In 2016, only Bernie Sanders wants to address the structural issues leading to the financial crisis, while POLITICO once referred to Hillary Clinton as "Wall Street Republicans' dark secret."

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Many, many people suffering from mental illness, including those who have experienced psychosis and hallucinations or who have lived through suicidal moments or even attempts, go on to live successful, productive lives. All we need to do is let them. Because it's not helping the mentally ill that we should fear. It's what happens if we don't.

Michael Moore

By taking away the city's clean drinking water in order to "cut costs" and then switching the city's water supply to Flint River water, you have allowed massively unsafe levels of pollutants and lead into the water that travels in to everyone's home. Every Flint resident is trapped by this environmental nightmare which you, Governor, have created.

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We as a society need to go long on one especially critical issue that we seem to be in political and policy denial about -- the need for long-term services and federal policies which promote them.

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The current gun debate is an incredibly revealing moment about us as individuals and as a country.

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As Saudi Arabia is fighting a proxy war against Iran in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, it is determined not to allow Iran free regional reign. By creating the crisis, Saudi Arabia also hopes to disrupt the warming relations between Iran and the U.S., which it views as contrary to its interests. In addition, Saudi Arabia hopes to undermine the EU's drive for rapprochement with Iran, as it otherwise has the potential of becoming the largest trading partner with the EU.

Nancy Abbott Young

2015 brought many challenges for the Arab American and American Muslim communities. The presidential primary season kicked into gear, and along with it came a fresh wave of bigotry. But looking at the year ahead of us, I am reminded of Arab Americans who, at times when our national character has been challenged, have stepped up and engaged.

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The United Nations Security Council called an emergency meeting on the North Korea less than 24 hours after the test occurred in what can only be described as the same, never-ending story of attack, counterattack.

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Attacks on Planned Parenthood, both physical and political, are jeopardizing the ability of women to access contraception and other reproductive health care services. At the same time, political assaults on sex education programs are gaining momentum and threatening the progress that we have made in reducing teen pregnancies. It all adds up to a bad report card for 2015, and it could get worse in 2016.

This should be a "have you no decency?" moment, but sadly, we shouldn't be surprised that that no candidate has stood up to Trump's ad in any meaningful way. They're not speaking out because they are in lock step, following Trump's lead.

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For most women, whose lives have not been perfect, Sec. Clinton's career path -- which has been marked by persistence and resilience in the face of extraordinary barriers -- is cause for celebration and inspiration.

Mary Bottari

Rather than relying on regulators to do a better job of policing the massive financial services sector, Sanders downsizes and leashes the largest players on Wall Street and overhauls the Federal Reserve in an effort to put America's central bank to work for working families.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Federal land is currently being occupied by protestors. Or, according to some, by domestic terrorists. But pigeonholing these guys with either label isn't quite as easy as it might first seem.

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So who are Marc Short and Andy Koenig? The Times identified them only as "the president and senior policy adviser, respectively, at Freedom Partners, which advocates for free-market policies."

For the next few months the people who are vying to be our next president will be amazingly accessible. If you happen to live in a state like Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina you can very easily find an event featuring one of the presidential candidates at which you could ask them a direct question. When the moment comes, what would you ask?

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The only reason why white ranchers have any land to run their cattle on today -- whether it is land that they hold a deed to, that they now defend against federal seizure, or public land that they currently use to feed their livestock -- was stolen from the American Indians.

For the established Republican order, the vista presented by this new year is filled with bewilderment and foreboding. For the last 28 years of presidential primaries, the consultants, donors and loyalists who constituted the party's so-called mainstream have taken it for granted that, in the end, the "most electable conservative" would once again ward off insurrection by the Visigoths of the GOP's outer reaches.