Biden picks Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) to be first Native American interior secretary  —  Tribal and progressive activists lobbied hard to put an indigenous leader in charge of a department that helps oversee Indian County  —  President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Democratic Rep. Deb Haaland …

Georgia Senate Runoffs: Breaking Down November, Looking to January  —  Dear Readers: This is the last issue of the Crystal Ball this year.  We wanted to finish off our 2020 publishing schedule by taking a deep look at the Georgia Senate runoffs, which will decide control of the Senate on Tuesday, Jan. 5.

Top Biden aide walks back expletive description of Republicans  —  Jen O'Malley Dillon, President-elect Joe Biden's campaign manager and incoming White House deputy chief of staff, walked back comments she made in a recent interview suggesting that congressional Republicans were “a bunch of f—ers.”

Where Is the President of the United States?  —  Donald Trump is AWOL.  And his disgrace is hiding in plain sight.  —  Before we start: Tonight we're doing a livestream that I'm hoping will go down in legend as The Bulwark version of the Star Wars Holiday Special.  The first 12 minutes will be entirely in Wookie.

Texas lawsuit was the last straw.  I'm leaving the Republican Party: Former NH GOP chair  —  The GOP has ransacked our Constitution and attempted a coup.  The Republican Party of Lincoln is no more.  I'm switching my registration to independent.  —  My mother spent a lifetime trying to teach me to stand for what is right.

Alert (AA20-352A)  —  Advanced Persistent Threat Compromise of Government Agencies, Critical Infrastructure, and Private Sector Organizations  —  Summary  —  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is aware of compromises of U.S. government agencies …

Biden picks top North Carolina environmental official to run EPA  —  Michael Regan has forged a multibillion-dollar clean up of coal ash and worked with the state's GOP legislature  —  President-elect Joe Biden will choose to nominate Michael S. Regan, who heads the North Carolina Department …

Uninstalling Stephen Miller  —  How one man's mastery of the dark bureaucratic arts made life a living hell for immigrants and refugees.  —  In November 2019, a former staffer from Breitbart leaked emails from 2015 in which White House advisor Stephen Miller recommended The Camp of the Saints …

Pence prepares to oversee Trump's loss — and then leave town  —  On Jan. 6, Vice President Mike Pence will oversee final confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden's victory.  —  Then he'll likely skip town.  —  As vice president, Pence has the awkward but unavoidable duty of presiding …

Nuclear weapons agency breached amid massive cyber onslaught  —  The Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, have evidence that hackers accessed their networks as part of an extensive espionage operation that has affected …

Sweden's king says ‘we have failed’ over COVID-19, as deaths mount  —  STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Sweden's king said his country had failed in its handling of COVID-19, in a sharp criticism of a pandemic policy partly blamed for a high death toll among the elderly.

Congress faces ‘fork in the road’ on stimulus  —  Negotiators on Capitol Hill and at the White House have still not wrapped up talks over a nearly $1 trillion coronavirus relief package ahead of a Friday deadline, as Republicans and Democrats spar over tens of billions of dollars in government spending.

New Strzok Texts Show FBI Was Investigating Trump Before Crossfire Hurricane Was Opened  —  Newly declassified text messages from former FBI agent Peter Strzok suggest that the FBI began investigating then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his campaign before the Crossfire Hurricane investigation was opened.

Man really did hack Trump's Twitter account by guessing password, ‘maga2020!,’ Dutch prosecutors say  —  Six years ago, Dutch hacker Victor Gevers logged into President Trump's Twitter account by guessing the password: “yourefired.”  —  Then he did it again.

Axios Buys Charlotte Agenda, a Digital Start-Up, as Part of Push Into Local News  —  The site focuses on service journalism for North Carolina's largest city.  Now it has been scooped up in a deal valued at nearly $5 million and will be a partial model for other cities.

2020 Election Map  —  Permanent link to this comic: https://xkcd.com/2399/  —  Image URL (for hotlinking/embedding): https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/2020_ election_map.png  —  Comics I enjoy:  —  Three Word Phrase, SMBC, Dinosaur Comics, Oglaf (nsfw), A Softer World, Buttersafe …

Hang On for Three More Months  —  Hunkering down to wait out the coronavirus isn't easy.  The costs of isolation are steep.  Quarantine fatigue is real.  The chance to gather with extended family and friends this holiday season is particularly alluring to those of us battling loneliness.

States report confusion as feds reduce vaccine shipments, even as Pfizer says it has ‘millions’ of unclaimed doses  —  Officials in multiple states said they were alerted late Wednesday that their second shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine next week had been reduced, sparking widespread confusion …

This hedge-fund billionaire is a huge fan of Sen. Kelly Loeffler — but why?  —  Finance mogul Ken Griffin gave big chunks of cash to Kelly Loeffler's PAC — and the timing is intriguing  —  On Oct. 9, billionaire Ken Griffin, the head of a multinational financial services company …

Amazon Has Turned a Middle-Class Warehouse Career Into a McJob  —  Amazon.com Inc. job ads are everywhere.  Plastered on city buses, displayed on career web sites, slotted between songs on classic rock stations.  They promise a quick start, $15 an hour and health insurance.

NYC's Plummeting Real Estate Sales Cost City $1.2 Billion  —  The pandemic's slowdown in real estate deals has cost New York City $1.2 billion in lost revenue so far this year.  —  Sales of commercial and residential properties — everything from office buildings to hotels and condo units …

McConnell getting much of what he wants in emerging relief deal  —  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is getting much of what he wants in an emerging coronavirus relief package, after months of digging in his heels against a demand by Democratic leaders to pass a multi-trillion-dollar package …

Rhode Island governor joins list of prominent Democrats under fire for violating own coronavirus recommendation  —  Rhode Island Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo is being criticized after she was spotted in public dining without a mask after she warned residents that they should stay at home and avoid nonessential activities.

Biden's search for an attorney general complicated by ‘competing questions’  —  Washington (CNN)The deliberations among President-elect Joe Biden's tight circle of advisers about whom he should nominate as attorney general have emerged as some of the more complicated of the transition …

The New Language of Forever War-Making  —  “History, unfortunately, is a forever war,” according to Clifford D. May and Bradley Bowman, who seem never to have encountered a war they don't like.  This faux profundity comes midway through an essay in a collection published earlier this week …

Pardon Everyone  —  Power is wasted if you don't use it, especially when exercising your power will protect your friends and hamstring your enemies.  The Democrats get that.  The last four years have demonstrated that they get how to use power via their obnoxious and evil witch hunts targeting …