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2:35 PM ET, December 17, 2020

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:
Republicans suddenly discover they don't like naughty words  —  Could someone please find Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) a cold compress and a place where he might lie down for a few minutes?  —  The senator, whom you might recall from the time he implied during a presidential campaign …
RELATED:
Sabato's Crystal Ball:
Georgia Senate Runoffs: Breaking Down November, Looking to January  —  Dear Readers: This is the last issue of the Crystal Ball this year.  We wanted to finish off our 2020 publishing schedule by taking a deep look at the Georgia Senate runoffs, which will decide control of the Senate on Tuesday, Jan. 5.
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Kelly Loeffler's latest nonsense exposes the worst of GOP nihilism  —  Our country confronts two of its most monumental crises of the modern era.  More than 3,300 Americans died of the coronavirus on Wednesday alone.  The latest weekly jobless claims are a shocker, totaling nearly 900,000.
Politico:
Congress faces ‘fork in the road’ on stimulus  —  Negotiators on Capitol Hill and at the White House have still not wrapped up talks over a nearly $1 trillion coronavirus relief package ahead of a Friday deadline, as Republicans and Democrats spar over tens of billions of dollars in government spending.
Politico:
GOP launches legal war on absentee voting ahead of Georgia runoffs
Marjorie Dannenfelser / Washington Examiner:
In Georgia, the right to life is on the line
Discussion: The Federalist and Forbes
Thomas P. Bossert / New York Times:
I Was the Homeland Security Adviser to Trump.  We're Being Hacked.  —  The magnitude of this national security breach is hard to overstate.  —  Mr. Bossert was the homeland security adviser to President Trump and deputy homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush.
RELATED:
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.
Jennifer Horn / USA Today:
Texas lawsuit was the last straw.  I'm leaving the Republican Party: Former NH GOP chair  —  The GOP has ransacked our Constitution and attempted a coup.  The Republican Party of Lincoln is no more.  I'm switching my registration to independent.  —  My mother spent a lifetime trying to teach me to stand for what is right.
RELATED:
David Siders / Politico:
'Everything's great': GOP ditches election post-mortems  —  Democrats in Texas and New Hampshire are forming committees to examine the party's failings in last month's election.  Less formal autopsies are underway in states across the country.  —  But the party that lost the presidential election isn't soul-searching at all.
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 …
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 …
RELATED:
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.
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 …
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Federal investigators find evidence of previously unknown tactics used to penetrate government networks
Discussion: Volexity
Alan Feuer / New York Times:
Dominion demands that Sidney Powell retract ‘baseless and false allegations’ about voting machines.  —  Dominion Voting Systems sent a blistering letter on Wednesday night to the right-wing lawyer Sidney Powell, demanding that she publicly retract her “wild, knowingly baseless and false accusations” …
The Bulwark:
Uninstalling Stephen Miller  —  How one man's mastery of the dark bureaucratic arts made life a living hell for immigrants and refugees.  —  In November 2019, a former staffer from Breitbart leaked emails from 2015 in which White House advisor Stephen Miller recommended The Camp of the Saints …
Discussion: Bulwark+ and R Street
xkcd.com:
2020 Election Map  —  Permanent link to this comic: https://xkcd.com/2399/  —  Image URL (for hotlinking/embedding): https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/2020_ election_map.png  —  Comics I enjoy:  —  Three Word Phrase, SMBC, Dinosaur Comics, Oglaf (nsfw), A Softer World, Buttersafe …
Discussion: CNN
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.
Roger Sollenberger / Salon:
This hedge-fund billionaire is a huge fan of Sen. Kelly Loeffler — but why?  —  Finance mogul Ken Griffin gave big chunks of cash to Kelly Loeffler's PAC — and the timing is intriguing  —  On Oct. 9, billionaire Ken Griffin, the head of a multinational financial services company …
Sanjana Karanth / HuffPost:
Chicago's Top Prosecutor Blasts Mayor Over Suit To Block Bodycam Video Of Botched Raid  —  Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx spoke against the city trying to conceal footage of police raiding the wrong home and handcuffing a naked Black woman.  —  Chicago's chief prosecutor, Kim Foxx …
Bloomberg:
Amazon Has Turned a Middle-Class Warehouse Career Into a McJob  —  Amazon.com Inc. job ads are everywhere.  Plastered on city buses, displayed on career web sites, slotted between songs on classic rock stations.  They promise a quick start, $15 an hour and health insurance.
