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9:00 PM ET, December 18, 2020

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Business Insider:
EXCLUSIVE: Jared Kushner helped create a Trump campaign shell company that secretly paid the president's family members and spent $617 million in reelection cash, a source tells Insider … - Jared Kushner approved the creation of a shell company that spent almost half of the Trump campaign's $1.26B war chest …
RELATED:
New York Times:
Trump's Future: Tons of Cash and Plenty of Options for Spending It  —  When President Trump departs the White House, he will have a huge pile of cash to fuel his future ambitions.  He can hold rallies, hire staff and even lay groundwork for a potential 2024 run.
New York Times:
Lara Trump served on the board of a company through which the Trump political operation spent more than $700 million.  —  Lara Trump, President Trump's daughter-in-law and a senior campaign adviser, served on the board of a limited liability company through which the Trump political operation …
Graeme Massie / The Independent:
Kushner helped create shell Trump campaign company that secretly paid family members, report says  —  Mr Kushner allegedly helped establish the company in 2018 and Mr Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump was installed as president  —  Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner allegedly created …
Rachel Olding / The Daily Beast:
Kushner OK'd Trump Campaign Shell Company That Secretly Paid Inner Circle: Report  —  ENDLESS GRIFT  —  Jared Kushner approved the creation of a shell company that operated like a “campaign within a campaign” and secretly funneled millions of dollars in campaign cash to Trump family members, Business Insider reports.
Axios:
Scoop: Pentagon halts Biden transition briefings  —  Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller ordered a Pentagon-wide halt to cooperation with the transition of President-elect Biden, shocking officials across the Defense Department, senior administration officials tell Axios.
RELATED:
Politico:
How Biden's Covid bubble popped  —  Welcome to POLITICO's 2020 Transition Playbook, your guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history.  —  No bubble is impenetrable.  —  That's what the Biden team learned this week when Rep. CEDRIC RICHMOND (D-La.) …
Discussion: Washington Post, Fox News and Breitbart
Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:
Executive For US Video Conference Company Spied On Dissidents At Direction Of Chinese Intelligence, Feds Say  — A Chinese tech executive spied on users of a U.S. company's video conferencing platform on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party's intelligence services, according to federal prosecutors.
RELATED:
Zoom Blog:
Our Perspective on the DOJ Complaint
Discussion: Bloomberg and The Verge
U.S. Department of Justice:
China-Based Executive at U.S. Telecommunications Company Charged with Disrupting Video Meetings Commemorating Tiananmen Square Massacre
Discussion: Forbes and Mashable
Amy Qin / New York Times:
Chinese Journalist Who Documented Communist History Is Detained in Beijing
Discussion: HotAir
Los Angeles Times:
The wealthy scramble for COVID-19 vaccines: ‘If I donate $25,000 ... would that help me?’  —  They're offering tens of thousands of dollars in cash, making their personal assistants pester doctors every day, and asking whether a five-figure donation to a hospital would help them jump the line.
Josh Feldman / Mediaite:
Lou Dobbs Airs Stunning Fact-Check of His Own Election Conspiracies After Company Threatens Legal Action  —  Fox Business host Lou Dobbs has recently taken to raising questions about voting machine companies, which have been cast as complicit in the supposed grand conspiracy to steal the 2020 election from President Donald Trump.
Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal:
William Barr: ‘One Standard of Justice’  —  The departing attorney general talks about John Durham, Robert Mueller, Hunter Biden, Mike Flynn and the flak he's taken from both parties.  —  The U.S. attorney general is meditating on one of his frustrations with the modern Justice Department …
David Folkenflik / NPR:
‘New York Times’ Retracts Core Of Hit Podcast Series ‘Caliphate’ On ISIS  —  Toggle more options  —  The New York Times has retracted the core of its hit 2018 podcast series Caliphate after an internal review found the paper failed to heed red flags indicating that the man it relied upon …
RELATED:
New York Times:
New York Times Says ‘Caliphate’ Podcast Fell Short of Standards
Rebecca Kheel / The Hill:
Space Force troops to be called ‘guardians’  —  Service members in the year-old Space Force will be called “guardians,” Vice President Pence announced Friday.  —  “It is my honor, on behalf of the president of the United States, to announce that henceforth the men and women …
Peter Nicholas / The Atlantic:
Was It Worth It?  —  People who work for President Donald Trump typically meet one of two fates.  They fail to show the unthinking loyalty he demands and get fired.  Or, maybe worse, they don't get fired—they endure the tantrums and turmoil and survive another day, binding themselves …
Discussion: Raw Story and Mediaite
Ken Gormley / Washington Post:
If Trump pardons himself, Biden should un-pardon him  —  Ken Gormley is an expert on the Constitution, the presidency and the pardon power.  He is president of Duquesne University.  —  If President Trump makes the ill-advised decision to try to pardon himself before he leaves the White House in January …
Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
From BuzzFeed to Axios, Digital Media Players Prepare for Deal Frenzy  —  Big players explore acquiring rivals and going public through blank-check companies  —  Momentum is building toward consolidation in the digital media sector as big and small players alike look for potential combinations.
US Food and Drug Administration:
FDA Takes Additional Action in Fight Against COVID-19 By Issuing Emergency Use Authorization for Second COVID-19 Vaccine  —  Action Follows Thorough Evaluation of Available Safety, Effectiveness, and Manufacturing Quality Information by FDA Career Scientists, Input from Independent Experts
The Daily Beast:
Inside the Chaos of the Pfizer Vaccine Rollout  —  First states heard they were getting less vaccine than expected.  Then the finger-pointing started.  —  As Vice President Mike Pence sat for his COVID-19 vaccine shot Friday morning, governor's offices across the country were fuming …
Discussion: Axios, Alternet.org and NPR
Marisa Schultz / Fox News:
McCarthy gets FBI briefing on Swalwell: ‘He should not be on Intel’ committee  —  GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy emerged Friday from a closed-door FBI briefing on Rep. Eric Swalwell's contact with alleged Chinese spy saying the California Democrat should not have access to the nation's secrets.
RELATED:
Joseph Simonson / Washington Examiner:
Questions raised over when Eric Swalwell knew about Chinese spy suspect Fang Fang
Discussion: NPR, Townhall and New York Post
David Corn / Mother Jones:
Could Rudy Giuliani Face a Perjury Charge?  —  The president's lawyer swore to tell the truth, but...  Washington, DC, Bureau Chief  —  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: Alternet.org
Matthew Lee / Associated Press:
US says it is shuttering last 2 consulates in Russia  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has notified Congress that it intends to shutter the last two remaining U.S. consulates in Russia.  —  The State Department told lawmakers last week that it would permanently close the consulate …
The American Mind:
“Anti-Racist” Education Is Neither  —  Well-meaning Americans are being suckered into an illiberal political cabal.  —  Days before the Fourth of July, the famed KIPP charter schools announced they'd be abandoning their longtime slogan: “Work Hard, Be Nice.”
Rudy Takala / Mediaite:
Eric Bolling Savages Establishment Republicans: ‘Trump May Be the Last GOP President’  —  Eric Bolling savaged “establishment” Republicans on Friday, telling his viewers they were the reason Donald Trump would be the last Republican president for the foreseeable future.
Owen Churchill / South China Morning Post:
US senator blocks bill giving Hongkongers special refugee status  —  Cruz says China would exploit relaxed immigration standards to send spies to the US Under the bill, Hongkongers would be granted temporary protected status, joining citizens from 10 other countries including Syria …
Noreen Malone / Slate:
How the School Reopening Debate Is Tearing One of America's Most Elite Suburbs Apart  —  It was mid-August.  The playgrounds of Brookline, Massachusetts, had finally reopened, and so the news spread fast.  Sharon Abramowitz had resigned from the school committee.
Axios:
Trump expected to issue wave of pre-Christmas pardons today  —  President Trump plans to issue a wave of pardons today, moving to expedite acts of clemency before Christmas, according to a source with direct knowledge and advocates who have been briefed on the plans.
Jose Del Real / Washington Post:
‘Latinx’ hasn't even caught on among Latinos.  It never will.  —  The term is an English-language contrivance, not a real gesture at gender inclusivity.  —  The term “Latinx,” modifying “Latino” and “Latina” to describe people in a gender-inclusive way, has become commonplace — in some quarters.
