memeorandum: Surprise: Democrats dodged a gerrymandering fiasco. A top analyst explains why. (Greg Sargent/Washington Post)

1:05 PM ET, January 5, 2022

Top Items:

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 Senate and House Republicans objected to certification of President Joe Biden's win ahead of an attempted insurrection.

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, Associated Press, The Colorado Sun and CounterPunch

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 …

Discussion: Associated Press, email.punchbowl.news, Axios, UPI, Roll Call, OttoPolitico, The Federalist, ABC News, The Colorado Sun, NPR, The Bias, WTOP News, The Bulwark, Bloomberg, New York Times and Political Wire

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: Election Law Blog

Travis Gettys / Raw Story:

More than 1,000 public figures exposed as accomplices to Trump's effort to overturn democracy — More than a thousand public figures helped Donald Trump spread his election lies and aided his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss. — The Insurrection Index has identified 1,011 individuals …

Discussion: New York Times and Rochester Beacon

Alan Feuer / New York Times:

Prosecutors Move Quickly on Jan. 6 Cases, but One Big Question Remains — In the year since the assault on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, more than 700 people have been arrested, with little public indication from the Justice Department of how high the investigation might reach.

Discussion: CNN, Althouse, New Republic, Associated Press, Chicago Sun-Times, AFP, Daily Kos, NBC Los Angeles, Insider and Rolling Stone

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

Discussion: Sun-Sentinel, Roll Call, PRESS RUN, NPR and Unlicensed Punditry

Mona Charen / The Bulwark:
Did the January 6 Coup Fail?

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

Discussion: RedState, National Review, Washington Post and The Hill

New York Times:
How Trump Kept His Grip After Jan. 6

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

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Hill, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Raw Story

New York Times:
10 Republicans Voted to Impeach Trump. What's Become of Them?

Discussion: NCPR Daily News and Raw Story

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

Discussion: Daily Kos, Election Law Blog, CNN and WAMU

Sophia Cai / Axios:
Top Senate Republican signals support for election reform

Discussion: CNN, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Guardian, Election Law Blog, Raw Story, Political Wire and New York Magazine

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

Discussion: The Hill, HotAir, The Atlantic, Breitbart, Alternet.org, Front and Center, FiveThirtyEight, San Diego Jewish World and Boing Boing

Jordain Carney / The Hill:
Manchin floats modest Senate rules changes

Discussion: HotAir, UPI, Washington Post, RedState, Roll Call, The Daily Wire, Ohio Capital Journal, Political Wire and ABC News

Mike Allen / Axios:
Jan. 6 committee may hold prime-time hearings

Discussion: The Hill, pjmedia.com, The Western Journal, Washington Times, The Daily Caller, Salon and CNN

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: Republicans dodge and deflect ahead of Jan. 6

Discussion: Good Faith, Poynter and IJR

CNN:
Fact check: Five enduring lies about the Capitol insurrection

Discussion: Associated Press, New York Times and Washingtonian

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: The Daily Caller, Punchbowl News 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

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, The Gateway Pundit, Politico and Summit News

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

Discussion: CBS News, The National Pulse, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, New York Times and The Guardian

Reuters:
Boos, cheers greet Macron pledge to ‘piss off’ unvaccinated

Discussion: Townhall, NPR, Fox News, Balloon Juice, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg and One America News Network

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

Tony Romm / Washington Post:

Lawmakers begin early talks about another round of coronavirus relief targeting businesses — Democrats and Republicans have discussed setting aside billions to help restaurants, gyms and performance venues, though GOP concerns about spending could scuttle the effort

Discussion: CNN, HotAir, Associated Press, Politico, Breitbart, Wide World of News, Twitchy, Chalkboard Review, National Zero, 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: Washington Examiner, Chicago Business, Chicago Sun-Times, Urban Liberator, TheBlaze, IJR and Bloomberg

Marty Makary / New York Post:
Colleges take COVID testing way too far and spread hysteria

Discussion: Cafe Hayek and Common Sense

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: Insider, USA Today, Raw Story and Balloon Juice

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, Politico and Al Jazeera

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, New York Post, Fox News, NBC Los Angeles, Breitbart, SFGATE and WEB OF EVIL

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

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.

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

Alejandro Alvarez / WTOP News:

I-95 in Va. reopens as motorists battle bailout traffic jam on Route 1 — Have you or someone you know been stuck on I-95? Tell WTOP about your experiences. — Listen to WTOP live online and on the radio at 103.5 FM. Download the free WTOP News app for Android and Apple phones to sign up for custom traffic and weather alerts.

Oma Seddiq / Insider:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene urges Republicans to leave Twitter and says the platform ‘attacked our country as a whole’ by banning her — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene blasted Twitter for banning her personal account from its website. — The company is “completely out of bounds,” she said in a Newsmax interview on Tuesday evening.

Discussion: BizPac Review, Raw Story, Patterico's Pontifications and The Daily Wire

Reuters:

Kazakhstan government resigns after violent protests over fuel price — Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev accepted the government's resignation on Wednesday, his office said, after a fuel price increase in the oil-rich Central Asian country triggered protests in which nearly 100 police were injured.

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

Douglas Murray / Common Sense:

When the Right Plays With Jew-Hate — Given today's political environment—in which the left seems unhinged from reality, unable to say that there is one thing that is a man and another thing that is a woman, or to articulate the most basic defense of liberalism and the West—one might imagine that the right is sitting pretty.