Top Items:
Politico:
Wildfire response threatens to end Karen Bass' extended honeymoon — The Los Angeles mayor returned home from Ghana on Wednesday and said she was in “constant contact” while abroad. — LOS ANGELES — Karen Bass probably has second thoughts about that trip to Ghana.
RELATED:
William Kristol / The Bulwark:
Soon, The Buck Stops With Him — Out in southern California, things just keep looking worse. The winds keep blowing, the fires keep spreading, and the death and devastation keeps growing: Five people have been confirmed dead, roads are snarled by people attempting to flee …
New York Times:
Mayor's Absence Is Considered a Sign L.A. Underestimated Fire Risks — Some residents said Mayor Karen Bass should have canceled her trip to Ghana when weather warnings in Los Angeles grew increasingly dire. — When a series of dangerous, wind-driven fires broke out on Tuesday in the Los Angeles area …
Alex Nieves / Politico:
With Bass abroad, even Democrats are slamming LA mayor over wildfires
With Bass abroad, even Democrats are slamming LA mayor over wildfires
Discussion:
Fox Business, OpenTheBooks, Daily Mail, Daily Caller News Foundation, New York Post, Fox News, ABC11, The Post Millennial, New Republic, Breitbart, The American Conservative, Boston Herald, Mediaite, The Daily Signal, FOX 11 Los Angeles, Townhall, Twitchy, HotAir, KHOU-TV, Kevin Drum, RedState, Rolling Stone, The Gateway Pundit, The Root, The Hill, Daily News, The Federalist, Blaze Media and freebeacon.com
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Alito Spoke With Trump Shortly Before Supreme Court Filing — The justice said that the call was a routine job reference for one of his former clerks and that the request to stay the president-elect's sentencing did not come up. — Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. spoke with President-elect Donald J. Trump …
Discussion:
Associated Press, Bloomberg, Law & Crime, Forbes, Raw Story, Axios, SCOTUSblog, Business Insider and Election Law Blog
RELATED:
ABC News:
Trump speaks with Justice Alito amid push to halt criminal sentencing
Trump speaks with Justice Alito amid push to halt criminal sentencing
Discussion:
The Hill, Daily Kos, The Gateway Pundit, One First, New Republic, Raw Story, SCOTUSblog, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Politico, UPI, CBS News, The Federalist, Live Action News, Rolling Stone, Accountable US, Reason, HuffPost, The Independent, Mediaite, NBC News, Mock Paper Scissors and Associated Press
ABC News:
New York appeals court denies Trump's bid to halt Friday's hush money sentencing
New York appeals court denies Trump's bid to halt Friday's hush money sentencing
Discussion:
Associated Press, NBC News, The Hill, USA Today, UPI, Al Jazeera, Forbes, New York Post, New York Daily News, Courthouse News Service, IJR, Vox and NPR
Kanishka Singh / USA Today:
Supreme Court Justice Alito spoke to Trump - says they didn't discuss legal cases
Supreme Court Justice Alito spoke to Trump - says they didn't discuss legal cases
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, NPR, Fox News, Raw Story, The Hill and Washington Post
Chris Geidner / Law Dork:
Trump and Alito, two men who disdain ethical constraints, chatted on Tuesday
Public Notice:
Taking Trump's imperialist trolling seriously (for a moment) — We've come a long way from bringing down egg prices. — ∙ Paid — Speaking as someone who's been covering Trump for nine years now, paying attention to what he's doing instead of obsessing over what he's saying is generally a good rule of thumb.
