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5:50 PM ET, August 20, 2021

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Politico:
‘This Is Actually Happening’  —  President Joe Biden and his inner circle were in an ebullient mood.  —  It was Wednesday morning, Aug. 11, and they were basking in the glow of back-to-back legislative wins.  The day before, the Senate had passed a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.
RELATED:
Politico:
Austin contradicts Biden, says Americans have been ‘beaten’ by the Taliban  —  Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers Friday that Americans trying to leave Afghanistan have been beaten by Taliban fighters, according to several people who participated in a briefing call with Austin and other top officials.
DW.COM:
Relative of DW journalist killed by the Taliban  —  Journalists and their families are in grave danger in Afghanistan.  The Taliban have no compunction about carrying out targeted killings as the case of a DW journalist shows.  —  Taliban fighters hunting a DW journalist have shot dead …
Alberto Nardelli / Bloomberg:
Biden Assured Allies in June U.S. Would Ensure Kabul's Stability  — Vow came ahead of Taliban's rapid push to capture control  — British officials assumed they would keep embassy functioning  —  President Joe Biden told key allies in June that he would maintain enough …
Katie Rogers / New York Times:
Fear and confusion reign in Kabul despite American assurances.
Washington Post:
‘We will get you home,’ Biden promises Americans, amid effort to speed Afghanistan evacuations
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
The Best and Brightest never recovered from Vietnam. Will Biden's team fare better?
Brett Forrest / Wall Street Journal:
Taliban Seize U.S. Weapons in Afghanistan, Stockpiling Helicopters, Guns and Trucks
Discussion: Reason, RedState and Townhall
John Sexton / HotAir:
British and French troops are going out into Kabul to rescue their citizens while the US sticks to the airport
CNN:
The Taliban's mask slips further after militants kill journalist's relative
Discussion: Insider
Sean Davis / The American Mind:
Moral Blackmail  —  Tell them: we do not negotiate with ostracists.
Reuters:
EXCLUSIVE FBI finds scant evidence U.S. Capitol attack was coordinated-sources  —  The FBI has found scant evidence that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result, according to four current and former law enforcement officials.
RELATED:
Zoe Tillman / BuzzFeed News:   Infowars Host Owen Shroyer Has Been Charged In The Jan. 6 Riots
NBC News:
Capitol Police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt exonerated in internal probe  —  The Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt outside a door of the U.S. Capitol has been formally exonerated after an internal investigation, according to a department memo obtained by NBC News.
Robert Grant / 104.5 WOKV:
People pictured lying on the floor of Jacksonville antibody treatment site  —  The Regeneron site at the library opened this week to people who have tested positive for COVID-19.  —  JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A picture taken inside the downtown Jacksonville Regeneron antibody site …
RELATED:
Paul P. Murphy / CNN:
‘These people were in bad, bad shape.’ A look inside of a Florida library converted to a Covid-19 treatment site  —  (CNN)The scene at the Jacksonville main public library was haunting, Louis Lopez recalled.  As he waited for a Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatment, he saw people so sick they couldn't even stand.
Discussion: NBC 6 South Florida
New York Times:
The new ‘Jeopardy!’ host, Mike Richards, quits.  —  Mike Richards, who was named the new host of “Jeopardy!” last week, is abruptly leaving the role as the beloved game show confronts a roiling controversy over offensive and sexist comments he made on a podcast several years ago.
RELATED:
logically.ai:
EXCLUSIVE: Logically Identifies GhostEzra, Florida Man Behind World's ‘Largest Antisemitic Internet Forum’  —  Logically, as part of our mission to understand and counter harmful online misinformation, conducts continuous research into the networks, channels, and actors that play an outsized role …
Discussion: Raw Story and POLITICUSUSA
RELATED:
David Gilbert / VICE:
One of QAnon's Most Antisemitic Influencers Is Actually a 39-Year-Old Baptist From Florida  —  One of QAnon's most prolific, popular, and antisemitic influencers has been revealed to be a deeply religious 39-year-old Trump supporter in Florida.  —  Researchers at Logically on Friday published …
New York Times:
The F.D.A. is aiming to give full approval to Pfizer's Covid vaccine on Monday.  —  The Food and Drug Administration is pushing to approve Pfizer-BioNTech's two-dose Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, further expediting an earlier timeline for licensing the shot, according to people familiar with the agency's planning.
RELATED:
CNN:
Local mask mandates allowed for now after Texas Supreme Court rejects Gov. Abbott's request to intervene  —  (CNN)The Supreme Court of Texas refused Gov. Greg Abbott's request to intervene Thursday in the case of mask mandates established by several local jurisdictions.
RELATED:
Associated Press:
AP urges DeSantis to end harassing tweets aimed at reporter  —  NEW YORK (AP) — The Associated Press called on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to end “harassing behavior” by one of his press aides against an AP reporter who received threats and other online abuse.
Sheri Fink / New York Times:
Maker of Popular Covid Test Told Factory to Destroy Inventory  —  One of the leading producers of rapid tests purged supplies and laid off workers as sales dwindled.  Weeks later, the U.S. is facing a surge in infections with diminished capacity.  —  For weeks in June and July …
Discussion: Bangor Daily News
Ben Casselman / New York Times:
Cutting off jobless benefits early may have hurt state economies.  —  When states began cutting off federal unemployment benefits this summer, their governors argued that the move would push people to return to work.  —  New research suggests that ending the benefits did indeed lead some people to get jobs …
Discussion: The Colorado Sun
RELATED:
Eleanor Mueller / Politico:
State cutoffs of jobless benefits had little effect on unemployment
Discussion: Insider
David Rothkopf / The Daily Beast:
Biden Insiders: Our Afghanistan Exit Is a Part of a Much Bigger Reset  —  THE END OF THE POST-9/11 ERA … Biden and his team have clearer memories of the long litany of egregious and crippling missteps America's leaders made during the first years of this century than do their critics.
Discussion: RedState
Anne Applebaum / The Atlantic:
Liberal Democracy Is Worth a Fight  —  Of all the empty, pointless statements that are periodically repeated by Western politicians, none is more empty and pointless than this one: “There can be no military solution to this conflict.”  That was what Ban Ki-moon, then the UN secretary-general …
Discussion: Clayton Cramer
VA Scope:
McAuliffe targets Youngkin's Wall Street ties in new ad  —  Terry McAuliffe (D) is launching a new television ad this week targeting his opponent's ties to Wall Street.  —  Glenn Youngkin, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, has often boasted about his experience at the global investment firm The Carlyle Group.
Discussion: Blue Virginia
David Zweig / New York Magazine:
The Science of Masking Kids at School Remains Uncertain  —  At the end of May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a notable, yet mostly ignored, large-scale study of COVID transmission in American schools.  A few major news outlets covered its release by briefly reiterating …
Discussion: NBC Palm Springs
 
