Top Items:
New York Times:
Trump Considering Full Withdrawal of U.S. Troops From Syria — WASHINGTON — President Trump is considering pulling 2,000 United States ground troops out of Syria in a move that would seek to describe the four-year American-led war against the Islamic State as largely won, officials said Wednesday.
Discussion:
National Review, The Times of Israel, Hill Reporter, Breitbart, Washington Post, Raw Story, The Defense Post, Observer, ABC News, The Atlantic, CNBC, NY State of Politics, USA Today, FDD's Long War Journal, NPR, Bloomberg, Commentary, KXLF-TV, New Republic, The Gateway Pundit, Test Feed Using Fields, Common Dreams, Roll Call, WORLD, Middle East Eye, Conservative Review, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, twitchy.com, The Week, The DC Chronicle, Washington Free Beacon, CBS Denver, Talking Points Memo, Jewish Insider and Daily Kos
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Josh Rogin / Washington Post:
Trump undermines his entire national security team on Syria — On Monday, the U.S. special representative for Syria engagement publicly pledged that the U.S. commitment to Syria would not waiver. The very next day, Trump reportedly decided to rapidly withdraw all U.S. troops there.
Discussion:
Axios, New York Times, NBC News, Raw Story, Hit & Run, The Atlantic and Balloon Juice
Dion Nissenbaum / Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Military Preparing for a Full Withdrawal of Its Forces From Northeastern Syria — Move throws campaign against Islamic State into question — WASHINGTON—In an abrupt reversal, the U.S. military is preparing to withdraw its forces from northeastern Syria, people familiar with the matter …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, CNN, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Axios, Politico, Hit & Run, ThinkProgress, Vox, Raw Story, Splinter, Jihad Watch, The Week, Washington Free Beacon, The Defense Post, Breitbart, The Mahablog, FOX2now.com, Task & Purpose, The American Conservative, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, RedState, Townhall, Mediaite, Daily Wire, Military Times, Talking Points Memo and Mother Jones, more at Mediagazer »
Washington Post:
Trump snubs Corker, as critics and allies alike lambaste Syria decision
Trump snubs Corker, as critics and allies alike lambaste Syria decision
Discussion:
Mediaite, Political Wire and Politico
Jessica Hopper / ABC News:
President Trump's troop withdrawal from Syria a ‘huge’ mistake: Senator Lindsey Graham
President Trump's troop withdrawal from Syria a ‘huge’ mistake: Senator Lindsey Graham
Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:
BREAKING: John McCain Associate Gave Dossier To BuzzFeed — A longtime associate of late Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain provided a copy of the infamous Steele dossier to BuzzFeed News, according to an explosive court filing released Wednesday. — David Kramer, a former State Department official …
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, more at Mediagazer »
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Zoe Tillman / BuzzFeed News:
BuzzFeed News Has Won A Lawsuit Over Its Decision To Publish The Trump Dossier
BuzzFeed News Has Won A Lawsuit Over Its Decision To Publish The Trump Dossier
Discussion:
Townhall
Wall Street Journal:
Trump Testimony From Decades Ago Indicates Knowledge of Campaign-Finance Laws — Legal experts say that could be critical if investigators pursue a case over hush-money payments to women in the 2016 campaign — Sworn statements by President Trump dating back several decades indicate …
Discussion:
Law & Crime and Political Wire
Washington Post:
Mueller seeks Roger Stone's testimony to House intelligence panel, suggesting special counsel is near end of probe of Trump adviser — Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III asked the House Intelligence Committee on Friday for an official transcript of Trump adviser Roger Stone's testimony …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Townhall, Political Wire, Law & Crime, The Week, Mediaite and Shareblue Media
Washington Post:
D.C. attorney general sues Facebook over alleged privacy violations from Cambridge Analytica scandal — The attorney general for the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Facebook for allowing Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy, to gain access to the names …
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Joe Simonson / The Daily Caller:
The New York Times Had Special Access To Facebook Data Without Users' Knowledge
The New York Times Had Special Access To Facebook Data Without Users' Knowledge
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, KXLF-TV and CBC News, more at Mediagazer »
Brian X. Chen / New York Times:
How to Delete Facebook — Lost faith in Facebook after data leakages …
How to Delete Facebook — Lost faith in Facebook after data leakages …
Discussion:
NewsBusters, The Daily Caller and 9to5Mac
Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed News:
Apps Are Revealing Your Private Information To Facebook And You Probably Don't Know It
Apps Are Revealing Your Private Information To Facebook And You Probably Don't Know It
Discussion:
