Weekend link dump for March 15

The Ides of Texas are upon you. Or something like that.

“And, he says, if Oakland—with its bloody, costly history of police brutality—can change, any city can.”

How Intuit failed at “know your customer” security.

“Whenever possible, make gravity the coyote’s greatest enemy“.

“March marks five years since the Affordable Care Act was passed … amid Republican cries that the ACA was a job-killer. To put that more plainly: The private sector hasn’t lost jobs since Obamacare was officially created. Were Republicans wrong?”

Concentrated wealth wants political results congenial to concentrated wealth. It has shaped an entire movement to that end, and the movement has absorbed all ancillary institutions, including supposedly independent, knowledge-producing institutions like academia and think tanks and supposedly public-interest-serving institutions like NGOs. The money flows from the wealthy and their corporations to PACs and foundations, to nonprofits and advocacy groups, to PR firms and activists. It’s like an electric charge going through a field of iron shavings, orienting them all in the same direction.”

There is an easy enough way to prove if being gay – or being straight – is a choice.

Hall and Oates are not amused by your Hall and Oates-themed product name wordplay.

“So even adding all the spending in Obamacare, the CBO is projecting the federal government will spend $600 billion less on health care than the agency expected in 2010, when it wasn’t counting even a dollar of the spending in Obamacare.”

“I wouldn’t blame you if you took a pass on President Obama’s speech in Selma on Saturday. It’s been a long time since he delivered a riveting one. I skipped it myself, and then someone wrote to say, hey, he knocked this one out of the park, so I looked, and boy, he did. It was the strongest statement about the liberal definition of patriotism I’ve ever heard a president deliver. It was also confrontational and challenging—an unapologetic manifesto for the values of blue America.”

“I can say from personal experience that no one would stay in a cult without some promise of utopia or change.”

The kids are all right, Climate Change Division.

At what point did the Obama White House truly grasp the futility of negotiating with Congressional Republicans?

Josh Marshall’s essay on the Clintons is the best thing I’ve read on that subject in a long time.

What TBogg says.

Thanks, neocons. Really, you’ve done enough.

A contested primary is probably the only way to get the media to talk about issues in regard to Hillary Clinton.

“Your country is much like ours. Indeed, your Republican Congress is much like our revolutionary Islamic councils. We are brothers.”

RIP, Sir Terry Pratchett, renowned fantasy author. Scalzi has an anecdote, while Neil Gaiman shares the last thing he wrote about his friend and collaborater, and XKCD offers a visual tribute.

RIP, Bill Badger, retired Army colonel and hero of the Gabby Giffords shooting.

Pro tip: Bill Kristol is always wrong.

RIP, Al Rosen, four-time MLB All Star and longtime successful executive.

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