To my sister, a new software engineer – Laura Conwill – Medium

To my sister, a new software engineer – Laura Conwill – Medium: "Happy first day of work! I put together this list of things to keep in mind as you’re starting your job. You probably already know some of it, and other parts might not be relevant since you’ve already interned at your new company, but I’m passing it along because it’s all stuff I would have found helpful when starting at my first couple of jobs.
"



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After decades of pushing bachelor’s degrees, U.S. needs more tradespeople | PBS NewsHour

After decades of pushing bachelor’s degrees, U.S. needs more tradespeople | PBS NewsHour:

Esparza is a 46-year-old mechanic for Evolution Fresh, a subsidiary of Starbucks that makes juices and smoothies. He’s taking a class in industrial computing taught by a community college at a local manufacturing plant in the hope it will bump up his wages.

It’s a pretty safe bet. The skills being taught here are in high demand. That’s in part because so much effort has been put into encouraging high school graduates to go to college for academic degrees rather than for training in industrial and other trades that many fields like his face worker shortages.

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spergery comments on Mattis orders Pentagon to allow transgender troops to continue serving, pending study

spergery comments on Mattis orders Pentagon to allow transgender troops to continue serving, pending study: "The fundamental impulse of the liberal mind is to improve what's bad, and the fundamental impulse of the conservative mind is to protect what's good. Just as liberals must, in my mind, reckon with the steep toll in human misery of their failed attempts to perfect human society, so too must conservatives reckon with the needlessly prolonged injustices that have resulted from our refusal to rock the social boat.
"



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These Women Entrepreneurs Created A Fake Male Cofounder To Dodge Startup Sexism

These Women Entrepreneurs Created A Fake Male Cofounder To Dodge Startup Sexism:

That’s when Gazin and Dwyer introduced a third cofounder: Keith Mann, an aptly named fictional character who could communicate with outsiders over email.

“It was like night and day,” says Dwyer. “It would take me days to get a response, but Keith could not only get a response and a status update, but also be asked if he wanted anything else or if there was anything else that Keith needed help with.”

Dwyer and Gazin continued to deploy Keith regularly when interacting with outsiders and found that the change in tone wasn’t just an anomaly. In exchange after exchange, the perceived involvement of a man seemed to have an effect on people’s assumptions about Witchsy and colored how they interacted with the budding business. One developer in particular seemed to show more deference to Keith than he did to Dwyer or Gazin, right down to the basics of human interaction.

“Whenever he spoke to Keith, he always addressed Keith by name,” says Gazin. “Whenever he spoke to us, he never used our names.”

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Black-clad antifa members attack peaceful right-wing demonstrators in Berkeley - The Washington Post

Black-clad antifa members attack peaceful right-wing demonstrators in Berkeley - The Washington Post: "“I applaud the more than 7,000 people who came out today to peacefully oppose bigotry, hatred and racism that we saw on display in Charlottesville,” Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín said in a statement. ” … However, the violence that small group of protesters engaged in against residents and the police, including throwing smoke bombs, is unacceptable. Fighting hate with hate does not work and only makes each side more entrenched in their ideological camps.”

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PoodlesForBernie2016 comments on La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson Texas

PoodlesForBernie2016 comments on La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson Texas: "I was a first responder after hurricane Katrina (in between shifts waiting tables) and had some direct and devastating experience with this.
The nursing home evacuees we received at the Red Cross shelter arrived 6-deep in ambulances and had been trapped in facilities without AC for about a week. They had been rescued in canoes and in some cases had had to walk or be carried through thigh-high water. When they entered the air conditioned college basketball stadium that had been turned into a makeshift hospital, many almost instantly went into hypothermia and many died. They turned the away-team locker room into a morgue.
"



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Sam Adams: Charles Weltner, Linwood Holton, and the value of political courage | THEIR OPINION | richmond.com

Sam Adams: Charles Weltner, Linwood Holton, and the value of political courage | THEIR OPINION | richmond.com: "Those political leaders looking for models can turn to Charles Weltner and Linwood Holton. There were many heroes of the civil rights movement, especially African Americans, who risked physical safety and even died in the pursuit of justice (we can now add Heather Heyer to the list). In these pursuits, Justice Weltner and Governor Holton represented political courage of an essential type. During extraordinary circumstances, they risked their political careers in the service of the greatest American ideal: freedom and equality for everyone.

"



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John R. Fox - Wikipedia

John R. Fox - Wikipedia: "For extraordinary heroism against an armed enemy in the vicinity of Sommocolonia, Italy, on December 26, 1944, while serving as a member of Cannon Company, 366th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Infantry Division. During the preceding few weeks, Lieutenant Fox served with the 598th Field Artillery Battalion as a forward observer. On Christmas night, enemy soldiers gradually infiltrated the town of Sommocolonia in civilian clothes, and by early morning the town was largely in hostile hands. Commencing with a heavy barrage of enemy artillery at 0400 hours on December 26, 1944, an organized attack by uniformed German units began. Being greatly outnumbered, most of the United States Infantry forces were forced to withdraw from the town, but Lieutenant Fox and some other members of his observer party voluntarily remained on the second floor of a house to direct defensive artillery fire. At 0800 hours, Lieutenant Fox reported that the Germans were in the streets and attacking in strength. He then called for defensive artillery fire to slow the enemy advance. As the Germans continued to press the attack towards the area that Lieutenant Fox occupied, he adjusted the artillery fire closer to his position. Finally he was warned that the next adjustment would bring the deadly artillery right on top of his position. After acknowledging the danger, Lieutenant Fox insisted that the last adjustment be fired as this was the only way to defeat the attacking soldiers. Later, when a counterattack retook the position from the Germans, Lieutenant Fox's body was found with the bodies of approximately 100 German soldiers. Lieutenant Fox's gallant and courageous actions, at the supreme sacrifice of his own life, contributed greatly to delaying the enemy advance until other infantry and artillery units could reorganize to repel the attack. His extraordinary valorous actions were in keeping with the most cherished traditions of military service, and reflect the utmost credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.

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Learning to Let Go of Our Southern 'Heritage'

Learning to Let Go of Our Southern 'Heritage': "I think most Southerners know that, though. I don't think there are many Southerners left who support the flag or the statues for genuinely benign—if naive—reasons, because they've finally seen the truth, which is that it doesn't matter what these things may have once symbolized in their eyes, it matters what they mean to the rest of the country. And today, right now, all any of it stands for is hate. This shit isn't about history. Hell, most of these monuments were built in the 20th century and the stars and bars isn't even the actual flag of the Confederacy. Also ... swastikas? Really? Look I don't know who raised these assholes but I'd think their papaws wouldn't appreciate that Nazi shit.

