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    <title>Will Trump Direct FEMA to Fund Churches Hit by Harvey?  - The Atlantic</title>

    

        
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        <section id="article-section-1"><p>Hurricane Harvey blew the steeple off of Rockport First Assembly of God in Rockport, Texas. Harvest Family Church in Cypress got covered in a layer of mud and silt. Three feet of water filled the sanctuary of Hi-Way Tabernacle in Cleveland.</p><p>Despite this damage, the Tabernacle has served as an emergency staging area for government relief efforts in the aftermath of the storm, providing shelter for evacuees, emergency meals for families, and storage for food, water, clothing, and hygiene products. And despite the chaos, Hi-Way Tabernacle and these two other churches are involved in another effort: suing the federal government.</p><aside class="callout" data-omni-click="r'article',r' ',d,r'related',#data-omni-index,@data-article-id"><hr><h4>
        
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    <p><a href="/politics/archive/2017/06/trinity-lutheran/531399/" data-omni-index="0" data-article-id="840969" data-omni-click="inherit">The Supreme Court Strikes Down a Major Church-State Barrier</a></p>
    

    <hr></aside><p>According to the stated policy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, houses of worship cannot receive funding from the agency’s public-assistance program, which provides money for emergency fire and rescue services, medical care, urgent debris removal, and critical utility repairs in the wake of disasters. The three churches’ lawsuit is intended to challenge that rule and give religious organizations and other non-profits equal eligibility for this kind of FEMA funding. The case can also be read as a bid to expand the reach of a recent Supreme Court ruling on church-state funding, which if it succeeds, would have consequences far beyond Texas.</p><p>Faith-based organizations, including churches, synagogues, and mosques, provide an extraordinary amount of support during natural disasters. Greg Forrester—the president and CEO of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, an association of relief groups—<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/09/10/hurricane-irma-faith-groups-provide-bulk-disaster-recovery-coordination-fema/651007001/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'0',r'539346'">told <em>USA Today</em></a> that non-profits are responsible for 80 percent of recovery efforts, and most of those are faith-based. Religious groups that largely serve a secular purpose in their broader communities are eligible for funding. But those that spend more than half of their time and resources on worship, outreach, religious education, or internal fundraising aren’t eligible—a rule that effectively excludes all houses of worship.</p></section><div class="ad-boxinjector-wrapper"><gpt-ad id="boxinjector1" targeting-pos="boxinjector1" class="ad ad-boxinjector" lazy-load="2" data-object-pk="1" data-object-name="boxinjector"><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[0, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250], [320, 350], [300, 350], [1, 3], [320, 520], [320, 430], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[760, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1010, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1050, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1024, 350], [1, 3], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset></gpt-ad></div><section id="article-section-2"><p>“We’re just picking up the pieces like everyone else. And we just want to be treated like everyone else,” said Paul Capehart, the pastor of Harvest Family Church, through his lawyers. “Our faith is what drives us to help others. Faith certainly doesn’t keep us from helping others, and we’re not sure why it keeps FEMA from helping us.” While churches are leading the legal case, Jewish groups including the Orthodox Union are also lobbying for a policy change, <a href="http://www.jpost.com/American-Politics/Amid-dual-storms-Jewish-groups-fight-over-FEMA-funding-504624" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'1',r'539346'">according to </a><em><a href="http://www.jpost.com/American-Politics/Amid-dual-storms-Jewish-groups-fight-over-FEMA-funding-504624" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'2',r'539346'">The Jerusalem Post</a>.</em></p><p>On Friday, President Trump tweeted his support for churches caught in disasters.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Churches in Texas should be entitled to reimbursement from FEMA Relief Funds for helping victims of Hurricane Harvey (just like others).</p>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/906320446882271232" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'3',r'539346'">September 9, 2017</a></blockquote><p>At least one FEMA official publicly cheered his pronouncement: “Amen!” <a href="https://twitter.com/JamieJohnsonUSA/status/906519523645431809" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'4',r'539346'">replied</a> Jamie Johnson, the director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security, where he focuses on disaster relief.</p><p>The president’s tweet “was a very good development,” said Daniel Blomberg, a lawyer who is representing the churches through Becket, an educational and legal institute focused on religious freedom. “All the churches are asking for is that when FEMA is making a determination, it’s no longer using religion as a criteria to keep parts of the community from asking for equal disaster relief.”</p><p>The timeline for FEMA funding is tight. The president has to declare an emergency or national disaster, and affected organizations generally have to request public assistance within 30 days. In their lawsuit, the three Texas churches requested expedited relief, arguing that they only have until that 30-day deadline—September 26—to win protection “against FEMA’s discrimination.”</p></section><div class="ad-boxright-wrapper" data-pos="boxright"><gpt-ad id="boxright1" targeting-pos="boxright1" class="ad ad-boxright" lazy-load="2" data-object-pk="3" data-object-name="boxright"><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[0, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1010, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250], [300, 600]]"></gpt-sizeset></gpt-ad></div><section id="article-section-3"><p>Theoretically, the president could just direct FEMA to make all religious organizations eligible for funding under the public-assistance program. After all, FEMA is a federal agency under his authority. Similar things have happened in the past: In the wake of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, the Bush administration agreed to reimburse religious organizations for the shelter, food, and supplies they provided to the general public.