Remarks by Secretary Mattis at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance in the Pentagon Auditorium > U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE > Speech View

Remarks by Secretary Mattis at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance in the Pentagon Auditorium > U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE > Speech View: "Military service in America is a touchstone for American patriots of all races, genders, creeds.  The men and women of the Department of Defense, military and civilian, reflect the diverse and selfless character of our national defense and have done so long before our nation had reached the level it has reached today in terms of civil rights.
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Cities in Midwest, Rust Belt Say They Need Immigrants - WSJ

Cities in Midwest, Rust Belt Say They Need Immigrants - WSJ: "“I understand that the president is trying to protect the U.S. However, there are many good people that have located here that are escaping wars and political actions, and they’re just looking for a chance to raise their families in a safe environment,” said Janet Doll, a Republican city commissioner in Garden City, Kan. “The immigrants we have here are productive members of society. They have nice jobs and want to contribute to the quality of life in our community.”

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Hide and Seek - YouTube

Hide and Seek - YouTube: "The Sotto Voce Quartet playing "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap. Demondrae Thurman, Mark Carlson, Nat McIntosh and Mike Forbes. "



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Obama’s Protections for L.G.B.T. Workers Will Remain Under Trump - The New York Times

Obama’s Protections for L.G.B.T. Workers Will Remain Under Trump - The New York Times: "WASHINGTON — The White House said on Monday that President Trump would leave in place a 2014 Obama administration order that created new workplace protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

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Pennsylvania man admits he conspired to help Islamic State - The Washington Post

Pennsylvania man admits he conspired to help Islamic State - The Washington Post:

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A 20-year-old Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty Monday to trying to help the Islamic State group and to tweeting out a list that identified and targeted people serving in the U.S. military.

Jalil Ibn Ameer Aziz faces the potential of up to 25 years and a $500,000 fine after admitting to a charge of conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State group and to transmitting a communication containing a threat, both felonies.

Aziz, a natural born American arrested in Harrisburg in December 2015, used about 70 different Twitter accounts and an encrypted mobile messaging application to spread messages from the Islamic State group and to help people trying to travel to territory it controls, said federal counterterrorism prosecutor Robert Sander.

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Iraqi Region Is Evicting Families of ISIS Members - The New York Times

Iraqi Region Is Evicting Families of ISIS Members - The New York Times:

The authorities of Salahuddin Province say the punishment against the families of ISIS members is intended to force the group’s recruits to pay a painful personal price.

“Our aim is to defy the terrorists and send a stern message to the families,” Amar Hekmat, the deputy governor, said inside the barricaded provincial government center.

But the evictions have set off a rancorous dispute between officials in Tikrit and politicians in Baghdad. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, in a letter to the provincial governor last week, sharply criticized the removals and ordered provincial and Baghdad officials to resolve the issue.

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Travelers Stranded and Protests Swell Over Trump Order - The New York Times

Travelers Stranded and Protests Swell Over Trump Order - The New York Times: "The White House pulled back on part of Mr. Trump’s temporary ban on visitors from seven countries by saying that it would not apply to those with green cards granting them permanent residence in the United States. By the end of the day, the Department of Homeland Security formally issued an order declaring legal residents exempt from the order.

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Trump’s visa ban will make it harder to fight ISIS, generals say.

Trump’s visa ban will make it harder to fight ISIS, generals say.: "One of the officers, a general, wrote back, “They might begin by telling him to lift this stupid and heinous visa ban.”



The remark highlights a big problem not just with Trump’s scattershot orders but also with his tenure so far as commander-in-chief: He doesn’t seem to understand the political nature of war or the strategic consequences of politics.

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Trump is a real threat to basic American values

Trump is a real threat to basic American values: "If Trump’s words and actions of the past 18 months are any predictor of his presidency, Americans must look beyond his stated domestic and foreign policy agendas just as one should look away from a magician’s dominant hand during a sleight-of-hand trick. Americans must remain vigilant and be prepared to defend society’s most cherished core values from attacks from none other than the president of the United States.

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Eliot A. Cohen Responds to Donald Trump's First Week - The Atlantic

Eliot A. Cohen Responds to Donald Trump's First Week - The Atlantic: "There was nothing unanticipated in this first disturbing week of the Trump administration. It will not get better. Americans should therefore steel themselves, and hold their representatives to account. Those in a position to take a stand should do so, and those who are not should lay the groundwork for a better day. There is nothing great about the America that Trump thinks he is going to make; but in the end, it is the greatness of America that will stop him.

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Is American Democracy Strong Enough for Trump? - POLITICO Magazine

Is American Democracy Strong Enough for Trump? - POLITICO Magazine: "Acemoglu is right that civil society is a critical check on presidential power, and that it is necessary for the progressive left to come out of its election funk and mobilize to support policies they favor. I suspect, however, that America’s institutional system is stronger than portrayed. I argue in my most recent book that the American political system in fact has too many checks and balances, and should be streamlined to permit more decisive government action. Although Trump’s arrival in the White House creates huge worries about potential abuses of power, I still believe that my earlier position is correct, and that the rise of an American strongman is actually a response to the earlier paralysis of the political system. More paralysis is not the answer, despite the widespread calls for “resistance” on the left.

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Read the introduction to Insane Clown President by Matt Taibbi

Read the introduction to Insane Clown President by Matt Taibbi: "
I was spending half my time in Washington watching Congress make some very unsavory sausage and the other half hanging around political extremist movements in vari­ous parts of the country. In retrospect, the setup probably predetermined the conclusion.



Nonetheless, I ended up re­turning over and over to the same theme, which had a syl­logistic formula:

The country’s leaders are corrupt and have become unresponsive to the needs of the population.

People all over are beginning to notice.



