Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones.
11:40 AM ET, December 16, 2020

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Keith Griffith / Associated Press:
MAGA turns on Mitch: Trump allies including Michael Flynn slam the GOP Senate majority leader for ‘caving to the mob and China’ for recognizing Biden as president-elect  — Trump loyalists were furious after McConnell congratulated Biden on Tuesday  — Top allies accused Senate majority leader of selling out the party's leader
RELATED:
Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:   Journalists, it's time for a cold-turkey breakup with Trump
Stephen Collinson / CNN:
McConnell sets stage for new face-off with Biden after delivering blow to Trump's election fantasy
John Hudson / Washington Post:
Hundreds of invitees skip Mike Pompeo's indoor holiday party at State Department  —  Only a tiny fraction of the more than 900 guests invited to an indoor holiday party hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan showed up on Tuesday following an outcry from public health officials …
RELATED:
Jennifer Hansler / CNN:
Pompeo quarantining after coronavirus exposure  —  (CNN)Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is quarantining after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for coronavirus, but he himself “has been tested and is negative,” the State Department announced Wednesday.
Matthew Lee / Associated Press:
Secretary of State Pompeo quarantines after virus exposure
Discussion: USA Today and Washington Times
Rachael Bunyan / Daily Mail:
Pompeo's Christmas party falls flat as fewer than 70 of the 900 invited guests show up over superspreader fears
Discussion: Raw Story
ABC13:
Alleged crusade to stop voter fraud lands former HPD captain in handcuffs  —  HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A former Houston Police Department Captain was arrested and charged for running a man off the road and pointing a gun at his head in an attempt to prove claims of a massive voter fraud scheme …
RELATED:
Aída Chávez / The Intercept:
AOC: Nancy Pelosi Needs to Go, but There's Nobody to Replace Her Yet … Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believes the Democratic Party needs new leadership, telling The Intercept in an interview that it's time for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to go.
RELATED:
Quint Forgey / Politico:
Ocasio-Cortez takes direct shot at Pelosi and Schumer
Discussion: Axios
Sun-Sentinel:
A mysterious gap in COVID-19 deaths appeared in Florida before the presidential election  —  An astonishing pattern has emerged in Florida's COVID death tally — one that suggests the state manipulated a backlog of unrecorded fatalities, presenting more favorable death counts in the days leading up to the 2020 presidential election.
RELATED:
Politico:
Hill leaders close in on Covid stimulus deal
Alayna Treene / Axios:
Kevin McCarthy refuses to congratulate Biden on election victory
RELATED:
John Bowden / The Hill:
Republican NC state senator: Trump should ‘invoke the Insurrection Act’
Discussion: Election Law Blog
Associated Press:
‘I do not feel safe’: Kansas GOP mayor resigns after threats over backing mask mandate  —  A Republican mayor in western Kansas announced in a letter to city officials and on social media Tuesday that she is resigning, effective immediately, because of threats she has received after she publicly supported a mask mandate.
Discussion: Raw Story
RELATED:
NBC News:
White House counsel's office warned Trump not to fire Chris Wray  —  WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has come so close to firing FBI Director Christopher Wray in recent months that the White House counsel's office has warned him not to do so because it could put him in potential legal jeopardy …
Washington Post:
Mar-a-Lago neighbors to Trump: Spend your post-presidency elsewhere  —  Next-door neighbors of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's private club in Palm Beach, Fla., that he has called his Winter White House, have a message for the outgoing commander in chief: We don't want you to be our neighbor.
RELATED:
Peter Weber / Yahoo News:
Trump's Mar-a-Lago neighbors don't want him to move there. They may be able to stop him, too.
Discussion: The Week
Michael Stratford / Politico:
DeVos urges career staff to ‘be the resistance’ as Biden takes over  —  Education Secretary Betsy DeVos urged career employees at the Education Department on Tuesday to “be the resistance” when the Biden administration comes into power next month, according to a recording of her remarks obtained by POLITICO.
RELATED:
Politico:
Biden to tap former Michigan Gov. Granholm to lead Energy Department
Politico:
Supreme Court will hear NCAA case on college athlete pay  —  The case could upend the college sports business model.  —  A student basketball player warms up with the NCAA logo on the wall behind him.  Patrick Smith/Getty Images  —  The Supreme Court will hear a landmark antitrust case …
RELATED:
Fox News:   Supreme Court agrees to hear cases on NCAA athlete compensation
The Daily Beast:
Value of Loeffler's Mansion Dropped $6M Overnight—and Nobody Can Explain Why  —  The estate went from a $10.5 million appraisal to $4.1 million, resulting in a much lower tax bill for the senator and her husband.  —  When Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher …
Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Raw Story
Tatiana Siegel / Hollywood Reporter:
Bob Iger, Jeffrey Katzenberg In the Mix for Biden Ambassadorship Roles  —  The Disney executive chairman is at the top of the president-elect's wish list for a diplomatic assignment with the DreamWorks and Quibi mogul also in the mix.  —  It appears that Bob Iger might have a future in public service after all.
Noah Weiland / New York Times:
‘Like a Hand Grasping’: Trump Appointees Describe the Crushing of the C.D.C.  —  Kyle McGowan, a former chief of staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and his deputy, Amanda Campbell, go public on the Trump administration's manipulation of the agency.
Christian Middleton / Mississippi Free Press:
UM Fires History Professor Who Criticizes ‘Powerful, Racist Donors’ and ‘Carceral State’  —  During a period of what University of Mississippi faculty are calling a time of increasing paranoia, the university is set to terminate a celebrated professor of history.
Associated Press:
Trump asking about special prosecutor for Hunter Biden  —  Washington (AP) — President Donald Trump is considering pushing to have a special counsel appointed to advance a federal tax investigation into the son of President-elect Joe Biden, setting up a potential showdown with incoming acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen.
RELATED:
Glennon Doyle / Glamour:
Glennon Doyle and Biden Campaign Manager Jen O'Malley Dillon on Politics, Motherhood, and Doing Hard Things  —  Within an hour of the networks' at last declaring Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election, his campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon took to Twitter to celebrate.
RELATED:
Marc Thiessen / Washington Post:
Giving Trump credit for the vaccine is the best way for Biden to unite the country  —  Joe Biden promised in his victory speech to “unite us here at home” and told Trump supporters that he wanted to “put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature [and] see each other again.”
Discussion: USA Today
Ben Lindbergh / The Ringer:
MLB Is Finally Recognizing the Negro Leagues as the Major Leagues They Always Were  —  Negro League statistics from 1920 to 1948 will now be officially classified as “major league,” marking a long-overdue acknowledgment of the accomplishments of players who didn't have the opportunity to play in the American or National Leagues
Heather Long / Washington Post:
Nearly 8 million Americans have fallen into poverty since the summer  —  Nation's poverty rate has risen at the fastest pace ever this year after aid for the unemployed declined.  —  The U.S. poverty rate has surged over the past five months, with 7.8 million Americans falling into poverty …
Discussion: Forbes
Bloomberg:
MacKenzie Scott Gives Away $4.2 Billion in Four Months  — World's 18th-richest person announced contributions on Medium  — Scott's total gifts this year are close to $6 billion  —  MacKenzie Scott is giving away her fortune at an unprecedented pace, donating more than $4 billion …
Craig Stirling / Bloomberg:
Fifty Years of Tax Cuts for Rich Didn't Trickle Down, Study Says  — Paper looks at fiscal policies in 18 countries over 50 years  — Governments shouldn't worry about taxes on rich, author says  —  Tax cuts for rich people breed inequality without providing much of a boon to anyone else …
Hans Nichols / Axios:
Biden considering Republicans for Commerce secretary  —  President-elect Joe Biden is considering some well-known Republicans — think Meg Whitman types — for Commerce secretary as a way to signal to red-state Americans he understands their concerns and plans to address them.
Matthew Yglesias / Slow Boring:
17 theses on Pete Buttigieg and the Department of Transportation  —  Emergency blog post!  —  3 hr ago  —  Trying something new, an emergency out-of-schedule post on Pete Buttigieg and the Department of Transportation!  — I love transportation policy and know a fair amount about it.
Discussion: The Federalist
Daniel Funke / @politifact:
Lie of the Year: Coronavirus downplay and denial  —  A Florida taxi driver and his wife had seen enough conspiracy theories online to believe the virus was overblown, maybe even a hoax.  So no masks for them.  Then they got sick.  She died.  A college lecturer had trouble refilling …
Discussion: Poynter
 
