memeorandum: Judge troubled by clerk's ‘LOL’ remark, but won't order another Dodge City polling site (Jonathan Shorman/Kansas City Star)

3:45 PM ET, November 2, 2018

Top Items:

Nigerian Army Uses Trump's Words to Justify Fatal Shooting of Rock-Throwing Protesters — DAKAR, Senegal — The Nigerian Army, part of a military criticized for rampant human rights abuses, on Friday used the words of President Trump to justify its fatal shootings of rock-throwing protesters.

Discussion: Politico, Hit & Run, Hill Reporter, VICE News US, twitchy.com, Daily Kos and Mediaite

Matthew Champion / BuzzFeed News:

Nigeria's Army Used A Trump Speech To Justify Shooting Protesters — President Donald Trump said in a speech on Thursday that rocks thrown by migrants on the US-Mexico border should be considered as firearms. By Friday, the Nigerian army had already used a video of the speech …

Agence France-Presse: An army spokesman said the demonstrators were armed with stones, petrol bombs, machetes and knives

Emily Jane Fox / Vanity Fair:

Michael Cohen Says Trump Repeatedly Used Racist Language Before His Presidency — As he awaits sentencing, Trump's former lawyer says that he wants to clear his conscience and warn voters about what he sees as the president's true nature in advance of the midterm elections. — BY - EMILY JANE FOXNovember 2, 2018,

Discussion: Mediaite

New York Post:

Political event canceled after vandals scrawl ‘Kill all Jews’ inside Brooklyn synagogue — A political event hosted by “Broad City” star Ilana Glazer at a historic Brooklyn synagogue was cancelled Thursday when a vandal scrawled “Kill all Jews” inside. — The NYPD said “anti-Semitic messages” …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, IndieWire, Taylor Marsh, Sputnik International, Raw Story, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and The Week

Chris Mills Rodrigo / The Hill:

Twitter apologizes for ‘Kill all Jews’ trending topic — Twitter is apologizing for the fact that “Kill all Jews” appeared as a trending topic on its platform Friday. — In a statement, a representative from Twitter said the phrase should not have appeared on the trending topic list and that “we're sorry for this mistake.”

Discussion: Hill Reporter and Kathryn T Gonzalez

William K. Rashbaum / New York Times:
Ilana Glazer Event at Synagogue Is Canceled After Anti-Semitic Graffiti Is Found

Discussion: Gothamist and Jezebel

BuzzFeed News:
Twitter Had A Trending Topic For “Kill All Jews” After A Brooklyn Synagogue Vandalism

Discussion: Motherboard and Boing Boing, more at Mediagazer »

Dexter Filkins / New Yorker:

In the Aftermath of Jamal Khashoggi's Murder, Saudi Arabia Enters a Dangerous Period — After a month, it seems we finally have a good picture of Jamal Khashoggi's last moments. In early October, the Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul …

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post and Al Jazeera English

Recep Tayyip Erdogan / Washington Post:

Saudi Arabia still has many questions to answer about Jamal Khashoggi's killing — Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the president of Turkey. — The story is all too familiar: Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and a family man, entered Saudi Arabia's Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 for marriage formalities.

Travis Gettys / Raw Story:
‘Pray for the crown prince’: Michele Bachmann and other end-times evangelicals turn up in Saudi Arabia

Discussion: Religion News Service, Al Jazeera English and CBN News

Michelle Boorstein / Washington Post:
Trump's evangelical advisers meet with Saudi Crown Prince and discuss Jamal Khashoggi's murder …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, The Guardian, Mondoweiss, Breitbart, Mediaite and The American Conservative

Yahoo News:

The CIA's communications suffered a catastrophic compromise. It started in Iran. — In 2013, hundreds of CIA officers — many working nonstop for weeks — scrambled to contain a disaster of global proportions: a compromise of the agency's internet-based covert communications system used …

Discussion: Axios and emptywheel, more at Techmeme »

Lisa Lerer / New York Times:

No One Wants to Campaign with Bill Clinton Anymore — LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — When a Republican state legislator in Arkansas pushed last year to rename the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Clarke Tucker stood up for the former president.