</p><p class="pullquote">“This seems to be policy that is made disaster by disaster.”</p><p>The Trump administration “could go ahead and do it,” said Robert Tuttle, a professor at George Washington University Law School. But the problem is that “this seems to be policy that is made disaster by disaster.” Even if the president directs FEMA to do something, the agency could later face lawsuits for doing so. In this case, critics could argue that such funding violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution.</p><p>This, however, is the strategic brilliance of the Texas church lawsuit. If the churches win an injunction or the government loses in court and FEMA is directed to give out money to churches, there’s “no guarantee that … the government will appeal,” said Tuttle. By then, the funds would have already been disbursed, and it would be up to an outside group like Americans United for the Separation of Church and State to challenge the decision—and find itself in the politically tenuous position of trying to take money away from churches that got destroyed in a hurricane.</p></section><div class="ad-boxinjector-wrapper"><gpt-ad id="boxinjector2" targeting-pos="boxinjector2" class="ad ad-boxinjector" lazy-load="2" data-object-pk="1" data-object-name="boxinjector"><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[0, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250], [320, 350], [300, 350], [1, 3], [320, 520], [320, 430], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[760, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1010, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1050, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1024, 350], [1, 3], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset></gpt-ad></div><section id="article-section-4"><p>The churches’ lawsuit relies heavily on a recent Supreme Court decision, <em>Trinity Lutheran v. Comer</em>. In that case, a Missouri church sued the state for excluding it from a playground-resurfacing program on religious grounds. Seven of the nine justices found in favor of the church. “<em>Trinity Lutheran </em>is, in some ways, a closer case than this one,” argued Blomberg. While the church in that case was asking to be part of a program that would enhance its facilities, “no one is asking for the church to be improved” in Houston, he said. “They’re just trying to get back on their feet [and] … get to a place where they’re no longer a public-health and public-safety hazard.”</p><p>It’s not clear how broadly the Supreme Court justices intended for <em>Trinity Lutheran </em>to be applied, or whether they would see these cases as similar. “I am deeply skeptical of that analogy,” said Tuttle. Two things distinguish this case from <em>Trinity Lutheran</em>, he argued. In the majority opinion for that case, Chief Justice John Roberts noted that the decision doesn’t reach the question of “religious uses of funding,” meaning that it might not apply in cases where state funding goes to rebuild a literal sanctuary used for worship. The second difference, argued Tuttle, is that it’s not clear that the three Texas churches would be eligible for FEMA funding even if they weren’t houses of worship. The agency’s public-assistance program only covers certain kinds of immediate relief. Other, non-critical repairs are generally referred to the Small Business Administration, which provides disaster-recovery loans. Organizations can get FEMA money for permanent repair work if the SBA turns them down or doesn’t cover all of the damages.</p></section><div class="ad-boxinjector-wrapper"><gpt-ad id="boxinjector3" targeting-pos="boxinjector3" class="ad ad-boxinjector" lazy-load="2" data-object-pk="1" data-object-name="boxinjector"><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[0, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250], [320, 350], [300, 350], [1, 3], [320, 520], [320, 430], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[760, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1010, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1050, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1024, 350], [1, 3], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset></gpt-ad></div><section id="article-section-5"><p class="pullquote">“It’s the kind of thing that we might cook up so that we can put it on exam questions.”</p><p>Constitutionally speaking, “the real question comes down to whether this is framed as a public-safety, emergency-relief action or whether it’s framed as helping a church get a new building,” said Richard Garnett, a professor of law and political science at the University of Notre Dame. “Nobody thinks it’s unconstitutional for a fire truck to put out a fire at a church, and clearly there aren’t different Establishment Clause rules for fires and floods. But are there different rules for putting out fires and repairing a building after it burns?”</p><p>Harvey, Irma, and other recent disasters have created a strong legal test case—“it’s the kind of thing that we might cook up so that we can put it on exam questions,” said Garnett. Tuttle offered a slightly more cynical read: “Lawyers are taking this opportunity to try to get relief for these particular congregations—and at the same time, to extend the reach of <em>Trinity Lutheran</em>,” he said. Blomberg described it differently: Becket has been pushing against FEMA’s church policy for years, he said, and <em>Trinity Lutheran </em>was just a sign that the law is moving in the right direction, at least in its view.</p><p>In weighing in on the case in Texas, Trump wasn’t just commenting about a few specific churches. He intervened in a long-standing debate about the proper line between church and state in public funding. In an instant, the president could change the terms of the debate, but “whether or not it’s constitutionally permissible doesn’t hinge on whether the president supports it or not,” Garnett said. A change to FEMA’s policy would not be the end of the storm—legally or otherwise. As the churches say in their lawsuit: “Mold will not wait for litigation process to spread through the churches’ buildings; storm and flood debris will not stop rotting while the government processes their claims.”</p></section>
    
