memeorandum: Biden's Agenda Hangs in the Balance if Republicans Take Congress (New York Times)

12:55 PM ET, October 29, 2022

Top Items:

Pelosi Attack Suspect Was A Psychotic Homeless Addict Estranged From His Pedophile Lover & Their Children — Berkeley resident David DePape was more in the grip of drug-induced psychosis than ideology-induced fanaticism. — Leading politicians yesterday blamed the political Right …

Discussion: HuffPost, The Times of Israel, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Daily Wire and Fox News

Washington Post:

Attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband follows years of GOP demonizing her — A man with right-wing views who broke into the House speaker's home yelled “Where is Nancy?” before assaulting Paul Pelosi with a hammer, police say. — In 2010, Republicans launched a “Fire Pelosi” project …

Los Angeles Times:

Accused Pelosi attacker David DePape spread QAnon, other far-right, bigoted conspiracies — In the months before police accused him of attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, David DePape had been drifting further into the world of far-right conspiracies, antisemitism and hate …

Discussion: Slate, Politico, Bloomberg, New York Post, The Times of Israel, Fox News, NBC News, Insider, CNN and Reuters

Catie Edmondson / New York Times:

Pelosi Attack Highlights Rising Fears of Political Violence — The assault of the House speaker's husband inside their home comes as threats against members of Congress have increased in recent years. — WASHINGTON — Members of Congress have watched warily in recent years as threats …

Discussion: HuffPost, Axios, Washington Post, ABC7, ABC News, CNN, Bloomberg, Roll Call, CBS News and Los Angeles Times

Associated Press:

Pelosi attack shocks country on edge about democracy threats — An America that can already feel like it's hurtling toward political disintegration has been jolted yet again, this time by the violent attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi less than two weeks before Election Day.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Washington Post, Axios, Mother Jones, CBS News, The Hill, The Guardian, Althouse and Insider

Anita Chabria / Los Angeles Times:
'It's getting worse.' The sad part of the Pelosi attack is it doesn't surprise us

Discussion: Insider and Raw Story

Tess Owen / VICE:
Man Accused of Attacking Nancy Pelosi's Husband Left Trail of Far-Right Hate

Discussion: New York Times, National Review and San Francisco Chronicle

CNN:
Alleged Paul Pelosi attacker posted multiple conspiracy theories

Politico:
Police offer new details in Paul Pelosi assault

Discussion: CBS News, Twitchy, New York Post, NBC New York, NBC Bay Area, NBC News, Bloomberg, Washington Examiner, Fox News, The Hill, Breitbart, The Western Journal, The Guardian and Sacramento Bee

Rolling Stone:
Paul Pelosi's Alleged Attacker Raged About ‘Pedos,’ Shared QAnon Beliefs

Discussion: The Daily Beast, New York Post, Outside the Beltway, Althouse, New York Times, RedState, Mercury News, The Daily Wire and Forbes

San Francisco Chronicle:
Suspect in Paul Pelosi attack booked on suspicion of attempted homicide

Discussion: Fox News, Wall Street Journal, Breitbart, Bloomberg, Intelligible Noise, NBC News, New York Post, Reuters, Just The News, Los Angeles Times, CNBC, FOX40, KTLA, FOX8 WGHP, Mercury News and ABC7

San Francisco Chronicle:
What we know about David DePape, man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer

Ruth Ben-Ghiat / MSNBC:
The attack on Paul Pelosi was shocking — and yet also predictable

Discussion: HuffPost, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Raw Story, New York Post, Bloomberg, The Hill, Steady, CNN, Breitbart, KTLA and RedState

Davey Alba / Bloomberg:

Musk's Twitter Roils With Hate Speech as Trolls Test New Limits — In the wake of Elon Musk buying Twitter Inc., a tide of slurs and racist memes swelled on the platform, sparking concern that the site is entering an era of hateful speech. — Twitter has long wrestled …

CNBC:
GM temporarily suspends advertising on Twitter following Elon Musk takeover

Stuart A. Thompson / New York Times:
Antisemitic campaign tries to capitalize on Elon Musk's Twitter takeover.

Discussion: Robert Reich, Wired, Killer NewsTv, BuzzFeed News, One America News Network, Boing Boing, Bloomberg and The Times of Israel, more at Techmeme »

Politico:
'I think it's an earthquake': The political world reckons with a Musk-owned Twitter

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

American Jews start to think the unthinkable — On the holiest night of the Jewish year earlier this month, my rabbi looked up from his Kol Nidre sermon — a homily about protecting America's liberal democracy — and posed a question that wasn't in his prepared text: “How many people …

Discussion: American Prospect and Associated Press

Steven Nelson / New York Post:

Knives out in House GOP whip race over Electoral College abolition — WASHINGTON — A top House Republican's little-known past job working with Democrats to change US elections and choose presidents by popular vote threatens to upend his bid to rise in the GOP ranks, The Post has learned.

Reid J. Epstein / New York Times:
Governor's Races Enter Final Sprint on a Scrambled, Surprising Map

Discussion: Washington Examiner

New York Times:

Biden's Agenda Hangs in the Balance if Republicans Take Congress — On a wide array of issues like abortion, taxes, race and judges, President Biden's opportunities would shrink as Republicans vow to dismantle much of his legislative accomplishments. — WASHINGTON — For President Biden …

Discussion: Fox News, Townhall, CNN, Raw Story, The Hill and Washington Examiner

Washington Post:
Republicans oppose Democrats' plan to fund Ukraine with seized Russian assets

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Newsbusters, The Daily Caller, Reason and CNN

William Vaillancourt / The Daily Beast:

Lindsey Graham: Dem Senate Candidate's Fundraising Isn't ‘Legit’ — ‘THE MONEY IS REAL’ — While appearing alongside North Carolina Senate candidate Ted Budd on Friday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tried to portray donations to Cheri Beasley, Budd's Democratic opponent, as suspicious …

Herb Scribner / Axios:

U.S. faces “environment of fascism” ahead of 2022 midterms, AOC says — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said in an interview with MSNBC Friday that the United States is “facing an environment of fascism” similar to the days of Jim Crow in the leadup to the 2022 midterms.

Discussion: MSNBC and CNN

Nicole Sganga / CBS News:
Government warns of “heightened threat” to 2022 elections, fueled by rise in domestic violent extremism

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Starbucks will get reporters' messages with union, federal judge rules — A federal judge has ordered the organization behind a unionization drive at Starbucks stores in western New York to turn over all of its messages with journalists — a sweeping and unusual ruling that will let the company peek …

Benjamin Lindsay / The Wrap:

Penguin Random House Staffers, Others Call for Canceling of Amy Coney Barrett Memoir … Hundreds of Penguin Random House staffers and other literary professionals are calling on the publishing company to cut ties with Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and to cancel her upcoming book.

Discussion: National Review, The American Conservative, Fox News, Mediaite and IJR, more at Mediagazer »

Carol Rosenberg / New York Times:

U.S. Releases Guantánamo's Oldest Prisoner — Saifullah Paracha, 75, was accused of being a Qaeda sympathizer and was held for two decades. But he was never charged with a crime. — GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — The United States has released the U.S. military's oldest prisoner …

Discussion: CBS News, NPR, The Mourning and Al Jazeera

Articles and Investigations:

How Google's Ad Business Funds Disinformation Around the World — Google is funneling revenue to some of the web's most prolific purveyors of false information in Europe, Latin America and Africa, a ProPublica investigation has found. — The company has publicly committed …

CBS News:

Man convicted of 1983 murder cleared after spending nearly four decades in prison — A 69-year-old man who has spent nearly the last four decades in prison after being convicted of murder was freed on Friday, after new evidence exonerated him from the crime.

Discussion: KTLA and ABC7

BBC:

‘Massive’ drone attack on Black Sea Fleet - Russia — Ukraine has carried out a “massive” drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, damaging one warship, Russia says. — Nine drones were used, a top official said. Ukraine has not commented.

Discussion: New York Times and TASS

New York Times:

Saudi Halloween: Once-Banned Holiday Now Haunted by Masked Monsters — Only a few years ago, a Halloween party meant arrest. Now, a government-sponsored “horror weekend” means sold-out costume shops and scary clowns. “Saudi is changing,” said a young man going as a wizard.