Top Items:
Kate Brannen / Just Security:
Exclusive: Unredacted Ukraine Documents Reveal Extent of Pentagon's Legal Concerns — “Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold.” — This is what Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), told Elaine McCusker …
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Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
New coverup questions in Trump's Ukraine scandal — One of the GOP's chief talking points in its impeachment defense of President Trump has been this: The military aid to Ukraine was withheld, yes, but it was released without any quid pro quo being satisfied. Ipso facto, nothing to see here.
Discussion:
Alternet.org
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
Susan Collins sounds like she's covering for Trump — In her never-ending quest to undermine her reputation as a straight-shooting, independent voice, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) continues to give Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) leeway to rig President Trump's impeachment trial.
Discussion:
The Hill, Law & Crime and Bloomberg
CNN:
White House budget official told Pentagon that order to hold Ukraine aid came from Trump, national security site reports
White House budget official told Pentagon that order to hold Ukraine aid came from Trump, national security site reports
Discussion:
Raw Story
Anne Flaherty / ABC News:
Leaked emails on Ukraine aid freeze bolster case for witnesses at Senate trial: Schumer
Leaked emails on Ukraine aid freeze bolster case for witnesses at Senate trial: Schumer
Discussion:
NBC News, Washington Post, DNyuz and Law & Crime
Jason Leopold / BuzzFeed News:
Robert Mueller's Secret Memos, Part 3: The Documents The Justice Department Didn't Want Congress To See — BuzzFeed News sued the US government for the right to see all the work that Robert Mueller's team kept secret. Today we are publishing the third installment of the FBI's summaries of interviews with key witnesses.
Discussion:
Contemptor and Raw Story
RELATED:
Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:
Manafort Said Hannity Served as His Trump-Backchannel: Docs — The former campaign chairman “understood his conversations with Hannity to be a message from Trump” after he came under scrutiny by the feds, according to newly released memos. — Paul Manafort said he used Fox News host Sean Hannity …
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Trump Covering Up Scheme to Use Justice Department to Punish CNN
Trump Covering Up Scheme to Use Justice Department to Punish CNN
Discussion:
Vox, Hullabaloo, The Atlantic, Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA and BizPac Review
Washington Post:
Airstrike at Baghdad airport kills Iran's most revered military leader, Qassem Soleimani, Iraqi state television reports — BREAKING: It was not clear who carried out the strike, but the death of Soleimani, the Iranian Quds Force commander, seems certain to send tensions soaring between the United States and Iran.
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Qassim Abdul-zahra / Associated Press:
Iran's Gen. Soleimani killed in airstrike at Baghdad airport — Baghdad (AP) — Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, was killed in an airstrike at Baghdad's international airport Friday, Iraqi television and three Iraqi officials said.
Discussion:
WDTN-TV, Mediaite and Al Jazeera
Robert Costa / Washington Post:
Ascendant Bernie Sanders turns his focus to Joe Biden as Iowa nears — DES MOINES — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — who has reignited his presidential campaign in the weeks since a heart attack put his political future in doubt — is now making a direct and sharpened case …
Discussion:
Fox News, Axios, DNyuz, The Daily Caller, The Hill, Mediaite, Daily Kos, The Week and Balloon Juice
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Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:
Democrats are the ones who stand to suffer by delaying the Senate impeachment trial
Democrats are the ones who stand to suffer by delaying the Senate impeachment trial
Discussion:
NBC News, Talking Points Memo and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
A deceptively edited video of Joe Biden signals what's coming — If you thought the 2016 election was awash in disinformation and lies, get ready: The 2020 election is going to make that affair look like a knitting session. — A video that was edited in a monumentally dishonest fashion …
Discussion:
Latest from Crooks and Liars, Quartz, Raw Story, Hullabaloo and The Gateway Pundit
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Katelyn Burns / Vox:
A deceptively edited video of Joe Biden illustrates a big problem in 2020
A deceptively edited video of Joe Biden illustrates a big problem in 2020
Discussion:
Mediaite and Mother Jones
Adam Kredo / Washington Free Beacon:
Manhattan DA Declines to Prosecute Anti-Semitic Attack as Hate Crime — Decision angers legal advocates, Jewish community officials — The Manhattan district attorney's office has declined to prosecute a recent anti-Semitic attack on a Jewish subway passenger as a hate crime, according to lawyers representing the victim.
Discussion:
The Lid, HotAir and The Right Scoop
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NBC New York:
Anti-Semitism Grows in Jewish Communities in NYC Suburbs
Anti-Semitism Grows in Jewish Communities in NYC Suburbs
Discussion:
Washington Free Beacon, National Review, Redstate, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Algemeiner.com and The Post Millennial
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks / Jewish Telegraphic Agency:
The keys to understanding American anti-Semitism — and fighting back
John DiStaso / WMUR:
Democrat Marianne Williamson lays off campaign staff nationally, including NH — Financial issues force spiritual author, lecturer to drastically scale back her unorthodox presidential campaign — MANCHESTER, N.H. — Marianne Williamson, who has been campaigning …
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Ed O'Keefe / CBS News:
Marianne Williamson lays off entire campaign staff
Kyle Mantyla / Right Wing Watch:
Liz Crokin Predicts That Tom Hanks Will Soon Be Arrested for Involvement in Occult Pedophilia — Last year, right-wing “journalist” and Trump-worshiping conspiracy theorist Liz Crokin publicly declared that if the mass arrests long promised by those promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory …
New York Times:
Julián Castro Ends Presidential Run: 'It Simply Isn't Our Time' — Mr. Castro, the former housing secretary and mayor of San Antonio, was the only Latino candidate in the race. He championed progressive policies but did not find his footing in polls.
