Top Items:
The White House:
FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces Clemency for Nearly 1,500 Americans — Today's announcement will commute the sentences of close to 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement and will pardon 39 individuals convicted of non-violent crimes — Today, President Biden announced …
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Colleen Long / Associated Press:
Biden commutes roughly 1,500 sentences and pardons 39 people in biggest single-day act of clemency — President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes.
Patrick Smith / NBC News:
Biden to commute sentences of 1,500 ‘non-violent’ offenders, in the biggest single-day act of clemency to date — “America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” the president said in a statement Thursday. — President Joe Biden will commute the sentences …
Discussion:
USA Today
The White House:
Statement from President Joe Biden on Providing Clemency for Nearly 1,500 Individuals on Home Confinement and Pardons for 39 Individuals Convicted of Non-Violent Crimes — America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances. As President, I have the great privilege …
Discussion:
New Republic, RedState, Washington Post and USA Today
Wall Street Journal:
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Donates $1 Million to Trump's Inaugural Fund — President-elect had blasted the tech tycoon during the presidential campaign, but ties have been improving — Meta Platforms has donated $1 million to president-elect Donald Trump's inaugural fund …
Discussion:
New York Times, The Hill, CNN, Axios, Business Insider, Reuters, TechCrunch, New York Post, The National Pulse, UPI, American Greatness, RedState, CBS News, IJR, Fortune, Mediaite, Forbes, HuffPost, Daily Mail, The Independent and Fox Business, more at Techmeme »
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Oriana Pawlyk / Politico:
FAA administrator will resign on Trump's inauguration day — He told his staff about his departure plans at a meeting Thursday morning. — FAA administrator Mike Whitaker announced he will resign and not serve as the head of the agency in the second Trump administration …
Discussion:
The Hill, Associated Press and Bloomberg
Noah Berlatsky / Public Notice:
Chris Wray folds like cheap suit. Don't be Chris Wray. — The FBI director obeys in advance. … 🚔 — FBI Director Christopher Wray became the latest public official to remove his own spine and dissolve into a puddle of genuflecting goo for the greater glory of MAGA …
Discussion:
Fox News, Deseret News, The Hill, The Post Millennial, The Gateway Pundit and The Guardian
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Jonathan Chait / The Atlantic:
A Scandalous Resignation — When Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, in 2017 …
A Scandalous Resignation — When Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, in 2017 …
Discussion:
Breaking the News, Frontpage Mag, IJR, Raw Story, Alternet.org, Fox News, New York Times, HuffPost, Roll Call, Politico, The Independent, New Republic, Balloon Juice and Daily Kos
Perry Stein / Washington Post:
FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign before Trump takes office
FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign before Trump takes office
Discussion:
CNN, The Bulwark, USA Today, CBS News, NBC News, Reuters, Washington Times, New York Daily News, New York Times, Fox News, Daily Caller News Foundation, Associated Press, Raw Story, UPI, Twitchy, The Guardian, CNBC, Scripps News, Axios, ABC News, Breitbart, HotAir, The Post Millennial, The Daily Signal and Townhall
Benjamin Wittes / Default:
The Situation: Chris Wray Rolls Out the Red Carpet for Kash Patel
The Situation: Chris Wray Rolls Out the Red Carpet for Kash Patel
Discussion:
RedState, Reuters, emptywheel, The Independent, Fox News, Al Jazeera, Alternet.org, CBS News, Newsbusters, Mediaite, New Republic, Forbes, Townhall, The Hill, New York Daily News, Bloomberg, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, ABC News, Deadline, HuffPost, Associated Press, The National Pulse and Washington Examiner
Minho Kim / New York Times:
Trump Chooses Kari Lake to Lead Voice of America — Ms. Lake, a former TV news anchor turned right-wing firebrand who has called journalists “monsters,” would be in charge of a federally funded news outlet with a huge global audience. — President-elect Donald J. Trump on Wednesday night chose Kari Lake …
Discussion:
Alternet.org, Arizona Mirror, Al Jazeera, Raw Story, Washington Post, Daily Mail and Fox News
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Brian Stelter / CNN:
Trump's Kari Lake ‘pick’ sparks fears at Voice of America — Presidents don't ordinarily pick the director of Voice of America, an international news broadcaster funded by the US government. But President-elect Donald Trump says he wants his ally Kari Lake to take over VOA.
Discussion:
Politico, Deadline, USA Today, Adweek, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Townhall, Crooks and Liars, WHDH-TV, WTTG-TV, UPI, Breitbart, Associated Press, Fox News, Mediaite, Twitchy, Roll Call, The Independent, Raw Story, The Hill, New York Post, NBC News, CBS News, The Gateway Pundit, Axios, Washington Examiner, Daily Mail, HuffPost, Washington Times and ABC News
Costas Pitas / Reuters:
Trump picks hardline Republican Kari Lake to lead Voice of America
Trump picks hardline Republican Kari Lake to lead Voice of America
Discussion:
The Hill, more at Mediagazer »
Time:
Read the Full Transcript of Donald Trump's 2024 Person of the Year Interview With TIME — President-elect Donald Trump, TIME's 2024 Person of the Year, sat down for a wide-ranging interview at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., on Nov. 25. — Over the course of the interview …
Discussion:
HotAir, HuffPost, Rolling Stone, Axios, ABC News, Daily Mail, CNBC and Mediaite
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Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Trump Says His 1st Acts Will Include Deportations and Jan. 6 Pardons
Anthony Adragna / Politico:
Biden judicial nominations endgame comes into focus — The judicial branch will be top of mind in the legislative branch on Thursday. Senate Democrats are nearing the judicial confirmations total that President-elect Donald Trump achieved in his first term.
