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Trump picks Pam Bondi for AG, having previously been accused of bribing her when she was Florida AG

Trump picks Pam Bondi for AG, having previously been accused of bribing her when she was Florida AG

NBC News reports: President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday evening that his new pick for attorney general is Pam Bondi. Bondi previously served as Florida’s attorney general. The announcement came just hours after former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., withdrew from consideration. “For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans — Not anymore,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and…

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Why Trump dumped Gaetz

Why Trump dumped Gaetz

Marc A. Caputo reports: Donald Trump giveth. And he taketh away. Eight days after making the snap decision to nominate Matt Gaetz to be the nation’s next attorney general, Trump phoned him Thursday morning to tell him he wouldn’t get confirmed, according to a source briefed on the conversation. The president-elect explained that Republican senators were too troubled by the sex scandals and investigations surrounding Gaetz and that the constant and salacious distractions had doomed him. “You don’t have the…

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RFK Jr. compared Trump to Hitler and praised descriptions of his supporters as ‘Nazis’

RFK Jr. compared Trump to Hitler and praised descriptions of his supporters as ‘Nazis’

CNN reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of Health and Human Services, has a long history of scathing critiques against Trump, labeling him a “threat to democracy,” a “bully,” and, as recently as July, a “terrible president.” But Kennedy’s harshest attacks date back to Trump’s rise in 2016, when on his radio show “Ring of Fire,” Kennedy applauded descriptions of Trump’s base as “belligerent idiots” and suggestions that some were “outright Nazis” and “spineless fellow…

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The technology the Trump administration might use to hack your phone

The technology the Trump administration might use to hack your phone

Ronan Farrow writes: In September, the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) signed a two-million-dollar contract with Paragon, an Israeli firm whose spyware product Graphite focusses on breaching encrypted-messaging applications such as Telegram and Signal. Wired first reported that the technology was acquired by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—an agency within D.H.S. that will soon be involved in executing the Trump Administration’s promises of mass deportations and crackdowns on border crossings. A source at Paragon told me that the deal followed…

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Can he do that? How Trump could try to break the federal government

Can he do that? How Trump could try to break the federal government

ABC News reports: President Donald Trump’s picks to lead the next administration are talking about abolishing entire agencies and firing tens of thousands of federal workers at a time. But can his administration actually do all that? Experts believe Trump can get much further on upending the government system this go-around compared to his first term — in part because the typical checks and balances are expected to lean in his favor. Next year, the House and Senate are on…

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U.S. federal workers hope Republicans will curb Trump, Musk firings

U.S. federal workers hope Republicans will curb Trump, Musk firings

Reuters reports: Members of the over 2 million-strong U.S. civilian federal workforce are looking to an unlikely source to protect it from Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s promise to slash government employees and cut costs: the incoming Republican-controlled Congress. Federal employee unions are lining up lawyers and preparing public campaigns to try to stave off any mass firings, but they’re hoping Republican Congress members will join Democrats in defending their importance to local economies, health and safety, union members and…

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Trump’s corruption of the DOJ goes much deeper than Gaetz

Trump’s corruption of the DOJ goes much deeper than Gaetz

Liz Dye writes: Donald Trump’s nomination of Matt Gaetz as attorney general is a giant middle finger to anyone who believes in the rule of law. But his nominees for other key Justice Department positions may be both more consequential and potentially more dangerous for democracy. That’s partly because Gaetz is a lazy fool who never tried a federal criminal case and is functionally a “liberal tears” meme made flesh. It’s not that he’s too stupid to be dangerous —…

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Silicon Valley eyes a windfall from Trump’s plans to gut regulation

Silicon Valley eyes a windfall from Trump’s plans to gut regulation

The Washington Post reports: Prominent venture capitalists and start-up founders see Donald Trump’s victory as heralding a golden age for innovation — anticipating a major boost to tech businesses from lucrative government contracts and the rollback of regulations they consider onerous. The tech industry’s potentially unbridled future under the second Trump administration energized some Republican donors at a Las Vegas conference this week hosted by the Rockbridge Network, a conservative political advocacy group co-founded by Trump’s incoming vice president, former…

