Employee Benefits Division Please Return The Completed: Fill & Download for Free

Hope you have a lot of time on your hands. Here are some accomplishments courtesy of pleasecutthecrap.com/obama-accomplishmentsWithin his first week, he signed an Executive Order ordering an audit of government contracts, and combating waste and abuse. http://1.usa.gov/dUvbu5·Created the post of Chief Performance Officer, whose job it is to make operations more efficient to save the federal government money. http://n.pr/hcgBn1·On his first full day, he froze White House salaries for the duration of the Great Recession. http://cbsn.ws/2aNMqNN·He appointed the first Federal Chief Information Officer to oversee federal IT spending and efficiency. http://www.cio.gov·He committed to phasing out unnecessary and outdated weapons systems and signed the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act, in an attempt to limit waste, fraud and abuse in the defense procurement and contracting systems. http://bit.ly/hOw1t1·Established the Open Government Directive, which completely changed the government’s approach to technology at all levels. http://bit.ly/2iOTERn·He created the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. http://bit.ly/hwKhKa·Signed an Executive Order instructing federal agencies to review all federal regulations and remove any unnecessary and/or burdensome regulations from the books. http://1.usa.gov/Lpo5bd·Dismantled the Minerals Management Service, thereby cutting ties between energy companies and the government. http://nyti.ms/bw1MLu·Banned gifts from lobbyists to anyone in the Executive Branch. http://bit.ly/fsBACN·Banned anyone from working in an agency they had lobbied in previous years and placed strict limits on lobbyists’ access to the White House. http://nyti.ms/gOrznV·Held the first-ever first online town hall from the White House, and took questions from the public. http://bit.ly/2atEVct·Became the first president to stream every White House event, live. http://1.usa.gov/kAgOP5·Established a central portal for Americans to find service opportunities. http://www.serve.gov·Restored the 30-day time frame for former presidents to review records and eliminated the right for the vice president or family members of former presidents to do the reviews, giving the public greater access to historic White House documents, and curtails the use of executive privilege to shield them. http://1.usa.gov/gUetLb·Improved the Freedom of Information Act and issued new guidelines to make FOIA more open and transparent when processing FOIA requests. http://1.usa.gov/gjrnp2·Streamlined the Department of Education’s procurement policies and made them more transparent. http://bit.ly/1r9oQvh·Provided the first voluntary disclosure of the White House Visitors Log in history. http://1.usa.gov/hQ7·Signed a law to completely reform NSA Data Collection program and keep phone records in the hands of the phone company. http://bit.ly/1dG34vD·Improved access and data available to Inspectors General throughout the federal governments and elsewhere, thus improving investigative quality.·Sought to improve project management and accountability throughout the federal government. http://bit.ly/2jRaC3A·Enjoyed a virtually scandal-free Administration for eight solid years. http://bit.ly/2iOCTFV·Prevented a Bush Depression, Improved the Economy·Pushed through and signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as “the stimulus package.” He also launched http://recovery.gov, a website that allows taxpayers to track spending from the Act. http://bit.ly/2aw6HGt·By the end of his first year, the economy created and sustained 2.1 million jobs and the ARRA stimulated the economy by 3.5%. http://reut.rs/i46CEE·He guided the massive TARP financial and banking rescue plan and forced financial organizations to pay back virtually all bailout money. http://bit.ly/2alXjlV·Established the Making Home Affordable home refinancing plan. http://1.usa.gov/goy6zl·In 2010 alone, more jobs were created than had been created during Bush’s eight years. http://bit.ly/hrrnjY·He pushed through and implemented an auto industry rescue plan that saved as many as 1 million jobs and possibly the entire auto industry. http://bit.ly/ibhpxr http://bit.ly/gj7mt5·Through his investment in GM, returned to the company to its place as the premiere car company in the world. http://lat.ms/zIJuQx·In February 2016, GM was in such good financial shape, they gave a share of the profit to each worker, with checks up to $11,000. http://detne.ws/1mk7Jry·Doubled funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, to improve manufacturing efficiency. http://bit.ly/eYD4nf·Increased infrastructure spending after years of neglect. http://bit.ly/f77aOw·Signed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, which helped millions of Americans avoid preventable foreclosures and provided $2.2 billion to combat homelessness and stabilize the housing market. http://bit.ly/2aiFCbi·Signed an Executive Order creating jobs immediately by reducing the time needed for review and permitting of infrastructure projects. http://1.usa.gov/GHxaYt·Through the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009, he and Congressional Democrats provided tax credits to first-time home buyers, which helped the U.S. housing market recovery. http://bit.ly/dZgXXw http://bit.ly/2aOGmVM·Played a lead role in getting the G-20 Summit to commit to a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the global financial crisis. http://nyti.ms/gHlgp5·Signed new rules making it easier for home buyers to get a loan to buy a condominium. http://bit.ly/2c4VPDl·Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, saved at least 300,000 education jobs, such as teachers, principals, librarians, and counselors that would have otherwise been lost. http://1.usa.gov/ez30D·Provided funding to states and the Department of Homeland Security to save thousands of police and firefighter jobs from being cut during the recession. http://bit.ly/g0IKWR·Signed bill to provide extra training for local police forces, especially with regard to active shooter situations. http://bit.ly/2cvFlRf·China’s largest manufacturer, Foxconn, is building a large plant in Pennsylvania http://cnnmon.ie/1k7LT4S·Worked with Apple Computer to get them to build more product here, and the company is building two large plants to manufacture products here; one in Texas http://zd.net/1nkpt2O and one in Arizona http://bit.ly/1mXY5Vg·Created an institute to invest in more manufacturing jobs in the technology fields of the future. http://nyti.ms/1egyXrV·Ordered all federal contractors to pay a minimum wage of $10.10 per hour, leading the way to a national increase. http://wapo.st/1iaU5kd As a result of this decision, a number of large employers, including Disney and Walmart, have increased their minimums. http://bit.ly/2c3iwF5·Ordered the completion of the International Trade Data System, a digital trade record book, by 2016. This move will streamline and simplify the process through which small- and medium-sized businesses set up the export of US goods. http://bit.ly/1nwSRF4·Signed bill to expand opportunities and to promote greater Native American tourism. http://bit.ly/2dTIQmo·Specific Examples of Economic Improvement·As of December 2016, a record 75 consecutive months of overall job growth, a record. http://on.msnbc.com/1TKFCPQ·As of August 2016, Unemployment drops below 5% for the first time in eight years and without a significant bubble, remains below 5% until he leaves office. 4.9% http://on.msnbc.com/1TKFCPQ·As of December 2016, there have been 82 consecutive months of private sector job growth, a record. http://1.usa.gov/1Xhizho·In April 2016, new unemployment claims hit their lowest level since Nov. 1973. As of September 2016, they remain at 43-year lows. That means lower than at any time during Saint Reagan’s Administration. http://yhoo.it/2eaIPbf http://nyti.ms/1YhZEBk·Since February 2010, when unemployment peaked, 16 million non-farm private sector jobs have been created. http://1.usa.gov/1Xhizho·Contrary to GOP rhetoric, most of the new jobs created have been full-time, not temporary. http://bit.ly/2dF7pjO·Oversaw a reduction in the federal budget deficit by two-thirds since taking office. http://bit.ly/1xKMmjY·Reduced the federal budget deficit from 9.8% of GDP in Fiscal Year 2009 under Bush, to 2.5% of GDP in FY 2015. http://bit.ly/2cI4ABV·Scolds Congress and gets a $305 billion highways bill passed. This bill has the added benefit of created hundreds of thousands of new jobs and creating incentives for green cars. http://bit.ly/1NsL2Zq·Wages have risen more in 2015 and 2016 than at any time in almost 20 years, without the aid of an economic bubble. http://theatln.tc/2iX24JK·For the first time in 15 years, the lowest income demographic is seeing a rise in income. http://theatln.tc/2iX24JK·Addressed Wrongdoing in the Financial Sector·Signed the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act giving the federal government more tools to investigate and prosecute fraud in every corner of the financial system, and create a bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate the financial fraud that led to the economic meltdown. http://abcn.ws/g18Fe7·Ordered 65 executives who took bailout money to cut their own pay until they paid back all bailout money. http://huff.to/eAi9Qq·Along with Congressional Democrats, pushed through and got passed Dodd-Frank, one of the largest and most comprehensive Wall Street reforms since the Great Depression. http://bit.ly/hWCPg0http://bit.ly/geHpcD·Created and implemented rules to reduce the influence of speculators in the oil market. http://bit.ly/MDnA1t·Created and implemented rules so banks can no longer use depositors’ money to invest in derivatives and other high-risk financial instruments that work against depositors’ interests. http://bit.ly/fnTayj·Supported the concept of allowing stockholders to vote on executive compensation. http://bit.ly/fnTayj·Endorsed and supported the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009 that would close offshore tax avoidance loopholes. http://bit.ly/esOdfB http://bit.ly/eG4DPM·Negotiated a deal with Swiss banks permitting the US government to gain access to bank records of criminals and tax evaders. http://bit.ly/2aAwUS5·Signed the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, closing many of the loopholes that allowed companies to send jobs overseas, and avoid paying US taxes by moving money offshore. http://1.usa.gov/bd1RTq·Thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, inflation in the healthcare sector dropped to its lowest point in 50 years. http://on.wsj.com/1E6cYjF·Improved Conditions for Consumers and Small Businesses·Signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive credit card practices. http://1.usa.gov/gIaNcS·Guided the housing market all the way back from total collapse, which led to a rally for housing starts. http://reut.rs/1NTAOVU·Spent unprecedented amounts of money on technology, to move the country well into the 21stCentury, after eight years of lag. http://bit.ly/2jCTwsA·Brought airline industry back to their highest profitability since before the recession. http://lat.ms/1O8H1iE·Created an airline passenger bill of rights, preventing airlines from stranding passengers on tarmac for hours, requiring them to return to the gate within three hours or face stiff fines. http://bit.ly/2c3jAZi·Blocked a monopolistic merger of Staples and Office Depot, to preserve at least some competition. http://bit.ly/1kcY2Kv·Stock market has reached record highs, restoring most of the economic losses felt during the Bush Recession. http://bit.ly/1z4FAtL·Promoted and signed a bill to established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and implemented it. http://1.usa.gov/j5onG http://bit.ly/fnTayj·Consumer confidence continues to inch up to its highest level more than a decade. http://bit.ly/1PZLRcK·Initiated a $15 billion plan designed to encourage increased lending to small businesses. http://1.usa.gov/eu0u0b·Created BusinessUSA, to allow online collaboration between small businesses and experts re managing a business. (The program has since merged with Small Business Administration.) http://www.business.gov·Through the FCC, Established the Open Internet Order, which established new neutrality as a standard for the future. http://fcc.us/2iGc0ZA·Took steps to improve minority access to capital. http://bit.ly/f9xVE7·Used recovered TARP money to fund programs at local housing finance agencies in California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Michigan. http://bit.ly/2b3jKOk·Crafted and signed an executive order establishing the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability to assist in financial education for all Americans. http://bit.ly/eyqsNE·Oversaw the most sweeping food safety legislation since the Great Depression. http://bit.ly/2aiIPaS·Through the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, extended the False Claims Act to combat fraud by companies and individuals using money from TARP and Stimulus programs. http://bit.ly/SLTcSa·Set up rules for banks in handling legal marijuana money. http://nyti.ms/1b80o2K·Added greater protections to consumer financial transactions to reduce identity theft. http://1.usa.gov/1pjfUFq·Took steps to prevent pirate fishing and protect fish populations, and ordered stricter labeling requirements on labeling of seafood products in stores. http://1.usa.gov/1BYhTUn·Signed the RAISE Act, which should encourage more people to open small businesses and help improve the economy. http://bit.ly/1QhTqkF·Signed a bill that allows low-volume vehicle manufacturers that will increase entrepreneurship among small car manufacturers, who often build replicas of classics but who often build green vehicles. http://bit.ly/1QhTqkF·Signs an Executive Order to strengthen cooperation with regard to global entrepreneurship. http://1.usa.gov/294u5eI·Signs a law to allow “ordinary investors” to help a company start up through crowdfunding. http://n.pr/299eZEn·Blocks the merger of several health insurers to ensure that competition remains in the health insurance business. http://bit.ly/2cvHV9P·Signs a law to strengthen American economic competitiveness. http://bit.ly/2932zfA·Prohibited the elimination of “floating homes” In the Tennessee Valley Authority. http://bit.ly/2k5C6S9·Established new offices