 This being America, as ordinary people tune out their corrupt leaders, they will replace official propaganda with conspiratorial explanations even more ridiculous than the original lies. "



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Letters of Note: We all wish for peace

Letters of Note: We all wish for peace: "A young girl's dreams recorded in her diary from her thirteenth to her fifteenth birthday means more to us today than the labors of millions of soldiers and thousands of factories striving for a thousand-year Reich that lasted hardly more than ten years. The journal you hid so that no one would read it was left on the floor when the German police took you to the concentration camp and has now been read by millions of people in 32 languages. When most people die they disappear without a trace, their thoughts forgotten, their aspirations unknown, but you have simply left your own family and become part of the family of man.
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Hours After Landing in U.S., Cleveland Clinic Doctor Forced to Leave by Trump’s Order - ProPublica

Hours After Landing in U.S., Cleveland Clinic Doctor Forced to Leave by Trump’s Order - ProPublica:

Abushamma had left the U.S. Monday to visit family in Saudi Arabia and then travel to Sudan. Friends alerted her on Wednesday about the possibility that Trump would sign an executive order that could make it difficult for her to return. Though she had planned to be out of the country for two more weeks, she moved quickly to change her plans, obtain a new visa and come back to the U.S. early.

“She picked up her passport from the U.S. embassy, changed her flight and came as quickly as she could but she wasn’t able to make the stroke of the pen,” said her friend, Faris El-Khider, who is a gastroenterology fellow at the Cleveland Clinic and is from Sudan. “She was basically racing against Trump.”

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TRUMP’S VISA BAN HARMS FAMILIES AND WAR VICTIMS, DAMAGES CRUCIAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH EFFORTS

TRUMP’S VISA BAN HARMS FAMILIES AND WAR VICTIMS, DAMAGES CRUCIAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH EFFORTS: "NEW YORK & SANA’A, January 29, 2017—President Donald Trump’s Executive Order banning entry into the United States for people from seven Muslim-majority countries is discriminatory, and will force families apart, deny refuge to persons escaping war and persecution, end education opportunities for students, and damage critical international research, say advocates at the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic and the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, a leading Yemeni think tank.

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Executive Order: ETHICS COMMITMENTS BY EXECUTIVE BRANCH APPOINTEES | whitehouse.gov

Executive Order: ETHICS COMMITMENTS BY EXECUTIVE BRANCH APPOINTEES | whitehouse.gov: "     "1.  I will not, within 5 years after the termination of my employment as an appointee in any executive agency in which I am appointed to serve, engage in lobbying activities with respect to that agency.

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Anne Frank and her family were also denied entry as refugees to the U.S. - The Washington Post

Anne Frank and her family were also denied entry as refugees to the U.S. - The Washington Post:

The historian told NPR in 2007 that the documents suggest "Anne Frank could be a 77-year-old woman living in Boston today – a writer."

Instead, she died at the age of 15 at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.

Otto Frank tried relatively late to obtain visas to the United States, a convoluted and ultimately doomed process laid bare in the nearly 80 pages of documents unearthed by the the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Even Frank's high-level connections within American business and political circles weren't enough to secure safe passage for his family.

"The story seems to unfold in slow motion as the painstaking exchange of letters journey across continents and from state to state, their information often outdated by the time they arrive," the New York Times wrote after reviewing the YIVO documents. "Each page adds a layer of sorrow as the tortuous process for gaining entry to the United States — involving sponsors, large sums of money, affidavits and proof of how their entry would benefit America — is laid out. The moment the Franks and their American supporters overcame one administrative or logistical obstacle, another arose."

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Letter from Washington: How America Lost Its Identity - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Letter from Washington: How America Lost Its Identity - SPIEGEL ONLINE:

I found answers to this question on a journey through American society -- to places like Vermont, Maryland, Rhode Island and Virginia. Those are just a few of the places I have visited in the last four years -- places where those symptoms could be seen that together add up to the huge crisis that has gripped America. This self-confident country that has spent decades exporting its values with imperialist hubris has lost its identity. Democratic capitalism no longer works well enough to keep together a country of 325 million people and to guarantee domestic peace.

The United States is not alone in having been struck by this identity crisis: It has also hit the United Kingdom, France, Germany and other countries. But America, where capitalism flourishes to a greater degree than anywhere else, has been hit the hardest of all.

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Malevolence Tempered by Incompetence: Trump’s Horrifying Executive Order on Refugees and Visas - Lawfare

Malevolence Tempered by Incompetence: Trump’s Horrifying Executive Order on Refugees and Visas - Lawfare: "Put simply, I don’t believe that the stated purpose is the real purpose. This is the first policy the United States has adopted in the post-9/11 era about which I have ever said this. It’s a grave charge, I know, and I’m not making it lightly. But in the rational pursuit of security objectives, you don’t marginalize your expert security agencies and fail to vet your ideas through a normal interagency process. You don’t target the wrong people in nutty ways when you’re rationally pursuing real security objectives.



When do you do these things? You do these things when you’re elevating the symbolic politics of bashing Islam over any actual security interest. You do them when you’ve made a deliberate decision to burden human lives to make a public point. In other words, this is not a document that will cause hardship and misery because of regrettable incidental impacts on people injured in the pursuit of a public good. It will cause hardship and misery for tens or hundreds of thousands of people because that is precisely what it is intended to do."



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Donald Trump’s Refugee Executive Order: No Muslim Ban -- Separating Fact from Hysteria | National Review

Donald Trump’s Refugee Executive Order: No Muslim Ban -- Separating Fact from Hysteria | National Review: "However, there are reports that the ban is being applied even to green-card holders. This is madness. The plain language of the order doesn’t apply to legal permanent residents of the U.S., and green-card holders have been through round after round of vetting and security checks. The administration should intervene, immediately, to stop misapplication. If, however, the Trump administration continues to apply the order to legal permanent residents, it should indeed be condemned.

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Russians Suspected Of Aiding U.S. Are Being Arrested And Murdered

Russians Suspected Of Aiding U.S. Are Being Arrested And Murdered: "The fallout from the U.S.-Russian hacking scandal continues, as The Telegraph reports that an ex-KGB chief who is believed to have helped former British spy Christopher Steele compile the infamous “Golden Showers” dossier on Donald Trump, appears to have been have been murdered in Moscow. The latest development peels back another layer to the controversial Russian hacking scandal, as experts believe the Kremlin may have covered it up.

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A Yazidi Refugee, Stranded at the Airport by Trump - The New Yorker

A Yazidi Refugee, Stranded at the Airport by Trump - The New Yorker:

“We escaped isis at Sinjar!” he exclaimed. “How much harder can this be?”

And so Nada would try. After all, she had done everything the U.S. government had asked of her. After years of interviews, security and biometric screening, medical tests and more interviews, she had a valid visa.

