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Molly O'Toole / Los Angeles Times:
Outgoing White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly defends his rocky tenure … In August 2017, shortly after John F. Kelly became White House chief of staff, he convened crucial meetings on Afghanistan at President Trump's golf club in Bedminster, N.J. — Top officials from the Pentagon and the CIA …
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Politico, CBS News, The Guardian, POLITICUSUSA, New York Times, Raw Story, Washington Post, NPR, The Gateway Pundit, Bloomberg, Vox and Mother Jones
Los Angeles Times:
Cyberattack from outside the U.S. hits newspapers across the country, preventing distribution, source says — A cyberattack that appears to have originated from outside the United States caused major printing and delivery disruptions at several newspapers across the country on Saturday including …
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Deadline and Ventura County Star, more at Techmeme »
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Los Angeles Times:
Foreign cyberattack hits newspapers: Here is what we know — The Los Angeles Times and other newspapers were the victims of an apparent cyberattack. — A source with knowledge of the situation said a “foreign entity” launched the attack using malware, which prevented The Times and others …
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Deadline
Associated Press:
Computer virus hits Tribune Publishing, Los Angeles Times — LOS ANGELES (AP) — A computer virus hit newspaper printing plants in Los Angeles and at Tribune Publishing newspapers across the country. — Tribune Publishing said a computer virus disrupted production of the Chicago Tribune …
Daniel Marans / HuffPost:
The Real Reason Why Some Bernie Sanders Fans Have It In For Beto O'Rourke — They worry that defections from Sanders' 2016 team will “whitewash” O'Rourke's policy record. — The progressive commentariat has been buzzing in recent weeks about the barrage of unflattering reporting …
Discussion:
Politico
Mary Papenfuss / HuffPost:
Taxpayers Dish Out $54,000 For Mar-a-Lago Party Tents For New Year's Eve — The public eats the costs of a bash at Trump's Florida resort while federal workers go without pay amid the partial government shutdown. — Whether or not President Donald Trump ultimately decides to party …
Mary Papenfuss / HuffPost:
Trump Lies Again About 19,000 ‘Deleted’ FBI Text Messages — The inspector general of the president's own Justice Department concluded the texts were missing due to technological glitches; 20,000 were recovered. — As President Donald Trump raged against “angry Democrats” in a tweet Saturday …
Discussion:
Raw Story and POLITICUSUSA
George Packer / The Atlantic:
No Peace for Them and No Honor for Us — Nothing in the presidency of Donald Trump combines tragedy and farce so perfectly as his decision to withdraw the 2,000 American troops in Syria. — “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” he tweeted on the morning of December 19.
Emily Wax-Thibodeaux / Washington Post:
FBI, New Jersey investigators gathered evidence of undocumented immigrants who say they worked at Trump golf course, lawyer says — Federal and state investigators are scrutinizing the employment documents of immigrants without legal status who say they worked at President Trump's golf club in New Jersey, according to their attorney.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Business Insider, POLITICUSUSA, Raw Story, Hullabaloo, Mediaite, sandiegouniontribune.com, Law & Crime and Washington Press
Roey Hadar / ABC News:
Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal: President Donald Trump immoral, doesn't tell the truth — The former top commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, retired four-star Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, criticized President Donald Trump's behavior and handling of the presidency …
Ben Domenech / The Federalist:
A Federalist Remembrance Of Bre Payton, Our Colleague And Friend — Bre Payton lived life as if she was always ready to leave it. And she did, too early for all of the rest of us, at the age of 26. — I hired Bre Payton right out of college. She was green. She was unknown. She had never done TV.
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Power Line
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Nylah Burton / New York Magazine:
Alice Walker's Terrible Anti-Semitic Poem Felt Personal — to Her and to Me — When I first read Alice Walker's The Color Purple, I leaned into every word, inhaling Celie's tragic and triumphant story. In Celie, I felt the presence and pain of my female family members brought up in rural Alabama.
Kamala D. Harris / New York Times:
Everyone Gets Sick. And We Deserve Better. — What my mother's death taught me about the health care system American needs. — Ms. Harris is a Democratic senator from California. — In 2008, our mother asked my sister, Maya, and me to meet her for lunch. When we arrived, our mother didn't seem like herself.
Chris Mills Rodrigo / The Hill:
Video shows migrant children dragged, pushed at since-shuttered shelter — Videos from a since-shuttered migrant shelter in Arizona show children being pushed and dragged by staffers, The Arizona Republic reported Friday. — The shelter, Hacienda Del Sol, was shut down in late October.
Discussion:
USA Today
Mitch Smith / New York Times:
Fears of Republican Power Grab in Michigan Fade as Governor Vetoes Bill — Just a few weeks ago, protesters marched through the Michigan Capitol claiming that Republicans were trying to subvert the will of voters and seize power from the Democrats who had just been elected governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
Linda Qiu / New York Times:
Deciphering the Patterns in Trump's Falsehoods — We review how President Trump bent the truth this year by repeating and inflating falsehoods, shifting his statements, embellishing or omitting details, and offering misleading attacks. — President Trump has a well-documented problem telling the truth.
Vladimir Soldatkin / Reuters:
Putin, in New Year letter to Trump, says Moscow is open for dialogue — MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a New Year letter to his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump, said on Sunday that Moscow was ready for dialogue on a “wide-ranging agenda”, the Kremlin said in a statement.
Discussion:
Political Wire
Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
New Life for Old Classics, as Their Copyrights Run Out — Nearly a century ago, the publisher Alfred A. Knopf released a slim book of spiritual fables by an obscure Lebanese-American poet and painter named Kahlil Gibran. — Knopf had modest expectations, and printed around 1,500 copies.
Quint Forgey / Politico:
On shutdown, White House wants Trump's tweets to do the talking — Negotiations to reopen the government are happening exactly where White House aides want them — on President Donald Trump's Twitter feed. — As the federal government shutdown entered its eighth day on Saturday …
Discussion:
Raw Story, xinhuanet.com, fox8.com and POLITICUSUSA