make sure you know all about WILLIAM COOPER! He wrote the conspiracy bible BEHOLD A PALE HORSE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdPhOnfwfXc&t=160s

If you're interested for your own interest and not for college, I'd recommend starting with books written for a general audience like

The Cartoon Introduction to Economics

Freakonomics

The Armchair Economist

Spin Free Economics

Lastly, Lives of the Laureates offers biographical accounts of 23 Nobel Laureates in Economics. I find it interesting since it offers insights into the minds of the Laureates, their intellectual process, and some of the most important contributions within the economics community.

I also often recommend Economics in the Afterlife to people since it shows that economists have no shame and economics can really be applied to anything.

You could probably find PDFs online of some of these books if you were so inclined.

> He holds no concrete policy convictions

This meme is based on a false premise. Last election, the self-proclaimed "true conservatives" of the GOP nominated a habitual flip-flopper who ran as a progressive in Massachusetts before pretending to be a conservative, was for a path to citizenship before he was against it, for gun control before he was against it, created Romneycare before bashing Obamacare, etc., etc. Consistency and principles only matter now because the neocons have been overwhelmingly rejected at the ballot box by their own party, and they're lashing out at Trump.

It's easy and popular to claim that Trump has no real policy convictions, but it just isn't true. If you're actually concerned, read through the detailed policy papers on his website and the books that he's written about his political views. There's plenty of information out there about where he stands, you just have to do your own homework instead of expecting Trump to do it for you.

Has Trump changed his opinions before? Sure - for instance, he changed his mind about gun control when he got a gun and a license and saw why people like having them, and he changed his views on abortion when a personal friend decided at the last minute not to have one. But on his bread-and-butter issues, his message has been consistent for decades. You can go back 28 years and hear him saying the same things about trade that he's saying now. You can go back 16 years and read him saying the same things about illegal immigration and national security and foreign policy that he's saying now.

> What is a Trump voter actually voting for?

We're voting for national security, border security, trade deals that actually benefit us (not just our trade partners), and a prosperous economy that works. More importantly, we're voting against a phony strain of "conservatism" that capitulates on every issue, hates its own voters, and has been an embarrassment to our party and our country.

This is an example of intentionally selective representation of his support in order to portray those the actually defend constitutional governance as "wackos".

Doug Mataconis has spent a inordinate amount of time and effort into advance a dishonest portrayal of Ron Paul and of his followers.

It is starting to have the appearance that Doug is being paid to to smear Ron Paul and the freedom movement that has ignited.

Today, it is widely acknowledged that Barry Goldwaters' failed candidacy for President in 1964 marked the beginning of a movement that culminated in the ascendancy to power of the GOP.

Ron Paul's support comes from those that truly desire to save this country from imploding upon itself due to a unsustainable empire building as a well as an unsustainable, no matter how well meaning it may be, welfare system and a corrupted to the monetary system intentionally designed to steal the wealth of the poor and middle classes in favor of the wealthy and politically well connected.

Barry Goldwater, Jr. has a new book:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/020592.html

Ron Paul's new book is now available:
http://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Manifesto-Ron-Paul/dp/0446537519/lewrockwell


Ronald Reagan's famous nominating speech for Barry Goldwater shows that Ron Paul's ideas represent true conservative values:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=STLR6tFP4S4
-
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UmsP95Bl9pM

Amazon's reviews are the best:
https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501161733

my fav:

1.0 out of 5 starsThe Art of the Shakedown by Hill and Tim

ByElaineon September 16, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition

I bought this thinking it would be a how-to book. I wanted "How to set up your own Foundation for fun and profit." Also, would like to have seen a chapter on "Ten easy steps to setting up your own secure server in a bathroom."

I do hear there's going to be a sequel, tentatively called "The Art of the Shakedown." Should be interesting.

I'm a big fan of the economist Richard Wolff and his podcast, Economic Update.

Some organizations to consider joining or supporting are
Democratic Socialists of America and Socialist Alternative.

I also encourage everyone to read Bernie's book, if you haven't already.

I would also highly recommend everyone read A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.

Finally, I encourage everyone to watch the Noam Chomsky documentary, Requiem for The American Dream, on Netflix.

I'm still not keen on Bernie leading the party nor Warren. Folks like Keith Ellison would make a great DNC Chair. People like Tim Ryan need to go somewhere else. I like replacing the establishment, but Tim Ryan is less liberal than even Hillary Clinton.

I think that what Hillary wrote in Stonger Together is great! But we need a better messenger, and we need a better emphasis on economics.

I have no clue who should lead tho.

It's alright. That's why you need to educate yourself and be able to stand up for him. If you choose to defend him on facts rather than emotion you will convince people.

A general comment, read his books revolution, end the fed, and liberty defined. You can even buy them in a bundle.


another great book from a great thinker, andrew napolitano

You don't have to agree with everything these people say to support them. If you understand the core principles and believe in the constitution and free, unalienable rights, then we can at least have educated discussions about these ideas and how to deploy them. And I am writing in generalities... I'm using "you" in a very broad, non-descriptive sense.

Palin is no longer relevant. I think she was probably somewhat of a good political move for McCain, but Presidential candidate? No thanks.

We need someone who will bring real change -- get rid of/severely cut income taxes, stop policing the world (see: blowback), get rid of needless spending, and really cut the size of government. I hope Ron Paul runs in 2012.

If you're interested in freedom, prosperity, and peace, try to find this book at your local library. A short read but straight and to the point.

What do you think would be the best way to shut it down? I know that Ron Paul wrote a book called End the Fed. https://www.amazon.com/End-Fed-Ron-Paul/dp/0446549193

Alan Grayson had some pretty excellent grilling of the Fed Reserve Chariman at the time Ben Bernanke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0NYBTkE1yQ

Other than these two (admittedly fringe guys) I don't know of anyone with political influence trying to shut down the fed. If anyone knows anyone else working to shut down the fed please let me know so I can follow and support them.

Ron Paul is the only Republican candidate with a consistent voting record. I honestly believe if elected, he will do what he says he will. I can't say this for any other candidates, R or D. He will actually honor his oath of office (to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution) via a strict constructionist/Jeffersonian interpretation. He will drastically reduce the size of the federal government starting with the executive branch (the only branch he actually has authority to act over) and urge congress to do the same for the areas they have authority over.

I've only known about Ron Paul for about 3 years, but in that time my politically philosophy has been turned on it's head (well, I really had NO political philosophy prior). In that same time frame, I have seen his support grow by leaps and bounds. I'm very encouraged by what I'm seeing as this campaign gets into gear, and the political data that's been coming in.

If you want a good starting place for understanding who Ron Paul is and what he believes, check out his book "The Revolution - A Manifesto" - http://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Manifesto-Ron-Paul/dp/0446537519

I hope this helps.

