memeorandum: Itching for a fight, Dems vow to hold the line (Mike Lillis/The Hill)

9:20 AM ET, January 3, 2018

Top Items:

The Republicans' Fake Investigations — A generation ago, Republicans sought to protect President Richard Nixon by urging the Senate Watergate committee to look at supposed wrongdoing by Democrats in previous elections. The committee chairman, Sam Ervin, a Democrat, said that would be …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Power Line, The Last Refuge, Raw Story, Business Insider, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Politicus USA, Shareblue Media, The Week, Politico and CANNONFIRE

Grant Stern / Washington Press:

Trump-Russia dossier firm just told all in bombshell NY Times op-ed — The opposition research firm that prepared the Trump-Russia dossier just broke its silence in a revealing New York Times op-editorial story which debunks the Republican spin machine desperate to prop up Donald Trump's sinking presidency.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Fox News, Raw Story, Political Wire, Shareblue Media and National Review

Max Greenwood / The Hill:
Fusion GPS founders say they were ‘shocked’ by contents of ‘Steele dossier’

Discussion: RedState

David Smith / The Guardian:

Trump Tower meeting with Russians ‘treasonous’, Bannon says in explosive book … Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president's son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic” …

Discussion: IJR, Raw Story and Political Wire

Callum Borchers / Washington Post:
Utah could be Steve Bannon's next battleground, especially if Mitt Romney runs

Discussion: Axios, New York Magazine and Roll Call

Mike Allen / Axios:

Some White House officials fear accidental war — President Trump's boast last night that he has a “bigger & more powerful” Nuclear Button (caps, Trump's) than North Korea has some administration insiders worried that we could blunder into war. — What they're saying …

Discussion: Associated Press, New York Times, The Daily Beast and JustOneMinute

CNN:

North Korea calls hotline to South Korea in diplomatic breakthrough — Seoul (CNN)North Korea and South Korea established contact for 20 minutes on a hotline that's been dormant for almost two years Wednesday, a major diplomatic breakthrough following a year of escalating hostility that could pave the way for future talks.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Axios, The Daily Caller, CBS News, Just Security, New York Magazine, Reuters, North Korea Leadership Watch, Washington Press, KTLA, The Week, Mashable, Mediaite and New York Times

Eli Watkins / CNN:
Trump taunts North Korea: My nuclear button is ‘much bigger,’ ‘more powerful’

New York Times:
Trump Says His ‘Nuclear Button’ Is ‘Much Bigger’ Than North Korea's

Jake Sherman / Politico:
STAKES IN THE GOV'T SHUTDOWN FIGHT …

Discussion: Associated Press

Choe Sang-Hun / New York Times:
North Korea Reopens Border Hotline With South

Discussion: The Daily Caller, RedState, Axios, IJR and Outside the Beltway

Robin Wright / New Yorker:

Iran in Turmoil—to Trump's Delight — In the early days of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini famously dismissed an aide's concerns about rising inflation. Economics, the Supreme Leader quipped, was “for donkeys. The 1979 revolution was not about the price of watermelons.”

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Federalist, CNN, NPR, Breitbart, Washington Free Beacon, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and IJR

Reuel Marc Gerecht / New York Times:
The Worst Thing for Iran's Protesters? U.S. Silence

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Bloomberg and Patterico's Pontifications

The Hill:
Trump ratchets up support for demonstrators in Iran

Discussion: Agence France-Presse and Al Jazeera English

Thomas Erdbrink / New York Times:
Hard-Liners and Reformers Tapped Iranians' Ire. Now, Both Are Protest Targets.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Week and The Gateway Pundit

Terry Glavin / Macleans.ca:
The uprising in Iran: ‘This is what revolution looks like’

Discussion: Politico and The Federalist

Spencer Ackerman / The Daily Beast:
The Iran Nuclear Deal Could Be Dead in 11 Days

Discussion: The Hill, Politico, Hot Air, CNN, Associated Press, ThinkProgress and Breitbart

David Harsanyi / The Federalist:
5 Worst Echo Chamber Talking Points About The Iranian Uprising

Discussion: Betsy's Page, The Daily Caller, BBC, Wall Street Journal, Reason and New Republic

Richard Johnson / Page Six:

Russia probe grand jury looks like ‘a Black Lives Matter rally,’ says witness — The federal grand jury handing down indictments for special counsel Robert Mueller doesn't appear to include any supporters of President Donald Trump, according to one witness who recently testified before the panel.

Discussion: Raw Story, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, Politicus USA and ThinkProgress

Mandy Mayfield / Washington Examiner:

Roy Moore's Jewish lawyer voted for Doug Jones, raised money for his campaign — The Jewish attorney who Roy Moore's wife touted employing in an attempt to fight off claims of anti-Semitism is actually a longtime friend and supporter of Senator-elect Doug Jones, who defeated Moore last month.

Discussion: The Hill, Politico, Weekly Standard, Washington Monthly, The Stranger …, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Mediaite and The Week

Jason Samenow / Washington Post:

Monster storm to blast East Coast before polar vortex uncorks tremendous cold late this week — Unforgiving cold has punished the eastern third of the United States for the past 10 days. But the most severe winter weather conditions will assault the area late this week.

Discussion: The Weather Channel, The Daily Beast, Althouse, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Raw Story, NPR, Mother Jones, Mashable and thecut

John Solomon / The Hill:

Congressional investigators find irregularities in FBI's handling of Clinton email case — Republicans on key congressional committees say they have uncovered new irregularities and contradictions inside the FBI's probe of Hillary Clinton — 's email server.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, RedState, JustOneMinute and Mediaite

James Risen / The Intercept:

My Life as a New York Times Reporter in the Shadow of the War on Terror … I was sitting in the nearly empty restaurant of the Westin Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, getting ready for a showdown with the federal government that I had been trying to avoid for more than seven years.

Washington Post:

The NSA's top talent is leaving because of low pay and flagging morale … The National Security Agency is losing its top talent at a worrisome rate as highly skilled personnel, some disillusioned with the spy service's leadership and an unpopular reorganization, take higher-paying, more flexible jobs in the private sector.

Discussion: Axios

Toronto Star:

Joshua Boyle, Canadian hostage in Afghanistan, arrested and faces list of charges in Ottawa — Boyle appears in court Wednesday to face 15 charges, including sexual assault and forcible confinement. — OTTAWA—Joshua Boyle, the Canadian man who was held hostage with his American wife …

Discussion: FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV and Business Insider

Rob Gillies / Associated Press:
Ex-hostage Boyle charged with sex assault, confinement

Discussion: RedState

The Register:

‘Kernel memory leaking’ Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign — Other OSes will need an update, performance hits loom — A fundamental design flaw in Intel's processor chips has forced a significant redesign of the Linux and Windows kernels to defang the chip-level security bug.

Discussion: The Verge, BGR, Gizmodo and Axios, more at Techmeme »

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg:

Romney Changes Location on Twitter as Utah Senate Seat Opens — Mitt Romney was mum on whether he plans to run for Senate after Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah announced he'll retire after 2018. But Romney's Twitter profile may give a hint about his thinking.

Discussion: Politico, Axios, The Week and The Daily Caller

Emily Chang / Vanity Fair:

“Oh My God, This Is So F—ed Up”: Inside Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Dark Side — Some of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley are regulars at exclusive, drug-fueled, sex-laced parties—gatherings they describe not as scandalous, or even secret, but as a bold, unconventional lifestyle choice.

Discussion: Althouse, naked capitalism and Longreads, more at Techmeme »

Tim Lockette / Anniston Star:

Star's former publisher acknowledges assault on reporter — H. Brandt Ayers, former publisher of The Anniston Star and current chairman of the board of the company that owns the newspaper, acknowledged Tuesday that he assaulted a reporter in her Anniston home in the 1970s.

Discussion: The Week

New York Times:

Florida's 1.5 Million Missing Voters — Everyone remembers that the 2000 presidential election was decided by 537 votes in Florida. Far fewer remember another important number from the state that year — 620,000, the Floridians who were barred from voting because state records showed …

OutSmart Magazine:

At Least 35 LGBTQ Texans Are Running for Office in 2018 — Trump, Texas Legislature fuel record slate of out candidates.

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Stephanie Saul / New York Times:

As Flow of Foreign Students Wanes, U.S. Universities Feel the Sting — At Wright State University in Ohio, the French horn and tuba professors are out. So is the accomplished swimming team. — At Kansas State, Italian classes are going the way of the Roman Empire.

Brandon Conradis / The Hill:

Trump ICE pick: Politicians who run sanctuary cities should be charged with crimes — 's pick to run Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday called for a crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities, saying politicians who help run them should be charged with crimes.

Axios:

CNN attacks Trump's mental stability, fitness for office — After Trump's Twitter tantrums yesterday — calling for the jailing of a political opponent and bragging his nuclear button is bigger than North Korea's — CNN used its powerful platforms and people to suggest the president is mentally unstable.

Discussion: Raw Story