Discussion:
The Hill, Reuters, Washington Examiner, Daily Kos, New York Post, Law Dork and New York Times
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NOTUS:
Even Some CBC Members Are Starting to Question the Seniority System in Congress
Even Some CBC Members Are Starting to Question the Seniority System in Congress
Discussion:
The Hill and Punchbowl News
Aris Folley / The Hill:
Schumer says Senate will vote on Social Security changes
Schumer says Senate will vote on Social Security changes
Discussion:
GovExec.com
CNN:
Pete Hegseth, Trump's Defense pick, says allowing gay troops to serve openly reflects a Marxist agenda — Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense, has repeatedly criticized policies allowing gay people to serve openly in the US military, calling them part of a …
Clarissa Ward / CNN:
‘My God there is light’: CNN witnesses moment Syrian prisoner is freed from Assad's forced detention — While searching a secretive prison in the belly of the Assad regime's legacy of torture for American journalist Austin Tice, CNN's Clarissa Ward made a startling discovery …
Discussion:
New York Post, The Sun and Mediaite
Jennifer Jacobs / CBS News:
Trump invites China's Xi Jinping to inauguration — President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration next month, multiple sources told CBS News, and inauguration officials are making plans for additional foreign dignitaries to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
New York Times:
Power, Intimidation and the Resurrection of Trump's Support for Hegseth — The president-elect became convinced that letting Pete Hegseth fail would set off a feeding frenzy among senators. What followed was a MAGA swarm that helped salvage his bid, at least for now.
Discussion:
Althouse
Bloomberg:
No Winners Seen in Trump's ‘Hugely Destructive’ Energy Tariffs — Analysts expect levies to hurt refiners, raise US gas prices — Canada, Mexico also stand to lose in oil, gas trade war — When President-elect Donald Trump announced his plan to impose tariffs on goods coming …
Discussion:
Reuters, Canadian Press and Daily Mail
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Judd Legum / Popular Information:
Ohio teacher suspended for including four books with LGBTQ characters in her classroom library — Karen Cahall has been a teacher in the New Richmond School District in Ohio for 34 years. During that time, according to a lawsuit Cahall filed earlier this month, she “consistently received …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times and Washington Post
Tyler Austin Harper / The Atlantic:
Is This How Democrats Win Back the Working Class? — A week after Donald Trump won the presidency again, I sat across from Chris Murphy in his minimalist but well-appointed D.C. office. The Connecticut senator sounded like a man who had done a speedrun through all five stages of grief …
Glenn Thrush / New York Times:
Ex-F.B.I. Informant Agrees to Plead Guilty to Lying About Bidens — Alexander Smirnov's deal with the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Hunter Biden could lead to 48 to 72 months in prison, though a federal judge would need to review the deal.
Discussion:
Reuters, New York Post and CBS News
Ryan Cooper / American Prospect:
Democrats Lost the Propaganda War — The party used up about $5 billion on political ads in 2024. There's a better way. — A Fox News ad is displayed outside the Fiserv Forum on the eve of the Republican National Convention, July 14, 2024, in Milwaukee.
Discussion:
Mostly signs
Jake Zuckerman / Plain Dealer:
Bill forcing hospitals to administer ivermectin, other requested treatments nears finish line — COLUMBUS, Ohio - Senate Republicans on Wednesday passed legislation that would enable patients to force hospitals into administering drugs for off-label use if the hospital's own physicians refuse.
New York Times:
Blue States are Unaffordable. The Price Will be Political. — Every year, millions of Americans bounce around the country like electrons, moving from one state to another. But there are patterns in this chaos, and one of the clearest in recent decades is that Americans are moving from blue states to red states.
David French / New York Times:
Biden Has a Pair of Gifts for Trump — Donald Trump is a lucky man. — The combination of allied courage and American support has inflicted serious losses on America's enemies and created a series of strategic openings for the United States. The Iranian “axis of resistance” is in a state of collapse.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Adrienne LaFrance / The Atlantic:
Decivilization May Already Be Under Way — The line between a normal, functioning society and catastrophic decivilization can be crossed with a single act of mayhem. This is why, for those who have studied violence closely, the brazen murder of a CEO in Midtown Manhattan—and, more important …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Graeme Wood / The Atlantic:
Luigi Mangione's Commonplace, Deplorable Politics — From his actions, and the glee that they have elicited, one learns not that the health-care system is broken but that many of us are. — In the last scene of Terrence Malick's 1973 film, Badlands, a recently arrested spree killer is sitting handcuffed next to a state trooper.
Raphael Boyd / The Guardian:
From X to Bluesky: why are people fleeing Elon Musk's ‘digital town square’? — Musk's platform has lost 2.7 million active US users in two months, while its rival has gained 2.5 million — A mass departure from Elon Musk's X has led to the site losing about 2.7 million active Apple …
Matthew Yglesias / Slow Boring:
End the Medicare For All wars — It's time to talk about other health care policy ideas — I'm a little uncomfortable with the fact that health care policy is back on the American political agenda because of the murder of UnitedHealth Care's CEO. But, given that it is, I do want to write about it.
CNN:
South Korea's ruling party backs impeachment as president refuses to step down over martial law — South Korea's ruling party has thrown its support behind attempts to impeach embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol over his ill-fated decision to declare martial law that sparked a political crisis and widespread public anger in the country.
Discussion:
Reuters, Agence France-Presse, UPI and Fox News