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1:20 PM ET, October 1, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Vittoria Elliott / Wired:
Federal Workers Are Being Told to Blame Democrats for the Shutdown  —  Workers at one agency were given unhinged, partisan language to use when setting out-of-office replies.  —  At 9:35am on Wednesday, the first morning of the US government shutdown, employees at the Small Business Administration …
Discussion: The Handbasket, Mediaite and NOTUS
RELATED:
Punchbowl News:
10/1/25 ☀️ AM: … The federal government shut down at 12:01 a.m. this morning.  It's the first government shutdown since 2019. … The party looking to force a policy change via a shutdown rarely gets what it wants.  —  We know that from the Republicans' 2013 shutdown seeking …
NBC News:
Government shutdown threatens to upend Virginia's race for governor
Avery Lotz / Axios:
GOP uses federal platforms to launch shutdown blame blitz
Matt Margolis / PJ Media:
Yes, Democrats Shut Down the Government to Give Illegals Free Healthcare
Richard Rubin / Wall Street Journal:
Some Democrats Want to Upsize Trump's New Tax Cuts
Associated Press:
Government shutdown begins as nation faces new period of uncertainty
Andrew Egger / The Bulwark:
The Silence of the Generals  —  Well, here we go: The federal government has shut down.  Senate Democrats have vowed to oppose any spending measure that doesn't restore some of the health care cuts of this summer's One Big Beautiful Bill Act; meanwhile, Republicans are refusing to negotiate point blank …
Discussion: Common Dreams, HuffPost, Bloomberg and Salon
RELATED:
Tom Nichols / The Atlantic:
The Commander in Chief Is Not Okay  —  Trump put on a disturbing show for America's generals and admirals.  —  Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's convocation of hundreds of generals and admirals today turned out to be, in the main, a nothingburger.  Hegseth strutted and paced and lectured and hectored …
Eliot A. Cohen / The Atlantic:
Pete Hegseth Is Living the Dream  —  A man who retired as a major lectures hundreds of generals about the need to meet his standards.  —  In the end, it was mostly blither.  When Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth announced a gathering of some 800 generals and admirals (with their senior enlisted advisers), rumors ran wild.
Discussion: Onward and Upward
George Chidi / The Guardian:
Veterans react to Hegseth's ‘insulting’ address to generals and admirals  —  Defense secretary's speech touching on physical fitness and doctrine of lethality was seen as ‘egotistical’ and ‘dangerous’  —  Naveed Shah, a veteran and activist who served as an enlisted public affairs specialist …
Discussion: MeidasTouch News
The Atlantic:
Hundreds of Generals Try to Keep a Straight Face
Hamilton Nolan / How Things Work:
Leave the Military Now  —  Six months ago, I wrote a piece urging soldiers to leave the United States military.
Politico:
Trump to withhold billions of dollars from Gateway tunnel and Second Ave. subway projects … A spokesperson for the Transportation Department, in a statement, blamed Democratic leaders in Congress for the shutdown and said it led to the agency furloughing civil rights staff responsible for conducting the administrative review.
RELATED:
Josh Boak / Associated Press:
Trump administration puts on hold $18 billion in funding for New York City infrastructure projects
Greg Sargent / New Republic:
Trump's Rage at Zohran Just Backfired in a Surprisingly Revealing Way  —  The Democrats who are capturing media and public attention right now all share something in common.  They are openly and urgently leveling with the American people about a singular basic reality: President Trump …
Discussion: Raw Story and HuffPost
President Donald J. Trump / The White House:
Assuring the Security of the State of Qatar  —  By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in recognition of the enduring alliance between the United States and the State of Qatar, it is hereby ordered:  —  Section 1.  Policy.
RELATED:
Steve Benen / MSNBC:
E.J. Antoni's failed nomination makes the White House look even more incompetent  —  It's not often that Senate Republicans muster the courage to tell Donald Trump and his team, “Whoa, hold on, we can't go that far.”  —  As a rule, the process surrounding Donald Trump's nominees is relatively efficient.
RELATED:
CNN:
White House withdraws Trump's controversial nominee to lead BLS after ousting predecessor over jobs data
Mark Sherman / Associated Press:
Supreme Court lets Lisa Cook remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now  —  The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Lisa Cook to remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now, declining to act on the Trump administration's effort to immediately remove her from the central bank.
RELATED:
Lawrence Hurley / NBC News:
Supreme Court allows the Fed's Lisa Cook to stay in office for now as Trump pushes to fire her
ProPublica:
Trading on Tom Homan: Inside the Push to Cash in on the Trump Administration's Deportation Campaign  —  A Pennsylvania businessman who had Tom Homan on his payroll led companies to believe his connections to the future border czar could help advance their bids for government work, industry executives said.
Zachary Basu / Axios:
Trump's MAGA-fied military prepares for “war from within”  —  More than 800 top military brass sat quietly Tuesday as President Trump declared a new “war from within” — fixated on an American battlefield he claimed to be more dangerous than any foreign war zone.
RELATED:
Greg Ryan / Bloomberg:
Boston Mayor's Blowout Victory Jolts CEOs Seeking New Direction  —  Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is coasting to reelection after her main opponent quit the race, giving her a commanding mandate that's putting city business leaders on edge.  —  The progressive Democrat defeated Josh Kraft …
G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:
Experts now rate the U.S. as a “mixed” or “illiberal” democracy  —  Experts say political violence, Trump's attacks against non-partisan agencies and institutions, and partisan gerrymandering are their top concerns  —  The U.S. has never been a full democracy.
Discussion: Bright Line Watch
Catherine Bouris / The Daily Beast:
Mike Johnson Caught Trashing Trump's Vulgar AI Video  —  TROUBLE IN PARADISE  —  The House Speaker was spotted discussing the president's bizarre video with a Democratic colleague.  —  House Speaker Mike Johnson was recorded criticizing a bizarre AI-generated video posted by President Donald Trump …
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Pentagon plans widespread random polygraphs, NDAs to stanch leaks  —  Thousands of uniformed and civilian officials would be required to sign nondisclosure agreements and take lie detector tests, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ramps up war on leakers.  —  Just now
Josh Moody / Inside Higher Ed:
Spending Soars, Rankings Fall at New College of Florida  —  Student outcomes and rankings are slipping at the liberal arts college while spending is up.  Critics believe the college is at risk of implosion, and some are calling for privatization.  —  More than two years into a conservative takeover …
Discussion: Oregonian
Chris Tye / CBS News:
Pritzker compares Trump to Putin, calls for invoking 25th Amendment for suggesting military use Chicago as “training grounds”  —  After President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested cities like Chicago should be used as “training grounds for our military,” Gov. JB Pritzker said the 25th Amendment …
Discussion: The Gateway Pundit
Anastasia Tsioulcas / NPR:
Hundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era committee to defend free speech  —  On Wednesday, over 550 celebrities relaunched a group first organized during the post-World War II Red Scare: the Committee for the First Amendment.  Their intent is to stand up in what they call a …
Oliver Darcy / Status:
WaPo's Ad Chief Wavers … Those departures have drawn the most public attention, but an equally consequential matter has been unfolding on the business side.  The task of selling advertising, already a challenge in today's digital media economy dominated by Meta and Google …
Jamelle Bouie / New York Times:
Trump Has No Mandate to Destroy America  —  Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election with 49.8 percent of the national popular vote — compared with 48.3 percent for Vice President Kamala Harris — and 312 electoral votes to Harris's 226.  Overall, looking at the 20 presidential elections since …
Daniel Boguslaw / American Prospect:
We Obtained Thousands of New Epstein Documents  —  The mostly redacted documents pertain to a New Mexico attorney general investigation that was launched in 2019 but never led to criminal charges.  —  Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch in Stanley, New Mexico, seen on July 8, 2019
Paul Krugman:
Bulging Biceps Don't Win Modern Wars  —  Hegseth's speech was vile.  It was also stupid.  —  1,110  —  A Ukrainian drone operator  —  Why did Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary — he may call himself secretary of war, but Congress has not, in fact, voted to change his department's name …
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
New High Say Supreme Court Is Too Conservative  —  Story Highlights  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — Forty-three percent of Americans think the current Supreme Court is too conservative.  Though that proportion is not meaningfully different from 2022-2024 readings, it is the highest Gallup has measured by one percentage point.
Discussion: Semafor
 
