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12:50 PM 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:
Richard Fowler / Fox News:
Trump's defeat is now final, bringing a disastrous presidency to a welcome end  —  Biden's victory was not the result of fraud, as Trump falsely claims  —  Biden calls for unity, blasts Trump after Electoral College vote  —  The former reality TV performer who is now president …
Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
Journalists, it's time for a cold-turkey breakup with Trump  —  Long before he glided down that golden escalator at Trump Tower in 2015 to announce his presidential candidacy, Donald Trump was an object of media fascination.  He could never actually become president, of course …
Discussion: Forbes and Raw Story
Axios:
Mitch McConnell is outmuscling Trump as the dominant GOP powerbroker on Capitol Hill
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.
Nahal Toosi / Politico:
Pompeo in quarantine after coronavirus exposure
Discussion: Talking Points Memo
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: New York Post, Raw Story and Mediaite
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:
Eric Hananoki / Media Matters for America:   The Texas organization connected to an alleged assault over imaginary voter fraud posts violent and conspiratorial rhetoric
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:
Dan Diamond / Politico:
‘We want them infected’: Trump appointee demanded ‘herd immunity’ strategy, emails reveal  —  A top Trump appointee repeatedly urged top health officials to adopt a “herd immunity” approach to Covid-19 and allow millions of Americans to be infected by the virus, according to internal emails obtained …
Discussion: Raw Story
RELATED:
Emily McCullar / Texas Monthly:
Texas Wedding Photographers Have Seen Some $#!  +  —  They know what you did this summer.  —  NOTES  —  The wedding photographer had already spent an hour or two inside with the unmasked wedding party when one of the bridesmaids approached her.  The woman thanked her for still showing up …
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
RELATED:
John Bowden / The Hill:
Republican NC state senator: Trump should ‘invoke the Insurrection Act’
Discussion: Election Law Blog
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 …
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:
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
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: DSCC, 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.
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.
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 and 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.
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:
Suzanne Venker / Washington Examiner:
Traditional marriage roles make for much better sex  —  In 2014, author and psychologist Lori Gottlieb wrote an article for the New York Times about a study that found egalitarian, or “50-50,” marriages (in which both parents work full time outside the home and split household and childcare right …
Derek Thompson / The Atlantic:
We're Never Going Back to the 1950s  —  Twenty years ago, the sociologist Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone used the decline of bowling leagues since the middle of the 20th century to symbolize America's declining social engagement.  This year, he published a sequel of sorts, The Upswing …
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
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 …
Discussion: The Intellectualist
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: Raw Story and Poynter
 
 
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 More Items: 
Dara Lind / ProPublica:
A Once-in-a-Lifetime Chance for Liberian Immigrants Has Been “Hamstrung” by COVID — and Trump's Dysfunctional Immigration Bureaucracy
Emily Cochrane / New York Times:
Congressional Leaders Close In on a Stimulus Deal
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’
Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money
Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
A notable death in 2020: American democracy | Will Bunch Newsletter
 Earlier Items: 
Roque Planas / HuffPost:
USPS Finally Releases Louis DeJoy's Calendar — And Everything's Redacted
Discussion: Forbes and Raw Story
Patreon:
Bill Barr and Other Hacks
New York Times:
From Voter Fraud to Vaccine Lies: Misinformation Peddlers Shift Gears
Hans Nichols / Axios:
Biden considering Republicans for Commerce secretary
Matthew Yglesias / Slow Boring:
17 theses on Pete Buttigieg and the Department of Transportation
Discussion: The Federalist
Glennon Doyle / Glamour:
Glennon Doyle and Biden Campaign Manager Jen O'Malley Dillon on Politics, Motherhood, and Doing Hard Things
Bloomberg:
MacKenzie Scott Gives Away $4.2 Billion in Four Months
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:
Spotify plans to pay incentives to video creators who hit certain viewing thresholds and, in January, to let Premium subscribers view podcast videos without ads

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Don Lemon, who sued Elon Musk and X after a deal fell apart, says he's leaving X on November 15, citing X's new ToS that moves legal disputes to Texas courts

Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
German royalty licensing group GEMA sues OpenAI and subsidiary OpenAI Ireland in Munich Regional Court, claiming ChatGPT violates copyrights of lyrics

 
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