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2:00 PM ET, December 24, 2020

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RELATED:
Jeff Stein / Washington Post:
House Republicans block Democrats' effort to advance $2,000 stimulus checks pushed by Trump  —  The Christmas Eve move came as Trump has refused to sign a $900 billion economic relief package into law  —  House Republicans on Thursday blocked an effort by House Democrats to approve $2,000 stimulus payments for millions of Americans.
Washington Post:
Families on brink of eviction, hunger describe nightmare Christmas as $900 billion relief bill hangs in limbo  —  About 14 million Americans will lose unemployment aid on Saturday after President Trump and Congress were unable to reach a deal.  —  Millions of Americans who are hours away …
CNBC:
GOP blocks House Democrats' attempt to pass $2,000 stimulus checks  — The Democrats moved to increase the size of the checks after President Trump threatened to oppose a more than $2 trillion pandemic aid and federal funding bill because it included $600 check to most Americans rather than $2,000.
Tim Miller / The Bulwark:
The Treasonous Pardon of Paul Manafort  —  Trump, Russia, and the swamp won.  America lost.  —  For four years we've been force-fed the preposterous dual notions that Donald Trump intended to “drain the swamp” and that any suggestion his campaign colluded with Russia in its interference in the 2016 election was a media hoax.
RELATED:
Franklin Foer / The Atlantic:
The Triumph of Kleptocracy  —  Paul Manafort came of age in New Britain, Connecticut.
Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money
New York Times:
Trump Gives Clemency to More Allies, Including Manafort, Stone and Charles Kushner
The White House:
Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding Executive Grants of Clemency
Sarah Isgur / Washington Post:
We in the ‘shallow state’ thought we could help.  Instead, we obscured the reality of a Trump presidency.  —  Sarah Isgur was the director of the Office of Public Affairs at the Justice Department from 2017-2018.  —  As far as I know, no spokesperson for the Justice Department has ever …
Discussion: Alternet.org
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Jeffrey Rosen Takes Reins of a Justice Department Under Pressure
Financial Times:
UK and EU agree historic Brexit trade deal  —  Accord will guarantee tariff-free trade on most goods and create a platform for future co-operation  —  Britain and the EU have sealed a Christmas trade agreement, a new economic and security accord that both sides hope will allow them to rebuild …
RELATED:
BBC:
LIVEUK and EU agree post-Brexit trade deal
Discussion: HotAir and New York Times
Washington Post:
U.K. and E.U. announce a post-Brexit trade deal, smoothing Dec. 31 departure
David Folkenflik / NPR:
Host of ‘The Daily’ Clouds ‘N.Y. Times’ Effort To Restore Trust After ‘Caliphate’  —  Toggle more options  —  Late last week, The New York Times issued one of its biggest mea culpas in years.  The nation's leading newspaper returned a Peabody award and a citation as a finalist …
Donald G. McNeil Jr / New York Times:
How Much Herd Immunity Is Enough?  —  Scientists initially estimated that 60 to 70 percent of the population needed to acquire resistance to the coronavirus to banish it.  Now Dr. Anthony Fauci and others are quietly shifting that number upward.  —  At what point does a country achieve herd immunity?
Jacob Shamsian / Business Insider:
Dominion sends letters threatening defamation lawsuits to Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, and other pro-Trump media figures … - Dominion Voting Systems has sent letters to Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News, warning of a defamation lawsuit.  — The voting firm is at the center …
Discussion: LifeZette
David Brennan / Newsweek:
Kelly Loeffler Falls Behind Raphael Warnock in Georgia Senate Runoff Poll  —  Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler has slipped behind Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock in the latest poll for next month's runoff election, while the race between Sen. David Perdue and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff for the second seat remains on a knife-edge.
Discussion: Raw Story
William M. Arkin / Newsweek:
Exclusive: Donald Trump's Martial-Law Talk Has Military on Red Alert  —  Pentagon and Washington-area military leaders are on red alert, wary of what President Donald Trump might do in his remaining days in office.  Though far-fetched, ranking officers have discussed what they would do if the president declared martial law.
Joseph Goldstein / New York Times:
Hospital Workers Start to ‘Turn Against Each Other’ to Get Vaccine  —  “I am so disappointed and saddened that this happened,” a New York hospital executive wrote to his staff after workers who did not have priority cut the line for the vaccine.  —  At NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital …
Saeed Shah / Wall Street Journal:
Pakistan Seeks to Continue Detention of Man Convicted of Murdering Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl  —  Move follows judges' removal of temporary detention order that has kept Omar Sheikh in jail since his death sentence was set aside in April  —  ISLAMABAD—The Pakistani authorities …
RELATED:
Syed Raza Hassan / Reuters:
Pakistani court orders release of men accused of murdering Daniel Pearl
Discussion: UPI
USA Today:
Exclusive: As Trump leaves office, 50% of Americans see him as a ‘failed’ president  —  Susan Page Sarah ElbeshbishiUSA TODAY  —  President Donald Trump leaves the White House next month with the country more sharply divided than when he moved in and amid caustic assessments of his record in office …
Clarence Williams / Washington Post:
Trump pardons former Prince George's County police officer  —  President Trump granted a pardon Wednesday to a former Prince George's County canine police officer who was convicted of a federal civil rights violation for releasing her police dog on an unarmed homeless man in 1995.
Gabor Rona / Just Security:
Can a Pardon Be a War Crime?:  When Pardons Themselves Violate the Laws of War  —  Editor's note: Originally published on May 25, 2019; with an author's note published on Dec. 24, 2020.  —  Not all corrupt pardons are created equal.  Many of the ones being handed out by President Donald Trump …
Donald G. McNeil Jr / New York Times:
Covid-19 Latest Updates: Democrats' Bid to Call Trump's Stimulus Bluff Is Swiftly Rejected  —  Dr. Anthony S. Fauci is inching up percentages for community immunity.  Covid has come to the town where Christmas started.  Millions of Americans are traveling for the holidays.  Here's the latest on the pandemic.
Discussion: Reason
Reuters:
Millions of U.S. vaccine doses sit on ice, putting 2020 goal in doubt  —  (Reuters) -Millions of COVID-19 vaccines are sitting unused in U.S. hospitals and elsewhere a week into the massive inoculation campaign, putting the government's target for 20 million vaccinations this month in doubt.
Discussion: CNBC, HotAir and The Hill
Rep. Steve Cohen / The Hill:
Stopping the abuse of the pardon power  —  How much more corruption do we have to endure before we see Donald Trump's term end on Jan. 20?  Trump's most recent grants of clemency add to his pattern of self-serving publicity stunts and pervert a power designed for mercy …
Discussion: The Guardian and The Daily Beast
RELATED:
Noah Bookbinder / USA Today:
The craven corruption of Trump's pardons: Separate justice system for friends and allies
Discussion: Talking Points Memo
The Daily Beast:
How These Comedians Turned MAGA Men Into Laughingstocks  —  From Rudy's straying hand to Sarah Cooper's inner Donald, the joke was on Trumpworld this year.  —  Rudy Giuliani tried really hard this year soil himself: the hair-in-the-can, the Russian agent pal, the presser by the sex shop, the buckets of conspiracy drool.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Mike Allen / Axios:
Biden says Russian-linked cyberattack started “last year”
Discussion: Forbes and The Daily Caller
Kurt Bardella / Los Angeles Times:
Op-Ed: It's never too late to become a Democrat
CNN:
Their communities are deserted by pharmacies. Advocates fear this will lead to inequitable vaccine access
Steven Greenhouse / American Prospect:
Firing Workers on the Boss's Whim? New York Puts a Stop to That.
HuffPost:
Trump Back At Mar-A-Lago, Raising Taxpayer Golf Tab To $151.5 Million
Discussion: Mediaite
Eddie Scarry / Washington Examiner:
I traveled for Christmas, and I'm not sorry
 Earlier Items: 
Tucker Carlson / Fox News:
The slow, painful death of California
Discussion: Breitbart
New York Times:
Brad Parscale Fell From Trump's Favor. Now He's Plotting a Comeback.
Washington Post:
Trump administration pushes forward on $500 million weapons deal with Saudi Arabia
Discussion: Raw Story and Mock Paper Scissors
Joe Concha / The Hill:
Joe Biden's continued ‘Russian misinformation’ defense of Hunter is conspiracy-level laughable
Discussion: Georgia Memo and Fox News
Washington Examiner:
The season of truth  —  Christmas is a celebration of many things, but most of all, of truth.
Isaac Arnsdorf / ProPublica:
Inside Trump and Barr's Last-Minute Killing Spree
Discussion: The Intellectualist
 

 
From Techmeme:

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Anthropic raised another $4B from Amazon, will make AWS its primary training partner, and is working with Annapurna Labs to develop new Trainium accelerators

Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
A UK CMA report finds that Apple's policies hold back innovation in mobile browsers and recommends investigating Apple and Google's mobile ecosystem activities

Mia Sato / The Verge:
Threads is testing AI-generated summaries of what users are discussing, in the app's Trending Now section in the US, and Search and Trending Now improvements

 
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