Throughout the course of the day, he had been remarkably composed on the phone. But when I tried to ask a light question—whether she’d packed a lot of bags—the line went silent for a spell.

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There Have Been No Fatal Terror Attacks In The U.S. By Immigrants From The 7 Banned Muslim Countries | The Huffington Post

There Have Been No Fatal Terror Attacks In The U.S. By Immigrants From The 7 Banned Muslim Countries | The Huffington Post:

There have been zero fatal terror attacks on U.S. soil since 1975 by immigrants from the seven Muslim-majority countries President Donald Trump targeted with immigration bans on Friday, further highlighting the needlessness and cruelty of the president’s executive order.

Between 1975 and 2015, foreign nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen killed exactly zero Americans on U.S. soil, according to an analysis of terror attacks by the Cato Institute.   

Moreover, a report released this week shows that Muslim Americans with family backgrounds in those seven countries have killed no Americans over the last 15 years.

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Hours after Trump signs Muslim ban, Texas mosque goes up in flames

Hours after Trump signs Muslim ban, Texas mosque goes up in flames:

A Texas mosque was set on fire just hours after Trump signed an executive order restricting migration from Muslim-majority countries.

The Islamic Center of Victoria was set on fire around 2 a.m. on Saturday, according to local reports.

Victoria Fire Marshal Tom Legler told the Victoria Advocate he had no theories about the cause of the fire, but he is seeking assistance from state and federal fire investigators.

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Shtetl-Optimized » Blog Archive » First they came for the Iranians

Shtetl-Optimized » Blog Archive » First they came for the Iranians: "Right now, I have an Iranian PhD student who came to MIT on a student visa in 2013.  He started working with me two years ago, on the power of a rudimentary quantum computing model inspired by (1+1)-dimensional integrable quantum field theory.  You can read our paper about it, with Adam Bouland and Greg Kuperberg, here.  It so happens that this week, my student is visiting us in Austin and staying at our home.  He’s spent the whole day pacing around, terrified about his future.  His original plan, to do a postdoc in the US after he finishes his PhD, now seems impossible (since it would require a visa renewal).

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American 'Christianity' Has Failed | Sojourners

American 'Christianity' Has Failed | Sojourners: "Because while the gospels instruct followers of Christ to help the poor, oppressed, maligned, mistreated, sick, and those most in need of help, Christians in America have largely supported measures that have rejected refugees, refused aid to immigrants, cut social services to the poor, diminished help for the sick, fueled xenophobia, reinforced misogyny, ignored racism, stoked hatred, reinforced corruption, and largely increased inequality, prejudice, and fear.

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What Will Obama Do When He Isn’t President Anymore? - The Atlantic

What Will Obama Do When He Isn’t President Anymore? - The Atlantic: "Now, in an inevitable cruelty of midlife, his girls say they prefer sleepovers with friends to movies with Dad. “They break my heart,” Obama has said. He wore sunglasses to Malia’s graduation from Sidwell Friends School in June, so no one would see him cry. The prospect of losing his girls to adulthood, friends say, saddens him more than leaving the White House.

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Alt-Right Event in Seattle Devolves Into Chaos and Violence Outside, Truth-Twisting Inside | Southern Poverty Law Center

Alt-Right Event in Seattle Devolves Into Chaos and Violence Outside, Truth-Twisting Inside | Southern Poverty Law Center: "According to the Times, the man accused of the shooting told police that he fired the gun in self-defense and claimed that the man he shot was a “white supremacist.” However, friends of the victim (who remains officially unidentified) contest that characterization, saying he was a liberal anti-fascist sympathizer.

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Limo torched in DC protests belongs to Muslim immigrant, may cost $70,000 in damages | Washington Examiner

Limo torched in DC protests belongs to Muslim immigrant, may cost $70,000 in damages | Washington Examiner: "The limousine that was set on fire during the anti-Trump anarchist protest in downtown Washington on Inauguration Day is owned by a Muslim immigrant who says the damage could cost his company $70,000.

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Peter's Choice | Mother Jones

Peter's Choice | Mother Jones: "Feelings can't be fact-checked, and in the end, feelings were what Peter's eloquent essay came down to­—what it feels like to belong, and what it feels like to be culturally dispossessed. "After continually losing on the economic side," he wrote, "one of the few things that you can retain is your identity. What it means, to you, to be an American, your somewhat self-sufficient and isolated way of life, and your Christian faith and values. Your identity and heritage is the very last thing you can cling to...Abortion laws and gay marriage are the two most recent upsets. The vast majority of the state of Oklahoma has opposed both of the issues, and social values cannot be forced by the government."

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The Great Unbundling – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

The Great Unbundling – Stratechery by Ben Thompson: "To that end, this is my best guess at the latter; as for when, the amount of change that has happened in just the last three years (since I wrote The Jobs TV Does) is substantial — and most of that change was simply laying the groundwork for actual shifts in behavior. Once those shifts start to happen in earnest there will be feedback loops in everything from advertising to content production to consumption that will only accelerate the changes, resulting in a transformed media landscape that will impact all parts of society. I’m starting to agree that the end is nearer than many think.

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I Knew Chelsea Manning in Basic Combat Training. Here’s the Story You Haven’t Heard – Jay B. Huwieler

I Knew Chelsea Manning in Basic Combat Training. Here’s the Story You Haven’t Heard – Jay B. Huwieler: "What is not accurate is the false and felonious  image of the U.S. military on which the defense of her conduct has been, at its root, predicated: that somehow everyone in her formative years in the military was practically part of a tribe of 6’2”, overly-aggressive Alpha males pumping testosterone out their pores who ganged up on the smallest in the group and tore her apart out of hyper-machismo intolerance; that War is so brutish and nasty, that Warriors too must be. That is simply not accurate. Chelsea Manning wasn’t being picked on at the Shark Attack when the Drill Sergeants said she had to lift her own bag like everyone else, and she said she couldn’t. She wasn’t being picked on when those Soldiers tried to help motivate her to lift the Jerry Can over her head and even picked up their own and did the exercise again, with her, out of solidarity. And when she faked a choking fit in the middle of the Dining Facility, it wasn’t because someone else was tormenting her – she was tormenting herself.

