Mexican President's Harsh Takedown of Trump Exposes an Ugly MAGA Scam  —  Donald Trump's angry threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on all U.S. imports from Mexico—delivered Monday via the cautious diplomatic language of a Truth Social rant—is widely being depicted as a bluff.

Ex-Prosecutor Spots The Jack Smith Move That May Keep Donald Trump ‘Cases Alive’  —  It's “not at all” about “obeying an authoritarian in advance,” argued Barbara McQuade.  —  LOADING  —  Former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade broke down why Jack Smith would preemptively “pull the plug” …

Kamala Harris Returns From Hawaiian Vacation, Immediately Reminds America That We Dodged a Bullet  —  Kamala Harris has returned from the $7 million dollar house she stayed at during her Hawaiian vacation, and now that she's rested up, she sat for the camera to deliver a pointless word salad that doesn't really say anything meaningful.

3 Americans, Including F.B.I. Informant, Are Said to Be Freed in China Swap  —  The three men, John Leung, Kai Li and Mark Swidan, are on planes heading to the United States, officials said.  —  The Biden administration has negotiated a prisoner swap with China for the release of three American men …

Trump's radical plan to purge the civil service  —  “It's explicitly about retribution.”  —  ∙ Paid … 🥘  —  Trump has been bloviating for nearly a decade now about his desire to “drain the swamp.”  He finally has a real plan to do it.  —  In the final months of his first term …

X's Objection to the Onion Buying InfoWars Is a Reminder You Do Not Own Your Social Media Accounts  —  On Monday, X filed an objection in The Onion's bid to buy InfoWars out of bankruptcy.  In the objection, Elon Musk's lawyers argued that X has “superior ownership” of all accounts on X …

Someone Made a Dataset of One Million Bluesky Posts for ‘Machine Learning Research’  —  Update: Following the publication of this article on Tuesday evening, van Strien removed the dataset.  “I've removed the Bluesky data from the repo,” he wrote on Bluesky.

Musk Calls for Abolishing Consumer Finance Agency: ‘Delete CFPB’  — GOP has long sought to neutralize agency proposed by Warren  — Musk, Ramaswamy leading DOGE effort to cut federal government  —  Billionaire Elon Musk called for eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau …

Trump Picks Stanford Physician Who Opposed Lockdowns to Head N.I.H.  —  As the director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya would oversee the world's premier medical research agency, with a $47 billion budget and 27 separate institutes and centers.

US economy grows at 2.8% pace in third quarter on consumer spending  —  The American economy expanded at a healthy 2.8% annual pace from July through September on strong consumer spending and a surge in exports, the government said Wednesday, leaving unchanged its initial estimate of third-quarter growth

Rudy Giuliani draws rebuke for a courtroom outburst accusing judge in assets case of being unfair  —  In an angry outburst in a New York courtroom, Rudy Giuliani accused a judge Tuesday of making wrong assumptions about him as he tries to comply with an order requiring him to turn …

DEI has made America meaner  —  Diversity, equity, and inclusion has made society meaner — mean enough to accept Hitlerian terms when describing out-groups and seeking to exact revenge on perceived oppressors.  —  This was all common sense to many of us years ago, but it's nice …

Trump Cabinet nominees, appointees targeted with ‘violent, unAmerican threats’  —  The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting’”  —  EXCLUSIVE: Nearly a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration …

Katie Porter alleges ‘persistent abuse,’ files domestic violence restraining order against ex-boyfriend  —  Julian Willis' alleged threats to leak “false” information to the press “poses a serious risk to my career and personal reputation,” Porter wrote.  Willis said the filing was an effort to preempt his own claims against her.

Playbook: Biden tries to go out with a Middle East miracle  —  With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  THE 435TH SEAT — Newly counted ballots last night put Democrat ADAM GRAY 182 votes ahead of GOP Rep. JOHN DUARTE in California's 13th Congressional District, Gray's first lead.

Trump signs transition agreement with Biden, but it lacks key guardrails  —  The Trump team is still refusing to accept several typical trappings of the presidential transition process, including federal funding, equipment, office space or security.  —  The Trump transition team said Tuesday …