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Trump on Coming Debt Crisis: 'I Won't Be Here' When It Blows Up — The president thinks the balancing of the nation's books is going to, ultimately, be a future president's problem. — Since the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump's aides and advisers have tried to convince him of the importance of tackling the national debt.
Discussion:
Shareblue Media, Hot Air, Daily Kos, No More Mister Nice Blog, POLITICUSUSA, The Week, Mediaite and Hit & Run
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Feds Target Butina's GOP Boyfriend as Foreign Agent — Paul Erickson served as accused Kremlin spy Maria Butina's guide as she penetrated the American conservative movement. Now he's under investigation as a Russian agent, too. — BETSY WOODRUFF, ERIN BANCO12.5.18 8:00 AM ET
Discussion:
Politico, POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story


Why We Miss the WASPs — Their more meritocratic, diverse and secular successors rule us neither as wisely nor as well. — The nostalgia flowing since the passing of George H.W. Bush has many wellsprings: admiration for the World War II generation and its dying breed of warrior-politicians …
Discussion:
New Republic, Splinter, The Week, Balloon Juice, Mediaite and No More Mister Nice Blog
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Chris Wallace: ‘A chill’ descended on front row upon Trump arrival at Bush funeral — Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said he was “struck” by the reception of President Trump and first lady Melania Trump upon their arrival at the funeral for George H.W. Bush on Wednesday, saying “a chill had descended” …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, IJR, The Week, Political Wire and twitchy.com

George W. Bush eulogizes his father with laughter and tears: ‘A genuinely optimistic man’
Discussion:
Axios, CBS News, Breitbart, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, LifeZette, Washington Post, POLITICUSUSA, The Daily Caller, HuffPost, IJR and twitchy.com


Hold a new election in NC's tainted 9th District — In the week since the state Board of Elections declined to certify the results of North Carolina's 9th Congressional District election, journalists and others have begun to fill in the details of a troubling case of apparent ballot fraud.
Discussion:
Washington Post, ABC News, The Week, twitchy.com, WSOC-TV, Talking Points Memo, NPR and Religion News Service
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Inside The North Carolina Republican Vote Machine: Cash, Pills — And Ballots — BLADENBORO, North Carolina — The allegations that Republicans tampered with absentee ballots in a close North Carolina election represent the most serious federal election tampering case in years …
Discussion:
Washington Post, VICE News, Raw Story, ABC News, WRAL-TV, The Charlotte Observer, Above the Law and Roll Call


Why the case for election fraud in North Carolina is strong
Discussion:
The Guardian, Washington Post, Law & Crime, Daily Kos, Raleigh News & Observer and BuzzFeed News


Paul Ryan Silent On GOP Power Grab In Wisconsin — Republicans are subverting the will of the electorate in Wisconsin. The outgoing speaker of the House, a Wisconsin Republican, is staying mum. — WASHINGTON The extraordinary proposals aimed at reducing the power of incoming Gov. Tony Evers …
Discussion:
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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The Latest: Wisconsin Senate limits governor's power — MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Latest on Wisconsin Republican lawmakers moving to limit the powers of the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general (all times local): — The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate has passed …
Discussion:
Shareblue Media, Splinter, madison.com, Althouse and FiveThirtyEight


Lame-duck Wisconsin Republicans vote to weaken incoming Democratic governor, attorney general
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo

The GOP Election Plan Is Simple: Even When You Don't Win, Cheat
Discussion:
ACA Signups, Washington Post and Mother Jones


Mueller's Flynn Memo Should Worry Kushner and Trump — The former national security adviser provided information about interactions between the presidential transition team and Russian officials. — Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser who pleaded guilty …
Discussion:
Raw Story and Washington Post
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Meadows tells Hannity that Flynn report is ‘good news for President Trump’
Discussion:
Fox News, Washington Post, CNBC, The Mahablog, Shareblue Media, POLITICUSUSA and Lawfare


Here's How Facebook's Local News Algorithm Change Led To The Worst Riots Paris Has Seen In 50 Years — The Yellow Jackets movement is what happens when you point Facebook's traffic hose at France's small towns. The question now is: How do you turn it off?
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Shakesville, twitchy.com, Daily Caller News Foundation and New York Times


‘We are in trouble.’ Global carbon emissions reached a new record high in 2018. — As nations assemble in Poland for climate talks, the figures suggest there is no clear end in sight to the growth of humanity's contribution to climate change. — Global emissions of carbon dioxide have reached …
Discussion:
New York Times, Motherboard, Gothamist, IJR, The Week and Nature


Prosecutors ramp up foreign lobbying probe in New York — WASHINGTON (AP) — Spinning off from the special counsel's Russia probe, prosecutors are ramping up their investigation into foreign lobbying by two major Washington firms that did work for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort …
Discussion:
Axios and Law & Crime


Sessions hints he's done with politics — The deposed attorney general says he's not missing the Senate, amid speculation that he might mount a bid for his old job. — Jeff Sessions doesn't sound eager to run for his old Senate seat in 2020. — The former attorney general and Alabama senator …
Discussion:
Political Wire, Daily Caller News Foundation and Mediaite