Discussion: Politico, The Gateway Pundit, Sean Hannity, The American Mirror, NTK Network, Jezebel, Althouse and The Root

Newsweek:

Trump's Surprise Border Mission Is a Politically Motivated Waste of Money: Pentagon Sources — The Trump administration's plan to deploy thousands of troops to the U.S. border took officials by surprise, with many senior-level Defense Department officers saying they believed the move …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, IJR, VICE News US, Political Wire and The Daily Caller

Dara Lind / Vox: Border Patrol agents now have to ask everyone they catch if they're part of the caravan

Department of Homeland Security:
Myth vs. Fact: Caravan

Discussion: Breitbart, The White House and Washington Times

Christopher Cadelago / Politico:

White House prepares to spin defeat as victory — President Donald Trump and his allies have crafted a face-saving plan if Democrats trounce their way to a House majority — tout Trump as the savior of Republicans in the Senate. — In public and private, Trump and advisers are pointing …

Discussion: Political Wire

Eliana Johnson / Politico: Trump cancels Colombia trip

Peter Hamby / Vanity Fair:

“Blowing Smoke”: Sorry, Pundits, But You Have No Clue What Will Happen on Tuesday — Electorates mutate every two years. Using past turnout patterns can be useful when modeling a universe of voters, but the polls cannot tell us with certainty what will happen on Election Day anymore.

Discussion: New Republic

Irin Carmon / The Cut:

Heidi Heitkamp Doesn't Care That You Think She's Going to Lose She thinks she can win in North Dakota, even after her “no” on Kavanaugh. — FORT BERTHOLD, ND — A man on the campaign trail refused to shake North Dakota senator Heidi Heitkamp's hand because she voted against Brett Kavanaugh …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and The Resurgent

Vice:
What It Feels Like to Be Disenfranchised by a Voter ID Law

Discussion: RedState, The Resurgent, twitchy.com and The Daily Beast

New York Times:

Trump Accelerates Global Disintegration of Once Sacrosanct Asylum Rights — LONDON — President Trump's promise to stop a caravan of Central American migrants from reaching the United States border, if necessary through military force, might seem like just another attack on traditional international norms.

Veronica Stracqualursi / CNN:
Stephen Miller's uncle: Central American asylum seekers are ‘just like our family’

Discussion: HuffPost, Media Matters for America, The Daily Caller, Jamie Dupree - AJC and The New Neo

Virginia Heffernan / Wired:

The Real Houseguest of the Ecuadorian Embassy — IF JULIAN ASSANGE of WikiLeaks denies the Ecuadorian government's stinging charge that he's a disgusting houseguest, he'd do well not to deny that charge “categorically.” As a category, crimes against hospitality are one of Assange's many fortes.

Discussion: emptywheel, The Week, Washington Post, New Republic, Raw Story and JustOneMinute

Washington Post:

Trump request to stay emoluments suit denied, potentially allowing plaintiffs to seek details on his D.C. hotel's foreign customers — U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte in Greenbelt, Md., denied the Justice Department's request that he pause the emoluments case alleging that the president …

BBC:

Trump administration to reinstate all Iran sanctions — The Trump administration is to reinstate all US sanctions on Iran removed under the 2015 nuclear deal. — The White House said it was “the toughest sanctions regime ever imposed on Iran” and targeted Iran's energy, shipping and banking sectors.

Discussion: Vox, Townhall, CNN and The Daily Caller

Dave Lawler / Axios:
Trump to reimpose all Iran sanctions, with exemptions on oil imports

Discussion: Politico, One America News Network, The Economic Times and Algemeiner.com

Zachary Fryer-Biggs / Center for Public Integrity:

The Pentagon has prepared a cyber attack against Russia — U.S. military hackers have been given the go-ahead to gain access to Russian cyber systems as part of potential retaliation for any meddling in America's elections — In this Feb. 27, 2012 file photo, voters cast their ballots on voting machines in Chicago, Illinois.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Business Insider, Hill Reporter and Task & Purpose

Paul Theroux / Washington Post:

A blue wave is predicted for the midterms. I'm not convinced. — Paul Theroux is the author, most recently, of “Figures in a Landscape: People and Places.” — OAXACA, MEXICO — Ihave quite a lot of sympathy for certain Trump voters, and (wait, please, let me finish) …