Congratulations! I know what a big step that is, as I've been in the same boat. Books are the best way to become informed. Check out books by:

• Christopher Hitchens - God Is Not Great & The Portable Atheist
  
  
• Stephen Hawking - The Grand Design & A Briefer History of Time
  
  
• Richard Dawkins - The Greatest Show on Earth
  
  
• Carl Sagan - The Demon Haunted World
  
  
• Sam Harris - The Moral Landscape & The End of Faith
  
  
• Richard Panek - The 4 Percent Universe
  
  
• Robert Ingersoll - Some Mistakes of Moses
  
  
• Viktor Frankl - Man's Search for Meaning
  
  
• Sean Caroll - The Making of the Fittest
  
  
• Spencer Wells - Deep Ancestry
  
  
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Infidel
  
  
• Alan Watts - The Way of Zen
  
  Also check out the video series Why I am no longer a creationist.
  
  The more you know, the more confident you will be.

I understand what you're saying, I just want you to understand that it's offensive.

Trust me, this has nothing to do with politics, because I'm not a Trump supporter in the least. It's just not OK to have the top comment in a thread about the Nazi aftermath be about Trump... who has nothing to do with the topic other than he's a leader of a political party with a fervent following. He and his followers haven't gathered up a people or have had a state-run destruction of a people or race... like Kristallnacht (80 years ago this week). I highly recommend that you read Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts. I think you'll gain a better sense of what the Nazi party was like building up to the war.

Feel free to believe what you want to believe, just don't throw around Nazi comparisons so easily. It can turn off more people than you would want.

>I'm not entirely sure if this is a general comment or directed at me. If directed at me, I'm not sure how you can garner regressive political leanings as I've never made my political orientation clear anywhere. I'm also not sure what is meant by regressive.

I was joking, mostly.

>I think this probably at the core of our discussion. I'm a trained natural scientist, which bleeds into other areas of life. Gravity is the same no matter what you believe for example. You jump off a bridge, you're not going to fly even if you believe so, you're going to go splat. So I struggle with the idea of moral relativism because I believe there are some things that universally apply and are universal truths so to say no matter what your values or what you choose to believe. It isn't necessarily politically or religiously motivated(for some people it is) It is just how I observe the world.

And didn't you ever read Mr. Tompkins in paper back?

I could swear there was something in the natural sciences relating to gravity and things being relative to the perspective of the observer... what was that again... the Heisenberg uncertainty principal... no no that's not it... planck's constant.... the second law of thermodynamic... never mind... I'm sure it will come to me...

>Is there an objective standard when it comes to the human condition? I do think there is, but it may be far more complicated than either of us can understand. I'm guessing that you would say there isn't an objective standard beyond what you've outlined due to your stance as a moral relativist.

Well the moral relativism was the product of a logical inquiry in to various differences in the ethical systems I observed in the world around me.

People have thought about all of these things before, Rousseau, Voltaire, Adam Smith, David Hume, John Locke, Plato. These are not new thoughts.

Basically the best we've come up with for a personal ethical standard is to not harm other unless they consent to be harmed. But not everyone is aware of that standard so it's difficult to impose it upon others.

Excellent point. And I appreciate any allegory that uses fruit.

May I suggest some important offerings from some of the most prominent Socialists in the USA, Past and present. Good reading my friend.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Became-Socialist-Jack-London/dp/1425475981

https://www.amazon.com/Our-Revolution-Believe-Bernie-Sanders/dp/1250132924

https://www.amazon.com/Trumpet-Conscience-King-Legacy/dp/0807001708

The problem is there is no way of knowing what is high enough or too high when it comes to the inflation of the money supply (thru the FED interest rate).

The only interest rate which is always right in a meaningful sense and is self-correcting is the natural interest rate, that which the market determines by individuals exchanging IOUs for future money in exchange for current money (ie. borrowing and lending).

Different people have different time preferences, some are more thrifty and "savers", whereas some would rather borrow to achieve their plans. The mix of savers and borrowers keeps changing, and the result of this supply and demand is the natural rate.

The problem is that with central banks controlling the money supply and the interest rate they provide to other banks, there is no way to know the actual natural interest rate anymore. In a way, the FED by its very existence makes its own task impossible.

The only solution is to end the FED ...

Thank you! My all-time favorites are pretty par for the course: Harry Potter, LOTR, Jane Austen, Inheritance Cycle, Narnia, etc. I really love historical fiction, especially the Tudors, the Bourbons, and WWII. I'm currently reading In The Garden of Beasts and it is SO good. Everything in quotations is a direct quote, so it's all accurate, but the way he weaves it all together makes it feel more like a story. If that makes sense! A few books ago, I read The Book of Lost Things and it is still bouncing around in my brain! So good.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is awesome. I would strongly recommend her book Infidel (and others), especially to any liberal who pretends to care about women's rights.

EDIT: I meant Infidel, although Nomad is great too

It's because your premise is nonsensical. "Only a quarter of X" is a random figure — what's the baseline? Please tell me, how many of Trump's adverts or speeches or slogans were about policy? How many voters were swayed by Trump's policy who would've voted for Clinton "if only she had shared her policy"?

Her campaign literally released [A BOOK of policy proposals] (https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Blueprint-Americas-Future/dp/1501161733). Her slogan was never "I'm With Her" — that was a Twitter hashtag started by her supporters: women (and men) standing up FOR women. Her slogan was "Stronger Together" — never about her, but about strength and inclusivity and positivity.

There are good reasons for those viewpoints, but the people repeating them as talking points aren't doing the cause any favors imo.

>End the fed

I would really like to read this book: End the Fed. I feel like it would really help me understand the viewpoint better, but as I understand it, the Federal Reserve is not helping the average citizen. They have near total control of our money supply. With total control of the money supply, you don't need to even care about who's making the laws.

In addition, they are not a government entity. This is not generally commonly known. They don't really represent the government regulating the banks. They represent the banks, who pretend to regulate themselves, but instead just give themselves advantageous loans at near zero interest rates, which are then loaned out to people at increased interest rates. Money loaned in this way is created without being backed by anything, it's just loaned into existence of thin air, which is somewhat terrifying. Money paid back to the Federal Reserve is then destroyed.

> Get rid of taxes

This, I don't particularly agree with. But I also know that Ron Paul's plan isn't to whisk it away overnight. He'd implement this plan by cutting government programs, and then downsizing taxes to fit the new budget (or so he's stated). I don't really know enough about the pre-income tax federal budget, but it worked somehow, so I should do some more reading there. I do know that income tax is one of the only progressive tax structures that currently exist, so I'm not entirely comfortable with removing it entirely.

Then again, I highly doubt that Ron Paul will be able to keep enough control that he can fully implement this plan. As long as he doesn't cut taxes for the rich and raise it on the poor, he'll be better than any other candidate (including Obama).

Probably the most important factor in this is that Paul believes an empire building strategy through endless war will bankrupt us, regardless of the taxation situation, so the first thing to stop will be the wars (which were never declared by Congress, so as far as I understand, the president has full control over).