at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that are designed to assist small businesses and to reduce unnecessary regulations. http://bit.ly/2jdpdp3·Banned the used of automated “ticket-bots” http://newsok.com/article/5531133·Offers greater protection for consumers who post online reviews. https://yhoo.it/2iP8ZkY·Strengthened the Middle Class and Fought Poverty·Worked to provide affordable, high-quality child care to working families. http://bit.ly/fNfidS·Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, cut taxes for 95% of America’s working families. http://bit.ly/eSEI4F·Tax rates for average working families are the lowest since 1950. http://bit.ly/f74pD8·Extended and fully funded the patch for the Alternative Minimum Tax for 10 years. http://bit.ly/eFeSdP·Extended discounted health coverage under the COBRA health insurance law for the unemployed from 9 months to 15 months, and he’s also extended unemployment benefits more than a few times. http://aol.it/evtVxDhttp://nyti.ms/emrqKJ http://bit.ly/hOtIpg http://bit.ly/fTT7kz·Provided a $20 billion increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps). http://nyti.ms/gfLqyM·Signed an Executive Order that established the White House Office of Urban Affairs. http://wapo.st/eWECA8·Included the Buffet Rule in his 2014 budget proposal, in order to fulfill a campaign promise to make sure tax rates are fair between the rich and the middle class. http://1.usa.gov/19PkdQo·Used the fiscal cliff negotiations to extend for five additional years the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which provides tax credits to families for college-related expenses, thus saving those families up to $10,000. http://onforb.es/17zYg3u·Increased protections for the unemployed who are seeking a government job. http://1.usa.gov/1jgXATu·Updated and modernized overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) http://1.usa.gov/1iGDO8e·Signed and implemented the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, to improve nutrition in schools and make children healthier. http://1.usa.gov/GAXkSk·To make college more affordable and accountable, will begin rating colleges with regard to affordability and value. http://bit.ly/14Dn7UL·Initiated a reform of federal job training programs, to make them more relevant to the current economy and the job market. http://1.usa.gov/1kZLQHG·Under Obama, the bottom 95% of taxpayers pay lower federal income taxes than at any time in the last 50 years, including under Reagan, or either Bush. http://bit.ly/1w1W8Ns·Signed a presidential memorandum authorizing six weeks paid leave for all federal employees with a new baby and encouraged Congress to do the same for all workers. http://bit.ly/18613XA·2014 marked the first time since 1984 that unemployment dropped in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. 1.usa.gov/1E25u0C·Took steps to improve workplace safety by creating an Advisory Board to study workers’ exposure to toxic substances. http://1.usa.gov/1M4s8IG·Changed overtime rules to make it far more difficult for employers to avoid paying overtime to workers. http://politi.co/1KHfiBe·Changed rules for federal contractors, guaranteeing that all workers earn paid leave; this should affect about 300,000 workers. http://1.usa.gov/1LcHZWl·Signed a Hague Convention Agreement to make it easier to collect child support from parents wherever they are in the world. http://bit.ly/2cI38wB·Negotiated a law to finally replace “No Child Left Behind” and remove much of the onerous government “oversight” that caused children to stagnate, not improve, academically. http://bit.ly/1Up9pMl·Signed executive order to expand charitable giving among federal employees. http://bit.ly/2e7cJQy·Helped to end the “Victory Tax” that caused financial hardship to successful Olympic athletes. http://bit.ly/2ds4uO2·Addressed Civil Rights and Equality·Formed a commission to examine and make recommendations for fixing the broken voting system. http://wapo.st/16K0D·Created a Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department that has become a very strong voice for Black people. http://bit.ly/1ObO7TI·At a press conference August 9, 2013, gave up some executive power, promising to create adversarial process in FISA regarding NSA surveillance. http://1.usa.gov/1dQmnyQ·Proposed rules to enhance Fair Housing Laws, to give HUD and other enforcement agencies more enforcement power. http://bit.ly/1qkz4uQ·Ordered a review of capital punishment policies after several botched executions. http://nyti.ms/RDJp58·Approved $1.2 billion discrimination settlement with black farmers who had proved USDA bias. http://huff.to/1Nol9Ab·Appointed Kareem Dale as the first ever Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy. http://1.usa.gov/fi5IY0·Concentrated immigration enforcement on those who commit crimes, and vowed to stop breaking up families. http://1.usa.gov/1uTZ8gV·Streamlined the visa process, to make it more responsive and humane for those who want to be here legally. http://1.usa.gov/1tgDRti·Took steps to tighten the reins when it comes to providing local law enforcement agencies with military-style equipment and exercising more control over the equipment they receive. http://1.usa.gov/1ATWV3K·Changed fair housing rules to make more affordable housing available to more people. http://cnn.it/1JcR3qB·Helped Democrats in Congress pass and signed the Civil Rights History Act. http://bit.ly/th0JC8·Created a Policing Task Force to deal with the problems that led to the #BlackLivesMatter movement. http://nbcnews.to/1T17PON·His Justice Department investigated the Ferguson Police Department twice and slammed them for their racism and exploitive practices. http://nbcnews.to/1q9jTpf·Established the White House Council of Native American Affairs, to improve government-to-government relations with Native American nations. http://1.usa.gov/1cIEeEv·Limited local police acquisitions of military-style equipment, to reduce the likelihood of overkill. http://n.pr/1NGkBjT·Signed Blue Alert Law, which provides police officers with more information when they are threatened. http://bit.ly/1NGksga·Blocked the sale of Apache tribal land to foreign mining company, over Republican objections. Hero: Obama Blocks Sale Of Sacred Apache Land To Foreign Mining Firmhttp://bit.ly/1RYpmfi·Settled with the City of Cleveland over civil rights and excessive force violations. http://nbcnews.to/24GRQNw·Reviewed the practices of the Philadelphia Police Department and made 91 recommendations to prevent civil rights and excessive force violations. http://on.msnbc.com/1q9ktmX·Signed a law to modernize the way the federal government refers to minorities, removing certain archaic terms from the vocabulary. http://bit.ly/291BeIL·Took steps to treat opioid addiction as a health issue rather than purely as a law enforcement issue. http://bit.ly/2ccokd3·Signed a law to better protect children in tribal foster care. http://strib.mn/293Gyky·Blocked an oil pipeline in South Dakota that would have devastated sacred Sioux land. http://theatln.tc/2cmmmqb·Worked with Congress to pass bill establishing Commission on Native Children, which will examine some of the most pressing problems facing Native American nations. http://wapo.st/2esGxbC·Signed bill establishing a Sexual Assault Rights Act by working with Democrats in Congress. http://bzfd.it/2ejelVd·Worked with Congress to pass law to make sure there are changing tables in all federal restrooms, including men’s rooms. http://slate.me/2ejdWlu·Extended religious protection to atheists and agnostics. http://nbcnews.to/2jD7meL·Officially scrapped a post-9/11 registry that primarily targeted Muslim men http://cbsn.ws/2k5nNNk That makes the proposed Trump registry a lot more difficult to create. http://theatln.tc/2jEfDhZ·Established a law to allow disabled people to set up their own trusts and tend to their own financial affairs. http://bit.ly/2jR7BA1·Established the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument. http://bit.ly/2iOtBtL·Signed bill to create thousands of outdoor recreation jobs while preserving an important part of the environment. http://bit.ly/2jCPSPN·Improved Workers’ Rights·He issued final rules that require all employers to prominently post employees’ rights where all employees or prospective employees can see it, including all websites and intranets. http://1.usa.gov/qu2EhQ·Obama’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission clarified and strengthened rules prohibiting discrimination against pregnant workers. http://alj.am/1mo0kjV·Required companies who bid on federal contracts larger than $500,000 to publicly disclose all previous violations of labor law, including unpaid claims for back wages. http://1.usa.gov/V54qY3·Made it illegal for federal contractors with more than $1 million in contracts to force employees into arbitration in workplace discrimination accusations. http://1.usa.gov/V54qY3·Vetoed Republican bill that would have blocked new NLRB rules that were designed to speed up the time it takes workers to unionize. http://reut.rs/1agujMO He also added a Memorandum of Disagreement to make his reasons for the veto clear and made a major statement in support of unions. http://1.usa.gov/1NG7RuA·Cracked down on companies that were previously denying sick pay, vacation and health insurance, and Social Security and Medicare tax payments through abuse of the employee classification of independent contractor. http://nyti.ms/fOGLcj·Signed law that bans imports of goods produced through forced labor. http://nbcnews.to/1RuJu2y·Protected the Rights of LGBT People·Signed and implemented the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which made it a federal crime to assault anyone based on his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. http://bit.ly/gsMSJ7·Oversaw and implemented the repeal of the reprehensible “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy. http://bit.ly/fdahuHhttp://bit.ly/mZV4Pz·Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. http://1.usa.gov/g2RLCj·Appointed more openly gay officials than anyone in history. http://bit.ly/g1lA7D·Appointed first openly transgender Cabinet Official in History. http://bit.ly/58zUp7·Advocated that United Nations adopt a policy supporting gay rights worldwide. http://lat.ms/pQe1RS·As soon as the Supreme Court invalidated the Defense of Marriage Act, he moved to extend federal benefits to same-sex couples. http://wapo.st/1avDjue·Issued an order requiring hospitals to allow visitation by same-sex couples. http://reut.rs/llNJek·Changed HUD rules to prohibit gender and sexual orientation-based discrimination in housing bit.ly/9RxEnP·Changed his mind and publicly expressed support for same-sex marriage. http://bit.ly/JsiFKp·Issued a Presidential Memorandum reaffirming the rights of gay couples to make medical decisions for each other. http://1.usa.gov/aUueGT·Appointed several prominent gay athletes and others, and plans to show US government’s commitment to gay rights to anti-gay Russia. http://on.cpsj.com/1fckN9h·Department of Agriculture propagated new rules to better enforce non-discrimination when it comes to USDA investigations and to extend non-discrimination to gender identity. http://bit.ly/1yChJhi·Banned all federal contractors from discriminating against gay workers. http://1.usa.gov/1ok1gfH·Persevered with his campaign to turn “gay marriage” into “marriage” and won in the Supreme Court. http://cbsloc.al/1M4qLKb·Improved Conditions for Women·Establishing the White House Council on Women and Girls to ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies consider the effect of their policies and programs on women and families. http://bit.ly/e1puTk http://1.usa.gov/rFfqMM·Implemented the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which restored basic protections against pay discrimination for women and other workers. http://bit.ly/fT3Cxg·Eliminated federal funding for abstinence-only education, and rescinded the global gag rule. http://bit.ly/eCFAI1 http://bit.ly/f92drF·Improved the Paycheck Fairness Act, making it possible for employees to talk about their salaries without retaliation, and ordering salary data collection, so as to make it harder for employers to pay women less. http://huff.to/1nwVOWf·Signed an Executive Order pledging support for efforts to end the global problem of violence against women and girls. http://1.usa.gov/MHTRVU·Shattered another glass ceiling by naming Janet Yellen chair of the Federal Reserve beginning Feb. 1, 2014. http://usat.ly/1gqMBfk·Expanded funding for the Violence Against Women Act. http://1.usa.gov/dSbI0x·Ordered companies with 100 employees or more to disclose pay data based on race and gender, to address the pay gap. http://theatln.tc/1Q04XPL·Signs law restoring Arlington Cemetery burial rights for women pilots in World War II. http://bit.ly/293rmjb·Signed a bill to allow for nursing women to bring breastfeeding equipment onto the plane and to protect women who choose to feed children while traveling. http://bit.ly/2k8eW1o·Addressed Criminal Justice Failings and the Gun Culture·Made significant reductions in drug sentencing guidelines for current prisoners. http://n.pr/1mWBLkM·Oversaw the first drop in the federal prison population in 32 years. http://bit.ly/1B5h8rW·Increased his use of clemency to release thousands of non-violent drug offenders from prison. http://nyti.ms/1KE8DJG·Ordered a ban on solitary confinement for juvenile offenders in federal prisons. http://bit.ly/20ObRzA·Took executive action to promote smart gun technology, to make them safer. http://1.usa.gov/1RhK1tU·After a failure by Congress to act, proposed executive orders to create more background checks and to fully staff the background check system. http://cnn.it/1JXmUg6·Relaxed HIPAA rules enough to allow for more information to be available to the background check system. http://on.wsj.com/SX9xaZ·Ordered the tracing of guns as part of criminal investigations to provide data to researchers. http://on.wsj.com/SX9xaZ·Order the Justice Department to look at the categories of mental health problems prohibited from owning guns to make sure people aren’t falling through the cracks, getting guns. http://onforb.es/1nUAGw3·Expanded the definitions of gun dealers and expanded the information available and required in background checks for firearm purchases. http://bit.ly/1K5aXee·Set up a task force to figure out what other measures can be taken to limit gun