Top Items:


Republicans raging at Trump are getting exactly what they deserve — House Republicans are in a fury with President Trump, now that he is threatening to blow up the carefully negotiated settlement that led to passage of the $900 billion economic rescue package.
Discussion:
HotAir, CNN, The Hill, New York Times, Newsweek, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, National Memo, The Guardian, Bloomberg and The Dispatch
RELATED:


Families on brink of eviction, hunger describe nightmare Christmas as $900 billion relief bill hangs in limbo — About 14 million Americans will lose unemployment aid on Saturday after President Trump and Congress were unable to reach a deal. — Millions of Americans who are hours away …
Discussion:
The Hill, CNN and Political Wire


House Republicans block Democrats' effort to advance $2,000 stimulus checks pushed by Trump — The Christmas Eve move came as Trump has refused to sign a $900 billion economic relief package into law — House Republicans on Thursday blocked an effort by House Democrats to approve $2,000 stimulus payments for millions of Americans.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, Business Insider Australia, WKRN-TV, UPI, Raw Story, CNBC, Associated Press, Washington Examiner, WABC and Hackwhackers


GOP blocks House Democrats' attempt to pass $2,000 stimulus checks — The Democrats moved to increase the size of the checks after President Trump threatened to oppose a more than $2 trillion pandemic aid and federal funding bill because it included $600 check to most Americans rather than $2,000.


Pelosi Sets New Vote as GOP Foils Move on Trump's $2,000 Checks
Discussion:
Ways and Means Committee, American Prospect, Fox News, Business Insider, CNN, The Intellectualist and The Week

Congress scrambles to avert shutdown after Trump's stimulus demands
Discussion:
The Hill, Washington Post, Raw Story, Associated Press, Denver Post, NBC New York, One America News Network and Blue Virginia


Frustrated Trump met with Pence before holiday break — Washington (CNN)Hours before President Donald Trump retweeted a message for his vice president to “act” in stopping the ratification of the Electoral College, he met for more than an hour in the Oval Office with Mike Pence …
RELATED:


EXCLUSIVE: Dominion sends letters threatening defamation lawsuits to Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, and other pro-Trump media figures — Dominion Voting Systems has sent letters to Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News, warning of a defamation lawsuit.
RELATED:

Lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems Sent 21 Retraction or Record Preservation Demand Letters This Week — Read Them All Here — Dominion Voting Systems has sent a slew of retraction and/or record preservation demand letters as it threatens defamation litigation against numerous parties …

Dominion sends legal letters to conservative media figures warning of ‘imminent’ action
Discussion:
The Wrap, Talking Points Memo, Salon, Washington Examiner and Forbes


We in the ‘shallow state’ thought we could help. Instead, we obscured the reality of a Trump presidency. — Sarah Isgur was the director of the Office of Public Affairs at the Justice Department from 2017-2018. — As far as I know, no spokesperson for the Justice Department has ever …
Discussion:
Alternet.org
RELATED:


How Much Herd Immunity Is Enough? — Scientists initially estimated that 60 to 70 percent of the population needed to acquire resistance to the coronavirus to banish it. Now Dr. Anthony Fauci and others are quietly shifting that number upward. — At what point does a country achieve herd immunity?
Discussion:
Fox News, HotAir, RedState, Big League Politics, TheBlaze, New York Post, The Daily Caller, Marginal REVOLUTION, The Week, Nuclear Diner and Twitchy


Exclusive: Donald Trump's Martial-Law Talk Has Military on Red Alert — Pentagon and Washington-area military leaders are on red alert, wary of what President Donald Trump might do in his remaining days in office. Though far-fetched, ranking officers have discussed what they would do if the president declared martial law.
Discussion:
Alternet.org, Raw Story and The Intellectualist
RELATED:


Jenna Ellis, Trump campaign legal adviser, pans calls for martial law — Amid Trump's claims he won the election, Ellis' tweet indicates martial law is off the table — Fox News Flash top headlines for December 24 — Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to the Trump campaign who has argued …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Alternet.org and Forbes


Boris Johnson says Brexit deal has settled UK's Europe question … Play Video — Boris Johnson claimed finally to have settled the vexed question of Britain's relationship with the European Union as he hailed on Christmas Eve what he called the “jumbo, Canada-style” Brexit deal.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Washington Examiner and Political Wire
RELATED:


