memeorandum: North Korea is still making nukes, and the Trump admin is taking a harder line (NBC News)

11:40 AM ET, September 10, 2018

Top Items:

GOP candidate for Fla. governor spoke at racially charged events — Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), a gubernatorial nominee who recently was accused of using racially tinged language, spoke four times at conferences organized by a conservative activist who has said that African Americans owe …

Discussion: Politico, MSNBC, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Splinter, Political Wire, Shareblue Media, No More Mister Nice Blog, HuffPost, POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story

David Leonhardt / New York Times:

The Urgent Question of Trump and Money Laundering — How Bruce Ohr, President Trump's latest Twitter target, fits a suspicious pattern of behavior on Russia. — Donald Trump has a long history of doing what he thinks is best for Donald Trump. If he needs to discard friends, allies or wives along the way, so be it.

Axios:

Trump expected to declassify Carter Page and Bruce Ohr documents — President Trump is expected to declassify, as early as this week, documents covering the U.S. government's surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and the investigative activities of senior Justice Department lawyer Bruce Ohr …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Times, Political Wire and Mediaite

Rowan Scarborough / Washington Times: Bruce Ohr notes contradict Glenn Simpson on Donald Trump, Russia collusion theory

Michael R. Gordon / Wall Street Journal:

Trump Administration to Close Palestine Liberation Organization Office in Washington — The Trump administration is expected to announce Monday it will close the Palestine Liberation Organization's office in Washington, widening a campaign of pressure amid stalled Middle East peace efforts.

Discussion: National Review, Talking Points Memo, Splinter, CNBC and BloombergQuint

Washington Post:

White House expected to warn of sanctions, other penalties if international court moves against Americans — The United States will threaten Monday to punish individuals that cooperate with the International Criminal Court in a potential investigation of U.S. wartime actions in Afghanistan …

Discussion: Reuters, Common Dreams and Shakesville

CBS News:
Trump admin. closing Palestine Liberation Organization D.C. office

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Washington Times

Emily Goldberg / Politico:

Trump says he'll ‘write the real book’ to counter Woodward's — U.S. President Donald Trump promised Monday that he would “write the real book” to set the record straight on his administration, once again lashing out against veteran Washington reporter Bob Woodward, whose incendiary book …

Discussion: Associated Press

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

The stress on Trump's machine — It's hard to overstate the extremity and variety of pressures bearing down on President Trump and his understaffed White House. — The bottom line: Taken together, it's a jaw-dropping list of problems, and Trump's “fine-tuned machine” is creaking under this stress.

Discussion: Politico

Isaac Chotiner / Slate:
Nobody's Heroes — Bob Woodward's new book presents Trump staffers …

Discussion: Fox News Insider, The Guardian, Outside the Beltway and The Daily Beast, more at Mediagazer »

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Scoop: Inside Trump's biggest hire

Discussion: Raw Story and Mediaite

Tamar Auber / Mediaite:

Michael Caputo Says He Figured Out the Identity of NYT Op-Ed Writer: She ‘Believes that She is a Hero’ — On Sunday, former Trump campaign director Michael Caputo claimed he knows who the author of the mysterious New York Times op-ed is and insisted the person behind the prose is a woman.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Victor Davis Hanson / American Greatness:
The Circus of Resistance — The resistance to Donald Trump …

Discussion: Breitbart

Shervin Malekzadeh / HuffPost:
I Am The Anonymous Iranian The NYT Published In 2009. The Trump Op-Ed Writer Is No Hero.

Discussion: NPR, Raw Story and The American Spectator

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
'I wouldn't have used it': Bob Woodward disses New York Times op-ed

Discussion: American Prospect, The Federalist and MSNBC

NBC News:

North Korea is still making nukes, and the Trump admin is taking a harder line — The newest intelligence shows Kim's regime has stepped up efforts to hide its nuclear weapons production, say three senior U.S. officials. — WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump issues a steady stream …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Defense One, Just Security, Bustle, The Daily Caller, Deadline, Bloomberg, Vox, Mediaite and Splinter

Natasha Korecki / Politico:

‘Scott Walker fatigue’ haunts Republicans — Signs that the Wisconsin governor is ripe to be taken down are everywhere. — GREEN BAY, Wisc. — There's every reason to believe this is the beginning of the end for Scott Walker. — His presidential bid crashed and burned.