> Screw Obama, vote Ron Paul

To be honest, I feel deceived by Obama. Maybe I was stupid, but I thought he would be good for our civil liberties. As is evidenced by the endless wars, NDAA HR 1540 and SOPA HR 3621, he is clearly not.

> I'm not entirely convinced on Ron Paul (and neither are you)

You are right. Paul is not my ideal candidate, but he is my favorite candidate of the currently viable bunch. I don't necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, but I can follow them from the assumptions.

There's no mention that he's keeping the money from the book royalties as the headline claims, though I hope he uses some of it as wages for his work that I'm proud to support.

Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution

Our Revolution [Chapter 13 on the media I particularly recommend]

Start a book club in your area and see what some like minded people coming together can do to help foster a future to believe in.

I encourage users to buy them from a local Mom & Pop if possible, and ask their library to bring them in too.

Nice! was hoping to get something recomended that i hadn't read but i have and they are all great!

If you want good short stories go for the collection, Mirrorshades, some sick af stories in there. Also if you are into post-cyberpunk go for rewired. :)

What's your general conclusion about the USA/German comparison? I just finished an interesting semi-biographical, semi-dramatic narration about the experience of William Dodd while he was the American Ambassador under FDR. An cool pre-war American perspective of the Third Reich for sure.

I LOVED Adventure of English. Especially the parts around the Norman conquest. Do you remember the part about the French/English contrasting word use concerning meat/animals?

I understood earlier in life than being honest doesn't make your life easier but allows to sleep soundly at night. This is why I don't own the (already iconic) MAGA baseball cap; it would be an infraction to US election code. On the other side, I brought a audiobook copy of Trump's Great Again: How to fix our crippled America. Great book by the way.

I hope it helped.

Shavera made a nice answer, but I'll try too.

Einsteinian relativity doesn't break the notions of "past" and "future", it formalizes the notion of the "present" and breaks the idea of a universal simultaneous present. Under special relativity, your world is divided into events that can causally affect you (the locus that is inside your past light-cone), called your "past"; events that you can causally affect (the locus that is inside your future light-cone), called your "future"; and events that can have no causal relationship to you (the locus that is between the two light-cones), which could be called your "present".

The example you gave about the human and the alien is a nice demonstration of how events in the present aren't simultaneous in the sense that we're used to (different observers see them as happening in different temporal orders, depending on how the observers are moving relative to the events). But lack of simultaneity is OK, since it only happens in the non-causal part of the Universe. In your example, there's no way that the alien could affect anything that happened at Earth in either 2011, 1811, or 2211, since he's so far away that it would require a faster-than-light signal, which is impossible. So all the shenangans with the date on Earth versus his home world is all just bookkeeping games -- it doesn't change anything real.

If you'd like to explore these ideas on an intuitive level, a very nice book is Mr. Tompkins in Paperback, which explores modern physics by a series of short stories in which a stodgy British banker falls into alternate worlds where the various constants have a more human scale than our own. In the first chapter, he finds himself in a place where the speed of light is about 30 mph.

It's not fiction, but Infidel was very good, and Hirsi-Ali is certainly strong.

For those interested in keeping tabs:

Trump

Clinton

As of this writing Clinton is #1 in books, and Trump is #84.

All things considered, having Trump's book crack the Top 100 all from a relatively minor concentrated effort from The_Donald and /pol/ is quite impressive. They are competing in theory with a sizable national population.

The Art of the Deal (which I remember some memes said people should buy instead) is #362 as of this writing

Spez: Great Again is #16 (15:44 EDT)

What role does the Federal Reserve play? This is the level of "investigation" you need? LOL!

Here, pick up a book:
http://www.amazon.com/End-Fed-Ron-Paul/dp/0446549193

I'm not about to waste my time trying to explain everything from interest rate price fixing to inflation for you, and the impact all this has on making the rich richer and the poor poorer.

I also do not have a right to health care, nevermind trans specific health care. Nobody does. Nothing that requires a good or service to be provided can be a right because providing it requires coercion through force against other people to provide it. I'm very fortunate that my health insurance covers my unique medical needs and I wish other insurances did to. But it is not a right and the government should not be forcing it on people. On a more practical note, hormones are pretty damn cheap as far as medications go. Synthetic estrogen is roughly $20 per month for example. And if someone is so poor they can't afford it the proper way to provide for them is through private charity, not government mandate.

The left's use of identity politics is a way to divide people into victim groups who will vote for them. They talk a good game about helping people but if the people actually had their life improved they wouldn't have a reason to vote Democrat anymore. And the hypocrisy is astounding! I look at political issues on a case by case basis. Sometimes I agree with the Democrats, sometimes I agree with the Republicans, sometimes I disagree with both. But I've been exiled from multiple LGBT groups and lost several friends because I disagree with the their political agenda. The tolerant left is only tolerant if you believe what they want you to believe. Just because I'm trans doesn't mean I agree with all of the progressive agenda. And it certainly doesn't mean I owe them my vote.

The Democrats are the ones who campaign to specific sub groups based on their fundamental identity. They court the black vote and the hispanic vote and the woman vote and the LGBT vote. And their message is often a riff on "you have it so hard, vote for me and I'll give you political favors!" It's divisive and I reject it. Have you watched any of Trump's rally speeches personally? Or read his book? I have and it's much different than the cherry picked soundbites and opinion pieces the media gives out. Listen to him directly and with an open mind then make your own decisions. His message struck me a being aimed at all Americans. He's not pandering to specific groups, he welcomes everyone regardless of race, gender, or gender/sexual minority status. He campaigned on unity as a country by rejecting identity politics.

And just in case it wasn't clear let me give the a bit of disclaimer. I'm not a huge fan of Republicans either. I severely dislike their establishment and I disagree with many of their policies. And right wing media has a lot of crazy shit in it that really bothers me like their insistence that trans people are just mentally ill. But I don't have a place to belong in our political landscape. Both groups reject me for some reason or another, I'm stuck as an outsider. I don't agree with Trump on absolutely everything but I agree with him on a lot and he is a huge disruption in the political status quo and I'm optimistic it will be for the better.

As for cars, dude (I'm assuming dude based on user name) Prius was the right call. Didn't you get the memo that Subarus are lesbian cars? :-P

Anyway, I'm spending far too much free time writing this stuff up. Tell you what, if you're interested in talking more we can meet up for coffee or something and chat in person.

That is precisely what he has been doing. It is the biggest reason he ran, and as an observer it was more important to him even than winning the last election. He made a point of saying whenever he stumped. He talks about a political revolution, a movement of young people getting involved in politics, constantly. And lots of people are running for positions all across the country because of it. Go to /r/political_revolution and see all the people he has inspired to run for office. Go to his movement's website, or read his book Our Revolution

He is focused on grooming successors for his ideology, so it's mind-boggling that you'd say he should as if he isn't.

