Top Items:
McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Cell signal puts Cohen outside Prague around time of purported Russian meeting — A mobile phone traced to President Donald Trump's former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign …
Discussion:
Politico, Power Line, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, emptywheel, Axios, Dan Bongino, No More Mister Nice Blog, Booman Tribune, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, Splinter, Joe.My.God., Daily Kos, The Last Refuge, Showbiz411, Washington Monthly, Law & Crime, Hill Reporter, Mother Jones, CANNONFIRE, Contemptor, Mediaite, The Week, Boing Boing, Balloon Juice, Talking Points Memo and Little Green Footballs
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Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Report Puts Michael Cohen in Prague and Trump-Russia Collusion on the Table — In 2016, British investigator Christopher Steele collected a dossier of unverified intelligence tips related to Donald Trump's secret connections with Russia. Nobody outside (and, for all we know, inside) …
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money
Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:
New Report Claims Evidence That Michael Cohen Visited Prague
New Report Claims Evidence That Michael Cohen Visited Prague
Discussion:
Raw Story, Law & Crime and Mediaite
Philip Issa / Associated Press:
Furious Iraqi lawmakers demand US troop withdrawal — President Donald Trump's surprise trip to Iraq may have quieted criticism at home that he had yet to visit troops in a combat zone, but it has infuriated Iraqi politicians who on Thursday demanded the withdrawal of U.S. forces.
Discussion:
CNN, Joe.My.God., Raw Story, ThinkProgress, New York Magazine and Reuters
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Annie Karni / New York Times:
Trump Iraq Visit Is Called a Political Rally — WASHINGTON — During his surprise visit to American troops in Iraq and Germany this week, President Trump singled out red “Make America Great Again” caps in a sea of military fatigues, signed a “Trump 2020” patch and accused Representative Nancy Pelosi …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Townhall, Conservative News Today and IJR
Washington Post:
Trump's visit to Iraq prompts concerns about politicization of military
Trump's visit to Iraq prompts concerns about politicization of military
Discussion:
Military.com, The Daily Caller, Splinter and RedState
Eli Watkins / CNN:
Troops bringing Trump hats to sign may violate military rule
Troops bringing Trump hats to sign may violate military rule
Discussion:
RedState, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Breitbart, Conservative News Today, The Mahablog, Splinter, WREG-TV, Louder With Crowder, Townhall, twitchy.com, Daily Wire, POLITICUSUSA, IJR, Associated Press, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Washington Times, Mediaite, NewsBusters, The Hill, The Week, The Resurgent, The New Civil Rights Movement and Washington Post
Bradley P. Moss / The Atlantic:
Politicizing the Military Is Uniformly Wrong
Rachael Bade / Politico:
Congress appears to give up on ending shutdown — The 115th Congress essentially gave up on trying to reopen the government on Thursday, with both the Senate and House closing out the session just minutes after opening it, and leaving the political crisis for the next Congress to solve.
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Daily Caller, The Daily Signal and Raw Story
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John Bresnahan / Politico:
Dems' New Year's resolution: Stiff Trump on the wall and reopen the government
Dems' New Year's resolution: Stiff Trump on the wall and reopen the government
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story and Contemptor
Tara Golshan / Vox:
Trump's approval rating drops to Charlottesville levels during shutdown
Trump's approval rating drops to Charlottesville levels during shutdown
Discussion:
HuffPost, Roll Call, Washington Post and Raw Story
Kevin Poulsen / The Daily Beast:
Special Counsel Robert Mueller Seized Russian Trolls' ‘Nude Selfies’ — The special counsel turned over reams of material from the email and social media accounts of accused Russian trolls. — Special Counsel Robert Mueller has collected at least three million pages of material from the email …
Discussion:
Mediaite
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John Solomon / The Hill:
Giuliani calls for Mueller to be investigated for destruction of FBI evidence
Giuliani calls for Mueller to be investigated for destruction of FBI evidence
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, Conservative News Today, Mediaite, Joe.My.God., Washington Times and Splinter
KDFW:
Nation's oldest living veteran Richard Overton dies in Austin at age 112 — AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - The nation's oldest living veteran, Richard Overton, has died in a rehab facility in Austin, Texas. — He was 112 years old. — Family says Overton was admitted to the hospital last week with pneumonia.
Patrick Radden Keefe / New Yorker:
How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success — With “The Apprentice,” the TV producer mythologized Trump—then a floundering D-lister—as the ultimate titan, paving his way to the Presidency. — “Expedition: Robinson,” a Swedish reality-television program …
Discussion:
Townhall, The Daily Beast, AOL, Deadline and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »
Max Fisher / New York Times:
Inside Facebook's Secret Rulebook for Global Political Speech — Under fire for stirring up distrust and violence, the social network has vowed to police its users. But leaked documents raise serious questions about its approach. — MENLO PARK, Calif. — In a glass conference room …
Discussion:
RedState, Gizmodo and The Daily Caller, more at Mediagazer »
Elizabeth Drew / New York Times:
The Inevitability of Impeachment — Even Republicans may be deciding that the president has become too great a burden to their party or too great a danger to the country. — Ms. Drew is a journalist based in Washington who covered Watergate. — An impeachment process against President Trump now seems inescapable.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Reuters:
More Americans blame Trump for government shutdown: Reuters/Ipsos poll — NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More Americans blame President Donald Trump than congressional Democrats for the partial U.S. government shutdown, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday found, as lawmakers returned …
Discussion:
POLITICUSUSA
Matt Wilstein / The Daily Beast:
Fox News Hits Trump for Turning Troop Visit Into ‘Campaign Rally’ — ‘Military men and women, I believe, deserve way more respect than that,’ Fox News' Julie Banderas said Thursday. — Matt Wilstein — The hits keep coming from Fox News to President Trump.
