From "lock her up" to Judicial Watch's continued overblown frenzy on releasing docs and emails, to just the continued expectation that rules and laws don't apply to them, 15000 emails is rather a big deal. Sorry guys, should be mire careful, but you've always gotten off before thru money and connections, which makes you inherently not careful. Maybe time in the slammer will change that attitude? Tho didn't much change Jared's dad - nor son.

By Jon Russell @ TechCrunch.com, Dec. 13

It took Chinese authorities just seven minutes to locate and apprehend BBC reporter John Sudworth using its powerful network of CCTV camera and facial recognition technology.

This wasn’t a case of a member of the media being forcibly removed from the country. The chase was a stunt set up to illustrate just how powerful and effective the Chinese government’s surveillance system can be. It’s a stark example of the type of monitoring that China has invested heavily in over recent years with the aim of helping police do their job more efficiently [....]

The human cost of the war on ISIS has become too easy for Americans to ignore. We in the Obama administration helped shape that war.

By Robert Malley & Stephen Pomper @ The Atlantic.com, Dec. 16

[....] The Times story is one of faulty intelligence driving wrong-headed assumptions that decimate innocent lives and embitter survivors. It is a story about how a legal and bureaucratic fog can make it almost impossible for tragic mistakes to come to light, too often leaving instead a false sense of comfort that such mistakes never happened at all. And it is a story about a policy that warrants honest discussion, and change. We both worked with that policy up close. In the Obama White House, one of us was responsible for human rights, the other for coordinating the counter-ISIS campaign. In this respect, we were part of an administration that fell short.

At the outset, two points. First, painful lessons of the article aside, the U.S. military is staffed up and down its ranks with officers who care about and seek to protect innocent life. Likewise, President Obama and his senior National Security Council team were convinced of the moral and strategic importance of preserving civilian life in conflict, understood transparency as important to democratic accountability, and were committed to operating within the rule of law.

Second, the Times article carries the unmistakable implication that things will get worse [....]

By Cara Buckley @ NYTimes.com, Dec 16

A commission headed by Anita Hill and composed of and funded by some of the most powerful names in Hollywood has been created to tackle widespread sexual abuse and harassment in the media and entertainment industries.

Called the Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace, the initiative was spearheaded by Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm; Maria Eitel, the co-chair of the Nike Foundation; the powerhouse attorney Nina Shaw; and Freada Kapor Klein, the venture capitalist who helped pioneer surveys on sexual harassment decades ago [....]

By David J. Lynch @ WashingtonPost.com, Dec. 15

President Trump has vowed to prevent economic dislocation and repeatedly has proclaimed the imminent return of millions of U.S. jobs. But experts say the bill fails to eliminate longtime incentives for companies to move abroad and, in some cases, may even increase them.

Definitely worth sending out to protectionist-leaning family and friends. This is what happens when you let lobbyists write bills and then rush them through, all so you can claim by the next election that they are doing what they are in fact not doing.

The elections in Virginia and Alabama have proven that it is possible for Democrats to focus on white and minority voters without alienating either, said Zac McCrary, a Democratic pollster based in Alabama. Technology, for one, makes it possible to target specific populations with particular messages through email, text messages and phone calls. The party can also speak to universal issues, he said.

“I would suggest that jobs, health care, education are at the top of the list for any subgroup,” Mr. McCrary said.

By Julie Zauzmer & Sarah Pulliam Bailey @ WashingtonPost.com, Dec. 14, 9:08 pm

In major evangelical institutions across the country, debate over the term “evangelical” has bubbled to the forefront, especially among younger members of the faith. Many fear that the association between evangelicals and President Trump has damaged their reputation.

In January, a New York State parole board will decide whether to believe Daryl Kelly’s daughter, who says that she falsely accused her father of rape when she was eight years old.

By Jennifer Gonnerman @ News Desk @ New Yorker.com, Dec. 14

For the past twenty years, Daryl Kelly has been imprisoned in New York State for a crime that may never have happened. He was living with his wife and five children in Newburgh, New York, in the fall of 1997, when he was arrested for rape and sexual abuse. The supposed victim was his oldest child, Chaneya, who was then eight years old. Chaneya testified against her father at trial; the jury convicted him; a judge sentenced him to twenty-to-forty years in prison. At the time, Chaneya’s mother was addicted to crack cocaine, among other drugs, and Chaneya and her siblings went to live with her grandmother. The following year, when her grandmother asked her what exactly had happened with her father, Chaneya told her that, in fact, there had been no rape or sexual abuse.

In the fall of 1999, the judge ordered a hearing, and Chaneya returned to the witness stand. This time, Chaneya testified that she had lied during the trial. The judge did not believe her, however, and Kelly has remained in prison ever since [....]

By Jennifer Rubin @ Right Turn blog @ WashingtonPost.com, Dec. 14 "offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective"

If you thought that the tax bill was bad before, the process rushed and secretive, wait until the final version gets jammed through days from now, with no score, no hearings and no understanding among most Republicans of what’s actually in the bill. The details remain sketchy, but it’s clear that the GOP figured out how to tip the bill even further in favor of the super-rich [....]

So okay, it's just a moment on a generally light morning thing (except when it isn't) - but still.  Here's to humanity.

By Nate Silver @ FiveThirtyEight.com, Dec. 13

Alabama is more evidence that the GOP needs to be worried about 2018.