salliek76 comments on #560: Abdi and the Golden Ticket

salliek76 comments on #560: Abdi and the Golden Ticket:

My husband and I (both middle-aged white Americans) visited Paris last year, and one of my memories of the trip still gets me so choked up that I can barely talk about it.

We were on the subway, and sitting in one of the seats near me was an older teenage boy who had the absolute blackest skin I have ever seen in my life. He was wearing brand new blue jeans, brand new tennis shoes, and a plain green t-shirt that still showed the creases from the package. He kept looking down at some papers in his hand, and anxiously looking up at the map on the train wall. Something about him just looked so pitiful to me--like I just wanted to pat his leg or hug him, but of course I didn't.

As we moved toward the door to get off at our stop, I could see that what he was holding had a big UN logo at the top, and in French and English the header said that it was an official application for asylum.

My heart absolutely aches when I think about what that poor guy must have endured up to that point in his life, how anxious he looked, my realization that he or someone had bought those clothes specifically for that day and he was literally as dressed up as it was possible for him to be.

I wish every single xenophobe in the United States could experience a moment like that. I just know that it would change so many minds if they could have just one single interaction with someone who is so desperate to escape their situation.

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Al Gore: 'Consider me exhibit A' for why each vote matters - POLITICO

Al Gore: 'Consider me exhibit A' for why each vote matters - POLITICO: "“Here’s my second message: Your vote really, really, really counts — a lot. You can consider me as an exhibit A of that group. Now, for those of you who are younger than 25, you might not remember the election of 2000 and what happened here in Florida and across the country,” Gore said, prompting boos from the crowd.

"



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Dozens of suspicious court cases, with missing defendants, aim at getting web pages taken down or deindexed

Dozens of suspicious court cases, with missing defendants, aim at getting web pages taken down or deindexed:

Now, you might ask, what’s the point of suing a fake defendant (to the extent that some of these defendants are indeed fake)? How can anyone get any real money from a fake defendant? How can anyone order a fake defendant to obey a real injunction?

The answer is that Google and various other Internet platforms have a policy: They won’t take down material (or, in Google’s case, remove it from Google indexes) just because someone says it’s defamatory. Understandable — why would these companies want to adjudicate such factual disputes? Butif they see a court order that declares that some material is defamatory, they tend to take down or deindex the material, relying on the court’s decision.

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Divided by meaning – Medium

Divided by meaning – Medium: "Here is the thing I want to hammer on. When the front row (me, you, pundits, politicians) call Trumps voters, the back row, stupid. Or dumb. Or idiots. When we scold them for supporting such an awful man (he is!). That plays right into everything they have been told all of their lives.
"

Nobody wants a life that feels meaningless. Everybody wants to feel a valuable member of something bigger than themselves. Calling Trump voters deplorable (some are!) will only make them angrier, and only increase their humiliation. That will just make all of this stuff worse.

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Donald Trump and the Generals - The Atlantic

Donald Trump and the Generals - The Atlantic: "However, no one has bothered to figure out Trump’s plan B to even judge how good or bad it is (and Trump himself probably doesn’t even have a Plan B because he believes all his Plan A’s are The Greatest). This is one of the tells that shows more than just about anything else that he isn’t qualified to be President. Plan A’s fail all the time. Having a workable plan B, C, D, and E is the difference between an Eisenhower and a Patton, a Ridgeway and a MacArthur.
"



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‘Missing’ woman unknowingly joins search for herself

‘Missing’ woman unknowingly joins search for herself: "A woman who was reported missing from an Icelandic tour unwittingly joined a search for herself.

"



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Vengeance

Vengeance:

I served under both Democratic and Republican presidents, all of whom assiduously stood by the principle that law enforcement should never be used for political purposes. In a time-honored approach, the White House is not allowed to contact prosecutors about cases they are handling, and neither is the Congress.

Prosecutors must make their decisions based solely on the law and the facts, tempered only by their obligation to do justice for our citizens.

No president should ever use the Justice Department to attack political opponents. No principle is more fundamental to how we ensure the integrity of our democracy.

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ISIS Media Output Drops as Military Pressure Rises, Report Says - The New York Times

ISIS Media Output Drops as Military Pressure Rises, Report Says - The New York Times:

Beginning in 2014, Islamic State propaganda was effective not just because it was often sophisticated and well-produced, but because of its message of inevitable victory, urging Muslims around the world to join the successful state-building effort.

As long as the group was expanding by seizing cities and territory in Syria and Iraq, and later in Libya and elsewhere, that message resonated with some young Muslims across the Middle East and North Africa, in some European countries and, on a smaller scale, even in the United States.

But as the military campaign by the United States and its allies has shrunk the Islamic State’s turf and killed some of its leaders, it has started to look less like a religious state with a future and more like an eroding terrorist army.

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Dear Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, I Am Not Sidney Blumenthal

Dear Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, I Am Not Sidney Blumenthal: "This is not funny. It is terrifying. The Russians engage in a sloppy disinformation effort and, before the day is out, the Republican nominee for president is standing on a stage reciting the manufactured story as truth. How did this happen? Who in the Trump campaign was feeding him falsehoods straight from the Kremlin?

"



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Not their job: Turning Afghanistan’s special forces into regular troops - The Washington Post

Not their job: Turning Afghanistan’s special forces into regular troops - The Washington Post: "The Afghan army, a force with inconsistent levels of competence and with nearly unsustainable casualty numbers, is increasingly relying on the commandos as stopgap cover in a campaign it — more often than not without external support — is losing. The reliance on the commandos risks both burning out the elite force and creating a sense of complacency within the regular army, according to U.S. advisers.

"



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Trump Voters Are Not Immoral | The Resurgent

Trump Voters Are Not Immoral | The Resurgent:

Trump voters have legitimate grievances. They see Republicans making promises then breaking them. They see Barack Obama extending the powers of the Presidency while the GOP fails to constrain him. They see a Republican Party that refuses to fight. They see family and friends addicted to drugs, their lives crumbling, their jobs going away. They see a national government imposing one size fits all morality upon local communities.

