Top Items:
PRRI:
The 2020 Census of American Religion — THE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE IN 2020 — The American Religious Landscape in 2020 — According to PRRI's 2020 American Values Atlas, seven in ten Americans (70%) identify as Christian, including more than four in ten who identify as white Christian …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Deseret News, Boing Boing and Blue Virginia
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Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
The rapid decline of White evangelical America? — New data suggests a bigger decrease than previously understood — including in the GOP. — If there was an epitome of Donald Trump's hostile and often puzzling takeover of the Republican Party, it might have been his alliance with evangelical Christians.
Discussion:
POLITICUSUSA
Reuters:
Pfizer to ask FDA to authorize booster dose of COVID vaccine as Delta variant spreads — Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) plans to ask U.S. regulators to authorize a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine within the next month, the drugmaker's top scientist said on Thursday, based on evidence of greater risk …
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Michaeleen Doucleff / NPR:
The Delta Variant Isn't Just Hyper-Contagious. It Also Grows More Rapidly Inside You — After months of data collection, scientists agree: The delta variant is the most contagious version of the coronavirus worldwide. It spreads about 225% faster than the original version of the virus …
Discussion:
Florida Politics
David Hogberg / Washington Examiner:
Pfizer to seek FDA approval for COVID-19 vaccine booster shot
Pfizer to seek FDA approval for COVID-19 vaccine booster shot
Discussion:
Associated Press, Politico, USA Today, Gizmodo, Joe.My.God., Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Deseret News and Forbes
Miami Herald:
Two South Florida men were involved in President Moïse's assassination, investigators say — Two South Florida men have been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haiti President Jovenel Moïse, the Miami Herald has learned. — James Solages, of Fort Lauderdale …
Discussion:
Florida Politics, The Western Journal, Palm Beach Post, Insider and Washington Examiner
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Washington Post:
U.S. citizen among suspects arrested in assassination of Haitian president, senior official says — PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A U.S. citizen of Haitian descent has been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, a senior official here said Thursday.
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Insider, The Hill, New York Times, Associated Press, Al Jazeera, Washington Examiner, National Review, USA Today, NPR, Common Dreams and NBC Boston
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Tom Cotton's slimy attack on a ‘critical race theory’ professor is full of holes — Sen. Tom Cotton is calling for the firing of a U.S. Air Force Academy professor after she admitted to discussing critical race theory with cadets. But even a cursory look at the Arkansas Republican's slimy argument shows …
Discussion:
The American Independent, Fox News, The Hill, Congressman Mark Green and The Daily Caller
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Lara Seligman / Politico:
Pentagon pushes back at GOP lawmakers over critical race theory claims
Pentagon pushes back at GOP lawmakers over critical race theory claims
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, ArkansasTimes, National Review, The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon and TheBlaze
Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic:
Critical Race Theory Is Making Both Parties Flip-Flop
Sam Vaca / Toyota USA Newsroom:
Toyota Statement on PAC Contributions — Toyota is committed to supporting and promoting actions that further our democracy. Our company has long-standing relationships with Members of Congress across the political spectrum, especially those representing our U.S. operations.
Discussion:
CBS News, NBC News, Talking Points Memo and Boing Boing
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Amy B Wang / Washington Post:
Toyota to stop donating to GOP lawmakers who objected to certifying Biden's win — Toyota announced Thursday that its political action committee would no longer make donations to Republican members of Congress who objected to certifying the presidential election results in January …
Discussion:
Detroit News, USA Today, HuffPost, Dallas Morning News, Raw Story, Mediaite, Reuters, Associated Press and One America News Network
Wall Street Journal:
‘Financially Hobbled for Life’: The Elite Master's Degrees That Don't Pay Off — Columbia and other top universities push master's programs that fail to generate enough income for graduates to keep up with six-figure federal loans — Recent film program graduates of Columbia University …
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
Disgraced Trump foe Michael Avenatti weeps as he is sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for Nike extortion scheme — Michael Avenatti, the brash attorney who became a leading foe of then-President Donald Trump, was sentenced Thursday to 30 months in prison for a brazen botched scheme …
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CNN:
Five undervaccinated clusters put the entire United States at risk — (CNN)A new data analysis identifies clusters of unvaccinated people, most of them in the southern United States, that are vulnerable to surges in Covid-19 cases and could become breeding grounds for even more deadly Covid-19 variants.
