Reading archive 2017-11-30

White House Plans Tillerson Ouster From State Dept., to Be Replaced by Pompeo, Within Weeks

An 11th-Hour Raid by the Wealthiest Baby Boomers: The Republican tax plan would stick young people with the bill, right as political influence is shifting to America’s diverse younger generations.

Woman’s effort to infiltrate The Washington Post dated back months

It Started as a Tax Cut. Now It Could Change American Life.

Cisco, Pfizer, Coca-Cola plan to turn over gains from proposed tax cuts to shareholders

I’m a Depression historian. The GOP tax bill is straight out of 1929.

How the Republican tax bill benefits the rich, according to government analysis

Republicans are selling the Senate tax bill with two big pieces of misinformation

Reading archive 2017-11-29

NBC Fires Matt Lauer Over Sexual Misconduct Allegation

From ‘Access Hollywood’ to Russia, Trump seeks to paint the rosiest picture

Trump's Tax Promises Undercut by CEO Plans to Help Investors

Trump claims kneeling players hurt NFL attendance. Facts say otherwise.

A Sharp Decline for Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Tonight Show’

Good riddance to Lena Dunham

This police officer is accused of being an ISIS-supporting neo-Nazi. He says he just has a dark sense of humor.

Donald Trump is going to build a big, beautiful deficit and rely on China to help pay for it

Matt Lauer Accused of Sexual Harassment by Multiple Women

As Matt Lauer is fired from ‘Today,’ Ann Curry’s disastrous exit is back in the spotlight

Matt Lauer was fired for reported sexual harassment. Watch him question Hillary Clinton’s “judgment.”: His widely criticized interview with Clinton takes on a new importance now.

Mom, son Bears fans ran into Aaron Rodgers in Chicago, and that was just the beginning

Reading archive 2017-11-28

The Complicated Legacy Of A Panda Who Was Really Good At Sex

America has an internet problem — but a radical change could solve it

‘He’s a little obsessed with me’: Hillary Clinton reflects with raw honesty on Trump and 2016

Reading archive 2017-11-22 through 2017-11-27

What Charles Manson Had in Common with the Alt-Right: Besides fear of black people and anxiety about the collapse of the white race, Manson and the modern far-right also shared fantasies about the future.

Conservatives have a breathtaking plan for Trump to pack the courts

Congressman on tape tells woman he would report her to Capitol Police because she could expose his secret sex life

Anita Hill and her 1991 congressional defenders to Joe Biden: You were part of the problem

WHAT TRUMP REALLY TOLD KISLYAK AFTER COMEY WAS CANNED: During a May 10 meeting in the Oval Office, the president betrayed his intelligence community by leaking the content of a classified, and highly sensitive, Israeli intelligence operation to two high-ranking Russian envoys, Sergey Kislyak and Sergey Lavrov. This is what he told them—and the ramifications.

A woman approached The Post with dramatic — and false — tale about Roy Moore. She appears to be part of undercover sting operation.

Is Elizabeth Warren Native American or What?: The Democratic Senate candidate can't back up family lore that she is part Cherokee—but neither is there any evidence that she benefited professionally from these stories.

Reading archive 2017-11-21

How a conservative group dealt with a fondling charge against a rising GOP star

30 Sources Expose Sexually Explicit Evidence of Harassment by Ohio GOP Rep. Wes Goodman

U.S. diplomats accuse Tillerson of breaking child soldiers law

Reading archive 2017-11-20

‘Die at your next fire’: Ariz. professor accused of stalking firefighters and student

Reading archive 2017-11-19

GOP Tax Bill Is The End Of All Economic Sanity In Washington

The Most Hated Poet in Portland: One tweet turned Collin Andrew Yost into a joke. Could he survive it?