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<p dir="ltr">Officially called “The Offer,” this proposition is, according to Amazon, a way to encourage unhappy employees to move on. “We believe staying somewhere you don’t want to be isn’t healthy for our employees or for the company,” Ashley Robinson, an Amazon spokesperson, wrote to me in an email. The amount full-time employees get offered ranges from $2,000 to $5,000, and depends on how long they have been at the company; if they take the money, they agree to never work for Amazon again. (The idea for all this <a href="https://hbr.org/2008/05/why-zappos-pays-new-employees">originated</a> at Zappos, the online shoe retailer that Amazon bought in 2009.)</p>


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<p>What made Parkland different were the people who stepped forward to describe it. High-school students—the survivors of the calamity themselves—became the voice of the tragedy. Tweets that were widely reported as coming from the students expressed grief for the victims, pushed against false reports, and demanded accountability.</p>

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        <p class="dek">The clear goal of the special counsel is to speak to the American public about the seriousness of Russian interference.</p>
        
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<p dir="ltr">For those following the matter, there has been little doubt that Russian citizens attempted to interfere with the American presidential election. The American intelligence agencies  publicized  that conclusion more than a year ago in a report issued in January 2017, and it has stood by the analysis whenever it has been questioned. But some in the country have doubted the assertion—asking for evidence of interference that was not forthcoming.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Now the evidence has been laid out in painful detail by the special counsel. If any significant fraction of what is alleged in the latest indictment is true (and we should, of course, remind ourselves that an indictment is just an allegation—not proof), then this tale is a stunning condemnation of Russian activity. A Russian organization with hundreds of employees and a budget of millions of dollars is said to have systematically engaged in an effort (code named “Project Lakhta”) to undermine the integrity of the election and, perhaps more importantly, to have attempted to influence the election to benefit then-candidate Donald Trump. Among the allegations, the Russians:</p>


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        <p class="dek">Outrage mobs are chipping away at democracy, one meaningless debate at a time.</p>
        
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            <p>The mob was unusually vociferous, even for Twitter. After the California-born ice skater Mirai Nagasu became the first American woman to land a triple axel at the Olympics, the <em>New York Times</em> writer Bari Weiss <a href="https://twitter.com/splinter_news/status/963191268917567489">commented</a> “Immigrants: They get the job done.”</p>

<p>What followed that innocuous tweet was one of the sillier, manufactured controversies I have ever seen on Twitter. Twitter’s socially conscious denizens probably only realized they should be outraged at Weiss after they saw other people being outraged, as is so often the case. Outside of Twitter, some of Weiss’s <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-times-diversity-bari-weiss-tweet_us_5a833d4ee4b0cf06751f3f44"><em>Times</em></a><a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-times-diversity-bari-weiss-tweet_us_5a833d4ee4b0cf06751f3f44"> colleagues</a> were also offended by the tweet—and even hurt by it. <a href="https://splinternews.com/can-someone-explain-this-bari-weiss-tweet-to-me-1822942452">The</a><a href="https://splinternews.com/can-someone-explain-this-bari-weiss-tweet-to-me-1822942452"> critics’</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/soledadobrien/status/964009334178009088">objection</a> was that Nagasu isn’t herself an immigrant, but rather the child of immigrants, and so calling her one was an example of “<a href="https://twitter.com/chrissyteigen/status/963232760868425728?ref_src=twsrc%255Etfw&amp;ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%252Fentry%252Fchrissy-teigen-bari-weiss-mirai-nagasu_us_5a830bbbe4b00ecc923ed36d">perpetual othering</a>.”</p>


