memeorandum: Did the January 6th Coup Fail? (Mona Charen/The Bulwark)

3:05 PM ET, January 5, 2022

Top Items:

CNN:

Ex-White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham to meet with 1/6 committee — (CNN)Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham will meet Wednesday evening on Capitol Hill with the select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting.

Discussion: NBC News, The Hill, Insider, USA Today, Raw Story, Balloon Juice, Mediaite and National Zero

Francis Fukuyama / New York Times:

One Single Day. That's All It Took for the World to Look Away From Us. — Mr. Fukuyama is the author of the forthcoming book “Liberalism and Its Discontents.” — The Jan. 6 attack on Congress by a mob inspired by former President Donald Trump marked an ominous precedent for U.S. politics.

Discussion: The Bulwark, The Western Journal, inti’s, Rolling Stone, CBS News and The Colorado Sun

Alex Gangitano / The Hill:

Psaki says Biden will address Trump's role in Capitol riot — President Biden will speak about the responsibility that he believes former President Trump had in the Capitol attack on Thursday, the one-year anniversary of the insurrection, according to the White House.

Discussion: Raw Story, Mediaite and Political Wire

Mona Charen / The Bulwark:

Did the January 6th Coup Fail? — January 6th should have been the point of no return, the pivot point at which even the most blinkered sugarcoaters of Trumpism recoiled in disgust from what they had wrought. For a nanosecond, it seemed that it was. In the first days after the desecration …

Discussion: CNN, New York Times, Insider, Axios, Fox News, CNN, Washington Post, The Floridian, The 19th, Politico, Washington Post, Morning Shots, Alternet.org, Discourse Blog, Raw Story, New York Times, Voice of America, Bloomberg and Politico

Matt Fuller / The Daily Beast:

The Real Tragedy of Jan. 6 Is That It's Still Not Over — I had a front-row seat to the riot. A year later, one thing is clear: Nothing has changed. … It was around noon on Jan. 6, 2021, and I was already late. — I was supposed to be covering the counting of the electoral votes …

Alan Feuer / New York Times:
Prosecutors Move Quickly on Jan. 6 Cases, but One Big Question Remains

Discussion: Politico, Associated Press, Althouse, CNN, ABC News, The Hill, New York Post, IJR, Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Kos, NBC Los Angeles, Rolling Stone, Washingtonian, AFP, NBC News and Insider

Ed Pilkington / The Guardian:
More than 1,000 US public figures aided Trump's effort to overturn election

Discussion: Public Wise, Washington Monthly, Alternet.org, Common Dreams, CNN, CounterPunch, Axios, IJR and DownriverUSA

John Nichols / The Nation:
To Avert Another January 6, Expel Coup Plotters From Congress

Discussion: Sun-Sentinel, New Jersey Monitor, NPR and Unlicensed Punditry

New York Times:
A Long, Hard Year for Republicans Who Voted to Impeach After Jan. 6

Discussion: NCPR Daily News, Common Dreams, New Republic and Raw Story

Associated Press:
Images of chaos: AP photographers capture US Capitol riot

Discussion: New York Times, Election Law Blog, Daily Kos and The Daily Beast

Bloomberg Law:
Up-to-Date Shots Encouraged Over ‘Fully Vaccinated’: Fauci

Discussion: Associated Press, The Gateway Pundit, Townhall and Barber Bullets

Amy B Wang / Washington Post:
Democratic group launches six-figure ad buy tying Trump and GOP allies to Jan. 6 insurrection

Discussion: The Hill, New York Times and WAMU

Travis Gettys / Raw Story:
More than 1,000 public figures exposed as accomplices to Trump's effort to overturn democracy

Discussion: Rochester Beacon

Joseph Simonson / Washington Free Beacon: Biden Withholds Annual Report on Deportations

Burgess Everett / Politico:

McConnell cracks door to Electoral Count Act reform — Mitch McConnell is signaling he's open to reforming the Electoral Count Act, one year after a mass of Republicans objected to certification of President Joe Biden's win ahead of an attempted insurrection.

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Times, Daily Kos, Reason and Election Law Blog

Washington Post:

How Congress can fix the Electoral Count Act — Edward B. Foley is a professor of constitutional law at Ohio State University, where he heads the university's election law program. Michael W. McConnell, formerly a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Reason, Washington Post, CNN, RedState, Election Law Blog, Raw Story and Political Wire

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:

Fixing the Electoral Count Act is no substitute for voting reform — If you are suspicious that Sen. Joe Manchin III is unserious about filibuster reform required to pass essential election reform, you are not alone. With every utterance, the West Virginia Democrat sounds more like he does …

E.J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
How to get real accountability for Jan. 6

Discussion: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Hill, HotAir, Talking Points Memo, Voice of America, The Atlantic, Raw Story, Front and Center, Breitbart, FiveThirtyEight, Associated Press and San Diego Jewish World

Alayna Treene / Axios:
Omicron, snowstorm thwart Schumer's midterm year quick start

Discussion: Insider, HotAir, RedState, Axios, Meaning In History, Reason, National Review, Vox, Political Wire, Washington Post and The Hill

Alex Nester / Washington Free Beacon:

Chicago Schools Close After Teachers' Union Votes for Remote Learning — Kids shut out of classrooms as union clashes with district officials — More than 290,000 kids in Chicago Public Schools were shut out of the classroom Wednesday after the city's teachers' union voted against returning to in-person learning.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, RedState, National Review and TheBlaze

CNN: Lawmakers discuss additional Covid relief amid Omicron, but talks stall

Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Lawmakers begin early talks about another round of coronavirus relief targeting businesses