Reading archive 2017-11-17

Roger Goodell has a Jerry Jones problem and nobody knows how it will end

Reading archive 2017-11-16

John Raines, accomplice in 1971 burglary that revealed FBI abuses, dies at 84

The GOP plan to kill Obamacare’s least popular provision could backfire on some in the middle class

Republicans: Enrage your colleagues - "Then there is this sleight of hand: While the Senate bill makes the corporate tax cut permanent, it sets all the proposed reductions for individuals to expire at the end of 2025. This artificially decreases the short-term costs of the bill. If those tax cuts did expire, Americans in large numbers would eventually see their taxes go up under this deal. (ed. note: that is, up compared to what they pay right now, or way up compared to what they pay the next ten years)

"Let’s take a step back and ponder the exceptional irresponsibility of what’s transpiring here. The same people who complained that more than a year of hearings, analysis and debate around Obamacare constituted “rushing” the bill are now recklessly spiriting through the system a gigantic piece of legislation that would touch all corners of the American economy."

Mother's boyfriend guilty of murder in torture death of 8-year-old Palmdale boy - "The prosecutor told jurors in closing arguments this week that the 6-foot-2, 270-pound Aguirre clearly enjoyed torturing the small boy and had systematically brutalized him in the months leading to his death, forcing him to eat cat litter and feces and making him sleep bound and gagged in a small cabinet overnight.

"Hatami said Aguirre couldn't blame either drugs or mental health problems for his actions, and he added that Aguirre hated Gabriel because he suspected the boy was gay."

Homeland Security official resigns after comments linking blacks to ‘laziness’ and ‘promiscuity’ come to light

Reading archive 2017-11-15

Fox News’s Shepard Smith debunks his network’s favorite Hillary Clinton ‘scandal,’ infuriates viewers

The facts behind Trump’s repeated claim about Hillary Clinton’s role in the Russian uranium deal

Donald Trump Jr.’s incredible history of dumb decisions

Explaining Islam: In Las Cruces, N.M., members of a local mosque want to dispel rumors about Muslims

Trump said he would strike one-on-one trade deals. That’s not happening.

DAMAGED BODIES, HEALING HEARTS: Despite devastating injuries, struggling towns still see football as a way to make it through

Fusion GPS co-founder: Steele didn't pay sources for dossier on Trump

‘Like Bond villains’: What happened when Steven Mnuchin and his wife posed with a sheet of money

Reading archive 2017-11-14

'Nothing about it felt right': More than 50 people describe sexual harassment on Capitol Hill

Members of Congress engaged in sexual harassment, lawmakers say

‘Why aren’t the other hands up?’ A top Trump adviser’s startling response to CEOs not doing what he’d expect

Reading archive 2017-11-13

The love of his life was lured into a deadly trap. Then so was he.

Yes, the G.O.P. Can Block Roy Moore

Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A. to Its Core: A serial leak of the agency’s cyberweapons has damaged morale, slowed intelligence operations and resulted in hacking attacks on businesses and civilians worldwide.

National Museum of African American History's program digitizes old family memories

Digital Is More Than a Department, It Is a Collective Responsibility

New woman accuses Moore of sexual misconduct when she was a minor

The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks

Bill Clinton: A Reckoning: Feminists saved the 42nd president of the United States in the 1990s. They were on the wrong side of history; is it finally time to make things right? - "When more than a dozen women stepped forward and accused Leon Wieseltier of a serial and decades-long pattern of workplace sexual harassment, he said, 'I will not waste this reckoning.' It was textbook Wieseltier: the insincere promise and the perfectly chosen word. The Democratic Party needs to make its own reckoning of the way it protected Bill Clinton. The party needs to come to terms with the fact that it was so enraptured by their brilliant, Big Dog president and his stunning string of progressive accomplishments that it abandoned some of its central principles. The party was on the wrong side of history and there are consequences for that. Yet expedience is not the only reason to make this public accounting. If it is possible for politics and moral behavior to coexist, then this grave wrong needs to be acknowledged. If Weinstein and Mark Halperin and Louis C.K. and all the rest can be held accountable, so can our former president and so can his party, which so many Americans so desperately need to rise again."

