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JULY 2015

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17 Holes In Mexico's Official Account Of The Missing Students Case. How Joseph Stalin Invented 'American Exceptionalism' - Terrence McCoy. Please consider disabling it for our site, or supporting our work in one of these ways Subscribe Now > The phrase is often attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville, but the real author was the Soviet dictator -- and it wasn't a compliment.

How Joseph Stalin Invented 'American Exceptionalism' - Terrence McCoy

Reuters (Gingrich); Wikimedia Commons (Tocqueville and Stalin) Rick Santorum and the rest of GOP presidential gang all have a man-crush. Considering he was an outright intellectual elitist, a shaggy-haired liberal, and -- horror of horrors -- French, the object of their adoration seems a bit surprising, but the French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville and his 1835 United States travelogue, Democracy in America, have surged into national politics this campaign cycle -- often linked to the nascent expression "American exceptionalism. " Across the nation, from Plano, Texas, to Keene, N.H., Santorum has brandished Tocqueville, lecturing on how America got revolution right while France didn't. Indiana Clears Planned Parenthood Of Wrongdoing In Investigation Sparked By Deceptively-Edited Videos.

Brownback/Davis election was strange night working polls. Bernie Sanders says the 1 percent have screwed-up brains — and science proves he’s right. The extremely rich have “psychiatric issues” and it affects day-to-day Americans, populist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said recently.

Bernie Sanders says the 1 percent have screwed-up brains — and science proves he’s right

Research shows that he’s on to something. “We all know people who are addicted to alcohol or drugs. These people are addicted to money,” Sanders said earlier this year, according to MSNBC. The result? A “philosophical war being waged against the middle-class and working families.” Sanders wants to revive a time in American history where “one person could work 40 hours a week and make enough to take care for the entire family.” Young women, give up the vocal fry and reclaim your strong female voice. Bernie Sanders, Jeb Bush, and the End of American Exceptionalism. News Bernie Sanders and Jeb Bush look abroad for inspiration, heralding the end of American exceptionalism.

Bernie Sanders, Jeb Bush, and the End of American Exceptionalism

Please consider disabling it for our site, or supporting our work in one of these ways Subscribe Now > This election cycle, two candidates have dared to touch a third rail in American politics. Not Social Security reform. College Board Caves To Conservative Pressure, Changes AP U.S. History Curriculum. After backlash from conservatives that AP guidelines released last year by the College Board were unpatriotic, the new AP standards, which are effective immediately, will use the phrase “American exceptionalism,” and includes the founding fathers, according to Newsweek.

College Board Caves To Conservative Pressure, Changes AP U.S. History Curriculum

The College Board said it “previously assumed it wasn’t something it needed to spell out as part of what would be taught in an American history course.” Some of the main criticisms of the guidelines, conservatives voiced, were less emphasis on the founding fathers and more emphasis on slavery. The guidelines also included earlier American history that included violence against Native Americans and mentioned the growing influence of social conservatives. There were also complaints that World War II was not emphasized enough, but military victories will be given more attention in the new standards. Ex-Wife: Donald Trump Made Me Feel ‘Violated’ During Sex. Ivana Trump once accused the real-estate tycoon of ‘rape,’ although she later clarified: not in the ‘criminal sense.’

Ex-Wife: Donald Trump Made Me Feel ‘Violated’ During Sex

Donald Trump introduced his presidential campaign to the world with a slur against Mexican immigrants, accusing them of being “rapists” and bringing crime into the country. “I mean somebody’s doing it! … Who’s doing the raping?” The Drought Isn't California's Only Water Problem. Whether you live in or out of California, you are probably looking for something, anything, just one dang thing that will help you understand this impossibly complicated drought.

The Drought Isn't California's Only Water Problem

You’re not going to find it. No Central Valley almond, Los Angeles swimming pool, Palm Springs golf course, Fresno lawn, Nestle water bottle, Napa wine, Humboldt pot farm, or Merced River salmon is going to satisfy your craving for a culprit. Instead, allow me to divert your attention to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a massive estuary to the east of the San Francisco Bay that is the heart of a story that will at least explain why you’ll never get a satisfying explanation. Actually, it’s not about the Delta, exactly; the real story is 200 feet below it, where the governor of the Golden State wants to dig huge tunnels that will make it easier for southern California to get northern California’s water.

Consider that number against the following projects: Anti-Intellectualism and the "Dumbing Down" of America. U.S. Marshals Raid Lawless Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Office. U.S.

U.S. Marshals Raid Lawless Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Office

Marshals raided Joe Arpaio’s Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office on Friday, in search of evidence that the department was unlawfully withholding from a U.S. District Judge. Judge G. Murray Snow ordered the raid, after it became apparent that the Sheriff’s Department was not cooperating with a February order, that had asked Arpaio to turn over identification cars, hard drives and other documents. A court-appointed monitor alleged that Arpaio’s Department had withheld hundreds of documents and dozens of hard drives in clear violation of the judge’s orders, prompting the judge’s decision to order the raid. Reality Is Winning: New Poll Finds Americans Increasingly Aren’t Buying Right... Fox News makes a big show of being the “most trusted” source of news, but that claim, like much of what we find on the conservative network, is increasingly becoming mere wishful thinking.

