memeorandum: The bad economics of PAYGO swamp any strategic gain from adopting it (Josh Bivens/Economic Policy Institute)

9:00 AM ET, December 19, 2018

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 …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Hill Reporter, The Week, Raw Story and twitchy.com

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

New York Daily News:

Rudy Giuliani admits President Trump signed ‘bulls—t’ letter of intent for Moscow tower during 2016 campaign — President Trump signed a “bulls—t” letter of intent to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 campaign, Rudy Giuliani conceded Tuesday - just two days after the former …

Discussion: Raw Story, Political Wire, Mediaite and The Guardian

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: White House on the sidelines in spending fight — DRIVING THE DAY — HEADS UP ... THE FEDERAL RESERVE will announce whether it will continue to hike rates today at 2:30 p.m. — PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP has urged the Fed to lay off another hike, but the FT puts it this way …

Discussion: Breitbart, Right Wing Watch and Hullabaloo

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 …

Discussion: Facebook, abc7chicago.com, Investor's Business Daily, Al Jazeera, CBS New York, KTLA, Breitbart, Engadget, The Week, RAPPLER, The Verge, Mashable and New Republic, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:
Facebook's Data Sharing: 5 Takeaways From Our Investigation

Discussion: The Week and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Ken White / The Atlantic:

Note to Michael Flynn: Federal Court Is Not Twitter — Former National Security Advisor 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 Trump …

Discussion: Raw Story

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

Judge's accusations mar Michael Flynn sentencing hearing — The sentencing of former Trump White House national security adviser Michael Flynn on a single charge of lying to the FBI turned into a dramatic scene in a Washington, D.C., courthouse Tuesday. Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan excoriated Flynn …

Discussion: Power Line, Wall Street Journal and Instapundit

Natasha Bertrand / The Atlantic:

Michael Flynn's Lawyers Appear to Have Badly Miscalculated — Lawyers for retired General Michael Flynn had every reason to celebrate. They managed to get their client—who lobbied against U.S. interests while serving as a top Donald Trump-campaign surrogate; tried to undermine …

Discussion: TalkLeft

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Trump backers just had their anti-Mueller hopes and dreams dashed

Discussion: Shareblue Media, Axios, The Daily Beast, Politico, New Republic, Patterico's Pontifications, CNN, New York Times, ABC News and The Mahablog

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

Politico: Mueller appears victorious in mystery subpoena dispute

Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Washington's Mystery Witness Turns Out to Be a Corporation, Not a Person

Discussion: The Guardian and Lawfare

David Glovin / Bloomberg: U.S. Prevails in Subpoena Fight Against Mystery Corporation

Tierney Sneed / Talking Points Memo:
READ: Appeals Court Upholds Grand Jury Subpoena In Secret Mueller-Linked Case

Discussion: Townhall

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 …

Discussion: Townhall, Politico, NPR, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal and Associated Press

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:
Senate Passes Bipartisan Criminal Justice Bill

Discussion: The Week and Marijuana Moment

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: Raw Story, Vox and New Yorker

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 …

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, Bloomberg, Raw Story and EURACTIV.com

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 …

more at Mediagazer »

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

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

Jenna Amatulli / HuffPost:

Here Are The Advertisers Boycotting Tucker Carlson's Show — The Fox News host is facing backlash after suggesting that immigrants make our country “poorer and dirtier and more divided” on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” — Fox News' Tucker Carlson is rapidly losing advertisers amid a controversy …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Contemptor, CNN, ThinkProgress, Media Matters for America, The Guardian and NBC News, more at Mediagazer »

Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times:
Advertisers Flee Tucker Carlson's Fox News Show After He Derides Immigrants

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo and CNBC

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

Financial Times:
Fed's Powell under pressure over rate rises

Discussion: Political Wire

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: Political Wire

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.

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: Splinter and Axios

Sherrilyn Ifill / Washington Post:

It's time to face the facts: Racism is a national security issue — Sherrilyn Ifill is president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. — Two newly released reports from the Senate Intelligence Committee about Russian interference in the 2016 election have been nothing short of revelatory.

Discussion: EURACTIV.com, Roll Call and Mother Jones

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

Laura Davison / Bloomberg:

Mnuchin Backs Off Trump's Promise of 10% Middle-Class Tax Cut — Tax focus will be on technical fixes, Treasury secretary says — Trump floated idea of middle-class relief before elections — The Trump administration is setting aside a middle-class tax cut and planning to focus …

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, The Week, CNN and CNBC

openDemocracy:

Revealed: Arron Banks Brexit campaign's ‘secret’ meetings with Cambridge Analytica — Leaked emails show Leave.EU misled parliament and UK regulator about meetings with controversial Trump-linked firm - where they discussed targeting British voters. Steve Bannon was included in correspondence.

Josh Bivens / Economic Policy Institute:

The bad economics of PAYGO swamp any strategic gain from adopting it — The obscure Congressional budget rule known as PAYGO ("pay as you go") has burst into the news lately. A PAYGO rule means that any tax cut or spending increase passed into law needs to be offset in the same spending cycle …

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 …

Matt Viser / Washington Post:

In ways subtle and loud, the presidential contest is already underway in Iowa — DES MOINES — When New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) came here two months ago, he lingered long after events ended to talk to the curious, posing for selfies with anyone who wanted one.

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

The End of Europe? — France is pivotal in holding the European Union together. — PARIS — Ever since World War II, the liberal global order that has spread more freedom and prosperity around the world than at any other time in history has been held up by two pillars …

The Economist:

Our pick of the decade's eight best young economists — They mostly want to change the world, not just fathom it — “The solution in Vietnam”, said William DePuy, an American general in 1966, “is more bombs, more shells, more napalm.” But where exactly to drop it all?

Discussion: Marginal REVOLUTION