memeorandum: New NY governor adds 12,000 deaths to publicized COVID tally (Marina Villeneuve/Associated Press)

4:30 PM ET, August 25, 2021

Top Items:

In Kabul, Private Rescue Efforts Grow Desperate as Time to Evacuate Afghans Runs Out — Defense contractor Erik Prince charges $6,500 a person, other groups' planes leave Kabul empty — A disparate group of American veterans, military contractors, aid workers and former spies is scrambling …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Daily Beast, HotAir, Breitbart, New York Post, Insider, Responsible Statecraft, Common Dreams, Townhall, Mother Jones, Trending Politics, New York Times, Twitchy, Power Line, Mediaite, eVille Times and The Hill

Sami Sadat / New York Times:

The Afghan Army Collapsed Against the Taliban. Here's Why. — General Sadat is a commander in the Afghan National Army. — For the past three and a half months, I fought day and night, nonstop, in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province against an escalating and bloody Taliban offensive.

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Breitbart, The Drive, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, HotAir, Insider, The Moderate Voice, The Daily Caller, Digby's Hullabaloo, Associated Press, No More Mister Nice Blog, Power Line, Forbes, NaturalNews.com and Foreign Affairs

David Leonhardt / New York Times:

A Better Afghan Policy — What would it have been? — What might a more successful exit from Afghanistan have looked like? — I have spent some time talking with colleagues and experts about that question, and it is a difficult one to answer. President Biden's exit certainly has not gone well.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Washington Post, HotAir, Breitbart, Mexico News Daily, Politico, The White House, Reuters, Insider, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Front Page Magazine, Washington Post, RedState, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post

Ben Smith / New York Times:
How Mexico Helped The Times Get Its Journalists Out of Afghanistan

Discussion: Washington Examiner, HotAir and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:
Two Congress members make unauthorized trip to Kabul amid evacuation efforts

Select Committee to Investigate …:

Select Committee Issues Sweeping Demand for Executive Branch Records — Bolton, MS—Today, Chairman Bennie G. Thompson announced the Select Committee's first round of demands for records as the committee expands its investigation into the January 6th violent attack on the U.S. Capitol and its causes.

Discussion: HuffPost, Insider, UPI, Washington Times and Raw Story

Christina Wilkie / CNBC:

Jan. 6 committee demands a huge trove of Trump White House records — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol formally demanded records related to at least 30 members of former President Donald Trump's inner circle. — The demand was part of a sweeping records request …

Discussion: NBC News, The Daily Beast, Roll Call, NPR and Becker News

CNN:
House committee seeks documents from agencies on January 6 Capitol attack, signaling massive investigative effort

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post and NBC News

Michael Luciano / Mediaite:
Kayleigh McEnany Says When Trump Was President, 'You Didn't See Crisis After Crisis'

Discussion: The Stream, Louder With Crowder and PRESS RUN

Karen Pearlman / Los Angeles Times:

Students from San Diego County school district stranded in Afghanistan — At least 24 students from the Cajon Valley Union School District in El Cajon and 16 parents are stranded in Afghanistan after taking a summer trip abroad. — They are among thousands of individuals waiting to leave …

Discussion: Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Examiner, TheBlaze, New York Post, Townhall and Althouse

Karen Pearlman / San Diego Union-Tribune:

San Diego County students, parents stranded in Afghanistan — An estimated 40 Afghans living in East County have been unable to get to airport in Kabul — At least two dozen San Diego County students and 16 parents are stranded in Afghanistan, unable to get to the airport in Kabul after a summer trip to visit relatives.

