Top Items:
Axios:
McConnell: No legislative agenda for 2022 midterms — Mitch McConnell has told colleagues and donors Senate Republicans won't release a legislative agenda before next year's midterms, according to people who've attended private meetings with the minority leader.
Discussion:
Political Wire
RELATED:
Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: Crisis averted after conservatives cave — DRIVING THE DAY — NO SHUTDOWN — Congress avoided a government shutdown after Senate conservatives dropped their demands to nix President JOE BIDEN's vaccine mandates in the funding bill — and Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER gave them a way out.
Discussion:
American Greatness, ABC News and The Federalist
Elizabeth Spiers / New York Times:
Amy Coney Barrett Doesn't Understand the Trauma of Adoption — Ms. Spiers, a Democratic digital strategist, was adopted as an infant. — On Wednesday, as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments from state attorneys seeking to uphold Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban …
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Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:
The Supreme Court's End Game on Abortion — There are many reasons for dismay over the Supreme Court argument in the Mississippi abortion case, but it was the nonstop gaslighting that really got to me. — First there was Justice Clarence Thomas, pretending by his questions actually …
Discussion:
The Hill
medRxiv:
Increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection associated with emergence of the Omicron variant in South Africa — Juliet R.C. Pulliam, Cari van Schalkwyk, Nevashan Govender, Anne von Gottberg, Cheryl Cohen, Michelle J. Groome, Jonathan Dushoff, Koleka Mlisana, Harry Moultrie
Discussion:
New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Red Queen
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Alasdair P S Munro / The Lancet:
Safety and immunogenicity of seven COVID-19 vaccines as a third dose (booster) following two doses of ChAdOx1 nCov-19 or BNT162b2 in the UK (COV-BOOST): a blinded, multicentre, randomised, controlled, phase 2 trial — Author Footnotes — NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility …
Discussion:
New York Times, Politico and The Guardian
Jeff Cox / CNBC:
Job growth disappoints in November, with a gain of just 210,000, despite high hopes — November job growth falls far short of expectations, unemployment rate hits 4.2% — The U.S. economy created far fewer jobs than expected in November, before a new Covid threat created a scare that growth …
Discussion:
HotAir
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David Harrison / Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Added Just 210,000 Jobs in November — Unemployment rate fell to 4.2%; recovery faces new Covid uncertainties — The U.S. economy added just 210,000 jobs in November, a slowdown in hiring that clouds a recovery amid new Covid-19 uncertainties. — The slower pace of hiring last month …
Steve Contorno / CNN:
DeSantis proposes a new civilian military force in Florida that he would control — St, Petersburg, Florida (CNN)Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to reestablish a World War II-era civilian military force that he, not the Pentagon, would control. — DeSantis pitched the idea Thursday …
Discussion:
National Review, The Hill, RedState and Raw Story
CNN:
Russia positions more forces, supply lines as fears rise of potential Ukraine invasion — Analysis: Would Putin get away with invading Ukraine again? — (CNN)Russian forces have capabilities in place along the Ukraine border to carry out a swift and immediate invasion …
Discussion:
The National Interest, Slate, Associated Press, The Daily Beast and Insider
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Amid heightened tensions, Russia and U.S. make quiet breakthrough on staffing at Moscow embassy — MOSCOW — Despite significant tensions over a Russian troop buildup at the Ukrainian border, U.S. diplomats have overcome a months-long standoff with the Kremlin on the granting of visas …
Jenny Jarvie / Los Angeles Times:
A drama professor told students they got their feelings hurt too easily. They decided to fight back — It all started with a misunderstanding. — A Black theater student at Coastal Carolina University told a visiting drama teacher she wanted to connect with nonwhite students …
Discussion:
Althouse
Maeve Reston / CNN:
Republicans pull back from the Covid brink — for now — (CNN)Sanity prevailed Thursday night when the Senate overcame an effort by a handful of conservative Republican senators who had threatened to force a government shutdown unless they got a vote on an amendment to defund President Joe Biden's Covid-19 vaccine mandates.
Discussion:
Associated Press, The Hill, No More Mister Nice Blog and Al Jazeera
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Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Emphasizing Tests, Biden Vows to Fight Omicron With ‘Science and Speed’
Emphasizing Tests, Biden Vows to Fight Omicron With ‘Science and Speed’
Discussion:
CBS News, The Hill, HuffPost, Associated Press, Breitbart and Voice of America
NBC News:
Avoiding shutdown, Congress approves bill to fund government through Feb. 18 — House deal on government funding bill could face challenge in the Senate — WASHINGTON — Congress on Thursday passed a short-term government funding bill that will prevent a shutdown before the Friday night deadline …
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Murray Waas / The Guardian:
Sidney Powell filed false incorporation papers for non-profit, grand jury finds — Trump's lawyer falsely claimed two men as fellow directors of Defending the Republic in an apparent effort to attract donors — A federal grand jury investigating Donald Trump's former attorney Sidney Powell …
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Feds could release ‘alternative’ Mueller report soon — An unpublished investigative compilation sometimes referred to as the “Alternative Mueller Report” has been located in Justice Department files and could be released soon, according to a letter filed in federal court Thursday.
