President Obama, right, delivers remarks at the end of a meeting with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, left, Ferguson resident Rasheen Aldridge, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, as well as other elected officials, community and faith leaders and law enforcement officials, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Dec. 1 in Washington, D.C. ” (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
1. Thanks to Congress, the next two weeks could be a mess.
2. New Jersey just got rid of many archaic laws, including “measures that allowed stallions, bulls and rams to run free at certain times of year.”
3. Jamelle Bouie writes about where Rep.-elect Mia Love fits in the Republican Party — and the immigration debate — for the New Yorker.
Figures like Love, Cruz, Jindal, and Haley aren’t important because they can win minority votes; they’re important because they suggest one of the lasting consequences of the Obama era — an explicit attempt to make politics more diverse at its highest levels. This new diversity doesn’t solve deep-seated problems of racial division, but it is an important symbol, a sign that — on the surface, at least — we really are committed to inclusivity.
4. Ken Vogel at Politico looks at where the money goes when wildly influential political donors die.
5. Dave Weigel at Bloomberg Politics writes about the new conservative media outlets — and their love of snark and hatred of explainers.
6. John Roberts quoted Eminem today.
7. Juliet Eilperin tells us about the weird ways the White House holiday decorations are trying to stay hip.
In addition to the gingerbread White House and tastefully decorated wreaths, there will be infrared motion sensors, crowdsourced lighting patterns and matching robot versions of the first family’s two dogs. And the Obamas have released what they call their “first-ever interactive White House holiday card.”
