Women Authors From The United States

"I also hear another reassuring voice. Someday Elna, it says, you will look around the room at your husband and children and the rich, full life you've built for yourself. And you will be so proud of the choices you've made. That's the voice I'm listening to."

"Funding through the Federal Reserve may be controversial, but establishing a national public infrastructure and development bank should be a no-brainer. The real question is why we don’t already have one, like China, Germany, and other countries that are running circles around us in infrastructure development. Many European, Asian and Latin American countries have their own national development banks, as well as belonging to bilateral or multinational development institutions that are jointly owned by multiple governments. Unlike the US Federal Reserve, which considers itself “independent” of government, national development banks are wholly owned by their governments and carry out public development policies. The most profitable and efficient way for national and local governments to finance public infrastructure and development is with their own banks, as the impressive track records of KfW and other national development banks have shown... We need to resurrect that public funding engine today, not only to address the national and global crises we are facing now but for the ongoing development the country needs in order to manifest its true potential."

"Money might... indeed become a servant of humanity, transformed from a tool of oppression into a means of securing common prosperity. But first the central bank needs to become a public servant. It needs to be made a public utility, responsive to the needs of the people and the economy."

"May 15th-19th has been designated “National Infrastructure Week” by the US Chambers of Commerce, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)... Their message: “It’s time to rebuild.” Ever since ASCE began issuing its “National Infrastructure Report Card” in 1998, the nation has gotten a dismal grade of D or D+. In the meantime, the estimated cost of fixing its infrastructure has gone up from $1.3 trillion to $4.6 trillion. While American politicians debate endlessly over how to finance the needed fixes and which ones to implement, the Chinese have managed to fund massive infrastructure projects all across their country, including 12,000 miles of high-speed rail built just in the last decade... A key difference between China and the US is that the Chinese government owns the majority of its banks... The US government could do that too, without raising taxes, slashing services, cutting pensions, or privatizing industries.... The federal government could set up a bank on a similar model. It has massive revenues, which it could leverage into credit for its own purposes. Since financing is typically about 50 percent of the cost of infrastructure, the government could cut infrastructure costs in half by borrowing from its own bank. Public-private partnerships are a good deal for investors but a bad deal for the public. The federal government can generate its own credit without private financial middlemen. That is how China does it, and we can to."

"As alarm bells sound over the advancing destruction of the environment, a variety of Green New Deall proposals have appeared in the US and Europe, along with some interesting academic debates about how to fund them. Monetary policy, normally relegated to obscure academic tomes and bureaucratic meetings behind closed doors, has suddenly taken center stage... Public development banks already have a successful track record in Europe, and their debts are not considered debts of the government. They are financed not through taxes but by the borrowers when they repay the loans. Like other banks, development banks are moneymaking institutions that not only don’t cost the government money but actually generate a profit for it."

"The money issued by governments to finance public projects has a long and successful history dating back at least to the beginning of the 18th century, when the American colony of Pennsylvania issued a currency that was both lent and spent by the government local in the local economy. The result was a period of unprecedented prosperity achieved without inflation or taxes."

"The brief visit of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Libya in October 2011 was referred to by the media as a “victory lap.” “We came, we saw, he died!” she crowed in a CBS video interview on hearing of the capture and brutal murder of Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi.... US-NATO intervention was allegedly undertaken on humanitarian grounds, after reports of mass atrocities; but human rights organizations questioned the claims after finding a lack of evidence.... Before 2011, Libya had achieved economic independence, with its own water, its own food, its own oil, its own money, and its own state-owned bank. It had arisen under Qaddafi from one of the poorest of countries to the richest in Africa. Education and medical treatment were free; having a home was considered a human right; and Libyans participated in an original system of local democracy. The country boasted the world’s largest irrigation system, the Great Man-made River project, which brought water from the desert to the cities and coastal areas; and Qaddafi was embarking on a program to spread this model throughout Africa. But that was before US-NATO forces bombed the irrigation system and wreaked havoc on the country."

"Of the 3,000 emails released from Hillary Clinton’s private email server in late December 2015, about a third were from her close confidante Sidney Blumenthal, the attorney who defended her husband in the Monica Lewinsky case. One of these emails, dated April 2, 2011, reads in part: Qaddafi’s government holds 143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver . . . . This gold was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to be used to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar. This plan was designed to provide the Francophone African Countries with an alternative to the French franc (CFA). In a “source comment,” the original declassified email adds: According to knowledgeable individuals this quantity of gold and silver is valued at more than $7 billion... Conspicuously absent is any mention of humanitarian concerns. The objectives are money, power and oil."

"The arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity. It's our attempt as humans to build an understanding of the universe, the world around us. It's our attempt to influence things, the universe internal to ourselves and external to us."

"We had someone talk about measuring emotions and getting machines to figure out what to keep us from acting crazy. No, we shouldn't measure. We shouldn't use machines to measure road rage and then do something to keep us from engaging in it. Maybe we can have machines help us to recognize that we have road rage, and then we need to know how to control that without the machines."

