Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones.
3:50 PM ET, December 19, 2020

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
New York Times:
Trump Discussed Naming Campaign Lawyer as Special Counsel on Election Fraud  —  In a meeting at the White House on Friday, the president weighed appointing Sidney Powell, who promoted conspiracy theories about rigged voting machines, to probe voter fraud.  —  President Trump on Friday …
RELATED:
Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Officials increasingly alarmed about Trump's power grab  —  Senior Trump administration officials are increasingly alarmed that President Trump might unleash — and abuse — the power of government in an effort to overturn the clear result of the election.  —  Why it matters …
Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Mediaite
Kaitlan Collins / CNN:
Trump campaign told to preserve all documents related to Sidney Powell and Dominion Voting Systems  —  (CNN)President Donald Trump's campaign legal team sent a memo to dozens of staffers Saturday instructing them to preserve all documents related to Dominion Voting Systems and Sidney Powell …
Politico:   Trump sought to tap Sidney Powell as special counsel for election fraud
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
Russia is behind the broad, ongoing cyber spy campaign against the U.S. government and private sector, Pompeo says  —  Russia is behind the massive, ongoing cyber spy campaign against the federal government and private sector, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday …
RELATED:
Frank Bajak / Associated Press:
Pompeo says Russia ‘pretty clearly’ behind cyberattack on US  —  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Russia was “pretty clearly” behind the gravest cyberattack against the United States on record, the first administration official to publicly tie the Kremlin to the widespread intrusion …
Steve Kenny / New York Times:
Pompeo Says Russia Was Behind Cyberattack on U.S.
Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:
Pompeo: Russia ‘pretty clearly’ behind massive cyberattack
Yasmeen Abutaleb / Washington Post:
The inside story of how Trump's denial, mismanagement and magical thinking led to the pandemic's dark winter  —  National reporter focusing on health policy  —  Reporter covering the White House White House Bureau Chief  —  As the number of coronavirus cases ticked upward in mid-November …
Washington Post:
Even as Trump vows to keep fighting, his aides are quietly starting to move on  —  Vice President Pence has begun looking for a new home in the Washington suburbs, and he's planning a valedictory foreign trip to begin the day Congress counts the electoral college votes.
New York Times:
U.K. Imposes Harsher Lockdown on London, Citing New Version of Virus  —  Scientists in Britain say the new variant is spreading faster than previous ones, but does not appear to make people sicker.  —  LONDON — Alarmed by a what he called a faster-spreading variant of the coronavirus …
Discussion: Bloomberg, CNN and Slate
Alexi McCammond / Axios:
Scoop: Lance Bottoms rejected Biden's SBA offer  —  Joe Biden implored Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to accept a job heading the Small Business Administration earlier this week, a lesser position she rejected after he characterized it as “only the first step” for her during his presidency …
Brian Bakst / MPR News:
Minn. Sen. Jerry Relph dies of COVID-19 complications  —  Brian Bakst and Kirsti MarohnSt.  —  Jerry Relph, a first-term state senator from St. Cloud, died Friday of complications of COVID-19, his family and the Senate majority leader confirmed.  —  “Jerry dedicated his life to service …
Ashok Selvam / Eater Chicago:
Stephanie Izard Apologizes For a Poorly Received Representation of a Korean Dish  —  A photo posted Thursday using Izard's social media handle showed a “bibimbap” without any cultural context, igniting a conversation on cultural appropriation  —  A fellow Chicago chef is once again accusing …
Wall Street Journal:
Amid Vaccine Rollout and Historic Hack, Trump Remains Focused on Reversing Election  —  The president has been largely out of sight, paying little public attention to any events other than his efforts to overturn Joe Biden's victory  —  WASHINGTON—In a week that began with the Electoral …
Brittny Mejia / Los Angeles Times:
They risk their lives cleaning hospitals.  Now, they are getting vaccinated.  ‘I want people to know that we exist’  —  Maria Saravia changes in and out of protective gear 24 times a day — once for each patient room she enters on the COVID-19 floor at Keck Hospital of USC.
Molly Jong-Fast / Vogue:
No, This Pandemic Is Not Over.  Please Don't Act Like It Is.  —  The other night, I made my stepmother cry.  I've never done that before, but this time I felt as if I had to.  My brother had told me about my father and stepmother's holiday plan, which included staying with relatives …
Discussion: Mother Jones and IJR
Associated Press:
General sorry for ‘miscommunication’ over vaccine shipments  —  The Army general in charge of getting COVID-19 vaccines across the United States apologized on Saturday for “miscommunication” with states over the number of doses to be delivered in the early stages of distribution.  —  “I failed.
John S Gardner / The Guardian:
From A Very Stable Genius to After Trump: 2020 in US politics books … A long time ago, in 1883, a future president (Woodrow Wilson, a subject of this year's reckonings) studied political science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, in a classroom in which was inscribed the slogan …
New York Times:
No ‘Negative’ News: How China Censored the Coronavirus  —  Thousands of internal directives and reports reveal how Chinese officials stage-managed what appeared online in the early days of the outbreak.  —  阅读.体中 文.閱讀.體 中文.
Auguste Meyrat / The American Mind:
Keep Texas Red  —  Here's how.  —  Texas is still a red state, but the it's not the Republican stronghold it used to be.  Whereas Republican candidates earned well over 60% of votes in states like Oklahoma and Alabama in 2020, they earned a little over 50% in Texas—a result more resembling Florida than anything else.
Politico:
Congress in frantic race to strike stimulus deal  —  Negotiations on a nearly $1 trillion coronavirus relief bill have come down to a single major sticking point, but neither side is giving in as Congress speeds to clinch a deal before a government funding deadline on Sunday night.
Raw Story:
BUSTED?  Why the numbers behind Mitch McConnell's re-election don't add up  —  On a Thursday in August in Louisville, months before the 2020 election, a parade of cars filled with Kentucky Teamster representatives and labor groups, showed their fury at Mitch McConnell's constant blocking of critical COVID aid.
Discussion: HotAir
Business Insider:
EXCLUSIVE: Lawmakers ask FBI and Federal Election Commission to investigate Jared Kushner-backed Trump campaign company after Insider's reporting … - Two lawmakers demanded that the FBI and the Federal Election Commission open an investigation into whether the Trump campaign violated federal law …
Frank Bajak / Associated Press:
Hacked networks will need to be burned ‘down to the ground’  —  It's going to take months to kick elite hackers widely believed to be Russian out of the U.S. government networks they have been quietly rifling through since as far back as March in Washington's worst cyberespionage failure on record.
Discussion: Vox, abc7NY and Reuters
Jennifer Hansler / CNN:
US plans to shutter remaining consulates in Russia  —  (CNN)The Trump administration has informed lawmakers of its plan to shutter its two remaining consulates in Russia.  —  In a notification dated December 10, the US State Department told Congress it intends to close the consulate …
RELATED:
Matthew Lee / Associated Press:
US says it is shuttering last 2 consulates in Russia
Discussion: ABC News, Axios, The Hill and CNN
Aaron Mehta / Defense News:
Row explodes between Pentagon, Biden transition team  —  WASHINGTON — The U.S. acting defense secretary has canceled planned meetings between Defense Department officials and the Biden transition team.  —  It's a move the department is categorizing as a temporary delay rather than a wholesale blockade of the incoming administration.
RELATED:
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE:
Statement on Transition Activities by Acting Secretary of Defense Miller
Discussion: Task & Purpose and Bloomberg
 
