Donald Trump always renounced David Duke and the KKK, except one time

Donald Trump in 2000: 

“Well, you’ve got David Duke just joined — a bigot, a racist, a problem. I mean, this is not exactly the people you want in your party.”

Donald Trump on August 26th, 2015

Trump: “I don’t need his endorsement; I certainly wouldn’t want his endorsement. I don’t need anyone’s endorsement.”

Heilemann: “Would you repudiate David Duke? 

Trump: “Sure, I would do that, if it made you feel better. I don’t know anything about him. Somebody told me yesterday, whoever he is, he did endorse me. Actually I don’t think it was an endorsement. He said I was absolutely the best of all of the candidates.”

Donald Trump on February 26th, 2016

“I didn’t even know he endorsed me. David Duke endorsed me? Okay, all right. I disavow, okay?”

Time on February 28th, 2016 

Donald Trump Refuses to Condemn KKK, Disavow David Duke Endorsement

The Telegraph on March 1st 2016

"Trump's refusal to condemn David Duke and his racist movement shows he is happy to dance with the devil in pursuit of power"

CBS news on February 28th, 2016 

Donald Trump declines to condemn KKK leader

I don't want to sound like a Trump supporter here, but it seems like the media was being pretty disingenuous with its reporting here. Much of the reporting was in regard to one particular instance where Trump didn't disavow him when he had the opportunity. Trump explained later that:

“I’m sitting in a house in Florida, with a very bad earpiece that they gave me, and you could hardly hear what he was saying. But what I heard was ‘various groups.’ And I don’t mind disavowing anybody and I disavowed David Duke. And I disavowed him the day before at a major news conference…. I have no problem disavowing groups, but I’d at least like to know who they are.

He disavowed just before the bad earpiece scandal, and he disavowed after it. Politically it would be an obvious tactical error to not distance yourself from anything having to do with the KKK. I'm sorry but the story here is not, "Trump refuses to disavow David Duke." The story is... well there is no story. Regardless, the media hopped on the bandwagon as fast as they could and blew the whole thing out of proportion.

And that's why fake news is a thing.

Was Thomas Jefferson able to free his slaves?

In an interview with Dave Reuben, the much maligned Glenn Beck made the claim that Thomas Jefferson could not release his slaves because it was illegal for one to do so while in debt.

Is it true?

This source quotes the law itself

This law allowed slave owners when they were alive to free their slaves, provided slaves were of sound body and older than 18 if a female and older than 21 if a male, but not above the age of 45. Thus, Jefferson could have freed many of his slaves within the law while he was alive.

 It also points out that Jefferson, in fact, freed two slaves. It's kind of hard to argue that Jefferson was unable to free his slaves when he actually freed 2.

This three-part, citation heavy series is also very good.

Here's what people miss about the gender gap

By Vox

The more Vox moves to the center and takes to a smarter, more academically oriented form of liberalism, the better the world will be.

But would it make them more successful?

Causation, God, and Free Will

Sam Harris doesn't believe in God or free will. Ben Shapiro believes in both. You might say that Sam Harris stops believing in causation when he starts talking about the beginning of the universe, and you might say Ben Shapiro stops believing in causation when he starts talking about free will.

Here is Sam Harris on free will:

My problem with free will is that there is no account of how causes can happen that lead to further events, whether it's determined or random or combined, that makes sense of what I think most people mean by free will...

its' unfalsifiable in some sense because it's not an empirical datum, it's just an incoherent idea.

 Ben Shapiro on god's existence:

"If you don't want an infinite regress of causes, you have to come to the unactualized actualizer. A thing that just is. A thing that just exists. And this is what we call God.

 Maybe they should both just become Calvinists?

Why are Trolls always Men?

Study on Sex differences in Facebook trolling and narcissism

Men win more Darwin Awards than Women

According to “male idiot theory” (MIT) many of the differences in risk seeking behaviour, emergency department admissions, and mortality may be explained by the observation that men are idiots and idiots do stupid things.

Potential biological differences is hypothesized.

Economists on Trump and Free Trade

One hundred economists sign a letter supporting president Trump's economic policy agenda.

We believe that reciprocal free trade with lower trade barriers on all sides produces higher overall economic growth and hope that the President's efforts to negotiate better trade deals, including willingness to re-enter the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), will bring about a stronger long-run free trade equilibrium by reducing trade barriers and opening markets that were previously closed to American businesses.

One thousand economists sign a letter to Trump and Congress in opposition to protectionism and tariffs.

Countries cannot permanently buy from us unless they are permitted to sell to us, and the more we restrict the importation of goods from them by means of ever higher tariffs the more we reduce the possibility of our exporting to them.

This was pointed out in Greg Mankiw's Blog