They are eager to push back against growing liberal efforts to homogenize national culture, opinion, and values. They believe their local communities are under assault.

Many of them sided with Trump because he looked most eager to fight back. They made their decision emotionally and will live with the consequences.

There are other Trump voters who look at Hillary and Trump and have concluded that come hell or high water the odds are better with Trump than Hillary for change in Washington, though they know there is no guarantee.

They are not immoral and they have reason to support him. They see Republican efforts now to oust him as confirmation that the GOP rejects them and their issues.

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Dear Vladimir Putin, I Am Not Sidney Blumenthal

Dear Vladimir Putin, I Am Not Sidney Blumenthal: "For now, though, Americans should be outraged. This totalitarian regime, engaged in what are arguably war crimes in Syria to protect their government puppet, is working to upend a democracy to the benefit of an American candidate who uttered positive comments just Sunday about the Kremlin's campaign on behalf of Bashar al-Assad. Trump’s arguments were an incomprehensible explication of the complex Syrian situation, which put him right on the side of the Iranians and Syrians who are fighting to preserve the government that is the primary conduit of weapons used against Israel.

So no, Mr. Putin, I’m not Sidney Blumenthal. And now that you have been exposed once again, get the hell out of our election."



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The forces at play in this election are not new

McCain: Obama not an Arab, crowd boos - POLITICO: "Fearing the raw and at times angry emotions of his supporters may damage his campaign, John McCain on Friday urged them to tone down their increasingly personal denunciations of Barack Obama, including one woman who said she had heard that the Democrat was "an Arab."

"



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:thinking face:

Taylor Swift needs to say something about Trump | Fusion: "What duty does a pop star have to voice a political opinion? Well, none at all. It’s not a pop star’s job to push a political agenda. Taylor Swift does not owe anyone her opinion on Trump, or racism, or anything. Celebrities, of course, may choose silence. But silence is not an apolitical action, as much as Swift seems to suggest that it is. To remain silent is to remain complicit—a choice that’s all the more egregious in light of Swift’s enormous platform.

"



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Acts of War Cannot Go Ignored | commentary

Acts of War Cannot Go Ignored | commentary: " The proximate culprit appears to be the Houthi movement, which is mad at America for backing an assault on it by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Just last week, an Emirati ship was destroyed off the same part of the Yemen coast. But the Houthis are hardly lone actors. They do not manufacture their own missiles. They get them from Iran. That suggests this could be seen as an act of war by Iran against the United States.

It is an incident that is far more serious than the way it is being treated. It is, in fact, almost entirely overshadowed by the furor over the Trump campaign. The Obama administration should not be allowed to ignore it–if that is, in fact, its intent."



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Why Donald Trump Can’t Back Down - POLITICO Magazine

Why Donald Trump Can’t Back Down - POLITICO Magazine:

I’ve been reporting on Trump for more than a year, reading close to everything that’s ever been written about him, or by him (or his co-writers and ghostwriters), and sifting through transcripts of his hundreds of television interviews, as well as talking to people like Nusbaum, Res, O’Brien and dozens and dozens of others. And I’ve come to see the GOP nominee more than anything else as an entitled rich kid who grew old more than he grew up, who had a submissive mother and a stern, workaholic father whose idea of showing him affection was taking him to the office or a job site. And I think Trump has tried his whole life to address the lack of love he felt as a boy by attracting as much attention as he could as a man. “I don’t do it for the money,” he wrote in 1987 in The Art of the Deal—it’s the first sentence of his first book—and I believe him. He does it for the notoriety.



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How the GOP Slowly Went Insane - The Atlantic

How the GOP Slowly Went Insane - The Atlantic:

America needs a strong, rational, positive, practical conservative movement. It needs that bulwark against liberal delusion and hubris. It needs a voice that says we are imperfect, that life is complex, that government can create need even as it meets need, that you can’t fix everything and freedom is worth some danger and sorrow. And there are smart, honest conservatives at the ready to be that voice, to help govern practically and sincerely with that voice, but they are drowned out by the guttural scream of craven utopians raging against reality.

This moment in American political life is insane. That a group of narrow-minded zealots could push us to the brink of economic ruin, that they maintain a base of support in their frenzied, quixotic, incompetent gambit, that there is an apparatus that exists to defend this kind of nonsense—it came on us slowly but it is no less an emergency. This is broken. This cannot go on. 

And if you can’t see that then it’s not just the world that’s gone mad. You're crazy too.

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Monday's Campaign Round-Up, 10.10.16 | MSNBC

Monday's Campaign Round-Up, 10.10.16 | MSNBC: "* Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s running mate, insisted this morning that ABC’s Martha Raddatz “misrepresented” his Syria policy during last night’s presidential debate. For the record, Raddatz quoted Pence literally word for word.
"



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If Donald Trump has done anything, he has snuffed out the Religious Right - The Washington Post

If Donald Trump has done anything, he has snuffed out the Religious Right - The Washington Post:

There is good news, though, behind all of this, regardless of how this election turns out. The old-school political Religious Right establishment wonders why the evangelical next generation rejects their way. The past year is illustration enough. The evangelical movement is filled with younger, multiethnic, gospel-centered Christians. They are defined by a clear theology and a clear mission — not by the doctrinally vacuous resentment over a lost regime of nominal, cultural “Christian America.”

The people who have used the gospel to sell us politically cynical voting guides have done damage. But they are not replicating themselves in the next generation.

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The Governing Cancer of Our Time - The New York Times

The Governing Cancer of Our Time - The New York Times:

We live in a big, diverse society. There are essentially two ways to maintain order and get things done in such a society — politics or some form of dictatorship. Either through compromise or brute force. Our founding fathers chose politics.

