Top Items:


Jan. 6 committee preparing to aggressively enforce subpoenas, targets former Trump DOJ official — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack is planning to ramp up its efforts to force Trump administration officials to cooperate with its inquiry and on Wednesday it issued …
RELATED:


Trump cronies who defy subpoenas may be prosecuted. Here's why that matters. — The right wing in this country, particularly under Donald Trump, has pulled off a spectacular trick. It has persuaded many neutral observers that its chronic anti-democratic bad acting is a natural …
Discussion:
CNN, Raw Story, Daily Kos, POLITICUSUSA and Talking Points Memo


Select Committee Subpoenas Former Justice Department Official Jeffrey Clark — Bolton, MS—Chairman Bennie G. Thompson today announced that the Select Committee has issued a subpoena to Jeffrey Clark, a former Department of Justice official reportedly involved in efforts to overturn …
Discussion:
UPI and POLITICUSUSA


How close were we to an actual stolen election — stolen by Trump? — The picture of Donald Trump's scheme to get the Justice Department to help him overturn the 2020 election has been significantly filled out in recent weeks. First came the disclosure that conservative lawyer John Eastman …
Discussion:
Raw Story and New Republic


Rosen, former acting AG under Trump, appears before Jan. 6 committee
Discussion:
Washington Post


EXCLUSIVE: Katie Couric covered up RBG's contempt for taking the knee: Anchor says she edited 2016 interview to ‘protect’ the elderly justice after she said people who kneel for the anthem were ‘dumb and disrespectful’ — Katie Couric has admitted to editing out Ruth Bader Ginsburg's controversial comments …


Walker cancels fundraiser with supporter who had swastika in her Twitter profile — Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker canceled a fundraiser with a conservative film producer who until Wednesday used a rendering of a swastika as her Twitter profile picture.
Discussion:
Washington Post, The American Independent, The Hill, Vanity Fair, Deadline, Insider, The Daily Beast, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Joe.My.God., Raw Story and Political Wire


A Yale Law Student Sent a Lighthearted Email Inviting Classmates to His ‘Trap House.’ The School Is Now Calling Him To Account. — Administrators at Yale Law School spent weeks pressuring a student to apologize for a “triggering” email in which he referred to his apartment as a “trap house …
Discussion:
Slate, Reason, HotAir and The Daily Wire
RELATED:


Critical race theory is a potent issue in the Virginia governor's race — Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin doesn't get the most applause during his rallies when he talks about lowering taxes or assails President Biden. The loudest cheers come when Youngkin promises …
Discussion:
Media Matters for America, Insider, Right Wing Watch, Breitbart, Daily Progress and Fox News


Two new polls should really light a fire under Democrats — A big problem Democrats face right now is that congressional sausage making is so repellent and ugly that it risks alienating voters precisely when Democrats need them to be open to the details of their proposals.
Discussion:
Yahoo News and PRESS RUN
RELATED:


L.A. Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas and ex-USC dean indicted on bribery charges — Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas was indicted Wednesday on federal charges of taking bribes from a former USC dean in exchange for supporting millions of dollars in L.A. County contracts …
Discussion:
Deadline, ABC7, CBS Los Angeles and KTLA


Georgia ballot inspection case dismissed after no fraud found — A judge dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday by Donald Trump supporters who sought to inspect absentee ballots from last year's presidential election, a decision that came a day after Georgia investigators told the court they were unable …
Discussion:
Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Fox News, POLITICUSUSA and The American Independent


Sandy Nurse Meets the Moment — The emerging leftist leader's journey from Zuccotti Park to City Hall - and everywhere in between … After launching an upstart bid for city council that galvanized New York City's ascendant progressive left, Sandy Nurse and her campaign were left to pick …


Biden Administration Plans Wind Farms Along Nearly the Entire U.S. Coastline — Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that her agency will formally begin the process of identifying federal waters to lease to wind developers by 2025. — WASHINGTON - The Biden administration announced …


An Afghanistan Evac Flight Was Almost Hijacked, Air Force Reveals — While the chaos at HKIA is over, the effort to evacuate Afghans is not. Here's how the U.S. is still getting people out. — The State Department estimates that “a couple thousand” additional evacuees have been able …
Discussion:
The Daily Wire
RELATED:


Netflix Staff Raised Concerns About Chappelle Special Before Its Release — The company is dealing with an internal outcry unprecedented in its history. — Netflix Inc. employees raised concerns about offensive material in Dave Chappelle's new comedy special “The Closer” days before its release …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Collider, Vanity Fair, New York Post, BizPac Review and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »


Robot Dogs Now Have Assault Rifles Mounted On Their Backs — Ghost Robotics and SWORD International have teamed up to create a rifle-toting “robot dog.” Called the Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle, or SPUR, the system adds a 6.5mm Creedmoor rifle from SWORD to one of Ghost Robotics' quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicles, or Q-UGVs.
Discussion:
Input, Mediaite and Joe.My.God.


100 Capitol Rioters Have Pleaded Guilty. Here's What They Did And What They're Facing. — Guilty pleas are stacking up. Here's what rioters are admitting to, and what they and the government are getting out of these deals. — Reporting From — Washington, DC — Copy


Amazon copied products and rigged search results to promote its own brands, documents show — A trove of internal Amazon documents reveals how the e-commerce giant ran a systematic campaign of creating knockoff goods and manipulating search results to boost its own product lines in India - practices it has denied engaging in.
Discussion:
Common Dreams, Forbes, The Verge, Breitbart, New York Post, Input, Protocol and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »


The slippery slope of the GOP's anti-vaccine-mandate push — For a while in this space, we've been focused on a looming question: How long before Republicans' coronavirus vaccine skepticism and anti-mandate fervor makes the next logical jump: to the other vaccines that have been mandated for many years?