"



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George Christian Pettis comes home

George Christian Pettis comes home: "Recorded with Atlanta engineer Graham Tavel and released quietly this past December under his full name, George Christian Pettis, Tallasassy finds the songwriter taking the folk leanings of 100 Watt Horse and Wowser Bowser’s warbled synths a little further while also exploring more traditional country fare. The new influences, Pettis says, are attributable to his older brother, Rayvon, whom Pettis lived with in the midst of a “crisis of faith.”

"



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ดอกไม้ในที่ลับตา ver. นั่งเล่น ในสวน - YouTube

ดอกไม้ในที่ลับตา ver. นั่งเล่น ในสวน - YouTube:



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Violent Alt-Right Chats Could Be Key to Charlottesville Lawsuits | WIRED

Violent Alt-Right Chats Could Be Key to Charlottesville Lawsuits | WIRED: "On the recording, Mosley says, “Going up to, like, MSNBC and them interviewing you and you saying like, ‘Yeah, I actually think we should kill every nonwhite on the planet’ … like, again, I don’t necessarily like have an issue with listening to that on a podcast or whatever, but if you are gonna do something like that, even if it’s your true belief, that’s not the objective of this rally.”
"



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‘I Alone Can Fix It’ Becomes ‘It’s Not My Fault’

‘I Alone Can Fix It’ Becomes ‘It’s Not My Fault’: "Populists define political problems as very simple, denying the existence of complex tradeoffs. They envision the political system as pitting a unified people (or, in certain herrenvolk varieties of populism, as a unified racial subset of the people) against a nefarious elite. The dilemma is that the promise of easy solutions can help win an election, but it does not translate into governing. Populists generally either radically depart from their platform, resort to authoritarianism to consolidate their power, or fail. "



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The troubled legacy of the 2016 Rio Olympics | Miami Herald

The troubled legacy of the 2016 Rio Olympics | Miami Herald: "While the competition itself and the party Rio threw for fans from around the world was considered a success, and the city got an important boost to its transportation system as a result of the Games, the sports facilities have languished as Brazil struggles to emerge from a prolonged recession.

“They are all fulfilling their destiny as white elephants just as people thought they would,” said Lúcio de Castro, an investigative sports journalist who writes the Sportlight blog. Most of the Olympic facilities aren’t in use, or are only being used sporadically."



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I was detained for protesting Trump. Here’s what the Secret Service asked me. - The Washington Post

I was detained for protesting Trump. Here’s what the Secret Service asked me. - The Washington Post: "It was clear right away that these officials wouldn’t see me the way I see myself: as a reasonably responsible, skilled nonviolent political operative who works on a mix of electoral and issues campaigns. To them, I was clearly a threat to national security. It felt like an interrogation on “Homeland.” Here are my favorite parts of the conversation, as I remember them.

"



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FACT CHECK: Has the Secret Service Gone 'Broke' Paying Agents to Protect the Trump Family?

FACT CHECK: Has the Secret Service Gone 'Broke' Paying Agents to Protect the Trump Family?: "What is true is that Secret Service Director Randolph Alles predicts that by the end of 2017, some 1,100 employees will have worked at least some overtime hours above the current federal pay cap. According to an agency spokesperson, the Secret Service currently has around 6,700 employees, roughly 3,300 of whom are special agents. The current biweekly pay cap is based on compensation of $161,900 per year for special agents and uniformed division officers.

"



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Is the World Slouching Toward a Grave Systemic Crisis? - The Atlantic

Is the World Slouching Toward a Grave Systemic Crisis? - The Atlantic:

Especially since 9/11, the danger of catastrophic terrorism has turned America’s global strategic priorities upside-down. Terrorists tend to flourish in the broken ‘wilderness’ areas of the world. These are just the places that therefore are leastlikely to change the course of world history in any positive way.

These places draw huge amounts of our attention, resources, and energy. From the perspective of global strategy, not only is this all playing defense, it is actually anti-strategic—the most important power in the world concentrating on the leastimportant places.

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A Reminder of the "Deep Story"

I Spent 5 Years With Some of Trump’s Biggest Fans. Here’s What They Won’t Tell You. – Mother Jones: "You are patiently standing in the middle of a long line stretching toward the horizon, where the American Dream awaits. But as you wait, you see people cutting in line ahead of you. Many of these line-cutters are black—beneficiaries of affirmative action or welfare. Some are career-driven women pushing into jobs they never had before. Then you see immigrants, Mexicans, Somalis, the Syrian refugees yet to come. As you wait in this unmoving line, you’re being asked to feel sorry for them all. You have a good heart. But who is deciding who you should feel compassion for? Then you see President Barack Hussein Obama waving the line-cutters forward. He’s on their side. In fact, isn’t he a line-cutter too? How did this fatherless black guy pay for Harvard? As you wait your turn, Obama is using the money in your pocket to help the line-cutters. He and his liberal backers have removed the shame from taking. The government has become an instrument for redistributing your money to the undeserving. It’s not your government anymore; it’s theirs.

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Satan's Accountant

Satan's Accountant: "Even before the showdown in Texas, Bruce Wisan was trying to save the Mormon polygamists from their power-mad leader. But they believe Wisan was sent by the devil, which is making the job infernally hard.
"



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Incomes have been stagnant or falling for millions of Americans - Business Insider

Incomes have been stagnant or falling for millions of Americans - Business Insider:

A new paper titled "Lifetime Incomes in the United States over Six Decades" sheds some fairly definitive light on the lack of economic progress millions of Americans have experienced.

Among the most striking findings, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research and summarized here: The median male who turned 55 in 2013 earned $136,400 less in lifetime income, measured in 2013 dollars, than a 55-year-old 16 years earlier.

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Here’s What Russia’s Propaganda Network Wants You to Read - POLITICO Magazine

Here’s What Russia’s Propaganda Network Wants You to Read - POLITICO Magazine: "The network promotes a selective worldview of Western societies in decline, suffused with crime, chaos and conspiracy, and a Russia (and a Russian president) filled with strength and integrity. It produces some original content and amplifies content produced by other people, scouring the Internet for messages that tear down confidence in democracies, while absolving Russia and its allies from any hint of wrongdoing.