Politics is an activity in which you recognize the simultaneous existence of different groups, interests and opinions. You try to find some way to balance or reconcile or compromise those interests, or at least a majority of them. You follow a set of rules, enshrined in a constitution or in custom, to help you reach these compromises in a way everybody considers legitimate.

The downside of politics is that people never really get everything they want. It’s messy, limited and no issue is ever really settled. Politics is a muddled activity in which people have to recognize restraints and settle for less than they want. Disappointment is normal.

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Hillary Clinton for President of the United States | Foreign Policy

Hillary Clinton for President of the United States | Foreign Policy:

In the nearly half century history of Foreign Policy, the editors of this publication have never endorsed a candidate for political office. We cherish and fiercely protect this publication’s independence and its reputation for objectivity, and we deeply value our relationship with all of our readers, regardless of political orientation.

It is for all these reasons that FP’s editors are now breaking with tradition to endorse Hillary Clinton for the next president of the United States.

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If I Die Before You Wake… | The Resurgent

If I Die Before You Wake… | The Resurgent:

My faith and politics are more and more irreconcilable. What matters more to me now is to do what I think is right, not to do what is popular. It is not to lead others, but to speak for those who cannot speak and do for others what they cannot do. I am no leader. I am just blessed with a platform where I say what I think is right and true and make sure those who agree know they are not alone.

The world wants believers to be alone and if my wife and I die before my children wake, they will feel alone and helpless in the world. So they must know Truth on the cross. That truth can guide them when I cannot and sustain them when I cannot and comfort them when I cannot.

I have never before worried about leaving my children alone in the world. But here I sit mindful of my health and their mother’s health. I see a fallen world and a nation turning in against itself. I want them to know neither they nor I nor their mother get reprieve from this world and its decay. But once through it we get eternity where there will be no tears, no sickness, no cancer, and no death. I just want to see them to the other side.

If I die before they wake, I want them to know these things.

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Donald Trump’s threat to imprison Hillary Clinton is a threat to democracy - Vox

Donald Trump’s threat to imprison Hillary Clinton is a threat to democracy - Vox:

In his last line — “you’d be in jail” — he is outright saying that he would imprison Hillary Clinton in office (if he could). This comes despite the fact that there is no evidence Clinton committed a crime in her handling of the email servers, despite lengthy investigations that found evidence of carelessness and dishonesty. That would be a politically motivated prosecution — retribution for daring to run against Trump and attack him during the campaign.

This is everything we feared about Donald Trump. His long history of trying to silence critics with lawsuits, his inability to let personal slights go, his pettiness: The nightmare scenario is that these would incline him to use the power of the presidency to forcibly silence his critics and opponents. That’s what is done by tin-pot dictators spanning the globe from North Korea to Zimbabwe. That’s what happens in countries where peaceful transitions of power are the exception, not the rule.

Donald Trump just threatened to bring that to America.

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Donald Trump: America's Slimy Director | Huffington Post

Donald Trump: America's Slimy Director | Huffington Post: "Certainly some women allow men to manhandle them because they are awed by fame or because they are willing to do whatever it takes to make it in their career. But more often than not, young women in entertainment tolerate the intolerable because it’s so hard to get a job and so easy to be blacklisted.  We know the power is weighted entirely against us.  Just look at how the young soap actress in the leaked Access Hollywood tape feels she has to flirt with Trump and Billy Bush to assuage their egos.

It is such a rampant problem in entertainment that it’s considered kind of normal, not even worth mentioning. The industry’s attitude toward women is a major reason why I have moved to the other side of the camera. 

The entertainment industry will have to look at itself and change or get left behind in the dark ages.  But that’s a longterm wish. "



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Pre-planning my 'I Told You So' | National Review

Pre-planning my 'I Told You So' | National Review: "Americans and Republicans, remember: You asked for this. Given the choice between a dozen solid conservatives and one Clinton-supporting con artist and game-show host, you chose the con artist. You chose him freely. Nobody made you do it.

"



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A Letter to the Doctors and Nurses Who Cared for My Wife - The New York Times

A Letter to the Doctors and Nurses Who Cared for My Wife - The New York Times: "And one special evening, you gave me full control to usher into the I.C.U. more than 50 people in Laura’s life, from friends to co-workers to college alums to family members. It was an outpouring of love that included guitar playing and opera singing and dancing and new revelations to me about just how deeply my wife touched people. It was the last great night of our marriage together, for both of us, and it wouldn’t have happened without your support.



 There is another moment — actually, a single hour — that I will never forget."



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So you’re thinking of voting for a pro-choice candidate...

So you’re thinking of voting for a pro-choice candidate...: "So even though I think abortion is morally wrong in most cases, and support more legal restrictions around it, I often vote for pro-choice candidates when I think their policies will do the most to address the health and economic concerns that drive women to get abortions in the first place. For me, it’s not just about being pro-birth; it’s about being pro-life. Every child deserves to live in a home and in a culture that welcomes them and can meet their basic needs. Every mother deserves the chance to thrive. Forcing millions of women to have children they can’t support, or driving them to Gosnell-style black market clinics, will not do. We have to work together—pro-life and pro-choice, Democrat and Republican, conservative Christian and progressive Christian—to create a culture of life that celebrates families and makes it easier to have and raise kids. This is the only way to make our efforts at rarifying abortion truly sustainable.  

"



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'The Atlantic' Editors Endorse Hillary Clinton for President - The Atlantic

'The Atlantic' Editors Endorse Hillary Clinton for President - The Atlantic: "For the third time since The Atlantic’s founding, the editors endorse a candidate for president. The case for Hillary Clinton."



