memeorandum: Jerry Seinfeld Says Jokes Are Not Real Life (New York Times)

1:45 PM ET, August 15, 2018

Top Items:

I read six sycophantic pro-Trump books — and then I read Omarosa — Hagiographies of the president share seven core traits. — Some are born Trump sycophants. Some achieve Trump sycophancy. And some have Trump sycophancy thrust upon them — since he's a star, they let him do that.

Discussion: Slate, HuffPost and IJR

Jonathan V. Last / Weekly Standard:

Let's Hope There Is No Tape of Trump Using the N-Word — But if there is ... I hope there isn't a tape of Donald Trump using the N-word in a manner that's clearly meant to be offensive, bigoted, and derogatory. — We've now reached the stage where the existence of such a tape is not proven, but is more than theoretically possible.

Discussion: TIME, Crooked Media, Conservative Tribune, New York Times and The Guardian, more at Mediagazer »

Alex Horton / Washington Post:
Penn Jillette says Trump used ‘racially insensitive’ language on ‘Celebrity Apprentice’

Discussion: USA Today, Mashable and 105.9 FM and AM 630

Benjamin Wermund / Politico:
Omarosa: DeVos said black college students lack the ‘capacity to understand’ her agenda

Discussion: Axios and Talking Points Memo

Paul Kane / Washington Post:
The Daily 202: Republicans try to make ‘liberal’ attack line stick in new ad campaign

Discussion: Shareblue Media

Associated Press:
Ex-Trump aides often find a soft landing for staying quiet

Discussion: Salon, The Hill and Hullabaloo

Annie Karni / Politico:
‘People are terrified’: Trump staffers live in fear of Omarosa's next tape

Discussion: ABC News, Weekly Standard, Hot Air, Daily Kos, Breitbart, Axios, Wall Street Journal, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and The Atlantic

Zack Beauchamp / Vox:

The organizer of the Charlottesville rally just got humiliated by his own father — “Get out of my room,” Jason Kessler's father said to him during a live stream. — I reported from the “Unite the Right 2” rally in Washington on Sunday. It was a dreary failure that attracted around 30 people …

Discussion: Raw Story and USA Today

Avery Anapol / The Hill:
White supremacist rally leader gets yelled at by his dad during livestream

Discussion: Political Wire

Grace Sparks / CNN:

CNN Poll: Democratic advantage grows in race for Congress — (CNN)Democrats now lead Republicans by 52% to 41% in a nationwide generic Congressional ballot according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS and released Tuesday. The blue lead has increased slightly from eight percentage points …

Discussion: Political Wire

Harry Enten / CNN:

New poll suggests attacks on Nancy Pelosi won't matter in midterms — GOP using Pelosi in ads as a midterms motivator — (CNN)Republican House candidates have attacked their Democratic opponents over their future potential vote to make Nancy Pelosi the speaker of the House again.

Discussion: San Francisco Chronicle, Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA, Washington Free Beacon, Daily Caller News Foundation and The Daily Caller

Chicago Tribune:
Pelosi takes on the roaring economy, and Trump

Discussion: Houston Chronicle

Andy Kroll / Rolling Stone:

Documents Reveal Successful Cyberattack in California Congressional Race — The FBI investigated hacking attempts targeting a Democrat who ran against “Putin's favorite congressman” — WASHINGTON — FBI agents in California and Washington, D.C., have investigated a series of cyberattacks …

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

David Wasserman / The Cook Political Report:

House: Three More GOP Seats Join the Toss Up Column — For Republicans, the 2018 House playing field is a lot like a game of Whack-a-Mole: everywhere they turn, new problems keep popping up in surprising places. In January, we rated 20 GOP-held seats as Toss Ups or worse, including three leaning towards Democrats.

