July 11, 2014

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July 10, 2014

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July 10, 2014

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July 10, 2014

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July 10, 2014

Love Is All You Need? (Repost)

Sometimes I'm not too bright, like when I posted this 19-minute movie smack dab in the middle of the American work day. This short, sad, shattering film needs to be seen by as many people as possible. Thus, I'm posting it again in the evening hours, where more of you back home can take the time to watch it, even though (TRIGGER WARNINGS) it's very hard to watch.

July 9, 2014

Hillary Clinton: 'Surveillance on Merkel's Phone Was Absolutely Wrong'

Interview Conducted By Marc Hujer and Holger Stark, Der Spiegel
July 08, 2014 – 11:34 AM

SPIEGEL: Madame Secretary, you've been in politics for over three decades. During that time, discontent with politics has increased considerably. Do you think expectations have become unrealistic?

Clinton: I think about this question a lot because we are putting an enormous amount of weight on one individual in our political system. In our country, we don't have a head of state and a head of government. We have one person: the president. That person has to fulfill the role of being the symbol of the country plus running the government. It is hard for anybody to carry that off. I think we're having a time in our history right now where people are disappointed in the political system, turned off by the political system, giving up on it or are wanting to hijack it with some ideological perspective. Therefore we need to enlist not just one person but kind of a consensus of leadership and citizenship to address that.

SPIEGEL: American society is polarized as never before. The French economist Thomas Piketty wrote a bestseller "Capital in the Twenty First Century" which is making a lot of noise right now. Have you had the chance to read it?

Clinton: I haven't read it yet. I've read very long essays about it and know what his principal point is. I think he makes a very strong case that we have unbalanced our economy too much towards favoring capital and away from labor. And I agree with his principal concern, which is that we have devalued labor. He talks about Europe, but it is the same thing in the United States.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/hillary-clinton-interview-on-german-us-ties-and-presidential-plans-a-979812.html

A friend here at the base, who first told me about DU, cautioned that newbies like me shouldn't post too often (I've only been here since yesterday), and should especially avoid starting threads. Is this true? Should I wait a month or three to start another one? And should I limit my comments on other threads to one or two (or less) per day?