Discussion:
HotAir, UPI, Politico, Alternet.org, Common Dreams, Washington Examiner, New York Times and Deseret News
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Michael C. Bender / Wall Street Journal:
Inside Donald Trump's Last Days in the White House and Plans for a Comeback — The president's effort to overturn the election alienated much of his inner circle—but solidified his dominance of the GOP. Now he's planning his return. — On the morning of Nov. 7, 2020 …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Alternet.org, Raw Story, How To Live BULLSHIT-FREE and Political Wire
New York Times:
Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg's Partnership Did Not Survive Trump — The company they built is wildly successful. But her Washington wisdom didn't hold up, and neither did their close working relationship. — Sheryl Sandberg knew she'd be asked about the attacks on the Capitol.
Discussion:
New York Post, The Verge and Insider, more at Techmeme »
Donald J. Trump / Wall Street Journal:
Why I'm Suing Big Tech — If Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can censor me, they can censor you—and believe me, they are. — One of the gravest threats to our democracy today is a powerful group of Big Tech corporations that have teamed up with government to censor the free speech of the American people.
Discussion:
The Hill and The Daily Caller, more at Techmeme »
Alexis Nowicki / Slate:
I've Always Suspected “Cat Person” Was Based on My Life. Now I Know It Was.
— Kristen Roupenian's viral story draws specific details from my own life. I've spent the years since it published wondering: How did she know? — One night in December of 2017, I saw Call Me by Your Name …
Richard L. Hasen / Slate:
The Supreme Court's Latest Voting Rights Opinion Is Even Worse Than It Seems — It's been almost a week since the Supreme Court issued its most significant ruling on voting rights in nearly a decade, and each time I read Justice Samuel Alito's majority opinion in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, the angrier I become.
Discussion:
Insider, The Atlantic, Washington Post, New Republic and Raw Story
Matt Viser / Washington Post:
Deal of the art: White House grapples with ethics of Hunter Biden's pricey paintings — White House officials have helped craft an agreement under which purchases of Hunter Biden's artwork — which could be listed at prices as high as $500,000 — will be kept confidential from even the artist himself …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Fox News, HotAir, Breitbart, TheBlaze, RedState, National Review, New York Post, CNBC, Mediaite, Ace of Spades HQ, The Hill, Washington Free Beacon, Insider and Twitchy
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
An ugly new right-wing attack poses a test for populists like J.D. Vance — J.D. Vance, who is running for Senate in Ohio, is packaging himself as a second-generation Trumpist candidate, a conservative populist alternative to traditional plutocratic Republicanism. It's a seductive pitch.
Discussion:
Alternet.org, Digby's Hullabaloo, New York Magazine and Raw Story
Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Live free and die: Inside the bizarre political philosophy of America's unvaccinated — A couple of weeks ago, I drove two hours north to the hillside town of Olyphant, Pa., just outside Scranton, to meet with a Donald Trump superfan for a book project I've been working on.
Tim Miller / The Bulwark:
Gettr by the Pu$$y — [Note: This article includes sexually explicit language and a gross screenshot from Gettr users.] — Ahhh, internet forum moderation policy debates. — Right-wing politicians and pundits will have you believe that their victimization at the hands of overzealous online censors …
Discussion:
Salon
Jonathan Oosting / Bridge Michigan:
Michigan AG, police to probe false election fraud claims after GOP report — LANSING—Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and state police will investigate allegations that unnamed individuals are making false claims about the 2020 election for personal profit, as requested by the Republican-led Senate Oversight Committee.
