“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”
― Groucho Marx

Syria is on fire and the transition for President-elect Trump move into power is reaching new points of ridiculous–but it’s fine because “[he’s], like, smart.” Meanwhile, the Cold War is apparently back on and the environment is crumbling. I’m not going to lie, I feel like we’re badly in need of Christmas, but it’s not feeling very seasonal at the moment. More thoughts on that next week.

In the meantime, there are still some bright spots worth sharing. Here are your links, and I hope the next couple of weeks are more chipper. This will be the last links drop for the year due to travel, but posts will continue over the holidays so keep in touch, kittens!

First and foremost, if you can afford to give, this organization is helping civilians in Syria.

ABC’s photos of the year.

This Ta-Nehisi Coates piece on President Obama in The Atlantic is an important read. “And so I’m careful not to attribute any particular resistance or slight or opposition to race. But what I do believe is that if somebody didn’t have a problem with their daddy being employed by the federal government, and didn’t have a problem with the Tennessee Valley Authority electrifying certain communities, and didn’t have a problem with the interstate highway system being built, and didn’t have a problem with the GI Bill, and didn’t have a problem with the [Federal Housing Administration] subsidizing the suburbanization of America, and that all helped you build wealth and create a middle class—and then suddenly as soon as African Americans or Latinos are interested in availing themselves of those same mechanisms as ladders into the middle class, you now have a violent opposition to them—then I think you at least have to ask yourself the question of how consistent you are, and what’s different, and what’s changed.”

President Obama’s last press conference of the year, focusing on reports of Russian attempts to tip the election in favor of a preferred candidate, is worth a watch. His response on a foreign power’s inability to affect the US, unless “we give into the fierceness of the partisan battle,” finding strongman government as okay as long as it serves our preferred party interests, was weirdly both heartening and chilling.

For my fellow Yank beauty junkies.

One of each, please.

In praise of the copy editor.

For gods sake, citizens, arm yourselves with facts!

Episode 55 of The Hidden Brain podcast was a wonderful exploration of brand and their power over our decision making.