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What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class

What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class:

Being in the police is one of the few good jobs open to Americans without a college education. Police get solid wages, great benefits, and a respected place in their communities. For elites to write them off as racists is a telling example of how, although race- and sex-based insults are no longer acceptable in polite society, class-based insults still are.

I do not defend police who kill citizens for selling cigarettes. But the current demonization of the police underestimates the difficulty of ending police violence against communities of color. Police need to make split-second decisions in life-threatening situations. I don’t. If I had to, I might make some poor decisions too.

Saying this is so unpopular that I risk making myself a pariah among my friends on the left coast. But the biggest risk today for me and other Americans is continued class cluelessness. If we don’t take steps to bridge the class culture gap, when Trump proves unable to bring steel back to Youngstown, Ohio, the consequences could turn dangerous.

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The Critique – Why The Alt-Right Is Right

The Critique – Why The Alt-Right Is Right: "Above all, the alt-right draws intellectual vigor from its emphasis on the need for limits and borders. Given the commitment on the part of some Leftist intellectuals and politicians to a borderless world–not only in matters of immigration and trade but in matters of sexuality and morality—the alt-right’s concern about the consequences of a borderless society registers a real need to have a national debate about how far we can go: how far can we push the frontiers of transgressive thinking and action without destroying our own freedom? With its emphasis on borders, the alt-right has managed to articulate some of the most important philosophical issues of our time."



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‘What Do You Do if a Red State Moves to You?’ - POLITICO Magazine

‘What Do You Do if a Red State Moves to You?’ - POLITICO Magazine:

And what I heard in Pepin County, again and again, is that they’ve had it. In conversation after conversation with people who have lived here forever and who voted for Trump, some people were more measured and diplomatic than others—but the same blunt, base feelings kept coming up.




“Where’s the richest place to live?” said Gerald Bauer, 74, born and raised on a local dairy farm, who now is the vice chairperson of the county board of supervisors. “The area around Washington, D.C.—that’s wrong.”




And here these city people have come, with their money and their politics, right to Pepin County, which now has its very own liberal left coast. “The ones that move in try to change everything,” said Gary Samuelson, 72, “and the people who’ve been here a long time don’t care too much for change.”




“They don’t share our views on anything,” Vic Komisar, 41, the president of the ATV club, said of the people from Minnesota. “They got this picture that we’re all country bumpkins, the locals are, that we’re not educated. The people who move in talk down to the natives. I don’t know how you want to word that, but that’s the persona given off.”




Komisar said he frowned upon some of Trump’s rhetoric, calling him an “oddball.” But one thing he liked a lot: “I think he’s going to stand his ground on—how the hell do I want to word this?—I don’t think he’s gonna get ran over by the social agenda.” He cited gay marriage, the legalization of marijuana and Black Lives Matter. “It shouldn’t be center stage with troops overseas and the economy. We got other things to worry about than Black Lives Matter having a protest. Come on—we got bigger issues. To me, that’s what it’s been for eight years. I’m not a racist. I’m not a homophobe. I’m not any of those things. But OK, you guys have your rights—can we move on?”
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‘What Do You Do if a Red State Moves to You?’ - POLITICO Magazine

‘What Do You Do if a Red State Moves to You?’ - POLITICO Magazine: "Pepin County at first glance doesn’t seem like much of a microcosm of America—it’s 98 percent white, the overall population hasn’t changed in 120 years, and the unemployment rate this past fall was an infinitesimal 3 percent—but what I found in a week of talking to farmers and small-business owners, longtime residents and transplants, was a startlingly precise reflection of the national rift that animated Trump’s campaign. “Stronger Together” versus “Great Again.” Move-ins versus natives. Urban versus rural. The loss wrought by long-term change here isn’t so much a visible picture of a closed, rusted factory as it is a less measurable communal decline in morale, a slow seep of self-worth, a perceived slippage of relevance in the national conversation.

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Study: Millennials really are making less than their parents did - CSMonitor.com

Study: Millennials really are making less than their parents did - CSMonitor.com: "The future isn’t looking bright for America’s most educated generation. Using Federal Reserve data to compare 25- to 34-year-olds in 2013 with their counterparts from 1989, the advocacy group Young Invincibles found that, after adjusting for inflation, Millennials earn 20 percent less than baby boomers did at the same stage in life. They are also hampered by far higher rates of student debt and are less likely to own homes than previous generations were at their age.

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Exiled former president Yahya Jammeh 'stole $11.4m' from the Gambia | World news | The Guardian

Exiled former president Yahya Jammeh 'stole $11.4m' from the Gambia | World news | The Guardian: "The unpredictable Jammeh, known for startling declarations such as his claim that bananas and herbal rubs could cure Aids, went into exile under mounting international pressure, with a wave to supporters as soldiers wept. He is now in Equatorial Guinea, home to Africa’s longest-serving ruler and not a state party to the international criminal court (ICC)."



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I’m an anti-abortion feminist. I’ll walk at the Women’s March, whether organizers like it or not. - The Washington Post

I’m an anti-abortion feminist. I’ll walk at the Women’s March, whether organizers like it or not. - The Washington Post:

When the Atlantic reported that the Women’s March had approved New Wave Feminists, a pro-life feminist group, as an official partner, Twitter exploded with the rage of a thousand pro-choice feminists. They insisted that being pro-life and feminist is impossible, and that New Wave Feminists is “anti-woman,” “misogynist,” “nauseating” and worse.

You can guess what happened next. The Women’s March leadership caved to the pressure and removed New Wave Feminists from their website. Afterward, they released a statement declaring that their “platform is pro-choice and has been from day one” and that “the anti-choice organization in question is not a partner. . . . We apologize for this error.”

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Jen Psaki Million Woman March Social Justice Activism

Jen Psaki Million Woman March Social Justice Activism:

There are more post mortems about the outcome of the election than I can recount, but one thing is clear. People didn’t show up. And not just to vote. Though more than 90 million eligible voters did not show up on Election Day. But to volunteer, to make phone calls, to donate, to run for office. 

The campaign didn’t show up in rural, red districts or suburbs where the assumption was made that undecided and female voters would vote for someone of the same gender and against the misogynist and racist language we heard during the campaign. 



