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Men's Top 25 Polls & NET (1/6)

AP Top 25 (1/6)
1. Tennessee (45) (14-0)
2. Auburn (15) (13-1)
3. Iowa State (12-1)
4. Duke (12-2)
5. Alabama (12-2)
6. Kentucky (12-2)
7. Marquette (13-2)
8. Florida (13-1)
9. Connecticut (12-3)
10. Texas A&M (12-2)
11. Kansas (10-3)
12. Houston (10-3)
13. Illinois (11-3)
14. Mississippi State (13-1)
15. Oregon (13-2)
16. Michigan State (12-2)

17. Oklahoma (13-1)
18. Gonzaga (12-4)
19. Memphis (12-3)
20. Purdue (11-4)
21. West Virginia (11-2)
22. UCLA (11-3)
23. Mississippi (12-2)
24. Michigan (11-3)
25. Utah State (14-1)

Others Receiving Votes
Pittsburgh, Nebraska, Arkansas, Baylor, Wisconsin, St. John's, San Diego State, Cincinnati, Clemson, Maryland, Texas Tech, St. Bonaventure, Indiana, Georgia, Missouri, Arizona, Xavier, Dayton, Vanderbilt, Georgetown

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USA Today Coaches Poll (1/6)
1. Tennessee (21) (14-0)
2. Auburn (10) (13-1)
3. Iowa State (12-1)
4. Duke (12-2)
5. Alabama (12-2)
6. Marquette (13-2)
7. Kentucky (12-2)
8. Florida (13-1)
9. Texas A&M (12-2)
10. Connecticut (12-3)
11. Houston (10-3)
12. Kansas (10-3)
13. Mississippi State (13-1)
14. Michigan State (12-2)
15. Illinois (11-3)

16. Oklahoma (13-1)
17. Oregon (13-2)
18. Gonzaga (12-4)
19. Purdue (11-4)
20. Memphis (12-3)
21. UCLA (11-3)
22. Mississippi (12-2)
23. West Virginia (11-2)
24. Michigan (11-3)
25. Utah State (14-1)

Others Receiving Votes
Baylor, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, San Diego State, St. John's, Clemson, Maryland, Georgia, Nebraska, Arizona, Wisconsin, Vanderbilt, Indiana, Texas Tech, UC-San Diego, Arkansas
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Democrats shouldn’t try to find ‘common ground’ with Trump

A depressingly high number of elected Democrats are declaring their intent to find “common ground” with President-elect Donald Trump and his crackpot Cabinet picks. Their naive, tone-deaf declarations epitomize an infatuation with bipartisanship for bipartisanship’s sake. Sometimes, it’s better not to bend the knee before the bidding even gets underway.


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Democrats strain credulity if they imagine they can find common ground with someone who vows, among other mind-boggling schemes, to imprison opponents, deploy the military against immigrants, snatch the power of the purse from Congress and pay for tax cuts for billionaires with cuts to entitlements and other programs that serve ordinary Americans. (What would common ground even look like? Deport just 5.5 million people, not 11 million? Cut Social Security only a little bit?)
The fruitless search for nonexistent common ground instantaneously normalizes Trump. Democrats should not propound the dubious assertion that Trump can operate rationally and in good faith. Mouthing this platitude makes Democrats look weak, foolish and unprepared to stand up to an authoritarian agenda.


Moreover, what is the point of declaring their “common ground” aspirations now? Similar aspirational statements were made before MAGA Republicans reneged on the budget deal (later giving up the effort to suspend the debt ceiling when Democrats stood their ground). That should be a wake-up call: There is no bargaining with people who break deals. Democrats must not be in the position of chasing after Republicans. They will find themselves negotiating against themselves to reach the mythical “common ground.”
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Moreover, why is isn’t the onus on Trump — as it consistently was on President Joe Biden — to “unify” the country? Trump has shown no inclination to moderate. (Certainly not by choosing Kash Patel for the FBI or Putin mouthpiece Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.)

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There might be times when Trump accidentally stumbles into positions Democrats previously held. After all, even a broken clock is right twice a day. And when Trump by happenstance betrays his base or reverses a ridiculous position, Democrats should know when to say yes. (Consider the times Biden ate then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s lunch in negotiations.) But looking for common ground assumes Trump has an end goal that falls within the realm of normal, acceptable democratic policies. Let him prove his bona fides first.

