Top Items:
Axios:
Senate tide begins to shift toward $2,000 checks after Trump's push — A couple of days ago, it looked impossible that $2,000 COVID relief checks — up from the $600 checks for individuals in the package President Trump signed Sunday — could pass the Senate.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, CNN and Real Clear Politics
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Burgess Everett / Politico:
Bernie Sanders to delay defense veto override in bid for $2,000 checks — Sen. Bernie Sanders will filibuster an override of President Donald Trump's defense bill veto unless the Senate holds a vote on providing $2,000 direct payments to Americans. — “McConnell and the Senate want to expedite …
David Dayen / American Prospect:
Democrats Plot to Keep Senate In Session Over $2,000 Payments — Bernie Sanders is leading a strategy that would force the Senate to stay in Washington through New Year's Day to try to force the vote. — Dayen-Sanders-122820 — Bernie Sanders is committed to forcing a vote on $2,000 payments …
Discussion:
Daily Mail, HuffPost, Crooks and Liars, The Daily Poster, The Right Scoop, Raw Story and Al Jazeera
Mike DeBonis / Washington Post:
House votes to boost stimulus checks to $2,000 with bipartisan support
House votes to boost stimulus checks to $2,000 with bipartisan support
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, U.S. Senator for Florida …, Politico, New York Times, Washington Times, POLITICUSUSA, VICE, WWLP-TV, The US Sun, The Daily Caller, New York Post, NBC4 Washington, Crooks and Liars, The Hill, Denver Post, CNBC, Florida Politics, The Week, Raw Story, Blue Virginia, Associated Press, CNN and The Mahablog
CNN:
House votes to override Trump's veto of defense bill
House votes to override Trump's veto of defense bill
Discussion:
Fox News, Talking Points Memo, KDFX-TV, WITF, The Week, The Stranger and UPI
New York Times:
Will Pence Do the Right Thing? — On Jan. 6, the vice president will preside as Congress counts the Electoral College's votes. Let's hope that he doesn't do the unthinkable — and unconstitutional. — Mr. Katyal, a law professor at Georgetown, is a former acting solicitor general of the United States.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Law & Crime and HuffPost
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Zack Stanton / Politico:
The Worst Predictions of 2020 — This year was impossible to predict. But that doesn't mean people didn't try.
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Gohmert suit may force Pence's hand in effort to overturn Trump's defeat
Gohmert suit may force Pence's hand in effort to overturn Trump's defeat
Discussion:
The Right Scoop, CNN, Axios, POLITICUSUSA, Washington Examiner, Salon, The Hill, No More Mister Nice Blog, Bloomberg, New York Magazine, Denver Post, Fox News, KDFX-TV, IJR and Political Wire
Zack Budryk / The Hill:
Rasmussen quotes Stalin in tweet on US election
Rasmussen quotes Stalin in tweet on US election
Discussion:
Conservative News Today, HuffPost, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, POLITICUSUSA, Balloon Juice and No More Mister Nice Blog
Reid Wilson / The Hill:
On The Trail: The political losers of 2020 — In an election in which more voters cast ballots than ever before in American history, just about everyone had reason to celebrate. Democrats won the White House. Republicans made surprising gains in the House and held Senate seats even they had expected to lose.
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Andrea Salcedo / Washington Post:
Massachusetts GOP leader says he likely got covid-19 at a White House Hanukkah party: 'I'm paying the price' — Earlier this month, Tom Mountain, a Massachusetts Republican Party leader, posed for a maskless photo in front of a silver menorah as dozens of other guests without face coverings mingled nearby …
Reid Wilson / The Hill:
On The Trail: The political winners of 2020
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Donald Trump, Michelle Obama Most Admired in 2020 — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans are most likely to name President Donald Trump and Michelle Obama as most admired man and woman in 2020. Trump tied former President Barack Obama for the honor last year but edged out his predecessor this year.
Discussion:
The Hill, Towleroad Gay News and Liberty Unyielding
Politico:
Judge blocks voter purge in 2 Georgia counties — A federal judge in Georgia on Monday ordered two counties to reverse a decision removing more than 4,000 voters from the rolls ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff elections that will decide control of the U.S. Senate.