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Trump Son-In-Law Jared Kushner Cleared To Work In The White House - BuzzFeed News

Trump Son-In-Law Jared Kushner Cleared To Work In The White House - BuzzFeed News: "Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, has gotten the all-clear from US Department of Justice lawyers to serve as a senior advisor in the White House.
The Office of Legal Counsel, a small office within the Justice Department that gives legal advice to the executive branch, issued an opinion on Jan. 20 concluding that Trump’s decision to bring on Kushner wouldn’t violate the federal anti-nepotism law.
“In choosing his personal staff, the President enjoys an unusual degree of freedom, which Congress found suitable to the demands of his office,” the office said.
The legal opinion was signed by Daniel Koffsky, the deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel. Koffsky has worked at DOJ for more than 20 years and received a lifetime service award in 2013. The news release from the department described him as “a living repository of OLC’s precedents and practice.”"



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Crime and Punishment? | Psychology Today

Crime and Punishment? | Psychology Today: ""Jail is the first place where nobody burned me, beat me, or molested me. You sleep alone. Your cell is small, but you feel safe. Sometimes this is the place where people get the most attention, love, and caring in their life. I don't have a family so I've made my own mother and father here. I mean, I don't even know how many mothers I have. People ask why I have so many mothers, and it's because I don't have one. We make our little family units in here just so we can keep going.

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Flynn is creating the most military-heavy National Security Council of the modern era - The Washington Post

Flynn is creating the most military-heavy National Security Council of the modern era - The Washington Post: "All of the NSC staffers Flynn has appointed have distinguished résumés, have served honorably and are praised by former colleagues as able and patriotic public servants. The concern over Flynn’s appointments rests not in the people he is choosing but in the overall balance within the team.

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The Rise of the Data Engineer – Medium

The Rise of the Data Engineer – Medium: "In relation to previously existing roles, the data engineering field could be thought of as a superset of business intelligence and data warehousing that brings more elements from software engineering. This discipline also integrates specialization around the operation of so called “big data” distributed systems and concepts around the extended Hadoop ecosystem, stream processing, and in computation at scale.
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The Promise of President Trump: Ben Sasse - WSJ

The Promise of President Trump: Ben Sasse - WSJ:

Washington wrongly thinks of the justices as wearing red and blue jerseys. I believe that Mr. Trump will nominate a qualified, conservative jurist for the court. I also expect liberals and many in the press to reflexively label his nominee a partisan. That’s dangerous.

The Constitution doesn’t talk about Republican or Democratic judges. It establishes an independent judiciary precisely to safeguard our rights by limiting and dividing federal powers. The Supreme Court’s job isn’t to drive political agendas but to defend America’s great experiment in self-government.

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Text - H.R.5578 - 114th Congress (2015-2016): Survivors' Bill of Rights Act of 2016 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

Text - H.R.5578 - 114th Congress (2015-2016): Survivors' Bill of Rights Act of 2016 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress:

(b) Notification of Rights.--Each recipient of a grant awarded 
under subsection (a) shall make its best effort to ensure that each 
entity described in subsection (c)(1) provides individuals who identify 
as a survivor of a sexual assault, and who consent to receiving such 
information, with written notice of applicable rights and policies 
regarding--
            ``(1) the right not to be charged fees for or otherwise 
        prevented from pursuing a sexual assault evidence collection 
        kit;
            ``(2) the right to have a sexual assault medical forensic 
        examination regardless of whether the survivor reports to or 
        cooperates with law enforcement;
            ``(3) the availability of a sexual assault advocate;
            ``(4) the availability of protective orders and policies 
        related to their enforcement;
            ``(5) policies regarding the storage, preservation, and 
        disposal of sexual assault evidence collection kits;
            ``(6) the process, if any, to request preservation of sexual 
        assault evidence collection kits or the probative evidence from 
        such kits; and
            ``(7) the availability of victim compensation and 
        restitution.

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nlyles1 comments on White nationalist Richard Spencer got punched in the face during the protests at Trump's inauguration

nlyles1 comments on White nationalist Richard Spencer got punched in the face during the protests at Trump's inauguration: "Because the whole notion of the "Alt-right" is to subvert racism back into society. They want society to return back to a time when the majority of whites felt discontent and animosity towards minorities.
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'The Good Place' Went From Great to Genius in Its Season-One Finale - The Atlantic

'The Good Place' Went From Great to Genius in Its Season-One Finale - The Atlantic: "The show’s first season, which ended Thursday, proved that a half-hour network comedy can, in a way, do both: embrace an ambitious, carefully plotted narrative structure, while recognizing the need to revert, to have things go back to the way they were so they can play out differently the next time around. There are plenty of other current shows blurring the line between comedy and drama. But unlike those hybrids (BoJack Horseman, Atlanta, Insecure, You’re the Worst), The Good Place is, tonally, 100 percent sitcom. It has, however, the spine of a twist-y, reality-questioning show like Lost or Westworld—a fact illuminated most clearly by a two-part finale so wonderfully conceived it would be foolish of NBC not to give the show a second season.

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Jared Kushner: The Donald Trump I Know | | Observer

Jared Kushner: The Donald Trump I Know | | Observer: "It doesn’t take a ton of courage to join a mob. It’s actually the easiest thing to do. What’s a little harder is to weigh carefully a person’s actions over the course of a long and exceptionally distinguished career. The best lesson I have learned from watching this election from the front row is that we are all better off when we challenge what we believe to be truths and seek the people who disagree with us to try and understand their point of view.

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'American Carnage': The Trump Era Begins - The Atlantic

'American Carnage': The Trump Era Begins - The Atlantic: "I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
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The Real Story Of 2016 | FiveThirtyEight

The Real Story Of 2016 | FiveThirtyEight: "They also suggest there are real shortcomings in how American politics are covered, including pervasive groupthink among media elites, an unhealthy obsession with the insider’s view of politics, a lack of analytical rigor, a failure to appreciate uncertainty, a sluggishness to self-correct when new evidence contradicts pre-existing beliefs, and a narrow viewpoint that lacks perspective from the longer arc of American history. Call me a curmudgeon, but I think we journalists ought to spend a few more moments thinking about these things before we endorse the cutely contrarian idea that Trump’s presidency might somehow be a good thing for the media."



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Trump Reverses Obama's Mortgage Fee Cuts on First Day - Bloomberg

Trump Reverses Obama's Mortgage Fee Cuts on First Day - Bloomberg: "Mark Calabria, director of financial regulation studies for the libertarian Cato Institute, said it was appropriate for the administration to examine last-minute decisions by its predecessor, “especially when those decisions appear to be purely motivated by politics."

