MAGA turns on Mitch: Trump allies including Michael Flynn slam the GOP Senate majority leader for ‘caving to the mob and China’ for recognizing Biden as president-elect  — Trump loyalists were furious after McConnell congratulated Biden on Tuesday  — Top allies accused Senate majority leader of selling out the party's leader

MacKenzie Scott Gives Away $4.2 Billion in Four Months  — World's 18th-richest person announced contributions on Medium  — Scott's total gifts this year are close to $6 billion  —  MacKenzie Scott is giving away her fortune at an unprecedented pace, donating more than $4 billion …

DeVos urges career staff to ‘be the resistance’ as Biden takes over  —  Education Secretary Betsy DeVos urged career employees at the Education Department on Tuesday to “be the resistance” when the Biden administration comes into power next month, according to a recording of her remarks obtained by POLITICO.

Alleged crusade to stop voter fraud lands former HPD captain in handcuffs  —  HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A former Houston Police Department Captain was arrested and charged for running a man off the road and pointing a gun at his head in an attempt to prove claims of a massive voter fraud scheme …

Hundreds of invitees skip Mike Pompeo's indoor holiday party at State Department  —  Only a tiny fraction of the more than 900 guests invited to an indoor holiday party hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan showed up on Tuesday following an outcry from public health officials …

Trump asking about special prosecutor for Hunter Biden  —  Washington (AP) — President Donald Trump is considering pushing to have a special counsel appointed to advance a federal tax investigation into the son of President-elect Joe Biden, setting up a potential showdown with incoming acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen.

Mayor Warshaw resigns effective immediately  —  On Tuesday, Dec. 15, Dodge City Mayor Joyce Warshaw officially resigned from her position effective immediately.  —  “I understand people are under a lot of pressure from various things that are happening around society like the pandemic …

The U.S. government spent billions on a system for detecting hacks.  The Russians outsmarted it.  —  When Russian hackers first slipped their digital Trojan horses into federal government computer systems, probably sometime in the spring, they sat dormant for days, doing nothing but hiding.

17 theses on Pete Buttigieg and the Department of Transportation  —  Emergency blog post!  —  3 hr ago  —  Trying something new, an emergency out-of-schedule post on Pete Buttigieg and the Department of Transportation!  — I love transportation policy and know a fair amount about it.

'There's now one pro-democracy political party': Steve Schmidt announces he's a Democrat  —  On becoming a Democrat, former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt says “At the end of the day, there's now one pro-democracy political party in the United States of America and that's the Democratic Party.

Mar-a-Lago neighbors to Trump: Spend your post-presidency elsewhere  —  Next-door neighbors of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's private club in Palm Beach, Fla., that he has called his Winter White House, have a message for the outgoing commander in chief: We don't want you to be our neighbor.

San Francisco to rename Abraham Lincoln High School because former president did not demonstrate that ‘black lives mattered to him’ - as woke renaming committee also takes aim at Democrat senator Dianne Feinstein and Teddy Roosevelt  — San Francisco Unified School District's renaming …

Biden considering Republicans for Commerce secretary  —  President-elect Joe Biden is considering some well-known Republicans — think Meg Whitman types — for Commerce secretary as a way to signal to red-state Americans he understands their concerns and plans to address them.

A mysterious gap in COVID-19 deaths appeared in Florida before the presidential election  —  An astonishing pattern has emerged in Florida's COVID death tally — one that suggests the state manipulated a backlog of unrecorded fatalities, presenting more favorable death counts in the days leading up to the 2020 presidential election.

Ron Johnson gambles his political future on Trump  —  President Donald Trump listens as Sen. Ron Johnson addresses the crowd during a campaign rally on Oct. 17, 2020, in Janesville, Wis.  —  Ron Johnson is linking himself to President Donald Trump's election challenge as tightly as possible …

Joe Biden should beware liberal identity politics  —  Winning back white blue collar votes is a less fraught route to victory  —  There is a fine line between championing diversity and embracing identity politics.  In practice, it should be a bright red one.

‘Like a Hand Grasping’: Trump Appointees Describe the Crushing of the C.D.C.  —  Kyle McGowan, a former chief of staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and his deputy, Amanda Campbell, go public on the Trump administration's manipulation of the agency.

Prosecuting Donald Trump: the question that will roil Biden's first year  —  The US president could face investigation on a number of fronts when he leaves office  —  When Joe Biden is sworn in as president on January 20, his in-tray will include a pandemic that continues to kill thousands …

UM Fires History Professor Who Criticizes ‘Powerful, Racist Donors’ and ‘Carceral State’  —  During a period of what University of Mississippi faculty are calling a time of increasing paranoia, the university is set to terminate a celebrated professor of history.

Biden picks former EPA chief Gina McCarthy as White House climate czar  —  McCarthy heads the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has sued the Trump administration more than 100 times.  —  President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Gina McCarthy, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency …

CNN says Jeffrey Toobin still employed as report suggests he may get second chance after masturbation scandal  —  NY Times reports CNN's president is a ‘big fan’ of legal pundit  —  New Yorker fires Toobin  —  CNN has yet to terminate Jeffrey Toobin amid an ongoing masturbation scandal …

Trump Is Considering Clemency for Silk Road Founder  —  Two sources tell The Daily Beast that the president has expressed sympathy for the situation of Ross Ulbricht, who is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. … In his final weeks in office before Joe Biden's inauguration …

Trump Organization must turn over documents to NY attorney general, judge rules  —  (CNN)A state judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump Organization must turn over documents related to a property whose tax abatements were being investigated by New York Attorney General Letitia James' office.

How Qanon's lies are hijacking the national conversation  —  How Trump is fueling the alarming growth of QAnon  —  (CNN)It started with a Tweet from a QAnon supporter at 2:09 in the morning: #SubpoenaObama.  —  Though devoid of context, the cryptic message made sense to anyone in tune …