memeorandum: America's Future Is Texas (Lawrence Wright/New Yorker)

1:25 PM ET, July 3, 2017

Top Items:

The plane truth: How we caught Chris Christie sunbathing on a closed beach — Gallery: Gov. Chris Christie and family on closed Island Beach State Park in N.J. — amills@njadvancemedia.com, — NJ Advance Media for NJ.com — In my 23 years as a photo journalist …

Discussion: The Atlantic, New York Post, The Daily Banter, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, NBC News, Business Insider, IJR, Mediaite and Hot Air, more at Mediagazer »

New Jersey Online:

PHOTOS: Christie, family soak up sun on N.J. beach he closed to public — Gallery: Gov. Chris Christie and family on closed Island Beach State Park in N.J. — NJ Advance Media for NJ.com — BERKELEY TOWNSHIP — People hoping to visit Island Beach State Park this holiday weekend …

Associated Press:

Gov. Chris Christie is blistered over his day at the beach — Gov. Chris Christie got blistered online Monday after he was photographed sunning himself on a New Jersey beach that he had closed to the public over the Fourth of July weekend because of a government shutdown.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Kim Guadagno, Raw Story, Mediaite and ABC News

WNYW-TV:

Gov. Christie defends going to beach during shutdown — NEW JERSEY (FOX5NY) - New Jersey's governor is defending going to a state beach during a state government shutdown that has closed state beaches. — NJ Advance Media published photos of Gov. Christie and his family on lounging …

Discussion: Shareblue, Business Insider, Politico and New York Times

Rick Hasen / electionlawblog.org:

Justice Kennedy Tells October 2018 Clerkship Applicants He's Considering Retirement, Right Before 2018 Midterms — Big news hiding in Nina Totenberg's story on Justice Gorsuch voting 100% with Justice Thomas: … This would put Justice Kennedy's retirement right before the 2018 midterms …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, RedState, Political Wire and Althouse

Adam Liptak / New York Times: Confident and Assertive, Gorsuch Hurries to Make His Mark

Margaret Hartmann / New York Magazine:
Justice Anthony Kennedy Retirement Watch Is Already Back On

Discussion: Townhall.com, Hot Air and New York Times

Rebecca Savransky / The Hill:
Justice Kennedy tells job applicants he may retire next year: report

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo and The Week

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:
The best thing Chief Justice Roberts wrote this term wasn't a Supreme Court opinion

Discussion: Power Line

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Scoop: Bannon pushes tax hike for wealthy — Steve Bannon is causing a stir inside the administration by pushing an idea that's anathema to most Republicans: raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to pay for steep middle and working-class tax cuts. (Some officials who've heard Bannon's idea …

Discussion: Vox, TheBlaze, CNBC, Balloon Juice, Business Insider, Washington Post, The Week and Mediaite

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
How Low Can Taxes Go? Outside Washington, Republicans Find Limits

Discussion: Daily Kos, Axios, Hullabaloo and Laffer Center

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Axios Sneak Peek

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Al Jazeera English, NPR, TheBlaze, CBS New York and The Gateway Pundit, more at Mediagazer »

Jacqueline Thomsen / The Hill:

GOP lawmaker to CNN: ‘You guys are getting played’ … Rep. Scott Taylor (R-Va.) told CNN early Monday that the media is “getting played” by covering President Trump's tweets. — The congressman said the media needs to cover “real issues” instead of Trump's tweets when asked on CNN's …

Discussion: Breitbart, Fox News Insider, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, ABC News, No More Mister Nice Blog and Axios

Marina Fang / HuffPost:
GOP Leaders Notably Silent As Trump Tweet Endorses Violence Against Journalists

Discussion: The Atlantic, The Daily Caller, CNNMoney, TheBlaze, New York Magazine, twitchy.com and CNN

Louis Nelson / Politico:
Trump: ‘Fake News will be forced to discuss’ White House accomplishments

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Fox News

David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:

Top GOP Senate recruit Ann Wagner won't challenge Claire McCaskill — Rep. Ann Wagner has opted against a 2018 Senate bid, choosing re-election to the House over challenging vulnerable Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. — Wagner's surprise move, finalized over the weekend, is a blow to the Republican Party.

Discussion: Politico, Political Wire, IJR and Washington Times

Foreign Policy:

Tillerson Ready to Let Russia Decide Assad's Fate — In talks with the U.N. chief, Tillerson indicates Russia should be in the driver's seat when it comes to the future of Syria. — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres during …

Discussion: Axios, Talking Points Memo, Political Wire, Raw Story and The Daily Caller

FiveThirtyEight:

How Americans Order Their Steak — Are people who prefer their steaks well done just wrong? It's the question that has divided a nation that is otherwise firmly united on the “steak is great” front, given that we Americans consume about 25 billion pounds of beef annually.

Laura Santhanam / PBS NewsHour:

New poll: 70% of Americans think civility has gotten worse since Trump took office — Americans broadly believe their country's political tone has become less civil since Donald Trump was elected president and that fundamental rights are weakening, according to a new PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll.

Discussion: Axios

Jessica Taylor / NPR:
Americans Say Civility Has Worsened Under Trump; Trust In Institutions Down

Discussion: Political Wire

Rebecca Savransky / The Hill:
PBS poll: 70 percent say civility has dropped since Trump's election

Discussion: RedState

New York Times:

Medicaid Worsens Your Health? That's a Classic Misinterpretation of Research — As a program for low-income Americans, Medicaid requires the poor to pay almost nothing for their health care. Republicans in Congress have made clear that they want to change that equation for many …

Discussion: Vox

Brandon Carter / The Hill:

Stephen Hawking: Trump pulling out of Paris Agreement ‘could push Earth over the brink’ — Stephen Hawking blasted President Trump's recent decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate change agreement in a new interview, saying it “could push Earth over the brink.”

Discussion: MichelleMalkin.com

Pallab Ghosh / BBC:
Hawking says Trump's climate stance could damage Earth

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, AOL and Washington Times

Lawrence Wright / New Yorker:

America's Future Is Texas — With right-wing zealots taking over the legislature even as the state's demographics shift leftward, Texas has become the nation's bellwether. — When Frederick Law Olmsted passed through Texas, in 1853, he became besotted with the majesty of the Texas legislature.

David Sirota / International Business Times:

Justice Department's Corporate Crime Watchdog Resigns, Saying Trump Makes It Impossible To Do Job — One of the Justice Department's top corporate crime watchdogs has resigned, declaring that she cannot enforce ethics laws against companies while, she asserts, her own bosses in the Trump administration …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, New York Magazine, The Hill and Common Dreams

Charles M. Blow / New York Times:

The Hijacked American Presidency — Every now and then we are going to have to do this: Step back from the daily onslaughts of insanity emanating from Donald Trump's parasitic presidency and remind ourselves of the obscenity of it all, registering its magnitude in its full, devastating truth.

CNN:

Emmanuel Macron assassination plot foiled by French police — (CNN)A man has been charged with plotting to assassinate French President Emmanuel Macron on Bastille Day during US President Donald Trump's visit to France, a spokeswoman for the Paris Prosecutor's office said Monday.