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of memeorandum at 11:40 AM ET, December 16, 2020.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Who's Hiring in Media? 
 
 See Also: 
memeorandum: site main
memeorandum River: reverse chronological memeorandum
memeorandum Mobile: for phones
memeorandum Leaderboard: memeorandum's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
memeorandum RSS feed
memeorandum on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Cheri Mossburg / CNN:
California activates ‘mass fatality’ program over rising Covid-19 infections, buys more body bags
Discussion: UPI
Lisa Kashinsky / Boston Herald:
What's next for Joe Kennedy III? Maybe a Biden administration post, definitely more family time
Christopher Bedford / The Federalist:
Florida Is Open, New York Is Closed, And The Latter Has More COVID Deaths
Discussion: NBC News
Jonathan Martin / New York Times:
Senator Jon Tester on Democrats and Rural Voters: ‘Our Message Is Really, Really Flawed’
NBC News:
Restaurants worry bipartisan coronavirus deal is cutting them out
Sam Stein / The Daily Beast:
Anti-Trump Republicans Are Doing Nothing Right Now to Stop Him in 2024
Discussion: Raw Story
Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
A notable death in 2020: American democracy | Will Bunch Newsletter
Discussion: Newsmax, The Atlantic and Daily Kos
 Earlier Items: 
Roque Planas / HuffPost:
USPS Finally Releases Louis DeJoy's Calendar — And Everything's Redacted
Discussion: Raw Story
Patreon:
Bill Barr and Other Hacks
New York Times:
From Voter Fraud to Vaccine Lies: Misinformation Peddlers Shift Gears
Thomas B. Edsall / New York Times:
America, We Have a Problem  —  The rise of ‘political sectarianism’ is putting us all in danger.
Derek Thompson / The Atlantic:
We're Never Going Back to the 1950s  —  Twenty years ago, the sociologist Robert Putnam …
Death Penalty Information Center:
The Death Penalty in 2020: Year End Report
Andrew Desiderio / Politico:
Ron Johnson gambles his political future on Trump
Discussion: Washington Post and Raw Story
 

 
From Techmeme:

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Anthropic raised another $4B from Amazon, will make AWS its primary training partner, and is working with Annapurna Labs to develop new Trainium accelerators

Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
A UK CMA report finds that Apple's policies hold back innovation in mobile browsers and recommends investigating Apple and Google's mobile ecosystem activities

Mia Sato / The Verge:
Threads is testing AI-generated summaries of what users are discussing, in the app's Trending Now section in the US, and Search and Trending Now improvements

 
Sister Sites:

Techmeme
 Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web
Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page