Discussion: Spectator USA and Althouse

Dave Huddleston / WSB-TV:

NEW POLL: Race for Georgia governor as close as ever — ATLANTA - The race for Georgia governor is as close as it's ever been, according to the newest Channel 2 Action News & The Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released Thursday. — According to the new poll, there's a real possibility …

Discussion: NBC News, Daily Kos, LifeZette, Political Wire, Shareblue Media, IJR and The Week

Christine Hauser / New York Times:

‘Are You Actually an M.D.?’: A Black Doctor Is Questioned as She Intervenes on a Delta Flight — Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford was on a Delta flight from Indianapolis to Boston on Tuesday when she noticed the woman next to her showing signs of distress. So Dr. Stanford did what she was trained …

Discussion: Tamika Cross, Boston Magazine and FOX59

NBC New York:

Alec Baldwin Arrested After Fight Over Manhattan Parking Spot — President Trump, Baldwin's frequent target, said “I wish him luck” — Actor Alec Baldwin was arrested Friday after allegedly punching someone in the West Village. — Law enforcement sources told News 4 the dispute was over a parking spot.

Discussion: TMZ.com, CNBC, Law & Crime and The Daily Caller

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:

What Happened to Lindsey Graham? He's Become a Conservative ‘Rock Star’ — CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — Senator Lindsey Graham's bipartisan overtures — on immigration, foreign policy, even investigations of President Trump — once made him a darling of Democrats, a Republican dealmaker to be wooed to the center.

Discussion: Raw Story

Washington Post:

President Trump has made 6,420 false or misleading claims over 649 days — If President Trump's torrent of words has seemed overwhelming of late, there's a good reason for that. — In the first nine months of his presidency, President Trump made 1,318 false or misleading claims, an average of five a day.

Discussion: CNN, The Guardian, IJR, POLITICUSUSA and Balloon Juice

Jonathan Shorman / Kansas City Star:

Judge troubled by clerk's ‘LOL’ remark, but won't order another Dodge City polling site — TOPEKA — A southwest Kansas county clerk doesn't have to open a second polling site in Dodge City, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. — U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Crabtree …

Discussion: Splinter and ACLU of Kansas

Idaho Statesman:

Middleton school district to investigate staff dressed as border wall, Mexicans — Photos of staff at an elementary school in Middleton who were dressed for Halloween as Mexicans, while others posed behind a cardboard cutout of a border wall that says “Make America Great Again,” …

Fareed Zakaria / Washington Post:

The GOP has become the party of fake news and paranoid fantasies — It is commonplace to hear and read about President Trump's takeover of the Republican Party. And certainly there is lots of evidence that the GOP is animated these days by an unquestioning devotion to Trump and whatever his ideas may be at any given moment.

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:

Rise of the Armed Left — Threats from the right inspire a new left-wing gun culture. — ATLANTA — When I met Oso, a trash collector from rural Georgia in his late 30s, he was wearing dark shades and a black T-shirt with a silhouette of an assault rifle and the words “Piece Now.”

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Travis Gettys / Raw Story:

Wisconsin conservative admits he'd shoot his sister in the face for Trump: ‘She has to know how passionate I am’ — A Wisconsin conservative admits he would turn against his own family to back President Donald Trump if the United States slid into civil war.

Discussion: The Root

Gary Langer / ABC News:

Half say Trump encourages violence by way he speaks, poll finds — Half of registered voters think that President Donald Trump is encouraging politically motivated violence in the United States in the way he speaks, but essentially as many say the media are doing the same in the way they report the news …

Discussion: Political Wire

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:

Pennsylvania Flipped to Trump in 2016. Will It Flip Back in the Midterms? — MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — Sandy Sinkovich, a retired X-ray technician, was a registered Republican until she switched parties during the Obama years. She plans to vote a straight Democratic ticket in the midterms.

Pamela Druckerman / New York Times:

The News Is Bad in Hungary — Viktor Orban didn't like what the press was reporting, so he took it over. — BUDAPEST — If you're wondering what attacks on the news media around the world mean for the future of democracy, it's worth a trip to Budapest. Consider it a cautionary-tale vacation.

Discussion: Shakesville