Discussion:
Joe.My.God.
The Daily Caller:
If You Only Get Your News From CNN, You Have No Idea This Story Happened — A left-wing billionaire gave $100,000 towards an online misinformation campaign that mimicked Russian interference operations — but if you only get your news from CNN, then you have no idea that happened.
Eli Rosenberg / Washington Post:
Trump bragged to service members in Iraq about a 10 percent raise they haven't been given — Speaking to members of the military during his surprise trip overseas this week, President Trump spoke about the raises they received. — “You haven't gotten one in more than 10 years — more than 10 years,” he said Wednesday.
Discussion:
Military Times, Mother Jones, IJR and Daily Kos
C.J. Ciaramella / Hit & Run:
EXCLUSIVE: Read Desperate Emails From People Scammed by A.G. Matt Whitaker's Business Associates — When current acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker joined the advisory board of a Florida patent firm in 2014, he was quoted in a company press release saying he “would only align myself with a first class organization.”
Discussion:
Raw Story and Law & Crime
Anne Applebaum / Washington Post:
Has the GOP retreated into a world of make-believe? The shutdown debate will tell us. — I know it's a tiresome discussion. I know that most people would rather not be having it. I also know that the government shutdown is an appalling hardship for hundreds of thousands of government workers …
BBC:
Saudi Arabia demotes foreign minister in wake of Khashoggi case — Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has been demoted in a government reshuffle by the country's leader, King Salman. — Mr Jubeir will become minister of state for foreign affairs, with Ibrahim al-Assaf taking over as foreign minister.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Financial Times and Breitbart
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Ben Hubbard / New York Times:
Saudi King Shakes Up Cabinet, Keeping Power in Son's Hands
Saudi King Shakes Up Cabinet, Keeping Power in Son's Hands
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, more at Mediagazer »
New York Times:
For Bernie Sanders, Holding Onto Support May Be Hard in a 2020 Bid — WASHINGTON — Some of his top congressional supporters won't commit to backing him if he runs for president again — and two may join the 2020 race themselves. A handful of former aides might work for other candidates.
Discussion:
The Week
Erik Larson / Bloomberg:
Trump DOJ Lawyers Won't Work Amid Shutdown. Judges Say They Must — U.S. argues its lawyers barred from working without pay — Some judges pushing back and ordering government to proceed — Some U.S. judges are pushing back against Justice Department efforts to halt lawsuits involving …
Dan Simon / CNN:
The impact homelessness and the opioid crisis are having on San Francisco streets — See the opioid crisis plaguing San Francisco — San Francisco (CNN)Outside the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in downtown San Francisco, a woman urinates on the sidewalk and smokes a crack pipe.
Dan Zak / Washington Post:
What is Ginni Thomas saying now? The evolution of an unusually outspoken Supreme Court spouse — What is going on with Ginni Thomas? — She still looks and sounds like the Washington wife of yore, with the pearl earrings, the Reagan-red cocktail attire, the sunglasses tiara'd atop her blond bob.
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Michelle Obama Ends Hillary Clinton's Run as Most Admired — WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the first time in 17 years, a woman other than Hillary Clinton has been named by Americans as the woman they admire most. Former first lady Michelle Obama, who finished second to Clinton three times …
Discussion:
Daily Wire, New York Post, Axios, The Root, Raw Story, CBS Chicago, AOL, ABC News, abc7chicago.com, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Bloomberg, IJR, Talking Points Memo, The Week, WREG-TV, twitchy.com, Hill Reporter, FOX31 Denver, CBS Baltimore and Mediaite
Steven Hayward / Power Line:
Apocalypse Not — As everyone knows, climate orthodoxy holds that climate change from carbon emissions is going to make extreme weather more extreme. So I won't hold my breath waiting to hear the climatistas commenting on this story from the Bezos Bulletin Washington Post today:
Discussion:
Laredo Morning News, Althouse and The Gateway Pundit
Dara Lind / Vox:
Trump administration to release hundreds of immigrant families from detention — But with border nonprofits already stretched to capacity, many families will probably end up dropped off en masse at bus stations. — Hundreds, or even thousands, of migrant families are set to be released …
Discussion:
New York Times, Dallas Morning News, El Paso Times and Splinter
Brian Schwartz / CNBC:
Mike Bloomberg prepared to spend at least $100 million on a 2020 campaign for president if he decides to run — Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is preparing to spend over his $100 million mayoral campaign budget if he chooses to run for president in 2020.
Discussion:
Splinter, Talking Points Memo and Front Page Magazine
Paul Sonne / Washington Post:
A Russian bank gave Marine Le Pen's party a loan. Then weird things began happening. — PARIS — When French politician Marine Le Pen needed cash for her far-right party, an obscure Russian bank agreed to help. — Four years later, the bank has gone bust. The owner is facing a warrant for his arrest.
Nicholas Riccardi / Associated Press:
Defying pundits, GOP share of Latino vote steady under Trump — LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — Pedro Gonzalez has faith in Donald Trump and his party. — The 55-year-old Colombian immigrant is a pastor at an evangelical church in suburban Denver. Initially repelled by Trump in 2016 …
Allan Smith / NBC News:
Probe of Trump's charity could crash ‘like a Mack Truck’ into his real estate empire — “There seems to be entanglements in terms of people and probably in terms of money,” said Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor and NBC News/MSNBC legal analyst. — The Trump Foundation …
Discussion:
Law & Crime, Raw Story and POLITICUSUSA