Discussion:
The Hill, Reuters, Towleroad Gay News and Axios
Felix Salmon / Axios:
How China won 2020 — China will end this year as the only major country in the world to see its economy grow rather than shrink. — Why it matters: China is operating from a position of great strength, with an economy expected to grow by 8.4% in 2021. If President-elect Joe Biden views China as a …
Arizona Republic:
Report: Phoenix police officer said, 'If the mayor defunds the police, I'm going to shoot her' — Uriel J. Garcia Jen FifieldArizona Republic — On the afternoon of October 21, seven Phoenix police officers gathered for a briefing in a Cave Creek station when the meeting diverged …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Breck Dumas / TheBlaze:
Alec Baldwin's wife hit with allegations that she has lied for years about her Spanish heritage — Let's be very clear that Europe has a lot of white people in there and my family is white.' — Hilaria Baldwin, the wife of actor Alec Baldwin, has been hit with a barrage of accusations claiming …
Discussion:
New York Post, Townhall, Vox, Vanity Fair and The Daily Beast
Ed Yong / The Atlantic:
Pandemic Year Two — Editor's Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here. — The influenza pandemic that began in 1918 killed as many as 100 million people over two years. It was one of the deadliest disasters in history …
Washington Post:
A day on the golf course helped change Trump's mind on the stimulus bill — The frantic campaign to persuade President Trump to sign a massive spending and coronavirus relief bill came to a head on Christmas Day, on the greens and fairways of West Palm Beach, Fla.
Discussion:
News Corpse, TheBlaze, Raw Story, Breitbart, The Texas Tribune, The Guardian, Iowa Capital Dispatch, Rolling Stone, Townhall, Power Line, IJR, Israpundit and The Week
Katrin Bennhold / New York Times:
A Far-Right Terrorism Suspect With a Refugee Disguise: The Tale of Franco A. — A German officer is facing trial on terrorism charges. At a volatile time for Western democracy, his story mirrors the story of Germany itself. — OFFENBACH, Germany — At the height of Europe's migrant crisis …
Alexandra Jaffe / Associated Press:
Biden warns of Trump officials' ‘roadblocks’ to transition — WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is warning of massive damage done to the national security apparatus by the Trump administration and “roadblocks” in communication between agency officials and his transition team that could undermine Americans' security.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, CBS News, National Review and Balloon Juice
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Washington Examiner:
Is it any wonder liberal states are shrinking? — For an entire human lifetime, the state of Illinois has been a laggard in population growth. It has lost eight congressional districts since the 1950s. But new census estimates released last week show that this decade, something very special has happened.
Tia Mitchell / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Warnock, Ossoff appeal to young voters at hip-hop focused DeKalb rally — Do the names J.I.D., Tokyo Jetz, Shelley FKA DRAM and BRS Kash ring a bell? If not, Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock's latest campaign event wasn't for you.These hip hop artists performed at Monday's drive-in rally …
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Matthew Yglesias / Slow Boring:
The CARES superdole was a huge success — Progressives should learn to be happy when good things happen! — 2 hr ago — With the relief bill squared away, the time is right to consider a question the Roosevelt Institute's Mike Konczal asked the day after Christmas …
Steve Benen / MSNBC:
Is Texas' Dan Patrick prepared to part with his $1 million reward? … After Donald Trump lost his re-election bid, Republicans settled on a predictable strategy: tell the public there was widespread “voter fraud.” All they'd need is some proof. — And while that may have seemed …
Discussion:
The Big Picture, HuffPost, The Daily Beast and Mediaite
Mike Allen / Axios:
Biden to call out Trump administration for falling short on vaccine distribution — President-elect Biden, who has vowed to be clear-eyed and straight about the pandemic, plans a renewed warning in remarks on COVID-19 in Wilmington today, a transition official tells Axios.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and TheGrio
Will Sommer / The Daily Beast:
The Newest Trump-Boosted Viral MAGA Star Has Ties to The Epoch Times — The president has pushed out a video from Seth Holehouse. Not mentioned is Holehouse's ties to group that thinks Trump will bring on judgment day. — Little-known jewelry auctioneer Seth Holehouse burst into MAGA stardom last week …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
2020 Was the Year Reaganism Died — The government promised to help — and it did. — Maybe it was the visuals that did it. It's hard to know what aspects of reality make it into Donald Trump's ever-shrinking bubble — and I'm happy to say that after Jan. 20 we won't have to care …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Ari Hoffman / The Post Millennial:
Laptop repair store owner who discovered Hunter Biden's emails sues Twitter for defamation — Join the ranks of independent, free thinkers by supporting us today for as little as $1. … The computer repair shop owner who was paid to repair Hunter Biden's laptop and was the source …
Catherine Rampell / Washington Post:
$2,000 vs. $600 stimulus payments isn't the real issue — There are plenty of reasons to be unhappy with the covid-19 stimulus compromise President Trump signed on Sunday. — Its shortcomings, however, are not the specific provisions that populists on both the left and right are complaining about.
Discussion:
IJR and Denver Post
The Times of Israel:
Ivanka Trump said weighing run for US Senate or Florida governor — After president's daughter and husband Jared Kushner buy $31 million mansion in Miami, speculation swirls about her political ambitions — 2,698 shares — The recent purchase of a Florida mansion by Ivanka Trump …
Gordon G. Chang / The Hill:
How Joe Biden risks the biggest giveaway ever to China in space — People on the NASA transition team of Joe Biden are urging the United States to start what could be the biggest transfer of technology to China. The giveaway could result in the Chinese military dominating space and, with it, world affairs.