memeorandum: Hannity previews Trump's final defense: So what if he's guilty? (Greg Sargent/Washington Post)

3:25 PM ET, January 17, 2020

Top Items:

'You're a bunch of dopes and babies': Inside Trump's stunning tirade against generals — There is no more sacred room for military officers than 2E924 of the Pentagon, a windowless and secure vault where the Joint Chiefs of Staff meet regularly to wrestle with classified matters.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Talking Points Memo, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Root, Eschaton, CNN, VICE, Balloon Juice, Task & Purpose, Raw Story, Little Green Footballs, Althouse and Contemptor

Leo Shane III / Military Times:

Trump blasted top military generals as ‘a bunch of dopes and babies’ according to new book — President Donald Trump blasted top military officials as “losers” and “a bunch of dopes and babies” for a lack of success in the recent wars during a tense meeting early in his presidency that set …

Discussion: Washington Post, Political Wire and Raw Story

Joe Klein / Washington Post: ‘Losers,’ ‘dopes’ and ‘scum’: Inside Trump's war with his own advisers

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Hannity previews Trump's final defense: So what if he's guilty? — It has long been obvious that Republicans would ultimately converge on this final defense of President Trump: Even if he did everything he's been accused of doing, and perhaps a lot more that we don't know about, it's absolutely fine!

Discussion: Raw Story, Digby's Hullabaloo, NBC News, Political Wire, Fox News and HuffPost

Washington Post:
Impeachment trial live updates: Trump expands legal team to include Alan Dershowitz, Kenneth Starr and others

Discussion: NBC News, MSNBC, Daily Kos, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, PJ Media Home, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Fox News, The Crime Report and Althouse

CNN:
Trump expected to add Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz to impeachment defense team

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Associated Press, The Daily Beast, New York Times, Power Line, Redstate, New York Post, CNBC, VICE, Above the Law, Breitbart, The Daily Caller and The Week

Politico:
Trump finally gets his TV-ready lawyers — thanks to impeachment

Discussion: CNN, The American Independent, Media Matters for America, Slate, Law & Crime, UPI, Twitchy, Common Dreams, Contemptor and The Root

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Trump impeachment team includes Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz

Discussion: The Federalist, Townhall, National Review, Boston Magazine, Raw Story, Boston Herald, Roll Call and Florida Politics

New York Times:

Joe Biden: Former vice president of the United States — The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. — This interview was conducted by the editorial board of The New York Times …

Discussion: Mediaite, Reason, Politico, Engadget, Mashable, Washington Free Beacon, The Week and East Bay Times, more at Mediagazer »

Makena Kelly / The Verge:

Joe Biden wants to revoke Section 230 — The Democratic front-runner would remove one of the core protections of the internet — In an interview with The New York Times on Friday, former Vice President Joe Biden called for tech's biggest liability shield, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, to be “revoked, immediately.”

Matthew Lee / Associated Press:

Pompeo breaks silence on alleged threats to envoy in Ukraine — WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday broke nearly 72 hours of silence over alleged surveillance and threats to the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, saying he believed the allegations would prove to be wrong …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and CNN

Josh Wingrove / Bloomberg:

White House Considers Changes to Law Banning Overseas Bribes — Kudlow says administration has heard complaints from companies — Book says Trump clashed with Tillerson over bribery law — President Donald Trump's administration is weighing whether to seek changes to a 1977 law …

Discussion: Raw Story

Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:

Meghan McCain: McSally 'Didn't Earn' the Senate Seat She Inherited From My Dad — “She didn't win that seat. I think that's important.” — The View's Meghan McCain took some shots at Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) on Friday after the lawmaker personally insulted a CNN reporter …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN, Twitchy and Contemptor

Sister Toldjah / Redstate:
‘Liberal Hacks’: Ted Cruz Dropkicks Chris Cuomo After His Nasty Attack Against Martha McSally

Discussion: Mediaite and The Hill

Variety:

Disney Drops Fox Name, Will Rebrand as 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures — The mouse has officially killed the fox. — In a move at once unsurprising and highly symbolic, the Walt Disney Company is dropping the “Fox” brand from the 21st Century Fox assets it acquired last March, Variety has learned.

Discussion: globalnews.ca, The Week and The Verge, more at Mediagazer »

Brooks Barnes / New York Times: Disney Drops Fox From Names of Studios It Bought From Rupert Murdoch

David Siders / Politico:

Democrats stop betting on a Biden implosion — DES MOINES — It took more than a year, but the Democratic presidential primary is finally coming to terms with the fact that Joe Biden isn't going to collapse before the first votes are cast. — If anything, the landscape is tilting more in his favor.

Discussion: One America News Network

Caitlin Oprysko / Politico:
Trump accuses Dems of using impeachment trial to hurt Sanders campaign

Discussion: Associated Press and The Hill

David Knowles / Yahoo News: Parnas said he is speaking out because he is afraid of William Barr

Washington Post:

Black Americans deeply pessimistic about country under Trump, whom more than 8 in 10 describe as ‘a racist,’ Post-Ipsos poll finds — President Trump made a stark appeal to black Americans during the 2016 election when he asked, “What have you got to lose?”

Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story, The American Independent and Axios

Joe Otterson / Variety:

Hillary Clinton Urges Dems to ‘Vote for the Person Most Likely to Win’ in 2020 — Hillary Clinton called for Americans to come to grips with “basic facts” of reality in an appearance at the Television Critics Association winter press tour on Friday. — “We've got to somehow understand …

Laura Reiley / Washington Post:

USDA proposes changing school menus to allow more fries and fewer vegetables, reversing a Michelle Obama effort — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken another whack at former first lady Michelle Obama's signature achievement: Establishing stricter nutritional standards for school breakfasts and lunches.