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No, Obama Didn't Light White House Rainbow On His Last Night | The Daily Caller

No, Obama Didn't Light White House Rainbow On His Last Night | The Daily Caller: "A tweet from the White House kickstarted a chain reaction that led tens of thousands of people on Twitter to believe that outgoing President Obama lit up the White House in rainbow colors for his last night.

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‘I’ve got to tell his story’: Iraq and Afghanistan dead remembered in State Capitol exhibit | Military | omaha.com

‘I’ve got to tell his story’: Iraq and Afghanistan dead remembered in State Capitol exhibit | Military | omaha.com:

Noala Fritz has lived through the agony of the folded flag, the pain of the Gold Star.

In 2006, her son, 1st Lt. Jacob Fritz, left the family’s farm near Falls City, Nebraska, on the 14th birthday of his younger brother, Ethan, to deploy to Iraq. Three months later, he and three of his men were abducted by insurgents disguised as U.S. soldiers, driven to a remote area and shot while hooded and blindfolded.

Her voice broke a little as she recounted the tale she can never forget.

“It has not always been easy. But here I am, sharing Jacob’s story,” Fritz said.

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For Obama’s remaining aides Thursday, a White House scavenger hunt - The Washington Post

For Obama’s remaining aides Thursday, a White House scavenger hunt - The Washington Post: "RECOMMENDATION: That you do this. YOLO. Senior Spring."



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maestro876 comments on Does NATO still benefit US strategic interests?

maestro876 comments on Does NATO still benefit US strategic interests?:

The primary, number one benefit is peace. Great power war on the European continent has not happened in over 70 years. This is a big deal. Prior to the Second World War, great power war in Europe was not an uncommon occurrence. The continent never really want more than a decade or two without a flare-up between great powers that left a hundred thousand or more (sometimes many, many more) people killed. We are living in the middle of a historic period of peace between great European powers that is unrivaled in history. I would argue that the primary reason for that is because nearly every European power is cemented in a mutually beneficial military alliance. Each is responsible for the security of the collective. The existence, strength, and longevity of this bond means that there is no incentive for such conflict to happen, and as such competition between powers is channeled into other avenues. The alliance has removed the need to compete militarily with other powers, and instead allowed a degree of integration and cooperation that is unprecedented in history.

This is important because the entire world benefits from peace. It improves cultural ties, economic ties, and trade. These things in turn lead to greater wealth, prosperity, and increased standard of living [1]. War and military competition are inherently destructive. The world is a better place when those things don't happen. Europe is singled out because of the concentration of a large number of great powers in one continent, the size of its economy and trade (which give it great influence over the world economy), and its (pre-1945) history of conflict.

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Why EMRs are a mess

http://histalk.com/download/HCIT_ConsolidationChart.pdf



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Anti-Semite And Jew - The New Yorker

Anti-Semite And Jew - The New Yorker:

The experience was memorable. “It’s very shocking to see a person whom two weeks ago you saw on TV as one of the main figures of an anti-Semitic party,” Köves said. “Not only to learn that he was a Jew but to see him totally broken. On the one hand, you have mercy on such a person, naturally. On the other hand . . . he has a very big responsibility, not only toward Jews but in general, in whatever Hungary got up to in the last few years.”

Others I spoke to in Budapest used the word “broken” to describe Szegedi in this period; he had lost his friends and his place in the political milieu that he had helped to create. Szegedi told Köves at their first meeting that he wanted to apologize for his role in creating Jobbik. He’d already apologized to his grandmother, he says, “but I felt it was not enough.”

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In donated shoes and suit, a Trump supporter comes to Washington - The Washington Post

In donated shoes and suit, a Trump supporter comes to Washington - The Washington Post: "On a recent day, Bouvet was buoyant as he led a short tour of Stonington, a town of fewer than 1,000 in Southern Illinois with some homes that are boarded up and others sliding into disrepair. Despite skepticism from many, Bouvet said he felt confident that Trump’s business experience and promise to bring jobs back to America would bring renewal to struggling and forgotten corners of the country, like his home town. He wanted a hand in the healing.

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Ask Polly: Should I Quit Grad School?

Ask Polly: Should I Quit Grad School?: "All you have is you. And even if you weren’t in grad school, I’m going to guess that you would’ve landed here. This is a place of reckoning, where everything feels worthless, a place you weren’t going to avoid. And it’s a place you’ll visit again, trust me. The kinds of people who become writers and academics and artists are often people who, consciously or not, want to interrogate and audit their lives. They need proof that what they’re doing is worthwhile. And they need to know themselves well and feel proud of themselves just to proceed."



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Hacking the Army | TechCrunch

Hacking the Army | TechCrunch: "“It’s still uncomfortable for a lot of folks, folks on the military side especially. When you rely on network day-to-day, you have a hard time making tradeoffs between shutting down or living in a world where it could have been compromised,” Wiswell says. “But if our good guys got to it, it probably means the bad guys had information about vulnerabilities there already. The bug bounties start to level the playing field. The bad guys are going to continue to hack us, no question. They will be hacking us over their morning tea in China. We’re allowing the good guys to come in and help too. When you allow that to happen, you don’t have to sit and take it any longer.”
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Barack and Joe’s Secret Code - POLITICO Magazine

Barack and Joe’s Secret Code - POLITICO Magazine: "Biden’s most significant domestic assignment was supervising the 2009 Recovery Act, which was larger than anything FDR tried during his fabled First Hundred Days. In contrast to the New Deal, where the word “boondoggle” originated, Obama’s nearly $1 trillion stimulus package was surprisingly scandal-free. Even Republicans like Sen. Pat Roberts, who hated the whole idea of a stimulus were impressed by an accountability structure that fixed problems quickly. “Sheriff Joe,” as Obama called him, rode herd on tens of thousands of projects to make sure they weren’t stupid ideas that would discredit recovery efforts. Ron Klain, Biden’s first chief of staff, remembered a prominent senator calling to ask for a skate park in his state. “The vice president was, ‘No, no, no!’,” Klain said. “It showed everything about him in the executive branch — his common sense mentality turned out to be better judgment than all the slide rules together.”"



