POLITICO Playbook: Trump got nothing  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  THAT'S IT?  President DONALD TRUMP made all this noise about the Covid relief and government funding bill only to sign it and get nothing in return?  —  TRUMP got taken to the cleaners.  —  WHAT A BIZARRE, embarrassing episode for the president.

GOP lawmaker sues Pence in bid to overturn Biden win  —  Vice President Pence was sued Sunday by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and several other Republicans in a far-fetched bid that appeared aimed at overturning President-elect Joe Biden's election win.  —  The lawsuit focuses on Pence's role …

The Post says: Give it up, Mr. President — for your sake and the nation's  —  Mr. President, it's time to end this dark charade.  —  We're one week away from an enormously important moment for the next four years of our country.  —  On Jan. 5, two runoff races in Georgia will determine …

Chinese Citizen Journalist Sentenced to 4 Years for Covid Reporting  —  Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, is the first known person to be tried for challenging the Chinese government's narrative about the coronavirus pandemic.  —  A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a citizen journalist …

Why a vote on $2,000 stimulus checks is an absolute nightmare for Senate Republicans  —  (CNN)On Sunday night, as part of his face-saving efforts following his utter capitulation to Congress in signing the Covid-19 stimulus relief legislation, President Donald Trump insisted that …

If Anthony Warner Were a Muslim Cleric, We Wouldn't See This Intricate Discussion About Who's a Terrorist  —  I confess that, even given the grim excesses of this plague-ridden year, I didn't expect an American suicide bomber on Christmas Day.  Officials are being very delicate …

Biden will invoke Defense Production Act to boost Covid vaccine production, advisor says  — President-elect Joe Biden plans to invoke the Defense Production Act after he takes office next month to boost production of Covid vaccines, a member of his Covid-19 advisory team said.

Dr. Fauci Admits He Has Treated The American People Like Children  —  The American people need public officials to tell us the truth, not what they think we need to hear.  That's the exact opposite of what we're getting.  —  In an interview last week with The New York Times …

L.A. was uniquely vulnerable to this COVID catastrophe.  Here is what went wrong  —  Los Angeles is careening toward catastrophe.  —  An explosion of COVID-19 patients has begun to flood hospitals and may soon force doctors to ration care.  The number of available beds in intensive care units …

How the Police Killed Breonna Taylor  —  None of the police officers who raided Breonna Taylor's home wore body cameras, impeding the public from a full understanding of what happened.  The Times's visual investigation team built a 3-D model of the scene and pieced together critical sequences …

Camper Recounts Abuse at Warnock Church Camp  —  Among the indignities 12-year-old Anthony Washington endured at the church camp overseen by Reverend Raphael Warnock: counselors who tossed urine on him and locked him outside his cabin overnight.  —  Washington, now 30, recounted the events …

What the Hole Is Going On?  The very real, totally bizarre bucatini shortage of 2020.  —  Part I: The Mystery  —  Things first began to feel off in March.  While this sentiment applies to everything in the known and unknown universe, I mean it specifically in regard to America's supply of dry, store-bought bucatini.

Meet the GOP freshmen taking on the ‘Squad’  —  On the first day of Congress' freshman orientation, four incoming GOP members realized they shared a special connection: All had first- or second-hand experience living in communist or socialist countries.  —  The crew quipped that their family histories …

The Plague Year  —  The mistakes and the struggles behind America's coronavirus tragedy.  —  1. “An Evolving Situation”  —  There are three moments in the yearlong catastrophe of the covid-19 pandemic when events might have turned out differently.  The first occurred on January 3, 2020 …

We Found The Factories Inside China's Mass Internment Camps  —  Observers have long warned of rising forced labor in Xinjiang.  Satellite images show factories built just steps away from cell blocks.  —  Copy … This project was supported by the Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism …

Is Substack the Media Future We Want?  —  The newsletter service is a software company that, by mimicking some of the functions of newsrooms, has made itself difficult to categorize.  —  Haley Nahman was having a weird time.  She had spent most of the pandemic inside …

Trump May Have Accidentally Been a Transformational President  —  In January 2008, Barack Obama declared his intention to be the next Ronald Reagan.  The Democratic presidential candidate told the Reno Gazette-Journal that Reagan had “changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not …

Russia admits to world's third-worst Covid-19 death toll … Russia said on Monday that its coronavirus death toll was more than three times higher than it had previously reported, making it the country with the third-largest number of fatalities.  —  For months, the Russian president …

Michigan AG returns fire on Trump: 'You're not our type'  —  President Trump takes to Twitter to criticize Michigan AG Dana Nessel  —  President Donald Trump has once again taken aim at Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Twitter early Sunday morning — and she was not having it.

Donald and Melania Trump eye Palm Beach homes near Mar-a-Lago  —  Donald and Melania Trump are the latest in their family to look at premium Florida property, according to an insider — even as there is buzz that they'll live at his private club, Mar-a-Lago, after he leaves office.

At least we know Trump's not serious about 2024  —  As if an attempted coup, insulting the “totally incompetent and weak” Supreme Court (including three appointees who supposedly were his big gift to conservatives), and refusing even to comment on the covid-19 surge did not make it clear …