Discussion: Mother Jones

FiveThirtyEight:

Trump May Be Even More Unpopular Than His Approval Rating Shows — Polls have consistently shown that President Trump is pretty unpopular, with only about 42 percent of the American public approving of the job he is doing as president. These numbers are much lower than what one might expect given the bustling economy.

Tim Miller / The Bulwark:

The McSally Maneuver — At this point, the goal of impeachment is simply forcing Republican senators to admit the truth. — On Thursday, in the halls of Congress, Senator Martha McSally was asked a simple question by reporter Manu Raju: “Should the Senate consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial?”

Discussion: Washington Monthly, NBC News, Politico, CNSNews, CNN and POLITICUSUSA

Yaron Steinbuch / New York Post:

ISIS leader dubbed ‘Jabba the Jihadi’ captured in Iraq — He put the fat in fatwa. — A morbidly obese ISIS fanatic dubbed “Jabba the Jihadi” has been captured by Iraqi forces — who loaded him onto a flatbed truck because he couldn't fit in a police car.

Discussion: Task & Purpose

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

William Barr Is Going After Trump's Enemies One by One — In May of 2016, shortly after Donald Trump had wrapped up his party's nomination, but when the notion he might win the presidency seemed remote at best, Benjamin Wittes wrote one of the very early essays attempting to analyze …

Discussion: Raw Story, CNN, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, JONATHAN TURLEY and Washington Post

Noah Berlatsky / NBC News:

Trump voters motivated by racism may be violating the Constitution. Can they be stopped? — Republicans and Democrats alike have been unwilling to reprimand voters or to hold them accountable. But racist voting isn't an accident. — If the Trump era has taught us anything …

Discussion: Twitchy and CNN

Kevin Baron / Defense One:

Eleven US Troops Were Injured in Jan. 8 Iran Missile Strike — The troops were medevaced this week to Germany and Kuwait to be treated for traumatic brain injury after experiencing concussion symptoms. — Nearly one dozen American troops were wounded in Iran's Jan. 8 missile attack on Iraq's al-Asad air base.

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Task & Purpose, FOX31 Denver, PJ Media Home, UPI, Raw Story, The Week, The US Sun, Sputnik News, Radio Free Europe, CNN, JNS.org, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, fox8.com, Mediaite and New York Post

ABC News:
11 US service members treated for blast injuries in Iran missile attack, military confirms

Discussion: Breitbart

David Z. Morris / Fortune:

Yandex, Russia's biggest search engine, is an on-ramp for child sexual imagery, experts say — Experts say the spread of images of child sexual exploitation online has reached unprecedented levels, calling the situation a major social crisis. While much of this material spreads through …

Michael Harriot / The Root:

Black History, According to White People — Mithridates the Great was one of the Roman Empire's greatest foes and claimed to be a descendant of Alexander the Great, who died by poisoning. Mithridates' father died from poison. His father died from poison. His mother tried to poison him.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Twitchy and National Review

NBC News:

History shows Chief Justice John Roberts could cast tie-breaking votes at Trump's impeachment trial — The chief justice has offered no clues about how he would approach the question of witnesses, but judges typically rule in favor of allowing relevant testimony.

Discussion: Breitbart, MSNBC, New York Post and Los Angeles Times

ABC News:

New software issues could delay return of Boeing's 737 Max — The company says it doesn't know if the fix will take days or weeks. — Boeing potentially faces more delays for the return of its 737 Max jets after another software issue surfaced during an audit meeting with regulators last weekend, sources tell ABC News.

Discussion: One America News Network

Solomon Gustavo / Orlando Weekly:

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz accused of creating sex game with ‘points’ for sleeping with staff — In a Twitter clapback for the Capitol Hill ages, Florida state Rep. Chris Latvala accused Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz of designing a “game” with a point system for “sleeping with aides, interns, lobbyists, and married legislators.”

Discussion: Fox News

David Brooks / New York Times:

The Bernie Sanders Fallacy — No, Virginia, there is no class war. — This is a golden age for “Theyism.” This is the belief that there is some malevolent, elite “they” out there and “they” are destroying life for the rest of us. — There is Donald Trump's culture-war Theyism …

Discussion: BIG by Matt Stoller and No More Mister Nice Blog

BBC:

Brazil's culture minister fired after echoing Goebbels — Brazil's culture minister has been sacked after using parts of a speech by Nazi Germany's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels in a video, sparking outrage. — In the clip posted on the ministry's Twitter page, Roberto Alvim detailed an award for “heroic” and “national” art.

Discussion: New York Times, Bloomberg and Marginal REVOLUTION

The Panama News:

Rude questions: money laundering for slavery probably trumps lurid sex tales — The sex stuff may sell, but we should look for a slavery case … That's how I made money.'"Reuters, at http://www.businessinsider.com/r- special-report-ivanka-trump-and-the- fugitive-from-panama-2017-11

Amy Walter / The Cook Political Report:

Checking in on Wisconsin — One of the hallmarks of the Trump presidency is that no matter how unpredictable and erratic he may be, opinions of him are incredibly stable. At this point in 2019, for example, the FiveThirtyEight tracker showed President Trump's job approval rating at 41percent …

Kara Voght / Mother Jones:

Private Documents Reveal What Wall Street Really Thinks About Elizabeth Warren — A major bank that Elizabeth Warren once sharply criticized has some stark warnings for Wall Street investors about her potential presidency. Warren's corporate tax plan, according to one memo the bank circulated …

Savannah Behrmann / USA Today:

Susan Collins surpasses Mitch McConnell as the most unpopular senator in a new poll — WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. Susan Collins has surpassed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as the most unpopular U.S. Senator, according to a new tracking poll. — The Maine Senator's net approval rating …

Discussion: The Nation, Washington Post and Daily Kos