Discussion:
Power Line, Politico, NPR, HotAir, CNBC, Breitbart, HuffPost, DNyuz, FiveThirtyEight, The Guardian, Common Dreams, Axios, Slate, Talking Points Memo, ABC News, The Daily Caller, The Week, UPI, The Root, Mediaite, Raw Story, Sara A. Carter and Disrn
RELATED:
CNN:
An immensely frustrating time for Julián Castro
An immensely frustrating time for Julián Castro
Discussion:
Redstate, The Right Scoop and Twitchy
Jay Greene / Greenwich Time:
Amazon threatens to fire critics who are outspoken on its environmental policies — SEATTLE - Amazon has warned at least two employees who publicly criticized the company's environmental policies that they could be fired for future violations of its communications policy.
Discussion:
Vox, New York Post and Breitbart
Bob Fredericks / New York Post:
Andrew McCabe said he lied to FBI about Wall Street Journal leak — Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe apologized for lying to agents who spent weeks investigating the source of a leak to the Wall Street Journal that actually came from him, new documents reveal.
Discussion:
Power Line, Fox News and DNyuz
Ross LaJeunesse / Medium:
I Was Google's Head of International Relations. Here's Why I Left. — The company's motto used to be “Don't be evil.” Things have changed. — When I walked out the door on my last day as Google's Head of International Relations, I couldn't help but think of my first day at the company.
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Hill, Yahoo News, DNyuz, Bangor Daily News, Breitbart, New York Post, Gizmodo, Mashable, The Daily Caller, Mercury News, Press Herald, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Week and Mediaite, more at Techmeme »
Dartunorro Clark / NBC News:
Over 200 members of Congress ask Supreme Court to ‘reconsider’ Roe v. Wade — The lawmakers, largely Republican men, asked the court to uphold a lower court ruling that was in favor of a Louisiana abortion law. — Over 200 members of Congress, largely Republican men …
Discussion:
Fox News
Robbie Meredith / BBC:
Hillary Clinton appointed chancellor of Queen's University, Belfast — Hillary Clinton is to be the new chancellor of Queen's University, Belfast (QUB). — She is the university's 11th chancellor and first woman to take up the post. — In a statement, Mrs Clinton said it was a “great privilege” to become the chancellor of QUB.
Kaley Johnson / Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
Judge rules baby at Cook Children's can be taken off life support against family's wishes — A judge ruled Thursday that a 11-month-old baby can be taken off life support at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth against the family's wishes. — The family of Tinslee Lewis …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
Miriam Berger / Washington Post:
Australia's prime minister visited families devastated by the wildfires. It did not go well. — The fire mercilessly tore through Cobargo, a small town near the coast in southern New South Wales, on Monday night, burning down the main street and killing two people, a father and son, caught in its destructive path.
Discussion:
New York Times, CBS San Francisco, New York Post and Fox News
Tim Urban / Wait But Why:
It's 2020 and you're in the future — It's finally the 2020s. After 20 years of not being able to refer to the decade we're in, we're all finally free—in the clear for the next 80 years until 2100, at which point I assume AGI will have figured out what to call the two decades between 2100 and 2120.
Discussion:
Eschaton
Dominic Cummings's Blog:
‘Two hands are a lot’ — we're hiring data scientists, project managers, policy experts, assorted weirdos... 'This is possibly the single largest design flaw contributing to the bad Nash equilibrium in which ... many governments are stuck. Every individual high-functioning competent person knows …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, The Guardian, Financial Times and Politico
Wall Street Journal:
Police Tracked a Terror Suspect—Until His Phone Went Dark After a Facebook Warning — Faced with strong encryption, law-enforcement agencies in Western Europe turned to Israeli company NSO Group to pursue data on WhatsApp messaging tool — A team of European law-enforcement officials …
Scott Bauer / Associated Press:
Conservatives seek immediate purge of voters in Wisconsin — FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2018 file photo, people vote at Jamestown Town Hall in Kieler, Wis. Conservatives are asking a judge to find the Wisconsin Elections Commission in contempt for not immediately purging more than 200,000 voters from the rolls.
Discussion:
Wisconsin Institute …, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, National Review and TheBlaze
Jennifer Hansler / CNN:
Bill Taylor departs post as top US diplomat in Ukraine — Hear what Bill Taylor said to the House during impeachment — Washington (CNN)Bill Taylor, who led the US embassy in Ukraine and served as a key witness in the House impeachment inquiry, has departed his post.
Emma Dumain / The State:
Trey Gowdy won't join Trump's legal team. 'He doesn't need another lawyer' — Amid confusion late last year regarding his status on President Donald Trump's legal team, former Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy said Thursday he has no plans to formally assist the White House in its effort to defend …
Fredrik deBoer:
let me explain all of Star Wars to you heathens — So in the typical way of the internet a sad situation recently played out which had the effect of making all sides look bad. The actor John Boyega, who wonderfully realized the main character in Attack the Block and has played the character …
Dean Obeidallah / The Daily Beast:
When Donald Trump Brags About the Economy, Here's What Democrats Should Say — Yes, the economic indicators are all good. But that doesn't mean people living on $50,000 are feeling secure. — Donald Trump loves to pat himself on the back for, as he puts it, the “greatest economy we've had in the history of our country.”
Discussion:
Breitbart