memeorandum

11:20 AM ET, January 26, 2022

Top Items:

Kremlin TV Worries Tucker Carlson's Pro-Putin Bias Has Gone Too Far — Top Russian state propagandists are concerned that no one will take the Fox News host seriously any more. — With Russian troops steadily massing on the Ukraine border and a looming threat of an invasion …

Discussion: The Guardian, Against the Grain and The Dispatch

Vladimir Isachenkov / Associated Press:

Russia threatens retaliation if Ukraine demands not met — MOSCOW (AP) — Russia warned Wednesday it would quickly take “retaliatory measures” if the U.S. and its allies reject its security demands and continue their “aggressive” policies, ratcheting up pressure on the West amid concerns that Moscow is planning to invade Ukraine.

Discussion: CNN, Fox News, NBC News, Bloomberg, Breitbart, Balkan Insight, TASS, ABC7, Discourse, TIMCAST, Washington Post and almasirah.net.ye

Politico:

Will There Be a War Over Ukraine? 13 Putin Watchers Weigh In — Russian President Vladimir Putin sought a confrontation with the West and he got one. So now what? — Diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis appear to have stalled. In the past month, Putin has escalated his long proxy war …

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Examiner, New York Post, americamagazine.org, National Review, Bloomberg, One America News Network and Radio Free Europe/Radio …

David Ignatius / Washington Post:
The fight ahead in Ukraine: Body bags and cyberwar

Discussion: The Conservative Woman, Occidental Orientation, Insider, Ineptocracy Chronicles and Nonzero Newsletter

Katrin Bennhold / New York Times:
Where Is Germany in the Ukraine Standoff? Its Allies Wonder.

Discussion: The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, Metro.co.uk, The Nation and New York Post

BBC:
Ukraine: US could sanction Putin personally if Russia invades, Biden says

Discussion: The Guardian, Reuters, The Moderate Voice, TheJournal.ie, Insider, Politico, Al Jazeera, NBC Bay Area and Rioting Times …

Max Bergmann / Center for American Progress:
How the United States Should Respond if Russia Invades Ukraine

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, The Economist, Associated Press, UPI, The Unz Review, CBS News and CNN

The Daily Beast:

Florida Shock Jock in Matt Gaetz Circle Pleads Guilty — The feds are closing in on Rep. Matt Gaetz for his alleged underage sex crimes with yet another criminal case, this time against a key witness: his wingman's best friend. … “Big Joe” Ellicott, a former Florida shock jock …

Discussion: Raw Story

The Atlantic:10 minutes ago

The Case Against Masks at School — Districts should rethink imposing on millions of children an intervention that provides little discernible benefit. … In the panicked spring of 2020, as health officials scrambled to keep communities safe, they recommended various restrictions and interventions …

Discussion: DCist

Glenn Youngkin / Washington Post:
Virginia's parents can decide what's best for their children

Discussion: ABC News and Blue Virginia

James Gordon / Daily Mail:
New Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin launches tip line to report educators for teaching ‘divisive’ subjects after signing order banning Critical Race Theory

Discussion: Falls Church, VA Patch, WWBT-TV, Raw Story, The Western Journal, The Daily Caller and Vanity Fair

Jada Yuan / Washington Post:

Melania Trump auctions off her hat, and has become the latest victim of the cryptocurrency crash — The former first lady's chapeau is still far below her asking price. — (This article has been updated to reflect that the auction, which was offline for part of Tuesday, is back online.)

Discussion: Politico

Eric Lipton / New York Times:
Melania Trump's Auction of Hat Hit by Plunge in Cryptocurrency

Discussion: Raw Story

Politico:

'She was Zoom'd out:' Veep mulls escape from D.C. bubble — Sitting among some of the most influential Black women in America last month, Vice President Kamala Harris confessed to a stifling sensation that had fallen over her while in office. She was struggling to escape the D.C. bubble …

Discussion: HotAir and RedState

The Dworkin Report:

Author reveals how Peter Thiel helped Trump cut a deal with Facebook to evade fact checking — Scott talks with author and journalist Max Chafkin, who is a features editor and a tech reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek. Max is the author of “The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power …

Matt Friedman / Politico:

New Jersey political consultant Sean Caddle pleads guilty in murder-for-hire plot — The 44-year-old resident of Hamburg, Sussex County, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder for hire in the stabbing death of the unnamed victim. — The New Jersey state house is pictured.

Discussion: NBC10 Philadelphia

Tess Owen / VICE:

Leaked Chats Reveal Fascist Group Patriot Front Shames Members About Their Porn, Junk Food Habits — The inner workings of the group were laid bare after the release of 400 gigabytes of data by the left-wing collective Unicorn Riot. — TO — It shouldn't be a surprise that fascists rule …

Discussion: Raw Story

Jason Tidd / USA Today:

Kansas bill forces pharmacists to fill ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine as off-label COVID treatment — TOPEKA, Kansas - A group of Kansas politicians tasked with steering public health policy are pushing to allow doctors to prescribe unproven treatments and preventives for COVID-19 without any potential for responsibility.

