Kremlin Insiders Alarmed Over Growing Toll of Putin's War in Ukraine  —  Almost eight weeks after Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine, with military losses mounting and Russia facing unprecedented international isolation, a small but growing number of senior Kremlin insiders are quietly questioning his decision to go to war.

They Know How Journalism Works!  They're Just Against It!  —  On Tuesday, Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz published a story about a repulsive creep who uses her large online following to, essentially, subject random LGBTQ people (and especially trans people) to harassment, and worse.

House Rating Changes: Eight Races Move in Republicans' Direction  —  President Biden's approval rating remains stuck at 42 percent, and if anything the political environment has deteriorated for Democrats since January as inflation concerns have soared and Build Back Better has stalled.

Inside the New Right, Where Peter Thiel Is Placing His Biggest Bets  —  They're not MAGA.  They're not QAnon.  Curtis Yarvin and the rising right are crafting a different strain of conservative politics.  —  It was Halloween in Orlando, and we had piled into a car to make a short trip …

DeSantis makes rare non-Florida campaign stop to boost Nevada GOP Senate hopeful  —  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is slated to campaign for GOP Senate hopeful Adam Laxalt in Nevada next week as the Republicans ramp up their efforts to flip the majority in November.

Majority of Americans want masks for travelers: AP-NORC poll  —  FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A majority of Americans continue to support a mask requirement for people traveling on airplanes and other shared transportation, a new poll finds.  A ruling by a federal judge has put the government's transportation mask mandate on hold.

Defeat Has Not Defanged Trump — or Trumpism  —  The fissures in the Democratic Party are on display for all to see, since it is the party in power, but the divisions in the Republican Party and the conservative movement are deeper, wider and far more threatening.

A young Democrat's viral takedown demands a ‘wokeness’ rethink  —  “Wokeness is a problem and we all know it,” James Carville recently told Vox in his inimitably splenetic way.  The veteran strategist called on Democrats to distance themselves from “faculty lounge bulls—” and to undo their image as an …

Jared Kushner's Saudi Side-Hustle Merits a Full-On Criminal Inquiry  —  Elizabeth Warren has called on the DOJ to investigate how Trump's son-in-law secured a $2 billion investment from a fund headed by Saudi Arabia's crown prince.  —  Senator Elizabeth Warren wants the US Department of Justice to …

A$AP Rocky detained at LAX in connection to November 2021 shooting  —  Rakim Mayers, better known as A$AP Rocky, was detained on Wednesday at Los Angeles International Airport in connection to a November 2021 shooting, according to multiple law enforcement sources familiar with the matter.

Florida surgeon general warns against youth transgender procedures in rebuke of Biden  —  Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said Wednesday that minors should not undergo gender transition procedures, along with puberty blockers and hormone treatments, and harshly criticized recent guidance …

Tennessee GOP kicks Trump-backed Morgan Ortagus, Baxter Lee and Robby Starbuck out of primary  —  Adam Friedman Melissa BrownNashville Tennessean  —  The Tennessee Republican Party on Tuesday voted to remove three congressional hopefuls from the primary ballot in the new-look 5th Congressional District …

Biden's Errors Worsen Inflation  —  He needs to ditch his woke advisers and make growth the overriding priority.  —  1x  —  Three factors combined during the past two years to create the perfect economic storm.  Covid-19 scrambled the U.S. economy's supply lines.

Report: Wimbledon to bar Russian players  —  Russian tennis players will not be permitted to compete at Wimbledon, the prestigious third Grand Slam of the season, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Sportico reported Tuesday night.  —  The All England Club would become …

EXCLUSIVE Ex-CIA analyst says she ‘got bloodied’ in tangled U.S. war on Al Qaeda  —  In the 2012 Hollywood hit “Zero Dark Thirty,” a red-haired Central Intelligence Agency analyst played by Jessica Chastain travels to a secret CIA prison and watches a colleague waterboard a screaming Al Qaeda suspect …

Russia's Chernobyl seizure seen as nuclear risk ‘nightmare’  —  CHERNOBYL, Ukraine (AP) — Here in the dirt of one of the world's most radioactive places, Russian soldiers dug trenches.  Ukrainian officials worry they were, in effect, digging their own graves.

Exclusive: Sergei Lavrov and Oleg Deripaska Traveled With a Sex Worker to Japan in 2018  —  On official business in Tokyo, Russia's foreign minister was with its most notorious oligarch in the company of the former's mistress and the latter's escort  —  Michael Weiss is news director at New Lines

Tucker Carlson and the Crisis of Masculinity  —  America needs more—and better—male role models.  —  Tucker Carlson's foray into testicle toasting is only the latest (and possibly most amusing) example of the right-wing's masculinity obsession.  The manliness theme keeps reappearing.

A key Texas bridge lost $1 billion per week during governor's slowdown  —  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's order imposing safety inspections on trucks crossing the border from Mexico inflicted billions of dollars in U.S. trade losses — including $1 billion per week at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge alone …

Jan. 6 panel piecing together details of final Trump-Pence call  —  Several Donald Trump allies listened in from the Oval Office, but Mike Pence's side of the call remains elusive.  —  Congressional investigators entering the last stage of their probe are gathering new evidence …

The Russian Oligarch With the Most to Lose  —  One of the country's richest men, steel magnate Alexey Mordashov, distanced himself from politics, but Putin's Ukraine invasion made him a pariah  —  Alexey Mordashov, above in 2018, ‘is benefiting from his links with Russian decision-makers,’ the EU said.

‘Anti-Woke’ GOP Candidate Totally Forgot He Used to Condemn ‘Structural Bigotry’  —  Senate candidate David McCormick has pledged to “fight the woke mob,” but he once called for “solidarity by denouncing and eradicating structural bigotry.”  —  CJ  —  Pennsylvania Republican David McCormick …

'It's Just Scaring People, and It's Not Saving Lives'  —  As the United States nears its numbing, millionth COVID death and shrugs its shoulders at a rise in cases, some Americans are feeling left behind.  Immunocompromised people have suffered disproportionately throughout the pandemic …