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Trump's dinner with antisemites provides test of GOP response to extremism — Republicans are showing increasing boldness in criticizing Trump over his meeting with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West who has issued anti-Jewish diatribes
Discussion:
VICE, Vox, Raw Story, Vanity Fair and Michael-In-Norfolk
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Yes, He Will Burn It All Down — Nearly two years ago a prediction was published here, a warning to Republicans that “Donald Trump is going to destroy their party. Not because he wants to or even because he's trying to. But because the destruction of the GOP will be required in order to fill his psychological needs.”
Discussion:
Morning Shots and Raw Story

Stuck With Ronna — How does such a loser become the longest-serving RNC chair in modern history? — If you want to know how bad things are for the Republican party, consider this: The person most likely to be selected next month to chair the Republican National Committee has already overseen …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Raw Story, Insider and RedState

Biden world once ignored Marjorie Taylor Greene. Now it's making her the face of the GOP. — With a fractured Republican party readying to take the reins in the House of Representatives, the White House is doing something it resisted early in office: taking on the more extreme members of the opposition party.

Quit Underestimating President Biden — If Republicans are going to successfully work through the next two years in Congress - and win the presidency in 2024 - we need to look much more deeply at what worked and what did not work in 2020 and 2022. — by Newt Gingrich
Discussion:
Wide World of News
Kyle Kondik / Sabato's Crystal Ball:
The New Crossover Members of the House
The New Crossover Members of the House
Discussion:
Zandar Versus The Stupid and Polity Research Insights

Herschel Walker Ex Comes Forward: He Attacked Me in a Rage — Cheryl Parsa says she endured cheating, lying, violence, and multiple personalities during her romance with the gridiron great. … A former longtime girlfriend of Republican senatorial candidate Herschel Walker has come forward …
Discussion:
Insider, New York Magazine, The Hill, CNN, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, The Guardian, Forbes and Raw Story
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Georgia 2022: Warnock Holds Slight Edge Over Walker
Discussion:
Inside Elections, HotAir, New York Daily News, Breitbart, The Hill, Washington Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution

'It's all bullshit': Democrats unload on the crypto industry while hearings loom — Sign up for Semafor Principals: An insider's guide to power in D.C. — Your Email addressSign Up — At a moment when Congress is finally debating whether and how to seriously regulate the cryptocurrency industry …
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New York Times:
‘Look, I Screwed Up’: Sam Bankman-Fried Is Challenged on the Collapse of FTX
‘Look, I Screwed Up’: Sam Bankman-Fried Is Challenged on the Collapse of FTX
Discussion:
CNBC, HuffPost, Mediaite, Wall Street Journal, CoinDesk, Summit News, The Daily Caller, The Information, Twitchy, The Daily Wire, Slate, Rolling Stone, Just The News, Vanity Fair, Fortune and NPR, more at Techmeme »

Matt Gaetz associate Joel Greenberg gets 11 years as probe into congressman stalls, sources say — Joel Greenberg agreed to cooperate with the probe into Rep. Gaetz, sources said. — Former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg talks to the Orlando Sentinel during an interview at his office in Lake Mary, Fla., in Sept., 2019.
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Former Gaetz Confidant Is Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison — Joel Greenberg, a tax collector in Florida, had been cooperating with the Justice Department in its investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz. — ORLANDO, Fla. — A Florida tax collector who has been cooperating …
Discussion:
Politico, CNN, The Daily Beast, The Hill, Insider, Associated Press, Raw Story and WKMG

IRS Audits That Included Comey, McCabe Were Random Selections, Report Finds — Inspector general's study found no evidence of misconduct by tax agency — WASHINGTON—IRS research audits in 2017 and 2019—the years that FBI leaders James Comey and Andrew McCabe were selected for those intensive exams …
Discussion:
Associated Press and Politico

Friends to the left of him, critics to the right: McCarthy's stuck in the chase — House Republicans are playing high-stakes tug of war with Kevin McCarthy's speakership dreams. And now both sides are digging in their heels. — On the GOP leader's right, conservatives are meeting …
Discussion:
PoliticusUSA, Breitbart, RedState, The Dispatch and Axios
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Rise in Iranian assassination, kidnapping plots alarms Western officials — In the summer of 2021, officers from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service showed up at the Vancouver home of Ramin Seyed Emami, an Iranian Canadian musician and performer who hosts a popular Persian-language podcast.

