memeorandum: Exclusive: Former West Point professor's letter exposes corruption, cheating and failing standards [Full letter] (Robert M. Heffington/American Military …)

1:45 PM ET, October 12, 2017

Top Items:

Doree Shafrir / BuzzFeed:

What To Do With “Shitty Media Men”? — A document circulating late Wednesday named and shamed dozens of men in media for bad behavior toward women. — On Wednesday afternoon, I received an email from a friend, a woman writer, that had been forwarded from another woman, also a writer.

Discussion: CNN, NewsBusters, Shakesville and twitchy.com

HuffPost:

How Top NBC Executives Quashed The Bombshell Harvey Weinstein Story — Reporter Ronan Farrow ultimately took the piece to The New Yorker after facing months of opposition at his home network. — In mid-August, Ronan Farrow, an NBC News contributor, had secured an interview with a woman …

New York Times:

Rose McGowan's Twitter Account Locked After Posts About Weinstein — “TWITTER HAS SUSPENDED ME. THERE ARE POWERFUL FORCES AT WORK. BE MY VOICE,” Ms. McGowan wrote on her Instagram page, shortly after midnight Eastern time on Thursday. She included a snapshot of a message from Twitter saying …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Politico, Bloomberg, TheBlaze, SFist, Mashable, Boing Boing, Althouse, CNN, twitchy.com, The Daily Caller and IndieWire

Emily Smith / Page Six:

Harvey Weinstein's wife is leaning on Huma Abedin — MORE FROM: … Harvey Weinstein's estranged wife, Georgina Chapman, is leaning on fellow scorned spouse Huma Abedin after announcing that she is leaving the movie mogul. — A well-placed source tells Page Six that Marchesa co-founder Chapman reached …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, AOL, IJR and Washington Free Beacon

Aidan McLaughlin / Mediaite:

Twitter Suspends Rose McGowan's Account After Weinstein Tweets (UPDATED) — Rose McGowan, the actress and director who has been leading the charge against Harvey Weinstein amidst his ever-growing sexual assault scandal, had her Twitter account temporarily suspended early Thursday.

Discussion: RedState

Bret Stephens / New York Times:
Weinstein and Our Culture of Enablers

Anna Livsey / The Guardian:
Rose McGowan suspended from Twitter after Ben Affleck tweets

Discussion: IndieWire, Washington Post, CBS San Francisco, IJR, Gothamist, Daily Wire, RedState, Gizmodo, VICE News, The Verge, The Daily Caller and Conservative News Today, more at Mediagazer »

The Guardian:
Harvey Weinstein: police in New York and London investigating allegations

Discussion: ThinkProgress, RedState, New York Daily News, BBC, Starr Fm, Boing Boing and Deadline, more at Mediagazer »

Emily Smith / Page Six:
Shell-shocked Harvey Weinstein breaks silence after wife leaves him

Discussion: TMZ.com, New York Post, Fox News, AOL, Washington Free Beacon, The Daily Caller, CNN, The Ringer - All, NBC News, Deadline, IndieWire, Mashable and PerezHilton, more at Mediagazer »

Megan Twohey / New York Times:
Weinstein Company Was Aware of Payouts in 2015

Discussion: Conservative News Today, Splinter, Washington Post, Deadline, The Daily Caller, Mashable, CBS Los Angeles and Washington Free Beacon, more at Mediagazer »

Adam Cancryn / Politico:

Fed up with Congress, Trump whacks Obamacare with his pen — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing an overhaul of major federal health regulations, calling it the first step toward fulfilling the GOP's promise to repeal Obamacare.

Discussion: ABC News, Consumerist, Daily Kos, IJR, New York Times, Balloon Juice, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Joe.My.God., Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones and Vox

Dylan Scott / Vox:

Trump's executive order to undermine Obamacare, explained — How association health plans and short-term insurance could damage the health care law. — With the failure by Republicans in Congress to repeal Obamacare this year, President Trump is taking matters into his own hands …

Amy Goldstein / Washington Post:

Trump to sign order to eliminate ACA insurance rules, undermine marketplaces — President Trump is due to sign an executive order Thursday morning intended to allow individuals and small businesses to buy a long-disputed type of health insurance that skirts state regulations and Affordable Care Act protections.

Discussion: Breitbart

CNN:
Trump begins Obamacare dismantling with executive order

Discussion: FOX6Now.com, The Daily Caller and Mediaite

CBS News:
Trump signs health care executive order — live updates

Discussion: RedState, The Atlantic, CBS San Francisco, Jamie Dupree - PBP, New York Magazine, Washington Post, Mediaite and Vox

Paige Winfield Cunningham / Washington Post:
The Health 202: Trump's executive order has a history. And the government says it's not all great.

