Progressive search for action

11+ min ago (383+ words) Paramount Skydance's $108 billion hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery includes billions of dollars in funding from Middle East investors and Jared Kushner's private equity firm, according to reports on Monday. Those details emerged soon after Paramount Skydance CEO'David Ellison'announced his company was mounting a challenge to Netflix's WBD bid, which he called an "inferior" offer. "A filing confirms that Paramount's tender offer is also supported by $24 billion in debt financing from sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, as well as from Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners," The Hollywood Reporter reported. Axios noted "Affinity Partners was not mentioned in Paramount's press release on Monday morning about its $108 billion bid, nor were participating sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar." Paramount's tender offer is for $30 per share, which would all be paid in cash, compared…...

11+ min ago (1085+ words) While awaiting sentencing in a county jail in the Sierra Nevada foothills, a 36-year-old woman described as a leader of a "transnational terrorist group" has "continued to coordinate" with members of her group "and other white supremacist attackers via letters, phone calls and video calls," the U.S. government says. Dallas Erin Humber, who led Terrorgram Collective alongside codefendant Matthew Robert Allison from July 2022 until her arrest in September 2024, is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Sacramento, Calif. on Dec. 17. The U.S. Department of Justice accuses the 36-year-old of seeking to establish a white ethnostate by igniting a race war and "accelerating" the collapse of the federal government. Humber, the DOJ says, aimed to achieve her goals by "targeting and radicalizing vulnerable teenagers; by grooming them to commit hate crimes; terrorist attacks on infrastructure, and assassinations; and by providing them technical,…...

13+ min ago (1176+ words) Crawling from the wreckage of the successful California redistricting vote that will likely make Golden State GOP representation in Washington, DC, almost extinct, Politico's Jeremy White reported Monday that party leaders in the state are desperately looking for a path forward. In response to President Donald Trump setting in motion redrawing of district boundary lines in Texas in order to acquire more Republican seats in the House in the 2026 midterms, California Gov. Gavin Newsom returned the favor with Prop. 50 that did the same for the Democrats in his already liberal state. Voters in California backed him by a stunning 64 to 35 percent margin, the report noted, adding that GOP campaign consultant Dave Gilliard admitted, "I'm sure Gavin Newsom and the Democrats are sitting back laughing and enjoying the havoc they've wreaked on the Republicans in California." Politico's White wrote that imperiled…...

13+ min ago (446+ words) Insecure Use of Signal App Part of Wider DoD Problem The Signalgate scandal that enveloped US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in March appears to be symptomatic of a wider lax attitude towards the use of non-approved messaging apps by officials and employees, a Senate Committee has concluded. Posted by lamplighter at 11:30 AM | 7 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry | This week's dual reports have come back with a mixed assessment of these points. Broadly, what Hegseth was accused of doing -- communicating sensitive information using a third-party messaging app -- appears to have been happening at the DoD in less serious contexts since at least 2020. In doing so, the report agrees he violated security policies by sending sensitive information from a personal device, and using the non-approved Signal app in a way that revealed important operational details in advance of the strike....

17+ min ago (240+ words) Barstool Sports" Dave Portnoy facetiously called for the murder of Las Vegas Raiders coach Pete Carroll after the team decided to kick a meaningless field goal at the end of Sunday"s game. In the final moments of Sunday"s matchup with the Denver Broncos, the Raiders trailed 24-14. With less than 30 seconds left and the Raiders needing multiple scores, the loss was virtually guaranteed. Still, the team continued driving down the field with urgency. " downloadpikkit (@bad_beats__) December 8, 2025 As Portnoy noted in a video reacting to the game, the Broncos were 8.5-point favorites going into the day. If the score held at 24-14, those who bet the over on that spread would win. A field goal, however, would result in those bets being lost. Because the field goal effectively meant nothing to the outcome of the game, Portnoy insisted something fishy was at…...

20+ min ago (1702+ words) President Donald Trump's attempt to pay tribute to the honorees at the Kennedy Center Sunday night was marred by the president's verbal diarrhea. While discussing the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors, Trump made a strange verbal detour into gushing about a round of golf he'd played with Gary Player. "They have talent. They have talent. The great Gary Player, he hits shots. He's 90 years old. He still plays good. Shot a 70 with me the other day. He's 90. We're playing pretty far back too. He's incredible. You think [Joe] Biden could do that? I don't think so. Can't, can't lift the club," Trump said. Trump, who has a tendency to repeat his own jokes and stories, previously bragged about Player shooting a 70 in late October. This time, the president claimed they'd been playing with another person who kept getting stuck…...

21+ min ago (1795+ words) At least one Republican is encouraging the Defense Department to blow up boats in the Carribbean'even if the ships have no apparent plans to enter U.S. waters. New reports indicate that before the Pentagon double-tapped a boat on September 2, mercilessly killing a pair of survivors who clung to the flotsam, officials knew that the small watercraft was headed to Suriname and then to Europe or Africa'not the United States. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton told NBC News's Kristin Welker Sunday that he wasn't just "comfortable" that the military had bombed a ship in international waters that had no intention of arriving in the U.S., but that he would actually like the government to "continue" the practice. "Is there any hard evidence that shows this particular boat was headed to the United States?" asked Welker. "That didn't come up in my briefing," Cotton said....

21+ min ago (1787+ words) Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene still isn't willing to admit her contributions to the toxicity in American politics." The onetime MAGA loyalist who has become critical of President Trump in recent months was interviewed by Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes Sunday. When Greene started speaking about how toxic the political culture in Washington is, Stahl pointed out her past." "It's the most toxic political culture, and it's not helping the American people," Greene began, before Stahl jumped in." "But you contributed to that. You, you, you were out there pounding and insulting people," Stahl said. Greene avoided taking responsibility, becoming her own combative self and calling Stahl toxic and accusatory." "You're accusing me, but we don't have to accuse one other," Greene said with a big grin. Stahl replied that she wanted Greene to respond to her own record, but the congresswoman…...

23+ min ago (280+ words) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Trump administration's controversial secretary of health and human services, has a surprisingly high approval rating among voters participating in a new poll. Some 2,204 registered voters in the United States were asked how they viewed a host of political figures as part of a Harvard-Harris poll conducted between December 2-4. The highest rated figures, according to the poll, were Kennedy, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, and California Governor Gavin Newsom (D). For RFK Jr., 43% of those polled viewed him favorably, while just 40% viewed him unfavorably for a gap of 3% toward favorable. Vance's numbers were tied with 40% favorable and 40% unfavorable. Trump, on the other hand, had a favorability rating of 45% and unfavorable rating of 49%. RFK Jr.'s numbers are shocking due to his controversial views on vaccines, which have been denounced by lawmakers on both sides…...

29+ min ago (743+ words) The conservative legal movement has for decades insisted that an originalist understanding of the Constitution " that is, an interpretation that looks to how the document was understood at the time of the nation's founding " demands letting the president remove executive branch officials as he sees fit," the New York Times reports. That follows, the argument goes, from the "unitary executive theory,' which says the president should have complete control of the executive branch and that congressional efforts to shield the leaders of independent agencies from politics should be forbidden." The Best Laptop I've Ever Used In 25 years of running Political Wire, no computer has ever served me better than the latest MacBook Air. It's the rare machine that's powerful enough to handle my entire workflow yet light enough to take everywhere " and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's on…...