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1:35 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 …
Discussion: Political Wire
The Daily Beast:
Bolton's Hawkish Syria Plan Backfired, Pushing Trump to Get Out  —  The national security adviser expanded U.S. goals in Syria to challenge Iran.  But Trump wasn't on board, senior officials say, and Turkey took an opportunity to push the U.S. out.  —  A fateful decision by national security …
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.
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.
Discussion: Raw Story
Elise Labott / CNN:
US envoy in ISIS fight, Brett McGurk, resigns over US withdrawal from Syria  —  Washington (CNN)Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS, submitted his resignation Friday because of the President's decision to pull US forces out of Syria, according to a senior administration official.
Discussion: The Week
Bret Stephens / New York Times:
Dear Anonymous Inside the Trump Administration
Washington Post:
A tumultuous week began with a phone call between Trump and the Turkish president
Discussion: Breitbart, CNBC and Task & Purpose
Washington Post:   U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria is ‘a dream come true for the Iranians’
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 …
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 …
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.
Jessica Taylor / NPR:
Government Shuts Down Ahead Of Holiday Over Stalemate On Border Wall Funding
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 …
Discussion: Raw Story, Contemptor and Hill Reporter
New York Times:
Trump Policy Gyrations Threaten Fragile Republican Coalition  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump's near-simultaneous decisions this week to force a government shutdown over his demand to fund a border wall and withdraw American troops from Syria and Afghanistan have imperiled the fragile Republican coalition …
RELATED:
CNN:
Trump lashed out at Whitaker after explosive Cohen revelations  —  Cohen says he lied about project in Moscow  —  Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump has at least twice in the past few weeks vented to his acting attorney general, angered by federal prosecutors who referenced …
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.
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.
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
Karen Zraick / New York Times:
Student Targeted by ‘Troll Storm’ Hopes Settlement Will Send Message to White Supremacists  —  An African-American student leader who was targeted by a racist “troll storm” says she hopes an unusual legal settlement with one of her harassers will send a strong message to white supremacists …
Lili Loofbourow / Slate:
The Year of the Old Boys  —  It's hard to overstate the extent to which childish masculinity revealed itself in 2018 as the engine of power in America.  —  Many of us have spent 2018 trying to wrap our heads around how, exactly, the country whose slightly priggish brand was once meritocracy …
Amy B Wang / Washington Post:
A girl in Mexico attached her Christmas list to a balloon.  A man across the border found it.  —  The spot of red was what first caught Randy Heiss's attention last Sunday as he hiked the remote expanse of land behind his ranch in Patagonia, Ariz., a town near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
The Syria Fairy Tale Lives!  —  Americans will no longer support Washington's incoherent Middle East adventurism.  —  Unlike my colleagues, I've been a bemused spectator during this week's Syria follies.  As readers of these columns know (see, e.g., here, here, here, here, and here) …
Discussion: Breitbart
 
 
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 More Items: 
Kevin Collier / BuzzFeed News:
Top US Intelligence Official Confirms Russian Propagandists Tried To Meddle In The Midterms
Discussion: New York Times
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.
Jack Shafer / Politico:
Week 83: BuzzFeed Takes a Victory Lap
Alison Sider / Wall Street Journal:
Airlines' Boarding Changes Reward Higher-Paying Travelers
Discussion: The Daily Caller
Paul Demko / Politico:
Mississippi's Republican governor quietly considering Medicaid expansion
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
It's official. We lost the Cold War.
 Earlier Items: 
Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:
“Some Reverse Wag-the-Dog Bulls …
Discussion: Raw Story and Washington Monthly
Andrew Desiderio / The Daily Beast:
Trump's Abrupt Syria Withdrawal Thwarted ‘Major’ Operation Targeting ISIS, Sen. Bob Corker Says
Michael Hirsh / Foreign Policy:
How Russian Money Helped Save Trump's Business
Discussion: POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story
New York Times:
Bill Barr Just Argued Himself Out of a Job
Jonah Goldberg / National Review:
Conservative Facts  —  The problem conservatism faces these days …
Marty Lederman / Just Security:
What's Noticeably Missing from the Whitaker Nonrecusal Explanation
Discussion: Washington Post
Washington Post:
Jamal Khashoggi's final months as an exile in the long shadow of Saudi Arabia
NBC News:
Taliban greets Pentagon's withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan with cries of victory
Discussion: Vox
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
Disney said Disney+ Q4 ARPU in the US and Canada, down 1% QoQ to $7.70, was affected partly by new wholesale arrangements with some distributors

The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney expects to spend $24B on content in 2025, up from $23.4B in 2024, due to sports programming expenses rising after NFL rate increases and NBA contracts

Liam Scott / Voice of America:
Reporters Without Borders sues X in France for “complicity in disseminating false information”, after X failed to block a fake video with RSF's logo

 
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