Discussion: STAT, Vox and IJR

Colum Lynch / Foreign Policy:

U.S. to Pull Out of UNESCO, Again — Worried about past dues and what it calls an anti-Israel bias, Washington is bailing on the group it helped found. — The United States plans to formally withdraw from UNESCO, the U.N.'s Paris-based cultural, scientific and educational organization …

Discussion: The Hill, Politico, New York Magazine, The Daily Caller, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Joe.My.God. and israpundit.org

Heather Nauert / US Department of State:

The United States Withdraws From UNESCO — Press Statement — Department Spokesperson — Washington, DC — On October 12, 2017, the Department of State notified UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova of the U.S. decision to withdraw from the organization and to seek to establish a permanent observer mission to UNESCO.

Discussion: Hyperallergic, The Lid, NPR, Q13 FOX News and Washington Free Beacon

Eileen Sullivan / New York Times:
U.S. Will Withdraw From Unesco, Citing Its ‘Anti-Israel Bias’

Discussion: Axios

Anne Gearan / Washington Post:

‘He threw a fit’: Trump's anger over Iran deal forced aides to scramble for a compromise — President Trump was livid. Why, he asked his advisers in mid-July, should he go along with what he considered the failed Obama-era policy toward Iran and prop up an international nuclear deal he sees as disastrous?

Discussion: The Atlantic, NBC News, Washington Monthly, Foreign Policy, VICE News, Raw Story and Business Insider

Mark Penn / The Hill:
Why the polls are still wrong

Discussion: The Daily Caller

New York Times: Growing Chorus Confronts Trump Against Leaving Nuclear Deal

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Trump warns Puerto Rico: ‘We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders . . . forever!’ — President Trump served notice Thursday that he may pull back federal relief workers from Puerto Rico, effectively threatening to abandon the U.S. territory amid …

Discussion: CNN, The Atlantic, Talking Points Memo, Shareblue Media, The Hill, Vox, FOX6Now.com, NPR, Conservative News Today, IJR, ThinkProgress, ABC News, New York Times, RedState, Mother Jones, CNBC, NBC News, Nonprofit Quarterly, Q13 FOX News, Raw Story and Joe.My.God.

US EPA:
EPA Hurricane Maria Update for Wednesday, October 11th

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Mashable, NBC News, Splinter, New York Magazine and The Guardian

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

President's lawyers may offer Mueller a meeting with Trump — Donald Trump's lawyers are open to having the president sit down for an interview with Robert Mueller, according to a senior White House official, as part of a wider posture of cooperation with the special counsel's Russia probe.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, RedState, Raw Story, ABC News and Political Wire

Joe Concha / The Hill:

Trump praises Hannity's ratings: 'I'm very proud of you' — President Trump took a moment during his interview with Fox's Sean Hannity to praise the host for his recent ratings rise since moving into the 9 p.m. timeslot to directly challenge MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

Discussion: RedState

Oliver Willis / Shareblue Media:
Trump laughs and jokes during solemn “Retreat” ceremony honoring flag while on military base

Discussion: Fox News and IJR

Bloomberg:

Trump Rethinks State-Local Tax Issue Over Middle-Class Concerns — N.Y.'s King calls proposal to end SALT ‘biggest obstacle’ — Repealing deduction would generate $1.3 trillion for cuts — Months after the White House proposed ending a tax break for people in high-tax states …

Discussion: Business Insider and CNBC

Axios:

Exclusive interview with Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg — Live at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., Mike Allen interviews Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg in the wake of new revelations about Russia's use of the tech giant in its influence campaign during the 2016 election.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico, Business Insider, NBC News, AOL and TheBlaze, more at Mediagazer »

Axios:
Sandberg: Facebook owes the American people an apology

Discussion: Political Wire and Business Insider

Robert M. Heffington / American Military News:

Exclusive: Former West Point professor's letter exposes corruption, cheating and failing standards [Full letter] — The following letter was written by retired LTC Robert M. Heffington as an open letter. Heffington was an assistant professor at West Point for several years, until this past August.

Discussion: IJR, neo-neocon, The Daily Caller, Clayton Cramer and Weekly Standard

Washington Post:

Killer wildfires continue to menace California's wine country, with 24 dead and hundreds missing — SANTA ROSA, Calif. — The winds that have fanned Northern California's wine-country wildfires were calmer Thursday, giving firefighters a badly needed break from the “red flag” …

Discussion: Mercury News, NPR, Gizmodo, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and CNN

Charlie Moore / Daily Mail:

Starving homeless woman eats a CAT in front of shocked crowd as Venezuela's economic crisis continues — Conditions in socialist Venezuela are so diabolical that people are forced to eat cats in the street. — A stomach-churning video shows a homeless woman sitting on the roadside …

CNN:

Roy Moore signed resolution in 2010 supporting states' rights to void federal law — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — (CNN)Roy Moore, the Republican nominee in Alabama's Senate election, signed onto a resolution in 2010 affirming the right of states to nullify, or void, federal law, CNN's KFile has found.