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    <a href="/politics/archive/2018/02/rosenstein-mueller-indictment-russia/553601/" class="article-link" data-article-id="553601" data-omni-click="inherit" itemprop="mainEntityOfPage">
        
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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">The Full Text of Mueller's Indictment of 13 Russians</h3>
    </a>
    <ul class="metadata">
        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/priscilla-alvarez/" itemprop="url" title="Priscilla Alvarez" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Priscilla Alvarez</span></a></span> and <span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/taylor-hosking/" itemprop="url" title="Taylor Hosking" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Taylor Hosking</span></a></span></li>
        

    </ul>
    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2018-02-16T14:30:51" />
    <meta itemprop="dateModified" content="2018-02-17T18:19:09" />

    <div itemprop="description" class="article-content ">
        <p class="dek">The special counsel indicted the Russian nationals and three Russian entities for allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential election, the Department of Justice announced Friday.</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p dir="ltr"><em>On Friday, February 16, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosentein announced that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, had indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities on charges that including conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft. This is the full text of that <a href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download">indictment</a>.</em></p>

<hr><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT</p>

<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA</p>

<p><br>
* * CRIMINAL NO. v. * * (18 U.S.C. §§ 2,371, 1349, 1028A)</p>

<p>UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p>

<p>v.  </p>

<p>INTERNET RESEARCH AGENCY LLC</p>

<p dir="ltr">        A/K/A MEDIASINTEZ LLC A/K/A</p>

<p dir="ltr">        GLAVSET LLC A/K/A MIXINFO</p>

<p dir="ltr">        LLC A/K/A AZIMUT LLC A/K/A NOVINFO LLC,</p>

<p dir="ltr">CONCORD MANAGEMENT AND CONSULTING LLC,</p>

<p dir="ltr">CONCORD CATERING,</p>

<p dir="ltr">YEVGENIY VIKTOROVICH PRIGOZHIN,</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">Airbnb and the Unintended Consequences of 'Disruption'</h3>
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    <ul class="metadata">
        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/derek-thompson/" itemprop="url" title="Derek Thompson" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Derek Thompson</span></a></span></li>
        

    </ul>
    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2018-02-17T07:00:00" />
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    <div itemprop="description" class="article-content ">
        <p class="dek">Tech analysts are prone to predicting utopia or dystopia. They’re worse at imagining the side effects of a firm's success.</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p dir="ltr">The U.S economy is in the midst of a wrenching technological transformation that is fundamentally changing the way people <a href="https://www.cydiageeks.com/best-sleep-tracking-apps-for-apple-watch.html">sleep</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wework-story-how-adam-neumann-changing-way-we-work-live-aman-mehta">work</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-restaurant-robot-waiters-2016-7">eat</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/11/future-retail/546119/">shop</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/style/tinder-relationship-dating-study.html">love</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/06/the-rise-of-speed-listening/396740/">read</a>, and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/308930/">interact</a>.</p>

<p dir="ltr">At least, that’s one interpretation.</p>

<p>A second story of this age of technological transformation says that it’s mostly a facade—that the last 30 years have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/books/review/the-powers-that-were.html">a productivity bust</a> and little has changed in everyday life, aside from the way everyone reads and watches videos. <a href="https://som.yale.edu/blog/peter-thiel-at-yale-we-wanted-flying-cars-instead-we-got-140-characters">People wanted flying cars</a> and got Netflix binges instead.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Let’s call these the Disrupt Story and the Dud Story of technology. When a new company, app, or platform emerges, it’s common for analysts to divide into camps—Disrupt vs. Dud—with some yelping that the new thing will change everything and others yawning with the expectation that traditionalism will win out.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">Why Don't More Female Figure Skaters Wear Pants?</h3>
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    <ul class="metadata">
        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/ashley-fetters/" itemprop="url" title="Ashley Fetters" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Ashley Fetters</span></a></span></li>
        

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    <div itemprop="description" class="article-content ">
        <p class="dek">Leggings and yoga gear are common sights at practice rinks. But in competition, gender-coded costumes still prevail.</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p>Last weekend, one of the buzzier stories out of the Olympic ladies’ figure skating short program competition was one you might call … surprisingly surprising. The French figure skater Maé-Bérénice Méité made headlines: for the fact that she skated to a Beyoncé medley, and even more so, for the fact that she did it in pants.</p>