violence in the wake of Congressional inaction. http://1.usa.gov/1QjYMGJ·Signed bill to improve protections for correctional officers and their families. http://bit.ly/1SMCi4W·Changed the playing field on criminal justice reform by commuting sentences of low-level criminals and signaling a more practical footing. http://1.usa.gov/1YclW7f·Signaled major shift away from the failed “Drug War” by promising to commit more than $1 billion to combat addiction. http://2wsb.tv/1SMBQUv·Signed the Emmitt Till Bill, which will reopen cold cases from the civil rights era. http://bit.ly/2jsVaum·Set a record for granting clemencies or pardons, giving many non-violent offenders a second chance. http://bit.ly/2jcIBCy·Improved Treatment of Soldiers and Veterans·Provided active combat troops with better body armor. http://bit.ly/hzSv2h·Created a Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record program for military personnel, in order http://abcn.ws/1ghLrEshttp://abcn.ws/1ghLrEs to improve the quality of their medical care. http://1.usa.gov/f4yaxW·Put an end to the Bush-era stop-loss policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan beyond their enlistment date. http://nyti.ms/e2YQ7Q·Signed and implemented Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act, making more money available to enable better medical care for veterans. http://1.usa.gov/fN4ur1·With Congressional Democrats, oversaw largest spending increase in 30 years for Department of Veterans Affairs, for improved medical and extended care facilities for veterans. http://1.usa.gov/gY8O3x·Implemented the Green Vet Initiative, which provides special funding to provide veterans with training in green jobs. http://bit.ly/epwUQY·Initiated and signed a recruitment and employment plan to get more veterans into government jobs. http://bit.ly/b48coi·Oversaw a $4.6 billion expansion of the Veterans Administration budget to pay for more mental health professionals. http://bit.ly/gjzTxX·Signed the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act, which ensures that spouses of military personnel who are forced to move because their spouse is posted for military duty can avoid state taxes in their temporary residence. http://bit.ly/1Gh0NX·Ordered improvements to access to mental health care for veterans, military personnel and their families. http://1.usa.gov/TP7PVZ·Got Syria to dismantle its chemical weapons without military firing a single shot or dropping a single bomb. http://nyti.ms/1lVEkU7·Along with Congressional Democrats, not only reauthorized families of fallen soldiers to be able to visit when the body arrives at Dover AFB, but also provided funding for it. Ended the media blackout on coverage of the return of fallen soldiers. Pentagon Will Help Families Travel to Dover http://bbc.in/gWSSkA·Funded Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with an extra $1.4 billion to improve veterans’ services. http://1.usa.gov/huhqfo·Signed into law a bill that provides support, counseling, and breastfeeding supplies to military moms who are covered under TRICARE, the health insurance provided to veterans. http://bit.ly/1yNxL8O·Signed into law a bill that makes it easier for military dogs to retire at home with their handlers. http://bit.ly/1J78Y2U·Signed bill to expand the availability of housing to homeless veterans. http://bit.ly/2eaGQDJ·Raised soldiers pay. http://bit.ly/2k5sOFD·Improved America’s Reputation Around the World·Visited more countries and met with more world leaders than any previous president during his first six months in office. http://bit.ly/hZycda·As he promised, he gave a speech at a major Islamic forum in Cairo early in his administration. http://nyti.ms/dKvY4g·Made a speech at a US mosque to demonstrate his commitment to religious rights and send a message to Muslims around the world. http://cnn.it/1PGU1uI·Restored America’s reputation around the world as a global leader. http://bit.ly/h743y7http://bit.ly/ho4TCr·Re-established and reinforced our partnership with NATO and other allies on strategic international issues. http://1.usa.gov/e7QuDj·Closed a number of secret detention facilities. http://nyti.ms/rpUc9l·Improved relations with Middle East countries by appointing special envoys. http://1.usa.gov/tiGAGe·Pushed forward the first realistic Middle East peace strategy in more than a decade, without abandoning the two-state solution. http://wapo.st/1avyste·Pushed for military to emphasize greater development of foreign language skills. http://bit.ly/AxUCLV·Offered $400 million to the people living in Gaza, while calling on both Israel and the Palestinians to stop inciting violence. http://bit.ly/9axfWh·Refused to give Israel the green light to attack Iran over their possible nuclear program. http://bit.ly/xVmSZK·Ordered the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, although blocked by Congress. http://bit.ly/eW6CVF·Ordered a review of our detention and interrogation policy and prohibited the use of “enhanced interrogation.” http://bit.ly/g6MTuC·Ordered all secret detention facilities in Eastern Europe and elsewhere to be closed. http://bbc.in/h6N9ax·Released the Bush torture memos. http://bit.ly/hWJ5z0·On his second day in office, banned torture, reversed all Bush torture policies and brought the US into full compliance with the Geneva Convention. http://1.usa.gov/dL6Zvehttp://nyti.ms/hzWWys·In response to the emerging “Arab Spring,” he created a Rapid Response fund, to assist emerging democracies with foreign aid, debt relief, technical assistance and investment packages in order to show that the United States stands with them. http://bit.ly/zfmGv9·Ended the F-22 program, saving $4 billion. Though the 187 aircraft cost $358 million each to build, it had never flown a combat mission. http://slate.me/PYzmzT·Passed the Iran Sanctions Act, to prevent war and encourage the Iranian government to give up their nuclear program. http://1.usa.gov/wLtNjb·Ended the Iraq War. http://tgr.ph/ru0tyS·Worked to keep our withdrawal from Afghanistan on track, despite GOP opposition. http://reut.rs/1cIOsF1 Reiterated that commitment in 2014. http://nyti.ms/1exnmRF·Conducted a secret mission by SEAL Team Six to rescue two hostages held by Somali pirates. http://bit.ly/y8c9Fz·Through United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, helped negotiate a peaceful split of Sudan into two countries, creating an independent South Sudan. http://reut.rs/qzE0Tj·Helped make donations to Haiti tax deductible in 2009. http://huff.to/6YkAVY·Established a new U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. http://1.usa.gov/eX28DP·Issued Executive Order blocking interference and helping to stabilize Somalia. http://1.usa.gov/hxdf8U·Established new, more reasonable policies in our relations with Cuba, such as allowing Cuban-Americans to visit their families and send money to support them. http://n.pr/hY3Kwa http://nyti.ms/emQBde·The new policies in Cuba led to thawed relations and the first US Embassy in Cuba in more than 55 years. http://abcn.ws/1ghLrEs·Became the first U.S. President to visit Cuba in more than 80 years. http://bit.ly/1qlKwbi·Negotiated a deal with Iran that will prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon anytime soon, without firing a shot or invading the country. http://cnn.it/1M3Hpvv·As a result of the Iran agreement, Iran shipped pretty much all of it nuclear material to Russia. http://nyti.ms/1PrzLty·Became the first US President to visit Jamaica in more than 30 years, worked to restore relations with the country and signed a natural gas distribution agreement with the country. http://bit.ly/1JtpFqi·Signs law extending some privacy protections to US allies, a reversal of the Bush practice of spying on people like Angela Merkel and the like. http://bit.ly/1VZza6w·With the Global Food Security Act, committed resources to expand food availability worldwide in an attempt to limit the scope of global hunger. http://usat.ly/2ehLnUr http://fandw.me/2czf6YG·Instituted Power Africa, an initiative to bring electrical generation to greater parts of the African continent. http://bbc.in/1QtYVud·Signed bill to end Americans’ involvement in international wildlife trafficking. http://bit.ly/2edq3V9·Signed an executive order to allow up to 110,000 additional refugees into the United States. http://bit.ly/2df2CJN·Refused to interfere with UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements. http://cnn.it/2k81evI·Changed US Approach to “Defense” and National Security·Created a comprehensive new strategy for dealing with the international nuclear threat. http://1.usa.gov/gDX1nE·Authorized a $1.4 billion reduction in Star Wars program in 2010. http://1.usa.gov/gLFZl2·Restarted nuclear nonproliferation talks and built up the nuclear inspection infrastructure/protocols to where they had been before Bush. http://lat.ms/gkcl3i·Signed and got ratification of a new SALT Treaty. http://bit.ly/f3JVtw·Negotiated and signed a new START Treaty that will stay in force until at least 2021. http://1.usa.gov/cI1bC4·Committed the US to no permanent military bases in Iraq. http://bit.ly/hk73OJ·Developed a comprehensive strategy with regard to Afghanistan and Pakistan designed to facilitate the defeat of al Qaeda, the withdrawal of most troops and the rebuilding of Afghanistan. http://wapo.st/ee4Xcs·Re-focused on Afghanistan, stabilized the country, and began the process of withdrawing troops from the country. http://bit.ly/lNXUna·Negotiated a deal with Afghan government, to withdraw troops and military support, while assisting in rebuilding and modernizing of the country. http://bit.ly/K362an·Took steps to severely weaken al Qaeda and limited their ability to terrorize the world. http://yhoo.it/n5lXs6·Negotiated and signed a nuclear nonproliferation treaty with India. http://1.usa.gov/aHp0Cn·Worked with NATO to limit the slaughter of innocents in Libya, so that Libyans could topple the despotic Khadaffy government and determine their own fate. http://aje.me/qAh4Sj·Got Egyptian President/dictator Mubarak to leave the Egyptian government to the people, to determine their own fate. http://f24.my/efvgNZ·In 2011, reoriented American focus from the Middle East to the Asian-Pacific region by simultaneously engaging China and crafting new alliances with Asian countries uncomfortable with Chinese behavior. http://bit.ly/RGlMDi·Restored federal agencies such as FEMA to the point that they have been able to manage a huge number of natural disasters successfully. http://bit.ly/h8Xj7z·Increased border security http://bit.ly/1JQDGz9·Ordered and oversaw the Navy SEALS operation that killed Osama bin Laden. http://bit.ly/jChpgw·Established the Homeland Security Partnership Council, to enhance the nation’s ability to “address homeland security priorities, from responding to natural disasters to preventing terrorism, by utilizing diverse perspectives, skills, tools, and resources.” http://1.usa.gov/VJjLXO·Signed agreement with Afghanistan to end war, turn security over to Afghans. http://nyti.ms/1xSjgBd·Breaking with recent presidential tradition, instead of just attacking Syria in the wake of chemical weapons attacks on Syrians, Obama ordered a full report on the decision-making process. http://cbsn.ws/184RFgu·Instead of holding hearings and creating a political football, he quietly captured a suspect who actually committed the Benghazi terrorist attack. http://wapo.st/1jFlmzv He is also getting a lot of useful information from the suspect. http://nyti.ms/UfE2Ka·Instituted rules to order sanctions against individuals and groups that threaten national cybersecurity. http://1.usa.gov/1HWcGMG·Instituted tougher new sanctions against North Korea after threats of nuclear attack and several tests. http://cbsn.ws/1L8L5hW·Got Congress to reauthorize FAA spending and to improve the efficiency of air travel for passengers. http://bit.ly/2cJZLrA·Took concrete steps to improve our counter-terrorism efforts. http://bit.ly/1RATjAh·Making great strides in defeating the Islamic State without committing hundreds of thousands of troops or carpet bombing civilians, against Republican objections. http://bit.ly/1TxBK5e·Established rules for data-sharing between the NSA and other intelligence agencies to improve the quality of information. http://bit.ly/2iOnc1F·Signed law to better protect the children who live on military bases. http://bit.ly/2k82nn7·Established program to provide more help for veterans with PTSD http://bit.ly/2k5kSEm·Established a national anti-propaganda center, to go after the fake news epidemic. http://bit.ly/2iXBy39·Improved Education and Educational Opportunities·Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, invested heavily in elementary, secondary and post-secondary education. http://1.usa.gov/gGRIAr·Created the Race to the Top program, which encouraged states to come up with effective school reforms and rewards the best of them. http://bit.ly/NHtZ7L·Oversaw major expansion of broadband availability in K-12 schools nationwide. http://bit.ly/fNDcj3·Oversaw major expansion in school construction. http://bit.ly/fYwNrV·Signed an executive order that expanded recognition and funding for historically black colleges and universities. http://on.thegrio.com/1rD50gc·Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, put $5 billion into early education, including Head Start. http://1.usa.gov/tzT2Rr·Signed the Democratic-sponsored Post-9/11 GI Bill, also known as GI Bill 2.0, to improve veterans’ access to education. http://bit.ly/hPhG7J·Oversaw expansion of the Pell Grants program, to expand opportunity for low and middle income students to go to college. http://bit.ly/hI6tXz·Signed and implemented the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which provided an extra $12.2 billion in funds. http://1.usa.gov/dQvtUe·Took major new steps to protect students from ineffective for-profit colleges through “gainful employment” measures, whereby schools have to demonstrate that its students actually find work to get federal aid. http://1.usa.gov/jkzQe2·Repeatedly increased funding for student financial aid, and at the same time cut the banks completely out of the process, thus us creating greater accountability. http://bit.ly/gYWd30 http://bit.ly/e9c7Dr http://bit.ly/eEzTNq·Reformed student loan program, to make it possible for students to refinance at a lower rate. http://nyti.ms/dMvHOt·Created a rating system for colleges, so that those applying for student financial aid know