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9:45 PM ET, December 17, 2020

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Politico:
Nuclear weapons agency breached amid massive cyber onslaught  —  The Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, have evidence that hackers accessed their networks as part of an extensive espionage operation that has affected …
RELATED:
Joseph Menn / Reuters:
Exclusive-Suspected Russian hacking spree reached into Microsoft -sources  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Microsoft was breached in the massive hacking campaign disclosed by U.S. officials this week, according to people familiar with the matter, adding a top technology target to a growing list of vital government agencies.
us-cert.cisa.gov:
Alert (AA20-352A)  —  Advanced Persistent Threat Compromise of Government Agencies, Critical Infrastructure, and Private Sector Organizations  —  Summary  —  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is aware of compromises of U.S. government agencies …
Anne Gearan / Washington Post:
Biden and lawmakers raise alarms over cybersecurity breach amid Trump's silence  —  Democrats and some Republicans raised the alarm Thursday about a massive and growing cybersecurity breach that many experts blame on Russia, with President-elect Joe Biden implicitly criticizing the Trump administration …
Discussion: Axios and Mediaite
Ben Fox / Associated Press:
Hack against US is ‘grave threat,’ cybersecurity agency says
Discussion: Roll Call and Florida Politics
Politico:
Top Biden aide walks back expletive description of Republicans  —  Jen O'Malley Dillon, President-elect Joe Biden's campaign manager and incoming White House deputy chief of staff, walked back comments she made in a recent interview suggesting that congressional Republicans were “a bunch of f—ers.”
RELATED:
Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:
Trump's New Brand Is Loser  —  His post-election tantrum is forcing conservatives to affirm, again and again, that he lost the election fair and square.  —  In the six weeks since the Presidential election, various theories—many of them persuasive—have been advanced to explain President Trump's refusal to accept Joe Biden's victory.
Brittany De Lea / Fox News:
Biden White House pick tests positive for COVID after attending event with president-elect
Discussion: Bloomberg and TheGrio
Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:   Biden Won Wisconsin, but It Was Even Closer Than Reported
Ronald Brownstein / The Atlantic:
Does Joe Biden Understand the Modern GOP?
Washington Post:
Biden picks Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) to be first Native American interior secretary  —  Tribal and progressive activists lobbied hard to put an indigenous leader in charge of a department that helps oversee Indian County  —  President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Democratic Rep. Deb Haaland …
RELATED:
Coral Davenport / New York Times:
Biden Will Pick Deb Haaland to Lead Interior Department
Discussion: New Republic and CBS News
Jeff Stein / Washington Post:
White House aides talked Trump out of last-minute demand for stimulus checks as big as $2,000  —  Chaotic chain of events at White House illustrates why stimulus bill remains in flux  —  White House aides intervened Thursday to prevent President Trump from issuing a statement calling …
Washington Post:
States report confusion as feds reduce vaccine shipments, even as Pfizer says it has ‘millions’ of unclaimed doses  —  Officials in multiple states said they were alerted late Wednesday that their second shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine next week had been reduced, sparking widespread confusion …
RELATED:
Kirby Wilson / Tampa Bay Times:
DeSantis says Florida shipments of vaccines are ‘on hold.’ Pfizer disagrees.  —  ‘No shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delayed,’ the pharmaceutical giant said in a statement Thursday.  —  TALLAHASSEE — Less than a week into its program to vaccinate millions of residents …
Jonathan V. Last / The Triad:
Where Is the President of the United States?  —  Donald Trump is AWOL.  And his disgrace is hiding in plain sight.  —  Before we start: Tonight we're doing a livestream that I'm hoping will go down in legend as The Bulwark version of the Star Wars Holiday Special.  The first 12 minutes will be entirely in Wookie.
RELATED:
Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
An outraged Kemp blasts pro-Trump conspiracy theorists harassing his family  —  Gov. Brian Kemp is fed up with the unrelenting attacks from conspiracy theorists calling on him to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory in Georgia.  But he's even more enraged that some of those peddlers …
Dan Diamond / Politico:
HHS secretary tells staff: My wife is sick with Covid  —  Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Thursday night informed staff that his wife, Jennifer, tested positive for Covid-19, according to an email shared by HHS.  —  “Today, my family learned that my wife Jennifer …
Discussion: The Hill
Politico:
Never-Trump movement splinters as its villain heads for the exit  —  The defeat of Donald Trump might have been the easy part for never-Trump Republicans.  Next up: taking on the more elusive target of Trumpism with their boogeyman gone from office.  —  More than a dozen leaders …
RELATED:
Alex Kirshner / Slate:
How Offshore Oddsmakers Made a Killing off Gullible Trump Supporters  —  On Dec. 9, Donald Trump tweeted something incorrect but at least closer to the ballpark of the truth than most of what he's posted since losing his reelection campaign.  —  “At 10 p.m. on Election Evening, we were at 97% …
Discussion: Forbes
Washington Post:
Biden picks top North Carolina environmental official to run EPA  —  Michael Regan has forged a multibillion-dollar clean up of coal ash and worked with the state's GOP legislature  —  President-elect Joe Biden will choose to nominate Michael S. Regan, who heads the North Carolina Department …
Luke Money / Los Angeles Times:
ICU availability in Southern California at 0%, and it's going to get worse, officials warn  —  The availability of intensive care unit beds throughout Southern California reached critical mass Thursday with 0% open, and officials warned that conditions in hospitals are expected to erode further COVID-19 continues to spread unchecked.
James Baker / Washington Post:
Trump's recognition of Western Sahara is a serious blow to diplomacy and international law  —  James Baker served as the 61st U.S. secretary of state from 1989 to 1992 and as the U.N. secretary-general's personal envoy for Western Sahara from 1997 to 2004.  —  President Trump's recent …
Discussion: Politico, The Economist and Raw Story
Haley Victory Smith / Washington Examiner:
Grand jury indicts six men for allegedly conspiring to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer  —  A federal grand jury indicted six men in the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.  —  U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge released the indictment on Thursday.  If convicted, each man is eligible for up to life in prison.
Discussion: The Daily Caller, Law & Crime and UPI
RELATED:
David Ljunggren / Reuters:
Canada floats idea of North American ban on new gasoline-powered cars  —  OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada wants deeper environmental ties with the United States and one result could be a North American ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered passenger cars and trucks, a senior cabinet member said on Thursday.
Andrew Heavens / Reuters:
Sweden's king says ‘we have failed’ over COVID-19, as deaths mount  —  STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Sweden's king said his country had failed in its handling of COVID-19, in a sharp criticism of a pandemic policy partly blamed for a high death toll among the elderly.
Discussion: Bloomberg and National Review
Washington Post:
John Roberts's self-defeating attempt to make the court appear nonpolitical  —  His obviously strategic opinions have infuriated the right — and emboldened the left.  —  “The highest art is artlessness,” observed Francis Alexander Durivage, a now largely forgotten 19th-century American author …
Discussion: Reason
Politico:
O Rahm, where art thou?  —  Welcome to POLITICO's 2020 Transition Playbook, your guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history.  —  RAHM EMANUEL had never lost a political campaign.  Until this week.  —  Over the past few weeks, the former Chicago mayor …
Discussion: Raw Story
Politico:
Pence prepares to oversee Trump's loss — and then leave town  —  On Jan. 6, Vice President Mike Pence will oversee final confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden's victory.  —  Then he'll likely skip town.  —  As vice president, Pence has the awkward but unavoidable duty of presiding …
Detroit Free Press:
Antrim County hand tally affirms certified election results  —  Clara Hendrickson Paul EganDetroit Free Press  —  An audit conducted Thursday of the votes cast in the November presidential election in Antrim County, the heart of a conspiracy theory about Dominion Voting Systems leveling false allegations …
Nicholas Rowan / Washington Examiner:
Supreme Court rejects Kentucky religious school's appeal against coronavirus restrictions  —  The Supreme Court rejected an appeal from a Kentucky religious school challenging Gov. Andy Beshear's coronavirus restrictions.  —  The high court wrote in an unsigned opinion on Thursday …
Discussion: Fox News and Washington Post
Zeynep Tufekci / The Atlantic:
Hang On for Three More Months  —  Hunkering down to wait out the coronavirus isn't easy.  The costs of isolation are steep.  Quarantine fatigue is real.  The chance to gather with extended family and friends this holiday season is particularly alluring to those of us battling loneliness.
Discussion: Insight
Grady Means / The Hill:
Joe Biden's looming disaster  —  Pity Joe Biden.  He is the dog that finally caught the bus and he is soon to be political roadkill.  While he celebrates his victory in the Electoral College, powerful forces already are engaged to doom him and his presidency.
Los Angeles Times:
Former California EDD worker faked being Dianne Feinstein in scamming jobless benefits, sources say  —  Federal authorities have filed charges in three newly uncovered conspiracies to cheat California's pandemic unemployment benefits system, including one by a former Employment Development Department employee …
Discussion: The Hill, Politico and East Bay Times
New York Times:
‘Sticky Bombs’ Sow Terror and Chaos in a City on Edge  —  The Taliban's recent shift to magnetic bombs to target Afghan officials in Kabul underscores the government's struggle to protect its own people.  —  KABUL, Afghanistan — As he has done most workdays, Mahbubullah Mohibi left his home …
Discussion: Task & Purpose
 