Robby Soave / Hit & Run:

A Mathematician Says Activists Made His Paper Disappear Because Its Findings Offended Them — Theodore Hill, a retired professor of mathematics at Georgia Tech, claims that activists successfully pressured the New York Journal of Mathematics to delete an article he had written …

Evan Osnos / New Yorker:

Can Mark Zuckerberg Fix Facebook Before It Breaks Democracy? — The most famous entrepreneur of his generation is facing a public reckoning with the power of Big Tech. — At ten o'clock on a weekday morning in August, Mark Zuckerberg, the chairman and C.E.O. of Facebook …

CNN:

Rep. Mia Love's campaign admits to improperly raising primary election funds — (CNN)Rep. Mia Love's campaign has informed the Federal Election Commission that it will refund or redesignate less than half of what the government says was more than a million dollars improperly raised for a primary …

Discussion: Political Wire and Roll Call

Christopher Bodeen / Associated Press:

Group: Officials destroying crosses, burning bibles in China — BEIJING (AP) — China's government is ratcheting up a crackdown on Christian congregations in Beijing and several provinces, destroying crosses, burning bibles, shutting churches and ordering followers to sign papers renouncing their faith …

Discussion: Reuters, Hit & Run and The Daily Caller

New York Times:

Dirty Politics in New York — A last-minute mailer from Democrats wrongly describing Cynthia Nixon as anti-Semitic is a disgrace. — The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.

Discussion: Gothamist, New York Post and Splinter

Benjamin Hart / New York Magazine: Democratic Party Mailer Associating Cynthia Nixon With Anti-Semitism Backfires

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

Inside the GOP's rescue mission for Ted Cruz — With a string of polls showing GOP Sen. Ted Cruz's lead slipping, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick showed up in Washington on July 25 to deliver an urgent plea to White House officials: Send President Donald Trump. — Patrick, who chaired Trump's …

Discussion: ABC News, Talking Points Memo, Splinter, IJR, NTK Network, Washingtonian, The Daily Beast, POLITICUSUSA, CANNONFIRE, HuffPost, Off the Kuff, Raw Story, Vox, Mediaite, Hullabaloo, Outside the Beltway and Political Wire

Eli Watkins / CNN:
Cruz: Democrats want Texas to be ‘like California,’ have ‘tofu’ and ‘dyed hair’

Discussion: HuffPost, CBS News and Political Wire

BBC:

Swedish election: Main blocs neck and neck as nationalists gain — The Swedish general election has left the two main political blocs almost tied, with the anti-immigration party making gains on its previous results. — With nearly all ballots counted, the governing centre-left coalition …

Discussion: Mashable, The Guardian and Breitbart

Zachary Basu / Axios:
Establishment survives far-right surge in Swedish election

Discussion: Politico

Jedediah Purdy / New York Times:

A Progressive's Guide to Reclaiming the Constitution — Progressives should not just resist the erosion of important legal gains, but say what they believe the courts should do, and what they believe the Constitution means. — Mr. Purdy is a professor of law at Duke.

William D. Cohan / Vanity Fair:

Les Moonves Admits to Unwanted Kissing of His Doctor 19 Years Ago — Another wrinkle emerges in Moonves's negotiated exit from CBS, and within one of the more head-spinning #MeToo storylines yet. — BY - WILLIAM D. COHANSeptember 9, 2018, — The career arc of Les Moonves …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, Washington Post, Daily Wire, Common Dreams, Bustle, TVNewser, Full Feed and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Axios Sneak Peek

Discussion: CNNMoney, The Daily Caller, New York Times and BloombergQuint, more at Mediagazer »

Peter Baker / New York Times:

Trump Claims Credit for the Economy. Not So Fast, Says Obama. — WASHINGTON — The economy is doing quite well, thank you very much, and the president would naturally like to take credit. Both of them. — Barely a day passes without President Trump boasting about the growing economy …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Big Picture, Power Line, Bustle and Breitbart

Dana Rubinstein / Politico:

Mass transit absentia: Don't look for Cuomo on the subway platform — Step One: Take the train. Step Two: Get photographed taking the train. Step Three: Tweet out the photo (or rely on passers-by to do so). — Would-be governor Cynthia Nixon does straphanger photo ops.

Discussion: Eschaton