Discussion:
Raw Story and The Gateway Pundit
Nick Corasaniti / New York Times:
Texas Republicans Reveal Bills of Far-Reaching Voting Restrictions — In their second attempt to pass a sweeping elections overhaul, Republican lawmakers followed the broad outlines of the first, including a wide range of measures to limit voting access. — Republicans in the Texas Legislature …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Houston Chronicle, The Texas Observer, The Texas Tribune, Political Wire and Fox News
Aimee Picchi / CBS News:
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was supposed to stop corporate tax dodgers. It didn't, study says. — A key selling point of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was that it would discourage multinational corporations from funneling billions in profits to offshore tax havens, bringing that money …
Discussion:
Political Wire, Common Dreams and New York Times
Sarah Ellison / Washington Post:
How May Edwards became the forgotten whistleblower — By the time Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards stood before Judge Gregory Woods in a courtroom in Lower Manhattan last month, she had lost her job, her car, her home and had spent nearly three years on supervised release, awaiting a likely prison sentence.
Maggie Fox / CNN:
Coronavirus almost certainly came from an animal, not a lab leak, top scientists argue — US intelligence working on report about Covid-19 origins — (CNN)The coronavirus pandemic almost certainly originated from an animal, probably at a wildlife market in China, and not from a laboratory leak …
Discussion:
National Review, Bloomberg and Zenodo
The Seattle Times:
Two Seattle officers trespassed on U.S. Capitol grounds during riot and should be fired, investigation finds — Two of the six off-duty Seattle police officers who attended a pro-Trump rally that led to the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol in January trespassed onto restricted grounds and stood …
Discussion:
Raw Story and Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Quint Forgey / Politico:
Biden puts faith behind Afghan troops while defending U.S. withdrawal — President Joe Biden on Thursday issued a forceful defense of his decision to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan and denied it was inevitable that the Taliban would eventually topple the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.
David Rutz / Fox News:
Lincoln Project's Steve Schmidt: Capitol riot worse than 9/11 attacks, ‘likely to kill a lot more Americans’ — ‘The 1/6 attack for the future of the country was a profoundly more dangerous event than the 9/11 attacks.’ — Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt agreed …
Discussion:
Twitchy
Paul Sperry / RealClearInvestigations:
Naming the Capitol Police Officer Who Killed Unarmed Jan. 6 Rioter Ashli Babbitt — At top, pistol drawn in the House chamber, a plainclothes black officer who fits the description of Michael L. Byrd. His name was apparently divulged at a hearing as the cop who shot Ashli Babbitt.
Discussion:
Forbes, The Mahablog, BizPac Review, The New Neo, The Western Journal, Issues & Insights, TheGrio, The American Independent, Townhall and Insider
Steve Benen / MSNBC:
GOP candidate says he hides his abortion positions from voters — Glenn Youngkin, the Republican Party's gubernatorial candidate in Virginia this year, sat down with the Washington Post in late May to talk about his candidacy. Asked how he might change state laws on guns and abortion, Youngkin “repeatedly evaded the topics.”
Shane Goldmacher / New York Times:
Four States Start Inquiries Into Recurring Donation Tactics of Both Parties — Letters to WinRed and ActBlue, which process online campaign donations for Republicans and Democrats respectively, ask for documents related to their use of prechecked boxes. — Four state attorneys general …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Washington Examiner and Townhall
David Fahrenthold / Washington Post:
Trump charged Secret Service nearly $10,200 in May for agents' rooms — Former president Donald Trump's golf club in Bedminster, N.J., charged the Secret Service nearly $10,200 for guest rooms used by his protective detail during Trump's first month at the club this summer, newly released spending records show.
Discussion:
Vanity Fair, Mediaite, The Moderate Voice, USA Today, POLITICUSUSA, Insider and Raw Story
Conrad Black / The Hill:
The steady erosion of Trump-hate is a growing problem for Team Biden — Infinitely slowly, some of the most vocal Donald Trump-haters are tentatively dropping out of lockstep with the Biden administration and the serried ranks of its docile, fervent political propaganda apparatus.
Ruy Teixeira / The Liberal Patriot:
Why Current Democratic Strategy Probably Won't Work — The Biden Boom Is Not Enough — The Democrats have a plan for 2022. It's called the Biden boom. Into that boom will be folded Democratic policy successes like the vaccine rollout, the American Rescue Plan and, possibly …
Discussion:
Alternet.org