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lord_mayor_of_reddit comments on American children learn all about the "patriots" and their so-called struggle for liberty against British rule, but who were the most famous loyalists? I would like to know the pro-British perspective.

lord_mayor_of_reddit comments on American children learn all about the "patriots" and their so-called struggle for liberty against British rule, but who were the most famous loyalists? I would like to know the pro-British perspective.:

For 140 years, Massachusetts had local authority over all tax issues, and the law had been respected that way. This is how it had been done under the original Plymouth charter, and after a re-org in 1686 revoked that charter which ended in a rebellion in Boston with the colonial governor captured, a new Massachusetts charter was issued in 1691.

Under this new charter, Parliament and the King of England had the right to "impose and levy proportionable and reasonable assessments, rates, and taxes upon the estates and persons" of Massachusetts as long as these new laws were "issued and disposed of by warrant under the hand of the Governor of [Massachusetts] with the advice and consent of the Council [i.e., the Massachusetts colonial legislature] for our service in the necessary defence and support of our Government of [Massachusetts] and the protection and preservation of the inhabitants there".

In other words, the only way that Parliament and the King could raise taxes on the people of Massachusetts was to get authorization from the Massachusetts government.

This is how it had worked for 140 years, and this is what the law said, as the colonists understood it. And this is how Parliament had respected it for those 140 years as well. But now after the French and Indian War, Parliament began passing a series of laws that were essentially backdoor ways to tax the Thirteen Colonies, including Massachusetts. These schemes got more and more convoluted, including the Stamp Act, the Sugar Act, and the Tea Act among them.

Since Massachusetts couldn't sue, they did what they could do which was petition the King. Parliament would back off, then pass something else which again violated the charter of Massachusetts, and Massachusetts would again have to petition the King. This began to escalate to the point that Parliament began to specifically target Massachusetts, which is what some of the Intolerable Acts were.

The Boston Port Act punished Massachusetts specifically because of their reaction to the illegal Tea Act. But more egregious than that was the Massachusetts Government Act, which revoked the Massachusetts charter and brought the colony under the authority of the King.

This completely undermined the basis of the rule of law in the Thirteen Colonies. Up until then, the laws were based on the colonial charters, which were contracts between the people of the respective colonies and the King.

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William Tecumseh Sherman to Atlanta : "War is Hell"

William Tecumseh Sherman to Atlanta : "War is Hell":

  You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which can only be done by admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride.

      We don't want your Negroes, or your horses, or your lands, or any thing you have, but we do want and will have a just obedience to the laws of the United States. That we will have, and if it involved the destruction of your improvements, we cannot help it.

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A Most American Terrorist: The Making Of Dylann Roof | GQ

A Most American Terrorist: The Making Of Dylann Roof | GQ: "Their vitriol was warranted but also unexpected, since in most of the press coverage of the shooting it had largely been erased. Almost every white person I spoke with in Charleston during the trial praised the church's resounding forgiveness of the young white man who shot their members down. The forgiveness was an absolution of everything. No one made mention that this forgiveness was individual, not collective. Some of the victims and their families forgave him, and some of them did not. No one acknowledged that Dylann Roof had not once apologized, shown any remorse, or asked for this forgiveness. Or the fact that with 573 days to think about his crime, Dylann Roof stood in front of the jurors and, with that thick, slow tongue of his, said without any hesitation whatsoever, “I felt like I had to do it, and I still feel like I had to do it.”
"



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Why Even Nazis Deserve Free Speech - POLITICO Magazine

Why Even Nazis Deserve Free Speech - POLITICO Magazine: "What’s to account for this shift? One of our theories is that this generation of students comprises the children of students who went to college during the first great age of campus speech codes that spanned from the late 1980s through the early 90s. This is when colleges and universities first began writing over-broad and vague policies to regulate allegedly racist and sexist speech. Although that movement failed in the court of law, these codes have stubbornly persisted, and the view that freedom of speech is the last refuge of the “three Bs”—the bully, the bigot and the robber baron—found a home in classrooms.

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How I Became Fake News - POLITICO Magazine

How I Became Fake News - POLITICO Magazine:

Within the next 24 hours, nearly every major American news network and a variety of international press outlets asked to interview me about the attack. I was too shaken to sleep on Saturday night, but I spent all day Sunday conducting interviews. I tried to give a frank account of what I had seen on Fourth Street and respond clearly to questions about the situation more broadly. I said there was one side and one side alone responsible for the death I witnessed—the Nazis and white supremacists who brought their ideology of violence and hate to our town. It was their man who drove his vehicle into the crowd. I thought these points were straightforward and uncontroversial.

Boy was I wrong.

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We Asked an Expert Why America's Naval Vessels Keep Crashing - VICE

We Asked an Expert Why America's Naval Vessels Keep Crashing - VICE: "I am concerned that over the course of about 25 years the operational edge of the Navy has dulled. That was acceptable when threats at sea and the threats to the nation were less and the United States was a hyperpower and there was nobody to challenge us at sea or challenge our maritime interests. But those days are over. There are two great powers and a couple of lesser powers that are attempting to knock over our apple cart. And the Navy has suffered from a lack of that sort of singular operational focus that it had during the Cold War. And it has frayed around the edges in the absence of such a primary focus.

"



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R. Kelly Paid An Underage Woman Not To Speak. Now She’s Telling Her Story

R. Kelly Paid An Underage Woman Not To Speak. Now She’s Telling Her Story:

In 2008, Jerhonda Johnson was a 15-year-old sophomore from Chicago’s south suburbs who cut high school every day to attend R. Kelly’s trial on 14 counts of making child pornography. The R&B superstar had no bigger fan, and Johnson was quoted in national media stories defending her musical idol.

Now a 24-year-old mother of three with the married name Jerhonda Pace, she tells BuzzFeed News that after the trial, when she was 16, she became one of many women traumatized by a sexual relationship with Kelly. Her detailed and well-documented story of accepting cash settlements from the star in return for signing nondisclosure agreements, which has not been previously reported, illustrates how Kelly has been able to silence young women he has allegedly wronged.