As other comments here have made clear, the math that describes speeds of objects is different than what you would intuitively think it would be from your everyday life. Here is a nice illustration from Wikipedia as to how space transforms when you speed up.

Also, Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland is a great book about what the world would be like if the speed of light was much slower (5 km/hr) and how we would perceive it.

I really enjoyed Infidel. It was such an amazing book about an amazingly strong woman.

Ok. You are certainly entitled to your opinion. If you are really interested, he does have a new book out End The Fed and goes way deeper into how our government operates and how it was ment to operate than this small article presents. Anyhow, I am a fan of his and believe that he brings up important issues and sometimes his ideas catch on bigger platforms.

There is so much counterfactual information in your post that I don't know where to start. Let's start with her public agenda that she spoke about at length but no one listened to. She even went so far as to write a book on the topic: https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Blueprint-Americas-Future/dp/1501161733 And to say she has no passion is to ignore her passion for helping women and children.

Then let's go on to Bernie: We have no reason to believe he would have won. Every pre-convention poll of Clinton vs Trump had years of concentrated attacks from across the aisle already baked in, where as the Bernie vs Trump polls did not. And the GOP had plenty of as-yet-unused oppo on Bernie. The kind of stuff that looks a lot worse than it actually is, but requires a more nuanced approach than the electorate apparently has to realize that. Bernie might have won, but that is an unknown.

But the most ridiculous part of your post is the suggestion that Trump is in any way whatsoever straightforward and truthful. I would say that he lies all the time (about everything), but the truth of the matter is that he says things without any regard for whether they are true or not. What hasn't he changed positions on in the last 5 years? Even the last year-and-a-half? His self-aggrandizement is the only thing that comes to mind.

Be sure to purchase Donald Trump's book "Great Again" today so that it outsells Hillary's new book on the best sellers charts.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501138006/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

yes the best is to inform yourself well, I would recommend reading Infidel
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Hillary-Presidential-Campaigns-Ceiling/dp/0062413597

That one, but dont buy it, that woman is trash.

This is the only interesting book written about the campaign so far imo:

https://www.amazon.com/Destruction-Hillary-Clinton-Susan-Bordo/dp/1612196632

Edit: I forgot to mention Palmieri's book, also a great book:
https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Madam-President-Letter-Women/dp/1538713454

People are giving you the cream of the crop (Foundation, Dune). But not knowing your age or your experience with books, i'd worry that they might scare you off a little if you started with them.


Although you can't go wrong with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy, get that today.

So here's some beginner stuff that you really can't go wrong with.


After that, this Phillip K. Dick reader. It's bite sized and fantastic.


this is a good primer too. It has some classic sci fi short stories that were adapted later into fantastic novels.


And if you like time travel, this is a good start.

>there is no attempt to appeal to the common man.

Yeah, most people don't get turned onto Austrian economics (or its pop-vulgar variety, what Phokus is no doubt referring to) via Rothbard or Mises. They read some absurd article or naive Aesop and start thinking, "Hey, not paying taxes means I'd have more money, which is clearly better than paying taxes!" Or they pick up one of Ron Paul's books (go ahead and tell me The Revolution: A Manifesto isn't aimed at the common man).
>It makes strong but respectful argument against Austrian economics.

He certainly states it in a respectful manner, but when he says Rothbard "simply does not understand the position he is attacking," he's not being generous is he?

and look at Trump's amazing book with a similar number of reviews. Pure WIN!

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Again-How-Crippled-America/dp/1501138006/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1474868989&sr=8-5&keywords=stronger+together

I downvoted all 15 pages of 1 star comments.

non-Austrian economics is not a 'type' of economics - rather, the normal economics sub-reddit became swamped with adherents of this basically completely fringe quasi-philosophical, very political, and anti-scientific Austrian 'economics'. The wiki article for it is quite charitable. Basically you can discount about half of all comments in the main subreddit right off the bat.

Trying to think of non-text-books, not-too-mathematical books that are general in scope, fun to read, and minimise politicking...difficult

John McMillan, Reinventing the Bazaar - explanation of the limits and power of markets with many examples

Todd Buchholz, New Ideas from Dead Economists: An Introduction to Modern Economic Thought - a sort of history of economists with a heavy emphasis on their thoughts and contributions using real world examples to illustrate

William Breit and Barry T. Hirsch, Lives of the Laureates - essays by many of the most highly-acclaimed recent economists mostly sort of mixed idea and personal life stories.

Hope these help. Have fun.

Trying to prove Trump is not gaslighting us in a reddit post to someone that has already made their mind would take a TON of time. I do however, invite you to do a few things if you're truly seeking to understand the other side(doubtful).

1. Read his book "great again" https://www.amazon.com/Great-Again-How-Crippled-America/dp/1501138006/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1541918111&sr=8-2&keywords=donald+trump+great+again In fact, if you're serious enough I'll even buy it for you. I recommend the Audio version. It details most of his policies
   
   
2. Sign up to r/The_Donald 50& of it is just memes, but you'll also get a lot of great information. For example right now, we're talking a lot about the Florida election and how it's attempted at being stolen. The left is just saying "we're just counting votes" it's not that simple, and there is massive evidence of real fraud.
   
   
3. If you ever have specific questions about why we think or feel this way. Feel free to message me anytime and I'll explain our stance on a specific viewpoint.
   
   Like most things in life, there are two sides and both sides are credible.

If you get a chance, Ronson's book Them: Adventures with Extremists is an incredibly interesting read. The documentary was somewhat of a pairing with the book, and the two are very informative and entertaining.

You might like the book Them: Adventures with Extemists. Jon Ronson spends a lot of time with Alex as he's coming up in the world, including arranging the famed trip to Bohemian Grove. It's an interesting look at Jones by someone who clearly likes him despite realizing that he's completely nuts.

Really? I downvoted it for the following reasons:

>On the federal level, he sounds great -- he's against the federal government doing pretty much anything.

I'm glad that you agree that this is a great thing. This happens to be why I most like RP.

>But instead he wants to give the individual states vastly more power than the current federal and state governments combined.

False. He wants to take away power from the Federal government (for example, education), and give it back to the states. He's not advocating the creation of new powers, but if States wanted to create them, then that would be for them to decide.

>I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in the south under a Ron Paul presidency.

So don't, then; no one is asking you to. Do you live in the South now? If not, why the hell do you care whether it is a livable place (in your mind)? I personally think the South is a great place to live. If you don't, that's fine by you.

> [From a later post in the thread]Right now the Bill of Rights removes a lot of state rights and grants a lot of individual rights. Paul wants to remove most of those individual rights and let the states decide on which of them they should implement on a piecemeal basis.

This just couldn't be more wrong. The Bill of Rights cannot be taken away. They are part of the US Constitution, the Supreme Law of the Land. All other powers not explicitly mentioned in it are granted to the States, or to the People. This means no criminalizing marijuana, no criminalizing abortion, no DOMA, no Federal Assault Weapons Ban, and on and on for a whole host of other issues over which there is a split consensus. Most importantly, it means no using tax dollars to subsidize businesses. If the whole population of the US decides that something is worth enacting on a national level, the Constitution can be amended. It's my understanding that this is how the Constitution was intended.