 
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 More Items: 
Dan Diamond / Politico:
Irradiated, Cheated and Now Infected: America's Marshall Islanders Confront a Covid-19 Disaster
Peter Montgomery / Right Wing Watch:
Oath Keepers' Stewart Rhodes Repeats Demand That Trump Declare Martial Law to Avoid Militia-Led Civil War
Discussion: Raw Story
Mark Follman / Mother Jones:
National Security Experts Warn Trump “Is Promoting Terrorism”
Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:
“The Trump Bubble Is Already Starting to Deflate”: Publishers Squeeze Out the Last Drops of White House Drama and Kick Off a Biden-Harris Book Blitz
Foreign Affairs:
Competition With China Could Be Short and Sharp
Jordain Carney / The Hill:
Top GOP senator warns of potential for brief shutdown
Discussion: Political Wire
 Earlier Items: 
Hamed Aleaziz / BuzzFeed News:
DHS Inspectors Found ICE Detainees Who Were Kept In Solitary Confinement For 300 Days
Edmund Lee / New York Times:
Axios Buys Charlotte Agenda, a Digital Start-Up, as Part of Push Into Local News
Nick Reynolds / Casper Star-Tribune:
Wyoming lawmaker apologizes for tweet about Wyoming's first Black sheriff
Discussion: Raw Story and The Root
xkcd.com:
2020 Election Map  —  Permanent link to this comic: https://xkcd.com/2399/
Discussion: CNN
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Max Tani / @maxwelltani:
Memo: WaPo's Matt Murray lays out plans for WP Ventures, the “third newsroom”; Krissah Thompson will be editor and Samantha Henig will be general manager

Jack Dunn / Variety:
Trump appoints Mark Burnett, the British TV executive who created and produced the reality show The Apprentice, as a special envoy to the UK

Liz Pelly / Harper's:
How Spotify used its Perfect Fit Content program to rig its system against musicians, filling popular playlists with “ghost artists” to cut its royalty payouts

 
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