better what they’re paying for. http://bit.ly/14Dn7UL·Led a bipartisan effort to reform the federal approach to education and essentially repeal “No Child Left Behind.” http://cbsn.ws/2780qXu·High School graduation rates have soared under Obama http://huff.to/2diafzo·Restored the Adult View on Science and Technology·Created a Presidential Memorandum to restore scientific integrity in government decision-making. http://1.usa.gov/g2SDuw·Opened up the process for fast-tracking patent approval for green energy projects. http://bit.ly/j0KV2U·Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, committed more federal funding, about $18 billion, to support non-defense science and research labs. http://nyti.ms/fTs9t7·Obama EPA reversed research ethics standards which allowed humans to be used as “guinea pigs” in tests of the effects of chemicals, to comply with numerous codes of medical ethics. http://bit.ly/bKgqdS·Conducted a cyberspace policy review. http://1.usa.gov/gmbdvC·Provided financial support for private sector space programs. http://bit.ly/fn8ucr·Oversaw enhanced earth mapping, to provide valuable data for agricultural, educational, scientific, and government use. http://bit.ly/dNTRyP·Through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, provided $500 million for Health Professions Training Programs. http://bit.ly/ecQSgA·Increased funding for community-based prevention programs. http://bit.ly/frMPG3·Expanded space exploration and discovery options to include more players. http://1.usa.gov/13qmZpm·Through the Connect America Fund, pushed through and received FCC approval for a move of $8 billion in subsidies away from telephone landlines to assist lower-income rural families in accessing broadband. http://lat.ms/vhRUEs http://bit.ly/129V3SY·In the wake of the West Fertilizer tragedy, formed the Chemical Safety and Security Working Group, to work on measures to prevent another such events. http://1.usa.gov/18kHSlA·Established a Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, a recommendation made by the 9/11 Commission, to coordinate efforts to fight cyber-crime and terrorism. http://1.usa.gov/1A0aEoS·The Obama FCC, with his leadership, adopted strong net neutrality rules, to keep the Internet open and equal for everyone. http://fcc.us/1MhTlIA·Ordered rules to speed up deployment of a more comprehensive broadband infrastructure. http://1.usa.gov/M7rVpe·Set up a National Strategic Computing Initiative, to “maximize benefits of high-performance computing (HPC) research, development, and deployment.” http://1.usa.gov/1IN3FZa·Ordered a federal level change in national earthquake standards. http://1.usa.gov/1T5wGoR·Signed executive orders designed to strengthen government cybersecurity and prevent hackers from getting in. http://usat.ly/1R0saIt·Took steps to combat the effects of climate change by committing the U.S. to developing long-term drought resilience measures. http://1.usa.gov/1SMCuRY·Started the road to greater exploration of space by signing bill to encourage mining on asteroids and clarifying property rights in space. http://bit.ly/1RV2la9·Officially joined the Paris Climate Accords, thus strengthening the effort and making it a more powerful commitment to climate change. http://bit.ly/2jDgO1O·Signed bill to relieve California drought and to fix Flint’s water crisis. http://bit.ly/2iYd0a4·Signed a bill to improve science and technology research and development. http://bit.ly/2jd31vf·Signed the WIIN Act, which improves the country’s water infrastructure and which also protects the nation’s water supply to a greater degree. http://bit.ly/2jd3r4Y·Improved Our Health and Safety·Eliminated Bush-era restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, and provided increased federal support for biomedical and stem cell research. http://bit.ly/h36SSOhttp://ti.me/edezge·Led the enormous expansion of electronic medical records, which improves the availability and quality of care. http://bit.ly/2k7JLmX Currently, 96% of hospitals use electronic health records, up from 9.4% in 2009.·Electronic health records led to greater efficiency, leading to greater healthcare savings. http://on.wsj.com/2iGvL3h·Signed Democratic-sponsored Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act, the first comprehensive attempt to improve the lives of Americans living with paralysis. http://bit.ly/fOi2rb·Expanded the Nurse-Family Partnership program, which provides home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income expectant mothers and their families, to cover more first-time mothers. http://bit.ly/jRRRJc·Ordered that all vehicles be equipped with a rear-view camera by 2018, despite car makers’ complaints about cost. http://bit.ly/2c3jAZi·Along with Democrats in Congress, ushered through and signed a bill authorizing FDA to regulate tobacco and order tobacco companies to disclose their ingredients and to ban cigarettes falsely labeled as “light.” http://on.msnbc.com/fiKViB·Has overseen a 50% decrease in cost of prescription drugs for seniors. http://bit.ly/e5b1iq http://1.usa.gov/fVNkt9·Eliminated the Bush-era practice of forbidding Medicare from negotiating with drug companies on price. http://bit.ly/fOkG5b·Two weeks after taking office, signed Democratic-sponsored Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which increased the number of children covered by health insurance by 4 million. http://bit.ly/fDEzGv·Urged Congress to investigate Anthem Blue Cross for raising premiums 39% without explanation. http://yhoo.it/e8Tj9C·Pushed through and signed Affordable Care Act, which expanded health insurance coverage greatly and ended many detrimental insurance company practices. He also established Get 2017 health coverage. Health Insurance Marketplace . http://www.healthcare.gov/·Through ACA, allowed children to be covered under their parents’ policy until they turned 26. http://nyti.ms/fNB26V·Through the ACA, provided tax breaks to allow 3.5 million small businesses to provide health insurance to their employees. http://nyti.ms/fNB26V·Through the ACA, millions of people receive help in paying their health insurance company premiums. http://nyti.ms/fNB26V·Through the ACA, expanded Medicaid to those making up to 133% of the federal poverty level. http://nyti.ms/ekMWpo (Note: except for those states whose Republicans refused to take the extra money.)·By 2014, the Affordable Care Act dropped the number of uninsured Americans by 22.3%, which amounts to more than 10.3 million people with insurance who didn’t have it before. Only 13.9% of Americans are uninsured, a drop from 18.9% in 2013. http://on.msnbc.com/1r4kjGn·The Affordable Care Act has increased the life expectancy of Medicare greatly. http://on.wsj.com/1yuNco6·Through the ACA, health insurance companies now have to disclose how much of your premium actually goes to pay for patient care. http://nyti.ms/fNB26V·Medicare costs actually declined slightly, for the first time in decades in 2011, according to the Congressional Budget Office. http://1.usa.gov/oMxpTh·Since passage of the ACA, health care inflation is at its lowest level since 1960. http://1.usa.gov/1vXR0Ld·Created the HIV Care Continuum Initiative, to strengthen the government’s ability to respond to the continuing domestic HIV epidemic, after years of Republicans weakening the government’s ability to deal with the crisis. http://1.usa.gov/1iLED0t·Signed bill that will provide health insurance premium support to workers who lose their health insurance due to foreign competition. http://bit.ly/1evvVDF·In response to the confusion triggered by the Hobby Lobby decision, which essentially declared that corporations could have “religious rights” and lord them over employees, created new rules to give all women with insurance the right to free birth control. http://on.wsj.com/1O44a1t·Implemented the National HIV/AIDS Strategy for 2015-2020, which is a follow-up to the first such strategy in US history, which he implemented in 2010. http://1.usa.gov/1IXknHm·Took steps to improve the country’s approach to drug addiction and mental health. http://bit.ly/2cJTHQ9·Signed and will implement new child safety standards for e-cigarettes. http://bit.ly/1XaFCIS·Put into place the first mandatory rules regarding labeling of products containing genetically modified organisms (GMO) http://bit.ly/2ciVlH7·Set up a White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force, in order to implement ways to develop a cure for cancer. http://1.usa.gov/20AeKY4·Took steps to improve detection and treatment of mental health problems. http://1.usa.gov/25HEDp5·Signed Trevor’s Law, which will allow for better tracking and study of cancer and disease clusters. http://bit.ly/297uFJK·Signed a memorandum of understanding with Cuba to share healthcare information. http://bit.ly/29mCojf·Expanded availability of Cuban cigars and Cuban run in the absence of a GOP Congressional bill lifting the Cuban embargo. http://bit.ly/2esLtNE·Extended an incentive program for Big Pharma that was about to expire, that encouraged them to find cures for pediatric diseases. http://bit.ly/2dF55t7·Signed a bill designed to improve research into and increase the availability of new treatments and drugs in the healthcare industry. http://bit.ly/2iOQxZU·Made sure that health insurance coverage was guaranteed for eating disorders. http://bit.ly/2iY6h05·Signed a law enforcement pact with Cuba, to foster greater cooperation between the two countries. http://on.wkyc.com/2k7G9kS·Addressed Environment, Climate Change While Meeting Energy Needs·Doubled federal spending on clean energy research. http://bit.ly/iN0sCE·Pushed through a tax credit to help people buy plug-in hybrid cars. http://bit.ly/j8UP5Y·Created a program to develop renewable energy projects on the waters of our Outer Continental Shelf that will produce electricity from wind, wave, and ocean currents. http://1.usa.gov/fgfRWq·Reengaged in the climate change and greenhouse gas emissions agreements talks, and proposed one himself. He also addressed the U.N. Climate Change Conference, officially reversing the Bush era stance that climate change was a “hoax.” http://bit.ly/dX6Vj3 http://bit.ly/fE2PxK http://nyti.ms/hfeqvv·Fully supported the initial phase of the creation of a legally-binding treaty to reduce mercury emissions worldwide. http://bit.ly/eJ6QOO·Required states to provide incentives to utilities to reduce their energy consumption. http://bit.ly/lBhk7P·Under Obama, our dependence on foreign oil has dropped to its lowest rate since 1985, and continues to drop. http://1.usa.gov/1p6kTUy·Meanwhile, oil consumption is way down because of reduced driving and higher mileage standards. http://ti.me/1z4HFG8·Improved siting, review and permitting stations for power plants, in an attempt to seriously improve the nation’s electric grid. http://1.usa.gov/1l8zNqn·Reengaged in a number of treaties and agreements designed to protect the Antarctic. http://bit.ly/fzQUFO·Created tax write-offs for purchases of hybrid and electric vehicles. http://bit.ly/glCukV·Established a quadrennial review of our energy infrastructure, to encourage a modernization of the grid, and to encourage the transition away from fossil fuel use. http://1.usa.gov/1nx2oMo·Mandated that federal government fleet purchases be for fuel-efficient American vehicles, and encouraged that federal agencies support experimental, fuel-efficient vehicles. http://1.usa.gov/hmUSbk http://1.usa.gov/fLWq5c·Encouraged BP to pay $20 billion to establish Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, to reduce the need for taxpayer funds to be used for compensation and clean up. http://wapo.st/ds2BxT (Note: it took 20 years to get $1.3 billion for the Exxon Valdez spill. )·Oversaw and pushed through an amendment to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 authorizing advances from Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. http://1.usa.gov/yTRYVo·Actively tried to amend the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to eliminate the liability limits for those companies responsible for large oil spills. http://nyti.ms/bxjDi3·Became the first President to simply say “Climate Change is a fact,” and set up the first federal government protocols for dealing with the impacts of climate change. http://1.usa.gov/1b7V67B·Initiated Criminal and Civil inquiries into the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. http://nyti.ms/bVuB7a·Asserted federal legal supremacy to bar Texas from authorizing new refinery permits on its own.http://bit.ly/ww8eMd·Set up new, stricter standards severely limiting power plant emissions, curring them to 68% of 2005 levels by 2030. http://1.usa.gov/1mML2M3·Strengthened the Endangered Species Act. http://bit.ly/hscjsH·Strengthened protection for wildlife, and expanded enforcement of laws against wildlife trafficking. http://1.usa.gov/1fce1Ai·Obama EPA improved boiler safety standards to improve air quality, and save 6500 lives per year. http://bit.ly/jYH7nt·Through the EPA, attempted to take steps to severely limit the use of antibiotics in livestock feed, to increase their efficacy in humans. http://bit.ly/fBuWd2·Through new EPA regulations, he created a pretext for closing the dirtiest power plants in the country, by limiting emissions of mercury and other toxic gasses. http://bit.ly/rQCIgA·Increased funding for National Parks and Forests by 10% http://bit.ly/fbJPjY·Announced greatly improved commercial fuel efficiency standards. http://1.usa.gov/oQiC1K·Signed a bill that allowed for increased regulations of a large number of chemicals and other toxic materials, allowing the EPA to make the use of certain toxic materials more transparent. http://usat.ly/2911hA4·Announced a huge increase in average fuel economy standards from 27.5mpg in 2010 to 35.5mpg starting in 2016 and 54.5 starting in 2025 http://1.usa.gov/qtghsW·Facilitated investment in industrial energy efficiency to create jobs and strengthen US manufacturing while saving businesses $100 billion over a decade. http://1.usa.gov/WsIgbx·Set up the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council to oversee Gulf Coast restoration efforts after the 2010 BP oil spill. The money to fund the restoration efforts comes from fines against BP. http://1.usa.gov/Rxjb29·Engaged in the most comprehensive plan to combat climate change in a generation. http://bit.ly/13lXhET·Ordered energy plants to prepare to produce at least 15% of all energy through renewable resources like