Host of ‘The Daily’ Clouds ‘N.Y. Times’ Effort To Restore Trust After ‘Caliphate’ — Toggle more options — Late last week, The New York Times issued one of its biggest mea culpas in years. The nation's leading newspaper returned a Peabody award and a citation as a finalist …


Pompeo's Wife Tested Positive for Coronavirus as Cases Spiked — State Department had scheduled large holiday gatherings — Pompeo said Dec. 16 he was going into quarantine for exposure — Secretary of State Michael Pompeo's wife tested positive for the coronavirus …
Discussion:
The Hill


The Treasonous Pardon of Paul Manafort — Trump, Russia, and the swamp won. America lost. — For four years we've been force-fed the preposterous dual notions that Donald Trump intended to “drain the swamp” and that any suggestion his campaign colluded with Russia in its interference in the 2016 election was a media hoax.
RELATED:

The Triumph of Kleptocracy — Paul Manafort came of age in New Britain, Connecticut.
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money


Kelly Loeffler Falls Behind Raphael Warnock in Georgia Senate Runoff Poll — Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler has slipped behind Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock in the latest poll for next month's runoff election, while the race between Sen. David Perdue and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff for the second seat remains on a knife-edge.
Discussion:
WAGA-TV, The Intellectualist, Breitbart and Raw Story


Here Are the Questionable Trump Pardons That You Did Not Hear About Last Night — In another White House administration, these pardons may have sparked political scandal, but outgoing President Donald Trump's shock-and-awe waves of clemency relegated them to local news and second-day leads.


Exclusive: As Trump leaves office, 50% of Americans see him as a ‘failed’ president — Susan Page Sarah ElbeshbishiUSA TODAY — President Donald Trump leaves the White House next month with the country more sharply divided than when he moved in and amid caustic assessments of his record in office …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, The Hill, Salon, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and Political Wire


Members of Congress Profited From COVID Bailout While Small Businesses Were Shut Out — This new analysis of how members of Congress benefited from the CARES Act comes as Congress failed to provide as much relief for ordinary workers as many had hoped in the latest round of stimulus.
RELATED:


Can a Pardon Be a War Crime?: When Pardons Themselves Violate the Laws of War — Editor's note: Originally published on May 25, 2019; with an author's note published on Dec. 24, 2020. — Not all corrupt pardons are created equal. Many of the ones being handed out by President Donald Trump …
Discussion:
Towleroad Gay News, Law & Crime and The Intellectualist


Trump squeezes Republicans with eye on 2022 primaries — President Donald Trump has instructed his top political advisers to begin monitoring potential 2022 GOP primary targets, as he lashes out at fellow Republicans whom he deems disloyal. — With less than a month until Trump leaves office …
Discussion:
ABC News, The Hill, Reuters, Washington Times and Forbes


How These Comedians Turned MAGA Men Into Laughingstocks — From Rudy's straying hand to Sarah Cooper's inner Donald, the joke was on Trumpworld this year. — Rudy Giuliani tried really hard this year soil himself: the hair-in-the-can, the Russian agent pal, the presser by the sex shop, the buckets of conspiracy drool.


Hospital Workers Start to ‘Turn Against Each Other’ to Get Vaccine — “I am so disappointed and saddened that this happened,” a New York hospital executive wrote to his staff after workers who did not have priority cut the line for the vaccine. — At NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital …


Trump pardons former Prince George's County police officer — President Trump granted a pardon Wednesday to a former Prince George's County canine police officer who was convicted of a federal civil rights violation for releasing her police dog on an unarmed homeless man in 1995.
Discussion:
The Hill, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo, Bark Bark Woof Woof, The White House, Power Line and WTOP


Pakistan Seeks to Continue Detention of Man Convicted of Murdering Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl — Move follows judges' removal of temporary detention order that has kept Omar Sheikh in jail since his death sentence was set aside in April — ISLAMABAD—The Pakistani authorities …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, The Week, New York Post, CBS News, The Hill and Jewish Telegraphic Agency
RELATED:

Pakistani court orders release of men accused of murdering Daniel Pearl
Discussion:
UPI