The Democratic field The only Latino candidate in the Democratic primary is ending his candidacy. Julián Castro made the announcement today, and as Jennifer Medina and Matt Stevens report at The New York Times, that leaves the field of Democratic candidates at 14. The Bernie Sanders campaign also made an announcement today — that it has raised a massive $34.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Sean Sullivan of The Washington Post write that Sanders’ fourth-quarter haul is “one of the clearest signs yet of the momentum Sanders has picked up in recent months.” Also racking up some impressive fundraising numbers, Andrew Yang, who raised $16.5 million in the last 3 months, “a considerable sum that represents his best total for a three-month period to date and is likely to put him among the Democratic field’s top five fund-raisers,” writes Matt Stevens of The New York Times. Stevens also points out that Yang raised more in the fourth quarter than Biden. 
Speaking of the former veep, Biden has landed a high-profile endorsement from Iowa Rep. Abby Finkenauer. AP’s Bill Barrow notes that Finkenauer is the first member of the Iowa congressional delegation to take sides in the Democratic nominating contest, telling AP that she thinks Biden can be a “translator” between Democrats and Republicans while also bridging the urban-rural divide. In other Dem primary news, Michael Kranish of The Washington Post explains how Bloomberg’s business in China has grown, and how that could create unprecedented entanglements if he is elected president. Alexandra Stevenson says, “This quote from a McKinsey partner says everything you need to know about Bloomberg and his biz ties in China. ‘It is pretty gutsy of him, saying something positive or even neutral about China. There are a lot of people who don’t want to hear that story.’” Wake-up call On the other side of the aisle, Wake up, Republicans. Your party stands for all the wrong things now. That’s Stuart Stevens, a GOP strategist working with a political action committee that backs Bill Weld for president, who argues in a new op-ed for The Washington Post that “Trump didn’t hijack the GOP and bend it to his will. He did something far easier: He looked at the party, saw its fault lines and then offered himself as a pure distillation of accumulated white grievance and anger.” 
Tweets Michael Gerson, “Stuart Stevens has seen everything in GOP politics, but not this: ‘Republicans are now officially the character doesn’t count party... the deficit doesn’t matter party, the Russia is our ally party, and the I’m-right-and-you-are-human-scum party.’” And Quin Hillyer says, “95% of this is so, so, so, SO right.” The really incriminating stuff “Ever wonder what the WH blacks out before releasing Ukraine-related emails EVEN UNDER COURT ORDER? The really incriminating stuff, naturally. @K8brannen from @just_security has the goods,” tweets Daniel Froomkin. Indeed she does. Kate Brannen of Just Security got access to unredacted Ukraine documents revealing the extent of the Pentagon’s legal concerns. For example, in an Aug. 30 email, Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget, told Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller, this: “Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold.” As Jim Sciutto says, “You might say this email is one Congress has a right to see when investigating Trump and Ukraine.” This is our world on fossil fuels As the bushfires rage on in Australia, the Victorian government has declared a state of disaster, the first time it’s used these powers since they were included in the Emergency Management Act 1986 following the devastating Victorian Bushfires in 2009. Samantha Maiden of The New Daily confirmed that an elderly woman died in Canberra after she went into respiratory distress when exiting a Quantas plane to the tarmac, which was filled with dense smoke from the bushfires. At The Courier-Mail, Marnie O’Neill reports that nearly 500 million animals, birds and reptiles have died since September. Up to 8000 koalas — a third of the entire koala population of the NSW mid-north coast — are believed to have been killed in less than four months. Tweets CJ Werleman, “The Australian climate change fires have wiped out an area the size of Belgium, killing 480 million mammals, reptiles, and birds. There are now real concerns entire species of animals and plants have been made extinct or put on the brink of extinction.” “This is our world on fossil fuels,” says Taras Grescoe. In a column for The Guardian, climate scientist Michael E. Mann argues, Australians must vote out fossil-fuelled politicians who have chosen to be part of the problem and vote in climate champions who are willing to solve it. Tweets Nick Peers, “Australia is the first Western country to be confronted by the devastating realities of climate change. Its voters must set an example for the rest of us lazy Western societies in 2022.” Meanwhile, Stuart Marsh of 9News reports that angry Cobargo residents exploded at Scott Morrison as the PM toured fire-ravaged towns (84,000+ shares). “Go home to Kirribilli. Why won’t that burn down?” yelled one resident. As Katharine Murphy writes at The Guardian, some political leaders find their natural authority in a crisis – not Scott Morrison. Read every word of this Michael Barbaro links to a new post on Medium by Ross LaJeunesse, who shares, I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left. “Ok, Google. Explain this,” says Sean Gallagher. Or as Zack Whittaker puts it, “Wow, Google has a metric fuckton of explaining to do.” As Nicholas Thompson says, “Wow. This is brutal. Google’s former head of international relations claims he was boxed out, and then essentially forced out, because of his demands on human rights. Now he’s running for Senate in Maine.” Seems about right 
Speaking of things that need an explanation, Mitch Smith reports at The New York Times that drones are swarming by night over rural communities in Nebraska and Colorado, and sheriffs say they don’t know who’s flying them or why, so that sounds just fine. “I see 2020 is off to a great start,” tweets Mark Medley. “2020 ushered in with mysterious, unexplained drone swarms in Colorado and Nebraska. Seems about right,” says Jenna McLaughlin. Eric Boehm shares, “I’m not saying it’s aliens, but…” But what, Eric. Meanwhile, Scott Dodd wonders, “Where are Mulder and Scully when you need them? (Yes, outdated Gen X references will continue from this account in 2020.)” 2020 calculations Want to feel old? Here: It’s 2020 and you’re in the future, as Tim Urban explains at Wait But Why. There’s plenty to dig into, and deal with, here. For Brian Sabin, “The premiere of ‘Jurassic Park’ being closer to the moon landing than to today was a tough pill to swallow.” 
But this one’s also pretty difficult to process: “The Wonder Years aired from 1988 and 1993 and depicted the years between 1968 and 1973. When I watched the show, it felt like it was set in a time long ago. If a new Wonder Years premiered today, it would cover the years between 2000 and 2005.” Even so, Paul McNamara thinks, “This will be the favorite thing you read today, trust me.” Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s Sam Potter and Jeremy Diamond have compiled for you Almost Everything Wall Street Expects in 2020. To distill that down, Helene Meisler shares, “If I knew how to do a word search my guess is mild and moderate would beat every other word for 2020 expectations.” Eric Balchunas noticed that, too: “Great comprehensive roundup of all of Wall Street's outlooks for 2020, which mostly say the same (safe) thing: moderately optimistic.” Scorcese in winter For what Scott Feinberg calls “Quite a well timed profile of the master,” read Martin Scorsese Is Letting Go, by Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times. As Itzkoff puts it, “Happy new year! I had a lively conversation about death with Martin Scorsese.” Nicholas Riccardi highlights, “‘Thankfully, the curiosity doesn’t end.’ Scorcese in winter.” And Alex Billington says, “‘Don’t go for the surface’ is something I want to remind a LOT of film people these days. 🤔 From the new Scorsese interview in NY Times.” Farewells Marc Stein has The New York Times obit for David Stern, the transformative N.B.A. leader, who died at 77. Tweets Matt Jones, “RIP David Stern, one of three most important sports executives of all-time Transformed the NBA into a juggernaut and rare advocate for owners that was beloved by his workforce. Besides Magic, Bird and Jordan, most important figure in NBA history.” Adds Nicholas Kristof, “Among the tributes to David Stern, it's worth noting that he also was a crucial foreign policy figure, by turning the NBA into a global institution. He did more for US soft power than legions of American government strategists and PR experts. RIP, David.” Adrian Wojnarowski writes about Stern’s life and legacy for ESPN, calling him a generational force of nature. “Awesome remembrance of David Stern by @wojespn,” tweets Seth Wickersham. And The Athletic has taken down the paywall on Ethan Sherwood Strauss’ letter To My Pen Pal, David Stern, Whom I’ll Miss. One more today from the world of sports: The Yankees’ Don Larsen, who pitched the only perfect game in World Series history, has died at 90. Bill Madden writes the obituary for Larsen at The New York Times. As Alex Philippidis tweets, “After a quick hook in Game 2 of the 1956 World Series, Don Larsen (1929-2020) got to redeem himself a few days later. It was a chance Don took full advantage of with a masterful outing that rewrote baseball history.” | 
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