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of memeorandum at 3:50 PM ET, December 19, 2020.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Who's Hiring in Media? 
 
 See Also: 
memeorandum: site main
memeorandum River: reverse chronological memeorandum
memeorandum Mobile: for phones
memeorandum Leaderboard: memeorandum's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
memeorandum RSS feed
memeorandum on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Trump appointee names conservative allies to run Radio Free Europe and Cuba broadcast agency
Michael Patrick Leahy / Breitbart:
Report: Mark Zuckerberg's $419 Million Non-Profit Contributions ‘Improperly Influenced 2020 Presidential Election’
Discussion: RedState and LAW.com
Bill Zeiser / RealClearPolicy:
Either the US Leads on Crypto, or China Will
David W. Brown / Wall Street Journal:
For NASA, It Should Be Mars or Bust
Mark Niesse / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Turnout in Georgia US Senate runoff approaches presidential levels
Eric Lipton / New York Times:
In Last Rush, Trump Grants Mining and Energy Firms Access to Public Lands
Discussion: Political Wire
Bess Levin / Vanity Fair:
Ivanka Trump, Famed Public Health Expert, Screened CDC Guidance to Make Sure It Was Nice to Her Dad
Discussion: Washington Post
Ann Telnaes / Washington Post:
All the Republican rats … - Tom Toles recently retired.  See his archive of editorial cartoons.
 Earlier Items: 
John Grobler / OCCRP:
‘They Are Finishing the Trees’: Chinese Companies and Namibian Elites Make Millions Illegally Logging the Last Rosewoods
Washington Post:
Chinese dissidents say they're being harassed by a businessman with links to Steve Bannon
Jarrett Renshaw / Reuters:
Biden to introduce team tasked with ambitious climate agenda on Saturday
Discussion: CNN
Peter Hermann / Washington Post:
Proud Boys leader says he burned Black Lives Matter banner stolen from church during demonstrations in D.C.
Discussion: USA Today
The Daily Beast:
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Is Throwing Down Big Money to Fuel Pro-Trump Election Challenges
Discussion: TheGrio
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Internal memo: Hearst Magazines president announces layoffs as part of a decision to “reallocate resources” to “continue our focus on digital innovation”

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

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

 
Sister Sites:

Techmeme
 Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web
Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page