Top Items:
Lisa Rein / Washington Post:
Biden fires head of Social Security Administration, a Trump holdover who drew the ire of Democrats — President Biden on Friday fired Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul, a holdover from the Trump administration who had alienated crucial Democratic constituencies with policies designed …
Discussion:
Politico, CNN, Raw Story, USA Today, Insider, New York Times, Fox News, Washington Examiner, The Hill, New York Post, Alternet.org, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Joe.My.God. and Forbes
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Washington Post:
Biden tells Putin the U.S. will take ‘any necessary action’ after latest ransomware attack, White House says — President Biden told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that the United States will take “any necessary action” to defend U.S. infrastructure after Russia-based hackers carried …
The White House:
Readout of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia … President Biden spoke today with President Putin. The leaders commended the joint work of their respective teams following the U.S.-Russia Summit that led to the unanimous renewal …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Insider, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, National Review, UPI, The Record, The Daily Caller, Politico, Washington Examiner and TASS
Tom McKay / Gizmodo:
Secret Service Says It Has No Plan for Protecting White House Pets During an Attack
Discussion:
Political Wire
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Byron York's Daily Memo: Hunter headache for Biden White House
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Washington Post and Power Line
Reuters:
Special Report: Afghan pilots assassinated by Taliban as U.S. withdraws — Afghan Air Force Major Dastagir Zamaray had grown so fearful of Taliban assassinations of off-duty forces in Kabul that he decided to sell his home to move to a safer pocket of Afghanistan's sprawling capital.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, ABC News, The Hill, RedState, Defense One and Insider
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CNN:
The worst speech of Biden's presidency — Biden defends pulling US out of Afghanistan as Taliban advances — Peter Bergen is CNN's national security analyst, a vice president at New America and a professor of practice at Arizona State University. He is author of the forthcoming book “The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden.”
Discussion:
Mediaite, The Western Journal, The Daily Caller and Vanity Fair
Wall Street Journal:
Afghanistan's Taliban, Now on China's Border, Seek to Reassure Beijing — Despite past support for Uyghur militants in Xinjiang, Taliban say they won't interfere in China's internal affairs — After seizing about one-third of Afghanistan's districts in this summer's offensive …
Discussion:
The Hill
The White House:
FACT SHEET: Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy … The economy is booming under President Biden's leadership. The economy has gained more than three million jobs since the President took office—the most jobs created in the first five months of any presidency in modern history.
Discussion:
Politico, Hollywood Reporter, Washington Post, Axios, Washington Free Beacon, New York Post, The Verge, Wall Street Journal, Daily Kos, Techdirt, Data For Progress, Bloomberg, Texas Democratic Party, The Register, Iowa Capital Dispatch, Protocol, Small Business & …, Reason, WATE-TV, CBS News, Washington Examiner, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch, The Daily Caller, New York Magazine, New Republic, Breitbart, KFOR-TV, Insider, CNBC, 9to5Mac, Truth on the Market and Eschaton, more at Techmeme »
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Lauren Goode / Wired:
Joe Biden Wants You to Be Able to Fix Your Own Damn iPhones
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Protocol and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Zach Montague / New York Times:
Biden's Executive Order on Competition: A Quick Rundown
Discussion:
Techdirt, Bloomberg and Alternet.org
The Atlantic:
The Biggest Threat to Democracy Is the GOP Stealing the Next Election — The greatest threat to American democracy today is not a repeat of January 6, but the possibility of a stolen presidential election. Contemporary democracies that die meet their end at the ballot box, through measures that are nominally constitutional.
Discussion:
Alternet.org
Office of the Arizona Governor:
Governor Ducey, Legislature Take Strong Action To Stop Critical Race Theory — PHOENIX — Governor Doug Ducey today took a decisive step to prohibit the concerning practice of critical race theory, the latest action in just the past week to prevent the teaching of critical race theory …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, FOX 10 Phoenix, The Western Journal, The Daily Caller and The Hill
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Alan Feuer / New York Times:
Oath Keepers Leader Sits for F.B.I. Questioning Against Legal Advice — In a bold move, Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the right-wing militia group, sat for an interview with federal agents after they seized his phone in May. — It was shortly after federal agents confronted …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Balloon Juice and Raw Story
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New York Post:
Eric Adams breaks bread with GOP heavyweights at Rao's — It was an offer he didn't refuse. — Just days after winning the Democratic nomination for mayor, Eric Adams broke bread at storied Italian eatery Rao's with billionaire Republican John Catsimatidis.