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Democrats: Left in the Lurch - NBC News

Democrats: Left in the Lurch - NBC News:

But Democrats a have a deeper, structural problem beyond gerrymandering. Democrats lost the House in 2010 before Republicans had redrawn the maps.

The problem is quirky but its effects are profound: Electorally speaking, Democrats live in the wrong places.

America’s electoral system rewards the party whose voters are more spread out across the map and, for now, that means the GOP. Democrats are densely packed in major cities where they waste millions of votes winning inefficiently huge margins that can’t be effectively redistributed no matter which party is drawing the congressional districts.

In Pennsylvania, for example, Republicans control 13 of the state’s 18 congressional districts even though registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state by close to 1 million voters. Republican gerrymandering is responsible for much of that mismatch. But GOP mapmakers were aided by the fact that Democrats tend to be inefficiently concentrated in the state’s two major cities, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

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Teen prosecuted as adult for having naked images – of himself – on phone | US news | The Guardian

Teen prosecuted as adult for having naked images – of himself – on phone | US news | The Guardian: "Each was therefore simultaneously the adult perpetrator who is considered a predator and the minor victim who needs protecting by the law.



 “It’s ludicrous,” said Fred Lane, a computer security and privacy expert and author of the book Cybertraps for Educators, based in New York. “It’s crazy. It’s an overreach."



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CFPB Sues Nation's Largest Student Loan Company Navient for Failing Borrowers at Every Stage of Repayment | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

CFPB Sues Nation's Largest Student Loan Company Navient for Failing Borrowers at Every Stage of Repayment | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: "Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is suing the nation’s largest servicer of both federal and private student loans for systematically and illegally failing borrowers at every stage of repayment. For years, Navient, formerly part of Sallie Mae, created obstacles to repayment by providing bad information, processing payments incorrectly, and failing to act when borrowers complained. Through shortcuts and deception, the company also illegally cheated many struggling borrowers out of their rights to lower repayments, which caused them to pay much more than they had to for their loans. "



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Our Graduates Are Rubes - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Our Graduates Are Rubes - The Chronicle of Higher Education: "The problem of inflated degrees is compounded by the problem of inflated grades. Academic standards have been lowered in an effort to ensure that coursework does not interfere with the enjoyable nature of the college experience. As a University of Chicago study found in 2011, "it does not take a great deal of effort to demonstrate satisfactory academic performance in today’s colleges and universities." Forty-five percent of students reported that in the prior semester they had not had a single course that required more than 20 pages of writing over the entire semester; 32 percent had not had even one class that assigned more than 40 pages of reading per week.

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Remarks on “Russia: The Threat, the International Order, and the Way Forward,” | usun.state.gov

Remarks on “Russia: The Threat, the International Order, and the Way Forward,” | usun.state.gov:

While people tend to look to the Cold War as the paradigm for understanding the nature of U.S.-Russia relations, the reality is that for pivotal parts of our shared history, U.S. and Russian interests have frequently aligned. We fought together in both of the 20th century’s world wars. Indeed, had it not been for the colossal sacrifices made by the Soviet Union in World War Two – in which they lost more than 20 million people, many times more than any other nation, friend or foe – the war would have dragged on much longer, millions more Americans and people of other Allied countries would likely have lost their lives, and fascism may well have prevailed in large parts of the world. Not to mention that the post-World War Two order may never have been built. Russia’s immense contribution in that war is part of their proud history of standing up to imperialist powers, from the Mongols in the 16th century to Napoleon in the 19th century. In addition, many of the challenges that Russia faces today – from violent extremism and China’s territorial expansionist aims, to national industries and jobs that have been rendered obsolete by globalization – are ones we also face here in the United States. So it is very much in our interest to try to solve problems with Russia. Dialogue between us is absolutely imperative.

Having said that, anyone who has seen my debates in the UN Security Council with Russia knows that I and my government have long had serious concerns about its government’s aggressive and destabilizing actions. The argument I want to make today goes beyond any particular action Russia has taken to its broader strategy, and what that means for the security of the United States.

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Dear Trump: Defending democracy is no vice - The Washington Post

Dear Trump: Defending democracy is no vice - The Washington Post: "Despite recent setbacks, there remain compelling moral reasons to support democracy and human rights around the world. Democracies offer the most accountable system of government, the only tonic for illegitimacy and the best way to offer political participation to the disenfranchised. Democracies are also better at protecting basic human rights, representing the will of the people and checking egregious uses of power. Democratic governments do not commit genocide, do not barrel-bomb their own citizens, do not create refugees and do not starve their people. They also are more stable than other forms of government because they offer a peaceful, institutionalized mechanism for transferring power.

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Every successful relationship is successful for the same exact reasons — Quartz

Every successful relationship is successful for the same exact reasons — Quartz: "3. The most important factor in a relationship is not communication, but respect

"

• NEVER talk shit about your partner or complain about them to your friends. If you have a problem with your partner, you should be having that conversation with them, not with your friends. Talking bad about them will erode your respect for them and make you feel worse about being with them, not better.
• Respect that they have different hobbies, interests, and perspectives from you. Just because you would spend your time and energy differently, doesn’t mean it’s better/worse.
• Respect that they have an equal say in the relationship, that you are a team, and if one person on the team is not happy, then the team is not succeeding.
• No secrets. If you’re really in this together and you respect one another, everything should be fair game. Have a crush on someone else? Discuss it. Laugh about it. Had a weird sexual fantasy that sounds ridiculous? Be open about it. Nothing should be off-limits.

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The Heroism of Incremental Care - The New Yorker

The Heroism of Incremental Care - The New Yorker: "This potential for incremental medicine to improve and save lives, however, is dramatically at odds with our system’s allocation of rewards. According to a 2016 compensation survey, the five highest-paid specialties in American medicine are orthopedics, cardiology, dermatology, gastroenterology, and radiology. Practitioners in these fields have an average income of four hundred thousand dollars a year. All are interventionists: they make most of their income on defined, minutes- to hours-long procedures—replacing hips, excising basal-cell carcinomas, doing endoscopies, conducting and reading MRIs—and then move on. (One clear indicator: the starting income for cardiologists who perform invasive procedures is twice that of cardiologists who mainly provide preventive, longitudinal care.)

