Neurodiversity activist Nick Walker offers up "Advice for Parents of Autistic Kids." His first bit of advice is "don't panic" upon discovering your child is autistic, which is good advice for any endeavor, but especially so in a society that sensationalizes and fearmongers about autism. You'll also learn that a lot of the things autistic folks do that seem odd (including "stimming" and moving repetitively) actually calm them down and prevent meltdowns, so we shouldn't stamp out these coping tools. Total time of video: 18 minutes, 22 seconds, all of it necessary.
Noam Chomsky weighs in on the Obama legacy. His assessment is apt -- things are a little better under Mr. Obama than under Mr. Bush, but if you recall the multitudes who camped out at the mall weeks in advance of President Obama's inauguration there, you're bound to be heartbroken. I rarely consider it, for that reason. Of course, our job is the same now as it was then -- to make the politicians do our will no matter who they are, no matter what party they belong to, no matter who they think they have to please to keep their jobs.
Speaking of things that are a "little better under Mr. Obama," the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has finally released its proposed rule changes for payday lenders. The CFPB would force payday lenders to check borrowers' ability to repay and limit their ability to "roll over" loans -- which latter practice traps borrowers in a death spiral of debt. We could make improvements, but then that's what the public comment period is for, isn't it? When I get action alerts, so will you.
Janine Jackson, writing at FAIR, tells us that, in this election season, "The People Are the Story -- and Corporate Media Are Missing It." Which is no surprise to you, since you already know that the "liberal" media always aims to sideline you, to make you a spectator in a political drama rather than the protagonist, which is your actual role in a democracy. We'll just have to keep charging the stage.
"Liberal" media punditoid Mark Halperin protests that we can't actually call Donald Trump a racist for slamming a Mexican-American judge handling a case in which he's a defendant because "Mexico isn't a race." "Racially-tinged," he'll admit, and I'm so glad we split that hair! Never mind that Mr. Trump, in issuing multitudinous pronouncements about the Mexican's supposed propensity for rape and drugs and murder, treats "Mexican" as a race! Seriously, this is why Americans hate smart people.
Finally, legendary boxer Muhummad Ali has died at the age of 74. His decades-long bout with Parkinson's syndrome (brought on, most observers think, by the repeated pummeling he took in the ring) has helped obscure not just his early political stances -- his discarding his "slave name," his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War -- but how he took back all the things the state took from him because of his politics and emerged even stronger in the 1970s, ultimately leading Reggie Jackson to testify that "(t)he entire experience of being black changed for millions of people because of Ali." He truly handcuffed lightning and threw thunder in jail. R.I.P.
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