Mark Niesse / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
75K new Georgia voters registered before US Senate runoffs  —  Nearly 75,000 new voters registered in Georgia since before the presidential election, enough to make a difference in the U.S. Senate runoffs if they turn out.  —  The number of new voters was revealed in an updated voter …
Discussion: TheBlaze, The Week and Fox News
New York Times:
Who Gets to Breathe Clean Air in New Delhi?  —  148.9  —  36.6  —  Average exposure over the course of 24 hours, in micrograms of fine particles per cubic meter.  —  Monu and Aamya live in one of the world's most polluted cities.  Only one of their families can afford air purifiers.
Mother Jones:
A Top Trump Fundraiser Asked the FBI for Help.  Big Mistake.  —  Elliott Broidy hoped the feds would investigate a hack of his email.  But they had other ideas.  —  Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.
Discussion: Bulwark+
Andrew Mark Miller / Washington Examiner:
Rhode Island governor joins list of prominent Democrats under fire for violating own coronavirus recommendation  —  Rhode Island Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo is being criticized after she was spotted in public dining without a mask after she warned residents that they should stay at home and avoid nonessential activities.
Discussion: WLNE-TV, The Daily Caller and TheBlaze
Mary Margaret Olohan / The Daily Caller:
CNN Silent On Sexual Harassment Allegations Against Andrew Cuomo  —  CNN has not covered former adviser Lindsey Boylan's Sunday allegation that Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed her “for years.”  —  “Yes, @NYGovCuomo sexually harassed me for years,” Boylan tweeted Sunday morning.
Discussion: Spectator USA
Jacob Silverman / New Republic:
The New Language of Forever War-Making … “History, unfortunately, is a forever war,” according to Clifford D. May and Bradley Bowman, who seem never to have encountered a war they don't like.  This faux profundity comes midway through an essay in a collection published earlier this week …
Michelle Ruiz / Vogue:
How Savannah Guthrie and Kristen Welker Won the 2020 Election Coverage  —  FIVE MINUTES before NBC called the 2020 election for Joe Biden, Kristen Welker was sprinting.  After rising at 4 a.m. and coanchoring Weekend Today in New York, the White House correspondent darted into a car …
Mackenzie Mays / Politico:
California teachers unions mobilize against Democratic school reopening bill  —  SACRAMENTO — California teachers unions are demanding that the Legislature maintain pandemic restrictions on school reopenings and have begun mobilizing against a Democratic bill introduced last week that could force schools to reopen in March.
Discussion: Los Angeles Times
Sam Mellins / The Appeal:
The Election That Could Thwart New York City's War On Drugs  —  The office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor is on the chopping block in Manhattan's 2021 DA race.  —  This article is published as part of a partnership between New York Focus and The Appeal: Political Report to cover Manhattan's 2021 elections.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Kurt Schlichter / Townhall:
Pardon Everyone  —  Power is wasted if you don't use it, especially when exercising your power …
Mica Soellner / Washington Examiner:
‘It looks like a war zone:’ Minneapolis developers shy away from city projects after unrest and calls to ‘defund the police’
Discussion: HotAir
Suzanne Hirt / USA Today:
Florida blames mothers when men batter them - then takes away their children
Samantha Melamed / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Police shot a Philly man, then accused him of rape. He was exonerated after 19 years.
Discussion: The Hill
Laura Davison / Bloomberg:
Watchdog Members Urge Probe on Mnuchin's Shift of Pandemic Funds
Justine van der Leun / New Republic:
“No Choice but to Do It”: Why Women Go to Prison
 Earlier Items: 
Christopher Bedford / The Federalist:
This Series Of Fact-Checks On America's Mission To Defeat COVID Exposes Media Hatred
Discussion: HotAir
Neal Rothschild / Axios:
Trump states shut out COVID headlines as virus rages
Matthew Yglesias / Slow Boring:
Trump's Latino gains suggest a key progressive theory of politics is wrong
Washington Examiner:
Raphael Warnock's embrace of anti-Semite Farrakhan is disqualifying for Senate service
Washington Post:
Interior Secretary Bernhardt tests positive for covid-19
 

 
From Techmeme:

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:
Source: Google has canceled the development of a second-generation Pixel Tablet, planned for release in 2025, due to concerns that it wouldn't sell very well

The Information:
Sources: OpenAI considered making a browser, discussed deals to power AI features on Samsung devices and search on sites and apps from Condé Nast and others

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is testing a more conversational version of Siri, dubbed “LLM Siri”, with plans to release it in spring 2026 as part of iOS 19 and macOS 16

 
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