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Okay | Well don't make it weird

Okay | Well don't make it weird:

It’s October 3rd. I’m not yet old enough to drink and I’m holding a small kitten and telling a joke about sucking a dog’s dick. Everyone laughs and a few of us choke on the smoke. I take my glove off and lay it over the kitten’s head hoping that makes it a little bit easier to breathe. He’s nestled into the crook of my arm, getting red fur on what I called my bad guy suit. It’s what I wear over my bad guy arms when I go out to do bad guy things. This was a bad guy night. Every night was a bad guy night. Out of the corner of my eye I notice a senior officer staring at me. He’d ordered me to leave the kitten alone, and I’d ignored him. I continue to ignore him and breathe deeply through a scarf wrapped around my mouth. The scarf is black with a bible verse printed on it in white. The scripture is great for filtering dust and the smell of burning garbage. The officer will kill the kitten if I let him. I wonder if he’s as big an asshole in America as he is here. It’s 2 am and we are surrounded by fire and twisted metal and bodies. I imagine that if there’s a hell, it might be a nice break from this. I carry my kitten a few yards through worse-than-hell to another soldier and ask him if he’d let a man suck his dick on the 50 yard line at the super bowl for a million dollars. We haggle.

In four hours the kitten is dead and I’m holding the hand of my friend and roommate, Jacob.

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studio 297 on Twitter: "@YAppelbaum here's the text for those who can't access the page. via https://t.co/7Jy0HpIo4b https://t.co/CLskM8LOeo"

studio 297 on Twitter: "@YAppelbaum here's the text for those who can't access the page. via https://t.co/7Jy0HpIo4b https://t.co/CLskM8LOeo": "Four devastating paragraphs by W.E.B. Du Bois, on Robert E. Lee"



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Mark Lilla Vs. Identity Politics | The American Conservative

Mark Lilla Vs. Identity Politics | The American Conservative: "There is a reason why the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement did not talk about identity the way black activists do today, and it was not cowardice or a failure to be woke. The movement shamed America into action by consciously appealing to what we share, so that it became harder for white Americans to keep two sets of books, psychologically speaking: one for “Americans” and one for “Negroes.” That those leaders did not achieve complete success does not mean that they failed, nor does it prove that a different approach is now necessary. There is no other approach likely to succeed. Certainly not one that demands that white Americans confess their personal sins and agree in every case on what constitutes discrimination or racism today. In democratic politics it is suicidal to set the bar for agreement higher than necessary for winning adherents and elections.

"



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Elon Musk leads 116 experts calling for outright ban on killer robots | Technology | The Guardian

Elon Musk leads 116 experts calling for outright ban on killer robots | Technology | The Guardian: "ome of the world’s leading robotics and artificial intelligence pioneers are calling on the United Nations to ban the development and use of killer robots.

Tesla’s Elon Musk and Google’s Mustafa Suleyman are leading a group of 116 specialists from across 26 countries who are calling for the ban on autonomous weapons."



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David Wagner salutes ‘brave’ Huddersfield after second successive win | Football | The Guardian

David Wagner salutes ‘brave’ Huddersfield after second successive win | Football | The Guardian:

Huddersfield Town went second in the table with their second win in the Premier League, proving their German manager David Wagner’s theory that anything is possible in football.

“I always say that to the players and now we are the living proof,” the Huddersfield manager said after Aaron Mooy’s superb shot five minutes after half-time sealed the victory. “I did not expect to be here but we must not forget that while we have had two great results we are still only two games into the season. All we want to do is to be brave in every single game and we have done that so far.

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(4) As a white mother of two black children, three... - Kate Riffle Roper

(4) As a white mother of two black children, three... - Kate Riffle Roper: "Now my boys look like teenagers. Black teenagers. They are 13. Let me ask you these questions. Do store personnel follow your children when they are picking out their Gatorade flavors? They didn’t follow my white kids. Do coffee shop employees interrogate your children about the credit card they are using to pay while you are in the bathroom? They didn’t interrogate my white kids. When your kids trick-or-treat in, dressed as a Ninja and a Clown, do they get asked who they are with and where they live, door after door? My white kids didn’t get asked. Do your kids get pulled out of the TSA line time and again for additional screening? My white kids didn’t. Do your kids get treated one way when they are standing alone but get treated a completely different way when you walk up? I mean a completely different way. My white kids didn’t. Do shoe sales people ask if your kids’ feet are clean before sizing them for shoes? No one asked me that with my white kids. Do complete strangers ask to touch your child’s hair? Or ask about their penis size? Or ask if they are “from druggies”? No one did this with my white kids.
"



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Mother of two black and three white kids' post on racism is a must read

Mother of two black and three white kids' post on racism is a must read:

Do coffee shop employees interrogate your children about the credit card they are using to pay while you are in the bathroom? They don't interrogate my white kids. When your kids go for trick-or-treat, dressed as a Ninja and a clown, do they get asked who they are with and where they live, door-after-door? My white kids don't get asked.

Do your kids get pulled out of the TSA line time and again for additional screening? My white kids don't.

Do your kids get treated one way when they are standing alone but get treated a completely different way when you walk up? I mean a completely different way. My white kids don't.

Do shoe sales people ask if your kids' feet are clean before sizing them for shoes? No one ask my white kids that. Do complete strangers ask to touch your child's hair? Or ask if they are "from druggies"? No one does this with my white kids.

Do you have to tell your kids not to fight back because they will be seen as aggressive if they stand up for themselves?

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DefinitelyNotDNDH comments on Dan Harmon explodes wayy better than Alex Jones

DefinitelyNotDNDH comments on Dan Harmon explodes wayy better than Alex Jones: "For me, the conversations stop when we can't agree on basic facts. The heartbreaking thing about BLM is that it began when people had actual video evidence of the kind of out of control racist police violence that black people have been talking about for decades, and still white people want to justify it. These "conversations" only lead to acceptance of evil. On the day the videos come out, everyone is outraged. Some voices call for calm. Then, slowly, voices call for alternative reasons. Eventually, every single time, nobody is convicted, and they are rarely prosecuted. For murder, murder that I can see with my own eyes being committed by men in uniform.
"



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Why can’t we see that we’re living in a golden age? | The Spectator

Why can’t we see that we’re living in a golden age? | The Spectator: "If you think that there has never been a better time to be alive — that humanity has never been safer, healthier, more prosperous or less unequal — then you’re in the minority. But that is what the evidence incontrovertibly shows. Poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy, child labour and infant mortality are falling faster than at any other time in human history. The risk of being caught up in a war, subjected to a dictatorship or of dying in a natural disaster is smaller than ever. The golden age is now.

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Who are the antifa?