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You Think the Campaign Is Bad? Just Wait Until It's Over - The Atlantic

You Think the Campaign Is Bad? Just Wait Until It's Over - The Atlantic: "But, after the campaign is over and the election lost, Trump faces trouble unprecedented in American history*. It’s conceivable that Trump could face civil or criminal prosecution on several fronts: federal income tax evasion, mail fraud connected with Trump University, fraud connected to his charitable foundation, espionage associated with Wikileaks, illegal lobbying associated with Russia.

(* Well, there’s Aaron Burr. Warren Harding died in office. Eugene Debs wound up in prison, but he wasn’t quite a major party candidate, his offense—if offense it was—occurred years after the campaign, and his red-scare prosecution is not something of which the country has been proud.  I can’t recall another example.)

We can easily imagine that some of these matters might arrive in federal or state court in the coming years.



Whatever the outcome of those cases, Trump supporters will believe that the charges are Hillary Clinton’s personal retribution. And, next time the Democrats lose the White House, they will call for matching prosecutions of the losing candidate. “Lock Her Up” may have awful echoes."



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Whatever is actually in Trump’s tax returns is worse than what the New York Times says - Vox

Whatever is actually in Trump’s tax returns is worse than what the New York Times says - Vox:

Think about how dangerous that was for the paper. Trump could have released his tax returns and proven them wrong. Trump could have shown their speculation to be mere speculation, and used it as a cudgel to discredit their reporting on his campaign. The Times was far, far out on a limb.

But the Times bet correctly. Trump still isn’t releasing his returns. And here’s what that means: Whatever is in his returns is worse than what the New York Times is telling the world is in his returns. The Trump campaign has decided it prefers the picture the Times is painting — a picture where Trump didn’t pay taxes for 18 years — to the picture Trump’s real records would paint.

What is in those returns?

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If War Can Have Ethics, Wall Street Can, Too - The New York Times

If War Can Have Ethics, Wall Street Can, Too - The New York Times: "To some, the unbridled force and overarching goal to be pursued is the efficiency of the market, even to the detriment of society, transforming market theory into a sort of divine scripture, to be faithfully followed. The suggestion of a moral economy is decried for the inefficiencies that moral limits would place on behavior in the market. It is as if society exists to serve the market, not the other way around.

"



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America Deserves Better Than Tim Kaine, But Not Because He Was a Defense Attorney: A Dissenting Opinion | RedState

America Deserves Better Than Tim Kaine, But Not Because He Was a Defense Attorney: A Dissenting Opinion | RedState:

It appears that Tim Kaine took on death-penalty cases out of a deep-rooted opposition to the death penalty. If you agree with the death penalty, as I do, then criticizing Kaine for his abolitionist views is legitimate. A commutation of a sentence by a governor is fair game for criticism, and that forms part of the GOP attack as well. I have no problem with such arguments.

But criticizing a man simply for defending a criminal defendant, in my view, runs counter to our values as Americans. Don't get me wrong: I am in favor of law and order, and I don't like murderers. I prosecute murderers, on a daily basis. But when I do, I expect them to be well represented by counsel on the other side of the table -- making sure that the blows I strike against the accused, while they may be hard blows, are fair ones.

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Veteran Journalist Bob Shieffer Obliterates Trump Surrogate on CNBC Political Panel - The WOW Report

Veteran Journalist Bob Shieffer Obliterates Trump Surrogate on CNBC Political Panel - The WOW Report: "CBS News political contributor Bob Schieffer went after big-time Donald Trump surrogate, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, and hammered her for using anecdotal evidence as proof of Americans’ opinions. It was a DELIGHT to watch. Literally, he was a dog with a bone, who would NOT GIVE UP. It’s how all journalists should be reacting to the daily barrage of crap that those Trump spokesidiots are peddling. "



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Short-term thinking in corporate America is strangling the economy - Vox

Short-term thinking in corporate America is strangling the economy - Vox: "According to Bloomberg, companies spent 95 percent of their earnings on such share buybacks and dividends in 2014. We are on pace to set the record this year, with $160 billion in share buybacks in just the first quarter of 2016 — all in the face of declining earnings. It’s fairly obvious that when cash is returned to investors at increasing rates, even when a company is earning less, that the money has to come from somewhere. That somewhere is usually long-term investment. Just as it is easy for individuals to put off saving for retirement when the rent comes due or to splurge on a weekend getaway, firms feel pressure to put off long-term investing to make shareholders happy in the short term by boosting stock price.

"



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Erick Erickson on Twitter: "33/ There is a difference between supporting a sinner (which we all are) and supporting someone who revels in immorality."

Erick Erickson on Twitter: "33/ There is a difference between supporting a sinner (which we all are) and supporting someone who revels in immorality.": "33/ There is a difference between supporting a sinner (which we all are) and supporting someone who revels in immorality.
"



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Paul Ryan, So Handsome, So Sad - BuzzFeed News

Paul Ryan, So Handsome, So Sad - BuzzFeed News:

Sources close to the Speaker said he endorsed Trump in June in hopes of gaining access to the candidate’s inner-circle and steering him away from his more destructive behavior. Ryan also believed he could convince Trump to infuse his platform with more orthodox conservative policy.

Of course, neither initiative has been particularly successful — and along the way, Ryan has put himself in the deeply degrading position of having to respond to every outrage Trump committed on the campaign trail.

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Barack Obama on 5 Days That Shaped His Presidency

Barack Obama on 5 Days That Shaped His Presidency:

a calculation based on what turned out to be pretty smart politics but really bad for the country: If they cooperated with me, then that would validate our efforts. If they were able to maintain uniform opposition to whatever I proposed, that would send a signal to the public of gridlock, dysfunction, and that would help them win seats in the midterms. It was that second strategy that they pursued with great discipline. It established the dynamic for not just my presidency but for a much sharper party-line approach to managing both the House and the Senate that I think is going to have consequences for years to come.



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Biden on Obama: ‘It’s Like Older Brother, Younger Brother’

Biden on Obama: ‘It’s Like Older Brother, Younger Brother’:

I miss Eric Cantor.