Locals Were Troubled by Roy Moore’s Interactions with Teen Girls at the Gadsden Mall

Reading archive 2017-11-12

The dolphin who loved me: the Nasa-funded project that went wrong

Former U.S. intelligence officials: Trump being ‘played’ by Putin

The Entertainment World Is Changing, and Papa John Can’t Keep Up: With the landscape of television shifting, advertisers will need to learn how to better spend their money. Instead, Papa John is pointing fingers at all of the wrong people.

Pizza Hut: NFL protests aren't affecting our sales

Former FBI counter-spy on Mueller, Trump and Putin: “Russia is winning”: Naveed Jamali was a double agent battling Russian intelligence. He says their plans have worked brilliantly

Reading archive 2017-11-11

Trump Says Putin ‘Means It’ About Not Meddling - "Mr. Trump heaped disdain on the former leaders of three American intelligence agencies — John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director; James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence; and James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director he fired this year — appearing to suggest that they were less trustworthy than Mr. Putin. 'I mean, give me a break — they’re political hacks,' Mr. Trump said. 'You have Brennan, you have Clapper, and you have Comey. Comey's proven now to be a liar, and he’s proven to be a leaker, so you look at that. And you have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he had nothing to do with that.'" (ed. note: U.S. intelligence report says Putin targeted presidential election to 'harm' Hillary Clinton's chances)

The Vacuity of the Vice President

Trump says U.S. won’t be ‘taken advantage of anymore.’ Hours later, Pacific Rim nations reach deal on trade without America.

Bannon is right: It’s no coincidence The Post broke the Moore story

I did a stand-up set about Louis C.K.’s offenses. It wasn’t enough.

Trump’s intentional behavior in Japan was much worse than his etiquette mistakes

Reading archive 2017-11-10

‘I don’t feel wealthy’: The upper middle class is worried about paying for the tax overhaul

‘Love Thy Neighbor?’: When a Muslim doctor arrived in a rural Midwestern town, “it felt right.” But that feeling began to change after the election of Donald Trump.

One of the busiest websites in the U.S. in 2016 regularly linked to Russia propaganda (ed. note: it's Drudge)

Trump judge nominee, 36, who has never tried a case, wins approval of Senate panel - "When Trump took office in January, there were more than 100 vacant seats on the federal courts, thanks to an unprecedented slowdown engineered by McConnell during the final two years of President Obama's term. The Senate under GOP control approved only 22 judges in that two-year period, the lowest total since 1951-52 in the last year of President Truman's term. By contrast, the Senate under Democratic control approved 68 judges in the last two years of George W. Bush's presidency."

Reading archive 2017-11-09

Democrats Win Phase One of the Redistricting Wars: In the critical state of Virginia, wins by the party in the governor’s mansion and the state legislature give it a foothold in the 2020 mapping game.

Woman says Roy Moore initiated sexual encounter when she was 14, he was 32

Mitch McConnell and chorus of Republican senators call on Roy Moore to step aside in Alabama Senate race

The GOP’s Roy Moore and Steve Bannon nightmare just came true

Which Team’s Decision to Not Sign Colin Kaepernick Is Least Defensible?: Kaepernick is bringing a lawsuit against the NFL claiming that franchises have colluded in not signing him. While that could be tough to prove in court, it’s easy to show just how hypocritical teams have been for arguing that their rationale revolves around “football reasons.”

Lockheed Martin gets ready to test a laser weapon on a fighter jet

Minority-owned firms report tougher time accessing credit than white firms

Graham: 'Financial contributions will stop' if GOP doesn't pass tax reform

Louis C.K. Crossed a Line Into Sexual Misconduct, 5 Women Say

Reading archive 2017-11-08

Johnstown Never Believed Trump Would Help. They Still Love Him Anyway.: In a depressed former steel town, the president’s promises don’t matter as much as they once did. (ed. note: holy shit)

His girlfriend’s televised slaying made him run for office. He won.

Senate GOP tax bill could delay corporate tax cut and make other major changes that break sharply with House plan

Why Northam’s Win in Virginia Was So Impressive

Hearing Both Sides of Taylor Swift: Since the 2016 election, she has been criticized for refusing to engage with national politics, or speaking out against the hate groups that celebrate her. Can a pop star afford to stay apolitical in our current climate?

