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:
New York Times, The Gateway Pundit, Outside the Beltway, New York Magazine, Reason, RedState, NOQ Report, Raw Story, CBS News, Fox News, CNN, The Daily Caller, Politico, National Review, New York Post, USA Today, Talking Points Memo, Insider, Mediaite, Washington Examiner, UPI, Joe.My.God., Political Wire, The Hill and Forbes
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Zachary Petrizzo / Salon:
Stewart Rhodes, founder of right-wing Oath Keepers militia, spotted at CPAC — Multiple federal agencies are investigating the Oath Keepers for their alleged role in the Jan. 6 insurrection — DALLAS — Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of right-wing militia group the Oath Keepers …
Discussion:
Joe.My.God.
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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:
Raw Story, Balloon Juice, Salon and Talking Points Memo
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:
Althouse, Breitbart, The Western Journal, Mediaite, National Review and The Daily Caller
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Ben Paviour / NPR:
Charlottesville Removes Robert E. Lee Statue That Sparked A Deadly Rally — The city of Charlottesville, Va., removed a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Saturday, toppling a symbol that was at the center of the deadly Unite the Right rally in 2017.
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New York Times:
Charlottesville to Remove Robert E. Lee Statue at Center of White Nationalist Rally — The statue was at the center of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in 2017. The city said it planned to remove it on Saturday, along with a monument to Stonewall Jackson.
Discussion:
Insider and Charlottesville, VA
New York Times:
Biden Warns Putin to Act Against Ransomware Groups, or U.S. Will Strike Back — Mr. Biden's phone call appeared to be a pointed ultimatum to stop the hackers, who have attacked computer networks in the United States with relative impunity. — President Biden warned President Vladimir V. Putin …
Discussion:
RedState, Political Wire, One America News Network, NBC News, Al Jazeera, Reuters and TASS
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Tom McKay / Gizmodo:
Secret Service Says It Has No Plan for Protecting White House Pets During an Attack
Secret Service Says It Has No Plan for Protecting White House Pets During an Attack
Discussion:
Washington Examiner and Political Wire
Washington Post:
Biden tells Putin the U.S. will take ‘any necessary action’ after latest ransomware attack, White House says
Biden tells Putin the U.S. will take ‘any necessary action’ after latest ransomware attack, White House says
Discussion:
Axios, New York Times, CNN, ABC News, New York Post, Kyodo News+, CBS News, WTOP, CNBC, National Review, UPI, Insider, Bloomberg, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, Joe.My.God., TASS and Politico, more at Techmeme »
Kevin G. Hall / Miami Herald:
South Florida men arrested in Haiti assassination said they were translators for operation — Details and a timeline began emerging late Friday, filling in blanks about how two South Florida men became entangled in the killing of Haiti's president. — Photos released in Haiti …
Discussion:
Insider and The Haitian Times
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Jacqueline Charles / Miami Herald:
Colombians' arrest highlights growing presence of private military contractors in Haiti
Colombians' arrest highlights growing presence of private military contractors in Haiti
Discussion:
New York Times, Al Jazeera, IJR, Honolulu Star-Advertiser and The Haitian Times
Brad Bannon / The Hill:
Investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection will resurrect democracy — On July 4, we celebrated the dawn of American democracy. This past Tuesday, July 6, marked the half-year anniversary of the U.S. Capitol insurrection, which many mourned as the democracy's sunset.
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Houston Public Media:
Texas AG's Office Arrests Houston Voter Hervis Rogers For Alleged Illegal Voting — Rogers captured national attention in March 2020 when he waited for hours to vote on Super Tuesday. — When Hervis Rogers went viral on social media for being the last person in line at Texas Southern University …
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:
KRDO, The Hill, publichealth.lacounty.gov and The Daily Caller
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
Matthew Haag / New York Times:
A Landlord Says Her Tenants Are Terrorizing Her. She Can't Evict Them. — A landlord in Queens says her tenants curse and spit at her and owe more than $23,000 in rent. But an eviction moratorium keeps them from being kicked out. — For more than a year, Vanie Mangal …
Discussion:
TheBlaze
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:
The Intellectualist
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.
Washington Examiner:
The wretched Xavier Becerra wants to control your life — How to weigh the rights of the individual versus the authority of the government? — That question became trickier over the past 18 months. In an otherwise free country, governments forbade us from gathering to worship …
Laura Barrón-López / Politico:
Top Biden ally pleads with him to scrap filibuster for election reform — Rep. Jim Clyburn said it's time for the president to embrace more aggressive changes to the Senate rules. — Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) speaks during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 19, 2021.
Discussion:
Roll Call
Catrin Einhorn / New York Times:
Like in ‘Postapocalyptic Movies’: Heat Wave Killed Marine Wildlife en Masse — An early estimate points to a huge die-off along the Pacific Coast, and scientists say rivers farther inland are warming to levels that could be lethal for some kinds of salmon. — Dead mussels and clams coated rocks …
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Biden Administration Punts on Due Process Rights for Guantánamo Detainees — An anticipated brief, filed under seal, is said to take no position on whether the Constitution's due process clause protects detainees. — WASHINGTON — The Biden administration pulled back on Friday …
Insider:
Photos show shirtless Democratic congressmen and their wives riding camels on a Qatar trip paid for by a special interest group — By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Discussion:
New York Post, The Gateway Pundit and Washington Examiner
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr / Wall Street Journal:
The Hunter Biden Laptop Is Real — Our ‘newspapers of record’ become something else when they conspire to deny facts and hide truth. — The problem isn't Hunter Biden —it's Joe—as major media outlets may be discovering, sort of, with the White House's absurd intervention in the younger …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner
Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:
Hunter Biden is going about his art career all wrong — When it comes to navigating the tricky ethical issues that may arise around Hunter Biden's budding career as an artist, he is going about it in exactly the wrong way. What this situation calls for is transparency — the more of it, the better.
Discussion:
BizPac Review, HuffPost, CBS News, The Hill, New York Post and National Review
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.
Kevin Sieff / Washington Post:
The Trump administration used an early, unreported program to separate migrant families along a remote stretch of the border — MEXICO CITY — The Trump administration began separating migrant families along a remote stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border months earlier than has been previously reported …
Discussion:
Political Wire
Matt Shuham / Talking Points Memo:
Capitol Rioter Who Pleaded Guilty Asks Court Not To ‘Cancel’ Him With Prison Time — Judge, don't cancel me! — That was the essence of the 31-page sentencing memorandum from Capitol rioter Paul Hodgkins, 38, of Tampa, who pleaded guilty to obstructing an official proceeding last month and likely faces one or two years in prison.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Raw Story, Digby's Hullabaloo, The Daily Beast and The Intellectualist