Discussion: Florida Politics

New York Times:

Groundbreaking Night for Women and Diversity, While a Trump Critic Falls — HARTLAND, Wis. — Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor and onetime presidential candidate, was soundly defeated Tuesday in his bid to reclaim the Republican nomination for governor, a remarkable upset …

Discussion: The Daily Banter, JustOneMinute and New Republic

NBC News:
Tim Pawlenty goes down and six takeaways from Tuesday's primaries

Discussion: NPR, The Week and Washington Times

Kevin Robillard / HuffPost:
Trump Is Wreaking Havoc On Republican Governor Primaries

Discussion: Washington Post, New Republic and TheBlaze

Luppe B. Luppen / Yahoo:

Can Manafort's Team Make a Killer Closure? — ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Paul Manafort's opportunities to attack the weighty federal case against him here have dwindled to a two-hour closing argument. — President Trump's former campaign manager's defense team lost all of the motions it made publicly …

Washington Post:
Paul Manafort trial Day 12: Prosecutors say Manafort money trail ‘littered with lies’

Discussion: CNBC

Politico:
Manafort trial Day 12: ‘He is not above the law,’ prosecution argues in closing statement

Discussion: ABC News, UPI and Law & Crime

Margot Sanger-Katz / New York Times:

New Estimates Show Overdose Deaths Surpassed 72,000, a New High, in 2017 — Fentanyl is a big culprit, but there are also encouraging signs from states that have prioritized public health campaigns and addiction treatment. — Drug overdoses killed more than 72,300 Americans last year …

Discussion: New Republic and Hit & Run

Jeff Stein / Washington Post:

Huckabee Sanders apologizes for false statement about black employment — White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders apologized late Tuesday for wrongly stating that President Trump has created three times as many jobs for black workers as President Barack Obama did.

Discussion: HuffPost, Shareblue Media, New York Times, Business Insider, MSNBC, Splinter, The Week, CNBC, The Root and AOL

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:

Elizabeth Warren has a plan to save capitalism — She's unveiling a bill to make corporate governance great again. — Elizabeth Warren has a big idea that challenges how the Democratic Party thinks about solving the problem of inequality. — Instead of advocating for expensive …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Elizabeth Warren / Wall Street Journal:
Companies Shouldn't Be Accountable Only to Shareholders

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Sylvan Lane / The Hill:

Treasury retweets Trump, possibly violating campaign law — The Treasury Department on Wednesday retweeted a post from President Trump — celebrating Republican wins in congressional elections this year, potentially violating federal campaign law. — The department's official Twitter account shared …

Discussion: Politico, Reuters, Splinter, The Western Journal and Axios

adfmedia.org:

Hostility unabated: Colorado seeks to punish cake artist Jack Phillips again — ADF attorneys file suit against state officials — DENVER - Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Colorado cannot treat cake artist Jack Phillips differently than others, state officials have continued …

Discussion: The Federalist, The Daily Signal, Townhall, RedState, Law & Crime, twitchy.com and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Matt Lewis / The Daily Beast:

Did I Join a Movement That Naturally Attracts Extremists and Kooks? … This week's news about Omarosa secretly taping chief of staff John Kelly and President Donald Trump is yet another reminder of something about Trumpworld: Politics has always attracted eccentric opportunists, but people in this administration are especially weird.

Elaine Ou / Bloomberg:

Your Name Is All Over the Internet. It Doesn't Need to Be. — As more activity is linked to our real names, the stakes seem excessively high. There has to be a better way. — In the 1981 sci-fi novel “True Names,” Vernor Vinge describes a dystopian future in which hackers go to great lengths …

Julia Manchester / The Hill:

White House spokesman: I've never seen an NDA in Trump White House — White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said on Wednesday that he has never seen a nondisclosure agreement in the White House under the Trump administration. — “I can't speak to anybody else. What I can tell you is I've never seen one in this White House.

Discussion: Washington Post

Travis Gettys / Raw Story:

'The guy's not right': Morning Joe raises new questions about Trump's mental health — MSNBC's Joe Scarborough has been surprised by President Donald Trump's inability to enlarge his support, saying he had believed his former friend's pathological need to be liked would outweigh his other negative personality traits.

