President Obama Reminds Republicans Why Obamacare “Happened”

By focusing–and rightly so–so much on the shitty website, we seem to have forgotten the larger, underlying reasons why we’re making the transition in the first place. Here, Obama reminds us.

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The Best Political Photos Of 2013

Gun control. Filibuster reform. Stand Your Ground. Ted Cruz’s sexy-ass schnoz. Like so many others, 2013 has proven to be a year filled to the brim with disappointment, collision, ideological blow-hards and some hope sprinkled in for good measure (see: Wendy Davis’ championing of women’s rights, the repeal of DOMA, etc. for a few examples). We’ve got all of those moments here for you in their most easily digestible form: the photo.

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Despite his inability to comprehend the message of a children's story, Ted Cruz was able to convince his conservative peers that he did, in fact, understand all of the evils manifest in Obamacare.

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John "Pokerface" Boehner during Barack Obama's State of the Union Address.

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Recently re-elected President Obama meets with President Bush, or the man who made sure that Obama's job was a failure from the start.

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One of the stills that made Hillary Clinton GIF-famous this January. Irate (and rightfully so) at the Benghazi hearings, Clinton tore her detractors apart.

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Harry Reid studies his filibuster exhibit before 'going nuclear' this past November.

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Recently elected Bill De Blasio receiving an under-caffeinated audience in Brooklyn, New York.

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One couple in California ties the knot, reveling in the fact that it took several years for them to be treated as equals in the eyes of the state of California.

political-photos-government-shutdown

A police officer strolls through the abandoned Capitol Hill rotunda during the government shutdown, also known as "how jerks can prove a point while fucking over everyone else".

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Healthcare.gov: the best thing that ever happened to the Republican Party since Abraham Lincoln.

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Barack Obama, in stitches following a Conan O'Brien-crafted joke at the White House Correspondents Dinner this past April.

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H-Dawg is presented with a gag football helmet gift at the end of the incredibly redundant Benghazi hearings this past January.

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An incensed Barack Obama following the failure of his much advocated for gun control legislation.

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Barack Obama bows to Queen Michelle Obama at the Inaugural ball.

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Protestors hold up inky-red hands as John Kerry testifies before a hearing on Syria.

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The Boehner "classic": while holding a news conference at Capitol Hill.

political-photos-michelle-obama

Michelle Obama plays freeze dance with pre-k students in Washington DC. They were all smiles until she announced that, as part of her kickstart to health program, she had placed a 20-year moratorium on all cookie production and sales.

political-photos-obama-umbrella

Not wanting to hinder the aesthetic integrity of his coif, Obama makes the bold move to poke his own head out from under an umbrella and test the weather conditions before a conference with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan in May.

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An inconsolable John Boehner can't seem to find the strength to applaud as Barack Obama signs a proclamation to commemorate his inauguration.

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Barack and Michelle Obama, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton pose before the Lincoln Memorial.

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Former chink in the GOP armor Sarah Palin has made like a phoenix and resurrected herself. Here, Palin speaks at an NRA "Leadership" Forum in Texas.

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In an accidental moment of advocacy on water security, Marco Rubio chugs a bottle of Poland Spring water. Fear not, freedom fighters; the water is bottled in Maine.

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Barack Obama makes the face that many did following the ruling on the George Zimmerman trial.

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Senator Wendy Davis' infamous pink kicks. Davis sported them for a whopping 11 hours while filibustering a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and force many clinics that provide them to upgrade their facilities (putting many of them out of business).

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Immigration advocates troll John Boehner's office during the battle over immigration reform.

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John Boehner cracks an uncharacteristically pleasant expression following the resolution to end the government shutdown.

political-photos-cruz-obamacare

Ted Cruz, who currently enjoys Goldman Sachs health insurance, rallies the uninsured (or shittily insured) masses against a program that is likely in their best interest.

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Barack and Michelle Obama at his inauguration ceremony this past January.

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Barack Obama meets with a sullen Vladimir Putin at the G8 summit.

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Protestors at NSA Director Keith Alexander's hearing on changes to the FISA Act. Their plan likely didn't come as much of a surprise to Alexander, though.

political-photos-trayvon-martin-mom

Trayvon Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, weeps at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Stand Your Ground laws.

political-photos-seiner

Shameless Anthony Weiner rides the New York subway after announcing that he would be running for mayor.

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Your Brain On Poverty

Food Pantry Shoppers

The Article: Your Brain on Poverty: Why Poor People Seem to Make Bad Decisions by Derek Thompson in The Atlantic.

The Text: In August, Science published a landmark study concluding that poverty, itself, hurts our ability to make decisions about school, finances, and life, imposing a mental burden similar to losing 13 IQ points.

It was widely seen as a counter-argument to claims that poor people are “to blame” for bad decisions and a rebuke to policies that withhold money from the poorest families unless they behave in a certain way. After all, if being poor leads to bad decision-making (as opposed to the other way around), then giving cash should alleviate the cognitive burdens of poverty, all on its own.

Sometimes, science doesn’t stick without a proper anecdote, and “Why I Make Terrible Decisions,” a comment published on Gawker’s Kinja platform by a person in poverty, is a devastating illustration of the Science study. I’ve bolded what I found the most moving, insightful portions, but it’s a moving and insightful testimony all the way through.

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University Of Alabama’s Racist Sororities

In the thick of the Civil Rights Movement, the southern college finally opened its doors to African Americans in 1963. But just because they opened a door doesn’t mean they closed an anachronistic ideology; just this past September, two sororities rejected an African American student because of her race.

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Applying Mandela’s Words On Poverty To The United States

Mandela Poverty

The worst part, of course, is getting so used to the pressure pushing us down that we forget it exists.

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