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12:50 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.
Brian Beutler / Crooked Media:
The Immense Stakes of the Biden COVID Response  —  Like Barack Obama before him, Joe Biden will inherit the presidency at a moment of national crisis, after the country has been failed once again by right-wing contempt for empiricism and federal regulatory power.
Discussion: Jacobin, Lawfare and Blue Virginia
Marc Caputo / Politico:
'It's nonstop': Georgia Senate battles rage far from Atlanta
Discussion: WTOP
E.J. Dionne / Washington Post:
Joe Biden may be tougher than the GOP expects
Discussion: The Hill, The Sun, Bloomberg and IJR
Axios:
O'Malley Dillon's line that GOP are “f-ckers” worries some Biden aides
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.
Discussion: Raw Story and HotAir
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.
Reed Galen / Washington Post:
The fight against Trumpism is only beginning
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 …
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” …
RELATED:
Zach Montague / New York Times:
Biden Transition Live Updates: $900 Billion Stimulus Compromise Appears Within Reach
Discussion: Washington Post
Lisa Bonos / Washington Post:
Pete Buttigieg is right.  Airports are romantic.  —  In accepting his pending appointment to be the next U.S. transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg spoke about how travel, in his mind, “is synonymous with growth, with adventure — even love.”  Then he went for a laugh line, adding …
RELATED:
Jonathan Capehart / Washington Post:   Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary is something Frank Kameny could have only dreamed of
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:
Justine Coleman / The Hill:
Trump cuts $200M in health care funds to California over abortions  —  President Trump's administration announced on Wednesday an upcoming cut of $200 million in federal Medicaid funding to California over the state's requirement for abortions to be covered under health care plans.
RELATED:
Kyle Smith / National Review:
Jill Biden's Doctorate Is Garbage Because Her Dissertation Is Garbage  —  Her dissertation is not an addition to the sum total of human knowledge.  —  You can tell someone is smarting from an inferiority complex when he insists on being addressed as “Dr.” on the basis of holding an academic doctorate rather than being a physician.
Discussion: Twitchy and Arizona Mirror
RELATED:
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 …
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: Fox News
Zeynep Tufekci / The Atlantic:
Hang On for Three More Months  —  Some simple advice for anyone contemplating a holiday gathering: Wait until March.  —  Contributing writer at The Atlantic  —  Hunkering down to wait out the coronavirus isn't easy.  The costs of isolation are steep.  Quarantine fatigue is real.
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.
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 …
Suzanne Hirt / USA Today:
Florida blames mothers when men batter them - then takes away their children  —  Her memory of the midnight attack was muddled, but her battered body bore the story.  —  Purple bruises peppered her arms, legs and chest.  Blood dried on her busted lip.  Dark, swollen skin circled her bloodshot right eye.
Washington Post:
Interior Secretary Bernhardt tests positive for covid-19  —  Two other top Interior officials contracted the virus last month  —  Interior Department Secretary David Bernhardt, 51, tested positive for covid-19 Wednesday, the department spokesman confirmed after an inquiry from The Post.
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 …
Samantha Melamed / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Police shot a Philly man, then accused him of rape.  He was exonerated after 19 years.  —  It was before dawn on Nov. 27, 2001, and Termaine Joseph Hicks was at the wrong place at precisely the wrong time.  —  A woman had been pistol-whipped, dragged into an alleyway behind …
Discussion: The Hill
Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:
Peter Strzok's Declassified Messages Give Insider View Of FBI's Trump Campaign Probe  — The Justice Department declassified a batch of internal FBI messages from Peter Strzok, the former counterintelligence investigator who oversaw Crossfire Hurricane.  — The messages provide a real …
Discussion: The Federalist
 
 
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 More Items: 
Newsweek:
Veterans Call on Dan Crenshaw to Resign for Alleged Role in Disparaging Female Vet
Discussion: Task & Purpose
Katie Bo Williams / Defense One:
Milley Meets With Taliban In Fragile Peace Negotiations
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
Sarah Kliff / New York Times:
The Vaccines Are Supposed to Be Free. Surprise Bills Could Happen Anyway.
Christopher Bedford / The Federalist:
This Series Of Fact-Checks On America's Mission To Defeat COVID Exposes Media Hatred
George Skelton / Los Angeles Times:
Column: Yes, Feinstein is the oldest U.S. senator. But she should be able to retire on her own terms
Discussion: Politico
 Earlier Items: 
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
New York Times:
Alaska Health Worker Had a Serious Allergic Reaction After Pfizer's Vaccine
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
We've finally identified the source of fraud in the 2020 election. It's Ron Johnson.
 

 
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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