America Is Not Ready for Trump's Second Term — The United States was unprepared for the scope of President Donald Trump's attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election. By Election Day, Trump had spent months calling the election “rigged,” and historians and democracy experts warned …
Discussion:
New York Magazine, Salon, Washington Post, Alternet.org, CNN, Raw Story and Crooks and Liars


A Black Trans “Hamilton” Cast Member Has Filed A Discrimination Complaint Against The Show — When Hamilton first opened on Broadway, the musical became nothing short of a sensation, racking up Tony Awards and being widely championed as a celebration of a diverse and progressive America.
Discussion:
CBS News, The Daily Beast and Deadline


Diversity and Division in Advanced Economies — Most embrace diversity but see conflicts between partisan, racial and ethnic groups — This Pew Research Center analysis focuses on attitudes toward diversity and conflict around the world. For this report, we conducted nationally representative surveys …
Discussion:
Washington Times


Toxic texts: Matt Gaetz's friends assume the FBI is reading their messages to the embattled congressman — Matt Gaetz is facing a sex trafficking investigation. — The Florida Republican's friends assume that feds are reading the congressman's texts.
Discussion:
Raw Story and Crooks and Liars


'We're going to make her life unpleasant': Activists aren't finished with Kyrsten Sinema — Grassroots activists and union groups are preparing to launch a flurry of protests later on Wednesday against Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz) — who they worry could single-handedly sink President Biden's agenda.
Discussion:
HotAir and Boston.com


Facebook clamps down on its internal message boards. — Facebook told employees on Tuesday that it was making some of its internal online discussion groups private, in an effort to minimize leaks. — Many Facebook employees join online discussion groups on Workplace …
Discussion:
The Verge, more at Techmeme »


Minneapolis Police Caught on Video ‘Hunting’ Activists — Local civil rights leaders demand firings, denounce “terrorism at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department” — “You see a fucking group” in the street, a Minneapolis police sergeant in a riot helmet told his fellow officers: “Fuck 'em up, gas 'em, fuck 'em up.”


Trump's Pick for Arizona Governor Just Had Dinner With QAnon's Ron Watkins — Ron Watkins is a very busy man. Since resigning as the administrator of the message board 8chan, where he facilitated the rise of QAnon, he's become an election integrity expert, started his own website about aliens, and launched a career as an NFT artist.
Discussion:
Raw Story and Arizona Republic


Top conservative lawyers steer clear of Trump's latest legal fight — Washington (CNN)A number of high-powered lawyers who have represented Donald Trump in the past are sitting out his latest legal battle, as the former President prepares to assert executive privilege to block congressional investigators …


Starbucks Temporarily Closes 2 Stores That Are Trying to Unionize — “It's disruption. No one is against the company remodeling their stores. But why now?” — Lauren Kaori Gurley — Starbucks has temporarily closed two stores involved in a union drive in Buffalo, New York …


Coming soon: Biden's full-blown recession — Joe Biden has had a rough few months. Polling has his approval falling below 40 percent and Friday's jobs report won't do anything to prop it up. The Afghanistan catastrophe, COVID-19 deaths surpassing those during Donald Trump's tenure …


Peter Thiel lines up against Liz Cheney — Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney's primary challenger landed former President Donald Trump's endorsement before she even officially launched her campaign. Now, she's cashing big checks from Trump's biggest donors — including tech billionaire Peter Thiel.


Mark Squilla Staffer Charged in South Philly Voter Fraud Conspiracy — Prosecutors say Marie Beren, who is no longer with Squilla's office, used her role as a de facto judge of elections in three South Philly voting divisions to cast fraudulent votes for candidates at all levels of government.


Most GOP Voters Want Trump to Run Again, but Among Those Who Don't, Pence and DeSantis Are the Leaders — 67% of GOP voters say Trump should run for president in 2024 while 29% say he shouldn't — Two-thirds of Republican voters say they want former President Donald Trump to run for president in 2024 …
Discussion:
Mediaite and Joe.My.God.


TSA says 40% of employees are unvaccinated as deadline looms — (CNN)The Transportation Security Administration says 4-in-10 members of its workforce, including screeners, remain unvaccinated against Covid-19 as its deadline looms. — The deadline for civilian federal government workers …


People who received a J. & J. vaccine may be better off with a Moderna or Pfizer booster, a study finds. — People who received a Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine may be better off with a booster shot from Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech, according to preliminary data from a federal clinical trial published on Wednesday.


How Baylor Steered Lower-Income Parents to Debt They Couldn't Afford — The Texas university and some other wealthy colleges guided families into no-limit Parent Plus loans, leaving them with onerous payments; ‘I will never get it all paid off’ — WACO, Texas—Some of the wealthiest U.S. colleges …
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money


Jonah Goldberg's Narcissism of Small Differences — In a world of trouble, why snipe at allies? — Back in 2016, when formerly distinguished conservatives were suddenly lining up to issue glassy-eyed endorsements of a half-mad reality-TV figure, Jonah Goldberg wrote a brilliant column comparing …


NRCC-supported candidate praised Proud Boys at September rally for Capitol rioters — (CNN)The House GOP's campaign arm announced Tuesday that an Arizona Republican candidate who praised the Proud Boys in a September speech has advanced to the next level of its campaign support process.
Discussion:
Raw Story


A Big Announcement About BIG — Containing commercial power in a democracy is fundamental to our liberty. That's why I write about it. That's why this newsletter resonates so widely. Here's how you can help us take the next step. — I've been writing BIG for a little over two years.