Yeah, I was talking to one of his guys the other day, and his guy said you had reached out to him that day.
He is a truly decent guy. He is smart as hell. I kid him, I say that he’s just too damned conservative. It’s just like I’m good friends with Paul Ryan. I called him — I can say it now — to encourage him to take the job, but I kid him, I say his biggest problem is that he read too much Ayn Rand. They’re good, decent people, trying to get something done, but they’re dealing with some real … You know what it reminds me of? I got elected in ’72, became friends with George McGovern. The McGovern wing of the party controlled the party, controlled the apparatus, and we had a lot of folks that I really liked that were absolute purists. It was like, give no quarter. What’s happened to the Republicans, they’re on the opposite end of the spectrum, even a little more … I don’t want to use an adjective … anyway, a little more certain of their uncertain views. You have to remember, in the 2012 race they asked me, if I could have any one wish, what would it be? And I said, to have a Republican Party. It was considered a gaffe — it was no gaffe. I genuinely meant it. Think about it. Nobody can speak for the Republican Party. Nobody. So with whom do you negotiate?

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8 Years in Obama's America

8 Years in Obama's America:

In this issue, we’ve tried to create an inventory of those years and to think a bit about how they might look from the distance of history. (That is, how will millennials remember the era in which they were so casually mocked, even as they remade the world with social media and an easy openness about gender?) Thankfully, we’ve had some help in putting together our time capsule, including from the president, who sat down in August with Jonathan Chait to discuss some critical moments of his tenure.

History depends on who gets to tell the story, of course, and while we took care in our choice of storytellers, the perspectives here are by no means complete (or unskewed). The timeline, too — essentially a litany of events, some major and others telling but trivial — is painfully selective (to us, and probably you). And it only goes so far — to the present, that is, when the president, like the rest of us, watches uneasily over the final weeks of a very unsettling campaign that even he describes as a referendum on his presidency and the profound cultural changes that came with it.

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Obama Is the Greatest Force for Equality in 50 Years - The Atlantic

Obama Is the Greatest Force for Equality in 50 Years - The Atlantic: "But at a time when both liberals and conservatives have become exquisitely aware of income inequality and its ills, the seemingly placid, cold, philosopher-in-chief did more to combat that inequity than any president in at least 50 years. For that, two words suffice: “Thanks, Obama.”

"



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Musk’s Mars moment: Audacity, madness, brilliance—or maybe all three | Ars Technica

Musk’s Mars moment: Audacity, madness, brilliance—or maybe all three | Ars Technica: "Tuesday’s speech marked only the opening salvo in Musk’s evangelism about the colonization of Mars. His search for a deep-pocketed backer now begins in earnest. For him, personally, and his company, this represents a huge gamble. By putting his entire vision out for the world to see, Musk has emboldened his doubters. Opponents will use details to undermine him. Certainly, they will mock his concept of using a booster with 42 engines. And Musk may just be OK with that. SpaceX has always been a longshot, Musk confided, sharing a delightfully awkward photo from 2002, when the company began. He had only given SpaceX about a 10 percent chance of “doing anything.” Today they’ve upended the global launch business.

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One Month in Clausnitz: A Mayor in Tears - SPIEGEL ONLINE

 One Month in Clausnitz: A Mayor in Tears - SPIEGEL ONLINE:

One Clausnitz resident, who is rumored to have a cat named "Hitler," allegedly said: "They shit on our sidewalks." Others yelled that they don't want the "Kanaken," a derogatory German word that refers to foreigners.

Funke relates all of this in a matter-of-fact tone -- but then, from one second to the next, this large, proud man starts crying. It immediately becomes clear the burden he is forced to carry as mayor of this town.

"We are the people," he says. "They are abusing this slogan. How stupid can they be?"

He relates how, after that evening in the gymnasium, his 14-year-old daughter Lisa came to him and cried in his arms. "I never would have thought that people can be so full of hate," she said. Her father Michael Funke simply answered: "That's life."

His oldest daughter was just finishing her high school graduation exams and was planning to head for the US in the summer to work as an au pair. Hardly any of the town's young and educated stay in the region. The biggest employer in Clausnitz is an agricultural collective and there are also a couple of carpenters. Those who can, leave. Some go to Dresden but many more go further afield. In 1980, 5.2 million people lived in the state of Saxony, but today the state's population has fallen to 4 million. One forecast claims that only 2.6 million will be left by 2050. Mostly, it is the elderly and those without an education who stay behind, mostly male.

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Colombia vote: Farc peace deal vote 'tighter than expected' - BBC News

Colombia vote: Farc peace deal vote 'tighter than expected' - BBC News:

Early results from Colombia's vote on whether to accept a peace deal agreed by the government and Farc rebels suggest a far tighter than expected contest.

The historic agreement - if backed - would see the group handing over weapons, ending its involvement in the drugs trade and changing into a political movement.

With over 90% of votes counted, the contest was too close to call.

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Druckversion - War on Doctors: The Deadly Business of War-Zone Medical Care - SPIEGEL ONLINE - International

Druckversion - War on Doctors: The Deadly Business of War-Zone Medical Care - SPIEGEL ONLINE - International:

In the era of the War on Terror, governments are increasingly ignoring the rights of their wounded enemies, who they characterize as terrorists or criminals. In contrast to the combatants in earlier wars, they seek to refuse treatment to their enemies.

This development is extremely dangerous for humanitarian aid workers. Many warring parties see them as supporters of terrorists and are disregarding the neutrality of medical professionals in war zones. As a result, hospitals have gone from being protected zones to death traps.

One organization affected especially dramatically by this development is Doctors Without Borders, known as Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF in French, the language of its founders. It is the world's largest, best-organized medical aid organization, with 37,000 volunteers working in 69 countries, funded almost entirely by private donations.