wind and solar, by 2021. http://reut.rs/fV155p·Oversaw the creation of an initiative that converts old factories and manufacturing centers into new clean technology centers. http://bit.ly/mjnq2R·Guided a 418% increase in solar power capacity between 2010 and 2014. http://bit.ly/1rHkWJC·As of May 2015, 74% of new electrical capacity was provided by solar and wind power. http://bit.ly/1T5r0LC·Bypassed Congress and ordered EPA to begin regulating and measuring carbon emissions. http://bit.ly/froaP5·Oversaw a tripling in the use of wind power to generate electricity. The US now leads the world in increased wind power capacity. http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5448·Ordered the federal government to incorporate climate resilience and climate science into all international development in which the United States engages. http://1.usa.gov/YV1EpW·Fast-tracked regulations to allow states to enact fuel efficiency standards that exceeded federal standards. http://nyti.ms/e8e94x·Fast-tracked increased fuel economy standards for vehicles beginning with the 2011 model year. It was the first time such standards had been increased in more than a decade. http://politi.co/hiaPKM·Oversaw establishment of an Energy Partnership for the Americas, to create more markets for American-made biofuels and green energy technologies. http://bit.ly/lZp73y·Obama EPA reversed a Bush-era decision to allow the largest mountaintop removal project in US history. http://bit.ly/lP3yEL·Ordered the Department of Energy to implement more aggressive efficiency standards for common household appliances. http://1.usa.gov/g3MTbu·Obama EPA ruled that excess CO2 is a pollutant. http://bit.ly/iQTSNN·Closed a deal with China to limit carbon emissions to slow down climate change. http://nyti.ms/1xzyS8K·Blocked all oil and gas drilling in Bristol Bay, Alaska, one of the most pristine environments in North America http://lat.ms/13xUVFD·Signed an Executive Order to improve environmental efforts in the Arctic region and to combat climate change by better coordinating the efforts of the 23 federal agencies operating in the area. http://usat.ly/ZEzLzE·Vetoed a bill to fast track construction of the parallel Keystone XL pipeline. http://nbcnews.to/1DVDFo7·Expanded clean water regulations to more stringently protect all of the nation’s waterways, even when states fail in their duty. http://bit.ly/1RdQpTc·Signed an Executive Order committing the federal government to lead the way in building a sustainable economy. It’s his fifth doing just that. http://1.usa.gov/1EzO2ne·Banned the use of antibiotics in food served in US Government-run cafeterias and ordered agencies to only use antibiotic-free meat. http://bit.ly/1G1vUxi http://bit.ly/1KHkl4N·Developed new rules to address climate change and to create a significant boost to clean energy. http://bit.ly/1UnQcuR·Negotiated and signed a virtually Republican-Proof global agreement on climate change, with 190 countries signing on. http://bit.ly/1RkjVG8·Became one of 196 countries that signed onto a UN Framework on Climate Change. http://unfccc.int/2860.php·Ordered a moratorium on new coal leasing on federal land, and they will examine the whole leasing process. http://wapo.st/23Q6en8·Signed a bill to better protect pipelines and to authorize greater oversight. http://bit.ly/291woja·Signed an order turning more than 87,000 acres of Maine Woods into the North Woods National Monument. http://bit.ly/2ciWDCc·Signed into law a measure directing the Department of Transportation to issue guidelines for minimum standards for underground storage of natural gas. http://bit.ly/291AdjL·Established the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area in an effort to preserve the Bering Sea and to protect the people who live in the area and depend on the sea for their lives. http://bit.ly/2k8cpEP·Permanently banned offshore oil and gas drilling in many areas of the Arctic and North Atlantic, to preserve the environment and stave off climate change. http://bit.ly/2jDcLm7·Infused a lot of extra money to assist Texas in its study of better hurricane protection. http://bit.ly/2iP9Mm1·Created national parks in Nevada and Utah to do as much as possible to preserve the environment before the Trump debacle. http://bit.ly/2jdbj6t·Pledged $500 million to United Nations Climate Fund that Trump promised to de-fund. http://bit.ly/2jCEiUH·Signed a pact with Cuba to coordinate resources in cases of oil spills. http://reut.rs/2jcZsp7·There’s So Much More!·Nominated Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Sotomayor is the first Hispanic Justice in the court’s history, and the women represent only the third and fourth women to serve on the court, out of a total of 112 justices. http://huff.to/eOChg6http://bit.ly/i02wgP·Appointed the most diverse Cabinet in history, including more women than any other incoming president. http://bit.ly/dX6vNB·Loosened the rules and allowed the 14 states that legalized medical marijuana to regulate themselves without federal interference. http://huff.to/eQfa7j·Signed national service legislation, increasing funding for national service groups, including triple the size of the Americorps program. http://bit.ly/idgQH5·Signed a bill that provided $4.3 billion in additional assistance to 9/11 first responders. http://bit.ly/o7cWYS·Placed major restrictions on the ivory trade in a bid to prevent the wholesale slaughter of elephants in Africa. http://ti.me/292Z4Gg·Signed a bill that will seriously curb the use of animal testing and establish alternative testing methods. http://bit.ly/28Z5AuS·Signed the Claims Resolution Act, which provided $4.6 billion in funding for a legal settlement with black and Native American farmers who had been cheated out of government loans and natural resource royalties in the past. http://1.usa.gov/dGppUa·To help those communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy, issued an executive order setting up the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, and asked Congress to approve $60 billion in supplemental assistance to aid in storm recovery. http://1.usa.gov/134L7hl·Produced 23 Executive actions designed to make it easier for law enforcement to identify those who shouldn’t have guns, thus helping them enforce the law. http://on.wsj.com/SX9xaZ·Expanded trade agreements to include stricter labor and environmental agreements in trade pacts like NAFTA. http://bit.ly/etznpY·Oversaw funding of the design of a new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History, which is scheduled to open on the National Mall in 2015. He protected the funding during budget negotiations. http://on.fb.me/fD0EVO http://bit.ly/ff5Luv·Oversaw and passed increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.http://bit.ly/dFb8qFExpanded the authority of Customs to improve enforcement of trade and customs laws and to better coordinate said enforcement among various agencies. http://bit.ly/1S5pun7Was voted most admired man of the year for 2016. http://ti.me/2jDauHtAnd Did You Know?Despite the characterizations of some, Obama’s success rate in winning congressional votes on issues was an unprecedented 96.7% for his first year in office. Though he is often cited as superior to Obama, President Lyndon Johnson’s success rate in 1965 was only 93%. http://n.pr/i3d7cYAnd of course…Despite the odds, became the first black president and then, was reelected by a wide margin.·Acted with grace and dignity for right years and restored a proper level of dignity to the office of the president.·Also, left office with an approval rating above 60%, 20 points higher than his “replacement” had going into the office.

EDIT: My answer is getting very long so I made an index for you guys, in case you want to skip through some of the sections to the next.On ShariaOn SecularismOn CaesaropapismOn the Struggle Between the Association and AministrationOn Political ConcessionsOn CensorshipOn Saudi ArabiaOn East Turkestan Independence MovementOn DiscriminationOn ReformOn Status QuoPlease understand that I must go anonymous for fear of my own safety.1. On ShariaUnfortunately, it is true as Ricky Zhang has already explained. But Sharia is not just enforced in Linxia, it is also present in Shadian (沙甸) and many parts of Ningxia (宁夏). The Muslim population is growing rapidly in China, to the point that it is not far stretched to say there is at least one Sharia zone in each major Chinese city.First, let’s talk about Shadian Town in Gejiu City, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province.It has been known for a while that local officials in Shadian have openly misused public funds to renovate government buildings in Islamic styles. Even more ridiculous is the fact that public funds would occasionally end up in the building of local mosques! Shadian is known as the “Islamic State of China” for a reason, and its infamous “local rules.”Above shows a government building that has been renovated for religious reasons without authorization.Many schools in Shadian follow Islamic practises. Although not every school in Shadian have this culture, there is a strong social pressure on individuals to adopt “local customs” due to the Muslim majority in the region.In 2015, Hong Kong news agency Ming Pao published the Authority of Religion Over the State (教權大過政權), an article about two undercover reporters who investigated the situation in Shadian.[1]It was also reported, by another news agency in China, that the Muslim communities in Shadian have been building their own private schools and enrolling their children under a strict religious environment, in which religious studies have completely replaced the basics of scientific knowledge. However, skipping the compulsory education system for religious school at such a young age is actually unconstitutional in China.Article 36. Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief.No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. The state protects normal religious activities. No one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state. Religious bodies and religious affairs are not subject to any foreign domination.Sharia Patrols in Shadian even barged into civilian homes and confiscated their alcoholic drinks so that they could destroy them, thereby enforcing Sharia. It is not uncommon to find news like this in other Muslim areas in China, such as Ningxia. And YES, you read that right, Sharia Patrol is actually happening in China.Even in Beijing, Sharia practices are popping up everywhere. In this supermarket, the name for pork in Chinese was changed to Da Rou (“Big Meat” or “General Meat”) because Muslims are sensitive to the word “Pork” which is “Zhu Rou” in Chinese. Imagine English speakers having to make up a completely new word for pork because the name has become politically incorrect.Muslims in Beijing even built their own enclaves in which Sharia is enforced. The sign in this picture saysMuslim Area 回民小区If you carry non-halal food 非清真食品Please do not bring them inside 请勿带入小区It is hard to believe that the sign is explicitly calling this neighborhood a Muslim area just because the Muslim community is concentrated in the area. This has absolutely no legal basis in ChinaPriority Window for Muslim Teachers & Students 清真师生优先窗口If that wasn’t bad enough, the second sign openly gives priority to Muslims, which is not only highly offensive but also extremely discriminatory.I don’t have anything against Muslims. No, not at all. But they are crossing the line by bringing Sharia law to non-Muslims and establishing Muslim privilege through open discrimination of non-Muslim. This is the very definition of “religious discrimination,” and it is unacceptable as I have said before in my answer to How do ethnic Han Chinese view the muslim development in China?Muslims can practice their religion, because it is their freedom.It is their right to do so, but many Chinese Muslims are unaware that they are overstepping their boundaries. Chinese Muslims *imposing* their religion and blurring the distinction between the state and religion are few of the many examples. Practice your religion if you want, but remember there is a separation between the state and religion! China is a secular state and not an Islamic country.2. On Secularism (政教分离)Whenever these things happen, I can’t help but become envious of secularism in the West, for the Soviet model of religion control has proven to be disastrous in China. Because, believe it or not, secularism is not a part of the constitution of China.In China, the State Administration for Religious Affairs (国家宗教事务局), which falls under the jurisdiction of the State Council, exercises control over religious appointments within the country, or at least that’s what it was supposed to do. The CCP originally wrote off secularism in exchange for a stronger grip on religious organizations, so that the State could directly intervene and keep powerful groups in check. However, the policy has backfired since China opened up its economy.In recent year there is a worrying trend that the Administration has become over-accommodating to the point of taking sides with some religious groups against others. Bigger, more power organizations that better “support” the Communist Party sometimes even exploit their relationship with the government to bully smaller, less powerful groups.Favortism has become a serious issue and factionism has divided consensus and instilled conflicts. The inclusion of religious members into the government also invited infiltration from organizations that seek to gain political influence from within. Many religious leaders have “built relationship” (codeword for “mutual benefits,” another codeword for “corruption”) with Party members, whose connection has sometimes led to the misuse of public funds for religious institutions. As time went by, some religious organizations under the Administration have gained considerable political influence, enough to affect decision-making on the higher level. Now, you see why Sharia Patrols and religious privilege go unpunished in this country.The constitution of the People’s Republic of China was designed to keep religion in check through the Administration. But instead the Administration itself has become a “social club” in which religious leaders gather to build guanxi with Chinese officials.Perhaps the People’s Republic of China would have been better off had it embraced secularism instead of half-ass religion