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10:20 AM ET, December 19, 2018

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Kate Sullivan / CNN:
Trump signed letter of intent for Trump Tower Moscow project despite Giuliani insisting he didn't  —  (CNN)A newly obtained document shows President Donald Trump signed a letter of intent to move forward with negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Russia, despite his attorney Rudy Giuliani claiming …
RELATED:
Zachary Basu / Axios:
CNN: Trump signed letter of intent to build Trump Tower in Moscow  —  On Tuesday night, CNN's Chris Cuomo obtained a letter of intent signed by now-President Trump to move forward with a Trump Tower in Moscow.  —  Why it matters: As Cuomo notes, the signed letter doesn't have direct legal implications or suggest obvious wrongdoing.
Discussion: AOL and Mediaite
Dion Nissenbaum / Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Military Preparing for a Full Withdrawal of Its Forces From Northeastern Syria  —  Move throws campaign against Islamic State into question  —  WASHINGTON—In an abrupt reversal, the U.S. military is preparing to withdraw its forces from northeastern Syria, people familiar with the matter …
Discussion: RedState, CNBC, KXLF-TV and CNN
RELATED:
New York Times:
Trump Considering Full Withdrawal of U.S. Troops From Syria  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump is considering pulling 2,000 United States ground troops out of Syria in a move that would seek to describe the four-year American-led war against the Islamic State as largely won, officials said Wednesday.
Discussion: NBC News, Bloomberg and Jewish Insider
Missy Ryan / Washington Post:
Trump administration plans to pull U.S. troops from Syria immediately, defense official says  —  The Trump administration has decided to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria, a defense official said on Wednesday.  —  The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a decision …
Discussion: Axios
Reuters:
U.S. weighs complete withdrawal of troops from Syria: U.S. officials
Discussion: Washington Post and Mediaite
New York Times:
As Facebook Raised a Privacy Wall, It Carved an Opening for Tech Giants  —  Internal documents show that the social network gave Microsoft, Amazon, Spotify and others far greater access to people's data than it has disclosed.  —  For years, Facebook gave some of the world's largest technology companies …
RELATED:
New York Times:
Facebook's Data Sharing: 5 Takeaways From Our Investigation
Ken White / The Atlantic:
Note to Michael Flynn: Federal Court Is Not Twitter  —  Former National-Security Adviser Michael Flynn on Tuesday got an unpleasant lesson on the difference between politically effective arguments and legally astute ones.  Backed by an array of well-wishers, including President Donald Trump …
Discussion: Raw Story
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
The Flynn Fiasco  —  A sentencing hearing devolves into a spectacle of misinformation.
Discussion: Power Line
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Judge's accusations mar Michael Flynn sentencing hearing
Discussion: Power Line and Instapundit
Natasha Bertrand / The Atlantic:
Michael Flynn's Lawyers Appear to Have Badly Miscalculated
Discussion: TalkLeft
Washington Post:
Senate overwhelmingly backs overhaul of criminal justice system  —  The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a sweeping overhaul of the criminal justice system, after a remarkable political shift from Republicans who voted in large numbers to save money by reducing prison sentences …
RELATED:
CNN:
The bill that wouldn't die: The unlikely story behind the criminal justice overhaul
Discussion: KXLF-TV and Politico
Stef W. Kight / Axios:
Senate easily passes Trump-backed criminal justice reform bill
Discussion: Vox, Raw Story and New Yorker
David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:
South Carolina GOP could scrap 2020 primary to protect Trump  —  The South Carolina Republican Party could cancel its marquee presidential nominating contest in 2020 in a move to protect President Trump from any primary challengers.  —  Drew McKissick, chairman of the South Carolina GOP …
Discussion: Hill Reporter and Political Wire
Jason Schwartz / Politico:
Ousted NPR news chief, ex-Fox News execs team up on new site  —  One was ousted from NPR amid allegations of sexual harassment.  The other left Fox News shortly after writing a column widely panned as racist and anti-gay.  Now they've been recruited to help launch a digital news startup …
New York Times:
Hacked European Cables Reveal a World of Anxiety About Trump, Russia and Iran  —  WASHINGTON — Hackers infiltrated the European Union's diplomatic communications network for years, downloading thousands of cables that reveal concerns about an unpredictable Trump administration and struggles …
Katelyn Polantz / CNN:
Court orders company to comply with special counsel subpoena in mystery grand jury appeal  —  (CNN)Four days after attorneys secretly argued over a grand jury subpoena suspected to be related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election …
Discussion: KXLF-TV
RELATED:
Politico:
Mueller appears victorious in mystery subpoena dispute
Discussion: Hullabaloo
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Washington's Mystery Witness Turns Out to Be a Corporation, Not a Person
Discussion: The Guardian and Lawfare
Washington Post:
White House signals it might accept a short-term spending bill to avert shutdown  —  The White House signaled Wednesday that it might accept a short-term spending bill that would keep the government open until early February and abandon President Trump's demand that Congress include $5 billion for his long-promised border wall.
RELATED:
Eli Yokley / Morning Consult:
For Voters, Trump's Border Wall Is at the Bottom of Proposed Priorities
Discussion: ThinkProgress
David E. Bernstein / Reason:
Everyone is Misreporting the Texas BDS Lawsuit  —  No, a Texas school district did not require speech pathologist Bahia Amawi to sign a “pro-Israel oath,” nor even to promise not to personally boycott Israel.  —  Speech pathologist Bahia Amawi, who works as a contractor …
Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times:
Advertisers Flee Tucker Carlson's Fox News Show After He Derides Immigrants  —  The Fox News host Tucker Carlson has lost advertisers after saying on the air last week that allowing certain immigrants into the United States “makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided.”
RELATED:
Jacqueline Alemany / Washington Post:
Power Up: 'Cameras can't get in' is only reason Democrats say border patrol facility that held 7-year-old girl is still open  —  Happy Wednesday, Power People.  We're en route from Texas back to Washington to close out the rest of the week.  Comments, ideas, Christmas cookie recipes??
Discussion: Daily Wire
RELATED:
Elisabeth Malkin / New York Times:
In Home Village of Girl Who Died in U.S. Custody, Poverty Drives Migration
Discussion: NPR and Media Matters for America
Domenico Montanaro / NPR:
Warning To Democrats: Most Americans Against U.S. Getting More Politically Correct  —  Heading into the 2020 Democratic primaries, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll has a warning for Democrats: Americans are largely against the country becoming more politically correct.
Washington Post:
Judiciary dismisses ‘serious’ misconduct complaints against Brett M. Kavanaugh  —  The judicial council reviewing dozens of misconduct claims against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh has dismissed the complaints that coincided with his contentious nomination battle.
Discussion: Shareblue Media
RELATED:
Zoe Tillman / BuzzFeed News:
All 83 Of The Ethics Complaints Against Justice Brett Kavanaugh Were Dismissed Because He's On The Supreme Court Now
Discussion: Axios and Splinter
Jon Ward / Yahoo News:
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet says he is considering a run for Democratic presidential nomination  —  Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., confirmed in an interview Tuesday that he is considering a run for president.  —  “I am thinking about it,” Bennet said in an interview for the Yahoo News podcast “The Long Game.”
Discussion: Political Wire
Ben White / Politico:
How Trump the ‘Tariff Man’ could lose to ‘Dow Man’ Trump  —  President Donald Trump loves two things very much: tariffs and a rising stock market.  It's becoming increasingly clear he can't have both.  —  Free-traders inside and outside the White House are now hoping that Trump's love …
Discussion: Raw Story
Alan Fram / Associated Press:
In farewell, Ryan sees solutions if ‘politics will allow it’  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan is bemoaning America's “broken politics” in a farewell speech in which he calls Washington's failure to overhaul costly federal benefit programs “our greatest unfinished business.”
Roula Khalaf / Financial Times:
FT Person of the Year: George Soros  —  For a man facing daily attacks for his activism and liberal vision of the world, George Soros was in a curiously buoyant mood on a sunswept afternoon in Marrakesh.  He had just visited South Africa, home to his first philanthropic foray in the late 1970s …
Discussion: Talking Points Memo
Roger Kimball / Wall Street Journal:
The National Gallery of Identity Politics  —  Forget Monet or Hopper.  The art museum's new director wants to tackle ‘gender equality,’ ‘social justice’ and ‘diversity.’  —  'Every thing is what it is and not another thing," observed the 18th-century British philosopher Joseph Butler.
Discussion: Instapundit
 
