memeorandum: Donald Trump Revokes Order That Protects Women in the Workplace (Aimée Lutkin/The Slot)

8:15 PM ET, April 4, 2017

Top Items:

Ryan Lizza / New Yorker:

Susan Rice and the Latest Bogus Attempt to Justify Trump's Wiretapping Tweet — Ever since President Trump tweeted, in the early morning of Saturday, March 4th, that “Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory,” the White House and its defenders have labored to find a justification for the false allegation.

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Occupy Democrats and Washington Monthly

Wall Street Journal:

Susan Rice Unmasked — Obama's security adviser sought the name of at least one Trump official in intelligence reports. — Well, what do you know. On the matter of who “unmasked” the names of Trump transition officials in U.S. intelligence reports, we now have one answer: Susan Rice, Barack Obama's national security adviser.

Discussion: Politico, Power Line, Washington Post, The Hugh Hewitt Show, New York Times, Taylor Marsh, TheStreet, neo-neocon, ABC News, Washington Free Beacon, Just Security, Viking Pundit, The Daily Caller, twitchy.com, The Hill and Circa

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:
Here's How The White House Is Legitimizing The Pro-Trump Media

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, The Daily Beast, NewsBusters, RedState, Mother Jones, BizPac Review, New York Magazine, Breitbart and NBC News, more at Mediagazer »

Mollie Hemingway / The Federalist:
Why Is CNN Refuting The Susan Rice Story It Refuses To Cover?

Discussion: CNN and Washington Free Beacon

Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
Susan Rice's White House Unmasking: A Watergate-style Scandal

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Power Line, FOX News Radio, Washington Free Beacon and Israpundit

Grabien News RSS:
CNN Goes on Rampage Against Susan Rice Bombshell, Instructs Viewers to Ignore Story

Discussion: Breitbart, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, twitchy.com, Washington Times and Fox News

Andrea Mitchell / MSNBC:
‘I leaked nothing to nobody,’ Susan Rice insists

Discussion: The Nation, Daily Wire, AOL and Fox News Insider

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Susan Rice isn't a ‘smoking gun,’ but she does have some explaining to do

Discussion: Breitbart, Center for Security Policy, Vox and Occupy Democrats

Axios:

Trumpcare revival talks falling apart ahead of Pence meeting — Attempts to reach a deal this week on health care are unraveling fast, with conservatives already blaming House Speaker Paul Ryan for blocking the White House bill, and leadership sources saying that's nonsense and that the Freedom Caucus …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

The Hill:

Centrists push back on new ObamaCare repeal plan — A new proposal from the White House and GOP leaders to revive ObamaCare repeal is facing pushback from centrist Republicans who were already wary of the legislation. — Seeking to win over conservative holdouts, Republicans have talked …

Discussion: Politico and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Peter Sullivan / The Hill:
Pence presents new healthcare offer to Freedom Caucus

Discussion: ABC News, Breitbart, New York Times, Vox, Axios, Business Insider, Reuters, Common Dreams, Occupy Democrats and RedState

Jim Norman / Gallup:

Affordable Care Act Gains Majority Approval for First Time — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fifty-five percent of Americans now support the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a major turnaround from five months ago when 42% approved and 53% disapproved. This is the first time a majority of Americans …

Discussion: Axios, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo and Politico

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation:

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll - April 2017: The Fall of the AHCA and Next Steps for the ACA — Ashley Kirzinger, Bianca DiJulio, Bryan Wu, and Mollyann Brodie — KEY FINDINGS: — The latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, conducted the week after House Republicans pulled the American Health Care Act …

Discussion: The Hill, Mother Jones, CNBC and Axios

The Daily Beast:

Assad Apparently ‘Gasses’ Civilians Days After Tillerson Hints He Can Stay in Power — Days ago, in Ankara, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson signaled that the U.S. had no quarrel with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, a man Tillerson's predecessor compared to Adolf Hitler after he slaughtered …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, Associated Press, New York Magazine and Daily Wire

Dan Merica / CNN:
Spicer: Syrian chemical attack a ‘consequence’ of Obama ‘weakness’

Discussion: Breitbart, Daily Kos, Politicus USA and Mediaite

CNN:
Syria gas attack reportedly kills dozens, including children

Discussion: Raw Story, BBC, ThinkProgress, ABC News, The Huffington Post, WHNT-TV, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos, Shakesville and IJR

Anne Barnard / New York Times:
Worst Chemical Attack in Years in Syria; U.S. Blames Assad

Discussion: Washington Post, The Atlantic, Vox, Reuters, Hot Air, BizPac Review and Balloon Juice

Mother Jones:
Trump Hypocrisy: Blaming Syrian Chemical Attack on Obama

Discussion: Axios, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Washington Post, Hullabaloo, NPR, Right Wing Watch, Politico, NBC News and The Week

Ben Popken / NBC News:

Advertisers Flee Fox's Bill O'Reilly Show Amid Sexual Harassment Lawsuits — Fox News is in a jam this week as major automakers and smaller outfits pull their ads from the network's popular “O'Reilly Factor” show, following a series of sexual harassment claims against host Bill O'Reilly.

Discussion: Politicus USA, The Daily Beast, New York Times, TheBlaze, Business Insider, RedState, Refinery29, Mediaite, twitchy.com, New York Magazine and Axios, more at Mediagazer »

Media Matters for America:

These Are Bill O'Reilly's Advertisers — Following the latest revelations and allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct involving Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, a growing list of advertisers are beginning to pull their ads from airing during The O'Reilly Factor time slot.

