memeorandum: Peter Thiel's Founders Fund Makes Monster Bet on Bitcoin (Rob Copeland/Wall Street Journal)

9:00 AM ET, January 3, 2018

Top Items:

The Republicans' Fake Investigations — A generation ago, Republicans sought to protect President Richard Nixon by urging the Senate Watergate committee to look at supposed wrongdoing by Democrats in previous elections. The committee chairman, Sam Ervin, a Democrat, said that would be …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Power Line, The Last Refuge, Raw Story, Business Insider, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Politicus USA, The Week, Shareblue Media, Politico and CANNONFIRE

Grant Stern / Washington Press:
Trump-Russia dossier firm just told all in bombshell NY Times op-ed

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Fox News, Raw Story, Political Wire, Shareblue Media and National Review

CNN:

North Korea calls hotline to South Korea in diplomatic breakthrough — Seoul (CNN)North Korea and South Korea established contact for 20 minutes on a hotline that's been dormant for almost two years Wednesday, a major diplomatic breakthrough following a year of escalating hostility that could pave the way for future talks.

Mike Allen / Axios:

Some White House officials fear accidental war — President Trump's boast last night that he has a “bigger & more powerful” Nuclear Button (caps, Trump's) than North Korea has some administration insiders worried that we could blunder into war. — What they're saying …

Discussion: Associated Press, New York Times, The Daily Beast and JustOneMinute

New York Times:

Trump Says His ‘Nuclear Button’ Is ‘Much Bigger’ Than North Korea's — WASHINGTON — President Trump again raised the prospect of nuclear war with North Korea, boasting in strikingly playground terms on Tuesday night that he commands a “much bigger” and “more powerful” arsenal of devastating weapons than the outlier government in Asia.

Jake Sherman / Politico: STAKES IN THE GOV'T SHUTDOWN FIGHT …

Choe Sang-Hun / New York Times:
North Korea Reopens Border Hotline With South

Discussion: The Daily Caller, RedState, Axios, IJR and Outside the Beltway

Associated Press:
Seoul: NKorea says it'll reopen cross-border communications

Discussion: The Week

Eli Watkins / CNN:
Trump taunts North Korea: My nuclear button is ‘much bigger,’ ‘more powerful’

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, New Republic, KTLA, The Week, Politicus USA and The Daily Caller

Hyung-Jin Kim / Associated Press: N. Korea reopens cross-border communications with S. Korea

David Smith / The Guardian:

Trump Tower meeting with Russians ‘treasonous’, Bannon says in explosive book … Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president's son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic” …

Discussion: Raw Story

Callum Borchers / Washington Post:
Utah could be Steve Bannon's next battleground, especially if Mitt Romney runs

Discussion: Axios, New York Magazine and Roll Call

Richard Johnson / Page Six:

Russia probe grand jury looks like ‘a Black Lives Matter rally,’ says witness — The federal grand jury handing down indictments for special counsel Robert Mueller doesn't appear to include any supporters of President Donald Trump, according to one witness who recently testified before the panel.

Discussion: Raw Story, Breitbart, Politicus USA, The Gateway Pundit and ThinkProgress

Reuel Marc Gerecht / New York Times:

The Worst Thing for Iran's Protesters? U.S. Silence — We are now six days into the Iran protests, and the questions that seized Washington during the 2009 pro-democracy movement have now once again come to the fore. Should the United States try to help Iran's protesters? Can we help them?

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Bloomberg and Patterico's Pontifications

Robin Wright / New Yorker:
Iran in Turmoil—to Trump's Delight

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Beast, CNN, The Federalist, NPR, ThinkProgress, Breitbart, Washington Free Beacon and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Thomas Erdbrink / New York Times:
Hard-Liners and Reformers Tapped Iranians' Ire. Now, Both Are Protest Targets.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Week and The Gateway Pundit

Terry Glavin / Macleans.ca:
The uprising in Iran: ‘This is what revolution looks like’

Discussion: Politico and The Federalist

Justin Baragona / Mediaite:
MSNBC Guest Rips Bill Kristol's Support of Iran Protests: 'You've Been Advocating Killing Iranians'

Discussion: IJR and Washington Post

David Harsanyi / The Federalist:
5 Worst Echo Chamber Talking Points About The Iranian Uprising

Discussion: Betsy's Page, The Daily Caller, BBC, Wall Street Journal, Reason and New Republic

Jason Samenow / Washington Post:

Monster storm to blast East Coast before polar vortex uncorks tremendous cold late this week — Unforgiving cold has punished the eastern third of the United States for the past 10 days. But the most severe winter weather conditions will assault the area late this week.

Discussion: The Weather Channel, The Daily Beast, Althouse, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Raw Story, NPR, Mother Jones, thecut and Mashable

Mandy Mayfield / Washington Examiner:

Roy Moore's Jewish lawyer voted for Doug Jones, raised money for his campaign — The Jewish attorney who Roy Moore's wife touted employing in an attempt to fight off claims of anti-Semitism is actually a longtime friend and supporter of Senator-elect Doug Jones, who defeated Moore last month.

Discussion: The Hill, Politico, Weekly Standard, Washington Monthly, The Stranger …, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Mediaite and The Week

Washington Post:

The NSA's top talent is leaving because of low pay and flagging morale … The National Security Agency is losing its top talent at a worrisome rate as highly skilled personnel, some disillusioned with the spy service's leadership and an unpopular reorganization, take higher-paying, more flexible jobs in the private sector.

Discussion: Axios

John Solomon / The Hill:

Congressional investigators find irregularities in FBI's handling of Clinton email case — Republicans on key congressional committees say they have uncovered new irregularities and contradictions inside the FBI's probe of Hillary Clinton — 's email server.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, RedState, JustOneMinute and Mediaite

Toronto Star:

Joshua Boyle, Canadian hostage in Afghanistan, arrested and faces list of charges in Ottawa — Boyle appears in court Wednesday to face 15 charges, including sexual assault and forcible confinement. — OTTAWA—Joshua Boyle, the Canadian man who was held hostage with his American wife …

Discussion: FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV and Business Insider

Rob Gillies / Associated Press:
Ex-hostage Boyle charged with sex assault, confinement

Discussion: RedState

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg:

Romney Changes Location on Twitter as Utah Senate Seat Opens — Mitt Romney was mum on whether he plans to run for Senate after Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah announced he'll retire after 2018. But Romney's Twitter profile may give a hint about his thinking.

Discussion: Politico, Axios, The Week and The Daily Caller

James Risen / The Intercept:

My Life as a New York Times Reporter in the Shadow of the War on Terror … I was sitting in the nearly empty restaurant of the Westin Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, getting ready for a showdown with the federal government that I had been trying to avoid for more than seven years.

Emily Chang / Vanity Fair:

“Oh My God, This Is So F—ed Up”: Inside Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Dark Side — Some of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley are regulars at exclusive, drug-fueled, sex-laced parties—gatherings they describe not as scandalous, or even secret, but as a bold, unconventional lifestyle choice.

Discussion: Althouse, naked capitalism and Longreads, more at Techmeme »

Tim Lockette / Anniston Star:

Star's former publisher acknowledges assault on reporter — H. Brandt Ayers, former publisher of The Anniston Star and current chairman of the board of the company that owns the newspaper, acknowledged Tuesday that he assaulted a reporter in her Anniston home in the 1970s.

Discussion: The Week

New York Times:

Florida's 1.5 Million Missing Voters — Everyone remembers that the 2000 presidential election was decided by 537 votes in Florida. Far fewer remember another important number from the state that year — 620,000, the Floridians who were barred from voting because state records showed …

Stephanie Saul / New York Times:

As Flow of Foreign Students Wanes, U.S. Universities Feel the Sting — At Wright State University in Ohio, the French horn and tuba professors are out. So is the accomplished swimming team. — At Kansas State, Italian classes are going the way of the Roman Empire.

Anita Kumar / miamiherald:

Foreign governments are finding ways to do favors for Trump's business — WASHINGTON — In Indonesia, a local government plans to build a road to shorten the drive between the main airport on the island of Bali and the new high-end Trump resort and golf course.

Discussion: Washington Post, Daily Kos, Common Dreams and Shareblue Media

The Register:

‘Kernel memory leaking’ Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign — Other OSes will need an update, performance hits loom — A fundamental design flaw in Intel's processor chips has forced a significant redesign of the Linux and Windows kernels to defang the chip-level security bug.

Discussion: BGR, Gizmodo and Axios, more at Techmeme »

Maegan Vazquez / CNN:

Michele Bachmann eyeing run for Franken's Senate seat — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — (CNN)Former GOP congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says she is considering running for Democratic former Sen. Al Franken's Minnesota seat. — Bachmann, who was a member …

Discussion: Fox News Insider, Right Wing Watch, Breitbart, Washington Blade, FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV, Daily Kos, TheBlaze, AOL, The Week, Axios and Washington Times

Tyisha Fernandes / WSB-TV:

Dozens arrested at a house party over less than an ounce of marijuana, police say — Ten of the nearly 100 people arrested during a 21st birthday party over the weekend spoke exclusively to Channel 2 Action News for the first time since the incident. — Cartersville police said officers responded …

Discussion: WXIA-TV and ThinkProgress