"People talk about the '60s all the time. And they talk about the anarchy that was there. But when I think about the '60s, what I took away from it was that there was hope for the future."

"We need to revitalize the arts and sciences today. We need to take responsibility for the future. We can't hide behind saying it's just for company profits, or it's just a business, or I'm an artist or an academician."

"I like to think of ideas as potential energy. They're really wonderful, but nothing will happen until we risk putting them into action."

"People have this idea that science and the arts are really separate; we think of them as separate and different things. And this idea was probably introduced centuries ago, but it's really becoming critical now, because we're making decisions about our society every day that, if we keep thinking that the arts are separate from the sciences, and we keep thinking it's cute to say, "I don't understand anything about this one, I don't understand anything about the other one," then we're going to have problems."

"The difference between science and the arts is not that they are different sides of the same coin, even, or even different parts of the same continuum, but rather, they're manifestations of the same thing...They spring from the same source. The arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity. It's our attempt as humans to build an understanding of the universe, the world around us. It's our attempt to influence things, the universe internal to ourselves and external to us."

"Once I got into space, I was feeling very comfortable in the universe. I felt like I had a right to be anywhere in this universe, that I belonged here as much as any speck of stardust, any comet, any planet."

"Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations… If you adopt their attitudes, then the possibility won’t exist because you’ll have already shut it out… You can hear other people’s wisdom, but you’ve got to re-evaluate the world for yourself."

"If we describe the near future as 10, 20, 15 years from now, that means that what we do today is going to be critically important, because in the year 2015, in the year 2020, 2025, the world our society is going to be building on, the basic knowledge and abstract ideas, the discoveries that we came up with today, just as all these wonderful things we're hearing about here at the TED conference that we take for granted in the world right now, were really knowledge and ideas that came up in the 50s, the 60s and the 70s."

"Cuba backs Maduro, along with Bolivia, Mexico, Russia and Turkey."

"US Senator making serious threats against the Venezuelan government. With VP Pence’s statement earlier supporting an uprising against Maduro, this is way more open and explicit support for a coup in Venezuela than during 2002 when Bush admin backed the coup against Hugo Chavez."

"Will Venezuela become the test ground for Trump on Russia? Trump backs opposition, Russia backs Maduro. Both want Venezuela’s vast oil reserves."

"It’s a violation of international law. Not just OAS charter, but also UN Charter and basic, fundamental tenets of international law, rights to sovereignty, self determination and non intervention."

"High military command in Venezuela now publicly stating support for Nicolas Maduro as Commander in Chief. Says military backs Maduro. Without military support, the opposition cannot take control of the government and execute final stages of coup."

"Regime change happening in real time in Venezuela backed by Trump is setting a dangerous precedent for democracy and sovereign rights worldwide. This situation could quickly escalate into grave violence and become a major geopolitical battlefield. Venezuela has oil, remember."

"And so the confrontation begins, as I anticipated just hours ago. Maduro expels US diplomats, they refuse to leave. If he tries to force them out, US will respond, with 'all options on the table' (military intervention). This is a total reality show, invent a reason to invade."

"And so, Venezuela becomes a geopolitical battlefield. The country with the largest oil reserves on the planet."

"It's not just Bolton. I think the person who's most got Trump's ear on Latin America is Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio who has a widespread constituency of expat Venezuelans who are very wealthy... they've been wanting to do whatever's possible to provoke regime change in both Venezuela and Cuba and, I think, Rubio probably made a deal with Trump saying essentially he would back Trump's policies and agenda if Trump lets him lead on Latin America..."

"US hypocrisy in plain sight. The same democratic party outraged over alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election is now openly intervening in the affairs of Venezuela, supporting regime change and backing a self-proclaimed 'interim president'."

"This is a very unprecedented situation. Maduro has been the president of Venezuela. He's the one in control of government. He's the one in control of the country's institutions. He went through a presidential election, disputed as it may be, and won with the majority of votes. Juan Guaido was elected as a legislator in the National Assembly which is Venezuela's parliament and he also is a legitimately elected politician, a legislator, but for him to declare himself the executive — the head of government really is an unprecedented scenario... There is no logistical path for that unless it's done by force because as of this moment, at least, you know Nicolas Maduro and his government are not relinquishing power. They're not just going to walk out of the presidential palace and say, "Here's the key it's all yours." They're standing strong in their position saying, "Wait a minute, we are the legitimate representatives of this country." They're recognized by other powerful nations like Russia and China."

"No matter what you may think of Nicolas Maduro, this sets a dangerous precedent for every country around the world. It is an absolute violation of international law, sovereignty and self-determination for foreign leaders to determine the presidents of other nations."