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And there will be times, as I’ve described, when Democrats are forced to swallow a legislative poison pill: voting to pass a vital bill even if Republicans slip cruel and unacceptable measures into it. Making practical, hard concessions to preserve long-term political viability is not finding common ground. To the contrary, it’s an opportunity to point out how Republicans resort to legislative blackmail to enact unpopular policies.
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times recently admonished Democrats to be not simply the minority party but the opposition party:
An opposition would use every opportunity it had to demonstrate its resolute stance against the incoming administration. It would do everything in its power to try to seize the public’s attention and make hay of the president-elect’s efforts to put lawlessness at the center of American government. An opposition would highlight the extent to which Donald Trump has no intention of fulfilling his pledge of lower prices and greater economic prosperity for ordinary people and is openly scheming with the billionaire oligarchs who paid for and ran his campaign to gut the social safety net and bring something like Hooverism back from the ash heap of history.
And frankly, if Democrats think democracy is in peril, their leaders should act like it. (“Either democracy was on the ballot in November or it wasn’t,” wrote Bouie. “And if it was, it makes no political, ethical or strategic sense to act as if we live in normal times.”)


Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) understood the role of an opposition party when he vowed to make Barack Obama a one-term president. (McConnell managed to pick up six Senate seats in 2010, as well as a net six governorships and 63 House seats to win back the majority.)
What do I expect Democrats to say? How about this: The nominees and proposals advanced by the president-elect should frighten every American. They will hurt ordinary, hard-working Americans. It’s our job to protect the rights and interests of our constituents. I will do whatever I can to block crackpot nominees and schemes. (If they cannot manage to say something along those lines, then better to say nothing. Democrats should learn when silence is preferable to prostrating themselves before Trump.)
If Democrats eschew “common ground” gibberish, they might get credit when they manage to quash Trump’s nuttiest initiatives. There’s no point in setting up Trump to refashion humiliating defeats as magnanimous acts of compromise when he cannot get his way. Forcing Trump to back down, rather than striving for some mythical middle, would be a good way to rally the party for 2026.


Trump falsely claims he has some overwhelming mandate to accomplish a host of rash, antidemocratic moves. As I (along with many others) have written, he does not. He barely won, in part because many of his voters thought he would not do the radical things he promised. But Democrats do have a mandate: to stop him when they can. Instead of “find common ground,” maybe they should strive to “give no quarter.”

Biden frees radical left-wing killer convicted in FBI agents' murders during last hours as president

Shortly before leaving office Monday, former President Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of Leonard Peltier, a far-left activist convicted in the 1975 murders of two FBI special agents, Ronald Williams and Jack Coler, who were gunned down in a shootout in South Dakota.

Peltier's most recent bid for parole failed in July. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both denied clemency requests for him, but he had supporters among other prominent Democrats, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, as well as former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.

The move outraged the FBI Agents Association and came days after outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray sent a letter to Biden urging him not to free the killer.

"The FBI Agents Association (FBIAA) is outraged by President Biden’s decision to commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier, a convicted cop killer responsible for the brutal murders of FBI Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams," FBIAA President Natalie Bara told Fox News Digital. "This last-second, disgraceful act by then-President Biden, which does not change Peltier’s guilt but does release him from prison, is cowardly and lacks accountability. It is a cruel betrayal to the families and colleagues of these fallen Agents and is a slap in the face of law enforcement."

"I hope these letters are unnecessary, and that you are not considering a pardon or commutation," Wray wrote. "But on behalf of the FBI family, and out of an abundance of caution, I want to make sure our position is clear: Peltier is a remorseless killer, who brutally murdered two of our own – Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. Granting Peltier any relief from his conviction or sentence is wholly unjustified and would be an affront to the rule of law."

Peltier, now 80 and in poor health, is serving two consecutive life sentences for the slayings, plus another seven years for an armed escape attempt. He repeatedly failed to appeal his case. His supporters feared he would die in prison and looked to President Biden to set him free.

"For nearly 50 years, no fewer than 22 federal judges, multiple parole boards, and six presidential administrations have evaluated the evidence and considered Peltier’s arguments," Wray wrote. "Each has reached the same conclusion: Peltier’s claims are meritless and his convictions and sentence must stand."

Biden overruled him.