Discussion: Mediaite

Cameron Jenkins / The Hill: Dozens of California students, parents stranded in Afghanistan after summer trip abroad

Marina Villeneuve / Associated Press:

New NY governor adds 12,000 deaths to publicized COVID tally — ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul promised more government transparency on her first day in office and by day's end her administration had quietly delivered it by acknowledging nearly 12,000 more deaths in the state …

Zachary Evans / National Review:
New York Governor Adds 12,000 COVID Deaths to Predecessor Cuomo's Count

Discussion: Politico and Washington Examiner

Matt Taibbi / TK News:

Enough is Enough: Antifa Attacks Reporter in Portland — Antifa's influence may be exaggerated, but it's not a mythical Snuffleupagus, either, as they showed in attacking reporter Maranie Staab from our partner News2Share this past weekend. — This past Sunday, while covering a protest in Portland …

Christopher Bedford / The Federalist: You Don't Need To Go To Kabul To See The End Of American Order. It's Right Here Among Us

Leslie Josephs / CNBC:

Delta Air Lines is raising health insurance premiums for unvaccinated employees by $200 a month to cover higher Covid costs — Starting Nov. 1, unvaccinated Delta employees who have health insurance from the companywill face $200 monthly surcharges. — From Sept. 12 …

Discussion: HotAir, Morning Brew, UPI, Progress Pond, Raw Story, Axios, STAT, The Hill and CNN

Delta News Hub:
Ed Bastian memo: COVID-19 update

Discussion: Bloomberg, Associated Press, National Review, Axios, Politico, WCCO | CBS Minnesota, TheBlaze, The Guardian, The Daily Caller, CBS Dallas / Fort Worth and CNBC

Content Lab U.S.:
Johnson & Johnson Announces Data to Support Boosting its Single-Shot COVID-19 Vaccine

Discussion: CNN, New York Times, CBS News, Forbes, GovExec.com, Al Jazeera, KARK-TV, The Daily Caller, KRQE-TV, New York Post, 6abc, NPR, UPI, Washington Examiner, HotAir, KTLA, WPRI-TV and KRON4

JoNel Aleccia / Kaiser Health News:
These Governors Push Experimental Antibody Therapy — But Shun Vaccine and Mask Mandates

Discussion: WKMG, WND, Associated Press, New York Times, CNBC, TheBlaze, Axios, Centers for Disease Control …, New York Times and New York Post

Daniel Dale / CNN:

Fact check: Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy makes at least 5 false claims in 7-minute Fox News interview — This is what Trump said about US' evacuation of Afghan allies — Washington (CNN)House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy made at least five false claims during a seven-minute Sunday interview on Fox News.

Emily Brooks / Washington Examiner:
Hard-line conservatives press McCarthy to whip votes against infrastructure bill

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post, CNBC, Raw Story and ABC13

Stephen Groves / Associated Press:

Prosecutor: South Dakota AG to take plea deal in fatal crash — PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will avoid a trial and take a plea deal for misdemeanor traffic charges in a crash last year in which he hit and killed a man who was walking along a rural highway, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Hill and Raw Story

Tom Kludt / Vanity Fair: “I Did Not Know It Was a Man”: The Surreal Story of How a Deadly Crash Upended South Dakota Politics

Politico:

Secret Service warned Capitol Police about violent threats 1 day before Jan. 6 — Just a day before the Jan. 6 riot, the Secret Service warned the U.S. Capitol Police that their officers could face violence at the hands of supporters of former President Donald Trump, according to new documents reviewed by POLITICO.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, IJR, Political Wire and Mediaite

Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times:

In First Interview From Jail, an Upbeat Navalny Discusses Prison Life — Russian political prisoners today are subjected to “psychological” pressure, said the opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, who is forced to watch state TV for more than eight hours a day.