Insider:
‘F— him’: Rupert Murdoch gave the go-ahead to call Arizona for Biden on election night, enraging Trump, book says — A new book says Rupert Murdoch approved Fox News' decision to call Arizona for Joe Biden. — “F— him,” the Fox News proprietor is said to have declared of Donald Trump at the time.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, USA Today, Vanity Fair, The Hill, The Guardian and Political Wire
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Bob Brigham / Raw Story:
GOP's Madison Cawthorn: Biden may use door-to-door vaccine program to ‘take your Bibles’ — Republican efforts to keep Americans from getting vaccinated continue to escalate despite the surge in Delta variant infections. — On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced “door-to-door outreach” …
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Intellectualist and IJR
John Wright / Raw Story:
GOP lawmakers caught on undercover video gleefully thanking Manchin and Sinema for preserving Senate filibuster — Progressive activists erupted in anger on Friday after several Republican GOP lawmakers were caught on camera praising Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars
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Andrew Sullivan / The Weekly Dish:
What Happened To You? — The radicalization of the American elite against liberalism — “What happened to you?” — It's a question I get a lot on Twitter. “When did you become so far right?” “Why have you become a white supremacist, transphobic, misogynistic eugenicist?” Or, of course: “See!
Discussion:
HotAir
Margot Cleveland / The Federalist:
New Evidence Indicates Enough Illegal Votes In Georgia To Tip 2020 Results — In Georgia, there was both an audit and a statewide recount confirming Biden's victory, but ignored in the process was evidence that nearly 35,000 Georgians had potentially voted illegally.
Discussion:
The Election Wizard
New York Times:
C.D.C. to Issue New School Guidance, With Emphasis on Full Reopening — The guidance acknowledges that many students have suffered from months of virtual learning. — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to release new guidance on Friday urging schools to fully reopen in the fall …
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Sabrina Tavernise / New York Times:
Citizens, Not the State, Will Enforce New Abortion Law in Texas — The measure bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. And it effectively deputizes ordinary citizens to sue people involved in the process. — People across the country may soon be able to sue abortion clinics …
Discussion:
New York Magazine, The American Independent, WHYY, Daily Kos and No More Mister Nice Blog
Alice Miranda Ollstein / Politico:
POLITICO-Harvard poll: Most Americans believe Covid leaked from lab — Most Americans now believe that the coronavirus leaked from a laboratory in China, according to a new POLITICO-Harvard poll that found a dramatic shift in public perception of Covid-19's origins over the last year.
Discussion:
New York Times, National Review, Townhall, Breitbart, HotAir, Washington Examiner and Political Wire
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Former GOP Hill aide pleads guilty in child porn case — A former GOP staffer and Republican National Committee aide pleaded guilty Friday to a child pornography charge and is facing 12 years or more in prison under a plea deal with prosecutors. — Ruben Verastigui, 27 …
Discussion:
Insider, Raw Story, Washington Examiner, Political Wire, Joe.My.God. and The Intellectualist
Jonathan A. Greenblatt / Newsweek:
It's Time to Admit It: The Left Has an Antisemitism Problem — In our super-charged partisan times, it is often said that every issue has become politicized, with each side of the spectrum lining up on “their” side. This is also true of antisemitism which, like so many other issues in society …
Zachary Petrizzo / Salon:
White nationalists prep for “physical” altercation with security at Dallas CPAC conference — “Groyper” guru and Charlottesville celeb Nick Fuentes looks to lead white nationalist invasion at CPAC gathering — DALLAS —White nationalist and Unite the Right attendee Nicholas Fuentes …
Discussion:
Anti-Defamation League, The Intellectualist, Forbes, Joe.My.God. and Mother Jones
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
How a hidden Biden victory could deal a big blow to Trumpian nationalism — When President Biden recently announced a deal with 130 countries to combat tax avoidance by multinational corporations, you probably didn't connect the news to the poisonous impact that Donald Trump continues to wield over our politics.
Discussion:
PIIE, Wall Street Journal and CBS News
David Dayen / American Prospect:
How Amazon Controls Virtually Everything You Watch — Amazon Web Services delivers almost all filmed media in the United States to your screen of choice. How are they leveraging that power? — Amazon Web Services is the market leader in cloud computing and the back-end provider for top streaming services.
Tyler Pager / Washington Post:
Biden taps Eric Garcetti for India ambassador post — President Biden plans to nominate Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to serve as ambassador to India and Denise Bauer, a former ambassador to Belgium and prominent Biden donor, to serve as ambassador to France, the White House announced Friday.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Politico, Los Angeles Times, RedState, The Hill and LAist
CNN:
Los Angeles County sees exponential growth in Covid-19 cases as Delta variant becomes dominant, worrying officials — (CNN)The most populous county in the US is seeing “exponential growth” of Covid-19 cases as the Delta variant takes over as the dominant coronavirus strain, health officials in Los Angeles County said.
Discussion:
The Hill, publichealth.lacounty.gov and Digby's Hullabaloo
Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:
The Christian Right Is in Decline, and It's Taking America With It — The presidency of George W. Bush may have been the high point of the modern Christian right's influence in America. White evangelicals were the largest religious faction in the country.
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog and Religion News Service
Natasha Korecki / Politico:
Biden-allied group warns: Voters are largely clueless about POTUS' accomplishments — A pro-Biden super PAC has issued a dire warning to Democrats: Voters are largely clueless about the big policy measures they've passed and on which their 2022 electoral hopes rest.
Discussion:
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