People Aren't Buying William Barr's Rebuke Of Donald Trump  —  Lawmakers, legal experts and cable news hosts highly doubt the attorney general's interview appearing to stand up to the president.  —  Attorney General William Barr on Thursday appeared to stand up to Donald Trump when he complained …

Bernie Sanders leaps to first among Texas Democrats in latest UT/TT Poll  —  Sanders now leads the Democratic presidential candidates among Texas voters, but Donald Trump maintains a slight lead over each of the top Democrats in the race, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

Justice Dept. won't charge Andrew McCabe, the former FBI official who authorized the investigation of President Trump  —  The Justice Department will not bring charges against former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe for lying to investigators about a media disclosure, according to people familiar …

Boris Johnson has cancelled his planned trip to the White House after Trump slammed the phone down on him in a moment of ‘apoplectic’ fury  — UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has cancelled his planned trip to meet Donald Trump next month after a furious row between the two men.

US's Pelosi urges countries to steer clear of Huawei for 5G  —  MUNICH (AP) — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed Friday to an audience in Germany for countries to steer clear of Chinese tech giant Huawei as they build their next-generation cellular networks, adding her voice to pressure from the Trump administration.

An Unrestrained Trump May End Up Trapping Himself  —  The Senate pushes back on war powers and a Fed nominee, while a White House purge might undercut the president's clout.  —  I'm not sure what the conventional wisdom is about the current health of Donald Trump's presidency …

Democrats are wasting time fighting over policies the Senate will never pass  —  It was a sight to behold: a former vice president, two senators and a former mayor on a stage in New Hampshire a week ago, arguing over the impossible.  Would Sen. Bernie Sanders deliver Medicare-for-all immediately, as he promised to do?

Sanders holds lead heading into Nevada's Democratic caucuses, poll finds  —  Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders leads the presidential field by a solid margin among likely Democratic caucusgoers heading into Nevada's four-day early voting period, but all six of the candidates actively campaigning …

How Many People Might One Person With Coronavirus Infect?  —  Researchers in U.K. offer clues as to how contagious Covid-19 virus could be  —  When an infection erupts the way coronavirus has exploded in Wuhan, China, and elsewhere in the world, public-health experts try to gauge the potential …

U.S. Readied Sanctions on Russian Oligarch's Associates—Then Mysteriously Backed Off  —  “Somebody overruled [Treasury], essentially,” one sanctions expert said.  “That's the most likely scenario.”  —  Something strange happened in mid-December involving Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch.

Facebook reverses on paid political messages that aren't ads  —  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook decided Friday to allow a type of paid political message that had sidestepped many of the social network's rules governing political ads, in a reversal that highlights difficulties tech companies …

Civic Religion and the Secular Jew  —  IT'S HARD TO IMAGINE Bernie Sanders's inauguration.  Not because it's difficult to believe that Sanders could win the presidency—that seems more plausible than ever.  But in the sense that it's hard to envision what the ceremony would look like.

U.S. population will decline faster without steady immigration, Census report says  —  Limiting immigration over the next four decades would do little to stop the racial diversification of the United States — but it could push the country into a population decline, according to a new report by the U.S. Census Bureau.

General John Kelly, Trump Stooge, Is No Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, Patriot  —  Vindman saw something, and said something.  Kelly saw plenty, and kept it to himself for more than two years.  —  BEAST INSIDE  —  John Kelly's half-assed, just-the-tip critique of Donald Trump …

Culinary Union officials face profanity-laced attacks after scorecard says Sanders would ‘end’ their health care  —  Geoconda Arguello-Kline, left, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union announced that the culinary will not endorse a Democratic presidential candidate in the primary.

MIT: Hackers could alter ballots in widely used voting app  —  CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — An internet voting app that has been used in pilots in West Virginia, Denver, Oregon and Utah has vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to change a person's vote without detection …

The Irrelevance of Marco Rubio  —  He used to be the future of the Republican party.  Now he's desperately hunting for new principles.  —  Marco Rubio is our great republic's most overrated senator—which is really saying something, since pretty much everyone in America, left, right, and center, thinks he's a joke.

White House ‘1264 Notice’ and Novel Legal Claims for Military Action Against Iran  —  To its credit, the Trump administration has submitted a newly released notice to Congress, describing the legal and policy basis for the Jan. 2 airstrike against Qassem Soleimani, Iran's top military commander.