 
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 More Items: 
Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Finalizing Agreement to Send 4,000 Afghans to Colombia
Discussion: Breitbart
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Mostly Pre-Afghanistan Turmoil, Biden Job Approval 49%
Discussion: All Arab News
Álvaro Vargas Llosa / The Hill:
Brace yourself — inflation's coming back stronger than ever
Rich Azzopardi / New York Daily News:
Gov. Cuomo has been railroaded: The governor's adviser says the attorney general's report is a sham
Discussion: Politico and Insider
Andrea Salcedo / Washington Post:
California gubernatorial candidate says employers should be allowed to ask women if they plan to have children
Discussion: HuffPost, CalMatters and The Nation
Associated Press:
COVID anxiety rising amid delta surge, AP-NORC poll finds
Discussion: Daily Kos and The Daily Caller
Jim Lobe / Responsible Statecraft:
Three major networks devoted a full five minutes to Afghanistan in 2020
Discussion: POLITICUSUSA
Liam Stack / New York Times:
Catholic Officials on Edge After Reports of Priests Using Grindr
Discussion: Forbes and Raw Story
 Earlier Items: 
Maeve Sheehey / Politico:
Justice Barrett refuses to block construction of Obama Presidential Center
Discussion: Fox News, The Hill and Washington Times
John Jorgensen / VoteVets:
Over 4300 Veterans back President Biden on withdrawal, including 150 Afghanistan Veterans
Julian Mark / Washington Post:
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick falsely claims ‘African Americans who have not been vaccinated’ are driving covid surge
al.com:
As Cullman prepares for Trump rally, city declares COVID state of emergency
Discussion: Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA and The Hill
Jim Swift / The Bulwark:
Josh Mandel Lets the Mask Slip, a Little
Adam Serwer / The Atlantic:
Demography Is Not Destiny  —  In the more racist corners of the mainstream right …
Sam Karlin / The Advocate:
‘Locate us a ring’: Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins challenges Facebook user to a fight
Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Politico
 

 
From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple has renewed discussions with OpenAI about using its technology to power some features in iOS 18; talks with Google on using Gemini remain ongoing

William Brown / Firstyear's blog-a-log:
Google and Apple use passkeys to capture users by locking credentials into their platforms and have made the UX of passkeys worse than that of password managers

Karen Weise / New York Times:
Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet disclosed that they had spent $32B+ combined on data centers and other capital expenses in Q1, as they accelerate AI spending

 
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