control copied from the Soviets, for control over religion goes both ways in that the “Church” (any religious establishment) could equally have access to political power through the building of connections. As the old saying goes, “you can’t touch someone without being touched.”And as we have now seen, connections which breed influence have given form to a grotesque power. Sadly, the power which rightfully belongs to the people has ended up in the grip of religion.3. On Caesaropapism (政教合一)Western classification of the People’s Republic of China as a “secular government” is evidence that the West does not understand China. The presumption that China is secular, because the Chinese Communist Party is atheist, is founded on grossly simplified observations.China is neither fully secularist nor theocratic, for she is closer to the definition of a caesaropapist state if anything. Though some foreign analysts have pointed this out, few have realized that China practices a rather unusual form of caesaropapism.China has laws that are based on the idea of secularism, but no mention of secularism anywhere.China has laws that limit the influence of religion in the public, but established no clear boundary between the State and Church, thereby allowing state intervention in religion and vice versa.But the most defining characteristic which makes China a caesaropapist state is her control of religion through the Administration. The State Religious Affairs Bureau Order No. 5 (国家宗教事务局令第5号) is an order from the Administration that controls the Reincarnation in Buddhism, hence the official name of it is actually “Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas” (藏传佛教活佛转世管理办法). Some of you may have already of the news, that China controls the reincarnation of Dalai Lama. This could happen not because China is a secular government, but because she is a caesaropapist state—state interventionism is what differntiates a secular state from a caesaropapist one.What has this even got to do with what I’m talking about?Because the Islamic Association of China (中国伊斯兰教协会) is a national religious organization for Muslims run by the state of China.Beijing - Islamic Association4. On the Struggle Between the Association and AdministrationThe Islamic Association is an association in name only and is very much a part of the Chinese government. Originally installed as a mean to control extremism in Islam, the lack of separation of Church and State has exposed the Chinese government to religious infiltration from the Association.As the Islamic Association established its presence in the Chinese Muslim population, it has grown powerful enough to go on par with the Administration above it. Unbeknownst to outsiders, there is an ongoing power struggle between the Administration and Association.The Association has gained tremendous influence over the Muslim population in China.The Administration makes concession to appease the Islamic Association, in exchange for cooperation in countering extremism.Political concessions have allowed some Muslims to exploit the system (e.g. religious privilege) and expand their influence (e.g. religious schools).Moderate Muslims become influenced by fundamentalist Muslims. Some turn into extremists.The Administration makes more concessions, in exchange for the Association’s further cooperation.The cycle of making concession never ends. Why does a government by the people continue to pay tribute to a religious organization? This revives memory of the Song dynasty, who paid tribute to the Khitans to stop their invasion, then paid the Jurchens to fight the Khitan; then paid the Jurchens to stop their invasion; then paid the Mongols to stop the Jurchens; then paid the Mongols to stop their invasion—until there was no one else to pay and nothing better to offer. I think we all know what happened in the end. Will history repeat?5. On Political ConcessionsYou would not believe how much political concessions the CCP have made if you read from me, so I’ll just quote for you.However, the suppression of the Uyghurs has more to do with the fact that they are separatist, rather than Muslim. China banned a book titled “Xing Fengsu” (“Sexual Customs”) which insulted Islam and placed its authors under arrest in 1989 after protests in Lanzhou and Beijing by Chinese Hui Muslims, during which the Chinese police provided protection to the Hui Muslim protestors, and the Chinese government organized public burnings of the book.[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] The Chinese government assisted them and gave into their demands because Hui do not have a separatist movement, unlike the Uyghurs,[26] Hui Muslim protestors who violently rioted by vandalizing property during the protests against the book were let off by the Chinese government and went unpunished while Uyghur protestors were imprisoned.[27]In 2007, anticipating the coming “Year of the Pig” in the Chinese calendar, depictions of pigs were banned from CCTV “to avoid conflicts with ethnic minorities”.[28] This is believed to refer to China's population of 20 million Muslims (to whom pigs are considered "unclean").In response to the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting Chinese state-run media attacked Charlie Hebdo for publishing the cartoons insulting Muhammad, with the state-run Xinhua advocated limiting freedom of speech, while another state-run newspaper Global Times said the attack was “payback” for what it characterised as Western colonialism and accusing Charlie Hebdo of trying to incite a clash of civilizations.[29][30]Although religious education for children is officially forbidden by law in China, the Communist party allows Hui Muslims to violate this law and have their children educated in religion and attend Mosques while the law is enforced on Uyghurs. After secondary education is completed, China then allows Hui students who are willing to embark on religious studies under an Imam.[33] China does not enforce the law against children attending Mosques on non-Uyghurs in areas outside of Xinjiang.[34][35]Freedom of religion in China - WikipediaCaesaropapism has proven to be a self-destructive policy which led China to make one concession after another.6. On CensorshipThe Chinese government actively censors these news on the ground of “damaging ethnic harmony” (不和谐), “sabotaging national unity” (破坏民族团结), and “hurting the feelings of minorities” (伤害民族感情). The government also censors them because they want to maintain a positive image to the outside world and keep up the mask that “there is no religious or ethnic conflicts in China” (中国没有民族/宗教问题). But the government is only covering their own ears, the sound can still be heard (掩耳盗铃). And so the condition in this country continues to deteriorate.And how is this any different than literary inquisition (speech crime) under the Qing dynasty? The founding fathers of our Republic and the revolutionaries who shed blood for a better future have all died in vain.*I wish the Media outside of China could do an undercover investigation on this and expose the truth to the world, but it surely will not end well for foreign reporters if they are caught documenting these areas. But the World must know, or nothing will change.7. On Saudi Arabiaflag of Saudi ArabiaAs part of the Salafi movement, Saudi Arabia has aggressively funded mosques and exported imams all over China. But the Chinese government, or the Communist Party of China to be more specific, does not mind that at all for the sole reason of “national interests.” The geopolitical factor is that Saudi Arabia being a “strategic partner” in Middle Eastern politics is key to the success of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (一带一路).And the biggest elephant in the room which no one wants to talk about is, of course, oil exports and the gracious amount of “financial support” continuously flowing into China or the Chinese government’s hand (whichever you prefer).Saudi activities in China are well reported and well documented, such that the term Sailaifengye was borrowed to English in specific for “Salafiyah (Salafi) in China.” In fact, there is another reason why the CCP support the Salafi movement, which you can find in the history of Sailaifengye on Wikipedia.Its founder Ma Debao (1867–1977), when he undertook the Hajj, was influenced by the Salafi movement in Mecca. Upon his return to China he began to preach the Salafi ideology. The movement criticizes orthodox Islam. It opposes new movements which it believes are against the sunnah. It opposes the influence of Chinese culture on Islam. The sect was mainly found in Hezhou of Gansu province but now spread in many places notably Ningxia, Qinghai, Yunnan, Tianjing with support of Saudi religious organizations.[1][2] None of the four Sunni Madhhab (مذاهب) are followed by the Salafis.[3]Ma Debao and Ma Zhengqing promoted Salafism as the main form of Islam. But it was opposed by a number of Hui Muslim sects such as the Gedimu, Sufi Khafiya and Jahriyya, to the extent that even the fundamentalist Yihewani (Ikhwan) Chinese sect, founded by Ma Wanfu after Salafi inspiration, condemned Ma Debao and Ma Zhengqing as heretics. They were branded traitors and Wahhabi teachings were deemed as heresy by the Yihewani leaders.[2]The Kuomintang Sufi Muslim General Ma Bufang, who backed the Yihewani (Ikhwan) Muslims, persecuted the Salafis and forced them into hiding. They were not allowed to move or worship openly. The Yihewani had become secular and Chinese nationalists; they considered the Salafiyya to be "heterodox" (xie jiao) and people who followed foreigners' teachings (waidao). After the Communists took power, Salafis were allowed to worship openly again.[4]Even among Hui Salafis and Uyghur Salafis, there is little coordination or cooperation and the two take totally different political agendas, with the Hui Salafists content to carry out their own teachings and remain politically neutral.[5][6]The Communist Part of China actually persecuted the Yihewani in the past (as the Yihewani had done to the Salafis under the Nationalists) who were Chinese Muslims that became secularized, all because they supported the Nationalists (KMT). After the Yihewani Muslims had declined and lost all their influence, the CCP gave its full support to the Salafi movement, of which Wahhabism is a part of.My fellow countrymen might find this unbelievable, but like I said earlier, the CCP’s ongoing connection with the Saudis is not only well-documented but also well-reported.Chinese Salafism and the Saudi Connection (The Diplomat)In China, rise of Salafism fosters suspicion and division among Muslims (Los Angeles Times)China Doesn’t Mind Islamic Extremists (Foreign Policy)What is Salafism and should we be worried by it? (The Week Society)China and Islam (By Matthew S. Erie)8. On East Turkestan Independence MovementChina faces Islamic extremism coming from two fronts.On one hand we have Saudi Arabia, who leads the Salafi movement and exports Wahhabism. On the other hand, we have Turkey who exports Pan-Turkism and funds the terrorist organization Turkistan Islamic Party.Turkish supportTurkish connections were used by Uyghur fighters to go into Syria and the humanitarian Uyghur East Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association(ETESA) which is located in Turkey sent Uyghurs into Syria, endorsed the killing of the pro-China Imam Juma Tayir, applauded attacks in China, and posted on its website content from the TIP.[84]The Ambassador of Syria to China, Imad Moustapha, has accused Turkey of facilitating the entry of Uighur jihadists into Syria.[85]The Islamist Turkish publisher "Beyaz Minare Kitap" (White Minaret Book) published a Turkish language book titled "Türkistan'dan Şehadete Hicret Hikayeleri 1" containing the biographies of Turkistan Islamic Party fighters along with praise of TIP fighters by Abdullah al-Muhaysini.[86][87]The Uyghur diaspora in the Küçükçekmece, Sefaköy and Zeytinburnu districts of Istanbul are the source of Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party jihadists in Syria.[88][89]According to the Turkish-based Uyghur website Doğu Türkistan Bülteni (which supports the TIP), the Uyghur diaspora in Küçükçekmece and Zeytinburnu was fearful after the assassination of Uzbek imam Abdullah Bukhari and reports of Chinese-loyalist Uyghur agents sent to Istanbul to hunt down separatist Uyghurs.[90][91]Turkey 3 August 2017, officially recognizes the "East Turkestan Islamic Movement" as a terrorist organization.[92]Turkistan Islamic Party - WikipediaThe ironic thing is that the two factions, Salafi/Wahhabi extremists and Pan-Turkic/East Turkestan organizations, are hostile to each other.9. On DiscriminationOne of the commenters have pointed out the lack of anti-discrimination law in China, which allowed signs that give priority to certain race/ethnicity/social class to exist.And I fully agree.Many of my fellow countrymen do not understand what discrimination is like, or they are so used to it, that they’ve grown numb to it. Some Chinese do not care either, as long as the discrimination is not directed at them. But ignorance of discrimination goes both ways, like many things. Some Chinese might ignore or even tolerate a sign like this one below.But what they do not understand is that the same “tolerance” under the law equally allows people to discriminate Chinese. Look at this…This very sign you see is sitting on the window of a store in Beijing right now. It writes, “Chinese People Not Permitted (Employees Only).”Imagine seeing this in Paris, a gigantic paper stuck on a window saying “French People Not Permitted.” Or in Washington, “No Americans Allowed.” Not only will the public riot, but there will surely be legal action.10. On ReformEthno-religious issue in China must be treated as a state crisis, immediately, as it should be. But instead, the CCP is playing a dangerous game by trying to keep the players happy, in the false belief that the Party is still in control of the board. And so the CCP continues to ally itself with one group against another—a truly, classic Chinese strategy of “using barbarians against barbarians” (with a twist of Soviet inspiration) which, by the way, has always worked for a while until they all failed in the end, as history tells it.China must react quickly with reforms enacting anti-discrimination laws and adopting secularism in its constitution. Without anti-discrimination laws, no one under the law is truly equal. Without the separation of church (religion) and state, China is never politically stable as a country. Most importantly, without the rule of law, there is nothing to carry out at all. And if China does not change for the better in the years to come, her collapse (or the CCP’s) in the next 50 years is inevitable.11. On Status QuoI am extremely pessimistic about the future, because the CCP has already chosen the path of no return on the very day it made concessions to the Muslim fundamentalists. Should the CCP stop appeasing them now and treat them equally under the law as ordinary citizens, the fundamentalists who have so gotten used to their privilege will more than likely revolt the next day. Furthermore, what will happen to religious “departments” that are integrated with the Chinese government, such as the Islamic Association of China? The dissolution of the Association will surely free up control of a large, powerful organized group under a unified belief, transferring even more power to the uncontrollable side.And should there be any form of open rebellion against the CCP, it will shake the foundation of their legitimacy and invite questions, which is an absolutely inconceivable move on the part of the Party. In other words, both sides will try keep the Status Quo, and the CCP will not reform as long as it can get away with it.This is because the CCP (Black) and the Islamic fundamentalists (White) have played into a position of what we call a “Mutual Life” (双活) situation. If either White or Black plays on the points inside the encirclement, trying to break through, “the other will effect capture immediately and will be able (if playing properly) to form two eyes.”