They are experts in coping with natural disasters and civil wars. They are viewed as activists, as courageous members of a flexible organization prepared to take risks, with little conceit and hardly any bureaucracy. Since its founding almost 45 years ago, MSF has become an enormous aid organization and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. It is confident and convinced that it is among the best of aid organizations. Still, in 2016 its self-assurance has been shaken to the core, with volunteers now wondering: "How can I save lives without losing my own?"

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Survival of the Fittest - Carnegie Middle East Center - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Survival of the Fittest - Carnegie Middle East Center - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace:

MY: The Russian intervention was indeed decisive. Does that mean that Bashar al-Assad will survive politically?

WJ: Yes, unfortunately, and cynically, and immorally, yes. Thanks to the Russians, to the apathy of the Americans, Obama precisely, and to Iran of course. And lately we can discern some new signs of a Turkish shift that is quite alarming. They say there might be a meeting between Bashar al-Assad and [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan in Moscow. To the Turks, the main concern is the Kurdish threat, and they are now dealing with the Kurds, forgetting about the plight of the Syrian people. What a terrible destiny is that of the Syrian people, abandoned in this huge power game, left to be destroyed and deported in this cynical power game.

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The American Scholar: The Virtue of an Educated Voter - Alan Taylor

The American Scholar: The Virtue of an Educated Voter - Alan Taylor:

He distinguished between the old “artificial aristocracy” of inherited privilege and a new “natural aristocracy” of virtue and talents. Despite having inherited both wealth and slaves, Jefferson considered himself a natural rather than an artificial aristocrat because, he asserted, his commitment to serve common men proved his superior virtue. Through education, people could learn to think as active democrats, forsaking the passive deference that had elected old-style aristocrats to govern. “Worth and genius” should be, Jefferson preached, “sought out from every condition of life and compleately prepared by education for defeating the competition of wealth & birth for public trusts.”

Jefferson wanted to weaken the old Virginia elite by broadening educational access for ordinary folk. He favored taxing the rich to educate the poor as essential for the common good. Jefferson assured George Washington, “It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the state to effect, and on a general plan.” Government had to act to reshape society. His friend and future president, James Monroe, agreed: “Being a high public concern, [education] ought to be provided for by the government itself.”

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The American Scholar: The Virtue of an Educated Voter - Alan Taylor

The American Scholar: The Virtue of an Educated Voter - Alan Taylor:

He distinguished between the old “artificial aristocracy” of inherited privilege and a new “natural aristocracy” of virtue and talents. Despite having inherited both wealth and slaves, Jefferson considered himself a natural rather than an artificial aristocrat because, he asserted, his commitment to serve common men proved his superior virtue. Through education, people could learn to think as active democrats, forsaking the passive deference that had elected old-style aristocrats to govern. “Worth and genius” should be, Jefferson preached, “sought out from every condition of life and compleately prepared by education for defeating the competition of wealth & birth for public trusts.”

Jefferson wanted to weaken the old Virginia elite by broadening educational access for ordinary folk. He favored taxing the rich to educate the poor as essential for the common good. Jefferson assured George Washington, “It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the state to effect, and on a general plan.” Government had to act to reshape society. His friend and future president, James Monroe, agreed: “Being a high public concern, [education] ought to be provided for by the government itself.”

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The Menace of Unreality: How the Kremlin Weaponizes Information, Culture and Money

The Menace of Unreality: How the Kremlin Weaponizes Information, Culture and Money:

This paper has one aim: to help those in government, civil society and journalism assess the nature of a powerful adversary in anticipation of future conflicts with him. There is no better place to start than in understanding how Putin seeks to win friends and influence people worldwide, but most especially in the West.

Russia has hybridized not only its actual warfare but also its informational warfare. Much of the epistemology democratic nations thought they had permanently retired after the Cold War needs to be re-learned and adapted to even cleverer forms of propaganda and disinformation.

The wisdom of Orwell must be combined with the savvy of Don Draper.

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Goodbye, Turner Field, we hardly knew ya

Goodbye, Turner Field, we hardly knew ya:

Despite his hands shaking because of Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali dramatically raised the Olympic torch above his head, then lowered it to light the cauldron and open the 1996 Olympics to thunderous cheers from the sellout crowd. Twenty years later, that moment stands out as probably the most memorable one in the stadium to which the Atlanta Braves will soon say goodbye.

After those 1996 Olympics, Olympic Centennial Stadium was quickly converted to baseball and renamed Turner Field, with Hank Aaron and Tom Glavineputting the home plate from Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium into place. Over 20 seasons, the ballpark has hosted 11 division series, four NLCS, the 1999 World Series and the 2000 All-Star Game. Unfortunately, Atlanta fans have never seen their team win the World Series there ... and they never will. The Braves will play their final game at Turner Field this weekend and move to a new ballpark -- SunTrust Park -- in the city's suburbs next year.

The new ballpark will be the Braves' third stadium in just 22 seasons.

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Gridlock Guy: Last games at Turner Field end of an era

Gridlock Guy: Last games at Turner Field end of an era: "I will never forget my time in the broadcast booth with Skip Caray, Pete Van Wieren, Joe Simpson and Don Sutton. I learned so much from these legends about broadcasting and life.

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Behind Vladimir Putin’s Trouble With the Truth - Washington Wire - WSJ

Behind Vladimir Putin’s Trouble With the Truth - Washington Wire - WSJ: "These explanations paint an unattractive picture of Vladimir Putin as a political leader, but to my mind a final reason for his systematic lying is the most damning of all: Mr. Putin doesn’t see its costs. Russia is more estranged from Europe and the United States than at any point since the end of the Cold War, and perhaps much longer ago than that. The president of Russia is simply a poor judge of the country’s interests. Could there be a harsher indictment than that?

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The Dangerous Business of Working For Saudi Royalty - The Daily Beast

The Dangerous Business of Working For Saudi Royalty - The Daily Beast:

Le Point reports that, in the course of what became a four-hour ordeal, the bodyguard, “struck him a blow to the head before tying his hands”, after which the craftsman was ordered to kneel and kiss the feet of the princess.