Donna Brazile is walking back her claim that the Democratic primary was ‘rigged’

Barack Obama is building a library — and grappling again with Chicago politics

‘Canary in the coal mine’: Republicans fear Democratic wins mean more losses to come

‘The cracks in the foundation are there’: Bob Costas imagines a future without football

Reading archive 2017-11-07

ACLU scolds Taylor Swift for effort to protect reputation

How Anti-Terrorism Design Can Also Make Cities More Livable

CIA DIRECTOR MET ADVOCATE OF DISPUTED DNC HACK THEORY — AT TRUMP’S REQUEST - "The meeting raises questions about Pompeo’s willingness to act as an honest broker between the intelligence community and the White House, and his apparent refusal to push back against efforts by the president to bend the intelligence process to suit his political purposes. Instead of acting as a filter between Trump and the intelligence community, Pompeo’s decision to meet with Binney raises the possibility that right-wing theories aired on Fox News and in other conservative media can now move not just from conservative pundits to Trump, but also from Trump to Pompeo and into the bloodstream of the intelligence community.

"Some senior CIA officials have grown upset that Pompeo, a former Republican representative from Kansas, has become so close to Trump that the CIA director regularly expresses skepticism about intelligence that doesn’t line up with the president’s views. Pompeo has also alienated some CIA managers by growing belligerent toward them in meetings, according to an intelligence official familiar with the matter."

The Twitter thought experiment that exposes “pro-life” hypocrisy

The disturbing history behind an NFL owner’s explosive comments

Chilling tale of Harvey Weinstein’s spies shows Ronan Farrow’s reporting chops — and compassion

Trump just made a bad night for Republicans much worse for himself

Reading archive 2017-11-04 through 2017-11-06

Elizabeth Warren and Donna Brazile both now agree the 2016 Democratic primary was rigged - "The timeline here is also important. Many of those emails described above came after it was abundantly clear that Clinton would be the nominee, barring a massive and almost impossible shift in primary votes. It may have been in poor taste and contrary to protocol, but the outcome was largely decided long before Sanders ended his campaign. Brazile doesn't dwell too much on the timeline, so it's not clear exactly how in-the-bag Clinton had the nomination when the alleged takeover began. It's also not clear exactly what Clinton got for her alleged control.

"This is also somewhat self-serving for Brazile, given the DNC continued to struggle during and after her tenure, especially financially. The op-ed is excerpted from her forthcoming book, 'Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House.' Losses like the one in 2016 will certainly lead to plenty of finger-pointing, and Brazile's book title and description allude to it containing plenty of that."

White House attacks legacies of both Bush presidents after reports that they refused to vote for Trump

Commerce Secretary’s Offshore Ties to Putin ‘Cronies’

Saudi Arabia Arrests 11 Princes, Including Billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal

Citigroup, Twitter, Lyft: Prince’s Arrest Touches Many

India turns to public shaming to get people to use its 52 million new toilets

They spent years planning to live with Alzheimer’s disease. The GOP tax bill threatens those plans.

In glyphosate review, WHO cancer agency edited out “non-carcinogenic” findings

A fake shooter and ‘false flag’ rumors at the hospital — how dark online hoaxes came to Texas

Brazile says she found ‘no evidence’ that Democratic primaries were rigged for Clinton

Reading archive 2017-11-02

Senate Democrats falsely claim GOP tax plan will raise taxes for most working-class families

I worked for Paul Manafort. He always lacked a moral compass.

Reading archive 2017-11-01

Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, and John McCain need to start acting like senators, not pundits: Find legislative leverage and use it. Do something.

The Islamic World Doesn't Need a Reformation: Why a Muslim John Locke would be much more useful than a Muslim Martin Luther

A Proposal for Islam

“YOU CAN’T GO ANY LOWER”: INSIDE THE WEST WING, TRUMP IS APOPLECTIC AS ALLIES FEAR IMPEACHMENT: After Monday’s indictments, the president blamed Jared Kushner in a call to Steve Bannon, while others are urging him to take off the gloves with Robert Mueller.