Who are the antifa?:


Antifascists argue that after the horrors of chattel slavery and the Holocaust, physical violence against white supremacists is both ethically justifiable and strategically effective. We should not, they argue, abstractly assess the ethical status of violence in the absence of the values and context behind it. 



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Robert E. Lee - Wikipedia

Robert E. Lee - Wikipedia: "When Virginia declared its secession from the Union in April 1861, Lee chose to follow his home state, despite his desire for the country to remain intact and an offer of a senior Union command.[1] During the first year of the Civil War, Lee served as a senior military adviser to President Jefferson Davis. Once he took command of the main field army in 1862 he soon emerged as a shrewd tactician and battlefield commander, winning most of his battles, all against far superior Union armies.[2][3] Lee's strategic foresight was more questionable, and both of his major offensives into Union territory ended in defeat.[4][5][6] Lee's aggressive tactics, which resulted in high casualties at a time when the Confederacy had a shortage of manpower, have come under criticism in recent years.[7] Lee surrendered his entire army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. By this time, Lee had assumed supreme command of the remaining Southern armies; other Confederate forces swiftly capitulated after his surrender. Lee rejected the proposal of a sustained insurgency against the Union and called for reconciliation between the two sides.

"

Why We Terminated Daily Stormer

Why We Terminated Daily Stormer:

Earlier today, Cloudflare terminated the account of the Daily Stormer. We've stopped proxying their traffic and stopped answering DNS requests for their sites. We've taken measures to ensure that they cannot sign up for Cloudflare's services ever again.

Our terms of service reserve the right for us to terminate users of our network at our sole discretion. The tipping point for us making this decision was that the team behind Daily Stormer made the claim that we were secretly supporters of their ideology.

Our team has been thorough and have had thoughtful discussions for years about what the right policy was on censoring. Like a lot of people, we’ve felt angry at these hateful people for a long time but we have followed the law and remained content neutral as a network. We could not remain neutral after these claims of secret support by Cloudflare.

Now, having made that decision, let me explain why it's so dangerous.

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Four Castaways Make a Family - The New York Times

Four Castaways Make a Family - The New York Times:

By adopting from foster care, I became the mother I had needed and rewrote my own story. I got to have a childhood all over again, the right one, filled with cuddles and perseverance, safety and love. If there is such a thing as a cycle of abuse, I broke it over the wheel of my own desire.

It has been 20 years since I first adopted. Luppi, Tony and Markel are now thriving and well adjusted, working and going to school. If you met them, you wouldn’t guess their histories. But if they told you, that would be O.K., too, because there is nothing shameful about their pasts, or mine.

Recently we took a family vacation, flying from Oregon to Phoenix for four days. The kids horsed around in the pool, and I took a lot of pictures of them, grinning and full of life.

My caseworker had said all those years ago that I would be just right for them. As it turned out, they were just right for me.

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Saudi Arabia's missing princes - BBC News

Saudi Arabia's missing princes - BBC News: "In the last two years, three Saudi princes living in Europe have disappeared. All were critical of the Saudi government - and there is evidence that all were abducted and flown back to Saudi Arabia… where nothing further has been heard from them.
"



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A place no-one wants to be | Correspondent

A place no-one wants to be | Correspondent: "Then two men who had come down from the overpass started to chat with me. One of them was particularly interested and understanding of what I was doing, but told me bluntly “we came down here to buy heroin, but nobody is selling because of you.” Seeing the startled look on my face, he followed up, “people are starting to get [dope] sick, because they won’t sell while you’re here.”"



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Trump and the Responsibility of Leadership | The Resurgent

Trump and the Responsibility of Leadership | The Resurgent:

White supremacy and Naziism are the twin heads of a single evil. Racism is an assault on the diversity of God’s creation. More specifically, it is an assault on God himself, whose image is imprinted on every man, woman, and child, *regardless* of their race.

This is why we must resist this evil while we can, because, unchecked, we know where it leads. We saw in played out in the events leading up to and surrounding both the Civil War and WWII.

This is also why it is particularly important for American pastors to speak directly and boldly to this issue *now*, while it is fresh in our thoughts. Pastors have the theology and the platform to make a very real difference—but *only* if they use it.

People need to be educated. More importantly, they need a solid, theological foundation for their resistance.

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How "Nice White People" Benefit from Charlottesville and White Supremacy | Teen Vogue

How "Nice White People" Benefit from Charlottesville and White Supremacy | Teen Vogue: "The protest — proudly accessorized with swastikas, Confederate flags, and an unabridged thesaurus of slurs — was perhaps the most grotesque manifestation of bigotry since the 2016 election. For “nice white people” who felt a ton of compassion for the minorities in the 2006 Oscar-winning film Crash, it may be tempting to write Charlottesville off as a fringe act, when truly it is emblematic of a disease plaguing every member of this society. The vile hate we saw this weekend is enabled by a far quieter refusal to fight against white supremacy and an accompanying willingness to reap its benefits. You can participate in white supremacy without carrying a tiki torch for racism.
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Two Blocks From the Culture War: A Local Perspective on Charlottesville - Lawfare

Two Blocks From the Culture War: A Local Perspective on Charlottesville - Lawfare:

My wife and I took our daughters for a walk around the protests, four blocks south, to the farmer’s market on the other side of the historic, bricked, pedestrian-only Downtown Mall. Immediately, we felt the sense of danger as fully armed white supremacist protestors walked dangerously close to counter-protestors. Taunts were already being hurled in both directions.

When we arrived at the market, we were surprised to find it eerily quiet. The market is usually packed on a Saturday morning. Row after row of beautiful heirloom tomatoes sat undisturbed, in a rainbow array of colors. Bread stands and coffee stands and local artisans had plenty of product and not enough customers.

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Black man convinces 200 Ku Klux Klansmen to leave white supremacist group by befriending them | The Independent

Black man convinces 200 Ku Klux Klansmen to leave white supremacist group by befriending them | The Independent:

A black man says he has accidentally persuaded around 200 white racists to abandon the Klu Klux Klan simply by befriending them.

Blues musician Daryl Davis has travelled the US for around three decades, actively seeking out white supremacists as a hobby.

In a new documentary, out this month, the 58-year-old can be seen sitting down beside and joking with cloaked members.

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stoicsilence comments on Americans, would you ever consider a foreigner an American? At what point would you make this distinction?

stoicsilence comments on Americans, would you ever consider a foreigner an American? At what point would you make this distinction?:

Tens of thousands even hundreds of thousands of Americans are born every year around the world.