Abuses of staff appear to be a troublingly regular phenomenon among the wealthy Gulf families that populate Europe’s capital cities during the summer months. Migrants’ rights organizations consistently highlight appalling treatment dished out to staff, but the fact that many staff are foreign workers on tied visas combined with the diplomatic immunity many of these minor royals enjoy means meaningful interventions rare.

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Photojournalist Kevin Carter dies - obituary: from the archive, 30 July 1994 | Media | The Guardian

Photojournalist Kevin Carter dies - obituary: from the archive, 30 July 1994 | Media | The Guardian:

Along with all the good news was some bad. His best friend, Ken Osterbroek, was killed beside him while covering a gun battle in the Thokoza township outside Johannesburg. His long-standing relationship had also broken up. He leaves behind a six-year-old daughter.

Jimmy Carter, Kevin's father, told the South African Press Association on Thursday that his son always carried around the horror of the work he did. In the end it was too much.

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Donald Trump’s Pathetic Fraternity - The New York Times

Donald Trump’s Pathetic Fraternity - The New York Times:

But while those events explain his diminished political fortunes and failed presidential campaign, they didn’t force him into his current role as a prime defender of an indefensible man. I looked up two weeks ago and he was on CNN, peddling the brazen lie that Donald Trump hadn’t spent the last five years raising questions about President Obama’s birthplace. He radiated insincerity. He oozed subservience.

The Trump campaign has shown me many things that I never thought I’d see and others that I’d never seen so clearly, including the readiness of power-hungry men to trade dignity for relevance and swap pride for a place at the table, even if the table is a despicable one.

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Inside the Denver Post's Rapidly Shrinking Newsroom

Inside the Denver Post's Rapidly Shrinking Newsroom: "At the Denver Post, the copy desk—the last line of editing before stories go to print—has been eliminated; the Monday editorial page has been downsized; and the newspaper may soon be designed and laid out in another state. “There’s absolutely no long-term plan when it comes to Digital First newspapers,” says Ken Doctor, a media analyst who’s reported on DFM and Alden for years. “This is simply a milking strategy of newspaper assets, which will work in the short term but follows a straight line down.”

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Putin Has Finally Reincarnated the KGB | Foreign Policy

Putin Has Finally Reincarnated the KGB | Foreign Policy: "At the same time, the FSB has lost a certain something in this transition: Gone is any talk about a “new nobility,” and the agency is no longer being used as a recruitment base for other sectors of the government and economy. Putin has made it clear that what he needs is an instrument, pure and simple, to protect his own regime — just like the Politburo had its instrument in the KGB.

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Propaganda on reddit

Propganda on reddit:

So I've noticed some interesting trends with some of the sites that've been popping up here recently:

• Less than 1 year old, oftentimes less than 6 months, in some cases only 2-3
• All focusing exclusively on praising Trump and attacking Clinton
• All appear in the_donald either on the first submission or within a handful of the first few submissions
• Many first submitted by users that're either obvious shills or who have account registration dates that tie in pretty closely with the registrations of the sites they're posting
• Many of them share the same cookie-cutter page layouts
• When registrant data is available, many of them share the same geographical locations or owners, and sites that profess a particular forus in US affairs are often halfway around the world in the likes of Macedonia

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Vladimir. ... Vladimir. ... *VLADIMIR!!* : talesfromtechsupport

Vladimir. ... Vladimir. ... *VLADIMIR!!* : talesfromtechsupport: "Many times in my career I've compared what I do to the TV show House. Tech support is a lot like diagnosing a patient. I frequently tell my techs, "Customers lie," (playing on House's "Patients lie") and every time I say it I'm thinking of Vladimir. This is why I swear sometimes he'd call up just to try to prove to me that our product is crap, because he'd frequently lie to me about what did and didn't work. He'd tell me whatever would mean he needed to be in a panicked state, up against a deadline that he could not possibly meet, all because our products suck.
"



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Hillary Clinton's Presidential Campaign Threatens America's Republic | National Review

Hillary Clinton's Presidential Campaign Threatens America's Republic | National Review:

First, contemporary liberalism has come to ardently champion executive unilateralism. In some respects, this is nothing new. Modern progressivism has always idolized the presidency. Progressivism, as Teddy Roosevelt approvingly put it more than a century ago, is “impatient of the impotence which springs from over-division of governmental powers, the impotence which makes it possible for local selfishness or for legal cunning, hired by wealthy special interests, to bring national activities to a deadlock.” It therefore “regards the executive power as the steward of the public welfare.”



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What the FBI Files Reveal About Hillary Clinton’s Email Server - POLITICO Magazine

What the FBI Files Reveal About Hillary Clinton’s Email Server - POLITICO Magazine: "While “classified information” seems like it should be straightforward and binary—it either is or it isn’t—in practice government classification is a tricky and complicated issue. For one thing, different departments can treat the same information differently, as Under Secretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy—a career Foreign Service officer who had started in the top position two years before Hillary Clinton came to the department—explained to the FBI. Whereas the intelligence community often “steals” information, leading it to be classified, the State Department may end up gathering that same information from nonsensitive sources and so never consider it classified; conversations with foreign diplomats may be classified or not—or later upgraded to classified if it’s determined that “the disclosure of such information might damage national security or diplomatic relationships.” (This was particularly true as governments and leaders shifted around the world.) Plus, the lines around documents and information could shift—many internal or even interagency drafts would be considered unclassified while they were being written, but would then be routinely classified when they were transmitted formally to the National Security Council.

