Vox Sentences: Greek voters are mad as hell and not going to take this anymore

Welcome to Vox Sentences, our news bulletin breaking down the day's biggest stories.

1. A Tsipras for the rest of us

Syriza chief Alexis Tsipras spontaneously bursts into song speaks to supporters after winning the election on January 25, 2015 in Athens, Greece. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

• The far-left party Syriza has won the Greek elections in a landslide.

  [Vox / Matt Yglesias]

• They won 149 seats, two shy of an outright majority in the 300 member Greek parliament.

  [BBC]

• Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has become prime minister, forming a coalition with the center-right party Independent Greeks.

  [NYT / Jim Yardley]

• The two parties disagree on just about everything — except they both want the EU's regime of brutal budget cuts to end.

  [FT / Tony Barber]

• Syriza's platform: a new aid program for the poor, an abolition of the property tax, exemption from income tax for the poor, a big jump in the minimum wage, and a new deal with the troika (the European Commission, European Central Bank, and IMF) that's been enforcing austerity.

  [Bloomberg / Paul Tugwell]

• Realistically, ending austerity would likely require defaulting on Greece's debt (probably while exiting the Euro) and financing a big budget deficit by having the European Central Bank pay for it.

  [Vox / Matt Yglesias]

• But the ECB may be disinclined to bail out Greece like that, or even to strike a deal, for fear that a successful Syriza government would lead to victories for other far-left parties, like Podemos in Spain.

  [Vox / Matt Yglesias]

• Tsipras insists he doesn't want to leave the Euro, but he may end up having no choice.

  [Slate / Joshua Keating]

2. This is what the Obama administration does to whistleblowers

The floor at CIA headquarters. (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

• Former CIA employee Jeffrey Sterling has been convicted on espionage charges for leaking information about a botched operation targeting Iran's nuclear program to the New York Times.

  [NYT / Matt Apuzzo]

• James Risen, the Times reporter Sterling leaked to, was spared a subpoena to testify; if he didn't give up Sterling as his source, that could've meant jail time for contempt of court.

  [NYT / Matt Apuzzo]

• Here's Risen's description of the program. It's a really extraordinary screw-up, which appears, if anything, to have helped the Iranians toward a bomb.

  [The Guardian / James Risen]

• Most press coverage on the case focused on Risen, even though Sterling's the one who blew the whistle, and the one who's now going to prison.

  [Politico / Josh Gerstein]

• Subpoenaing Risen would have been a threat to press freedom. But so is imprisoning Sterling for leaking information that, at least arguably, the public deserves to know.

3. Blizzard

Kriz Kizak (L) prepares to clean off her sport utility vehicle in blizzard conditions February 12, 2006 in the Soho neighborhood of New York City. (Jonathan Fickies/Getty Images)

• In case you haven't noticed (or haven't noticed your East Coast friends complaining about the early snow on Facebook), there's a massive blizzard about to hit New York and Boston.

  [Vox / Brad Plumer]

• They could get 2 to 3 feet of snow — which is rare for New York, but blizzards like this are quite common in the upper Midwest.

  [Vox / Brad Plumer]

• Thankfully, this will be nothing like the 1888 blizzard, which was an utter catastrophe for New York City.

  [Vox / Phil Edwards]

• If you've never experienced 3 feet of snow, keep in mind that it's easily enough to bury a dog.

  [BBC Graphics via Michael Bywater]

• New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has already ordered a snow day for NYC schools, which is good — keeping schools open on snowy days hurts learning.

  [Vox / Libby Nelson]

• "The modern American mayor was born in a blizzard."

  [The Atlantic / Yoni Appelbaum]

4. Misc.

• Super PACs are for losers: 501(c)4 charities are the hot thing among 2016 candidates. They're like Super PACs only with totally secret donors.

  [National Journal / Shane Goldmacher]

• The Galapagos Islands wanted to eradicate its goat population. So it engineered infertile, constantly-in-heat goats and set them loose as bait.

  [Now I Know / Dan Lewis]

• This is an article about a guy who's trying to grow vegetables using dramatically less water, and it's much more interesting than I just made it sound.

  [Craftsmanship / Todd Oppenheimer]

• George H.W. Bush called Bill Clinton to warn that Jeb Bush was about to announce his presidential exploratory committee, because when you're an ex-President there are only three other people in the world who truly understand you and you need to be nice to them if you're going to keep hanging out.

  [Politico / Mike Allen]

• In 2008, 30 police officers in New Jersey spent over three hours in a "hostage negotiation" at a bank with a "robber" who turned out to be a cardboard cutout.

  [AP]

• What Taylor Swift's belly button — and the now-confirmed existence thereof — says about celebrity, Americans' attitudes toward sex, and the human condition.

  [The Atlantic / Lenika Cruz]

• Wow, Tim Heidecker has leaked Katy Perry's new song for the Super Bowl halftime show.

  [YouTube / Tim Heidecker]

5. Verbatim

• "Note to self: When a relationship is on the rocks, but you want to work it out on your end, maybe don’t send songs like this."

  [Natalie Prass to Vogue / Alex Frank]

• "For a germaphobe of any standing, the world of public transportation is particularly wrought with anxiety."

  [Next City / Aaron Reiss]

• "Are black men an endangered species? No, because endangered species are protected by the law."

  [Chris Rock to NPR / Terry Gross]

• "All of us, regardless of the seriousness or level of our offense, were ordered to remain within the five boroughs at all times. Probation had turned New York City into an open-air prison."

  [The Atlantic / Bobby Constantino]

• "Some people believe the level of medical deprivation caused by repealing Obamacare would be moral. Some people think it would be moral to force the staff of the American Enterprise Institute to engage in gladiatorial bouts to the death for our amusement."

  [NY Mag / Jonathan Chait]

• "For the life of me I am mystified by the appeal of novels showing us the Way We Live Now. I am interested in the Way We Lived Then. I am interested in How Some Other People Live, and I am interested in the Way We Might Live Some Other Time. But most of all I am interested in the Way We Don’t Live Now."

  [NYT / Daniel Handler]

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