U.S. Punishes Russia for Election Hacking, Ejecting Operatives  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration struck back at Russia on Thursday for its efforts to influence the 2016 election, ejecting 35 Russian intelligence operatives from the United States and imposing sanctions on Russia's …

Bibi Netanyahu Makes Trump His Chump  —  For those of you confused over the latest fight between President Obama and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel, let me make it simple: Barack Obama and John Kerry admire and want to preserve Israel as a Jewish and democratic state in the Land of Israel.

What's really bugging Trump about Obama  —  Donald Trump can't decide whether he thinks the transition of power is going well or not.  —  But he knows he doesn't like how much attention Barack Obama is getting and is also bothered by what Trump and his closest advisers see as an active effort …

Milo Yiannopoulos Strikes $250K Book Deal (Exclusive)  —  “They said banning me from Twitter would finish me off.  Just as I predicted, the opposite has happened,” says Yiannopoulos.  —  Milo Yiannopoulos has parlayed his ban from Twitter — and some controversial appearances on college campuses …

GOP Readies Swift Obamacare Repeal With No Replacement in Place  —  Senate will start in early January to repeal health-care law  —  Republicans split over how long to delay replacement plan  —  The first major act of the unified Republican government in 2017 will be a vote in Congress to begin tearing down Obamacare.

Gun-loving conservative columnist accidentally killed after letting teen boy hold his firearm  —  DON'T MISS STORIES.  FOLLOW RAW STORY!  —  M.D. Harmon, a conservative columnist who frequently wrote in favor of gun ownership rights for the Portland Press Herald, died this week after being accidentally shot by a teenage boy.

Open Society Needs Defending  —  Open societies are in crisis, and various forms of closed societies - from fascist dictatorships to mafia states - are on the rise.  Because elected leaders failed to meet voters' legitimate expectations and aspirations, electorates have become disenchanted …

A Preview of Obama's Post-Presidency  —  He's grumbling about Fox News and talk radio while feigning that he isn't partisan.  —  In two interviews over the holidays, President Obama signaled how he's likely to conduct himself once out of office: whiny, self-justifying and bursting with excuses.

11 A-list artists that refused to perform at Donald Trump's inauguration  —  If Donald Trump were still just a regular old billionaire and threw a party at Trump Tower in New York City, celebrities would be lined up out the door, and the most famous artists would be pining for a chance to perform.

Trump Takes Credit for Sprint Plan to Add 5,000 Jobs in U.S.  —  By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ and MICHAEL J. de la MERCEDDecember 28, 2016  —  President-elect Donald J. Trump took credit on Wednesday for a decision by Sprint to add 5,000 jobs in the United States, as he tried to deliver on his promise …

Americans — especially but not exclusively Trump voters — believe crazy, wrong things  —  Many Americans believe a lot of dumb, crazy, destructive, provably wrong stuff.  Lately this is especially (though not exclusively) true of Donald Trump voters, according to a new survey.

The good that could come from a Trump presidency  —  Gloom is a terrible way to ring out the old, and despair is of no help in trying to imagine the new.  —  So let us consider what good might come from the political situation in which we will find ourselves in 2017.

DNR purges climate change from web page  —  The state Department of Natural Resources recently scrubbed language from an agency web page on the Great Lakes that said humans and greenhouse gases are the main cause of climate change.  —  The DNR now says the subject is a matter of scientific debate.

Debbie Reynolds, ‘Singin’ in the Rain' Star and Carrie Fisher's Mother, Dies at 84  —  Debbie Reynolds, the Oscar-nominated singer-actress who was the mother of late actress Carrie Fisher, has died at Cedars-Sinai hospital.  She was 84.  —  “She wanted to be with Carrie,” her son Todd Fisher told Variety.

US military could carry out first execution in over 50 years  —  (CNN)A former US Army soldier who has been on death row since 1988 for raping and murdering several women could now face execution after a judge denied his bid for another stay of execution.  —  Judge J. Thomas Marten …

What counties that flipped from Romney to Clinton have in common  —  A new analysis of housing prices reveals one way Hillary Clinton's and Donald Trump's supporters have been living in two economies.  One has benefited from lucrative but erratic progress in global markets …