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12:20 PM ET, August 17, 2026

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Wall Street Journal:
Iran's Secret Plan to Escalate the War  —  Intercepted communications and other intelligence suggest a strategic shift by hard-line leaders to raise the costs for the U.S. and its regional allies  —  After President Trump signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran in mid-June …
RELATED:
Erika Solomon / New York Times:   Iran's Supreme Leader Signals Intention to Keep Country on a War Footing
Luke Broadwater / New York Times:
Trump Lashes Out as Preliminary Deal With Iran Expires
Jordan Rubin / MS NOW:
Supreme Court denies Trump's rehearing petition, cementing Carroll's $5 million win  —  The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump's long-shot request to reconsider taking up his appeal in one of the two civil cases he lost to E. Jean Carroll.
RELATED:
Associated Press:
Live updates: Supreme Court again rebuffs Trump's push to toss out verdict in E. Jean Carroll case
Discussion: RedState
Brett Meiselas / MeidasTouch:
Fox Host Trashes U.S. Sailors as ‘Weak’ for Speaking Out About Dire Conditions  —  Fox News host Joey Jones mocked service members speaking out about conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln  —  Key Points … Fox News host Joey Jones lashed out at U.S. service members who have spoken publicly …
RELATED:
Noah Berlatsky / Public Notice:
“Suckers and losers” as policy
Discussion: Salon
Aaron Boxerman / New York Times:
U.S. and Iran Blow Through Deadline to Agree to a Broad Deal to End War  —  President Trump said a cease-fire agreed in June would lead to limits on Iran's nuclear program and finish the conflict, but the countries appear far apart.  —  The United States and Iran on Monday missed their 60 …
RELATED:
Helene Cooper / New York Times:
Trump Orders Pentagon to Curtail Military Exercises With Ally South Korea
Tom Nichols / The Atlantic:
Trump Will Make South Korea Pay for His Iran Humiliation
Sam Blewett / Politico:
Burnham exchanged messages with impersonator of top Trump aide  —  The U.K. leader believed he was communicating with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.  —  LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham engaged with messages from somebody impersonating one of Donald Trump's closest advisers, four officials have told POLITICO.
Mike Zapler / Axios:
The Democratic establishment's ideas deficit  —  The centrist Democratic group Third Way recently declared “war” on democratic socialists to head off what they fear could be a far-left hijacking of the party ahead of 2028.  — But establishment Democrats have made clear what they're …
RELATED:
Patricia Mazzei / New York Times:
Democratic Socialists Look for Upsets in Hostile Territory: Florida
Discussion: The Intercept and Politico
Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books.  It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility … Amazon is buying massive quantities of books, scanning them for AI training data, and destroying them in the process.  —  A 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazon's book buying operation …
Julia Curlee / The Atlantic:
The Wrong Kind of American  —  The Trump White House needed me—until the fact that I am trans became public.  —  At the cia, they'd started an office pool on when I'd be fired.  —  President Trump would be sworn in for his second term at noon; the smart money had me gone by 12:15.
Associated Press:
Trump blames vandals for damaged grass in the same spot where he held his big July 4 celebration  —  President Donald Trump on Sunday said vandals are to blame for large swaths of dead grass on the National Mall near the World War II Memorial — in the same spot where Trump had a stage built and hosted crowds for his July 4 celebration.
Adam Bonica / On Data and Democracy:
With Fear and Favor  —  Institutions don't have courage.  They have incentives.  —  Institutions don't have courage.  They have incentive structures.  When incentives line up just right, it is not uncommon for an institution to make a collective decision that almost no one inside it would have made alone.
Courtenay Brown / Axios:
Why prescription drug prices are plunging  —  America is experiencing its biggest prescription drug price deflation in generations. … - Prices haven't risen in any month this year, an unusually persistent stretch of flat or falling drug prices.  — The downward trend comes as costs …
Washington Examiner:
The Supreme Court will not survive another Democratic trifecta  —  The continued existence of the Supreme Court is safe as long as there is a Republican in the White House.  But as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) reminded us this week, every vote for a Democrat in the House …
RELATED:
Andrew Egger / The Bulwark:
Trump ‘Won’ on Tariffs?  Lol.  —  Today marks the end of the sixty-day negotiating period set forth in the memorandum of understanding the Trump administration signed with Iran.  By now, we were supposed to have agreements on the status of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's nuclear program.  And we do!
