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5:30 PM ET, December 22, 2018

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Margaret Brennan / CBS News:
Brett McGurk, top U.S. envoy in ISIS fight, resigns  —  Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, had been planning to exit his post in February 2019.  But sources tell CBS News that he informed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he will accelerate …
RELATED:
Matthew Lee / Associated Press:
US envoy to anti-IS coalition quits over Trump's Syria move  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the global coalition fighting the Islamic State group, has resigned in protest to President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria …
New York Times:
Brett McGurk, Top U.S. Diplomat Leading Fight Against Islamic State, Resigns  —  Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, has accelerated his resignation, telling colleagues this weekend that he could not carry out President Trump's newly declared policy of withdrawing from Syria.
Washington Post:
U.S. envoy to coalition fighting ISIS resigns in protest of Trump's Syria decision  —  Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the international coalition fighting the Islamic State, has resigned in protest of President Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.
Discussion: Washington Press
The Times of Israel:
Departing Mattis said to cancel Israel trip, as Israel feels ‘betrayed’ on Syria  —  TV report says US defense secretary was set to hold talks with in Israel next week on Iran and Syria; senior Israeli officials said to harshly criticize Syria pullout decision
Discussion: New York Times
Stephen M. Walt / Foreign Policy:
Good Riddance to America's Syria Policy
Elise Labott / CNN:
US envoy in ISIS fight, Brett McGurk, resigns over US withdrawal from Syria
Discussion: The Week
Emily Estelle / American Enterprise Institute:   The Islamic State is not defeated in Syria. Or anywhere else. Look at Africa.
New York Times:
Trump Policy Gyrations Threaten Fragile Republican Coalition
Washington Post:   U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria is ‘a dream come true for the Iranians’
Bret Stephens / New York Times:
Dear Anonymous Inside the Trump Administration
Discussion: Washington Post
Washington Post:
A tumultuous week began with a phone call between Trump and the Turkish president
New York Times:
For Trump, ‘a War Every Day,’ Waged Increasingly Alone  —  At the midpoint of his term, the president has grown more sure of his own judgment and more isolated from anyone else's than at any point since he took office.  —  WASHINGTON — When President Trump grows frustrated with advisers during meetings …
Discussion: Axios, Mediaite and Raw Story
RELATED:
Mike Allen / Axios:
Slat man: Trump's Christmas shutdown spooks GOP  —  President Trump's self-inflicted shutdown before Christmas has left Republicans with a debacle as their last act in control of the House.  And now the party is even more worried about the outlook beginning Jan. 3, when Democrats take over.
Discussion: Washington Post and Raw Story
New York Times:
Reliable Allies Refuse to Defend a President Content With Chaos
New York Times:
Government Shutdown to Continue for Days as Senate Adjourns Until Thursday  —  WASHINGTON — The partial government shutdown that began early Saturday will continue for the next several days, as Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, adjourned the Senate until Thursday and the White House indicated …
RELATED:
The Daily Beast:
Trump Plan to Win the Shutdown: A Noun, a Verb, and ‘Caravan’  —  The White House intends to send surrogates on television to hammer Democrats and to accuse them of wanting drugs, terror, and ‘trafficking’ pouring over the southern border.  —  With the latest government shutdown …
Discussion: Associated Press
Washington Post:
Trump's shutdown stunt is an act of needless stupidity  —  “IT'S ACTUALLY part of what you do when you sign up for any public service position.”  So said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) when asked about the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who will have to work without pay …
Bloomberg:
Trump Discusses Firing Fed's Powell After Latest Rate Hike, Sources Say  — Advisers warn ousting Fed chairman would lead to market rout  — President's legal authority to remove Powell is unclear  —  President Donald Trump has discussed firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell …
RELATED:
Brendan Murray / Bloomberg:
Fed Scholar Expects Immediate ‘Market Chaos’ If Trump Ousts Powell
Discussion: Raw Story
Robert Windrem / NBC News:
Russians launched pro-Jill Stein social media blitz to help Trump win election, reports say  —  Building support for Stein was one of a “roster of themes” the Moscow-sanctioned internet trolls “turned to repeatedly,” report says.  —  Two days before the 2016 presidential election …
Antonia Noori Farzan / Washington Post:
A reporter's dispatch from Trump country featured a ‘Mexicans Keep Out’ sign.  But he made it all up.  —  When an out-of-town journalist showed up in Fergus Falls, Minn., in February 2017, Michele Anderson couldn't help but feel skeptical.  Claas Relotius had been telling residents …
BuzzFeed News:
Cory Booker Is Building A 2020 Campaign That's Just Like Him: Vegan, Hyperactive, And Unapologetically Unconventional  —  French fries with Iowans in Newark.  Eager big donors.  A clearly defined message of “radical love.”  Cory Booker has spent a year laying the groundwork for an ambitious possible presidential bid.
Discussion: twitchy.com
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
It's official.  We lost the Cold War.  —  Perhaps the timing of George H.W. Bush's death last month was merciful.  This way he didn't have to see America lose the Cold War.  —  Bush presided over the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.  But the triumph he and others earned with American blood …
Discussion: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE and CNN
RELATED:
Jelani Cobb / New Yorker:   The Enduring Russian Propaganda Interests in Targeting African-Americans
HuffPost:
The GOP Ends Its One-Party Rule In Shambles  —  The government is literally shut down as Republicans get ready to hand over the House to Democrats.  —  WASHINGTON Republicans couldn't believe their luck after the 2016 elections.  Many of them fully expected Hillary Clinton to become president.
Eliot A. Cohen / The Atlantic:
You Can't Serve Both Trump and America  —  The story is told of Jim Mattis, when he was the commanding general at Quantico, relieving a young lance corporal on Christmas.  The rest of that wintry day, those entering the front gate of the Marine base were startled to see that the sentry was a general …
Discussion: Hullabaloo
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
Americans have a different view about indicting a sitting president  —  Much has been made of the Justice Department's standing opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted while in office.  That's an opinion, not settled law, and one that is the subject of lively debate among legal scholars.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Kevin Collier / BuzzFeed News:
Top US Intelligence Official Confirms Russian Propagandists Tried To Meddle In The Midterms
Timothy Burke / The Daily Beast:
Nike Posts Huge Earnings After Kaepernick Ad, Leaving Egg on These Right-Wing Pundits' Faces
Harry Enten / CNN:
Trump learned nothing from the midterms. Exhibit A: the shutdown.
Lili Loofbourow / Slate:
The Year of the Old Boys
Jack Shafer / Politico:
Week 83: BuzzFeed Takes a Victory Lap
Karen Zraick / New York Times:
Student Targeted by ‘Troll Storm’ Hopes Settlement Will Send Message to White Supremacists
Amy B Wang / Washington Post:
A girl in Mexico attached her Christmas list to a balloon. A man across the border found it.
 Earlier Items: 
Alison Sider / Wall Street Journal:
Airlines' Boarding Changes Reward Higher-Paying Travelers
Discussion: The Daily Caller
Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
The Syria Fairy Tale Lives!
Discussion: Breitbart
Paul Demko / Politico:
Mississippi's Republican governor quietly considering Medicaid expansion
Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:
“Some Reverse Wag-the-Dog Bulls …
Discussion: Raw Story and Washington Monthly
Heather Stewart / The Guardian:
Corbyn: Brexit would go ahead even if Labour won snap election
Discussion: Politico
Andrew Desiderio / The Daily Beast:
Trump's Abrupt Syria Withdrawal Thwarted ‘Major’ Operation Targeting ISIS, Sen. Bob Corker Says
NBC News:
Taliban greets Pentagon's withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan with cries of victory
 

 
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

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

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

 
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