Reality Is Winning: New Poll Finds Americans Increasingly Aren’t Buying Right...

Instead, Americans are waking up to the fact that Fox, along with its counterparts on the web and radio, are functioning as little more than a right-wing propaganda machine. People, particularly young people, aren’t buying it. In a comprehensive poll conducted by Pew Research that covered dozens of major and minor political news sources, researchers found that Fox “most trusted” News was actually the most distrusted source of news for Millennials. A whopping 43 percent of those surveyed said you can’t trust what that network tells you about politics and government. How successful leaders should communicate, according to science.

When people talk about successful leaders they often focus on the personal and physical characteristics of those individuals.

How successful leaders should communicate, according to science

Great leaders are tall, good communicators, friendly, decisive, good looking, or have charisma. The Campaign of Deception Against Planned Parenthood. A hidden-camera video released last week purported to show that Planned Parenthood illegally sells tissue from aborted fetuses.

The Campaign of Deception Against Planned Parenthood

It shows nothing of the sort. Why Our Children Don't Think There Are Moral Facts. The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless. Photo. Texas Authorities Just Released a Detailed Narrative of Sandra Bland’s Time in Custody. In this July 13, 2015 video still-frame, emergency personnel carry a gurney near Sandra Bland's jail cell, at the Waller County jail in Hempstead, Texas.Waller County Sheriff's Department Officials in Texas on Friday released two crucial documents in the ongoing investigation into to the death of Sandra Bland, the African American woman who was found dead in a Texas jail July 13, three days after her controversial roadside arrest.

Bland's autopsy and custodial death report come amid doubts from her family about the official story of her death, namely that she hung herself. The autopsy results line up with the version of events that officials have made public so far: there were no signs of struggle on her body that would indicate her death was the result of a violent assault. The custodial death report provides a detailed narrative, written by police, related to Bland's arrest and entry into the jail. Read the full reports below. Yes, Your Opinion Can Be Wrong. Thursday, July 23, 2015 at 6 a.m.

I have had so many conversations or email exchanges with students in the last few years wherein I anger them by indicating that simply saying, "This is my opinion" does not preclude a connected statement from being dead wrong. MSNBC's NOW With Alex Wagner Highlights The Extreme Groups Behind The Deceptive Anti-Planned Parenthood Videos. Barack Obama’s Long Game - Todd S. Purdum. Barack Obama is not a modest man, but when it comes to assessing his or any president’s place in the long American story, he has been heard to say, “We just try to get our paragraph right.” Yet the way a raft of recent events have broken sharply in his favor, Obama suddenly seems well on his way to writing a whole page—or at least a big, fat passage—in the history books. From the Supreme Court decisions upholding his signature health care plan and the right of gay Americans to marry, to contested passage of fast track trade authority, the opening of normal diplomatic relations with Cuba and an international agreement to curtail Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Obama is on a policy and political roll that would have seem unimaginable to many in Washington only a few months ago.

Immigration and crime: Not here to cause trouble. Eurozone Finance Chief Recounts Brinkmanship That Led to Greek Deal. Obama Scolds Major Garrett For 'Nonsense' Question. Hey Scott Walker, Unpopular Governors Don't Get Elected President. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker officially joins the packed Republican presidential field on Monday, immediately taking a spot among the top tier of GOP contenders. Obama grants clemency to 46 prisoners. WASHINGTON — President Obama has granted clemency to 46 men and women whose "sentences didn't fit their crimes," the White House announced Monday. "Nearly all of these individuals would have already served their time and returned to society if they were convicted of the exact same crime today," the White House said in an announcement on the White House Facebook page. In a video posted on the White House website, Obama said he focused on people imprisoned for many years for "non-violent drug" offenses.

North Korea Defense Chief’s Purging Confirmed After Reports He Was Executed For Disrespecting Kim Jong Un: Seoul. Addiction is not a disease: How AA and 12-step programs erect barriers while attempting to relieve suffering. M.dailykos. In brief, Piketty tells the interviewer in no uncertain terms that Germany never repaid their loans; yet hold others to a higher standard of responsibility. Colorados-push-against-teenage-pregnancies-is-a-startling-success. The surge in Colorado has far outpaced the growing use of such methods nationwide. About 7 percent of American women ages 15 to 44 used long-acting birth control from 2011 to 2013, the most recent period studied, up from 1.5 percent in 2002. South-carolina-capitol-confederate-battle-flag. Is China Trying to Co-opt Ai Weiwei? ‘We live in theocratic times': Right-wing Christians are claiming religious freedom to ignore any laws they wish.

Right-wing Christians are claiming the religious freedom to carve out special rights for themselves and ignore any laws they don’t like. Americans have famously been granted religious exemptions from military service, legal requirements to seek medical treatment for their children, zoning laws, education standards for homeschooled children, and even safety features for Amish buggies, reported Political Research Associates. I used to lead tours at a plantation. You won’t believe the questions I got about slavery.