New satellite images reveal activity at unidentified North Korean missile base — Washington (CNN)New satellite images obtained exclusively by CNN reveal North Korea has significantly expanded a key long-range missile base located in the mountainous interior of the country …
Discussion:
Axios and New York Times


US makes preparations to sail warship into Black Sea amid Russia-Ukraine tensions — Washington (CNN)The US has begun making the necessary preparations to sail a warship into the Black Sea, a move that comes amid heightened tensions in the region following Russia's seizure of Ukrainian ships and detention of Ukrainian sailors.
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Judge Napolitano: I Expect Donald Trump Jr. to Be Indicted — Fox News' Judge Andrew Napolitano thinks things aren't looking that great for Donald Trump Jr. — Napolitano joined Mediaite founder and ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams on his SiriusXM show today to discuss the big news …


Canada has arrested Huawei's global chief financial officer in Vancouver — Canada has arrested the chief financial officer of China's Huawei Technologies who is facing extradition to the United States on suspicion she violated U.S. trade sanctions against Iran.


With a Green New Deal, Here's What the World Could Look Like for the Next Generation — It's the spring of 2043, and Gina is graduating college with the rest of her class. She had a relatively stable childhood. Her parents availed themselves of some of the year of paid family leave they were entitled to …
Discussion:
Streetsblog USA and Gothamist
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The Democratic Party Wants to Make Climate Policy Exciting
Discussion:
Common Dreams


“They're Beginning to Think About Whether Mike Pence Should Be Running Again": As the Mueller Fire Nears, Trump Ponders Jettisoning His Loyal V.P. — New polling, and the Nick Ayers-John Kelly subplot, are feeding doubts about Pence and 2020. — After Michael Cohen's surprise plea agreement …


Senate Judiciary Committee scraps votes on judges because of Flake — (CNN)Sen. Jeff Flake's vow to block judicial nominees is significantly disrupting the Senate Judiciary Committee's plans to advance more of President Donald Trump's picks for the lower courts.
Discussion:
twitchy.com and Political Wire


UPDATED: Large Crowd Reported at Clarendon Cheesecake Factory Amid Free Cheesecake Promotion — (Updated at 4:25 p.m.) Arlington County police and medics have responded to Clarendon after a promotion for free cheesecake got out of control. — Police were called to the area of the Cheesecake Factory …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Splinter, The Week, CBS Baltimore, CBS Los Angeles, Las Vegas Review-Journal, CBS New York and WGN-TV


A Conservative Magazine May Pay a Price for Being Unfriendly to Trump — The Weekly Standard didn't go along, and now its future is in danger. — Other conservative magazines, websites and news empires have thrived since President Trump took office by cheering him on or, at least, playing down his faults.
Discussion:
New Republic, Politico, twitchy.com and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »


It's the Worst Time to Make Money in Markets Since 1972 — Not a single of 8 main asset classes is up at least 5% in 2018 — There was bull market somewhere in 2008, 1974 routs, NDR says — Market statisticians are falling over each other in 2018 to describe the pain being felt across asset classes.


Rudy Giuliani Says Twitter Sabotaged His Tweet. Actually, He Did It Himself. — To Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor who is one of President Trump's lawyers, it was an example of how low Twitter would stoop to carry out its anti-Trump agenda. — It was, decidedly, no such thing.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Engadget, Motherboard, KTLA, The Verge, IJR, ThinkProgress, Common Dreams, Splinter, Vox, The Guardian and Mother Jones


“Everyone's for Sale”: A Generation of Digital-Media Darlings Prepares for a Frigid Winter — Vice, Vox, and BuzzFeed, among other companies that once heralded the dawn of a new media age, are now grappling with decidedly old-media problems. — It was around this time last year that things …
Discussion:
CNN and Hit & Run, more at Mediagazer »


Mark Zuckerberg's Biggest Problem: Internal Tensions At Facebook Are Boiling Over — “It's the bunker mentality. These people have been under siege for 600 days now. They're getting tired, getting cranky — the only survival strategy is to quit or fully buy in.”
Discussion:
Breitbart and Motherboard, more at Techmeme »


Sean Penn turns up in Istanbul to film documentary on Jamal Khashoggi — American actor and director set to meet with Turkish officials and murdered journalist's fiancee for a documentary — US director and actor Sean Penn outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul (Screengrab)
Discussion:
Breitbart and Anadolu Ajansı …


The forgotten story of how George H.W. Bush won over Ronald Reagan — Lou Cannon is a former reporter for The Post and author of multiple biographies on President Ronald Reagan. — At a time when George H.W. Bush is rightly being celebrated for his statesmanship and decency …


Top Republican Donors Aren't Getting Any Information About The House Republican Campaign Arm Getting Hacked — The campaign arm for House Republicans has not yet given its major donors any information regarding this year's hack of its top advisers' emails by an “unknown entity.”
Discussion:
Raw Story, Instapundit and The Week


Natalie Portman finally fulfills her Madonna-fueled, teenage pop-star dreams in ‘Vox Lux’ — HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - This awards season finds famous faces trading places. — As Lady Gaga morphs into a movie star under the lights of “A Star Is Born,” this week a glitter-doused Natalie Portman …
Discussion:
Louder With Crowder, KBZK, The Daily Caller, Mediaite and IndieWire