Taxes on the wealthy discourage a different societal ill: exploitative capitalism. Progressive tax policy is a powerful corrective to economic inequality and wealth concentration. As economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez concluded in their seminal paper on U.S. income inequality, “steep progressive income and estate taxation” helped prevent the accumulation of immense fortunes in the middle of the 20th century.

In cross-national data, moreover, there is a “strong negative correlation between top tax rates and top 1% income share.” In other words, where top tax rates are higher, the income distribution is more egalitarian – not just post-tax, but even before taxes are taken out.

"We need to realize that our democracy does belong to us, and when we don't participate in it, when we don't invest in it, when we don't put our own energy into it, what we are doing is we are giving it away to somebody else."

While the freshman congresswoman is a longtime critic of Trump, she framed his election as the consequence of a degraded democratic system that requires reforms and greater public engagement. According to the Daily Beast, following the debut of Knock Down the House, she said:
I hope everyone walks away knowing that we are still in a mode where it's all hands on deck for our democracy. This is not just about the president of the United States. He could be gone tomorrow and that will not change the systemic injustices that led to his election, so it's important that we continue to be all hands on deck in this fight. We are so early on. We can do 2018 again better in 2020, so when someone tells you that they're going to run for office, believe in them early, don't dismiss them, and know that when we all participate, and when we all know what we have to give, and when we choose to give it, our nation will be better. We have no other choice.

CHUCK TODD:
Let me ask you this. I’m going to put up a tweet of yours. And you’ve been tweeting, you’ve been referring to the president not as the president in your tweets. You refer to him as “Individual 1.” Let me put up one here, for instance, from last week. “For decades, Individual 1 made a living stiffing his workers and contractors. And now he’s doing it to 800,000 federal employees and contractors. We must end reckless Trump shutdown and continue our fight for the people.” You refer to him as Individual 1. Obviously it’s something having to do with the Mueller probe. You called him the “grand wizard.” It seems–You’re a member of leadership. What’s that line in your mind? Why should the president negotiate with you if you’re going to name call him? I know he name calls. Why should he negotiate with you if you’re going to name call him?

The nasty women of America are delivering on their promises—and they don’t care what their conservative male colleagues think....

Because what is likability if not a deference to men—with a self-deprecating smile? A likable woman doesn’t talk too loud or too much. She doesn’t take up too much space, isn’t too sexy or too dowdy, and gracefully eludes confrontation. In short, she doesn’t demand anything that men would rather keep for themselves, be it political power or sexual autonomy or the right to be safe after having a couple of drinks. A likable woman doesn’t challenge women, either, by reminding them of the compromises they’ve made and the edges they’ve trimmed off their personalities.
Recently, though, there have been encouraging signs that women have stopped looking over their shoulders every five minutes for male approval—and it’s driving conservative men berserk.

Religious conservatives have rarely faced much competition in the political realm from faith-based groups on the left.
The provocations of President Trump may finally be changing that.
Nearly 40 years after some prominent evangelical Christians organized a Moral Majority movement to promote a conservative political agenda, a comparable effort by liberal religious leaders is coalescing in support of immigrant rights, universal health care, LGBTQ rights and racial justice.

Patience has been on my mind a lot recently, perhaps because I realise it’s a virtue I need to cultivate. I often notice how I become impatient when I am thwarted, or even just momentarily distracted, in the midst of some task I feel is important. It goes hand-hand with a tunnel vision in which I am less present and open to what is being offered in the moment....

Some verses from Rumi can shed a little more light on patience and its connection to the heart-mirror:

Patience is the key to success.
The remedy of patience will burn away the veils over your eye
and open your heart.
When the mirror of your heart becomes clear and pure,
you will behold sights beyond this world of water and earth.
You will behold both the image and the Image-Maker,
both the carpet of the spiritual dominion
and the One Who Spreads It.