Seriously, please read Ron Paul's book, The Revolution, to find out where he is really coming from. The paperback version is 10 bucks at Amazon.

I would pick up the seminal Mirrorshades anthology of cyberpunk, and follow up on the authors you like in there.

Then I would try to find a copy of The Fortunate Fall, which is considered by more than a few critics to be the absolute, bar-none, best cyberpunk novel. (disclaimer: I haven't read it, yet - though I've decided to nominate it for next month's r/SF_Book_Club)

What you do is buy a copy of Bernie's book - either Our Revolution: A Future to Believe in or his other book Bernie Sanders' Guide to a Political Revolution.

From there I followed the instructions on their Instagram page:

>Send your copy to the office with a note to Bernie and he will sign it. Please include a return envelope with postage paid. Use the media mail postage rate, its cheaper. Send it to Bernie's campaign office called Friends of Bernie Sanders to PO Box 391, Burlington, VT 05402. It takes a while for him to have time to sign, so please be patient, but he would be happy to sign it for you!

I sent my book in a box and included a 10 X 14.5in. self-addressed postage paid bubble envelope so that after Bernie signed it, they could return it to me. Also, it took about 2 and a half months for me to have the book sent back, so it will take a while. But it's worth it for a signed Bernie book if you ask me! <3

Her whole platform was, "I am going to micromanage the shit out of this country."

I'm stealing that from some comedian — probably Sam Bee or John Oliver — but it's absolutely true.

In the first debate, Donald said she didn't have a plan and she was like, "Bitch, I literally wrote the book on having a plan. Literally. You can go and buy a fucking book."

Edit: But, to bring it back to Sam Bee, Donald probably didn't know that because he doesn't know how to read.

There's a lots to enjoy and you can't go wrong with this short-story collection: The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century

Have you considered reading Them: Adventures with Extremists? It's a great read. From the author's description:

> A wide variety of extremist groups -- Islamic fundamentalists, neo-Nazis -- share the oddly similar belief that a tiny shadowy elite rule the world from a secret room. In Them, journalist Jon Ronson has joined the extremists to track down the fabled secret room.

ok, good that you are researching

Here is a fantastic source: "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali , who came all the way from a Sudanese village trough genital mutilation and arranged marriage to Dutch parliament. She also did a movie Submission with Theo van Gogh who was butchered for this by a muslim

>Some interesting points, but I don't buy it. Bernie is working for a better America without his personal interests being much of a priority. He could have been feeling a bit entitled at one point being caught up in everything, but he's not there anymore.

You can even buy his new book to read all about it...

Omfg the reviews and customer pictures are fucking amazing on Amazon for her book. Stronger Together: A Blueprint for America's Future https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501161733/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_pdJ6xb1ZG9KVE

George Gamow's Mr. Tompkins books, I particularly recommend the Mr. Tompkins in Paperback collection, which puts together "Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland" and "Mr. Tompkins Explores the Atom." It's my absolute favorite popular exposition of concepts in relativity and quantum theory.

All of Ron Paul's views can be found in this book, which he wrote.

Reading this book will clear up anything that "someone told you" or "you heard on the news", because it is his own work. I wish more people would do some reading before just accepting biased opinions from unqualified people.


I wish the other candidates had books that outlined all their views.

Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson is an exceptionally fun read if you'd like to learn more about this.

Hahaha the top review is a fucking classic. I found it very helpful:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/review/1501138006/R5J40GK9VLPU7/ref=cm_cr_dp_mb_rvw_1?ie=UTF8&cursor=1

A historical fiction book you might enjoy is [In the Garden of Beasts] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/030740885X/ref=aw_wl_ov_dp_1_1?colid=YX5WLKEYR30J&coliid=I21EDEHJ3X24BW). I was never really into historical fiction until recently, love anything around or during WW2

Literature is my Utopia

You mean like the book that she just put out covering all of her policy proposals? Or the hour long speeches she has been giving in recent weeks on americans with disabilities, or education and economic opportunities for millenials. Or you could go to her website.

If all you have is 30 seconds to devote to your research, maybe you don't have time for policy anyways.

Why would we return to a gold standard? Why not a standard based on a basket of precious metals? Gold, silver, platinum, etc..

Read this book and you'll get a good answer to your question.

Jon Ronson goes on an extended adventure with Alex in this excellent book.
https://www.amazon.com/Them-Adventures-Extremists-Jon-Ronson/dp/0743233212


I've met the man briefly (Jones) at an event for James Randi's foundation in like 05 or 04, and spoke to him for quite a while. I am pretty convinced he's a true believer. He may play up the theatricality, but most of the subjects he discusses are real to him.

'worship' is kind of an oversell, but the whole thing is creepy nonetheless. Have you read Jon Ronson's book? He was there with Jones. Pretty interesting stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/Them-Adventures-Extremists-Jon-Ronson/dp/0743233212/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

She's plugging her most recent book, Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now. I haven't read that one but her first book Infidel was great.

These books should be available at any decent local library.

already read it, great book. this one is good too, https://www.amazon.com/Crippled-America-Make-Great-Again/dp/1501137964

You won't believe the answer: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1501161733/

I am using number of reviews as proxy for popularity. OK, that was actually number 2, number one is SimCity (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007FTE2VW/).

Check out Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology for an awesome collection of short stories related to AI, VR, and grungy future worlds dominated by mega corporations. If this kind of stuff is up your alley I would also highly recommend Burning Chrome by William Gibson.

As an aside, the one on the left is great. I highly recommend it.

If you like it you'll love this one: http://www.amazon.com/Them-Adventures-Extremists-Jon-Ronson/dp/0743233212/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268862555&sr=1-3

Yes I did! And it was likewise excellent. You mean In the Garden of Beasts, right?

http://www.amazon.com/In-Garden-Beasts-American-Hitlers/dp/030740885X

Best Seller Link (updated hourly)

Buy the book

Easily the best $10 you can spend (on trolling HRC)

The timing of this development is interesting, as Ron Paul addresses the move to corn syrup from sugar in his latest book. Specifically, he talks about the corruption and incentive to deal with it.

I won't spoil it for you any further, but suffice it to say that this article is a bit more interesting to me because of the history of which I'm now aware. Ron Paul '08?

End the Fed - Ron Paul :) It was a fascinating read.

I nominate In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larsen.

I have just finished the first chapters and it is incredible. The story of Germany during Hitler's rise to power told through the point of the newly appointed American ambassador and his family. Interesting story, fantastic writing.

I like the books Dog Sense and Cat Sense by John Bradshaw, an anthrozoologist. You might find Raymond Coppinger's work interesting as well.