Tina Nguyen / Politico:
MAGA leaders call for the troops to keep Trump in office  —  An 1807 law invoked only in the most violent circumstances is now a rallying cry for the MAGA-ites most committed to the fantasy that Donald Trump will never leave office.  —  The law, the Insurrection Act, allows the president …
The Daily Beast:
Inside the Ivanka-Melania War  —  Melania Trump's one-time confidant takes us deep into one of the White House's nastiest battles.  —  They're the two most important women in Donald Trump's life.  And they absolutely loathe one another.  —  Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, the former Melania Trump confidant …
Discussion: Raw Story
Jordain Carney / The Hill:
GOP senator blocks bill to provide $1,200 stimulus checks  —  GOP Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.) on Friday blocked an effort to pass a second round of stimulus checks, arguing coronavirus relief needs to be targeted and raising concerns about the country's debt.  —  Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) …
Nina Totenberg / NPR:
Supreme Court Punts Census Case, Giving Trump An Iffy Chance To Alter Numbers  —  Toggle more options  —  The U.S. Supreme Court ducked a direct ruling Friday on whether President Trump can exclude undocumented immigrants from a key census count.  —  At issue in the case …
Alex Kaplan / Media Matters for America:
A viral 4chan hoax about Chief Justice John Roberts tricked a presidential elector and pro-Trump media  —  A hoax from a far-right message board about a rejected pro-Trump Supreme Court case went viral, drawing millions of views on social media and tricking a presidential elector in Texas …
Discussion: YouGov, The Dispatch and Raw Story
Eoin Higgins / The Appeal:
Bodycam Video Shows ‘Mob Mentality’ Of Boston Police Who Responded To George Floyd Protests, Lawyer Says  —  THESE COPS LIED IN COURT.  BUT SINCE THE D.A. ISN'T KEEPING A BRADY LIST, THEY COULD TESTIFY AGAIN  —  By Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg  —  ADVOCATES CALL ON BIDEN TO CHANGE THE NARRATIVE ON IMMIGRATION AND THEN CHANGE POLICY
Alexander Sammon / American Prospect:
The Establishment Strikes Back  —  Henry Cuellar and centrist Democrats mutiny against progressives in a key committee fight.  —  AOC in August during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing  —  Committee assignments are one of the least eye-catching parts of politics …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Melissa Mackenzie / The American Spectator:
Blue Dress Proof
Discussion: Instapundit
Raw Story:
BUSTED? Why the numbers behind Mitch McConnell's re-election don't add up
Maggie Severns / Politico:
Warren re-ups bill to ban stock trading by lawmakers
Discussion: Business Insider
Ahiza García-Hodges / NBC News:
Doctors blame right-wing media for eroding trust during pandemic
Discussion: HotAir
Wall Street Journal:
Covid-Aid Talks Go Down to the Wire
Laura Barrón-López / Politico:
Democratic organizers set their sights on Asian American voters to win control of the Senate
Discussion: Fox News and Washington Examiner
Associated Press:
Myon Burrell enjoys 1st days of freedom after prison release
Stephanie McNeal / BuzzFeed News:
The Couple Accused Of Trying To Kidnap A Mom Influencer's Kids Have Been Completely Cleared By Police
Discussion: Raw Story and Jezebel
 Earlier Items: 
Joe Walsh / Forbes:
White House Advisor Peter Navarro Releases Dubious Voter Fraud Report
Alice Miranda Ollstein / Politico:
Biden to receive coronavirus vaccine in public on Monday
Discussion: Fox News, Politico, Axios and The Week
Eliza Goren / Washington Post:
The Washington Post asked readers to describe 2020 in one word or phrase. Here's what they said.
Politico:
Democrats in Georgia: ‘Trump is helping our case.’
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency

Lachlan Cartwright / The Ankler:
Sources: MSNBC renewed Rachel Maddow's contract early this fall, but with a pay cut; MSNBC bosses' plan to shake up daytime and weekend programming

Guthrie Scrimgeour / Wired:
Hawaii's The Garden Island stops using AI-generated newscasters on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram after two months, likely due to the negative public response

 
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