Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
White House Meeting Started With Sweets, but Quickly Turned Sour — Trump and congressional leaders remain at odds over border-wall funding; ‘Bye bye!’ — WASHINGTON—President Trump opened the latest face-to-face negotiations with lawmakers like he was comforting members of one of his golf clubs.
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
For Trump, Storming Out of a Meeting Is a Signature Ploy
Discussion:
BloombergQuint and Raw Story
Jacqueline Alemany / Washington Post:
Power Up: The Art of Prolonging a Government Shutdown
Discussion:
Political Wire, National Review, Breitbart and The Week
New York Times:
Trump Storms Out of White House Meeting With Democrats on Shutdown
Discussion:
Axios, Shareblue Media, Raw Story, Roll Call, CNN, CCN, Townhall, TheBlaze, Fox News Insider, The Week, No More Mister Nice Blog and Contemptor
CNBC:
Trump calls meeting with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi a ‘total waste of time’ after he storms out
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Christal Hayes / USA Today:
Trump's team had over 100 contacts with Russian-linked operatives, report shows — WASHINGTON - Members of President Donald Trump's campaign and transition team had more than 100 contacts with Russian-linked operatives, according to a new report. — The milestone illustrates …
Discussion:
Washington Post
RELATED:
Heidi Przybyla / NBC News:
House Democrats now asking questions about Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — Mnuchin will give the House a classified briefing Thursday, after a request from the Democratic chairs of the main House investigative panels. — WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has agreed …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Raw Story
National Enquirer:
Married Amazon Boss Jeff Bezos Getting Divorce Over Fling With Movie Mogul's Wife — The ENQUIRER's blockbuster exclusive of world's richest couple's break-up! — The marriage of the world's richest couple is set to explode in all-out war — after billionaire Jeff Bezos was caught cheating …
Discussion:
The Guardian, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Robert Frank / CNBC:
How much could Mackenzie Bezos get in a divorce? — Bezos announced in a tweet Wednesday that he and his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie, have “decided to divorce.” — Washington state, where the Bezoses live, is a community property state, meaning any wealth made during their marriage could be split equally between the two.
Discussion:
TMZ.com, Page Six, TheStreet and The Daily Beast
Manu Raju / CNN:
Facing gridlock, GOP senators seek big immigration deal to end shutdown — (CNN) — Staring at a prolonged government shutdown, Republican senators are privately planning to court Democratic senators on an immigration deal that would give President Donald Trump money for his border wall …
Discussion:
The Week, illegal immigration …, The Right Scoop and TheBlaze
RELATED:
Burgess Everett / Politico:
Graham launches last-ditch push to end shutdown — Sen. Lindsey Graham is throwing a Hail Mary to reopen the government. — Graham brought together a half dozen Republican senators Wednesday afternoon in a last-ditch attempt to resolve the three-week stalemate before President Donald Trump deploys …
Discussion:
ABC News, Talking Points Memo, Conservative News Today, Joe.My.God., IJR and The Daily Caller
Doug Sovern / KCBS 740AM:
Kamala Harris Ready To Enter Race For President, Sources Say — She's Finalizing Plans For Bay Area Rally To Announce Candidacy — Sen. Kamala Harris has decided to run for president in 2020 and will announce her candidacy on or around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, probably at a campaign rally in Oakland …
Discussion:
Political Wire and Mediaite
RELATED:
NBC News:
Test of steel prototype for border wall showed it could be sawed through — NBC News obtained a photo showing results of a test on a steel wall prototype. — President Donald Trump has repeatedly advocated for a steel slat design for his border wall, which he described as …
Nomaan Merchant / Associated Press:
Texas landowners prepare wall fight; Trump to visit border — HIDALGO, Texas (AP) — As President Donald Trump travels to the border in Texas to make the case for his $5.7 billion wall, landowner Eloisa Cavazos says she knows firsthand how the project will play out if the White House gets its way.
Discussion:
Boing Boing
John R. Schindler / Observer:
Exclusive: Mueller Is Holding Top Secret Intelligence That Will Sink the Trump Presidency — Another day, another bombshell emanating from the Special Counsel investigation into President Donald Trump and his links to the Kremlin. We now have more proof that Robert Mueller really does …
Discussion:
RedState, Sputnik International, CNN, Raw Story and Talking Points Memo
RELATED:
New York Times:
Trump Thinks He's His Own Best Messenger. Where Does That Leave Bill Shine? — WASHINGTON — At the beginning of the government shutdown, Bill Shine was about as far away from the capital as President Trump's most senior communications official could get.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
RELATED:
Trip Gabriel / New York Times:
Before Trump, Steve King Set the Agenda for the Wall and Anti-Immigrant Politics — Years before President Trump forced a government shutdown over a border wall, triggering a momentous test of wills in Washington, Representative Steve King of Iowa took to the House floor to show off a model of a 12-foot border wall he had designed.