<p>More accurately, she did it in a bedazzled black unitard, but that didn’t stop news outlets and viewers on Twitter from pointing out Méité’s eye-catching, subtly subversive pants. “This French figure skater may not have won a medal, but her pants took people's choice,” <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/french-figure-skater-may-not-won-medal-pants-took-peoples-choice-181422813.html">raved</a> Yahoo! News, and AOL <a href="https://www.aol.com/article/lifestyle/2018/02/12/pyeongchang-2018-figure-skating-outfits-from-the-winter-olympics/23359525/">named</a> Méité’s bodysuit to its list of “most dazzling figure skating outfits” of these Olympic Games.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">What Mueller's Indictment Reveals</h3>
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    <ul class="metadata">
        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/david-a-graham/" itemprop="url" title="David A. Graham" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">David A. Graham</span></a></span></li>
        

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    <div itemprop="description" class="article-content ">
        <p class="dek">The special counsel detailed how a Russian effort to widen divisions in American society launched in 2014 morphed into active support for the candidacy of Donald Trump.</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p>A <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/rosenstein-mueller-indictment-russia/553601/">37-page indictment </a>filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday lays out the most detailed picture of how the Russian government sought to interfere in the 2016 election, meddling with voters to sow division in American society, and encouraging the election of Donald Trump in what the defendants referred to as “information warfare against the United States of America.”</p>

<p>“The conspiracy had as its object impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful governmental functions of the United States by dishonest means in order to enable the Defendants to interfere with U.S. political and electoral processes, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” the indictment states. There are 16 defendants, including three organizations and 13 individuals, who are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States by impairing enforcement of election law as well as wire fraud and bank fraud.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">The Swiss Have Liberal Gun Laws, Too</h3>
    </a>
    <ul class="metadata">
        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/krishnadev-calamur/" itemprop="url" title="Krishnadev Calamur" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Krishnadev Calamur</span></a></span></li>
        

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    <div itemprop="description" class="article-content ">
        <p class="dek">But they also have fewer gun-related deaths than the U.S.</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p>In February 2011, Swiss citizens voted in a referendum that called for a national gun registry and for firearms owned by members of the military to be stored in public arsenals.</p>

<p>“It is a question of trust between the state and the citizen. The citizen is not just a citizen, he is also a soldier,” Hermann Suter, who at the time was vice president of the Swiss gun-rights group Pro Tell, told the BBC then. “The gun at home is the best way to avoid dictatorships—only dictators take arms away from the citizens.”</p>

<p>Apparently many of his fellow Swiss agreed. The referendum was easily defeated. Gun ownership in the country<strong> </strong>has <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4137689?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">deep historic roots</a> and it is tied to mandatory military service for Swiss men between the ages of 18 and 34. Traditionally, soldiers were allowed to keep their weapons at home in order to defend against conquering armies. These fears came close to being realized during the Franco-Prussian War on 1871; as well as World War I, when the Swiss border was threatened; and World War II, when the country feared a Nazi invasion.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">'Show Us the Carnage' </h3>
    </a>
    <ul class="metadata">
        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/james-fallows/" itemprop="url" title="James Fallows" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">James Fallows</span></a></span></li>
        

    </ul>
    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2018-02-17T09:00:00" />
    <meta itemprop="dateModified" content="2018-02-17T18:19:09" />

    <div itemprop="description" class="article-content ">
        <p class="dek">None</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p>After a previous horrific massacre via AR-15, the one in Las Vegas last winter in which a single murderer killed or injured <em>more than 900</em> people<i>, </i>readers wrote about that weapon and its history. For reference, those items were:</p>

<ul><li>“<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/why-the-ar-15-is-so-lethal/545162/">Why the AR-15 Is So Lethal</a>”</li>
	<li>“<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2017/11/the-nature-of-the-ar-15/545414/">The Nature of the AR-15</a>”</li>
	<li>“<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2017/11/why-the-ar-15-was-never-meant-to-be-in-civilians-hands/545438/">Why the AR-15 Was Never Meant to be in Civilian Hands</a>”</li>
	<li>“<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2017/11/on-the-military-and-civilian-history-of-the-ar-15/545660/">More on the Military and Civilian History of the AR-15</a>”</li>
</ul><p>Now we have another massacre; more “thoughts and prayers” and other <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/deeply-saddened/553478/">pious but empty rituals</a> by legislators who will not do a single thing to reduce the chances of the next one; and more reaction from readers.</p>

<p>Can <em>anything</em> be done, by anyone or any organization, to stop the onslaught of gun violence? Readers suggest three approaches, involving: the media, the responsible gun-owning community, and the political opposition to the NRA.</p>


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