"We have to remember Venezuela has the largest oil reserves on the planet. It's sitting in Venezuelan territory. On top of that, it's a country very rich in other minerals and resources like gold, natural gas, I mean there's all kinds of strategic resources in Venezuela. It's a very geo-strategically located country. So, of course there are many powerful interests around the world — economic and political — that would like control of Venezuela. There's competing interests and now the doors have been opened over the past decade or so to Russia and China and Iran and, of course, that has not made the United States very happy. The United States considers this their sphere of influence and they want to keep it that way."

"It's ridiculous to say that Trump is a non-interventionist president, he's been as interventionist as all the rest and in the end, it's a state policy of the United States."

"It's a state policy of the United States... a bipartisan policy... of US dominance around the world.... During Obama we had a coup in Honduras that was clearly backed by the United States... It was the Secretary of State Hilary Clinton that...played the key role in ensuring that (Hondura's) President Manuel Zelaya, who was deposed in that coup (2009), couldn't go back to his country."

"It is true that lot of anti-trans sentiment gets expressed in pseudo-feminist terms. Even if the pre-existing order of sex and gender disadvantages women, the idea of breaking down barriers is frightening to many members of the same group. Having segregation of a kind is actually what these women see as one of their few protections against men. In addition, it is hard to be angry at men or fight against them, simply because men are everywhere. Men are your father, brother, husband, or son. But trans people are perceived as different, weird and foreign. This makes them a good target for displaced feelings of threat and anger."

"Do not seek for information of which you cannot make use."

"The measure of fame that I have is kind of like micro fame, relative to a certain kind of community of people. It’s awful. It’s horrible. I wouldn’t wish fame on my worst enemy."

"Perchance — He knows — canst thou not trust His love?"

"There's this tendency to sanitize history and to imagine that progress was smooth and bloodless, that consensus evolved organically when it just didn't, and then people get the impression that current movements are somehow more militant than successful past movements, when they just aren't."

"You're never too old to become an 18th century villain."

"But I'm an intellectual masochist. I get off on bad ideas."

"Isn't caring about other people also in our nature? I do think that most of what Nietzsche says about resentment accurately describes a very real thing but it's not the only thing. There is genuine care and love in this world, I've been told. I've heard rumors."

"In "Spongebob Squarepants" the character Squidward is fundamentally a figure of envy, stemming from failed ambition.... A lot of people my age who watched Spongebob as a kid, rewatch it now and are horrified to discover that they identify with Squidward. Whereas as children, they identified with Spongebob. Well, you either die a Spongebob or you live long enough to see yourself become the Squidward– And there's a pain in becoming the Squidward, which is usually explained as "the disappointing drudgery of adult life", or simply loss of childhood. I would argue that "envy of childhood" is the distinctive Squidwardian emotion."

"You know who's really being silenced? People who are silent. Being silent is a big part of being silenced. That's what being silenced means. So who's really being silenced? Not people on podcasts. Not rich morons screaming into the biggest megaphone in world history about how silenced they are. No, the people who are silenced are people we never hear from because, and I really can't emphasize this enough, they are silenced: people in prison, queer teenagers in conservative towns, the actual downtrodden and oppressed people of this country, not you, Miss America, not you, Mother Superior. You're not silenced. You just know that what you're saying is indefensible, so you defend your "right" to say it."

"It's possible to take genuine virtues like nuance, empathy, and impartiality, and to twist them into fucked up apologia for horrible, oppressive behavior. If you play this game long enough you can essentially explain away the entire concept of bigotry, and conclude that in reality there are no bigots, there's only tragically misunderstood people with difficult childhoods and valid concerns, cruelly demonized by militant activists defaming and silencing them with such reputation-ruining slurs as "homophobe"."

"So when you reduce bigotry to a caricature of pure hatred you obscure that bigotry is a deeply human problem. [...] I believe that understanding bigots is the best defense against becoming one yourself because when you dehumanize the villains you become unable to recognize the villain within."

"Some questions should be dissolved rather than solved. That's what Wittgenstein said. (That's right, we're dragging Ludwig into this!) Sometimes the only way to answer a question is to realize you're asking the wrong question."

"Children, if I have to crawl off the goddamn floor on the morning of November 4th, brush aside the empty wine bottles and pick up my phone to discover that Caligula Jackson is President For Life; I am going to chew my way through the bathroom tile and I will not stop until I reach the gates of Hell. [...] Don't make me eat my bathroom tile, children. There's probably asbestos in that tile, because America's so great even the floor is made of poison."

"I feel like trans culture is just so obsessed with reassuring ourselves that we’re valid, that we sometimes forget that the end goal of a political movement is not validity, it’s equality."

"What about YouTubers? Which side of the revolution are we on? I’m just trying to figure out where I stand here, ‘cause if the revolution starts on Twitter, my head is definitely going in the basket, and then I’ll have no choice but to do the conservative talk show circuit, you know, like most people whose brains are detached from their bodies."

"I really wish people would pay less attention to the tweets I spend 30 seconds writing and a little more attention to the video that I spent, you know, hundreds of hours making."