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Category: Politics

Trump tags Brendan Carr to dismantle what’s left of broadband consumer protection at FCC

Trump tags Brendan Carr to dismantle what’s left of broadband consumer protection at FCC

Karl Bode writes: Surprising exactly nobody, Donald Trump has appointed Brendan Carr to lead the nation’s top telecom and media regulator. As we noted last week, there’s zero daylight between Carr’s policies and the policies of unpopular telecom giants like AT&T and Comcast. Carr is as close to the dictionary definition of “regulatory capture” as you’re going to get (with a few additional wrinkles we’ll get to down below). You might recall that Trump’s team promised it would “blacklist” any participants in Project 2025,…

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How Johnson could make Trump’s recess appointments a reality

How Johnson could make Trump’s recess appointments a reality

David Nir writes: [A] never-invoked provision of the Constitution found in Article 2, Section 3, … says that “in Case of Disagreement between” the Senate and House “with Respect to the Time of Adjournment,” the president “may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper.” To our nation’s founders, this rule represented a considerable narrowing of executive power, since it applies to only a single issue: disputes between the two houses over adjournment. Alexander Hamilton, for instance, noted…

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North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has never been more brazen — or in demand

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has never been more brazen — or in demand

The Washington Post reports: After closing off his country at the start of 2020, as covid-19 erupted in neighboring China, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is storming back onto the world stage with a series of audacious moves. He has abandoned North Korea’s seven-decade goal of reuniting with the South. He has dramatically ramped up idol-worship propaganda around himself. And he has sent thousands of North Korean troops to Russia — demonstrating his commitment to an alternative world order…

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Nordic countries advise citizens what to do if Russia attacks

Nordic countries advise citizens what to do if Russia attacks

Politico reports: Sweden on Monday started to distribute copies of a booklet advising its citizens how to prepare for war, as Nordic countries teach people how to brace for a potential Russian attack. The 32-page brochure, which is also available in English and several other languages, advises citizens on warning systems, how to seek shelter during an air raid and even psychological and digital security. “We live in uncertain times. Armed conflicts are currently being waged in our corner of…

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‘Mass deportations would disrupt the food chain’: Californians warn of ripple effect of Trump threat

‘Mass deportations would disrupt the food chain’: Californians warn of ripple effect of Trump threat

The Guardian reports: Take a drive through the Salinas or Central valleys in California and you’ll pass from town to town advertising its specialty fruit or vegetable: strawberries in Watsonville, garlic in Gilroy, pistachios in Avenal and almonds in Ripon. More than 400 types of commodities are grown in the Golden state – including a third of the vegetables and three-quarters of the fruits and nuts produced in the United States. Much of that food is grown by immigrant farm…

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Defense pick Hegseth paid accuser but denies sexual assault, attorney says

Defense pick Hegseth paid accuser but denies sexual assault, attorney says

The Washington Post reports: Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault as part of a nondisclosure agreement, though he maintained that their encounter was consensual, according to a statement from his lawyer Saturday and other documents obtained by The Washington Post. Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, said that Hegseth was “visibly intoxicated” at the time of the incident, and maintained that police who were contacted a few days after…

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After Trump’s election, women are swearing off sex with men. This has been a long time coming

After Trump’s election, women are swearing off sex with men. This has been a long time coming

Cécile Simmons writes: It only took a few hours after news of Donald Trump’s re-election for a sad spectacle to unfold online and beyond. The far-right slogan “Your body, my choice”, tweeted by white nationalist pundit and organiser Nick Fuentes, spread online and off, sparking waves of abuse against women. “You no longer have rights” was one of many similar messages addressed to women by extreme misogynist Andrew Tate, who is facing trial for rape and human trafficking charges in Romania. (He denies these charges.) Meanwhile,…

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Of misogyny, Musk, and men

Of misogyny, Musk, and men

Clara Jeffery writes: In the days before the election, when too many stories about deadlocked polls and undecided voters and the MAGAfication of young men began to wear on my soul, I turned to TikTok to see what women were thinking. Soon enough I was swimming in a sea of female excitement and angst. I watched videos of ordinary women of all ages and races—in deep blue districts and deep red ones—describing what this election meant to them. Women who…

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Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with long-range U.S. missiles

Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with long-range U.S. missiles

The New York Times reports: President Biden has authorized the first use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine for strikes inside Russia, U.S. officials said. The weapons are likely to be initially employed against Russian and North Korean troops in defense of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region of western Russia, the officials said. Mr. Biden’s decision is a major change in U.S. policy. The choice has divided his advisers, and his shift comes two months before President-elect Donald J….