It's the latest in a string of pardons, commutations and sweetheart plea deals Biden has given to convicted murderers on his way out of office. He took 37 out of 40 federal inmates off of death row, and his attorney general, Merrick Garland, took the death penalty off the table for a brutal MS-13 leader responsible for seven murders. Two victims, teen high school girls, were massacred with machetes and baseball bats.

He also gave last-minute preemptive pardons to his family members and allies, including his siblings, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley and members of the January 6 Committee. He had previously pardoned his son, Hunter.
Haaland praised Peltier's commutation.

"I am beyond words about the commutation of Leonard Peltier," she wrote on X. "His release from prison signifies a measure of justice that has long evaded so many Native Americans for so many decades."

On June 26, 1975, Williams and Coler were looking for a group of armed robbery suspects in the Oglala Sioux Indian Reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Although Peltier wasn't one of them, he was traveling in a vehicle that caught the agents' attention.

The agents weren't aware that Peltier was also the subject of an arrest warrant for the attempted murder of an off-duty police officer in Wisconsin.
According to court documents, Williams warned Coler over the radio that someone in the vehicle was about to start shooting at them. Gunfire erupted. Both agents were wounded. According to the FBI, both agents were executed with point-blank gunshots to the head from Peltier's AR-15.


Coler, originally from Bakersfield, California, had been an LAPD officer before joining the FBI in 1971. Williams was also a California native, from Glendale. He joined the FBI in 1972.

"The pardon of Leonard Peltier is not an act of justice but an abandonment of it," said Nicole Parker, a former FBI agent who lost two colleagues of her own to line-of-duty violence.

"I myself lost my dearest friend and colleague, FBI Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger, and Special Agent Daniel Alfin when they were murdered February 2, 2021, executing a search warrant to stop a child predator," she told Fox News Digital. "The crushing heartbreak of losing mighty warriors who selflessly protect others is indescribable."
Four men were arrested in their deaths, but only Peltier was convicted, according to the FBI. The government dropped charges against James Eagle, the robbery suspect Williams and Coler were looking for at the start of the shootout. Two other men, Robert Robideau and Darrelle Butler, were acquitted at trial in 1976.

After his release from federal prison, he is expected to be placed on house arrest.

"Agents Coler and Williams gave their lives in service to this nation, and their families continue to bear the heavy burden of that sacrifice," Bara said. "The loss of these heroes is felt as deeply today within the FBI family as it was in 1975. Leonard Peltier has never expressed remorse for his actions. Special Agents Coler and Williams were stolen from their families, robbed of the chance to share precious time and milestones with their loved ones. Leonard Peltier should not have been granted a mercy he so cruelly denied to the Coler and Williams families."

We apologise again for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, have been sacked.

Two weeks after impeaching President Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s parliament has now voted to impeach the acting President, Han Duk-soo.

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Don't forget: Trump was ruled a financial fraudster in the NY civil case

It is not a felony conviction, but maybe could be some day. And there is the investigation and maybe a legal case of Trump using false financial docs to get a loan from a Chicago iirc or midwest bank. There is more ice to find under the surface.

The NY AG case was a huge settlement against Trump. And of course Trump wants to sue everyone and he expects them to pay but he doesnt like to pay. He is just an extremely sociopathic type of person who blames everyone else and who thinks rules do not apply to him. So notice that is like a lot of these rich and so called really rich people.

Commemorative presidential shawls and blankets.

Hi folks. This is your president Donald J trump. I'd like you to be the first to know about the commemorative presidential blankets and shawls that I will be issuing. They're just like the real ones I use in the oval office, when it's 40° or so outside and I need a blanket across my lap and a shawl across my shoulders to stay warm in the oval office. They're now available to the General Public for a mere $89.95 for the shawl and $109.95 for the blanket. They're just like the real ones I use in the oval office when the temperature drops to an Arctic bone chilling 40° outside. You can either use them in your trailer to stay warm, or perhaps put them on the mantle above your wood burning stove. They'll look great next to your cheap Golden Chinese sneakers, fake bible, and comic book trading cards. Maybe even a collector's item. They're available in 26 colors, but we're only going to ship the red ones ( my and my love buddy Putins fav color). And they're made in China, so you know the quality is high. And remember, any money spent on these collector items it's going to go to one of my 17 legal defense funds. So use part of this month's welfare or ADC check to invest in one of these wonderful items. I'll be glad you did.
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