Discussion: The Hill, Daily Kos, New York Post, Associated Press, Breitbart, WTOP News, HotAir, Wide World of News, Twitchy, Politico, National Zero, Chalkboard Review, New York Times and Wall Street Journal

CNN:
Chicago students miss out on remote and in-person learning after a stalemate between the teachers' union and school district

Discussion: Vox, Chicago Business, Gizmodo, Truthout, Washington Examiner, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Urban Liberator, TheBlaze, IJR and Bloomberg

David Wasserman / Cook Political Report:

2022 House Overview: Still a GOP Advantage, but Redistricting Looks Like a Wash — The surprising good news for Democrats: on the current trajectory, there will be a few more Biden-won districts after redistricting than there are now — producing a congressional map slightly less biased in the GOP's favor than the last decade's.

Discussion: Election Law Blog, Punchbowl News, The Daily Caller and The Daily Beast

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Surprise: Democrats dodged a gerrymandering fiasco. A top analyst explains why. — The long-awaited, long-feared Gerrymandering Apocalypse of 2021 has not materialized for Democrats after all. — Throughout last year, many analysts and panicked Democrats alike concluded that Republicans …

Discussion: Sacramento Bee

David Leonhardt / New York Times:

Omicron Is Milder — How should that affect your behavior? — The details of the Omicron variant are becoming clearer, and they are encouraging. — They're not entirely encouraging, and I will get into some detail about one of the biggest problems — the stress on hospitals …

Discussion: HotAir, Bloomberg and The Racket News

Jim Heintz / Associated Press:

Report: Kazakh president's home ablaze as protests escalate — MOSCOW (AP) — Protesters in Kazakhstan's largest city stormed the presidential residence and the mayor's office on Wednesday and set both buildings on fire, according to new reports, as demonstrations sparked by a rise in fuel prices …

Discussion: Global Voices, The Diplomat, Bloomberg, The Guardian, Metro.co.uk, TASS, Just The News, Insider, National Zero and Voice of America

New York Times:
Kazakh Protesters Burn Government Offices as Unrest Sweeps Country

Discussion: Meduza.io, UPI, MyNorthwest.com and TASS

Reuters:
Kazakhstan government resigns after violent protests over fuel price

Discussion: Financial Times, CBS News, BBC, The Moscow Times, The Daily Caller, The Guardian, New York Post, Metro.co.uk, Al Jazeera, Insider, SABC News and One America News Network

Leila Abboud / Financial Times:

Macron says his strategy is to ‘piss off’ France's unvaccinated as Covid surges — Parliament suspends vaccine pass debate and rivals criticise president for ‘vulgar’ expression and ‘lack of empathy’ — President Emmanuel Macron has come under fire from political rivals for saying he wanted to …

Discussion: Axios, Reuters, NPR, Summit News and Politico

Matthew Dalton / Wall Street Journal:
France's Macron Rails Against Unvaccinated People

Discussion: Washington Post, The National Pulse, Townhall, CBS News, New York Times, The Daily Caller, Fox News, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg and The Guardian

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:

The GOP isn't even trying to sound coherent anymore — We must stop pretending the GOP is a real political party made up of coherent adults. To understand why, let's examine a single day this week. — On Tuesday, former president Donald Trump, the undisputed head of the party …

Discussion: The Texas Tribune

Joseph Choi / The Hill:
Anti-Trump group targeting top Republicans on Jan. 6 anniversary

Discussion: Washington Post, IJR and Boing Boing

Brooke Staggs / Orange County Register:

Husband: Kelly Ernby wasn't vaccinated when she died of COVID-19 complications — GOP leaders say Ernby's death won't deter them from speaking out against coronavirus vaccine mandates. — Deputy District Attorney and GOP activist Kelly Ernby wasn't vaccinated when she died early this week …

Discussion: FOX 11 Los Angeles, Fox News, BizPac Review, New York Post, NBC Los Angeles, SFGATE, Breitbart, WEB OF EVIL and Daily Kos

Sonny Bunch / The Bulwark:

J.D. Vance Versus Film Twitter — How film critics helped send the ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author off the cliff. — I'd be remiss if I didn't note, briefly, that the online collective known as Film Twitter—critics, Letterboxd users, and sundry others—managed to completely break Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance's brain.

Discussion: Insider, Althouse and Washington Post

CBS Los Angeles:

LA's First Case Of Flurona Detected At COVID Testing Site Near Getty Center — LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The first case of flurona - the combination of both influenza and coronavirus - has been detected at the COVID-19 testing center across the street from the Getty Center.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, New York Post, Twitchy and NBC Los Angeles

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:

Don't Look Up Doesn't Get the Climate Crisis — Don't Look Up is an obscenely overlong, occasionally funny satire of American media and politics. But it aspires to be something more. — As he has emphasized in interviews, director Adam McKay conceived of the film as an allegory for the climate crisis.

Discussion: The Dispatch

U.S. Department of the Treasury:

Treasury Sanctions Milorad Dodik and Associated Media Platform for Destabilizing and Corrupt Activity — Dodik's Destabilizing and Corrupt Activities Undermine 26 years of Progress Since the Dayton Peace Accords — WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control …

Discussion: OFAC, UPI, The Guardian, Politico and Al Jazeera

American Greatness:

The Ridiculous Fantasy of a National Divorce — The solution is not some sort of secession or civil war. The solution is for the Right to stop being rank amateurs when it comes to politics and governance. — Every now and then an absurd idea enters the discourse and picks up a sort of memetic traction in spite of itself.