RELATED:
Dmitry Antonov / Reuters:
Kremlin, on Trump remarks on Greenland and Canada, says Russia has Arctic interests
Kremlin, on Trump remarks on Greenland and Canada, says Russia has Arctic interests
Discussion:
Agence France-Presse, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Atlantic Council, The Guardian, The Sun and Wide World of News
NBC News:
Pressure on China and pure ‘trolling’: Why Trump is pushing an expansionist agenda
Pressure on China and pure ‘trolling’: Why Trump is pushing an expansionist agenda
Discussion:
Fox News, Axios, South Dakota Searchlight, The Hill, BBC, Raw Story, One America News Network, Mediaite, Rolling Stone and USA Today
Rob Gillies / Associated Press:
Canadian leaders say Trump's talk about Canada becoming the 51st state isn't funny anymore
Canadian leaders say Trump's talk about Canada becoming the 51st state isn't funny anymore
Discussion:
The Hill, CBC News, The Independent, Townhall, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Raw Story, E&E News, Florida Politics, Fox News, New York Times, Fortune, True North, RedState, Bloomberg, HuffPost and New York Post
Politico:
Donald Trump Jr.'s visit was ‘staged,’ says Greenland lawmaker — “We know how they treat the Inuit in Alaska. Make that great before trying to invade us,” Pipaluk Lynge tells POLITICO. — A senior Greenlandic politician slammed Donald Trump Jr.'s visit to the island as “staged,” …
Discussion:
The Texas Tribune, Raw Story and Daily Mail
RELATED:
Jack Detsch / Politico:
Can Trump buy Greenland? Technically, yes. Here are his options.
Can Trump buy Greenland? Technically, yes. Here are his options.
Discussion:
Daily Mail, Raw Story, KHOU-TV, The Guardian and Breitbart
David Ingram / NBC News:
Elon Musk says DOGE probably won't find $2 trillion in federal budget cuts — Musk previously said his Department of Government Efficiency would be able to recommend cuts to the federal budget of “at least $2 trillion.” — Tech billionaire Elon Musk said Wednesday that his budget-cutting effort …
Ben Blanchet / HuffPost:
'Can't Even Respond': Gavin Newsom Reacts To Trump's Los Angeles Wildfires Attack — The California governor wasn't having it with the president-elect blaming him for the devastating fires. — LOADING — California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) swiftly dismissed Donald Trump's efforts to …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, RedState, Los Angeles Times, CNN, New York Post, The Post Millennial, Daily Mail, Twitchy, Must Read Alaska, The Hill, Axios, Washington Times, Breitbart, Power Line, CBS News, Cal OES News, Mercury News, Fox News, Blaze Media, USA Today, Deadline, Louder With Crowder, Mediaite, TMZ.com, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit and New York Daily News
RELATED:
New Republic:
Trump's Ugly, Hateful Eruptions Over CA Wildfires Hint at Darker Story — With wildfires raging in Los Angeles, Donald Trump unleashed some ugly and hateful tirades on Truth Social. He attacked California Governor Gavin Newsom with a vile slur, blamed the fires on him and President Biden …
Discussion:
Raw Story, New York Times and HuffPost
Paige Skinner / HuffPost:
Karen Pence Snubs Donald Trump At Jimmy Carter's Funeral — This was the first time Mike Pence and Donald Trump have been together publicly since the insurrection. — LOADING — Former second lady Karen Pence appeared to snub President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday at former President Jimmy Carter's funeral.
Discussion:
USA Today, Scripps News and Daily Mail
RELATED:
Alexandra Hutzler / ABC News:
Trump talks with Barack Obama, shakes hands with Mike Pence during Carter funeral
Trump talks with Barack Obama, shakes hands with Mike Pence during Carter funeral
Discussion:
HuffPost, Raw Story, Politico, Washington Examiner, The Hill, Fox News, Axios, USA Today, RedState, Daily Mail, New York Daily News, New York Post, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Gateway Pundit, Twitchy, Blaze Media, TheGrio, The Sun, TMZ.com, Page Six, Hollywood Life, CBS News, Mediaite, Associated Press, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Bloomberg, The Independent and IJR
Slow Boring:
The '90s weren't that great — Nostalgia isn't what it used to be — Today's guest post is from the author of Cartoons Hate Her, a Substack about social dynamics (including parenting, marriage, sex and friendship) from the hybrid mind of a terminally online sicko and a normie liberal mom.