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Democrats who overcame GOP tide urge party to focus on ‘kitchen-table issues’

Democrats who overcame GOP tide urge party to focus on ‘kitchen-table issues’

Politico reports: Democrats who won major Senate races have a blunt message for their party: Get a better economic message or keep losing. From Elissa Slotkin in Michigan to Ruben Gallego in Arizona and Adam Schiff in California, these soon-to-be senators took to the Sunday television shows to answer what they did right that other Democrats failed to do. It all came a week after many other Democrats hid from the networks last Sunday, in the aftermath of the election…

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Trumps mock RFK Jr’s goal to Make America Healthy Again

Trumps mock RFK Jr’s goal to Make America Healthy Again

Rolling Stone reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is Donald Trump’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services, recently called Trump’s diet “poison.” On Saturday, he was photographed on Trump’s plane eating McDonald’s with the president-elect and his inner circle. RFK Jr., who says he wants to operate under the slogan Make America Healthy Again (MAHA), criticized Trump’s diet on a podcast last week. “The stuff that he eats is really, like, bad,” he said. “Campaign food…

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Democrats plan to fight Trump through litigation and law-making rather than marching in the streets

Democrats plan to fight Trump through litigation and law-making rather than marching in the streets

The New York Times reports: Locked out of power next year, Democrats are hatching plans to oppose President-elect Donald J. Trump that look nothing like the liberal “resistance” of 2017. Gone are the pink knit caps and homemade signs from the huge protest that convulsed blue America that year, as exhausted liberals seem more inclined to tune out Mr. Trump than fight. Washington is far different, too. The Republicans who stymied some of Mr. Trump’s first-term agenda are now dead,…

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Trump evaluates potential nominees based on their TV appearances

Trump evaluates potential nominees based on their TV appearances

The New York Times reports: President-elect Donald J. Trump chose his attorney general almost on a whim, in the sky between Washington and Palm Beach, Fla. He scoffed at a candidate for the Department of Homeland Security, then abruptly changed his mind. His defense secretary pick was a snap judgment during a slide presentation at Mar-a-Lago. Emboldened, confident in his instincts and more contemptuous than ever of Washington expertise, Mr. Trump is staffing the most important roles in his government…

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Trump’s defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, hopes for a Christian crusade

Trump’s defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, hopes for a Christian crusade

Mother Jones reports: On Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump announced former Fox News host Pete Hegseth was his pick for secretary of defense. The choice is iconoclastic to say the least. Although Hegseth served as an Army National Guard officer, he has no experience in government leadership that could inform the management of the federal government’s largest agency. What Hegseth does have are connections to the TheoBros, a group of mostly millennial, ultra-conservative men, many of whom proudly call themselves Christian…

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Elon Musk pushes Lutnick for Treasury

Elon Musk pushes Lutnick for Treasury

Politico reports: Elon Musk is backing Donald Trump’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick to lead the Treasury Department, touting the billionaire CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald as a potential secretary who “will actually enact change” from the most powerful economic post in Trump’s Cabinet. Musk labeled another prime contender for the post, hedge fund CEO Scott Bessent, a “business-as-usual choice,” he posted on X, the social media network he purchased two years ago. “Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change…

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How to avoid looking like Nazis: Trump allies were told to stop saying they’ll put migrants in ‘camps’

How to avoid looking like Nazis: Trump allies were told to stop saying they’ll put migrants in ‘camps’

Rolling Stone reports: Donald Trump’s incoming administration brass wants it made clear: The president-elect is not planning to build a brand new network of “camps” to house the myriad undocumented immigrants who Trump has vowed to round up in what he claims will be “the largest deportation” operation in the “history of our country.” To be sure, Trump’s migrant expulsion program, if he were to follow through with his plans to deport millions, would require massive new camps — something…

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