They just haven't come home yet.

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NASA is defiantly communicating climate change science despite Trump’s doubts - The Washington Post

NASA is defiantly communicating climate change science despite Trump’s doubts - The Washington Post: "One does wonder whether NASA will be an enduring safe-haven for climate change science information and if it will continue to post information that contradicts the positions of administration officials. But so far, no one has stopped it.

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Bombing Plot in Oklahoma City Is Thwarted With Arrest, F.B.I. Says - The New York Times

Bombing Plot in Oklahoma City Is Thwarted With Arrest, F.B.I. Says - The New York Times:

A 23-year-old Oklahoma man has been arrested after he tried to blow up a bank in downtown Oklahoma City using a vehicle bomb similar to the one that destroyed the federal building there in 1995, federal officials said Monday.

The man, Jerry Drake Varnell, had been plotting the attack for months, the authorities said, but was thwarted by a long-running undercover investigation led by an F.B.I. joint terrorism task force.

Mr. Varnell was arrested early Saturday after he parked a van loaded with what he believed to be a working explosive device in an alley next to the bank, and then dialed a number on a cellphone that he thought would set it off, federal officials said. The device was inert and could not explode, the officials said.

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These 3 barriers make it hard for policymakers to use the evidence that development researchers produce - The Washington Post

These 3 barriers make it hard for policymakers to use the evidence that development researchers produce - The Washington Post:

In international development, the “evidence revolution” has generated a surge in policy research over the past two decades. We now have a clearer idea of what works and what doesn’t. In India, performance pay for teachers works: students in schools where bonuses were on offer got significantly higher test scores. In Kenya, charging small fees for malaria bed nets doesn’t work — and is actually less cost-effective than free distribution. The American Economic Association’s registry for randomized controlled trials now lists 1,287 studies in 106 countries, many of which are testing policies that very well may be expanded.

But can policymakers put this evidence to use?

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French President Emmanuel Macron's fall from grace, explained - Vox

French President Emmanuel Macron's fall from grace, explained - Vox:

When centrist Emmanuel Macron trounced far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in France's presidential election, Europe was simultaneously relieved and excited by the possible emergence of a new and charismatic champion of the values of tolerance and openness.

Three short months later, Macron’s shine has dulled, his domestic popularity has plummeted, and critics are beginning to argue that the inexperience and inclinations of France’s new leader may be a bigger liability than they initially thought.

The youngest president in modern French history, Macron has made a series of missteps that have led the French army’s top general to quit, turned the public against his wife, angered students and advocates for the poor, and surprised those who hadn’t realized that Macron wouldn’t play nicely with the country’s boisterous and aggressive press corps. He’s been called too authoritarian in his instincts, and too elitist in his approach.

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Don’t Ever Forget This Single Image from Charlottesville | The Resurgent

Don’t Ever Forget This Single Image from Charlottesville | The Resurgent: "The next time you are tempted to question the restraint and character of our police, remember this picture of Officer Nash. Remember him standing stoic in the face of hateful souls, stalwart in his commitment to protect even them.

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Defending Cville on Twitter: "Then we shook hands and left. Two people, opposite sides, both determined to fighr against Nazi ideology."

Defending Cville on Twitter: "Then we shook hands and left. Two people, opposite sides, both determined to fighr against Nazi ideology.": "Then we shook hands and left. Two people, opposite sides, both determined to fighr against Nazi ideology.
"



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The Three Percenters Official Statement Regarding the Violent Protests in Charlottesville | The Three Percenters

The Three Percenters Official Statement Regarding the Violent Protests in Charlottesville | The Three Percenters: "The violent protests that occurred today happened when ANTIFA and BLM showed up to counter-protest against alt-right white supremacists and Nazi groups who were scheduled to gather in Charlottesville's Emancipation Park to protest the city's decision to remove a confederate statue there. While we support and defend everyone's right to free speech, we will not align ourselves with any type of racist group. We cannot have this organization tainted by news outlets as they will most certainly report that we have aligned ourselves with white supremacists and Nazis.
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‘Jews will not replace us’: Why white supremacists go after Jews - The Washington Post

‘Jews will not replace us’: Why white supremacists go after Jews - The Washington Post: "They immediately went after the Jews. At their Friday night rally at the University of Virginia, the white nationalists brandished torches and chanted anti-Semitic and Nazi slogans, including “blood and soil” (an English rendering of the Nazi “blut und boden”) and “Jews will not replace us” — all crafted to cast Jews as foreign interlopers who need to be expunged. The attendees proudly displayed giant swastikas and wore shirts emblazoned with quotes from Adolf Hitler. One banner read, “Jews are Satan’s children.”

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I witnessed the fatal attack in Charlottesville. It won't scare me into silence. - The Washington Post

I witnessed the fatal attack in Charlottesville. It won't scare me into silence. - The Washington Post: "I will never forget the sound of those bodies being hit by that car. But I won’t be intimidated, and neither will the enormous movement of people opposed to the virulent racism represented by Spencer and his crew. The incredible folks at the DSA Veterans Working Group have raised nearly $100,000 for the victims of the terrorist act, and vigils are being planned across the country for the woman who was killed.

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MRItopMD comments on Why You Trust the Internet More Than Your Doctor

MRItopMD comments on Why You Trust the Internet More Than Your Doctor: "Point being in this rant, is that people remove all and any nuance from everything, healthcare happens to be the most important scientic area to the average person, and removing nuance and adding soundbites is what society does. This makes people think they can be as informed of their care as their doctors in a matter of months which is ridiculous. I don't really think it is necessarily because so many people find other forms of medicine more appealing, as much as it being it is essentially hip to not trust doctors at all because now medical information is purpoted to be easily accessible. Here is my position, if you can't read harrisons and understand what is going on(not saying people should actually read harrisons), you don't understand your body well enough to make decisions without the consultation of your doctor. I respect their right to make stupid choices, but I won't defend them.
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Mother Of Charlottesville Victim Heather Heyer: 'I’m Proud Of What She Did' | HuffPost

Mother Of Charlottesville Victim Heather Heyer: 'I’m Proud Of What She Did' | HuffPost:

“I think he’s still very young, and I’m sorry he believed that hate could fix problems. Hate only brings more hate,” Bro said. “Heather was not about hate, Heather was about stopping hatred. Heather was about bringing an end to injustice.