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Rochelle Olson / Star Tribune:

Former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman says cancer has returned to his lungs, ‘shaken my soul’ — Coleman said his prognosis is not “overly optimistic,” but he will fight on. — TEXT SIZE — The throat and neck cancer that former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman began battling almost three years ago …

Discussion: Political Wire and Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Lacey Rose / Hollywood Reporter:

Jim Carrey's (Reluctant) Return to Hollywood: At Home With an Actor, Artist and Trump-Era Agitator — In his first extensive profile in years, the one-time $20 million-a-movie star and current political cartoonist opens up about his disappearance, his personal pain, his outrage and why he's returning …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Daily Wire

Veronica Stracqualursi / CNN:

Joe Biden cancels Illinois event due to 'doctor's orders' — Biden: President is looking out for himself — Washington (CNN)Former Vice President Joe Biden canceled a planned appearance in Illinois this week because he is sick and “under doctor's orders not to travel,” according to state Democrats.

Discussion: Illinois Democratic …, Chicago Sun-Times, The American Mirror and Talking Points Memo

Maya Salam / New York Times:

For Online Daters, Women Peak at 18 While Men Peak at 50, Study Finds. Oy. — If you haven't watched “Nanette,” Hannah Gadsby's fearless comedy special on Netflix, do that now. (We'll wait.) — In it, Ms. Gadsby takes on the fragility of masculinity — and at one point drills into Pablo Picasso …

New York Times:

Jerry Seinfeld Says Jokes Are Not Real Life — You just released the 10th season of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” How come it's illegal to talk on a phone while you're driving, but it's legal to film a TV show? Believe me, it's a hundred times more distracting to try to drive …

Discussion: Mediaite

National Journal:

In A News Vacuum, Politicians Construct Their Own Realities — In the Arizona Senate race, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema avoids the press while Republican Martha McSally attacks the media. And without vibrant local-news coverage, no one cares. — CHANDLER, Ariz.—President Trump's frequent diatribes …

Liam Dillon / Los Angeles Times:

Here's how California became the most secretive state on police misconduct … In the 1970s, Los Angeles police officers were furious that past complaints against them increasingly were making their way into court cases. — So LAPD officials did something radical: They took more than four tons …

Hartford Courant:

Poised to Make History, Jahana Hayes Wins the 5th District Democratic Primary — Jahana Hayes wins the Democratic primary for 5th district defeating Mary Glassman Tuesday night. (John Woike / Hartford Courant) — Jahana Hayes, the daughter of a drug addict who grew up in public housing …

Discussion: CNN, The Intercept, VICE News, New Republic, HuffPost, Political Wire and KTLA

Jay Nordlinger / National Review:

'You're on your own,' &c. — In the past several days, I have noted three things in the media that bear on the struggle over conservatism. Well, maybe more than three, but I would like to comment on three. This will not be a very fun Impromptus, maybe — but, on the plus side, it'll be brief.

Don Behm / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Earnell Lucas defeats Richard Schmidt in Milwaukee County sheriff's race — Earnell Lucas, a Major League Baseball security official, won Tuesday's Democratic primary election for Milwaukee County sheriff and he becomes a sure bet to be hired by voters in November to a four-year term in the office.

Discussion: The Atlantic and JSOnline

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:

Public Radio Networks to Merge in Big Bet on Podcasts — PRI and PRX are joining forces in hopes of becoming a podcasting juggernaut — Public-radio companies PRX and PRI are merging in a bid to capitalize on the surging popularity of podcasts and other digital formats as listeners …

more at Mediagazer »

Michael Goodwin / New York Post:

New York City's booming economy is bad news for the far left — Mother always said it's not nice to laugh while others cry, but there are exceptions. One is on display now in New York. — “It's New ‘Work’ City! Record Low Jobless,” read the headline on Page 2 of Tuesday's Post.

Discussion: Fox News, Instapundit, 100PercentFedUp.com and Hot Air

Bloomberg:

Mueller Probe Seen Pushing Past Trump-Demanded September 1 Deadline — Giuliani says will ‘unload’ on Mueller if probe lasts longer — DOJ guidelines don't bar indictments in period before election — Special Counsel Robert Mueller doesn't have to shut down his Russia investigation …

Discussion: The Hill and Political Wire