Exclusive: Mike Pence's former chief of staff testifies in House January 6 investigation  —  (CNN)Marc Short, former Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, quietly testified before the House select committee investigating January 6 last week in response to a subpoena, sources tell CNN …

The New York Times Buys Wordle  —  The word game, released in October, has millions of daily users.  —  The sudden hit Wordle, in which once a day players get six chances to guess a five-letter word, has been acquired by The New York Times Company.  —  The purchase, announced by The Times on Monday …

Russia responds in writing to U.S. proposal on Ukraine crisis  —  The Russian government has delivered a written response to a U.S. proposal aimed at de-escalating the Ukraine crisis, said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic discussions.

Trump World adjusts to the growing influence of vaccine skeptics within its ranks  —  A few weeks ago, Donald Trump decried politicians who did not share their Covid-19 vaccine booster status as “gutless”—a seeming swipe at other Republicans with presidential ambitions, mainly Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis …

Rachel Maddow to take a temporary break from her MSNBC show to work on movie and podcast projects  — Rachel Maddow is taking a hiatus from her top-rated MSNBC show starting February 7.  — The star anchor will work for a few weeks on new projects with her former boss Phil Griffin.

Time to Accept Covid and Move On?  —  Americans still concerned about virus, but lose faith in federal measures  —  West Long Branch, NJ - Americans continue to be concerned about the spread of Covid, but the vast majority say it is time to accept it as part of life.

He's declining a coronavirus vaccine at the expense of a lifesaving transplant: 'I was born free, I'll die free'  —  For more than four years, Chad Carswell, 38, has suffered from severe kidney disease.  In July 2020, he started on dialysis — but now his kidneys are functioning at just 4 percent.

Sherrilyn Ifill should be Biden's Supreme Court pick; here's why  —  A Black woman has never served on the U.S. Supreme Court, but there is no shortage of well-qualified individuals available to break that shameful barrier.  This was made clear enough last week with the announcement …

FIRE statement on Georgetown's suspension and investigation of Ilya Shapiro  —  FIRE strongly condemns Georgetown Law's suspension and investigation of Ilya Shapiro for tweets about potential replacements for Justice Breyer that some found offensive.  In response to online outrage stoked …

A GOP proposal targeting ‘negative’ U.S. history is cause for renewed alarm  —  In recent weeks, it has become inescapably obvious: The mania for muzzling how teachers address race and other topics is only accelerating.  —  We're seeing dozens of GOP proposals to bar whole concepts from classrooms outright.

Fox News wanted viewers to hear an anti-vax trooper's story - until he died of COVID  —  Last week's toll of more than 16,000 recorded U.S. deaths from COVID-19 is made all the more heartbreaking because so many of the deceased had the opportunity to take vaccines that dramatically reduce the danger posed by the virus.

The Betrayal  —  I.  —  The End  —  It took four presidencies for America to finish abandoning Afghanistan.  George W. Bush's attention wandered off soon after American Special Forces rode horseback through the northern mountains and the first schoolgirls gathered in freezing classrooms.

Hispanic Students Were Forced To Learn Critical Race Theory.  They Hated It.  —  During the 2020 fall semester, Kali Fontanilla—a high school English language teacher working in the Salinas, California, school district—noticed that many of her students were failing one of their other classes: ethnic studies.

Rep. Liz Cheney breaks her campaign's quarterly fundraising record  —  Rep. Liz Cheney reported her highest fundraising quarter yet, raising $2.05 million in the fourth quarter of last year, according to figures first shared Monday with the Star-Tribune.  —  The haul exceeds amounts raised earlier in the year.

Why I do not expect a civil war in America (and what does worry me)  —  It began a few years ago, when prominent democracy rating organizations started downgrading the United States, putting its institutions on par with Panama, Argentina, or Romania.  —  In retrospect, that seems like the good news.

Trump's Continuing Disgrace  —  President Trump has already inflicted more than enough damage on the country simply because his fragile ego prevented him from acknowledging that he lost the 2020 election.  But the January 6 Capitol riot, which followed months of him whipping supporters …

Just a ‘handful of weeks’ left to strike nuclear deal with Iran, official says  — The signatories of the Iran nuclear deal only have a “handful of weeks left” to strike a deal and usher in a mutual return to compliance with the agreement.  — The official said that the U.S. was not imposing an …

Ahmaud Arbery's parents object to DOJ's hate crime plea deal  —  BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Federal prosecutors have proposed a plea agreement that would avert a hate crimes trial for the son and father convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery.  His parents denounced the deal on Monday …

How We Broke the Supply Chain  —  Rampant outsourcing, financialization, monopolization, deregulation, and just-in-time logistics are the culprits. … Anyone old enough to remember the Cold War is familiar with a scene routinely depicted on U.S. television at the time: the Soviet breadline.

Trump ally pushes Republican Party to expel Cheney, Kinzinger  —  The resolution, to be debated at the RNC annual meeting in Salt Lake City this week, would be an unusual and public rebuke from a political party against two of its incumbent members of Congress

Op-Ed: Five Reasons for Optimism in 2022  —  They're wrong.  —  The Political Media Industrial Complex convened their annual Crystal Ball Convention - hosted, no doubt, by the Illuminati at an undisclosed location - and concluded that Democrats in 2022 were doomed.