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Democrats just launched a missile at the GOP's fortress of minority rule — Behind all the messy maneuvering in Congress right now is a hidden story: To an underappreciated degree, Democrats just launched a broadside against the edifice of minority rule that Republicans are busy constructing …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post and New York Post

Ian Millhiser / Vox:
The Supreme Court's stunning, radical immigration decision, explained

Jane Margolies / New York Times:

Offices Dangle Beehives and Garden Plots to Coax Workers Back — The latest perks include harvesting honey and digging in the dirt, part of a growing effort to give employees access to fresh air, sunlight and plants. — The investment company Nuveen has spent $120 million renovating …

Discussion: Althouse

Quinnipiac University Poll:

Florida Voters Give Governor DeSantis Mixed Grades, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Nearly 6 In 10 Don't Want DeSantis To Run For President In 2024 — mail_outline — With Florida currently struggling with one of the highest rates of COVID-19 in the country, slightly more than half of voters …

Discussion: Florida Politics and The Hill

Alan I. Abramowitz / Sabato's Crystal Ball:

How Donald Trump Turned Off Swing Voters in 2020 — KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE — The number of swing voters — those who change their minds between presidential elections — has been declining over time. — However, there are still some swing voters, and they can be decisive …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Tom Jackman / Washington Post:

Sirhan Sirhan, convicted of Robert F. Kennedy assassination, seeks parole with no opposition from prosecutors — Attorneys say that 53 years behind bars is sufficient punishment for the 77-year-old; Kennedy family declines to weigh in — Sirhan B. Sirhan, convicted of the 1968 assassination …

Discussion: Althouse

Jack Newman / Daily Mail:

Taliban vow to tackle CLIMATE CHANGE: Terror group sets out its eco credentials (presumably by taking Afghanistan back to the Middle Ages) — Taliban spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi says they want to play a global role — The terror group wants to help tackle climate change and security, he claims

Discussion: Steyn Online, BizPac Review, Twitchy, Newsweek, Climate Depot, Breitbart and The Global Warming …

Marion Koopmans / Nature:

Origins of SARS-CoV-2: window is closing for key scientific studies … Marion Koopmans is head of the Department of Viroscience at Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. — You can also search for this author in — PubMed Google Scholar — Peter Daszak is president …

Discussion: New York Times, HotAir, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, National Review, Wall Street Journal and Centers for Disease Control …

Glenn Greenwald:

The Bizarre Refusal to Apply Cost-Benefit Analysis to COVID Debates — Are those who oppose a ban on cars or a radical reduction in speed limits sociopaths, given the huge number of people they are knowingly consigning to death or maiming? — In virtually every realm of public policy …

Associated Press:

‘Pain compliance’: Video shows trooper pummeling Black man — MONROE, La. (AP) — Graphic body camera video kept secret for more than two years shows a Louisiana State Police trooper pummeling a Black motorist 18 times with a flashlight — an attack the trooper defended as “pain compliance.”

Discussion: Raw Story and Forbes

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:

Former Top Producer of ABC's ‘Good Morning America’ Accused of Sexual Assault in Lawsuit — Michael Corn departed in April and denies the allegations; suit accuses ABC of failing to investigate allegations promptly — An ABC News staffer filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Michael Corn …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, TVNewser, Variety, New York Post, Fox News, The Hill, Mediaite, Deadline and The US Sun, more at Mediagazer »

Wall Street Journal:

CIA, U.S. Troops Conduct Missions Outside Kabul Airport to Extract Americans, Allies — Risky operations include helicopter lifts as evacuation window closes — WASHINGTON—The Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. military are conducting extraction operations to rescue Americans using helicopters …

Discussion: Center for Security Policy, Washington Times, New York Post and Fox News

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:

The Media Manufactured Biden's Political ‘Fiasco’ in Afghanistan “Straight news” has chosen sanctimony over circumspection. — America's withdrawal from Afghanistan has yet to cost our nation a single casualty. Evacuations of U.S. citizens and allies from Kabul's airport are proceeding …

Discussion: Fox News, Liberty Nation and CNBC

New York Times:

Hochul Picks State Senator Brian Benjamin as Lieutenant Governor — Gov. Kathy Hochul, who had narrowed her choices to several New York City lawmakers who are people of color, chose Mr. Benjamin, a state senator from Harlem. — ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Kathy C. Hochul has chosen Brian A. Benjamin …

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, The Hill and Washington Examiner