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bonus hilarious reviews https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/product-reviews/1501161733/ref=cm_rdp_hist_hdr_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Pretty good account of it in Erik Larson's "In the Garden of Beasts"

Great Again

Edit: haha how the hell did I miss the fact that he already has a book by that title... subconscious... or great minds think alike...

The reviews on Amazon are hilarious.
Stronger Together: A Blueprint for America's Future https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501161733/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_jIs6xbDR5MCPX

Check out Infidel http://www.amazon.com/Infidel-Ayaan-Hirsi-Ali/dp/0743289692

She seems pretty smart.

I'd recommend perusing Amazon reviews for a chuckle.

https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/product-reviews/1501161733/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=helpful

This one is excellent for beginners and highlights modern libertarian ideology

Mises literature often strays into an-cap areas, and can scare away people who are new to the idea of pure liberty.

Great! I'd start with this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Manifesto-Ron-Paul/dp/0446537527/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480350675&sr=8-1&keywords=ron+paul+the+revolution

and then follow up with this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Liberty-Defined-Essential-Issues-Freedom/dp/1455501441/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480350707&sr=8-1&keywords=ron+paul+liberty+defined

Please start your education early with the books that they will never introduce you to!! Here's a good start:

• Rich Dad, Poor Dad
  
• The Art of the Deal
  
• Still the Best Hope
  
• Righteous Indignation
  
  With this knowledge, no liberal will be able to fuck with you!

They can't say much because Trumps book doesn't seem to have faced the wrath of funny reviewers yet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501138006/ Seems too clean.

Just purchased Hillary's new book. Hopefully there is not good RI material in it.

https://www.amazon.com/Our-Revolution-Believe-Bernie-Sanders/dp/1250132924

I read/listened to it. A lot of it is narrated by him and Mark Ruffalo (which is pretty cool too).

I've got a [book] (https://www.amazon.ca/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501161733) that I know you will absolutely love.

Has anyone talked about the hypocrisy of his BEZOS act coupled with this information?

That is, how does he reconcile his assertion that Amazon doesn't pay fulfillment workers a living wage while simultaneously leveraging this labor by selling Our Revolution and Where We Go From Here on Amazon? I imagine a substantial portion of his book income came from sales on Amazon.

I recommend Jon's book dealing with this and other conspiratards. Highly amusing.

http://www.amazon.com/Them-Adventures-Extremists-Jon-Ronson/dp/0743233212/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368503805&sr=8-1&keywords=them+adventures+with+extremists

> I honestly don't know a single living writer more well known than Stan Lee.

Burger King sends his regards.

Andrew Breitbart was a leftist until he watched the left defame and destroy the reputation of Clarence Thomas as he was being nominated for SC justice. He went on to be a force for the new right. Check out his book about it. It's great: https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Indignation-Excuse-While-World/dp/0446572837/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538184082&sr=8-1&keywords=andrew+breitbart

it was called the ron paul revolution. I made a stencil for t-shirts and made 200. went to busch gardens and everyone in that park was like fuck yeah ron paul, so I'd toss them a shirt.

everybody I knew voted for Paul. shit was mega rigged as soon as it hit Iowa though.

the big thing I remember though was the MILITARY LOVED PAUL. aka most of his donations came from active and retired military because he ran on the principle we shouldn't be nation building and having 1000s of foreign military bases. he wanted to fix marijuana off schedule 1.

he wrote a good book during this time.

https://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Manifesto-Ron-Paul/dp/0446537527/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503187706&sr=8-1&keywords=ron+paul

I think David Foster Wallace's books "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" and "Consider the Lobster" are very interesting and unusual in the context of normal essay collections. If those aren't weird enough for you, try Jon Ronson's "Them: Adventures with Extremists" or Mick Brown's "The Spiritual Tourist". Also, check out Martin Sargeant's "Web Drifter" series, which is not literature per se, but I think it's very similar in tone to Apocalypse Culture, if I remember that book correctly (it's been 10+ years since I've read that).

He has written a very real book that debuted at #3 on the New York Times Best Seller List, has sold more than 200,000 copies, and was nominated for a Grammy.

I really liked John Bradshaw's Dog Sense.


It's about the evolution of dogs as companions, as well as the newest research on dog psychology.

I never read the book,but here is a synopsis from the Amazon page:


In Our Revolution, Sanders shares his personal experiences from the campaign trail, recounting the details of his historic primary fight and the people who made it possible. And for the millions looking to continue the political revolution, he outlines a progressive economic, environmental, racial, and social justice agenda that will create jobs, raise wages, protect the environment, and provide health care for all―and ultimately transform our country and our world for the better. For him, the political revolution has just started. The campaign may be over, but the struggle goes on.

https://www.amazon.com/Our-Revolution-Believe-Bernie-Sanders/dp/1250132924#productDescription_secondary_view_div_1493048054159

They also print his filibuster from 2010 in book form, which was all about corporate greed and the decline of the middle class.

I guess it depends on your definitions for words? I think he spent a lot of time addressing the systemic issues of which corruption is one. In the primary race, he tried to be tactful about invoking corruption in relation to the party and,uh, other candidates.

It's complicated?

Go check out the Amazon reviews. It's become sport. Very funny!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/reviews/1501161733/ref=cm_cr_dp_mb_btm?ie=UTF8

> and she had all of her policies/plans listed in great detail on her website.

Or you know... this...

Cool Fact. The U.S. ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937, William Dodd, saw a lot of Hitlers rise to power and his changes to Germany. He saw a lot of Antisemitism, Anti-American, rise and influence of the Zazi part. His daughter even dated (maybe slept) with some members of the rurssian communist party and Nazi party. He tried to arrange a meeting with FDR and Hitler but I think the Nazi party refused. A whole book called In the Garden of The Beast was written about it.

Here is a handy wiki link about William Dodd too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dodd_(ambassador)

https://www.amazon.com/Them-Adventures-Extremists-Jon-Ronson/dp/0743233212

Great book, Alex Jones makes an appearance.

Maybe you should read his book where he goes into great detail on those subjects.

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Again-How-Crippled-America/dp/1501138006

amazing book, i'm going to second the recommendation. link

the book has lots of first-hand accounts of what was going on in berlin around 1932 when the nazi party was consolidating control. lots of talk about how hitler is viewed as crazy or incompetent or not really believing what he says, but the conservatives need to support him...

Just finished reading 'Infidel' by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. You would like that book if you haven't already read it. It describes Islam as it actually is and not how many of us would like it to be.

I was going to write up a big thing, but honestly, I'm not the person to do it. The short version is that, no, they're not joking. Some people on the_donald probably are just trolls who are fucking around, but most of the people who post there are serious. Those posts mostly make it to the front page as a direct result of bots (check out /r/all/rising) but there still is a large population of real people who actively upvote and post on that stuff.

