Network For #StrongerTogether: November 2017

Personal Commentary ~

It does indeed, Take A Village!

⬇

Focused Read in 3-4 minutes

( Eric Liu is the founder of Citizen University and a former speechwriter and deputy domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton -- the quote is from a piece written with Nick Hanauer, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist: “Traditional Economics Failed. Here’s a New Blueprint.” )

"How Norway Proves Laissez-faire Economics Is Not Just Wrong, It’s Toxic

A surprisingly simple solution to the conflict between self-interest and mutual benefits at all hierarchical levels

(By David S. Wilson, Dag O. Hessen)

Life consists of units within units. In the biological world, we have genes, individuals, groups, species, and ecosystems – all nested within the biosphere. In the human world, we have genes, individuals, families, villages and cities, provinces, and nations – all nested within the global village.

In both worlds, a problem lurks at every rung of the ladder: a potential conflict between the interests of the lower-level units and the welfare of the higher-level units. What’s good for me can be bad for my family. What’s good for my family can be bad for my village, and so on, all the way up to what’s good for my nation can be bad for the global village.

Today, over half the earth’s population resides in cities and the most populous nations teem with billions of people, but groups the size of villages still deserve a special status. They are the social units that we are genetically adapted to live within and they can provide a blueprint for larger social units, including the largest of them all – the global village of nations.

… The conflict between lower-level selfishness and higher-level welfare pervades the biological world.

Cancer cells selfishly spread at the expense of other cells within the body, without contributing to the common good, ultimately resulting in the death of the whole organism. In many animal societies, the dominant individuals act more like tyrants than wise leaders, taking as much as they can for themselves until deposed by the next tyrant. Single species can ravage entire ecosystems for nobody’s benefit but their own.

But goodness has its own advantages, especially when those who behave for the good of their groups are able to band together and avoid the depredations of the selfish. Punishment is also a powerful weapon against selfishness, although it is often costly to wield. Every once in a great while, the good manage to decisively suppress selfishness within their ranks. Then something extraordinary happens. The group becomes a higher-level organism.

Nucleated cells did not evolve by small mutational steps from bacterial cells but as groups of cooperating bacteria. Likewise, multi-cellular organisms are groups of highly cooperative cells, and the insects of social insect colonies, while physically separate, coordinate their activities so well that they qualify as super-organisms. Life itself might have originated as groups of cooperating molecular reactions.

Only recently have scientists begun to realize that human evolution represents a similar transition. …

… In this essay, we have sketched a surprisingly simple solution to the apparent conflict between self-interest and mutual benefits at all hierarchical levels.

We are suggesting that the social dynamics that take place naturally and spontaneously in villages can be scaled up to prevent the ethical transgressions that routinely take place at a large scale.

Why is such a simple solution not more widely known and discussed?

Although we immediately realize this solution when it comes to cell-organism relationships or individuals within villages, we do not realize that the same principles also hold for companies or nations.

One reason is because of an alternative narrative that pretends that the only social responsibility of a company is to maximize its bottom line. Free markets will ensure that society benefits as a result. This narrative makes it seem reasonable to eliminate social controls – precisely the opposite of what needs to be done. Governments have been under the spell of this narrative for nearly 50 years despite a flimsy scientific foundation and ample evidence for its harmful effects.

We can break the spell of the old narrative by noting something that will appear utterly obvious in retrospect: The unregulated pursuit of self-interest is cancerous at all scales. To create a global village, we must look to real villages.

You can read more here

( Courtesy of "Evonomics" )

Focused Thought in 30 seconds

( Meme courtesy of Tina Vigilante on Google Plus )

Focused Action in 30 seconds

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You can read the 2010 piece here ⬇

McConnell Skips Obama Dinner, Eats With Federalist Society

→ Direct sources for Democrats:

* ( Personal favored and most informative follows are shared here with the understanding that readers will always apply their own critical thinking to any information provided anywhere by anyone. #StrongerTogether does not share sources of information lightly but -- no one is perfect! -- so always #DistrustAndVerify I am using a star rating that is strictly based on my situational experience with the work of the media personality specifically in relation to issues of interest to me. )

The Democratic Party Website

The Democratic Party on Facebook

The Democratic Party on Twitter

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Website

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Website

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee Website

Also

C-SPAN (a good place for speeches & hearings direct source (s))

→ Some of my favorite, most informative

follows on Twitter include:

Malcolm Nance

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ US Intelligence | Author | Navy Senior Chief | NBC/MSNBC

Kurt Eichenwald

⭐⭐⭐ Federal Government Operations | Vanity Fair | Newsweek | MSNBC Contributor | Author

Ari Berman

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Voting Rights/Voter Suppression | Author | Mother Jones

⭐⭐⭐⭐ You can find Verrit:"Media for the 65.8M" here

→ Some of the most credible media -- at the moment:

📰📰📰 Mother Jones

📰📰📰 The Washington Post

📰📰📰 The New York Times

💻💻💻 News And Guts on Facebook

→ Some of the most credible Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:

📺📺📺 Rachel Maddow on MSNBC

📺📺📺📺📺 AM w/Joy Reid on MSNBC

📺📺 Chris Cuomo on CNN

📺📺📺 The Beat With Ari on MSNBC

📺📺📺 Velshi & Ruhle on MSNBC

📺 Nicolle Wallace On MSNBC

( ⬆⬆⬆ Wallace is new to the job but for right now

her work on Trump GOP has been credible, IMO)

...for Networking for Democrats today!

(Linked) "...is our 2016 platform...a declaration of how we plan to move America forward. Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.

It’s a simple but powerful idea: We are stronger together."

You can read the Platform here

Focused Monthly Inspiration

* (Meme Courtesy of Hillary's Resistance on Facebook)

(Remember 2018...)

Curated by Gail Mountain, with occasional personal commentary, Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!

( You can also find me on Twitter @GKMTNtwits )

See the League of Women Voters website ~
Vote411 here

Thank you for focusing!

g., aka Focused Democrat

✊ Resisting "Fake News"

Focused Read in 2-3 minutes

“Five Reasons to Hate the Republican Tax Plan

… To prepare for the fights that will almost inevitably break out as Republicans try to reconcile their scattered positions after the Thanksgiving break, here’s a quick rundown of the five most controversial elements of the current House and Senate bills. These are far from the only arguments taking place in DC over taxes, but they are probably the most important:

ONE

Cutting State and Local Tax (SALT) Deductions

Republicans are paying for their tax cuts in large part by slashing deductions people can take on their taxes...that will leave most in roughly the same shape as they are now, albeit with a simpler tax form. But if you rely on these deductions you will likely end up worse off, especially when it comes to SALT. … “

(SALT deductions allow property tax and state income taxes (or state sales taxes, whichever is higher), if one itemizes one's deductions.)

TWO

“Killing the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Individual Mandate

… However those savings come because millions will likely drop or lose their coverage if the mandate is axed, reducing the amount the government pays in subsidies. It will also likely lead to thousands of preventable deaths per year

and an increase in premiums as those will opt to drop their coverage will probably be the young and healthy, leaving the remaining pool sicker, older, and costlier. ...”

THREE

Cutting Taxes on “Pass-Through” Businesses

Republicans sell pass-through cuts as a break for small businesses, said T.J. Helmstetter of Americans for Tax Fairness, because we think of them as sole proprietors like handymen or tiny mom and pop shops. But pass-throughs include firms like hedge funds, law offices, and real estate companies. Actual small businesses already pay lower-than-corporate income tax rates, Helmstetter argued; critics on the other end of the spectrum also make the case that most pass-through cuts just benefit the wealthy.

Most observers also agree that special pass-through cuts can be abused. The wealthy may try to “reclassify themselves as pass through entities to lower their individual tax rate,” said Helmstetter. … “

FOUR

Peeling Back the Alternative Minimum and Estate Taxes

The estate tax takes a one-sixth cut out of an individual’s wealth after they die—but only if they have over $5.49 million in assets The alternative minimum tax (AMT) prevents people making over $130,000 a year from using tax engineering to cut their rates to next to nothing. Neither makes up a huge chunk of federal revenue, and there are cases to be made against both taxes. But cutting them benefits, by definition, only the wealthy, which Donald Trump and his legislative allies have promised their tax plan would not do.

FIVE

Raising the Tax Burden on Students

For decades, tuition waivers have not been taxed as income. Though you may not think about them if you aren’t a grad student, these waivers allow many to pursue otherwise unaffordable degrees in research-heavy fields, particularly science, technology, engineering, and math. Waived tuition can be in the tens of thousands of dollars, and were it taxed as income a lot of grad students simply couldn’t afford to stay in their fields.

You can read more detail on each reason here

( Courtesy of Vice )