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What the FBI Files Reveal About Hillary Clinton’s Email Server - POLITICO Magazine

What the FBI Files Reveal About Hillary Clinton’s Email Server - POLITICO Magazine: "Officially “discouraged,” sure, but according to many that the FBI interviewed, the State Department’s culture uniquely embraced—and its poor information systems actively seemed to encourage—employees turning to private emails to conduct business. As FBI Director James Comey said in July when he reported the bureau’s findings: “We also developed evidence that the security culture of the State Department in general, and with respect to use of unclassified e-mail systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the government.”

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Trump Foundation lacks the certification required for charities that solicit money - The Washington Post

Commentary: why do yo need a special cert to fundraise? Seems like a law designed to trip people up.



Trump Foundation lacks the certification required for charities that solicit money - The Washington Post: "Under the laws in New York, where the Donald J. Trump Foundation is based, any charity that solicits more than $25,000 a year from the public must obtain a special kind of registration beforehand. Charities as large as Trump’s must also submit to a rigorous annual audit that asks — among other things — whether the charity spent any money for the personal benefit of its officers.

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‘Finally. Someone who thinks like me.’ - The Washington Post

‘Finally. Someone who thinks like me.’ - The Washington Post: "She went on disability. After a while, she tried to get a job at the local firehouse but came to believe officials were stealing money. She tried to stay on top of her anxiety medication but thought her doctor was committing Medicare fraud. She joined a motorcycle club called Bikers for Christ but found the members to be just “filthy old men.” And every day there was Brownsville.



 “When I was a kid, at Christmas time, you’d have lights and a big ‘Season’s Greetings’ banner hung up here,” she said. “There is none of that now. I don’t see much pride in this town. I don’t see much pride at all.”"



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What Do You Do With Your Life After You've Already Been The World's Youngest Dictator - BuzzFeed News

What Do You Do With Your Life After You've Already Been The World's Youngest Dictator - BuzzFeed News: "Valentine Strasser was once the world’s youngest dictator, ruling Sierra Leone for four turbulent years. But his fall from power left him broken, exiled, and eventually back home as a mysterious and feared recluse. BuzzFeed News makes an uninvited house call."



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Seventeen People

Seventeen People: "A modest tribute to—and deconstruction of—my favorite hour of television.
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How Donald Trump Set Off a Civil War Within the Right-Wing Media - The New York Times

How Donald Trump Set Off a Civil War Within the Right-Wing Media - The New York Times:

But Trump also simply fulfills the ineffable urge many have to, as Michael Needham, the chief executive of the conservative policy group Heritage Action for America, puts it, “punch Washington in the face.” This is true for Coulter, who, in her newly published paean to the candidate, “In Trump We Trust,” writes that Trump is fit for the presidency not in spite of his crudeness but because of it: “Only someone who brags about his airline’s seatbelt buckles being made of solid gold would have the balls to do what Trump is doing.”

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The Other Trump - NYTimes.com

The Other Trump - NYTimes.com:

“Unless she’s with her dad, she’s happy to fly coach,” said Lara Maggs, her friend from Penn. “When we flew together from Philly, we were in the middle seats at the back of the plane.” She said that the day before Tiffany flew to the convention, she bought the blue dress she wore for her speech at Bloomingdale’s off a sales rack.

Ivanka said she didn’t want to expose her little sister to the klieg lights of the presidential campaign before she is ready. “She will not do it if she is not comfortable with it,” she said. “Nobody is pushing her.” She added, indignantly, “People refer to us as surrogates, but we are his children.”

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What It’s Like to Be a Female Reporter Covering Donald Trump

What It’s Like to Be a Female Reporter Covering Donald Trump: "When I asked her whether she thought Trump realized the sexism implicit in his word choices, she laughed. “No, I don’t.” Then she paused. “You know, maybe he does. I’ve always said he’s an incredibly intelligent brander — he’s a master at this. If he’s smart enough to be branding Hillary Clinton as unstable, he could be doing it on purpose. He’s definitely playing into a lot of the genderized concerns that men across the country share.”

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Former FBI Agent Mike German Talks About the NSA | American Civil Liberties Union

Former FBI Agent Mike German Talks About the NSA | American Civil Liberties Union: "I often tell a story about a case I worked on as an undercover agent in an anti-government militia group in Washington state. It ended with a six-week trial that was attended by a lot of people who supported the militia group ideologically. One man who was an elder in the group (but didn't know the defendants and wasn't involved in the investigation) came up to me after the trial ended, but before the verdict was returned, and asked to shake my hand. He said he sat through the entire trial and was convinced that these defendants would have hurt someone, which would have hurt his movement, so he wanted to thank me for stopping them. Here was someone predisposed to hate the government, thanking the undercover agent who infiltrated the movement because our transparent and open criminal justice process allowed him to see the evidence, appropriately challenged in an adversarial process, and become convinced against his prejudices that the defendants were guilty. That's how a government demonstrates its legitimacy, which builds a stronger and more stable democracy.

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FBI Agent Michael German Taught Hollywood How to Get Counterterrorism Right | L.A. Weekly

FBI Agent Michael German Taught Hollywood How to Get Counterterrorism Right | L.A. Weekly: "“One of the things I learned from doing this work is that terrorism isn’t nihilistic violence,” he says. “What terrorists hope to do is provoke the government to take actions that are against its interests. Part of the reason terrorists have these manifestos and literature that names names is so the government will know who to take repressive action against. Once that happens, the terrorists can build a legitimate grievance with the government and expand the divisions that already exist.”

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Hillary-Hatred Derangement Syndrome - WSJ

Hillary-Hatred Derangement Syndrome - WSJ: "The end of the election is now in sight. Some among the anti-Hillary brigades have decided, in deference to their exquisite sensibilities, to stay at home on Election Day, rather than vote for Mrs. Clinton. But most Americans will soon make their choice. It will be either Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton—experienced, forward-looking, indomitably determined and eminently sane. Her election alone is what stands between the American nation and the reign of the most unstable, proudly uninformed, psychologically unfit president ever to enter the White House.

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