She began to cry as she added, “I don’t want her death to be a focus for more hatred, I want her death to be a rallying cry for justice and equality and fairness and compassion. I’m very sorry that [Fields] chose that path because he has now ruined his life as well as robbed a great many of us of someone we love very much.”

“No mother wants to lose a child, but I’m proud of her,” she said. “I’m proud of what she did.”

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M.T.A. Tries a New Tack During Delays: The Truth - The New York Times

M.T.A. Tries a New Tack During Delays: The Truth - The New York Times: "On my way home from work two Thursdays ago, the No. 3 train I was riding stopped suddenly, just before the 72nd Street station.

This, on the New York City subway, was not particularly unusual. But what happened afterward was.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” began the voice over the loudspeaker, sounding rattled. “I have bad news. A passenger just jumped in front of the train.”

Several people gasped. A woman near me jerked her head up from her phone, wearing an expression of horror. We riders did something not normally acceptable: We made eye contact with one another.

A train conductor or operator speaking of a death on the tracks without euphemism: We had never heard that before.

He was speaking with supervisors about how to proceed, the voice continued. There would be major delays. He was very sorry."

Nobody seemed annoyed about waiting. And that was most unusual of all.




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killthebillionaires comments on 7 days ago /r/the_donald mods stickied the Charlottesville event. They actively promoted an event where 19 people were injured and 1 of our comrades was killed. Will the Reddit admins retroactively ban /r/the_donald or will they continue to enable racist murders?

killthebillionaires comments on 7 days ago /r/the_donald mods stickied the Charlottesville event. They actively promoted an event where 19 people were injured and 1 of our comrades was killed. Will the Reddit admins retroactively ban /r/the_donald or will they continue to enable racist murders?:

In June 2015, Dylann Roof was inspired by the “hate facts” posted on Daily Stormer and Council of Conservative Citizens to murder nine people at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

In July 2015, John Russell Houser, a far-right former bar owner, shot and killed two people and injured nine others before committing suicide in a Lafayette, LA movie theater which was playing Trainwreck, due to its feminist themes and characters, as well as its lead actor's Jewish background. Houser was said to have been a misogynist and praised the actions of Adolf Hitler on online message boards.

In November of 2015, a group of well-armed 4chan regulars attended a Black Lives Matter camp in Minneapolis, harassing them with racial slurs. They opened fire on activists attempting to chase them out when they returned a second night, wounding five.

An antifascist protester of Milo Yiannopolous was shot in stomach on Inauguration Day by Elizabeth Hakoana, who came to the protest with her husband, who planned to “crack skulls” of the “snowflakes” at the event and provoke a reaction to justify shooting someone.

Later in January, Alexandre Bisonette, a supporter of Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen, opened fire on a Quebec City Islamic Culutral Center, killing six.

In February, a white U.S. Navy veteran, Adam Purinton, 51, killed an Indian engineer, wounded his Indian co-worker, and shot a man who tried to stop the murder at a bar in Olathe, KS while yelling "get out of my country."

In March, James Jackson, a subscriber of Alt Right Youtube channels, traveled from Baltimore to New York with the sole purpose of murdering a black person at random. He stabbed Timothy Caughman, killing him.

Sean Christopher Urbanski, a University of Maryland student and member of online alt-right facebook groups, randomly stabbed to death black Army Officer Richard Collins III in Baltimore.

A man in Portland, OR stabbed 3 people, killing 2, who intervened to tell him to stop making racist remarks to muslim women on a light rail train.

Anthony Robert Hammond hacked a random black man with a machete after yelling racial slurs at numerous people in Clearlake, CA in May.

Jimmy Kramer, a 20 year old Native American, was run over during his birthday party in Washington state by a man and woman in a large pickup truck who first circled the party yelling racial slurs and taunts at the group from inside the truck. Kramer died and his friend was hospitalized.

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I’m a White Man. Hear Me Out. - The New York Times

I’m a White Man. Hear Me Out. - The New York Times: "That reception was wrong. I said so. And a reader responded: “I don’t need one more white male criticizing young people of color.” Other readers also homed in on my race — or on the professor’s: “Weinstein will be fine. He’s white.” That automatically and axiomatically made him a less compelling actor in the drama, a less deserving object of concern, no matter his actions, no matter his argument.

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ELI5: If red and purple are at opposite ends of the visible spectrum, why does red seem to fade into purple just as well as it fades into orange? : explainlikeimfive

ELI5: If red and purple are at opposite ends of the visible spectrum, why does red seem to fade into purple just as well as it fades into orange? : explainlikeimfive: "Because purple isn't actually on the spectrum. It's not a real color at all (that is, there is no single wavelength of light that is purple). The visual spectrum runs from red to deep blue (indigo), but there's no purple on it anywhere. Purple exists all in our head, as a consequence of how our visual system works. How is that possible?
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Short Answers to Hard Questions About the Opioid Crisis - The New York Times

Short Answers to Hard Questions About the Opioid Crisis - The New York Times: "It’s the deadliest drug crisis in American history.
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Mitch Landrieu’s Speech on the Removal of Confederate Monuments in New Orleans - The New York Times

Mitch Landrieu’s Speech on the Removal of Confederate Monuments in New Orleans - The New York Times:

You see — New Orleans is truly a city of many nations, a melting pot, a bubbling caldron of many cultures. There is no other place quite like it in the world that so eloquently exemplifies the uniquely American motto: e pluribus unum — out of many we are one. But there are also other truths about our city that we must confront. New Orleans was America’s largest slave market: a port where hundreds of thousands of souls were bought, sold and shipped up the Mississippi River to lives of forced labor of misery of rape, of torture. America was the place where nearly 4000 of our fellow citizens were lynched, 540 alone in Louisiana; where the courts enshrined ‘separate but equal’; where Freedom riders coming to New Orleans were beaten to a bloody pulp. So when people say to me that the monuments in question are history, well what I just described is real history as well, and it is the searing truth.

And it immediately begs the questions, why there are no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives; the pain, the sacrifice, the shame... all of it happening on the soil of New Orleans. So for those self-appointed defenders of history and the monuments, they are eerily silent on what amounts to this historical malfeasance, a lie by omission. There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it.

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This Man Used His Inherited Fortune To Fund The Racist Right

This Man Used His Inherited Fortune To Fund The Racist Right:

Asked whether he considers Jews to be white, Regnery cocked his head and said, “That’s a good question!” Turning to “racial science,” he said that DNA shows Ashkenazi Jews are half white, while Sephardic Jews are not white at all. If he ever gets his ethnostate, he said, he might allow some Jews to live there, but not others. He joked that Paul Gottfried, one of his Jewish allies years ago, would be OK.

