Wiretap: Selma, Alabama, by the way, still very much a hard-pressed town

Fifty years after Selma’s Bloody Sunday, the struggle goes on. Presidents Obama and Bush will come to celebrate what was won here and the Voting Rights Act that followed. But, the Washington Post writes, Selma is more than a story of a triumph; it is also the the story of a poor Alabama city where 40 percent live in poverty and the unemployment rate is twice the state average.

Charles Krauthammer compares Netanyahu to — take a wild guess — Churchill. Fareed Zakaria says Bibi has entered Never-Never Land. Via the Washington Post.

Vox explains why Hillary Clinton’s homebrewed emails became so controversial. But her champions are playing down the story — in colorful language. “Find me one persuadable voter who agrees with HRC on the issues but will vote against her because she has a non-archival-compliant email system and I’ll kiss your ass in Macy’s window and say it smells like roses.”

Dave Holmes at Esquire writes an “Open letter to Kid Rock about the word ‘gay.’” It’s a great piece, which in a perfect world should spark a literary (or Twitter) trend, with “Kid Rock” acting as a stand-in for Americans we all know and love in part for their obvious flaws and also feel the exhausting need for that reason to bring them up to speed on topics that matter.

Why doctors give in on vaccines. We’ve moved past the time where patients do whatever doctors say — and it’s about time. But that doesn’t mean doctors should do whatever patients say. Via the New Yorker.

Four ways Obamacare can survive the Supremes. Via Timothy Jost in Bloomberg View.

If you’re a betting man (or woman), Charlie Cook has the odds for 2016. Via the National Journal.

Linda Greenhouse, who calls herself a longtime advocate of abortion rights, writes glowingly of Dr. Jack Wilke, who led the anti-abortion fight for 50 years. Via the New York Times.

In Politico, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb tells her story: “I Was Alabama’s Top Judge. I’m Ashamed by What I Had to Do to Get There.”

[Downtown Selma, 2010, by Tom|1959.]

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