memeorandum: How a party of neo-fascist roots won big in Italy (Nicole Winfield/Associated Press)

8:55 AM ET, September 27, 2022

Top Items:

Eleanor Klibanoff / The Texas Tribune:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton fled his home to avoid being served with subpoena, court record says — In an affidavit, a process server said that the state's top attorney tried evade him as he attempted to deliver a subpoena from an abortion fund's lawsuit against the state. — Copy link

Discussion: Bloomberg, Insider, Fox News, Talking Points Memo and Political Wire

New York Times:

Russia Admits to Draft Problems as Anger Flares Into Violence — The Kremlin's spokesman tried to shift blame for errors in the call-up to regional agencies on Monday, the same day a gunman attacked a draft office in Siberia. — In a rare admission of official mistakes …

Discussion: The Guardian, Insider, The Independent Barents … and Political Wire

Tom Nichols / The Atlantic:

The Russian Clocks Are All Ticking — This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. — Vladimir Putin's massive conscription of Russian men …

Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times:
Putin Expected to Annex Parts of Ukraine After Referendums End

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Insider, openDemocracy, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, Voice of America, Washington Post, NPR, Defense One, NBC4 Washington, Metro.co.uk and RedState

Cora Engelbrecht / New York Times:
Putin Ally Acknowledges Founding Wagner Mercenary Group

Discussion: The Guardian, Bloomberg, Politico, Reuters and TASS

Mary Ilyushina / Washington Post:
Putin grants citizenship to Edward Snowden, who disclosed U.S. surveillance

New York Times:
Gunman Attacks Draft Office as Kremlin Admits Errors in Call-Ups

Discussion: Axios, The Nation, The Moscow Times, Reason, The Daily Caller, The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Washington Examiner, Common Dreams, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, The Guardian, New York Post, The Daily Beast and Bloomberg

Nicole Winfield / Associated Press:

How a party of neo-fascist roots won big in Italy — The Brothers of Italy party, which won the most votes in Italy's national election, has its roots in the post-World War II neo-fascist Italian Social Movement. Keeping the movement's most potent symbol, the tricolor flame …

Discussion: The Hill, The Atlantic, Crikey, Rolling Stone, Media Matters for America, Common Dreams, The Daily Wire, The Western Journal, Metro.co.uk, Raw Story, Courthouse News Service and HotAir

Christopher Caldwell / Compact Magazine:

The Contradictions of Giorgia Meloni — Ennio Flaiano, the great Italian screenwriter, used to boast of the generosity of his compatriots, who were “always willing to rush to the aid of a winner.” Once Giorgia Meloni took the lead in the Italian polls in July, she was unlikely to have it wrested from her.

Discussion: CNN, NBC News, Los Angeles Blade, Vatican News, CBS News, The Guardian, New York Times, Associated Press, France 24, The Daily Beast and All Facts Matter

Jonathan Lemire / Politico:
White House anxiously watches Meloni's rise to power

Discussion: The Daily Beast and New York Times

Ricochet:
Meloni, Mussolini, and the Media

Discussion: New York Times, The Federalist, The Daily Caller, Common Dreams, RedState, Intelligible Noise, Mother Jones and Variety

NBC News:

Oath Keeper charged in Jan. 6 attack texted with Andrew Giuliani about election — A high-ranking member of the far-right Oath Keepers organization who has been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot exchanged messages in November 2020 with former Trump White House aide Andrew Giuliani about election issues.

Discussion: Axios, Just Security, The Hill, The Guardian, Washington Examiner, Occupy Democrats, Raw Story, USA Today, Political Wire and The Gateway Pundit

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: What Meloni means for America — Correction: An earlier version of this newsletter misstated the Congressional Budget Office cost estimate for President Joe Biden's proposed student loan relief plan. The estimate is $400 billion. — With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross

Discussion: Washington Post and Reuters

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:
Republican ex-congressman suggests colleagues ‘had serious cognitive issues’

Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story, The Uprising and Insider

Denise Chow / NBC News:

NASA's DART spacecraft successfully slams into asteroid in historic test of planetary defense — It was a cosmic smash-up watched around the world. — A NASA spacecraft on Monday intentionally slammed into an asteroid in a historic test of humanity's ability to protect Earth …

Ashley Strickland / CNN:
NASA's DART mission successfully slams into an asteroid

Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:

Why Did This DeSantis Flack Delete All His Anti-OAN Tweets? — The far-right cable channel cut a fat check to DeSantis' PAC, but apparently that love isn't mutual. When we asked a top DeSantis aide about his anti-OAN tweets, he scrubbed them. … Confider reported last week that Robert Herring …

Discussion: Raw Story

Akela Lacy / The Intercept: Florida Contracts Go to Companies That Flooded Ron DeSantis Campaign Fund

New York Times:

Women Take Center Stage in Antigovernment Protests Shaking Iran — Women have been casting off their legally required head scarves, forming the primary image of the protests. But grievances against a repressive regime go far beyond the hijab. — For Yasi, the news felt too close to ignore …

Discussion: Vatican News, BizPac Review, ABC7, HotAir, Algemeiner.com, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, KTLA and Babylon Bee

New York Times:
Iran Strikes Kurdish Separatist Groups in Northern Iraq

Discussion: Associated Press, Informed Comment and Bloomberg

RADAR:

Total Bomb! Chris Wallace's CNN Show Premiere Tanks, Pulls Only 44k Viewers In Key Demo — Chris Wallace's much-hyped return to television with the debut of Who's Talking to Chris Wallace scored a paltry 44,000 viewers in the all-important ratings category, RadarOnline.com has learned.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Daily Wire, Twitchy and derekhuntershow.site

Julia Ainsley / NBC News:

Secret Service took the cellphones of 24 agents involved in Jan. 6 response and gave them to investigators — Senior leadership at the Secret Service confiscated the cellphones of 24 agents involved in the agency's response to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and handed them over to the Department …

Discussion: jihadwatch.org

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Subreddit Discriminates Against Anyone Who Doesn't Call Texas Governor Greg Abbott ‘A Little Piss Baby’ To Highlight Absurdity Of Content Moderation Law — Last year, I tried to create a “test suite” of websites that any new internet regulation ought to be “tested” against.

Discussion: Platformer, more at Techmeme »

Liberal Guy / The American Mind:

Don't Take the Bait — Some  friendly liberal advice to  Republicans. —  I want to offer my sincerest apologies for your present illiberal treatment by the Democrats, especially progressive Democrats. Your rights as Americans are being violated …

Discussion: Newsday

Timothy Noah / New Republic:

Hell Is a World in Which Everybody Writes Like Axios — In 1936, The New Yorker's Wolcott Gibbs published a celebrated profile of Henry Luce, co-founder with Briton Hadden of Time magazine. The piece was written entirely in parodic Time-ese. In those days Time's house style favored Homeric epithets …

Washington Post:

How Kevin McCarthy's political machine worked to sway the GOP field — Allies spent millions in a sometimes secretive effort to weed out candidates who could cause the House leader trouble or jeopardize GOP victories in November — Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) made a name for himself …

Discussion: Mediaite, Plain Dealer and NBC News

Trafalgar Group:

WA US Sen General - Sept 2022 — See Report Here — Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Townhall

Anna Wolfe / Mississippi Today:

Retired wrestler says GOP Gov. Phil Bryant cut welfare funding to nonprofit because of Democratic support — A former professional wrestler and defendant in the Mississippi welfare scandal is alleging that he personally witnessed Republican Gov. Phil Bryant instruct an appointee …

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Associated Press

Damon Young / Washington Post:

Woke is now a dog whistle for Black. What's next? — There's “urban” of course. And urban's cousin “inner-city.” — And then there's “at-risk,” “underserved” and “fatherless” if talking about our children. “Marginalized,” “low-income” and “welfare-dependent” if talking about the parents of those children.

Washington Post:

U. of Idaho may stop providing birth control under new abortion law — Employees could be charged with a felony and fired if they appear to promote abortion, according to new guidance — The University of Idaho's general counsel issued new guidance on Friday about the state's near-total abortion ban …

Discussion: Associated Press, The Hill, Forbes and Reason

Michael Martz / Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Vega declines debate with Spanberger in Fredericksburg — Prince William County Supervisor Yesli Vega has declined to participate in a debate with Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, that would have been held in Fredericksburg in the heart of the newly drawn 7th Congressional District.

Discussion: HuffPost and Blue Virginia

Eduardo Medina / New York Times:

Cuba Approves Same-Sex Marriage in Historic Vote — The sweeping 100-page law will also allow same-sex couples to adopt and includes measures that expand protections for women, children and the elderly. — Cubans overwhelmingly approved a sweeping referendum that will allow same-sex couples …

Discussion: Associated Press, UPI, The Daily Caller, CBS News and Insider