 
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 More Items: 
Geoff Brumfiel / NPR:
Open Scientific Collaboration May Be Helping North Korea Cheat Nuclear Sanctions
Andrew Kerr / The Daily Caller:
Revealed: Antifa Leader Relied On Anonymity To Push Radical, Violent Communist Agenda
Paul Dallison / Politico:
Jeremy Corbyn accused of calling Theresa May ‘stupid woman’
Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:
The End of Europe?  —  France is pivotal in holding the European Union together.
Sherrilyn Ifill / Washington Post:
It's time to face the facts: Racism is a national security issue
Discussion: Raw Story, EURACTIV.com and Roll Call
openDemocracy:
Revealed: Arron Banks Brexit campaign's ‘secret’ meetings with Cambridge Analytica
Harold Meyerson / American Prospect:
Imperatives for Democrats
 Earlier Items: 
Matt Viser / Washington Post:
In ways subtle and loud, the presidential contest is already underway in Iowa
Josh Bivens / Economic Policy Institute:
The bad economics of PAYGO swamp any strategic gain from adopting it
The Economist:
Our pick of the decade's eight best young economists
Discussion: Marginal REVOLUTION
Nathan L. Gonzales / Roll Call:
Poll: Democrat Leads GOP Governor in Kentucky
Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:
FBI Memo Raises New Questions About Timing Of Andrew McCabe's Firing
Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:
“I Think You Could Double the Size of This Company, Honestly”: Politico's Robert Allbritton on Trump …
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Max Tani / @maxwelltani:
Memo: WaPo's Matt Murray lays out plans for WP Ventures, the “third newsroom”; Krissah Thompson will be editor and Samantha Henig will be general manager

Jack Dunn / Variety:
Trump appoints Mark Burnett, the British TV executive who created and produced the reality show The Apprentice, as a special envoy to the UK

Liz Pelly / Harper's:
How Spotify used its Perfect Fit Content program to rig its system against musicians, filling popular playlists with “ghost artists” to cut its royalty payouts

 
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