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This election’s surprising bright spot for progressives is a very big deal

This election’s surprising bright spot for progressives is a very big deal

Mark Joseph Stern writes: The 2024 election marked a painful setback for Democratic hopes of rebalancing the federal judiciary: When Donald Trump reenters the White House in January, he will have a pliant Republican Senate majority eager to confirm his hard-right judges. But federal courts don’t tell the whole story: Across the country, voters also elected liberal justices to their state Supreme Courts, which function as a key backstop for civil rights and democracy as federal courts lurch rightward. Progressives…

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Key intelligence watchdogs resign in wake of Trump’s win

Key intelligence watchdogs resign in wake of Trump’s win

The Project On Government Oversight reports: The top watchdogs for the Central Intelligence Agency and Office of the Director of National Intelligence are leaving their roles in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s re-election, sources tell the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) and their agencies confirm. These departures come as unease has swept across the federal inspector general community, which anticipates the possibility of a purge of senior watchdog officials by the incoming Trump administration. Appointed by the president…

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Anti-trafficking ministries oppose Trump’s pick for attorney general

Anti-trafficking ministries oppose Trump’s pick for attorney general

Christianity Today reports: Several Christian anti-trafficking organizations are publicly opposing President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for US attorney general, former Republican representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. Gaetz resigned his congressional seat last week after the nomination announcement, just days before the House Ethics Committee planned to release its investigation into accusations the lawmaker had sex with a minor. He was also investigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for sex trafficking, though the DOJ did not pursue charges. If he wins…

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For minority working-class voters, dismay in Democrats led to distrust

For minority working-class voters, dismay in Democrats led to distrust

The New York Times reports: The working-class voters Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign needed were not moved by talk of joy. They were too angry about feeling broke. For decades, Democrats had been the party of labor and of the working class, the choice for voters who looked to government to increase the minimum wage or provide a safety net for the poor, the old and the sick. But this year’s election results show how thoroughly that idea has…

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The three pillars of the bro-economy

The three pillars of the bro-economy

Annie Lowrey writes: Just 50 days before his reelection, Donald Trump took the time to hawk a new crypto platform. If the country does not build out its cryptocurrency ecosystem, “we’re not going to be the biggest, and we have to be the biggest and the best,” Trump said on a livestream on X. “It’s very young and very growing. And if we don’t do it, China’s going to do it.” The livestream was sponsored by World Liberty Financial, which…

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Biden locks in $6.6B for TSMC chip factories, ensuring Trump can’t rescind CHIPS Act deal

Biden locks in $6.6B for TSMC chip factories, ensuring Trump can’t rescind CHIPS Act deal

By Phineas Hogan/Cronkite News, Arizona Mirror November 18, 2024 WASHINGTON – The Biden administration has finalized a $6.6 billion award for the Taiwan semiconductor giant that is building massive factories in Phoenix, amid concerns President-elect Donald Trump will derail subsidies aimed at fostering the domestic chip industry. “This is a gigantic announcement,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told reporters on a call ahead of the announcement early Friday, 10 days after Trump’s election. “This will be one of the most…

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How ‘comrade’ Tulsi Gabbard became a favorite of Russia’s state media

How ‘comrade’ Tulsi Gabbard became a favorite of Russia’s state media

The New York Times reports: In 2017, when she was still a Democratic member of Congress, Tulsi Gabbard traveled to Syria and met the country’s authoritarian president, Bashar al-Assad. She also accused the United States of supporting terrorists there. The day after Vladimir V. Putin began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ms. Gabbard blamed the United States and NATO for provoking the war by ignoring Russia’s security concerns. She has since suggested that the United States covertly worked…

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Trump’s national security wrecking crew

Trump’s national security wrecking crew

David Ignatius writes: American voters gave Donald Trump a solid win on Election Day. But they didn’t give him a wrecking ball to destroy the country’s military and intelligence agencies. That’s what’s so scary about Trump’s nominations of Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard as secretary of defense and director of national intelligence, respectively. Neither is remotely qualified for two of the most important management jobs in government. They’re polemicists and ideologues — wreckers, to be blunt, rather than builders. If…

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