[Swedish] Fishy

Who needs intelligence briefings when you've got t.v.?

To be specific, Fox News - because when you think "intelligence" you think Fox News! That's where Trump got the vital information about the Swedish Incident.

But he didn't even get that quite right, because Fox News was reporting on increased crime rates due to immigration while Trump seemed to refer to a specific incident that left everyone worried that the Swedish Chef had lost his meatballs at Ikea or something and even Fox News's report was messed up.

Sweden's crime rate has fallen since 2005, official statistics show, even as it has taken in hundreds of thousands of immigrants from war-torn countries like Syria and Iraq.

Trump's comment confounded Stockholm. "We are trying to get clarity," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Catarina Axelsson said.

Sweden's embassy in the United States repeated Trump's tweet about having seen the Fox report, and added, "We look forward to informing the U.S. administration about Swedish immigration and integration policies." [Source] 

So now Trump will admit he messed up and apologize, right?

Lol, of course not: Trump Pursues His Attack on Sweden, With Scant Evidence

Sweden isn't having it. Several, including members of Parliament, are angry. Others are - well, downright snarky. "Carl Bildt, a former prime minister and foreign minister of Sweden, made a jab at Mr. Trump on Twitter: 'Just a piece of friendly advice: when you are in a hole, stop digging.'" [Source]

You know what else Sweden isn't having? Increased crime rates with increased immigration.

But, hey, perhaps Sweden is actually special and the U.S. does have problems with growing crime rates and immigration?

Nope:

For the last decade, we have been studying how immigration to an area impacts crime.

Across our studies, one finding remains clear: Cities and neighborhoods with greater concentrations of immigrants have lower rates of crime and violence, all else being equal. [Source]

Still, some are taking it all with levity. In fact, Sweden's doing so officially. I'm glad - I, at least, could use a laugh. I mean, have you seen the U.S. News links? Oh, right, we aren't there yet. Well, here, have a laugh first:

[Source]

In the meantime, here are TWO pretty pictures!

Links!

• Library Land
• The Librarian of Congress and the Greatness of Humility "The Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden, believes in citizens' right to access information. 'It should feel very special because it is very special,' she said, of the Library. 'But it should be very familiar.'"
• Library Hand, the Fastidiously Neat Penmanship Style Made for Card Catalogs "Now that card catalogs have been replaced by electronic indexing, library hand is a rare sight—unless you know where to look. " (Hint: You'll need to look in a library.)
• Health, Science, & Technology
• Using Architecture To Explain 16 Mental Illnesses And Disorders "Federico Babina has just released a new project called Archiatric, which depicts 16 different conditions as works of architecture in various states of repair. The designs are chillingly abstract, but for anyone living with the agony of mental illness, they're all too accurate. An animated video posted to the Barcelona-based digital artist's YouTube page further intensifies the effect of the images." 


• FBI's 'Gamergate' file says prosecutors declined to charge men believed to have sent death threats — even when they confessed on video  "[D]espite...an email trail, a confession, and an admission from the suspect that he knew he was breaking the law — the FBI let him go after the suspect said it was a 'joke'..." 
• XY Bias: How Male Biology Students See Their Female Peers "In three large classes, men overrated the abilities of male students above equally talented and outspoken women."
• International
• French Police Search Marine Le Pen’s Office in EU Funds Probe "Investigators are looking into whether Ms. Le Pen and other National Front leaders used funds—earmarked for assistants working inside the Strasbourg-based European Parliament—to pay party staffers in other parts of France. EU rules require European Parliament assistants to work at one of the body’s offices in Brussels, Strasbourg or Luxembourg and to reside near that workplace."
• Russia's U.N. envoy Churkin dies suddenly in New York "A U.S. government official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the case, said that Churkin had died of an apparent heart attack."
• U.S. News
• N.J. Student-Teacher Videos Raise Privacy Concerns "A new rule that requires teaching candidates to submit tapes of their lessons to an education firm for review has sparked a backlash from some educators, parents"
• Senator Mark Chelgren Aims To Purge Democrats From Iowa Universities "Iowa’s universities are supposed to be a place of open expression and discussion of ideas, some of which politicians in Des Moines may not agree with. Chelgren wants to stifle that culture and impose his own partisan ideology by force and threatening people’s jobs."
• Trump Administration Considers Change in Calculating U.S. Trade Deficit "Career government employees objected last week when they were asked to prepare data using the new methodology, according to the people familiar with the discussions. These employees at the U.S. Trade Representative’s office complied with the instructions, but included their views as to why they believe the new calculation wasn’t accurate." Because this administration's modus operandi is to make shit up when the facts don't back you up. 
• Republican Health Proposal Would Redirect Money From Poor to Rich "Republicans in Congress have been saying for months that they are working on a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare in the Trump era. Now we have the outline of that plan, and it looks as if it would redirect federal support away from poorer Americans and toward people who are wealthier."
• Jim Mattis Says U.S. Isn’t in Iraq to Take Its Oil  "The comments by Mr. Mattis, on a seven-day visit to the Middle East, are at odds with remarks made repeatedly by President Donald Trump, who said as recently as last month that the U.S. should have taken Iraq’s oil."
• Trump administration deals a big setback to Caltrain  "[N]ewly minted Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has put the brakes on $647 million for Caltrain to go electric — and in the process pretty much killed hopes for high-speed rail coming to San Francisco anytime soon."
• President Trump Names Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster New National Security Adviser "McMaster will replace General Mike Flynn, who was forced to resign after revelations that he had misled top White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S." H.R. McMaster: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know  
• Don't Dismiss President Trump's Attacks on the Media as Mere Stupidity
  

  We each have our obligations to see what’s in front of one’s nose, whether we’re reporters, columnists, or anything else. This is the essence of intellectual integrity.
  
  Not to look around, or beyond, or away from the facts, but to look straight at them, to recognize and call them for what they are, nothing more or less. To see things as they are before we re-interpret them into what we’d like them to be. To believe in an epistemology that can distinguish between truth and falsity, facts and opinions, evidence and wishes. To defend habits of mind and institutions of society, above all a free press, which preserve that epistemology. To hold fast to a set of intellectual standards and moral convictions that won’t waver amid changes of political fashion or tides of unfavorable opinion. To speak the truth irrespective of what it means for our popularity or influence.

• Trump's White House: The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight "The Constitution-straining conflicts surrounding the president, his top aides, some of his children, and his licensing-and-development business are a problem with no end in sight."
• A contradiction at the heart of President Trump’s economic policy  "When you look more closely at international flows of goods and money, you can see that foreign investment and trade deficits are two sides of the same coin. '[When] Trump criticizes America's trade deficits, but welcomes foreign investment, that’s a completely inconsistent position,' says Mark Perry, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute."