Trump admin declares war on US Navy You might be thinking that the news cycle slows down over the weekend, especially leading into a short week, and man, are you wrong. As Kasie Hunt pointed out last night, “The news cycle is ... newsy tonight.” The big story on Sunday, as Alex Johnson reported for NBC News, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer was fired by Defense Secretary Mark Esper (317,000+ shares), and as Maya Wiley says, “Sec. Spencer leaves his position having demonstrated how to lead. Leadership isn’t power. Its principle.” Oliver Willis, meanwhile, is “Looking forward to Republicans spending the short week smearing the Navy secretary as a deep stater because he doesn’t like war crimes.” 
Ashley Parker and Dan Lamothe had the scoop about Spencer’s ouster for The Washington Post, and David Freedlander’s reaction was “What a mess.” Kim Masters puts it this way: “This administration is a 24/7 shit show.” And one more: “Trump poisons everyone he touches,” tweets Joshua Benton. At AP News, Robert Burns wrote that Spencer’s firing “exposed fissures in Trump’s relationship with the highest ranks of the U.S. military and raised questions about the appropriate role of a commander in chief in matters of military justice.” “To make your head spin, read this version, too,” Kelly Kennedy suggests. Helene Cooper, Maggie Haberman and Dave Philipps have the New York Times coverage, writing that “Mr. Spencer had also provoked Mr. Trump’s ire by threatening to resign over the case and by publicly saying he disagreed with the president’s decision to intervene in favor of the commando, Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, Defense Department officials said.” As Philip Gourevitch describes it, “Trump admin declares war on US Navy for resisting Trump’s campaign to make the commission of War Crimes US policy in contravention of US and international law.” And Mike Forsythe says, “This is just shocking. As a US Navy veteran I am pretty floored by this. (Full disclosure: I erased a much saltier tweet in which I was cursing like the sailor I was long ago).” In an op-ed for The Washington Post, David Ignatius says, In firing Richard Spencer, Trump recklessly crosses another line. He writes, “the Gallagher case illustrates how an irascible, vengeful commander in chief is ready to override traditional limits to aid political allies in foreign policy, law enforcement and now military matters.” The operation was bigger than just HRC Robert Gifford suggests, “Maybe ignore the rest of your feed and read/watch this.” As if you’re going to be able to ignore the rest of your feed. But still, be sure to check out Bill Whitaker’s report for CBS News’ “60 Minutes” on How Russian operatives hacked the DCCC and disrupted the 2016 election. He takes a look at the case against 12 Russian military officers accused of breaking into the Democratic Party’s computers, stealing compromising information and selectively releasing it to undermine Democratic candidates in 2016. “Anyone credulous enough to believe the GRU didn’t hack Democrats in 2016 should watch this @60minutes piece. The operation was bigger than just HRC. The Kremlin tipped scales in Congressional races too. Trump’s Ukraine server theory is a pernicious canard,” tweets Eli Lake. The fiction 
Ah yes, Ukraine. Where to begin. We’ll start with another big Washington Post scoop, this time from Josh Dawsey, Carol Leonnig and Tom Hamburger, who found out that a confidential White House review turned up emails showing an extensive effort to justify Trump’s decision to block Ukraine military aid (77,000+ shares). The records reveal efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for the decision and a debate over whether the delay was legal. Yet “Another story that blows up the fiction that the aid delay did not come from the president,” notes Jim Sciutto. Giuliani, his associates and this hot mess Jo Becker, Walt Bogdanich, Maggie Haberman and Ben Protess of The New York Times take a look at Why Giuliani Singled Out 2 Ukrainian Oligarchs to Help Dig Up Dirt. Tweets Christopher Miller, “Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash gives an interview to the NYT. He says Giuliani, via Parnas and Fruman, offered him help with his US legal problems if he hired pro-Trump lawyers Toensing and diGenova and helped with Giuliani’s shadow Ukraine campaign.” Andrew Kramer summarizes it this way: “Giuliani approached two Ukrainian oligarchs with similar offers: essentially, to help solve their legal problems with William Barr or the Department of Justice in exchange for help finding damaging information about President Trump’s political opponents.” “The irony in this hot mess, of course, is that it now seems Biden may not be the Democrat running against Trump,” tweets Stephanie Strom. A Wall Street Journal exclusive from Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Christopher M. Matthews reveals that Naftogaz executive Andrew Favorov told federal prosecutors Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman tried to recruit him in a proposed takeover of the state oil-and-gas company, describing the company’s chief executive and the then-U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch as part of “this Soros cartel” working against Trump. As Chris Bury tweets, “The sub-plot thickens.” Meanwhile, Katherine Faulders, John Santucci and Allison Pecorin of ABC News report that the House Intelligence Committee is in possession of video and audio recordings from Giuliani associate Lev Parnas (70,000+ shares). Yes, “Lordy, @HouseIntel has Lev’s tapes!” tweets Andrew Feinberg. The audacity 
Oh but Lev has more to say. Mike Calia alerts us to “Some new complications for Devin Nunes,” as Christina Wilkie of CNBC reports that Parnas wants to testify that Nunes aides hid Ukraine meetings on Biden dirt from Schiff. Jeffrey Feldman’s response: “🍿 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿.” Earlier, Tareq Haddad of Newsweek reported that Devin Nunes Spent $57,000 on Flights to Europe to Allegedly Investigate Bidens as Ethics Complaint Filed Over ‘Abuse’ of Office (51,000+ shares). Tweets Grant Stern, “Tight-lipped #DevinNunesGotCaught working with the same shady associates of Rudy Giuliani whose Ukraine ‘secret mission’ is at the heart of the ongoing impeachment inquiry. @TheDemCoalition filed a House Ethics complaint which should force him to recuse.” Chuck Yarborough is astounded at “the audacity he must possess to question the motives of witnesses like yovanovitch, hill, sondland, etc! Wow. Just. Wow. And then he goes on Fox and says he won’t comment on.” Meanwhile, now we know: As Sen. Lindsey Graham was leaving the Oval Office after that heated Nov. 13 meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, senior White House staff asked him to return to the Senate and block the Armenian genocide resolution — a measure that would have infuriated Erdoğan. Jonathan Swan has that story at Axios and adds that Graham confirmed this in a phone interview on Saturday. Something more than a landslide It was a newsy Sunday in other parts of the world as well. Hong Kong had an election, and as Austin Ramzy, Elaine Yu and Keith Bradsher report at The New York Times, the results give democracy backers a big win. Young Hong Kongers played a leading role in the voting surge that allowed democracy advocates to win many more seats on local councils. “The big losers were Xi Jinping and his local puppet, Carrie Lam,” notes Nicholas Kristof. Jeffrey Ngo links to the “Excellent @nytimes map showing how dramatic the #HongKong election results are. Again, 452 of 479 seats are contested, and, as of now, Stand News is reporting 388-58, with six races still pending. (The pro-Beijing camp has 27 ex officio members.)” That’s Hong Kong Election Results Mapped, by K.K. Rebecca Lai and Jin Wu of the Times. And as Patrick McDowell notes, “This is something more than a landslide.” Julia Fioretti, Iain Marlow and Fion Li cover the election at Bloomberg, Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy Forces Bolstered by Huge Election Win. “The question now: Will it change anything?” tweets Daniel Ten Kate. The China Cables “BREAKING: We at ICIJ have obtained a NEW trove of highly classified Chinese govt documents, including the operations manual for China’s concentration camps. I served as ICIJ’s lead reporter for the China Cables, with 17 media partners from 14 countries.” Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists links to their reporting on this new leak of highly classified Chinese documents that expose the inner workings of mass detention camps in Xinjiang, Exposed: China’s Operating Manuals for Mass Internment and Arrest by Algorithm. Amy B Wang says, “There is no paragraph of this report, coupled with the Chinese government’s continued gaslighting about the Uighur concentration camps, that is not utterly chilling. Extraordinary work by @BethanyAllenEbr and the @ICIJorg team of reporters.” Emma Graham-Harrison and Juliette Garside report on the documents at The Guardian, noting that the leak confirms the largest mass incarceration of an ethnic-religious minority since the second world war. Tweets Garside, “The China Cables: leak of classified files from Communist party confirms plans to brainwash a generation of China’s Muslims - in a network of camps where they are held without trial.” Matthew Garrahan calls it a “Must read.” You can also read AP’s coverage of the secret documents here. That Sarah Sanders puff piece you’ve been waiting for 
Back in the U.S., Annie Karni of The New York Times went to Little Rock to talk with Sarah Sanders, who told her about her plans for her political future and also, “I don’t like being called a liar.” Brian Stelter reminds us, “Sarah H. Sanders lied about the FBI from the press briefing podium. When Mueller’s probe exposed the lie, she called it a ‘slip of the tongue,’ but the ‘slip’ happened multiple times.” As Eric Boehlert says, “that puff piece on Sarah Huckabee Sanders is here, for everyone who was waiting…” Or maybe, like Gady Epstein, you could do without it. She tweets, “I’ll admit I wasn’t prepared for a puff piece on Sarah Huckabee Sanders in the NYT that barely touches on the lying and then quotes a fan calling her a truth-teller.” Why she’s the icon she is Let’s switch gears. As Charley Locke puts it, “this @CalSunday story by @danamo is one to sit with, as are the stunning photographs by Deana Lawson.” For The California Sunday Magazine, Danyel Smith weaves a narrative of the history of film and music and TV into the story of Melina Matsoukas, Grammy-winning director for Beyoncé and Rihanna, who’s making her Hollywood feature debut with the kind of story Hollywood has overlooked. Writes Smith, “Queen & Slim stares back through history at Fort Apache, and at almost a century of segregated Hollywood, with intention and authenticity. There is in it a fullness of black life. There is hope, and there is action and freedom as this film reflects Americans back to themselves.” Justin Tinsley thinks “It’s amazing to know @danamo was my editor for a long time. Then you read a piece like this from her and you further realize over and over again why she’s the icon she is.” Adds Kiah McBride, “A beautiful piece by the GOAT of journalism @danamo. I’ll be reading/studying this again.” A few more -
Brad Plumer tweets, “The streets of this Florida Keys community have been flooded for the past *82 days.* One resident puts on waders each morning and treks through half a mile of seawater to get to work. Meanwhile, sea levels continue to rise.” He links to the new piece by Patricia Mazzei of The New York Times, 82 Days Underwater: The Tide Is High, but They’re Holding On. -
Kurt Andersen links to the latest Federal Reserve numbers on the Distribution of Household Wealth in the U.S. since 1989, tweeting, “Fraction of all US wealth owned by Boomers & Gen-Xers when the average member of each was age 35: Boomers, 1989 21% GenX, 2008 8% The average Millennial turns 35 in 2023. Right now they own 3%. There will surely be political implications.” -
Rory Cellan-Jones of BBC News reports that Sir Tim Berners-Lee attacked Tories over misinformation. “Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee slams Tories over ‘brazen’ internet misinformation - ‘What the Conservative Party has done is obviously a no no,’” Neil Craven highlights. -
BBC News is also reporting that Transport for London (TfL) has said Uber will not be granted a new licence to operate in London after repeated safety failures. -
From Chris Willman at Variety, here are the finest and lamest moments from the American Music Awards 2019. | 
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