 
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 More Items: 
Alana Goodman / The Washington Free Beacon:
‘It Was a Fatal Right-Wing Terrorist Incident’: AI Chatbot Giants Claim Charlie Kirk's Killer Was Right-Wing but Say Left-Wing Violence Is ‘Exceptionally Rare’
J.D. Wolf / MeidasTouch News:
MAGA Pushes Altered Image Removing “Trump 2020” From Michigan Church Shooter's Shirt
Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:
The “Department of War” Is Designed to Fight American Citizens
Danny Hakim / New York Times:
Judge Disqualifies Nevada's Acting U.S. Attorney From Handling Cases
CNN:
DOJ gave Trump's handpicked US attorney little support to indict Comey. She did it anyway
Discussion: Raw Story, Blue Amp and The Hill
 Earlier Items: 
Stephen Neukam / Axios:
Scoop: Colin Allred raises $4.1 million for Texas Senate bid
Hansi Lo Wang / NPR:
A GOP push to restrict voting by overseas U.S. citizens continues before 2026 midterms
Axios:
Pfizer-Trump deal blindsides other drug companies
Jack Dunn / Variety:
Jimmy Fallon Plans to ‘Keep My Head Down’ and Avoid Politics on ‘The Tonight Show’: ‘We Hit Both Sides Equally’
Valentina di Donato / The Daily Register:
Pope Leo XIV Wades Into Durbin Debate
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Netflix agrees to acquire WBD's studios and streaming business in an $82.7B cash-and-stock deal, set to close after WBD splits into two companies in Q3 2026

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:
The Chicago Tribune sues Perplexity for copyright infringement, alleging Perplexity's platforms lift Tribune content verbatim and divert traffic from the paper

David Pierce / The Verge:
Yahoo launches Game Breakdowns in beta, offering AI-generated game summaries, stats, and play recaps, all updated live, to Yahoo Fantasy Plus subscribers
 
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