Discussion: KFOR-TV

Jazz Shaw / HotAir:

Canceled NY mask mandate is uncanceled again... for now — Yesterday we discussed the ruling of a New York State supreme court judge who issued an injunction against Governor Kathy Hochul's statewide face mask mandate. The judge found that the mandate violated two different state laws …

Discussion: Fox News, Politico, Associated Press and The Daily Wire

Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:

Cawthorn Challenge Raises the Question: Who Is an ‘Insurrectionist’? — The challenge to Representative Madison Cawthorn's re-election bid could set a precedent to challenge other Republicans who encouraged the Jan. 6 attack. — WASHINGTON — A group of lawyers is working to disqualify …

Discussion: The Atlantic, POLITICUSUSA, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Beast and Raw Story

Washington Post:

Matea Gold named National Editor, Philip Rucker named Deputy National Editor — Announcement from Executive Editor Sally Buzbee, Senior Managing Editor Cameron Barr, Managing Editor Steven Ginsberg, Managing Editor Tracy Grant, Managing Editor Krissah Thompson, and Chief Product Officer and Managing Editor Kat Downs Mulder:

Discussion: Deadline, more at Mediagazer »

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:

Partisanship Made the Omicron Crisis Worse — On Monday, at least 2,181 Americans died from COVID-19. Over the past week, average daily COVID deaths in the United States have risen to 2,369 — the highest death rate the country has seen in nearly a year. Given the lag time between spiking cases …

Discussion: HotAir, Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic

Kristen Jordan Shamus / Detroit Free Press:

For 1st time in Michigan history, more people died than were born in 2020 — For the first time in Michigan's recorded history, deaths outpaced births in 2020 — a situation worsened by the wave of deaths from COVID-19, said Kurt Metzger, a demographer who founded Data Driven Detroit and studies Michigan population trends.

Nick Judin / Mississippi Free Press:

Ridgeland Mayor Demands LGBTQ+ Book Purge, Threatens Library Funding — Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee is withholding $110,000 of funding from the Madison County Library System allegedly on the basis of his personal religious beliefs, with library officials stating that he has demanded …

Discussion: Insider and Raw Story

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

SALT change likely to be cut from bill, say Senate Democrats — Senate Democrats say a proposal to raise the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions, a top priority of Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), is likely to be cut from the revised Build Back Better Act.

Discussion: Roll Call, Politico, HotAir, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Outside the Beltway, Revolving Door Project …, FiveThirtyEight, Punchbowl News, The Legislative Route and Political Wire

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez / Arizona Republic:

Sen. Mark Kelly ‘does not support the censure’ of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema — Sen. Mark Kelly broke his silence over the censure of his Democratic colleague Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, with a campaign spokesperson saying he disagreed with it and she should not be singled out over her opposition to changing the Senate's filibuster rules.

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, bearingarms.com and Talking Points Memo

Michael Schaub / Kirkus Reviews:

Missouri School District Bans Toni Morrison Book — A school board in Missouri has banned four books, including Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, from libraries in the district's high schools, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. — The Wentzville School Board voted 4-3 to remove …

Discussion: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

New York Times:

A Political Scientist Warns the Democratic Party Is Off Course — Ruy Teixeira was co-author of one of the most influential political books of the 21st century. Now, he says, Democrats are getting its lessons all wrong. — A funny thing happened on the way to the emerging Democratic majority.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Morning Shots, Pew Research Center, Althouse, NH Journal, Pew Research Center, HotAir, Washington Post and IJR

Sophia Ankel / Insider:

Prosecutors explained the plot of ‘Game of Thrones’ to argue that a rioter quoting Cersei Lannister was proof of criminal intent — Jeremiah Caplinger quoted from “Game of Thrones” in a social media post days after the Capitol riot. — “As said by Cersi Lannister 'I choose violence …

Discussion: Raw Story and Law & Crime

Holly Otterbein / Politico:

Dr. Oz stumbles out of the gate in Senate race — PHILADELPHIA — Mehmet Oz's introduction to GOP grassroots politics is a code-red crisis. In his first three unofficial tests as a candidate in Pennsylvania's Republican Senate primary, the celebrity physician known as Dr. Oz has been handily rejected by party activists.

Zach Hirsch / NCPR Daily News:

Special report: How Stefanik won power and support for spreading Trump's ‘Big Lie’ — The false claim that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent or stolen lives on. — Former president Donald Trump continues to spread what's become known as the “Big Lie” — because it's a baseless myth — to this day.

Discussion: Grid News

Paul Burton / CBS Boston:

Man Can't Get Heart Transplant Because He's Not Vaccinated Against COVID — BOSTON (CBS) - David Ferguson is speaking out passionately on behalf of his son DJ. He says the 31-year-old is fighting for his life at Brigham and Women's Hospital and in desperate need of a heart transplant.

Sergio Olmos / The Guardian:

‘The most dangerous man in Congress’: how Paul Gosar became a darling of the far right — Once fringe, now dominant in the party, rightwing Republicans are strategizing for minoritarian rule — he Arizona Republican congressman Paul Gosar had a simple message for the crowd when he recently addressed …

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight

Michael Daly / The Daily Beast:

DeSantis' Demented Doc Is About to Get the Grilling He Deserves — STRAIGHT-UP OPPORTUNIST … He doesn't deserve to be the state's surgeon general. It hardly seems like he deserves to be a doctor at all. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a politician by profession …

Discussion: Alternet.org and Raw Story

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

Federal judge rejects challenge to ‘weighty and urgent’ Jan. 6 committee — A federal judge in California on Tuesday delivered a forceful defense of the Jan. 6 select committee's efforts, sharply rejecting a bid by attorney John Eastman — a key driver of Donald Trump's effort to subvert the 2020 election …

Discussion: Bloomberg and Instapundit

Marianne LeVine / Politico:

How Senate Dems reaped the benefits from 2 little-known GOP maneuvers — Senate Democrats lost their fight to weaken the filibuster, but they're capitalizing big on another rules change — that the GOP pushed. — After an Obama administration marked by Democratic frustration over the pace …

Discussion: CNBC, Brookings and Raw Story

CBS News:

Domestic extremists have plotted to disrupt U.S. power grid, DHS bulletin warns — Domestic violent extremists have been planning to try to disrupt the U.S. power grid and will probably keep doing so, according to a Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin shared …