[2]Therefore, neither White nor Black can make the first move, unless there is a change in factor.If Black moves first, it will be domestically and internationally condemned for “religious prosecution” and risk losing political stability. An open resistance of Black cannot be allowed to happen, for it will be seen as weakness by the public, through which Black will certainly lose the people’s mandate.If White moves first, it will expose itself as the public enemy and immediately becomes vulnerable to encirclement, from which Black will receive a legitimate reason to annihilate it.The position of “Mutual Life” keeps the truce, but the peace is only temporary. Both sides bid their time as they hope for a change in factor. Perhaps one is waiting for an innocent mistake by the opponent; perhaps one is waiting for a gradual increase in power and popularity; or perhaps one is working to break through Mutual Life from a bigger picture.That is uncertain.What is certain is the future is grim.P.S. If you’ve read this far, you now know why Chinese people don’t usually criticize our government in the presence of foreigners. Because when we do, we get extremely lengthy and detailed. And the funny thing is that we might even get upset if the same thing comes from a foreigner.Footnotes[1] 《明报》伊斯兰化在中国：「国中之国」云南沙甸 教权大过政权 清真寺声望胜政府[2] List of Go terms - Wikipedia

I still think this is incredibly on point. It is nigh on eight years old and 90% of it still holds true. That's why I pass it on to you in full.TL;DR:Why we hate HR:HR people aren't the sharpest tacks in the box.HR pursues efficiency in lieu of value.HR isn't working for you.The corner office doesn't get HR (and vice versa)That does not go for some of the stellar people in HR that I have worked with, or those people in HR who do things differently, to add a nuance. You know who you are. Many people in HR I passed this on to had this article lying on their desk prominently as a badge of honor.Why We Hate HR:In a knowledge economy, companies with the best talent win. And finding, nurturing, and developing that talent should be one of the most important tasks in a corporation. So why does human resources do such a bad job -- and how can we fix it?From: Issue 97|August 2005 | Page 40 By: Keith H. HammondsWell, here's a rockin' party: a gathering of several hundred midlevel human-resources executives in Las Vegas. (Yo, Wayne Newton! How's the 401(k)?) They are here, ensconced for two days at faux-glam Caesars Palace, to confer on "strategic HR leadership," a conceit that sounds, to the lay observer, at once frightening and self-contradictory. If not plain laughable.Because let's face it: After close to 20 years of hopeful rhetoric about becoming "strategic partners" with a "seat at the table" where the business decisions that matter are made, most human-resources professionals aren't nearly there. They have no seat, and the table is locked inside a conference room to which they have no key. HR people are, for most practical purposes, neither strategic nor leaders.I don't care for Las Vegas. And if it's not clear already, I don't like HR, either, which is why I'm here. The human-resources trade long ago proved itself, at best, a necessary evil -- and at worst, a dark bureaucratic force that blindly enforces nonsensical rules, resists creativity, and impedes constructive change. HR is the corporate function with the greatest potential -- the key driver, in theory, of business performance -- and also the one that most consistently underdelivers. And I am here to find out why.Why are annual performance appraisals so time-consuming -- and so routinely useless? Why is HR so often a henchman for the chief financial officer, finding ever-more ingenious ways to cut benefits and hack at payroll? Why do its communications -- when we can understand them at all -- so often flout reality? Why are so many people processes duplicative and wasteful, creating a forest of paperwork for every minor transaction? And why does HR insist on sameness as a proxy for equity?It's no wonder that we hate HR. In a 2005 survey by consultancy Hay Group, just 40% of employees commended their companies for retaining high-quality workers. Just 41% agreed that performance evaluations were fair. Only 58% rated their job training as favorable. Most said they had few opportunities for advancement -- and that they didn't know, in any case, what was required to move up. Most telling, only about half of workers below the manager level believed their companies took a genuine interest in their well-being.None of this is explained immediately in Vegas. These HR folks, from employers across the nation, are neither evil courtiers nor thoughtless automatons. They are mostly smart, engaging people who seem genuinely interested in doing their jobs better. They speak convincingly about employee development and cultural transformation. And, over drinks, they spin some pretty funny yarns of employee weirdness. (Like the one about the guy who threatened to sue his wife's company for "enabling" her affair with a coworker. Then there was the mentally disabled worker and the hooker -- well, no, never mind. . . .)But then the facade cracks. It happens at an afternoon presentation called "From Technicians to Consultants: How to Transform Your HR Staff into Strategic Business Partners." The speaker, Julie Muckler, is senior vice president of human resources at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. She is an enthusiastic woman with a broad smile and 20 years of experience at companies such as Johnson & Johnson and General Tire. She has degrees in consumer economics and human resources and organizational development.And I have no idea what she's talking about. There is mention of "internal action learning" and "being more planful in my approach." PowerPoint slides outline Wells Fargo Home Mortgage's initiatives in performance management, organization design, and horizontal-solutions teams. Muckler describes leveraging internal resources and involving external resources -- and she leaves her audience dazed. That evening, even the human-resources pros confide they didn't understand much of it, either.This, friends, is the trouble with HR. In a knowledge economy, companies that have the best talent win. We all know that. Human resources execs should be making the most of our, well, human resources -- finding the best hires, nurturing the stars, fostering a productive work environment -- just as IT runs the computers and finance minds the capital. HR should be joined to business strategy at the hip.Instead, most HR organizations have ghettoized themselves literally to the brink of obsolescence. They are competent at the administrivia of pay, benefits, and retirement, but companies increasingly are farming those functions out to contractors who can handle such routine tasks at lower expense. What's left is the more important strategic role of raising the reputational and intellectual capital of the company -- but HR is, it turns out, uniquely unsuited for that.Here's why.1. HR people aren't the sharpest tacks in the box. We'll be blunt: If you are an ambitious young thing newly graduated from a top college or B-school with your eye on a rewarding career in business, your first instinct is not to join the human-resources dance. (At the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, which arguably boasts the nation's top faculty for organizational issues, just 1.2% of 2004 grads did so.) Says a management professor at one leading school: "The best and the brightest don't go into HR."Who does? Intelligent people, sometimes -- but not businesspeople. "HR doesn't tend to hire a lot of independent thinkers or people who stand up as moral compasses," says Garold L. Markle, a longtime human-resources executive at Exxon and Shell Offshore who now runs his own consultancy. Some are exiles from the corporate mainstream: They've fared poorly in meatier roles -- but not poorly enough to be fired. For them, and for their employers, HR represents a relatively low-risk parking spot.Others enter the field by choice and with the best of intentions, but for the wrong reasons. They like working with people, and they want to be helpful -- noble motives that thoroughly tick off some HR thinkers. "When people have come to me and said, 'I want to work with people,' I say, 'Good, go be a social worker,' " says Arnold Kanarick, who has headed human resources at the Limited and, until recently, at Bear Stearns. "HR isn't about being a do-gooder. It's about how do you get the best and brightest people and raise the value of the firm."The really scary news is that the gulf between capabilities and job requirements appears to be widening. As business and legal demands on the function intensify, staffers' educational qualifications haven't kept pace. In fact, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), a considerably smaller proportion of HR professionals today have some education beyond a bachelor's degree than in 1990.And here's one more slice of telling SHRM data: When HR professionals were asked about the worth of various academic courses toward a "successful career in HR," 83% said that classes in interpersonal communications skills had "extremely high value." Employment law and business ethics followed, at 71% and 66%, respectively. Where was change management? At 35%. Strategic management? 32%. Finance? Um, that was just 2%.The truth? Most human-resources managers aren't particularly interested in, or equipped for, doing business. And in a business, that's sort of a problem. As guardians of a company's talent, HR has to understand how people serve corporate objectives. Instead, "business acumen is the single biggest factor that HR professionals in the U.S. lack today," says Anthony J. Rucci, executive vice president at Cardinal Health Inc., a big health-care supply distributor.Rucci is consistently mentioned by academics, consultants, and other HR leaders as an executive who actually does know business. At Baxter International, he ran both HR and corporate strategy. Before that, at Sears, he led a study of results at 800 stores over five years to assess the connection between employee commitment, customer loyalty, and profitability.As far as Rucci is concerned, there are three questions that any decent HR person in the world should be able to answer. First, who is your company's core customer? "Have you talked to one lately? Do you know what challenges they face?" Second, who is the competition? "What do they do well and not well?" And most important, who are we? "What is a realistic assessment of what we do well and not so well vis a vis the customer and the competition?"Does your HR pro know the answers?2. HR pursues efficiency in lieu of value. Why? Because it's easier -- and easier to measure. Dave Ulrich, a professor at the University of Michigan, recalls meeting with the chairman and top HR people from a big bank. "The training person said that 80% of employees have done at least 40 hours in classes. The chairman said, 'Congratulations.' I said, 'You're talking about the activities you're doing. The question is, What are you delivering?' "That sort of stuff drives Ulrich nuts. Over 20 years, he has become the HR trade's best-known guru (see "The Once and Future Consultant," page 48) and a leading proponent of the push to take on more-strategic roles within corporations. But human-resources managers, he acknowledges, typically undermine that effort by investing more importance in activities than in outcomes. "You're only effective if you add value," Ulrich says. "That means you're not measured by what you do but by what you deliver." By that, he refers not just to the value delivered to employees and line managers, but the benefits that accrue to investors and customers, as well.So here's a true story: A talented young marketing exec accepts a job offer with Time Warner out of business school. She interviews for openings in several departments -- then is told by HR that only one is interested in her. In fact, she learns later, they all had been. She had been railroaded into the job, under the supervision of a widely reviled manager, because no one inside the company would take it.You make the call: Did HR do its job? On the one hand, it filled the empty slot. "It did what was organizationally expedient," says the woman now. "Getting someone who wouldn't kick and scream about this role probably made sense to them. But I just felt angry." She left Time Warner after just a year. (A Time Warner spokesperson declined to comment on the incident.)Part of the problem is that Time Warner's metrics likely will never catch the real cost of its HR department's action. Human resources can readily provide the