Discussion:
Raw Story
New York Times:
Didi of China Moves to Delist From New York Stock Exchange — With plenty of its own money and a greater desire to control the private sector, Beijing is pushing its companies to tap investors closer to home. — The decades-long, trillion-dollar love affair between China and Wall Street is coming to an end.
RELATED:
Politico:
Meadows' book possible ‘waiver’ of executive privilege, Jan. 6 investigators say — Jan. 6 investigators have tried to pry information from Mark Meadows for months. Now, excerpts from his forthcoming book have piqued the select committee's interest. — In interviews, members of the committee …
Discussion:
Insider, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, Washington Post and The Guardian
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Zachary Petrizzo / The Daily Beast:
Far-Right Shock Jock Confronts Mark Meadows on Alleged Ties to China
Far-Right Shock Jock Confronts Mark Meadows on Alleged Ties to China
Discussion:
Raw Story and The Daily Beast
Axios:
Burnout, money, concern drive Harris turnover — Burnout, better opportunities and concern about being permanently branded a “Harris person” is driving some of the turnover in Vice President Kamala Harris's office, people familiar with the situation tell Axios.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Breitbart, CNN and The Guardian
Seung Min Kim / Washington Post:
More Democratic senators are willing to weigh changes to Supreme Court — This week's Supreme Court argument on abortion has accelerated an urgency among Senate Democrats to fundamentally alter how the court operates, fueled in part by lingering anger over Republican confirmation maneuvers …
Discussion:
Fox News, The Bulwark, Postcards from Deda and The American Independent
Daniel Bates / Daily Mail:
Epstein visited the White House on 14 separate days and stopped by twice in one day on three occasions during Bill Clinton's first term — The disclosure puts renewed scrutiny on Clinton's friendship with Epstein, who was known to have flown the former president on his private jet …
Discussion:
New York Post, Summit News and Political Wire
Nellie Bowles / Common Sense:
TGIF: A Report From Waukesha — Plus: the brothers Cuomo; teachers against teaching; crime on the rise; and good news. … → Teachers against teaching: Public school teachers' unions around the country are proposing “self-taught” Fridays—in other words, a four-day work week—citing the stresses of the pandemic.
The Guardian:
Saudi warplanes carpet-bomb Yemen with US help. This must end — The US must end all support for the Saudi war effort in Yemen. It is fueling the largest humanitarian crisis in the world — he recent breaching of the United States' embassy in Yemen's capital city of Sanaa by rebel forces …
Ilya Shapiro / Washington Examiner:
What happened when I ran for school board in Virginia — About a year ago, when schools were still closed in northern Virginia and parents were fretting about learning loss, the school board in my small town of Falls Church voted to change the names of Thomas Jefferson Elementary and George Mason High.
Jacob L. Nelson / Columbia Journalism Review:
A Twitter tightrope without a net: Journalists' reactions to newsroom social media policies — EXECUTIVE SUMMARY — Journalists increasingly rely on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to pursue audience engagement, which many believe necessary for improving journalism's popularity and credibility among the public.
Jason D. Hill / Front Page Magazine:
Genocide, Stolen Land, and Other Lies about America — Native Americans: War refugees on conquered American soil? — A few years ago, I was invited by a small liberal arts college in the Northeast to give a series of lectures on ethics and the formation of moral character to a mixed group of juniors and graduating seniors.
Washington Post:
December launches with exceptional warmth over large parts of Lower 48 states — Temperatures will be more than 30 degrees above average in some locations — Winter, by the meteorological definition (Dec. 1 to Feb. 28), began Wednesday morning, but the weather is feeling more like mid-fall …
Jacob Magid / The Times of Israel:
Blinken initiated call with PM amid doubts Israel actually called off Atarot plan — US dismayed to find East Jerusalem housing project back on docket of planning committee's agenda for next week, after Israeli officials leaked that plan was shelved, sources say
CNN:
Exclusive: Sinema won't commit to voting for Biden's sweeping social safety net expansion — (CNN)Kyrsten Sinema, the influential moderate Democratic senator from Arizona, did not commit to voting for President Joe Biden's sweeping social safety net legislation in a sit-down interview with CNN on Thursday …
Discussion:
RedState, UPI, The Hill, BizPac Review, The Guardian, HotAir, Patterico's Pontifications, TheBlaze and Twitchy
General Michael Hayden / The Cipher Brief:
My Worry for America — OPINION — I was a Brigadier General 30 years ago, assigned in Europe as the head of intelligence. Most of the time I was looking at the Balkans because there was a war going on. Yugoslavia lasted for 72 years and then it was gone; it fell apart. — These were bitter rivalries.
Stephen Gutowski / The Reload:
Alec Baldwin's Gun Could Have Fired Without Him Pulling the Trigger, But Did It? — In his first major interview since being involved in a fatal shooting on the set of his latest movie, Alec Baldwin made a surprising new claim about his actions that day. — Baldwin said the gun went off without him ever actually pulling its trigger.
Discussion:
ABC News, Al Jazeera, Who the Hell Is Jim Treacher?, Breitbart, New York Times, TheBlaze, Townhall and Twitchy