Macron, in Washington, says Biden's agenda could ‘fragment the West’ — French leader warns that Europe is taking a back seat as “the U.S. looks first to the U.S.” — French President Emmanuel Macron warned Wednesday that President Biden's signature domestic policies could “fragment the West …
Discussion:
USA Today, NBC News, France 24, The Hill, Politico, Climate Denial Crock …, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, UPI, NBC Boston, CBS News, The American Independent, Washington Times, New York Times and TASS
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CNN Layoffs Expected to Affect HLN … HLN, the cable network once known as CNN Headline News, is home to a bevy of true-crime series, endless showings of “Forensic Files,” and “Morning Express with Robin Meade,” with a host who has been at the network since 2001. Now, all of that is under the microscope.
Discussion:
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fox News, Deadline, TVNewser, Boston Herald, Breitbart, HotAir, RedState, The Hill, The Hollywood Reporter and IJR, more at Mediagazer »

U.S. gas prices plunge toward $3 a gallon as demand drops worldwide — The average price of gas is back to where it was before Russia invaded Ukraine. It is putting real money back in Americans' wallets. — The cost of gasoline is falling so fast that it is beginning to put real money …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and The Hill

A Right-Wing Zionist Digests Trump's Anti-Semite Dinner Party — Can the former President be the “best friend Israel ever had in the White House” while also legitimatizing “Jew-haters”? — Three weeks ago, the Zionist Organization of America gave what it called its highest honor to former President Donald Trump.
Discussion:
Althouse

House, Senate negotiators agree to add $45B to Biden's defense budget — An emerging compromise on annual defense policy legislation will endorse a $45 billion increase to President Joe Biden's defense spending plans, according to four people familiar with the negotiations.
Discussion:
GovExec.com, The Capitolist, The Hill and Washington Examiner

Schumer vows freight rail resolution, but timing still uncertain — Senators were heading into a crucial lunch Thursday with two of President Joe Biden's Cabinet officials as lawmakers struggle to carve out a way forward that would avoid a freight rail strike, the impacts of which will start to be felt this weekend.
Discussion:
Alaska Beacon, New York Times, New Republic, The Daily Beast, HuffPost, Common Dreams and Roll Call
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School principals say culture wars made last year ‘rough as hell’ — “Rough as hell.” — That's how one high school principal in Nevada describes the 2021-'22 school year, when conflicts with parents and community members were all too common. — “Something needs to change or else we will all quit …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Washington Post, news.ucr.edu, Mother Jones and USA Today

POLITICO Playbook: ‘Dems in disarray’ makes a (brief) comeback — Presented by With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross — DRIVING THE DAY — Since Election Day, the drama in the House has been concentrated on the GOP side, as KEVIN McCARTHY tries to overcome a MAGA world mutiny to get the gavel …
Discussion:
The Hill and National Review

This California city asked where its recycling went. The answer wasn't pretty. — Four years ago, city officials in Palo Alto, California, posed what they thought was a straightforward question: Where did their recycling go? — Concerned citizens had seen dire headlines about plastic dumping …
Discussion:
Irish Examiner, MIT Technology Review, Politico and Al Jazeera

FBI denies purging conservative employees in letter to Jim Jordan — Jordan may escalate his FBI probe once taking control of the House Judiciary Committee — Fox News Flash top headlines for December 1 — The FBI denied accusations from Republicans on Capitoll Hill …
Discussion:
CNN and Frontpage Mag

Trumpists are vowing to sabotage Biden. Act on this now, Democrats. — It's clear that the incoming House GOP majority will try to use debt-limit extortion to extract all kinds of concessions from Democrats. This will likely focus on refusing to raise the nation's borrowing limit to try to secure deep spending cuts.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and The Hill

Banks failing to comply with anti-corruption rules and sanctions lists — Officials named on Magnitsky lists as well as criminals can easily access global finance systems, study finds — Criminals including terrorists and tax evaders, as well as government officials subject to sanctions …

How China's Biggest Protests in Decades Unfolded Over Five Days — Created with sketchtool. — 1x — SINGAPORE—China's internet watchdog instructed tech companies to expand censorship of protests and moved to curb access to virtual private networks this week, as a government clampdown succeeds …
Discussion:
The Post Millennial and Associated Press, more at Techmeme »