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3:30 PM ET, December 31, 2020

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Peter Wehner / The Atlantic:
The Unbearable Weakness of Trump's Minions  —  Those hoping for a quick snapback to sanity for the Republican Party once Donald Trump is no longer president should temper those hopes.  —  The latest piece of evidence to suggest the enduring power of Trumpian unreality is yesterday's announcement …
RELATED:
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
Josh Hawley reminds us that the GOP is the sedition party  —  The Republican Party yet again provides us with reason for its own demise.  The Post reports: “Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced Wednesday that he would object next week when Congress convenes to certify the electoral college vote …
Politico:
McConnell: House's $2,000 stimulus checks are ‘socialism for rich’  —  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell dubbed the effort to increase direct payments to $2,000 “socialism for rich people,” eliciting an incredulous reaction from Sen. Bernie Sanders as the GOP Senate continued to decline to take up the matter on Thursday.
Washington Post:
Sen. Sasse calls effort to overturn electoral college vote a ‘dangerous ploy’  —  Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) on Thursday called the effort in Congress to reverse President-elect Joe Biden's electoral college victory a “dangerous ploy,” underscoring the challenge President Trump faces in persuading even members of his own party to join it.
Burgess Everett / Politico:   Elizabeth Warren's next chapter
New York Times:
‘Covid, Covid, Covid’: In Trump's Final Chapter, a Failure to Rise to the Moment  —  As the U.S. confronted a new wave of infection and death through the summer and fall, the president's approach to the pandemic came down to a single question: What would it mean for him?
Los Angeles Times:
Some healthcare workers refuse to take COVID-19 vaccine, even with priority access  —  They are front-line workers with top priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine, but they are refusing to take it.  —  At St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Tehama County, fewer than half …
Discussion: Raw Story
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Soumya Karlamangla / Los Angeles Times:
Bodies pile up, patient care falters as COVID-19 devastates L.A. County hospitals  —  Los Angeles County's healthcare system was buckling Wednesday under the unprecedented surge of COVID-19 patients, with bodies piling up at morgues and medical professionals resorting to increasingly desperate measures …
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
Microsoft says Russians hacked its network, viewing source code  —  Russian government hackers engaged in a sweeping series of breaches of government and private-sector networks have been able to penetrate deeper into Microsoft's systems than previously known, gaining access …
RELATED:
Hannah Miao / CNBC:
Often overlooked, Asian American Christian voters could be key in Georgia Senate runoffs
Discussion: The American Independent and Vox
Steve Inskeep / NPR:
Biden's Incoming Press Secretary: Briefings Won't Be A Platform For Right-Wing Spin  —  Toggle more options  —  President-elect Joe Biden's choice for White House press secretary says she will restore a tradition.  Unlike her immediate predecessors in the Trump administration …
Wall Street Journal:
Trump's Embarrassing Electoral College Hustle  —  It is doomed to fail but would still set a destructive precedent.  —  By The Editorial Board  —  President Trump's last and worst shot at overturning the 2020 election will come on Jan. 6, as the new Congress meets in joint session to tally the votes from the Electoral College.
RELATED:
CNN:
Trump returns to Washington early ahead of Republican plan to disrupt certification of Biden's win
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Asawin Suebsaeng / The Daily Beast:
Trump Fears That His Influence Is Waning  —  The president is plotting retribution.  Not just because he's mad about his election loss.  But because he wants to keep folks in line.  —  As his days in office come to a close, President Donald Trump has hinted to those close to him that he's worried …
Discussion: Raw Story and Political Wire
Robert Burns / Associated Press:
US to move aircraft carrier out of Mideast amid Iran tension  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has decided to send home the only Navy aircraft carrier operating in the Middle East, a move that would reduce U.S. firepower in the region amid heightened tensions with Iran, officials said Thursday.
RELATED:
Zeynep Tufekci / The Atlantic:
The Mutated Virus Is a Ticking Time Bomb  —  There is much we don't know about the new COVID-19 variant—but everything we know so far suggests a huge danger. … A new variant of the coronavirus is spreading across the globe.  It was first identified in the United Kingdom …
Discussion: New York Times
Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:
West Virginia clinic gave 42 people an antibody treatment instead of the coronavirus vaccine  —  Forty-two people in West Virginia received an antibody treatment rather than Moderna's coronavirus vaccine in an error Wednesday at a vaccination clinic hosted by a county health department.
Discussion: The Hill, CNBC and WV MetroNews
Jordan Davidson / The Federalist:
WANNABE ‘JEOPARDY!’  HOST KEN JENNINGS IS A BRETT KAVANAUGH RAPE TRUTHER WHO HATES REPUBLICANS  —  “Jeopardy!” champion Ken Jennings is attempting to backtrack on years of insults hurled at conservatives and others on his Twitter feed in what some have speculated is a bid for the popular game show's open host position.
Suzanne Bartlett Hackenmiller / Des Moines Register:
Joni Ernst receiving vaccine so quickly rankles the health care providers she insulted  —  Most of the doctors who answered my informal survey said they have earned less income in 2020 as a direct result of the pandemic.  —  View Comments  —  I felt a sting of disbelief when Sen. Joni Ernst's photo flooded the media.