What would happen to those excluded from his ethnostate? He didn’t really say, nor did he truly address the underlying premise of his dream: massive violence and ethnic cleansing. This will all happen, he insisted, “by consent.”

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Brad Ripka on Twitter: "I know there's a difference here, but I just can't quite put my finger on it. #Charlottesville https://t.co/5VfuskcwfI"

Brad Ripka on Twitter: "I know there's a difference here, but I just can't quite put my finger on it. #Charlottesville https://t.co/5VfuskcwfI":



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A Note on Call-Out Culture – Briarpatch Magazine

A Note on Call-Out Culture – Briarpatch Magazine: "In the context of call-out culture, it is easy to forget that the individual we are calling out is a human being, and that different human beings in different social locations will be receptive to different strategies for learning and growing. For instance, most call-outs I have witnessed immediately render anyone who has committed a perceived wrong as an outsider to the community. One action becomes a reason to pass judgment on someone’s entire being, as if there is no difference between a community member or friend and a random stranger walking down the street (who is of course also someone’s friend). Call-out culture can end up mirroring what the prison industrial complex teaches us about crime and punishment: to banish and dispose of individuals rather than to engage with them as people with complicated stories and histories.

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Immigration: California Crops Rot During Farmworker Shortage | Fortune.com

Immigration: California Crops Rot During Farmworker Shortage | Fortune.com: "Vegetable prices may be going up soon, as a shortage of migrant workers is resulting in lost crops in California.
Farmers say they're having trouble hiring enough people to work during harvest season, causing some crops to rot before they can be picked. Already, the situation has triggered losses of more than $13 million in two California counties alone, according to NBC News."



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The Liberal Crackup - WSJ

The Liberal Crackup - WSJ:

Every advance of liberal identity consciousness has marked a retreat of liberal political consciousness. There can be no liberal politics without a sense of We—of what we are as citizens and what we owe each other. If liberals hope ever to recapture America’s imagination and become a dominant force across the country, it will not be enough to beat the Republicans at flattering the vanity of the mythical Joe Sixpack. They must offer a vision of our common destiny based on one thing that all Americans, of every background, share.

And that is citizenship. We must relearn how to speak to citizens as citizens and to frame our appeals for solidarity—including ones to benefit particular groups—in terms of principles that everyone can affirm.

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The real reason a North Korean nuclear weapon is so terrifying—and it’s not what you think

The real reason a North Korean nuclear weapon is so terrifying—and it’s not what you think: "The scenario I have in mind is one in which North Korea starts at a relatively low rung of the escalation ladder: sinking a South Korean naval vessel, bombarding South Korean-controlled islands in the West Sea, or creating trouble in the demilitarized zone. It has done all of these things in the last seven years but then backed off from further conflict. Once Pyongyang can target the continental United States, it will likely take bigger risks than it has to date. It would undertake such limited-war actions as much to achieve political gains as military ones. It would hope to test South Korean intentions and try to drive wedges within South Korean society: between the military on the one hand and President Moon’s dovish advisers on the other; between conservative parties and progressive ones; between segments of the public that don’t want to see their country pushed around and those who worry about Seoul’s vulnerability. Where President Moon would come out is anybody’s guess.

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Voter Study Group and why Obama voters defected to Trump.

Voter Study Group and why Obama voters defected to Trump.: "This is a portrait of the most common Obama-to-Trump voter: a white American who wants government intervention in the economy but holds negative, even prejudiced, views toward racial, ethnic, and religious minorities. In 2012, these voters seemed to value economic liberalism over a white, Christian identity and backed Obama over Romney. By 2016, the reverse was true: Thanks to Trump’s campaign, and the events of the preceding years, they valued that identity over economic assistance. In which case, you can draw an easy conclusion about the Clinton campaign—even accounting for factors like misogyny and James Comey’s twin interventions, it failed to articulate an economic message strong enough to keep those populists in the fold and left them vulnerable to Trump’s identity appeal. You could then make a firm case for the future: To win them back, you need liberal economic populism.

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Guy Who Scheduled 6 Dates In One Night Was Kicked Out of Another Bar for Allegedly Hitting On All The Women

Guy Who Scheduled 6 Dates In One Night Was Kicked Out of Another Bar for Allegedly Hitting On All The Women:

On his way out, Schweiger turned around and told Hess, “Just so you know, I know the owner and I’m going to get you fired for this.” Again, Hess is the owner.

Schweiger denies that he was asked to leave. “They did not kick me out,” he says. “I cannot be kicked out of anywhere in DC.” He doesn’t remember what he might have said to the owner. 

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SuicideBonger comments on Trump declares national emergency on opioid abuse

SuicideBonger comments on Trump declares national emergency on opioid abuse: "As much as people want to think of the world as black and white; right and wrong, do or don't, it's much more nuanced than that. The best way I can describe it is a steady succession of bad choices over a period of time, brought on by life events. I am of the firm belief that an individual is born an addict. Your brain is just waiting for the right stimulant to manifest the addiction. For a lot of people, it's alcohol. Others, it's stimulants. The first time I tried opioids was when I was fifteen (I'm twenty-two now). In American Psycho, Brett Easton Ellis writes a line that truly defines addiction for me. He writes, "Relief washes over me like an awesome wave". When I took opiates, from the moment I first felt the effects, I knew they would ultimately be a problem.
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You're not imagining it: the rich really are hoarding economic growth - Vox

You're not imagining it: the rich really are hoarding economic growth - Vox:

Boy, the rich made out like bandits. The top 1 percent, but really the top 0.1, top 0.01, and even top 0.001 percent (that last group included only 2,344 adults in 2014) saw really fast, dramatic growth in their incomes after 1980. Contrary to some recent commentary, the large increase in inequality isn’t due to the top 20 percent; affluent, educated professionals with low-six-figure salaries and nice homes in good suburbs aren’t driving this. Their incomes are growing about 1.5 percent a year — not bad, but not that much better than the middle class either. The major spike is in the top 1 percent (adults receiving an average of $1.31 million per year each out of national income) and above, where annual income grew by 3, 4, 5, even 6 percent.

This doesn’t appear to have been the way the economy worked from, say, 1946 to 1980.

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