Silent night
Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently: David Remnick writes of how an underground journalistic-activist enterprise risks everything to get out the truth about ISIS and Raqqa. Via The New Yorker.
ISIS wives
ISIS wives who became morality enforcers tell the story, via The New York Times, of their collaboration, their anguish and, finally, their escape.
Patience please
There are alternatives to Obama’s strategy in battling ISIS other than putting 50,000 American troops in Syria, writes Doyle McManus in The Los Angeles Times. But any good alternative will take more than troops. It will take patience.
Trump stumped
Donald Trump twice over. First he says the Black Lives Matter protester who was roughed up at a Trump rally “maybe … should have been roughed up.” Trump also defends the claim, which The Washington Post Face-Checker concludes is “outrageous,” that he watched on television as thousands of Muslims cheered when the World Trade Center buildings collapsed. Does anyone else remember watching that? Via The Washington Post.
Trump trumping
In the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, Trump still leads by double digits, Carson second and Rubio third.
Rightward bound
How Marco Rubio evolved from foreign policy moderate to ultra-hawk, via Bloomberg News. It began with the moderate views on immigration that he came to reject.
About socialism
A leading socialist explains what Bernie Sanders got right and what he got wrong about socialism in his speech explaining democratic socialism. Via Vox.
Another Nixon
Douthat: What the country needs, believe it or not, is the next Richard Nixon. He wonders if the Democrats have already found one.
Carson vs. Carson
Ben Carson the meticulous surgeon and Ben Carson the sometimes-fact-challenged politician: Two very different Ben Carsons. Via The New York Times.
Losing Iowa
Is Carson losing his grip on Iowa conservatives? The polling seems to be showing that some Carson supporters are moving to Ted Cruz. Via Politico.
Photo credit: Beshr Abdulhadi, Creative Commons, Flickr.