RELATED:
Alex Thompson / Politico:
Top Bernie Sanders 2016 adviser accused of forcibly kissing subordinate — On the final night of the Democratic National Convention in July of 2016, Bernie Sanders' staffers went out to a Mediterranean restaurant and hookah bar in Center City Philadelphia to celebrate and mourn the end of the campaign.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, CNN and Washington Post
Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:
A beefed-up White House legal team prepares aggressive defense of Trump's executive privilege as investigations loom large — A beefed-up White House legal team is gearing up to prevent President Trump's confidential discussions with top advisers from being disclosed to House Democratic investigators …
Discussion:
Politico, POLITICUSUSA, VICE News, Mother Jones, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Vox
Alan Blinder / New York Times:
Doug Jones Seeks Inquiry Into Misinformation Efforts in Alabama Senate Race — Senator Doug Jones, the Democrat who was an unwitting beneficiary of misinformation tactics during a special election in Alabama in 2017, asked the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday to investigate the episodes.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Political Wire and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Meagan Flynn / Washington Post:
'If there's a concrete wall in front of you, go through it,' Trump said in 2004 speech — Donning an emerald green graduation gown, Donald Trump stood grinning on the stage at Wagner College in Staten Island as a faculty member offered a glowing introduction in May 2004: “A New York original.
Discussion:
POLITICUSUSA, Mediaite, Slate, Talking Points Memo and Fox News Insider
Alex Zimmerman / Chalkbeat:
New York City will offer free eyeglasses to all kindergarteners and first graders — All New York City kindergarteners and first graders will receive prescription eyeglasses if they need them starting next school year, Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to announce Thursday during his annual State of the City address.
Clare Lombardo / NPR:
Virginia Study Finds Increased School Bullying In Areas That Voted For Trump — After the 2016 presidential election, teachers around the country reported they were seeing increased name-calling and bullying in their classrooms. Now, research shows that those stories — at least in one state — are confirmed by student surveys.
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
The 5 Key Constituencies Of The 2020 Democratic Primary — Over the long course of the Republican presidential nomination process in 2015 and 2016, we frequently featured a diagram called “The Republicans' Five-Ring Circus.” The chart was based on the idea that the GOP essentially consisted …
Discussion:
Political Wire
Lawrence Wright / New Yorker:
A Memorial for Jamal Khashoggi — On Thursday, I will be joining the documentarian Alex Gibney and the former F.B.I. special agent Ali Soufan, along with lawmakers, journalists, human-rights advocates, and friends, at the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C., to honor Jamal Khashoggi …
Alan Cross / The Bulwark:
Jerry Falwell Jr.'s Trumpian Theology — Do Christians have a moral duty to support Trump, no matter what? — Like many Christians, I read Jerry Falwell, Jr's New Year's Day interview with the Washington Post with both my mouth open and my heart racing. “He can't be saying what I'm reading!”
Discussion:
Raw Story and New Yorker
Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:
You Should Meditate Every Day — Sure, it's become a wellness fad. But it's the best way I've found to keep digital monsters at bay. — Because I live in Northern California, where this sort of thing is required by local ordinance, I spent New Year's Day at a meditation center …
Brendan Cole / Newsweek:
Evangelical Pastor Robert Jeffress Defends Trump's Border Wall: ‘Heaven Itself Is Going to Have a Wall Around It’ — An evangelical preacher who is a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump has said that if a wall is good enough for heaven, then it is good enough for the U.S. southern border.
Dan Lamothe / Washington Post:
Coast Guard families told they can have garage sales to cope with government shutdown — Employees of the U.S. Coast Guard who are facing a long U.S. government shutdown just received a suggestion: To get by without pay, consider holding a garage sale, babysitting or serving as a “mystery shopper.”
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Task & Purpose, Washington Press, Raw Story, Boing Boing, Daily Kos and Joe.My.God.
Alexandra Desanctis / National Review:
Democratic Congresswoman Calls Out Fellow Democrats for ‘Religious Bigotry’ — Representative Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii, published an op-ed in The Hill yesterday, implicitly criticizing two of her fellow Democratic congresswomen for subjecting a judicial nominee to a religious test …
Discussion:
twitchy.com, RedState and Hawaii News Now
Sen. Ron Wyden / Politico:
It's Time for a ‘Green New Deal’ — There is a groundswell of support in America to tackle the calamity of climate change. Addressing climate change is a national security issue, but renewable energy is also a jobs issue, a health issue and a pocketbook issue for each American family.
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