memeorandum: Dancing with insanity — One-hundred and thirty-four House … (Salena Zito/Washington Examiner)

9:45 AM ET, December 5, 2016

Top Items:

Trump's Taiwan phone call was long planned, say people who were involved — Donald Trump's protocol-breaking telephone call with Taiwan's leader was an intentionally provocative move that establishes the incoming president as a break with the past, according to interviews with people involved in the planning.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, NBC News, Washington Monthly, The Resurgent, Fox News, Power Line, The Week and Politico

Mallory Shelbourne / The Hill:
Trump slams China on Twitter

Discussion: The Guardian, Coffee House, BizPac Review, KTLA, The Moderate Voice, reverbpress.com, Daily Kos, CNBC, Raw Story, The Talking Dog and The Gateway Pundit

Michael Forsythe / New York Times:
Taiwan City Planning a Makeover Says a Trump Agent Showed Interest

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Elliot Smilowitz / The Hill:
China protests Trump call to Taiwan leader

Discussion: The Daily Caller, RedState, reverbpress.com and The Mahablog

U.S. Army / army.mil:

Army will not grant easement for Dakota Access Pipeline crossing — Army POC: Moira Kelley (703) 614-3992, moira.l.kelley.civ@mail.mil — The Department of the Army will not approve an easement that would allow the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota …

Business Wire:

Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners Respond to the Statement from the Department of the Army — DALLAS & NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. (NYSE: ETP) and Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. (NYSE: SXL) announced that the Administration's statement today …

Discussion: USA Today, The Verge and The Root

Caroline Kenny / CNN:
US Army Corp of Engineers: Dakota Pipeline to be re-routed

Discussion: Hot Air, FOX2now.com, The Nation, WTVR-TV, Mediaite and FOX6Now.com

Devin Henry / The Hill:
Feds deny permit for Dakota Access pipeline

Discussion: The Resurgent, The Week and Daily Kos

James MacPherson / NBC4 Washington:
Federal Government Blocks Dakota Access Oil Pipeline Route

Discussion: Associated Press, Boing Boing, KOIN-TV, WCMH-TV, Lawyers, Guns & Money, reverbpress.com, Raw Story, Mother Jones, Truthdig, ABC News, The Guardian and Balloon Juice

Washington Post:

D.C. Police detain suspect with an assault rifle at Comet Ping Pong restaurant — D.C. Police responding Sunday to a report of a gunman at a popular pizza restaurant in Northwest Washington detained a man armed with an assault rifle, according to a police spokeswoman.

Discussion: USA Today, Vox, The Gateway Pundit, Little Green Footballs, New York Times, Media Matters for America, No More Mister Nice Blog, Politico, Mediaite, Washingtonian, Rewire, CBS Philly, Al Jazeera English, TheBlaze, WTTG-TV, Raw Story and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Politico:

Incoming national security adviser's son spreads fake news about D.C. pizza shop — The son of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump's pick for national security adviser, embraced a baseless conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton on Sunday after a man who claimed to be investigating …

Discussion: New York Times, Mediaite, Mashable, New York Magazine and Talking Points Memo, more at Mediagazer »

Jessie Hellmann / The Hill:
Armed man arrested at DC pizzeria targeted by conspiracy theory

Discussion: Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit and RedState

Evan McMullin / New York Times:

Trump's Threat to the Constitution — WASHINGTON — On July 7, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, met privately with House Republicans near the Capitol. I was present as chief policy director of the House Republican Conference.

Discussion: Politico

Charles M. Blow / New York Times:

Trump's Agents of Idiocracy — Last week when Donald Trump began his so-called Thank You Tour in Cincinnati, he had yet another opportunity to be magnanimous and conciliatory, to step beyond the division and acrimony of his campaign and into the unity and healing necessary to be president of a strained nation.

Discussion: Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

Elana Schor / Politico:

Democrats to give Trump Cabinet picks the Garland treatment — Senate Democrats are preparing to put Donald Trump's Cabinet picks through a grinding confirmation process, weighing delay tactics that could eat up weeks of the Senate calendar and hamper his first 100 days in office.

Discussion: Raw Story, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and The Resurgent

Salena Zito / Washington Examiner:

Dancing with insanity — One-hundred and thirty-four House Democrats collectively lost their minds last week. — That is how many of Nancy Pelosi's colleagues it took to vote her back into power despite having lost her third consecutive chance at winning back the majority from the Republicans.

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

GOP wagers Americans don't care about Trump's conflicts — Republicans see the same ethically challenged complications lurking in Donald Trump's business portfolio that Democrats are squawking about. They just think Americans don't care about these entanglements anymore.

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:

Trump Chooses Ben Carson to Lead HUD — Ben Carson, who took Donald J. Trump on a tour of blighted neighborhoods in Detroit during the presidential campaign, including his boyhood home, has been chosen by Mr. Trump to oversee one of the government's main efforts to lift American cities …

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Daily Kos, Rewire, Business Insider and TheBlaze

Jessica Taylor / NPR:
Trump Taps Ben Carson For Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development

Discussion: The Atlantic, CNN, alan.com, BizPac Review and The Guardian

Detroit News:

Judge orders Mich. presidential recount to begin Monday — Detroit — A federal judge has ordered Michigan election officials to begin a massive hand recount of 4.8 million ballots cast in the presidential election at noon Monday. — U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith issued a ruling …

Discussion: RedState, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller and Detroit Free Press

Paul Mirengoff / Power Line:
It ain't over til it's over — Yesterday, in a post called …

Discussion: USA Today, CNN, Townhall.com, The Root, Independent Journal Review and RedState

Karol Markowicz / New York Post:

The war on ‘fake news’ is all about censoring real news — MORE FROM: — Scrambling for an explanation for Donald Trump's victory, many in the media and on the left have settled on the idea that his supporters were consumers of “fake news” — gullible rubes living in an alternate reality made Trump president.

Rick Noack / Washington Post:

Trying to imitate Trump's victory, Italy's Beppe Grillo could help throw Europe into crisis — When Beppe Grillo started to make headlines at the leader of Italy's biggest protest party more than six years ago, it was hard to avoid the puns. A comedian turned politician, Grillo was laughed at and branded a “clown.”

Jason Horowitz / New York Times:
Italy's Premier, Matteo Renzi, Says He'll Resign After Reform Is Rejected

Discussion: Political Wire, The Federalist, Mashable and The Daily Caller

Reuters:
Italy PM Renzi facing big referendum defeat: exit polls

Discussion: Vox Popoli

Associated Press:

4 quit after Oklahoma veteran with maggots in wound dies — The Oklahoma veterans center in Talihina. — TALIHINA, Okla. - Four staff members have resigned from a southeastern Oklahoma veterans facility rather than face the possibility of getting fired, after a resident was found to have maggots in a wound.

Discussion: Breitbart, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, RedState and The Gateway Pundit

Paul Mirengoff / Power Line:

A fitting end: Castro's hearse breaks down — The vehicle carrying Fidel Castro's remains during his funeral parade broke down yesterday. Soldiers had to push it through the streets. — How symbolic! What could be more fitting, given the broken down nature of the antique Cuban state produced by Castro?

Discussion: The American Mirror