“If it Hadn't Been for the Prompt Work of the Medics”: FSB Officer Inadvertently Confesses Murder Plot to Navalny  — Bellingcat and its partners reported that Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) was implicated in the near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning of Alexey Navalny on 20 August 2020.

Undercutting Trump, Barr says there's no basis for seizing voting machines, using special counsels for election fraud, Hunter Biden  —  Outgoing Attorney General William P. Barr said Monday he saw no basis for the federal government seizing voting machines and that he did not intend to appoint …

The ‘Red Slime’ Lawsuit That Could Sink Right-Wing Media  —  Voting machine companies threaten “highly dangerous” cases against Fox, Newsmax and OAN, says Floyd Abrams.  —  Antonio Mugica was in Boca Raton when an American presidential election really melted down in 2000 …

Engaging With Trump's Die-Hard Supporters Isn't Productive  —  President-elect Joe Biden made national unity a centerpiece of his campaign, and no patriotic American who wants to repair the damage of the Donald Trump years can argue with such a noble call.  The election is over …

Trump Sets ‘Beautiful’ as the New Standard for Federal Buildings  — Executive action makes classical style default in Washington  — Order stops short of fully banning modernist architecture  —  President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday making classical architecture …

Virginia Removes Confederate Statue from U.S. Capitol  —  Commission recently selected civil rights icon Barbara Johns to represent the Commonwealth with new statue  —  WASHINGTON, D.C.—Governor Ralph Northam today announced that Virginia's statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee …

Trump administration weighing legal immunity for Saudi crown prince accused in assassination plot  —  The U.S. government is weighing a request to declare Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman immune from a federal lawsuit accusing him of targeting for assassination a former top intelligence officer …

Trump Is Already Wondering What Airport Will Bear His Name  —  The president has been asking aides and advisers what the process is for getting an airport named after him—another sign his mind is drifting to a post-presidency.  —  In the dying days of his presidency, Donald Trump has taken …

Hundreds partied at Mar-a-Lago with Turning Point  —  President profited as sold out, $2,000/person reception and dinner flouting COVID guidance  —  Turning Point USA held a sold-out $2,000/person gala at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night.  Based on photos posted to Instagram …

Where Immigrant Neighborhoods Swung Right in the Election  —  Across the United States, many areas with large populations of Latinos and residents of Asian descent, including ones with the highest numbers of immigrants, had something in common this election: a surge in turnout and a shift to the right, often a sizable one.

Centrist Dems Are Wrong About November's Losses  —  It wasn't because voters were turned off by leftist sloganeering but because Dems failed to inspire their own base—and the data prove it.  —  Too many congressional Democrats are making a potentially fatal political miscalculation …

Mutant coronavirus in the United Kingdom sets off alarms, but its importance remains unclear  —  Science's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.  —  On 8 December, during a regular Tuesday meeting about the spread of the pandemic coronavirus …

Appeals court rejects Georgia absentee ballot signature lawsuit  —  The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a Republican Party effort to reject more absentee ballots in Georgia's U.S. Senate runoffs by changing how election officials check absentee ballot signatures.

Americans will get stimulus checks as soon as next week, Mnuchin says  — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Americans could see stimulus checks hit their bank accounts in a matter of days.  — Mnuchin's comments came hours before Congress is expected to pass a new, $900 billion Covid-19 relief bill.

US Embassy courtyard named in Jared Kushner's honor  —  Kushner, along with a visiting US delegation stopped in the embassy in the afternoon for a small ceremony with US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.  —  The courtyard of the US Embassy in Jerusalem was named Monday in honor …

Republicans desperate to avoid floor fight over Electoral College vote  —  National Republicans are desperate to avoid a floor fight in Congress over the certification of the Electoral College vote next month, believing it would be horrible politics to continue waging what most recognize …

The Rule of Law & Due Process in Virginia  —  Why would a former Governor not afford the current Lt. Governor the time-honored jurisprudistic tenet of innocence until PROVEN guilty?  —  Terry McAuliffe endlessly touts as his main accomplishment the restoration of voting rights.

Lee limits public gatherings to 10; health official says Christmas surge could ‘break’ hospitals  —  Gov. Bill Lee has signed an executive order that limits indoor public gatherings in Tennessee to 10 or fewer people effective at 11:59 p.m. Sunday until Jan. 19.

‘A real mess’: Trump is leaving behind crises and undermining Biden before he takes office  —  When President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office on Jan. 20, the list of crises he will face includes a massive cyber intrusion, a still-raging global pandemic, a slowing economic recovery …

The Trade: Meet the New Red Dog Democrats  —  The two parties have traded voters—whether the old political class likes it or not.  —  In 2013 my beloved Denver Nuggets traded Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks for Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov …

The Journalist and the Pharma Bro  —  Why did Christie Smythe upend her life and stability for Martin Shkreli, one of the least-liked men in the world?  —  Almost every weekday for six years, Christie Smythe took the F train from Park Slope downtown to her desk at Brooklyn's federal court …

Trump plots martial law from White House — the press shrugs  —  The Normalizing Olympics … In a West Wing meeting that would seem more fitting for a nation with a long history of authoritarian rule, Trump recently met with deranged, conspiracy-peddling advisers and discussed the possibility …

White House testing chief: COVID-19 vaccines effective 'against any variant that we've seen'  —  White House coronavirus testing chief Adm. Brett Giroir said the coronavirus vaccines rolling out in the United States are effective against “any variant we've seen,” including …