Its a complicated scene that ties in a lot of different threads of people together including 4chan/8chan shit posters, actual conservative americans, and legitimate racists with some serious overlap included between those groups. Although you might traditionally think of reddit users as young, educated, and socially liberal, it's important to remember that this site has long since expanded past the type of audience you might expect out of a similar site like slashdot and - just like in real life - there is now a huge range of people who post here.

If you're at all interested in learning more, I would suggest you read The Elephant in the Room, a short book by Jon Ronson detailing the interaction the Trump campaign has with the alt-right and - in particular - one of its leading members, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones (a man who believes Sandy Hook was a fake, orchestrated false flag government operation). Also, Ronson's book Them has some pretty haunting and prophetic stories in it about the KKK attempting to rebrand and mainstream its message starting in the late 90's/early 2000's to gain political influence that really resonates and appears to have really come to term.

Speaking of Hillary and her authenticity - member this?


LOL!

The reviews here are amazing.

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Again-How-Crippled-America/dp/1501138006

His book was released on November 15, 2016.

Because all politicians are bad it's okay that Bernie is the same?

If more people voted for Bernie, the DNC wouldn't've stolen the election? Bernie wouldn't've bent over for them and come out in support of Hilary?

The guy is a crooked tool just like the rest of them.

Read In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. It's a non fiction book that reads like a novel about an American ambassador and his family getting caught up in the early years of Hitler's rule. Gives a good perspective of how people got sucked in.

She has an excellent book called, Infidel

What you're seeing is the right waking up to the political war the left has been playing for decades. There hasn't been any 'working together', it's just been people on the right getting barraged with accusations of racism, sexism, and homophobia for every position they hold, intimidated into giving in to the left one compromise at the time. Conservatives would always get on the defensive and fold over to the bullying, so you're right, a lot of the appeal to Trump is that he doesn't fold over, but instead goes right in the throat of the people attacking him. He's bold, unapologetic, and brash. In other words, he's exactly what is needed to stand up to the Alinsky inspired left.

I think the best you can do to understand the new right is to understand Andrew Breitbart.

someone better tell Amazon then /s https://smile.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501161733/ref=zg_bs_11105_21

Teasers:

>I bought this thinking it would be a how-to book. I wanted "How to set up your own Foundation for fun and profit." Also, would like to have seen a chapter on "Ten easy steps to setting up your own secure server in a bathroom."

>I do hear there's going to be a sequel, tentatively called "The Art of the Shakedown." Should be interesting.

Also

>[ Reviewer was assassinated by Hillary Rodham Clinton ]

And

>Started reading it in the park in cool 77-degree temperatures, but got "overheated" after 90 minutes and had to finish it indoors in secrecy. And don't be thrown by the poor sales. It's way too early to know whether or not this book is "bombing."

Amazon Link Here

Ayaan Hirsi's excellent book, Infidel talks about when she underwent FGM as a child in Somalia. Her mother was against the procedure but when she was visiting her grandmother one time, the grandmother went ahead and had it done on her. The whole story is horrific, although the book is excellent and I recommend that people read it.

I'll give you one quick example of why I support Ron Paul, and particularly, his move to End the Fed.

I was recently reading about the release of Ronnie Biggs, who was involved in "the great train robbery". When I saw this line, in the article...

> The (1963) robbery netted 2.6 million pounds – worth more than $50 million today.

In 1963, it took approx. $3 to buy 1 British Pound (pdf). So they stole $7.8 million 1963 dollars, and due to inflation (from our friends at the fed), that's $50 million in today's dollars.

With a bit of math, that means that today's dollar, is worth 15.6 cents of 1963 money.

So... the Brits are going crazy over a guy who stole less than $8 million dollars, but in my lifetime (born in 1964), the Fed has stolen 85 cents worth of every dollar in the country.

Lovely, ain't it? It's all a matter of perspective.

ps: Yes, I did read Atlas Shrugged, and started reading Lew Rockwell's blog not long after - both of which happened before the conversion was complete.

I still hate Reagan, and both Bush's (I despise Jr.), but I've begun to at least believe in some of the things that Reagan stood for - if only he had actually practiced them.

I'm just about to place my pre-order and I thought of this:

Do others here know that Amazon offers a donation to your charity of choice? I chose Democracy Now! because they have such high quality reporting and interviews. You have to set it up and order EVERYTHING through AmazonSmile.com rather than Amazon's regular site. Some items you purchase are eligible for the donation and some are not. But, all must go through Smile. And, no, they don't tell you how much is being donated.

I order a lot from Amazon and figure some donation is better than nothing. I know they are terrible to workers, but most retailers are and until others deliver to my house I know I'll continue ordering.

Bernie's Book on AmazonSmile.com:

https://smile.amazon.com/Our-Revolution-Believe-Bernie-Sanders/dp/1250132924/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469829868&sr=8-1&keywords=our+revolution+bernie+sanders

Here are two books that I would really recommend to know a bit more about what actually happened. I am done debating this issue because as I said above I am tired of being called nasty things.

In the Garden of Beasts

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

This one has some very outdated social views in there about gays but it is still a very good book to understand Hitler and Germany.

While The Donald's book is doing much much better - 4.3 out of 5 average score!

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Again-How-Crippled-America/dp/1501138006/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1474020865&sr=8-3&keywords=DONALD+TRUMP

The reviews are BY FAR the most entertaining thing about this book...

https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/product-reviews/1501161733/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_acr_sr?ie=UTF8

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Time-Travel-Stories-Century/dp/0345460944

And

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Military-Science-Fiction-Century/dp/0345439899/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321763165&sr=1-1

I really enjoyed both of these. Naturally with story collections there are one or two stories that you don't like bust most of these were right up my alley.

Thanks, I just ordered the book.

I just finished this book and she describes it in gory detail. But then she grew up in Somalia. So your map checks out. Thanks.

High quality brick and steel, with solar panels to charge your phone and complimentary copies of Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America

/pol/ is pushing this book on twitter and its doing better, https://www.amazon.com/Great-Again-How-Crippled-America/dp/1501138006

Its currently in the 2000s rank while the book posted OP is in the mid 6Ks, check for yourself.

This threads book, https://www.amazon.com/Time-Get-Tough-America-Great/dp/1621574954

spez: spelling

That isn't entirely accurate. I suggest you read the book "Infadel" by Ayaan-Hirsi-Ali where she describes the cultural motivations of her grandmother when she underwent FGM, against the will of her father. All too often FGM is characterized as men's attempts to control women's sexuality, when that is fairly inaccurate. It is largely done, just as male circumcision in the US, as a form of social conformity. She even describes how other girls would call her names (kintirleey) because she had not been mutilated. Liken unto such name calling in the USA, "anteater dick", for example.

Ultimately, both procedures appear to most often be motivated by a form of elitism, where the mutilated person is placed above the intact person in some way or another. In her case, she described mutilated girls as being made "pure", while in the USA uncircumcised men are stereotyped as "dirty".

OMG, the Amazon.com reviews are brutal and hilarious !

