The Hill reports: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Wednesday pleaded with Republicans to stop attacking each other as they keep getting mired in nasty personal fights, admonishing them that “Congress is not junior high.” During a closed-door meeting with rank-and-file Republicans, McCarthy said that the intraparty squabbles among a handful of Republicans — primarily between the far-right flank …

The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court seemed poised on Wednesday to uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, based on sometimes tense and heated questioning at a momentous argument in the most important abortion case in decades. Such a ruling would be flatly at odds with what the court has said was the …

Media Matters has the transcript: GAVIN MARIO WAX (PRESIDENT, NEW YORK YOUNG REPUBLICAN CLUB): Oh, it’s so pathetic and cowardly. I mean, you never apologize, do not apologize, do not let them set the narrative. And certainly do not apologize to an anti-American antisemitic radical like Ilhan Omar, who has plenty to actually apologize for. Apologizing is the biggest show …

Mediaite reports: On Wednesday morning The Guardian reported that a new book by former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reveals that Trump did in fact test positive for Covid-19, but then tested negative. Trump said via statement, “The story of me having COVID prior to, or during, the first debate is Fake News. In fact, a test revealed that I …

The Villages News reports: A Villager who is a registered Republican has been arrested on a warrant charging her with casting more than one election ballot. Joan Halstead, 72, of the Village of Palo Alto was arrested at 6:20 p.m. Monday on the Sumter County warrant charging her with fraud, “casting more than one ballot at any election.” She was …

The Detroit Free Press reports: William Hartmann, the Republican member of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers who made national headlines for initially refusing to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, died Tuesday following a battle with COVID-19. Douglas Reimel, Hartmann’s friend, shared the news on Facebook, and others who knew Hartmann offered their condolences online. Hartmann was …

The Boston Globe reports: Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, the Republican who maintained the enduring support of his blue state constituents through boom times, the Trump presidency, and in the face of mass death during the COVID-19 pandemic, is telling allies he will not seek a third term in 2022, according to people with knowledge of the conversations. A moderate who …

NBC News reports: The handgun authorities believe a 15-year-old Michigan high school student used Tuesday to kill three classmates and seriously wound eight other people was purchased by the suspect’s father days ago, the sheriff said. Three students were killed, and seven other students and a teacher were shot in the rampage at Oxford High School in a community north …

NPR reports: An epic argument at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday: At issue is whether to reverse the court’s nearly half-century-old Roe v. Wade decision and subsequent decisions declaring that women have a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. Until now, all the court’s abortion decisions have upheld Roe‘s central framework — that women have a constitutional right to …

ABOVE: At the 1985 Xmas party described below: Me, Michael, and Barney. Originally posted May 2004. Reposted for World AIDS Day. Membership Michael didn’t look good. We were at his annual Christmas luau party. Tons and tons of people in the house and the backyard. Standing in his kitchen, wearing a grass skirt and a ridiculous Santa hat covered in …

The Daily Beast reports: Matthew Whitaker held senior roles in Trump’s Justice Department from September 2017 to February 2019, finishing off his DOJ tenure with a three-month stint as the acting attorney general. And when he finally departed the administration, he found quite the cushy gig: chairing a new project for the right-wing nonprofit FreedomWorks. The group brought Whitaker on …

“We were trying to treat the COVID and pneumonia with the different protocols we use, including the ones we talk about on Daystar. “We used those — I myself used them and had breezed through COVID. His blood sugar spiked and he needed oxygen. “He 100 percent believed in everything we talk about here on Daystar, things that help so …

Playbook reports: Conservatives on both sides of the Capitol are privately plotting to force a government shutdown Friday in an effort to defund the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on the private sector, multiple GOP sources told Playbook. Capitalizing on a last-minute scramble to fund the government, a group of Senate conservatives is planning to object to quick consideration of a …

Politico reports: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tried — without success — Tuesday night to end an ugly battle between two of his GOP freshmen. The California Republican implored Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), in separate private meetings, to stop attacking one another after their back-and-forth online spat dragged on for hours earlier Tuesday. After speaking …

CNN reports: The American Library Association says it has provided legal guidance and support to a number of libraries impacted by the “dramatic uptick” of attempts to remove books concerning LGBTQ issues and people of color. Since June 1, the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has tracked 155 incidents across the country and has provided support and consultation in 120 …

CBS News reports: Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar on Tuesday played a harrowing death threat recently left for her by voicemail, while imploring House Republican leaders to do more to tamp down “anti-Muslim hatred” in their ranks and “hold those who perpetuate it accountable.” “When a sitting member of Congress calls a colleague a member of the ‘jihad squad’ and …

Breitbart reports: Author J.D. Vance, an Ohio U.S. Senate candidate, proposed Monday that Republicans should shut down the government until President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate ends. Speaking at an Ohio GOP Senate Forum, Vance said Republicans should avoid giving Democrats a “bipartisan flag to wave around” as they did with the infrastructure bill, setting his sights on the upcoming debt …

Euronews reports: Hungary’s parliament has approved the government’s plan to hold a national referendum on LGBT issues. The move is the latest step by the Hungarian authorities that critics say is intended to limit minority rights. The decision to call the referendum was approved with 129 votes in favour and none against. Opposition lawmakers abstained from voting on the resolution. …

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump tested positive for Covid-19 three days before his first debate against Joe Biden, the former president’s fourth and last chief of staff has revealed in a new book. Mark Meadows also writes that though he knew each candidate was required “to test negative for the virus within seventy two hours of the start time … …