Mashable, Engadget, East Bay Times, ThinkProgress and FOX2now.com, more at Techmeme »
David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:
South Carolina GOP could scrap 2020 primary to protect Trump — The South Carolina Republican Party could cancel its marquee presidential nominating contest in 2020 in a move to protect President Trump from any primary challengers. — Drew McKissick, chairman of the South Carolina GOP …
Discussion:
New Republic, Hot Air, Hullabaloo, Splinter, Raw Story, No More Mister Nice Blog, CNN, Hill Reporter, IJR and Politico
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Anna Massoglia / OpenSecrets.org:
Trump 2020 campaign used a shell company to pay ad buyers at the center of alleged illegal coordination scheme with NRA — The Trump campaign funneled money to ad buyers alleged to have facilitated illegal coordination between the campaign and the NRA by routing funds through a secretive LLC …
Spiegel Online:
Answers to the Most Important Questions — In recent years, DER SPIEGEL published just under 60 articles by reporter and editor Claas Relotius. He has now admitted that, in several instances, he either invented stories or distorted facts. — What happened?
Discussion:
The Guardian, twitchy.com and Samizdata, more at Mediagazer »
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emptywheel:
In Defense of Emmet Sullivan: Van Grack Suggested Mueller Did Review Whether Flynn's Behavior Amounted to Treason — I'd like to defend Judge Emmet Sullivan's intemperate mentions of unregistered foreign agents and treason in the Mike Flynn sentencing hearing yesterday.
Discussion:
National Review, CANNONFIRE, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Raw Story and The Atlantic
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Jeff Cox / CNBC:
Fed hikes rate, lowers 2019 projection to 2 increases — Central bank officials now forecast two hikes next year, down from three rate raises previously projected. — However, the Fed continued to include in its statement that further ‘gradual’ rate hikes would be appropriate.
Discussion:
The Week
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Dan Mangan / CNBC:
New secret filing in case of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen placed in NY federal court vault — A document that is sealed from public view was placed in a New York federal court vault in a criminal case against President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen.
ClickHole:
Legal Bombshell: Mueller Flipped Trump's Confidant's Lawyer's Friend's Associate Gorpman (Who Could Testify Against Bleemer!) And It's Not Even Lunchtime — The day's just getting started, and the Trump house of cards is already crumbling. This morning, Special Counsel Robert Mueller dropped …
Discussion:
The Week
Derek Hunter / The Daily Caller:
Coulter Unloads: ‘A Joke Presidency’ That ‘Scammed The American People’ With Promises Of A Wall — On today's podcast we cover a lot of ground. Bestselling author Ann Coulter talks about the apparent walk-back of President Donald Trump's demand for $5 billion to build the border wall …
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Kaitlan Collins / CNN:
Trump sensitive to criticism about so-far failed border wall promise
NBC News:
United States added to list of most dangerous countries for journalists for first time — At least 63 professional journalists were killed doing their jobs in 2018, a 15 percent increase over last year, Reporters Without Borders said. — PARIS — The murder of the Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi …
Discussion:
The Hill, National Review, TIME, Fortune, Breitbart, The Daily Caller and twitchy.com
Eliza Dushku / BostonGlobe.com:
I worked at CBS. I didn't want to be sexually harassed. I was fired — The narrative propagated by CBS, actor Michael Weatherly, and writer-producer Glenn Gordon Caron is deceptive and in no way fits with how they treated me on the set of the television show “Bull” and retaliated …
Discussion:
KXLF-TV, Deadline, AOL and IndieWire, more at Mediagazer »
Eliana Johnson / Politico:
‘It got a little heated’: GOP infighting almost killed criminal justice reform — Just hours before the Senate passed major reforms to the criminal justice system, Mike Lee and Tom Cotton were still bickering. — At a private party lunch, the two young Republican senators argued one last time …
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Pete Kasperowicz / Washington Examiner:
Jeff Flake strikes out: Senate blocks his third push to protect Robert Mueller
Jeff Flake strikes out: Senate blocks his third push to protect Robert Mueller
Discussion:
Axios
New York Times:
Illinois Attorney General Says Catholic Church Withheld Names of at Least 500 Accused Priests — A scathing report by the Illinois attorney general accused the Roman Catholic Church in the state of failing the victims of clergy sexual abuse by neglecting to investigate their allegations …
Discussion:
The Week
Washington Post:
We were FBI agents. We want to know why Flynn lied to the bureau. — He could have been covering his tracks — or hiding something worse. — Tuesday's sentencing hearing for Michael Flynn, President Trump's former national security adviser, took an unexpected twist after his attempts to shift blame to the government backfired.