Discussion:
Cartoons Hate Her
Stef W. Kight / Axios:
Scoop: Trump's 100 executive orders … - Senators were given previews of some of what they were told would be 100 executive orders, two sources who were in the room told Axios. — Stephen Miller, Trump's longtime immigration adviser, dove into how they intend to use executive power …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, HotAir, Washington Post, HuffPost and The Gateway Pundit
Duane Patterson / HotAir:
Lessons, Painful At Times, Are Only Lessons If They're Eventually Learned — The devastation in Southern California is almost beyond measure. A little over half of Pacific Palisades is gone. Most of the seaside parts of Malibu are in ruins. There are now seven active fires in Los Angeles …
Discussion:
Townhall, Los Angeles Times, RedState, The Hugh Hewitt Show, Mediaite and Power Line
Philip Bump / Washington Post:
Falsehoods around the L.A. fires are proliferating on the right — Anything to keep the realities of climate change from spreading. — There is nothing political about the wildfires that have annihilated thousands of buildings around Los Angeles this week, with two exceptions.
Discussion:
Fox News, Breitbart, Informed Comment, E&E News, CBS News, RedState, New York Post, HotAir and Al Jazeera
Danielle Wallace / Fox News:
FBI informant who made up Biden bribe story gets 6 years in prison — Alexander Smirnov pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the Bidens accepting $10M in bribes from Ukrainian gas company Burisma — A former FBI informant who prosecutors say fabricated a phony story of President Biden …
Discussion:
The Hill, Reuters, Courthouse News Service, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and Washington Examiner
RELATED:
Marshall Cohen / CNN:
Ex-FBI informant behind fake Biden-Ukraine bribery allegations sentenced to 6 years in prison
Ex-FBI informant behind fake Biden-Ukraine bribery allegations sentenced to 6 years in prison
Discussion:
New Republic, Associated Press and Raw Story
Stephanie McCrummen / The Atlantic:
The Army of God Comes Out of the Shadows … on the thursday night after Donald Trump won the presidential election, an obscure but telling celebration unfolded inside a converted barn off a highway stretching through the cornfields of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Brandy Zadrozny / NBC News:
More than 15,000 doctors sign letter urging Senate to reject RFK Jr. as health secretary — Their letter calls the choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is known for promoting false medical claims, “a slap in the face” to health care professionals. — More than 15,000 doctors have signed …
Discussion:
HotAir, The Independent, Law & Crime, The Guardian, HuffPost, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Hill
Bob Bauer / The Atlantic:
Trump Is Poised to Turn the DOJ Into His Personal Law Firm … No president has ever attempted to do what Donald Trump now proposes to do—assemble a small team of former personal attorneys and install it at the highest levels of the Department of Justice. The president-elect first named lawyers …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and New York Times
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Google donates $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee — Like other Silicon Valley behemoths, the search and advertising giant has worked to make nice with the president-elect ahead of his second term. — Google is donating $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration …
RELATED:
Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Google donates $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund, joining other tech giants
Google donates $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund, joining other tech giants
Discussion:
Politico, Bloomberg, Washington Examiner, The Guardian, Breitbart, New York Times, UPI, Quartz, Fortune, The Independent and The Dispatch, more at Techmeme »
Greg Sargent / New Republic:
Democrats Are About to Surrender to Trump in a Hugely Damaging Way — By all indications, at least nine Senate Democrats will vote to advance the Laken Riley Act, a sweeping measure that mandates the detention of undocumented immigrants who have committed nonviolent crimes, all but ensuring that it will move forward.
Discussion:
The Hill, American Greatness, Axios, Politico, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Semafor and DV Journal
Daniel Dale / CNN:
Fact check: As wildfires rage, Trump lashes out with false claims about FEMA and California water policy — Another natural disaster, another series of false claims from President-elect Donald Trump. — For years, Trump has littered his statements on California wildfires and other disasters with inaccurate assertions.
Discussion:
KQCA-TV, Kevin Drum, Letters from an American, Mediaite, Breitbart, ABC News, Metro.co.uk, Politico, The Hill, NBC News and FOX 11 Los Angeles
Sam J. / Twitchy:
WOW: Leaked Letter from Fire Chief Kristin Crowley Makes Mayor Karen Bass Look Even WORSE (Screenshot) — While our pals on the Left are screeching about climate change being at fault for the devastating fires we're all watching in California in real-time, the reality of the situation …
Discussion:
RedState, New York Post and Townhall