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Joe Biden: ‘I Wish to Hell I’d Just Kept Saying the Exact Same Thing’ - The New York Times

Joe Biden: ‘I Wish to Hell I’d Just Kept Saying the Exact Same Thing’ - The New York Times: "After Air Force Two touched down on the tarmac in Wilmington, I asked him about a line he liked to use before the election. “So do you still believe what your grandfather said, that God looks out for drunken Irishmen and the United States of America?” Biden said he wasn’t sure about the Irishmen, but he was about the country. “I have to believe that,” he said. “There’s no sense being in this business unless you’re an optimist.”"



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When the Chinese Were Unspeakable | by Ian Johnson | The New York Review of Books

When the Chinese Were Unspeakable | by Ian Johnson | The New York Review of Books: "All of these explanations are wrong. Dao County is a center of Chinese civilization, the birthplace of great philosophers and calligraphers. The killers were almost all Chinese who murdered other Chinese. And the killings were not random: instead they were acts of genocide aimed at eliminating a class of people declared to be subhuman. That class consisted of make-believe landlords, nonexistent spies, and invented insurrectionists. Far from being the work of frenzied peasants, the killings were organized by committees of Communist Party cadres in the region’s towns, who ordered the murders to be carried out in remote areas. To make sure revenge would be difficult, officials ordered the slaughter of entire families, including infants.

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The Concussion Diaries: One High School Football Player’s Secret Struggle with CTE | GQ

The Concussion Diaries: One High School Football Player’s Secret Struggle with CTE | GQ: "Zac Easter knew what was happening to him. He knew why. And he knew that it was only going to get worse. So he decided to write it all down—to let the world know what football had done to him, what he'd done to his body and his brain for the game he loved. And then he shot himself.

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The Secret Source of Putin’s Evil | Vanity Fair

The Secret Source of Putin’s Evil | Vanity Fair: "When he allegedly hacked into the Democratic National Committee, it wasn’t a personal vendetta, as Hillary Clinton suggested, and when he allegedly helped disseminate fake news about the candidates, it wasn’t because he cared, first and foremost, about the election result. It was because he wanted tens of millions of Americans to doubt the legitimacy of their own election. After all, Putin can’t really be sure Donald Trump will serve Russia’s interests better than Clinton would have. That Trump is so erratic must worry the Kremlin. That his instrument of choice is Twitter must compound those worries. What is beyond debate, however, is that Americans losing faith in their democracy—and the institutions that prop up that democracy, like the media—does serve Russia’s long-term interests."



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Tillerson the Realist - Foreign Policy Research Institute

Tillerson the Realist - Foreign Policy Research Institute:

I’d suggest that statement reveals precisely the right balance and sensibility.  And it is striking that figures as diverse as Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, Robert Gates, Condi Rice, and George W. Bush now combine in recommending Tillerson for State.

Tillerson looks to bring a welcome steadiness, executive experience, integrity and prudence to the conduct of foreign policy in this new administration.  It’s clear he believes in a strong, active role for the United States overseas, including US alliances, diplomacy, and trade.  He evidently favors negotiation from strength, combined with restored military deterrence to counteract serious competitors such as Iran, China – and Russia.  As he told the assembled senators, specifically in relation to Vladimir Putin: “I’m advocating for responses that will deter and prevent further expansion of a bad actor’s behavior.”  Under the current circumstances, this hard-nosed mentality is exactly what’s needed.

I hope the Senate confirms him.

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PangeranDipanagara comments on How did Indonesia and Malaysia become majority-Muslim when they were once dominated by Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms?

PangeranDipanagara comments on How did Indonesia and Malaysia become majority-Muslim when they were once dominated by Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms?: "TL;DR - Rulers converted for economic, political, and personal reasons. Not much work has been done on popular conversion, but so far it seems that the government and Sufis both helped spread Islam on a popular level. The new religion was perceived as magic, provided solace in a changing world, and finally became just a part of life."



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President Bush Delivers Farewell Address to the Nation

President Bush Delivers Farewell Address to the Nation: "At the same time, we must continue to engage the world with confidence and clear purpose. In the face of threats from abroad, it can be tempting to seek comfort by turning inward. But we must reject isolationism and its companion, protectionism. Retreating behind our borders would only invite danger. In the 21st century, security and prosperity at home depend on the expansion of liberty abroad. If America does not lead the cause of freedom, that cause will not be led.



 As we address these challenges -- and others we cannot foresee tonight -- America must maintain our moral clarity. I've often spoken to you about good and evil, and this has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two of them there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere. Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right. This nation must continue to speak out for justice and truth. We must always be willing to act in their defense -- and to advance the cause of peace."



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Olympia Snowe: Why I’m leaving the Senate - The Washington Post

Olympia Snowe: Why I’m leaving the Senate - The Washington Post:

I certainly don’t have all the answers, and reversing the corrosive trend of winner-take-all politics will take time. But as I enter a new chapter in my life, I see a critical need to engender public support for the political center, for our democracy to flourish and to find solutions that unite rather than divide us.

I do not believe that, in the near term, the Senate can correct itself from within. It is by nature a political entity and, therefore, there must be a benefit to working across the aisle.

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Surprisingly, Trump inauguration shapes up to be a relatively low-key affair - The Washington Post

Surprisingly, Trump inauguration shapes up to be a relatively low-key affair - The Washington Post:

President Obama’s first inaugural festivities stretched over five days. Donald Trump is spending barely three on his.

Bill Clinton hit 14 official balls on the day he was sworn in. Trump plans appearances at three.

And while other presidents have staged parades that lasted more than four hours, Trump’s trip down Pennsylvania Avenue is expected to clock in at 90 minutes — making it among the shortest on record.

In a word, the 45th president’s inaugural activities will be “workmanlike,” said Boris Epshteyn, communications director for the Presidential Inaugural Committee, a pop-up staff of about 350 people scrambling to put together the proceedings from the second floor of a nondescript government building just south of the Mall.

The notion of a relatively low-key inaugural bereft of many ­A-list entertainers may come as a surprise, given the president-elect’s flair for showmanship and his credentials as a reality TV star. Epshteyn said that Trump settled on a less flashy approach, however, including keeping the ticket prices for the inaugural balls at $50 apiece so that ­working-class Americans who helped fuel Trump’s victory can take part.

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