memeorandum: People are seeing ‘Cats’ while high out of their minds. These are their stories. (Maura Judkis/Washington Post)

10:00 AM ET, January 7, 2020

Top Items:

Iranian-Americans Questioned at the Border: 'My Kids Shouldn't Experience Such Things' — Up to 200 people were held by border agents, with some of them reportedly asked to share their opinions about the situation in Iran and Iraq. — SEATTLE — Arriving at the United States border …

Discussion: Slate, CAIR and Daily Kos

David Leonhardt / New York Times:

No One Believes Trump — Which isn't good in an international crisis. — “This is where having credibility — and having a president who didn't lie about everything — would be really, really helpful,” Samantha Power, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations, wrote recently.

Discussion: Reason

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:

The Nightmare Stage of Trump's Rule Is Here — Unstable and impeached, the president pushes the U.S. toward war with Iran. — There are no more adults in the room. — After three harrowing years, we've reached the point many of us feared from the moment Donald Trump was elected.

Discussion: Defense One, Bangor Daily News, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post

Washington Post:
War with Iran is still less likely than you think

Discussion: New York Times, Vox and American Prospect

Foreign Policy:
Trump Administration Blocks Iran's Top Diplomat From Addressing the U.N. Security Council

Discussion: Fox News, Common Dreams, Law & Crime, Raw Story, HuffPost and Mediaite

USA Today:
Iran crisis demands Donald Trump spell out endgame after killing Gen. Qassem Soleimani

Discussion: Vox, LewRockwell and Arab News

Thomas Gibbons-Neff / New York Times:
How U.S. Troops Are Preparing for the Worst in the Middle East

Discussion: Associated Press, Task & Purpose, Stars & Stripes and The Briefly Series

New York Times:

Mike Pompeo Is Said to Decide Against Running for Senate in Kansas — The secretary of state's decision most likely ends Republicans' hopes of securing a potentially dominant candidate for the open seat in Kansas, his home state. — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday told Mitch McConnell …

Discussion: Vanity Fair, Politico, Outside the Beltway, The Guardian, FiveThirtyEight, The Morning Dispatch, The Nation, Washington Post, NBC News, CNN, HuffPost, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, Alternet.org, Wall Street Journal, Axios and Mediaite

Benjamin Wittes / The Atlantic:

Pelosi and McConnell Are Playing High-Stakes Poker — We are now entering the third week of the staring contest between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over when the House of Representatives will deliver its articles of impeachment to the Senate, and under what circumstances.

Jordain Carney / The Hill:
Romney wants ‘to hear from John Bolton’ in impeachment trial

Discussion: NBC News, National Review, The Daily Caller, Common Dreams and Washington Post

John Bresnahan / Politico:
GOP moderates side with McConnell over Bolton testimony

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, National Review, The Daily Caller, NBC News, Talking Points Memo, The Week and Task & Purpose

Washington Post:
Bolton's willingness to testify in Trump's impeachment trial ramps up pressure on Senate Republicans

Discussion: The Hill and Politico

Associated Press:

Stampede kills 32 at funeral for Iran general killed by US — TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A stampede erupted on Tuesday at a funeral procession for a top Iranian general killed in a U.S. airstrike last week, killing 32 people and injuring 190 others, state television reported.

Discussion: Washington Post, CNBC, The Daily Caller, New York Times, The Week, Raw Story, Common Dreams, VICE, Соб … and Axios

New York Times:

Khamenei Wants to Put Iran's Stamp on Reprisal for U.S. Killing of Top General — In a departure from Iran's usual tactics of hiding behind proxies, the country's supreme leader wants any retaliation for the killing of a top military commander to be carried out openly by Iranian forces.

Discussion: National Review, Financial Times, The Week, Fox News, New Yorker and The American Independent

Eli Clifton / Responsible Statecraft:
U.S. Media Outlets Fail to Disclose U.S. Government Ties of ‘Iranian Journalist’ Echoing Trump Talking Points

Discussion: NB Blog and The Daily Caller

Masih Alinejad / Washington Post:
Don't believe Iranian propaganda about the mourning for Soleimani

Discussion: Redstate, The Gateway Pundit, ABC News, NB Blog, Foreign Policy, The Daily Caller, Townhall, The Mahablog and CBS San Francisco

James Barnett / The Hill:

Why Trump should fear Sanders much more than Warren in 2020 — It is conventional political wisdom that President Trump stands his best chance in 2020 if Democrats nominate a far left candidate like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. That is half right. I have witnessed both of these candidates …

Discussion: Vox and Politico

Cameron Easley / Morning Consult:
A Month Ahead of Iowa Caucuses, Biden Is Democrats' Best Bet to Beat Trump

Discussion: The Hill and IJR

Garrett Haake / NBC News:
Sanders shuttle: Trump trial could trap candidates in D.C. One senator has an escape plan.