Zach Baron / GQ:
The Fresno Bee and the War on Local News — Local newspapers like The Fresno Bee have long been an endangered institution in America, and that was before California Rep. Devin Nunes began waging a public campaign against his hometown paper. Zach Baron spent time with the reporters fighting …
Albert Burneko / The Concourse:
Visionary Brain Genius Elon Musk Has Invented The World's Worst And Most Expensive Subway — If you are anything like me, many times you have been riding the subway and have had the thought, “What is wrong with this dang subway is that it is not exponentially more expensive and slower than this.”
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Breitbart and Capitol Fax.com
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
Why not indict the Trump Organization? — Legal scholars debate whether a sitting president can be indicted or only impeached. If the latter, it's not clear given the statutes of limitation on most crimes whether he could ever be prosecuted for certain crimes.
Carrie Levine / Center for Public Integrity:
Wilbur Ross said he divested a stock holding — but he didn't — Failure to dump BankUnited shares is the latest inaccurate statement by Trump's Commerce secretary. — U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross twice submitted sworn statements to ethics officials saying he had divested stock …
Rebecca Traister / The Cut:
The Imagined Threat of a Woman Who Governs Like a Man — On Tuesday, Politico posted a provocative, anonymously sourced piece claiming that New York congresswoman elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez might be planning, in concert with Justice Democrats, to recruit a Democratic primary challenger …
Sarah D / Los Angeles Times:
Democrats' House takeover could mean big changes for California water policy … Among the changes ahead when Democrats take control of the House in January, add this one: The switch will upend the balance of power in California's water wars. — In the two years since Republicans' 2016 election triumphs …
Adolfo Flores / BuzzFeed News:
A 5-Month-Old Girl Has Been Hospitalized With Pneumonia After Being Detained By Border Patrol — A five-month-old girl who traveled with the migrant caravan has been hospitalized with pneumonia after spending five days inside freezing cells operated by border authorities in California, her mother said.
Discussion:
Splinter
Jack Shafer / Politico:
Stop the Stupid Tucker Carlson Boycott — By now you've heard that the boycott brigade has come for Tucker Carlson, demanding that the advertisers of his nightly Fox News Channel show dump him from their budgets for saying immigrants make the United States “poorer and dirtier.”
Discussion:
Bloomberg, The Wrap, Washington Post and RealClearPolitics, more at Mediagazer »
Dareh Gregorian / NBC News:
Federal judge strikes down Trump asylum rules for domestic and gang violence victims — In a ruling Wednesday, Judge Emmet Sullivan struck down large portions of Justice Department policies that made it harder for immigrants to claim asylum. — A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed Justice …
Rsadon / DCist:
D.C. Officially Hits 700,000 Residents For The First Time Since 1975 — For the first time in more than 40 years, the District counts over 700,000 residents—one more milestone in the city's upward population trend. — The city's official tally (as of July 1, 2018): 702,455 people.