My personal favorite:

"Must have bought a signed copy because I got pneumonia right away. Her plans to destroy America are insulting and picking a beta as her VP gives me as much hope as believing she can't walk up a flight of stairs. Do not buy this book, instead vote for Donald Trump."
----
Centipedes need to head on over, and join the fun!

I've been doing something similar with my dad. I've managed to drag him about halfway from staunch Republican to ideologically libertarian. The project continues. (I'm hoping the process will accelerate when my copy of The Revolution arrives.)

Are you kidding me? Tim Kaine is literally giving a Nazi salute on the cover of this book: https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501161733/

Yep, not even kidding. The book bombed at the time, and Amazon has since fixed it's rating.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501161733/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687742&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1476751471&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=M4DZCPJPPWV9DQH8H4RH

Yes, she wrote this entire very boring book full of very boring policies that would realistically help everyone and not put children in cages or make the market look like a turbulent ocean.

Highly recommend: https://www.amazon.com/Bargaining-Advantage-Negotiation-Strategies-Reasonable/dp/0143036971

Her book Infidel is interesting.

They are all mostly hilarious: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/cr/1501161733/ref=mw_dp_cr

I think it's pretty cool to think/read about, whether it's true or not. My favorite is the idea that the world is ruled by a race of shape-shifting lizard people.

I actually just watched the movie The Conspiracy which talks about NWO a lot, though I don't know if any of it is based on actual facts. Also, Jon Ronson's book Them is all about him talking to conspiracy theorists, mainly about NWO. Interesting stuff

Why we end up spending twice as much? Thank you. That is the real issue. The answer isn't what bernie thinks though. The answer is government enforced monopolies of HMOs and pharmaceutical companies.

https://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Manifesto-Ron-Paul/dp/0446537519/

Like, this one?

https://www.amazon.com/Our-Revolution-Believe-Bernie-Sanders/dp/1250132924

Yea, a good and somewhat scary book to read that gives some insight into Nazi Germany and what it was like is In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson.

https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Beasts-Terror-American-Hitlers/dp/030740885X

>I'm almost convinced that they're all reading from playbooks or something.

https://www.amazon.com/Our-Revolution-Believe-Bernie-Sanders/dp/1250132924/ref=sr_1_sc_1

>That's the problem: the centrists think they don't don't need the leftists to win.

To quote myself "Until we can fix our current conundrum we need to figure out a way to meet in the middle because it is in both of our best interests."

>All they do is talk about "values", without any policies to back it up.

Here is a link to Hillary Clinton's book outlining all of her prescription policies. If you think that lady didn't have actually policies to help fix problems most Americans face you weren't even trying to look. Also what about Obama do you think he didn't have policies or do you think that he just fucked off the last eight years? I don't know if you noticed, but when he took over the economy was in free fall and his centrist Keynesian policies helped right the ship. You know who didn't have specifics Bernie, he spoke in platitudes and made promises there would have been no way to keep. His policies would have burnt up to little pieces of nothing on the Hill.

>You can't be pro-corporate and be pro-worker at the same time.

We fundamentally disagree on this. I believe you can be pro business and pro worker there is an ethical middle, where all sides are met.

Again we fundamentally disagree with each other and but if I am forced to choose between the far left and the middle I will take my chances with the middle. I would prefer that we compromise but it seems the far left has no desire to compromise in which case fuck you. I would rather compromise with those I disagree with than be strong armed by those I disagree with. The state that I live in, New York, is far more centrist than far left. You might be able to win Oregon with far left policies but tbh there aren't that many electoral votes in Oregon.

Wat.

OK, I get the misunderstanding. I meant Andrew Breitbart's red pilling.

Book here btw, highly recommended - https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Indignation-Excuse-While-World/dp/0446572837

Bewm.

Anyone have any guesses what book that is?

EDIT: Found it. I don't think the book is important.

Jon Ronson said that he was pretty convinced that David Icke literally believes in lizard men and that he describes all the different species and what dimensions they come from. Is it possible Icke started to believe his own bullshit?

Well, this family does have a history of poorly written books.

> Campaigning on the sole basis of "Hey, at least we're not the other guy" and half-hearted centrist policies isn't enough.

She didn't though. The biggest word in the word cloud of her speeches in "Jobs" and there is an actual book you can download called Stronger Together about her gazillion policy proposals that supplements her web page and many many policy oriented speeches.

Which you would know if you went to her web site, read her book, listened to her campaign speeches (hers or her surrogates), or subscribed to her mailing list (which sent me awesome policy videos like this one).

If you don't know these things then you probably got all your news from Bernie and yeah, Bernie did an absolutely horrible job promoting her. After spending all primary slandering her character and record he couldn't wave pom poms for her without admitting he'd been lying himself blue in the face during the primary so instead Bernie pushed the narrative, "At least she's not trump".

And I agree, thats a stupid horrible useless narrative. I'm proud to say that when Hillary lost to Obama in 2016 she showed massively more class than Bernie and honestly supported him with a whole heart.

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Bernie-Sanders-Vision-America/dp/1603586679

This one comes highly recommended, haven't read it myself though.

More Amazon reviews than sales. Let's MAGA!

Read "Them", where a reporter sets out to investigate a gaggle of conspiracy theories, including the "ruling order". In the process he slips into a invitation-only gathering in a forest camp and later gets chased by suited men in black cars. He ends up talking to one of the founding members of the Bilderberg Group.

Basically, yes, there are cabals of rich men and business leaders who would like to run the world if they could, but it's not technically feasible: the world is too big and complicated to be centrally controlled. They still have shadowy organizations and a lot of meetings, though.

I don't recall them doing this with any Conservative authors.

Take Donald Trump's book where almost all of the 1 star reviews are not from verified purchases.

Seems like Amazon is picking sides... do you see a problem with that?

I think Ron explains it pretty well, take a look, it's only $13. Basically the only way that Obama and McCain differ is in the way that they will waste our money. They will each pick different ways to run the country into the ground. Neither of them is proposing any kind of significant change which is what we actually need.

The Revolution: A Manifesto

Ron Paul means what he says on this issue. I guess writing a book isn't enough. I guess if you can't sum up this position in a paragraph or a 30 second sound clip or whatever then you're not being clear enough.

What will it take for you to consider this as a serious and reasonable position if you don't understand the first thing about it? You're not an economic expert and neither am I, but I can read enough on the subject to get an understanding of why this isn't an "insane" idea. Educate yourself about the topic.

> going back to the gold standard and abolishing the Fed seem unworkable.

"Seems"... sure. If you understand how and why we might abolish the Fed then we can have a discussion about the details involved. Until then, you can keep your ad hominem attacks to yourself if you please.

From my minimal understanding

at least you have enough self-awareness to know your understanding is minimal.

Research on animal behavior has refuted the claims that wolves are constantly trying to establish dominance.

this has a good summary of the evidence.

http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Sense-Science-Behavior-Better/dp/0465030033