Billie Kanfer / Data For Progress:
Republicans Don't Know Anything About Their Party.  That's Very Bad for American Democracy.  —  By Ethan Winter  —  While the packaging of Republican Party politics has evolved since 2000, what remains unaltered is a bedrock commitment to regressive tax cuts, a sharp curtailment of worker power …
Oliver Traldi / Arc Digital:
Nobody Reads  —  People who pretend to read as a status symbol are certainly obnoxious — but are they on to something?  —  When you first hear about a store called “Books by the Foot,” you might think: The name tells me they've got a whole lot of books to sell me.
David Folkenflik / NPR:
Trump Appointee Seeks Lasting Control Over Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia  —  Michael Pack's stormy tenure over the federal agency that oversees government-funded broadcasters abroad — including Voice of America — appears to be coming to a close.  Yet President Trump's appointee …
John F. Harris / Politico:
2020 Shatters the Myth of American Exceptionalism  —  2020 will go down for me as the year I did not travel to Minnesota.  —  Strictly speaking, it is more accurate to say this was the year when I did not travel to my version of Minnesota.  —  My Minnesota is a crisp morning stroll in Northfield …
John Wagner / Washington Post:
Biden inaugural activities to include memorial service for covid victims  —  President-elect Joe Biden's scaled-back inaugural activities will include a nationwide memorial service ahead of his swearing-in to honor the lives lost to the coronavirus, the committee planning the events announced Thursday.
Alex Yablon / New Republic:
This Year's Underground Sensation: Modern Monetary Theory  —  At the close of 2020, it's hard to think of another year in living memory that has forced such a radical rethinking of our politics and social life.  The Covid-19 pandemic will be remembered as a dire time in American life …
Nancy Cook / Bloomberg:
Trump Budget Chief Hampers Biden Transition With Ban on Meetings  — Agency director Russ Vought wants focus on last-minute rules  — Biden has complained OMB, Pentagon are hampering transition  —  President Donald Trump's budget office is blocking Joe Biden's transition team …
Lauren Egan / NBC News:
Congresswoman-elect Salazar to miss swearing-in ceremony due to Covid diagnosis  —  Congresswoman-elect María Elvira Salazar of Florida announced Thursday that she will miss the swearing-in ceremony for new members of Congress on Sunday in Washington after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Discussion: The Hill, The Daily Caller and CNN
Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:
Biden's Team Tells Senate Democrats To Send Him Judicial Nominees ASAP  —  The president-elect wants recommendations for all existing district court vacancies by Jan. 19, says his incoming White House counsel.  —  President-elect Joe Biden is signaling that he's ready to move quickly with nominating judges once he's sworn into office.
Bethany Barnes / Tampa Bay Times:
Federal agency knew Garda was “really bad” at safety.  It took little action.  —  Three more people have died since the Times revealed safety problems at the Florida-based armored truck company.  —  By the time Johnathon Lue burned alive in the back of a GardaWorld armored truck in May …
Jill Lawrence / USA Today:
A Republican in Joe Biden's Cabinet?  The president-elect should just say no.  —  Naming a Republican is bad messaging and not necessary.  And it wouldn't signal strength or produce an envoy with persuasive powers over the opposition.  —  The doors may be closing on the chances of a Republican …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Rodney Jefferson / Bloomberg:
Trump's Scottish Golf Course Loses More Money and Warns About Brexit
Noah Smith / Noahpinion:
Shots.  Into arms.  NOW.  —  The top priority in America right now is getting vaccines into arms as quickly as possible.
Axios:
Scoop: Trump administration declassifies unconfirmed intel on Chinese bounties
Jim Galloway / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Former U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss suffers ‘minor stroke’
Discussion: The Hill and WMAZ-TV
Jessica Goodheart / capitalandmain.com:
Perdue's Time as Dollar General CEO Marked by Charges of Wage Theft, Race and Sex Discrimination
Jay Heflin / Washington Examiner:
Trump's legacy: $8 trillion-plus in added debt in one term
Madeline Peltz / Media Matters for America:
“Human hand grenade” of the year: Rudy Giuliani
Discussion: Talking Points Memo
 Earlier Items: 
Monica Hesse / Washington Post:
This terrible year taught me something about hope
Alex Hanna / Wired:
Timnit Gebru's Exit From Google Exposes a Crisis in AI
ABC News:
Kentucky residents ‘luck’ into getting COVID vaccine Walgreens didn't want to expire
Dave Philipps / New York Times:
The Small Colorado Town Shrugged Off the Pandemic. Then Came the Coronavirus Variant.
Discussion: Denver Post
WJBK-TV:
Ohio State study: 30% of student athletes have heart damage linked to COVID-19
Discussion: TheGrio
Wall Street Journal:
Alden Global Seeks to Buy Tribune Publishing
Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:
Secret Service to make changes to presidential detail to bring on agents who worked with Biden
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Memo: WaPo CEO Will Lewis tells staff they'll be expected to work from the office five days a week, instead of three, by June 2, and by February 3 for managers

Sean Burch / The Wrap:
News Corp reports Q1 revenue up 3% YoY to $2.58B, net income up 148% YoY to $144M, Dow Jones revenue up 3% YoY to $552M, and WSJ subscriptions up 7% YoY to 4.3M

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
TikTok launches Share to TikTok, which lets users directly share music from Apple Music and Spotify in a post to their TikTok Feed or in DMs via TikTok Messages

 
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