New York Times:
Fox Losing More Advertisers After Sexual Harassment Claims Against O'Reilly

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, RedState, Forbes, Raw Story, ThinkProgress, Occupy Democrats, Business Insider, TVNewser, Salon, Mediaite, IJR, Talking Points Memo and CNNMoney, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:

White House explores two new tax ideas — a value-added tax and carbon tax — as leading proposal to raise revenue falters — President Trump's administration is exploring the creation of two controversial new taxes — a value-added tax and a carbon tax — as part of a broad overhaul of the tax code …

Discussion: Daily Wire, New York Magazine, Axios and Mother Jones

Doina Chiacu / Reuters:
White House exploring new value-added tax and carbon tax: report

Discussion: MattBruenig

Dan Alexander / Forbes:

Eric Trump Offers Surprisingly Candid Thoughts On Nepotism — No modern president has put as much power in the hands of so many family members as Donald Trump. On January 9, he named son-in-law Jared Kushner as his senior advisor despite anti-nepotism laws previously believed to prevent such an appointment.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, AOL, Political Wire, Raw Story and Occupy Democrats

Laura Meckler / Wall Street Journal:

Trump Administration Considers Far-Reaching Steps for ‘Extreme Vetting’ — Foreigners entering U.S. could be forced to hand over phones, answer questions on ideology; changes could apply to allies like France and Germany — Foreigners who want to visit the U.S., even for a short trip …

Discussion: Washington Post, Mother Jones, Vocativ, ThinkProgress, Hit & Run, New York Magazine, The Guardian, The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Week, Daily Kos and Political Wire, more at Techmeme »

Morgan Chalfant / The Hill:
Lawmakers introduce bill to end warrantless phone searches at border

Discussion: The Verge, Raw Story, Motherboard and Just Security, more at Techmeme »

David Leonhardt / New York Times:

How to End the Politicization of the Courts — Mainstream news coverage has a hard time making subtle distinctions between the behavior of the two political parties. When Democratic and Republican tactics are blatantly different — on voter suppression, for instance — journalists are often comfortable saying so.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Ruth Marcus / Washington Post:
A (probably futile) plea for sanity in the Senate

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Washington Free Beacon, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Hit & Run, The Root, Balloon Juice and twitchy.com

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

The Mac Pro Lives — Let's not beat around the bush. I have great news to share: — Apple is currently hard at work on a “completely rethought” Mac Pro, with a modular design that can accommodate high-end CPUs and big honking hot-running GPUs, and which should make it easier for Apple …

Discussion: Mashable, The Guardian, Axios, Business Insider, The Verge and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Apple pushes the reset button on the Mac Pro

Discussion: Business Insider, The Verge and Daring Fireball, more at Techmeme »

Jonathan Mahler / New York Times:

CNN Had a Problem. Donald Trump Solved It. — Inside the strange symbiosis between Jeff Zucker and the president he helped create. — At 3:58 on a recent Wednesday afternoon in Washington, CNN's largest control room was mostly empty but for a handful of producers hunched over control panels and …

Discussion: Mother Jones, The Atlantic, Business Insider, Mediaite, TVNewser, The Week and Axios, more at Mediagazer »

Evan Osnos / New Yorker:

Can Trump Match Xi Jinping's Game? — The General Secretary does not golf. When Xi Jinping, the Chinese President, assumed control of the Communist Party, in 2012, golf was a popular pastime for wealthy dealmakers. But in an effort to restore the image of public servants …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and New York Times

Jeremy Diamond / CNN:
White House: ‘The clock has now run out’ on North Korean nuclear program

Discussion: Business Insider, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, New York Times, The Hill and CNBC

Brad Reed / Raw Story:

WATCH: Boos erupt after Trump tells room full of construction workers that he won most of their votes — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — President Donald Trump on Tuesday talked with a room full of construction union members, and things got a little awkward for him when he started boasting about his big election victory.

The White House:

Remarks by President Trump at 2017 North America's Building Trades Unions National Legislative Conference — Washington, D.C. — THE PRESIDENT: I know these people well, you wouldn't believe it. I know them too well. (Applause.) I know them too well. They cost me a lot of money.

Melanie Zanona / The Hill:
Trump promises to rebuild country in speech to construction workers

Discussion: Politico

Hans Fiene / The Federalist:

Why Men and Women Can Never Be ‘Just Friends’ — The latest numbers on American birth rates are in, and they yield only one reasonable conclusion: All of us need to start having more babies or else the upcoming demographic tsunami will consume our nation, cripple our social programs …

Christopher Mele / New York Times:

Why You Shouldn't Walk on Escalators — The train pulls into Pennsylvania Station during the morning rush, the doors open and you make a beeline for the escalators. — You stick to the left and walk up the stairs, figuring you can save precious seconds and get a bit of exercise.

Discussion: Gizmodo

Rebecca Traister / New York Magazine:

Kirsten Gillibrand Is Becoming a Progressive Champion. Is a 2020 Run Next? — The Democrats' most unlikely holy warrior smells rebellion in the air. — As Kirsten Gillibrand ascended to the pulpit at the Bridge Street AME Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant in late February, the congregation seemed to tense with apprehension.

Discussion: Shareblue, Occupy Democrats, Daily Wire, BizPac Review and twitchy.com