How KGB founder Iron Felix justified terror and mass executions

The legacy of Felix Dzerzhinsky, who led Soviet secret police in the "Red Terror," still confounds Russia.

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  • Felix Dzerzhinsky led the Cheka, Soviet Union's first secret police.
  • The Cheka was infamous for executing thousands during the Red Terror of 1918.
  • The Cheka later became the KGB, the spy organization where Russia's President Putin served for years.
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Why avoiding logical fallacies is an everyday superpower

10 of the most sandbagging, red-herring, and effective logical fallacies.

Photo credit: Miguel Henriques on Unsplash
  • Many an otherwise-worthwhile argument has been derailed by logical fallacies.
  • Sometimes these fallacies are deliberate tricks, and sometimes just bad reasoning.
  • Avoiding these traps makes disgreeing so much better.
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Copenhagen residents are torn over Denmark's proposed 'Silicon Valley'

It may create the conditions for further inequality.

Architectural rendering by Urban Power for Hvidovre Municipality
  • The Danish government is building nine artificial islands known as Holmene off the coast of Hvidovre.
  • The 33 million square feet of new land will house 380 businesses and 170 acres of parkland, creating 30,000 new jobs.
  • Local residents fear this project will alienate the middle class while disrupting traffic and public transportation systems in nearby Copenhagen.
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What is the Green New Deal?

The Green New Deal is an ambitious attempt to fight climate change, but is it destined to hit the political skids?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stops by the Sunrise Movement's sit-in protest at Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi's office. Credit: Sunrise Movement / Twitter
  • Recent protests by the Sunrise Movement have taken the Green New Deal from forgotten policy to trending hashtag.
  • The Green New Deal aims to move the U.S. to 100% renewable energy within a decade.
  • Proponents also hope to catalyze a top-down restructuring of the U.S. economy and advance social justice issues.
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The U.S. states hit hardest by the federal government shutdown

Not all states are feeling the effects equally.

  • A new map from WalletHub, generated by comparing various federal data, shows the states most affected by the government shutdown.
  • About 800,000 federal employees are furloughed or are working without pay.
  • Government shutdowns have become an increasingly common political tool, but it wasn't until the early 1980s that they started resulting in the closing of federal agencies.
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