Discussion: The Hill

Andrew Romano / Yahoo News:
Three ways the next 28 days could reset the Democratic primary

Discussion: NBC News, Alternet.org, Washington Post and National Review

Washington Post:

Trump administration begins drafting possible sanctions against Iraq following Trump's economic threat — No decision has been made on whether to implement the penalties, but aides scrambled following presidential warning to Baghdad — Senior administration officials have begun drafting sanctions …

Discussion: The Hill, CNN, The Moderate Voice, Соб …, Eschaton, Alternet.org, Vanity Fair, Foreign Policy, Mediaite, Mother Jones and The Root

CNN:
Top general says letter suggesting US would withdraw troops from Iraq was a ‘mistake’

Discussion: The Daily Beast, CNBC, Raw Story and KTLA

New York Times:

Pentagon Rules Out Striking Iranian Cultural Sites, Contradicting Trump — The defense secretary acknowledged that “the laws of armed conflict” prohibited attacking antiquities and said the military had no plans to do so, even though the president declared them targets.

John Hinderaker / Power Line:
“War Crimes” Hysteria on the Left

Discussion: New York Times, Redstate and Marginal REVOLUTION

Irin Carmon / The Cut:

The 57-Page PowerPoint Harvey Weinstein's Team Is Sending Reporters — As New York prepared to publish this week's look at the coming trial of Harvey Weinstein, along with a portfolio of women who have made allegations against him, I reached out to his current publicist, Juda Engelmayer, for comment.

Discussion: Page Six, Common Dreams, BuzzFeed News, Jezebel and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »

Dominic Patten / Deadline: Harvey Weinstein To Seek Delay In NYC Rape Trial After Being Charged With Sexual Assault In L.A.

Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura / New York Times:

A Near-Extinct Language Finds a Home in One Brooklyn Building — There are just 700 Seke speakers left in the world, and 100 live in New York — half of them in one building. — The apartment building, in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood, is a hive of nationalities.

Mark Binelli / Rolling Stone:

How Lindsey Graham Lost His Way — The senator once enjoyed respect on both sides of the aisle. Why has he become a blind loyalist to Trump? — Lindsey Graham and Donald Trump were born nine years and one month apart. Trump came first, but when they appear side by side …

Discussion: Raw Story

Alex Horton / Washington Post:

Russian trolls are targeting American veterans, and Trump's government isn't helping, group says — The Trump administration has for nearly two years ignored mounting evidence that Russian operatives and other foreign actors were deliberately targeting U.S. troops and veterans …

Will Wade / Bloomberg:

Coal's Collapse Has America's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Falling — Greenhouse gas emissions have dipped two of past three years — U.S. coal power declined last year to lowest level since 1975 — Greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. slipped last year as coal-fired power plants continue to close.

Arelis Hernández / Washington Post:

Puerto Rico earthquake Tuesday morning triggers blackout, reports of injuries and at least one dead — A powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake off Puerto Rico's southwestern coast early Tuesday morning has triggered a widespread blackout, interrupted telecommunications and sent homeowners scrambling …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Josephine Harvey / HuffPost:

Number Of Animals Feared Dead In Australia's Wildfires Soars To Over 1 Billion — Ecologists at the University of Sydney and WWF Australia estimate that a billion is a conservative figure. — SYDNEY ― The number of wildlife estimated to have died in Australia's wildfire catastrophe has skyrocketed to more than 1 billion.

Discussion: Townhall, Common Dreams and Daily Kos

Dan Merica / CNN:

Buttigieg releases 4 early-state ads — with 4 distinct messages — Buttigieg: Donors not ‘disqualified’ from ambassador posts — (CNN)Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg will begin airing four distinct ads in the early-nominating states on Tuesday, tailoring a message ranging …

Discussion: YouTube and The Hill

Agence France-Presse:

Trump says Zuckerberg told him he's Facebook's ‘number one’ — Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump boasted Monday that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told him at dinner he is “number one” on the global social media platform. — “I had dinner with Mark Zuckerberg the other day and he …

Ashley Strickland / CNN:

Mysterious repeating fast radio burst traced to nearby galaxy — (CNN)Astronomers have traced the signal of an enigmatic repeating fast radio burst for only the second time — and it's in a spiral galaxy similar to our own, not so far away. — Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are millisecond-long bursts of radio waves in space.

Pete Williams / NBC News:

FBI seeks Apple's help unlocking phones of suspected Pensacola naval station gunman — Phones thought to belong to the Saudi air force member accused in the deadly attack are password-protected. — The FBI is asking Apple Inc. to help unlock two iPhones that investigators think were owned …

New York Times:

American Consumers, Not China, Are Paying for Trump's Tariffs — New York Fed and academic researchers found that U.S. consumers and companies have borne the brunt of the president's trade war. — WASHINGTON — American businesses and consumers, not China, are bearing the financial brunt …

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:

Elizabeth Warren's new plan to reform bankruptcy law, explained — A return to her political roots. — With a new plan out Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is returning to her roots — proposing to roll back bankruptcy changes made in 2005 while also pitching a series of new reforms.

Discussion: American Prospect

Sam Kriss / Idiot Joy Showland:

Teenage bloodbath: the 2010s in review — Death is grievance, and only grievance. — Reviewed: — Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (film, JJ Abrams, 2019) — The Irishman (film, Martin Scorsese, 2019) — Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (film, Quentin Tarantino, 2019)

Tess Owen / VICE:

ICE Detention Center Captain Was on a Neo-Nazi Website and Wanted to Start a White Nationalist Group — A senior employee at a for-profit immigrant detention center in Nevada was active on the neo-Nazi site Iron March and aspired to establish a white nationalist chapter in his area.