number of people it hired, the percentage of performance evaluations completed, and the extent to which employees are satisfied or not with their benefits. But only rarely does it link any of those metrics to business performance.John W. Boudreau, a professor at the University of Southern California's Center for Effective Organizations, likens the failing to shortcomings of the finance function before DuPont figured out how to calculate return on investment in 1912. In HR, he says, "we don't have anywhere near that kind of logical sophistication in the way of people or talent. So the decisions that get made about that resource are far less sophisticated, reliable, and consistent."Cardinal Health's Rucci is trying to fix that. Cardinal regularly asks its employees 12 questions designed to measure engagement. Among them: Do they understand the company's strategy? Do they see the connection between that and their jobs? Are they proud to tell people where they work? Rucci correlates the results to those of a survey of 2,000 customers, as well as monthly sales data and brand-awareness scores."So I don't know if our HR processes are having an impact" per se, Rucci says. "But I know absolutely that employee-engagement scores have an impact on our business," accounting for between 1% and 10% of earnings, depending on the business and the employee's role. "Cardinal may not anytime soon get invited by the Conference Board to explain our world-class best practices in any area of HR -- and I couldn't care less. The real question is, Is the business effective and successful?"3. HR isn't working for you. Want to know why you go through that asinine performance appraisal every year, really? Markle, who admits to having administered countless numbers of them over the years, is pleased to confirm your suspicions. Companies, he says "are doing it to protect themselves against their own employees," he says. "They put a piece of paper between you and employees, so if you ever have a confrontation, you can go to the file and say, 'Here, I've documented this problem.' "There's a good reason for this defensive stance, of course. In the last two generations, government has created an immense thicket of labor regulations. Equal Employment Opportunity; Fair Labor Standards; Occupational Safety and Health; Family and Medical Leave; and the ever-popular ERISA. These are complex, serious issues requiring technical expertise, and HR has to apply reasonable caution.But "it's easy to get sucked down into that," says Mark Royal, a senior consultant with Hay Group. "There's a tension created by HR's role as protector of corporate assets -- making sure it doesn't run afoul of the rules. That puts you in the position of saying no a lot, of playing the bad cop. You have to step out of that, see the broad possibilities, and take a more open-minded approach. You need to understand where the exceptions to broad policies can be made."Typically, HR people can't, or won't. Instead, they pursue standardization and uniformity in the face of a workforce that is heterogeneous and complex. A manager at a large capital leasing company complains that corporate HR is trying to eliminate most vice-president titles there -- even though veeps are a dime a dozen in the finance industry. Why? Because in the company's commercial business, vice president is a rank reserved for the top officers. In its drive for bureaucratic "fairness," HR is actually threatening the reputation, and so the effectiveness, of the company's finance professionals.The urge for one-size-fits-all, says one professor who studies the field, "is partly about compliance, but mostly because it's just easier." Bureaucrats everywhere abhor exceptions -- not just because they open up the company to charges of bias but because they require more than rote solutions. They're time-consuming and expensive to manage. Make one exception, HR fears, and the floodgates will open.There's a contradiction here, of course: Making exceptions should be exactly what human resources does, all the time -- not because it's nice for employees, but because it drives the business. Employers keep their best people by acknowledging and rewarding their distinctive performance, not by treating them the same as everyone else. "If I'm running a business, I can tell you who's really helping to drive the business forward," says Dennis Ackley, an employee communication consultant. "HR should have the same view. We should send the message that we value our high-performing employees and we're focused on rewarding and retaining them."Instead, human-resources departments benchmark salaries, function by function and job by job, against industry standards, keeping pay -- even that of the stars -- within a narrow band determined by competitors. They bounce performance appraisals back to managers who rate their employees too highly, unwilling to acknowledge accomplishments that would merit much more than the 4% companywide increase.Human resources, in other words, forfeits long-term value for short-term cost efficiency. A simple test: Who does your company's vice president of human resources report to? If it's the CFO -- and chances are good it is -- then HR is headed in the wrong direction. "That's a model that cannot work," says one top HR exec who has been there. "A financial person is concerned with taking money out of the organization. HR should be concerned with putting investments in."4. The corner office doesn't get HR (and vice versa). I'm at another rockin' party: a few dozen midlevel human-resources managers at a hotel restaurant in Mahwah, New Jersey. It is not glam in any way. (I've got to get a better travel agent.) But it is telling, in a hopeful way. Hunter Douglas, a $2.1 billion manufacturer of window coverings, has brought its HR staff here from across the United States to celebrate their accomplishments.The company's top brass is on hand. Marvin B. Hopkins, president and CEO of North American operations, lays on the praise: "I feel fantastic about your achievements," he says. "Our business is about people. Hiring, training, and empathizing with employees is extremely important. When someone is fired or leaves, we've failed in some way. People have to feel they have a place at the company, a sense of ownership."So, yeah, it's corporate-speak in a drab exurban office park. But you know what? The human-resources managers from Tupelo and Dallas are totally pumped up. They've been flown into headquarters, they've had their picture taken with the boss, and they're seeing Mamma Mia on Broadway that afternoon on the company's dime.Can your HR department say it has the ear of top management? Probably not. "Sometimes," says Ulrich, "line managers just have this legacy of HR in their minds, and they can't get rid of it. I felt really badly for one HR guy. The chairman wanted someone to plan company picnics and manage the union, and every time this guy tried to be strategic, he got shot down."Say what? Execs don't think HR matters? What about all that happy talk about employees being their most important asset? Well, that turns out to have been a small misunderstanding. In the 1990s, a group of British academics examined the relationship between what companies (among them, the UK units of Hewlett-Packard and Citibank) said about their human assets and how they actually behaved. The results were, perhaps, inevitable.In their rhetoric, human-resources organizations embraced the language of a "soft" approach, speaking of training, development, and commitment. But "the underlying principle was invariably restricted to the improvements of bottom-line performance," the authors wrote in the resulting book, Strategic Human Resource Management (Oxford University Press, 1999). "Even if the rhetoric of HRM is soft, the reality is almost always 'hard,' with the interests of the organization prevailing over those of the individual."In the best of worlds, says London Business School professor Lynda Gratton, one of the study's authors, "the reality should be some combination of hard and soft." That's what's going on at Hunter Douglas. Human resources can address the needs of employees because it has proven its business mettle -- and vice versa. Betty Lou Smith, the company's vice president of corporate HR, began investigating the connection between employee turnover and product quality. Divisions with the highest turnover rates, she found, were also those with damaged-goods rates of 5% or higher. And extraordinarily, 70% of employees were leaving the company within six months of being hired.Smith's staffers learned that new employees were leaving for a variety of reasons: They didn't feel respected, they didn't have input in decisions, but mostly, they felt a lack of connection when they were first hired. "We gave them a 10-minute orientation, then they were out on the floor," Smith says. She addressed the weakness by creating a mentoring program that matched new hires with experienced workers. The latter were suspicious at first, but eventually, the mentor positions (with spiffy shirts and caps) came to be seen as prestigious. The six-month turnover rate dropped dramatically, to 16%. Attendance and productivity -- and the damaged-goods rate -- improved."We don't wait to hear from top management," Smith says. "You can't just sit in the corner and look at benefits. We have to know what the issues in our business are. HR has to step up and assume responsibility, not wait for management to knock on our door."But most HR people do.Hunter Douglas gives us a glimmer of hope -- of the possibility that HR can be done right. And surely, even within ineffective human-resources organizations, there are great individual HR managers -- trustworthy, caring people with their ears to the ground, who are sensitive to cultural nuance yet also understand the business and how people fit in. Professionals who move voluntarily into HR from line positions can prove especially adroit, bringing a profit-and-loss sensibility and strong management skills.At Yahoo, Libby Sartain, chief people officer, is building a group that may prove to be the truly effective human-resources department that employees and executives imagine. In this, Sartain enjoys two advantages. First, she arrived with a reputation as a creative maverick, won in her 13 years running HR at Southwest Airlines. And second, she had license from the top to do whatever it took to create a world-class organization.Sartain doesn't just have a "seat at the table" at Yahoo; she actually helped build the table, instituting a weekly operations meeting that she coordinates with COO Dan Rosensweig. Talent is always at the top of the agenda -- and at the end of each meeting, the executive team mulls individual development decisions on key staffers.That meeting, Sartain says, "sends a strong message to everyone at Yahoo that we can't do anything without HR." It also signals to HR staffers that they're responsible for more than shuffling papers and getting in the way. "We view human resources as the caretaker of the largest investment of the company," Sartain says. "If you're not nurturing that investment and watching it grow, you're not doing your job."Yahoo, say some experts and peers at other organizations, is among a few companies -- among them Cardinal Health, Procter & Gamble, Pitney Bowes, Goldman Sachs, and General Electric -- that truly are bringing human resources into the realm of business strategy. But they are indeed the few. USC professor Edward E. Lawler III says that last year HR professionals reported spending 23% of their time "being a strategic business partner" -- no more than they reported in 1995. And line managers, he found, said HR is far less involved in strategy than HR thinks it is. "Despite great huffing and puffing about strategy," Lawler says, "there's still a long way to go." (Indeed. When I asked one midlevel HR person exactly how she was involved in business strategy for her division, she excitedly described organizing a monthly lunch for her vice president with employees.)What's driving the strategy disconnect? London Business School's Gratton spends a lot of time training human-resources professionals to create more impact. She sees two problems: Many HR people, she says, bring strong technical expertise to the party but no "point of view about the future and how organizations are going to change." And second, "it's very difficult to align HR strategy to business strategy, because business strategy changes very fast, and it's hard to fiddle around with a compensation strategy or benefits to keep up." More than simply understanding strategy, Gratton says, truly effective executives "need to be operating out of a set of principles and personal values." And few actually do.In the meantime, economic natural selection is, in a way, taking care of the problem for us. Some 94% of large employers surveyed this year by Hewitt Associates reported they were outsourcing at least one human-resources activity. By 2008, according to the survey, many plan to expand outsourcing to include activities such as learning and development, payroll, recruiting, health and welfare, and global mobility.Which is to say, they will farm out pretty much everything HR does. The happy rhetoric from the HR world says this is all for the best: Outsourcing the administrative minutiae, after all, would allow human-resources professionals to focus on more important stuff that's central to the business. You know, being strategic partners.The problem, if you're an HR person, is this: The tasks companies are outsourcing -- the administrivia -- tend to be what you're good at. And what's left isn't exactly your strong suit. Human resources is crippled by what Jay Jamrog, executive director of the Human Resource Institute, calls "educated incapacity: You're smart, and you know the way you're working today isn't going to hold 10 years from now. But you can't move to that level. You're stuck."That's where human resources is today. Stuck. "This is a unique organization in the company," says USC's Boudreau. "It discovers things about the business through the lens of people and talent. That's an opportunity for competitive advantage." In most companies, that opportunity is utterly wasted.And that's why I don't like HR.Keith H. Hammonds is Fast Company's deputy editor.Copyright © 2005 Gruner + Jahr USA Publishing. All rights reserved.Fast Company, 375 Lexington Avenue.,New York , NY 10017