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
From Natalie, With LOVE ...  With the growing attention being given to Trump handler/confidante Natalie Harp, I looked up this November 2024 Times article which captures some of the relationship ...  Given that Natalie Harp is not only a conventionally attractive women but also Trump's type …
NOTUS:
James Talarico's Campaign Is Refunding Over $1 Million in Excess Contributions  —  James Talarico keeps raising too much money.  —  The Texas Democrat has already raised more than $70 million in his bid to defeat state Attorney General Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate — more than any other non-incumbent candidate …
Discussion: RedState
Don Moynihan / Can We Still Govern?:
What could a post-Trump governance coalition look like?  —  To simplify a bit (a lot): there are two parts to public administration.  “Administration” means getting shit done.  “Public” implies doing it in a way that is broadly legitimate and accountable to citizens.
Thomas Beaumont / Associated Press:
Trump dwarfs his predecessors in the number of ultra-rich in his second White House, report shows  —  Wealth, perhaps second only to loyalty, has been a prized attribute for Donald Trump during his second presidency.  —  The number of people worth at least $100 million whom the Republican president …
Axios:
Even some Republican voters sour on Trump  —  High prices, a persistent war and anxiety about corruption are quickly eroding President Trump's support among Republicans, a warning sign for the White House with less than 80 days to the midterms. … - The loss of one or both chambers …
Steve Benen / MS NOW:
New evidence suggests White House took steps to punish Colorado over Tina Peters case  —  Exactly one year ago this week, Donald Trump threatened to impose “harsh measures” on the state of Colorado unless it agreed to release election denier Tina Peters from prison several years before her sentence runs its course.
Discussion: The Colorado Sun
Justin Goldman / NBC News:
Texas AG Paxton claims widespread noncitizen voting.  Three people have been charged.  —  Among 53 cases that were referred for investigation, at least five people were listed as American citizens in previous court records, according to an NBC News review.  —  For more than a year …
Discussion: The Federalist
Max Boot / Washington Post:
I'm a hawk.  I'm shocked by a $1.5 trillion defense budget.  —  The request would top World War II spending while funding boondoggles and sweetheart deals.  —  As a defense hawk, I've long been in favor of more military spending — up to and including when the defense budget hit $1 trillion this year.
Discussion: Bloomberg
Emile Ayoub / Just Security:
No Warrant, No Problem: Administrative Subpoena Powers and an Outdated Fourth Amendment Doctrine  —  Over the past year, the Department of Homeland Security's use of administrative subpoenas to obtain information about individuals and groups critical of its immigration enforcement efforts …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Madiba K. Dennie / Balls and Strikes:
How the Supreme Court Kicked Off America's Sports Betting Addiction Crisis
Discussion: Deseret News
Reuters:
Russia jails opposition politician for 11 years for anti-war comments, Mediazona says
Discussion: Bloomberg, France 24 and NewsMax.com
NOTUS:
The ‘Body Guy Caucus’: The Lives of the Men and Women Paid to Shadow Senators
Discussion: Washington Examiner
Owen Dahlkamp / Politico:
AI slop is swamping a House office that drafts US laws
New York Times:
Islamophobia's Rise in Texas: 'I Won't Rest Until Every Muslim Is Gone'
Jane C. Timm / NBC News:
Former GOP mayor vies to create a new party in Indiana with a run for a key statewide post
Discussion: MS NOW
 Earlier Items: 
Lillie Boudreaux / MS NOW:
The simple reason high gas prices could cost Republicans in November
Jon Marcus / Washington Monthly:
Once Globally Preeminent, U.S. Universities Are Sliding Into Decline
Rosemary Westwood / New York Times:
How Louisiana's New Surgeon General Wants to Transform Public Health
NBC News:
Melania Trump keeps a much lower public profile in her second term as first lady
Politico:
Kelly starts the countdown
Riley Rogerson / Politico:
Nancy Pelosi is leaving Capitol Hill. Her team is still calling shots.
New York Times:
Kushner Meets With Hamas to Advance Trump's Gaza Plan
Andrew Pantazi / Axios:
Blanche won't pledge DOJ independence from Trump
 

 
From Techmeme:

Anissa Gardizy / Wall Street Journal:
OpenAI signs a 20-year, 10GW data center deal in Ohio with SoftBank's SB Energy; Nvidia agrees to backstop a portion of the value of the completed data center

Bloomberg:
Sources: the US DOJ has been investigating a16z for nearly a year over whether its partners are improperly serving on the boards of competing AI companies

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Anthropic's text watermarking alters word probabilities to leave fingerprints, which could degrade Claude's writing, despite its claim of no impact on quality

 
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