memeorandum: The more we learn about Brexit, the more crooked it looks (Anne Applebaum/Washington Post)

12:30 PM ET, March 9, 2019

Top Items:

David Corn / Mother Jones:

A Florida Massage Parlor Owner Has Been Selling Chinese Execs Access to Trump at Mar-a-Lago — The latest Trump political donor to draw controversy is Li Yang, a 45-year-old Florida entrepreneur from China who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors that included the one where New England …

Ken White / The Atlantic:

6 Reasons Paul Manafort Got Off So Lightly — Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, entered Virginia federal court on Thursday facing a recommended sentence of 19 to 24 years, and left with a sentence of less than four years.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, USA Today and New York Times

Washington Post:

Is Paul Manafort's sentence too light? He fared worse than many fraudsters, data shows. — Paul Manafort's prison sentence of less than four years on bank- and tax-fraud charges Thursday sparked outrage from commentators who said it was too light a punishment for his crimes.

Discussion: New York Times and Outside the Beltway

Mary Papenfuss / HuffPost:

Ex-Mercenary CEO Erik Prince Admits To Trump Tower Meet With Donald Jr. And Saudi Emissary — He said the campaign huddle focused on “Iran policy,” and suggested his congressional hearing transcript when he failed to mention it was inaccurate. — Erik Prince, former head of mercenary business Blackwater …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Talking Points Memo and POLITICUSUSA

Mehdi Hasan / The Intercept:
Did Blackwater's Erik Prince Lie to Congress About a Trump Tower Meeting? I Asked Him.

Discussion: Raw Story and Hullabaloo

Al Jazeera English / YouTube:
Blackwater's Erik Prince: Iraq, privatising wars, and Trump | Head to Head

Discussion: Al Jazeera

Anne Applebaum / Washington Post:

The more we learn about Brexit, the more crooked it looks — Elements of the 2016 British referendum campaign have long seemed familiar to Americans. There was a close, controversial election, full of rancor and anger. There were a lot of wealthy men talking about “the people” and their “will.”

Discussion: Byline Times

Maria Sacchetti / Washington Post:

In another blow to Trump, judge rules in favor of ACLU in family separations case — In a legal blow to the Trump administration, a federal judge ruled Friday that all migrant families separated during the government's border crackdown should be included in a class-action lawsuit.

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

NBC News: Trump administration responsible for even more separated children, judge rules

Alan Gomez / USA Today: Judge: Trump administration may have to reunite thousands of additional migrant families

Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:

In Surprise Move, House Republican Releases Bruce Ohr Transcript — Georgia Rep. Doug Collins unilaterally released a 268-page transcript Friday of a deposition that Justice Department official Bruce Ohr gave to Congress in August. — Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and twitchy.com

Sara Carter / Sara A. Carter: Bruce Ohr's Testimony Contradicts Testimony Provided By Rosenstein And Simpson

Dan Balz / Washington Post:

Yes, the Republican Party has changed since 2016. You think the Democratic Party hasn't? — The transformation of the Republican Party under President Trump is a well-told story. Less noted, but no less significant, is the change in the Democratic Party during the same period.

Discussion: The Daily Beast and JNS.org

Bret Stephens / New York Times:
Capitalism and the Democratic Party

Discussion: MSNBC

Sydney Ember / New York Times:

A ‘Beat Trump’ Fervor Is Producing Big Turnouts for 2020 Democrats — COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — They dragged their friends to see Bernie Sanders in Iowa. In South Carolina, their unrelenting selfie requests made Cory Booker late. And in New Hampshire, so many showed up at a church for an event …

Discussion: Axios and Raw Story

Washington Post:

Howard Schultz's ‘nightmare’: How his first big gamble outside Starbucks ended in defeat — When Howard Schultz bought the Seattle SuperSonics in 2001, his friends told the Starbucks chief he was overestimating what he could do to save the struggling basketball franchise.

Heather Long / Washington Post:

Workers suddenly have more power to demand higher pay and better jobs — Workers are receiving the fattest wage increases since the Great Recession as employers struggle to find enough people to fill their ranks and employees have more leverage to demand higher pay and jump to better jobs.

Discussion: Breitbart, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal and New York Times

Washington Post:

She exposed Russian trolling. Her award for her work was rescinded after she criticized Trump. — LONG BEFORE fears erupted in the United States about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, Jessikka Aro, an investigative journalist in Finland, was poking around an unusual company …

Discussion: NB Blog

WLS / ABC7:

Jussie Smollett update: ‘Empire’ actor indicted on 16 felony counts by grand jury … There have been dozens of twists and turns since “Empire” start Jussie Smollett reported being attacked. Here are some key moments from the start of this story. — WLS

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Hollywood Reporter, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, Townhall, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Vanity Fair, Raw Story, Deadline, The Root, TheBlaze, Big League Politics and Page Six

Crime In Boystown / CWB Chicago:
Exclusive: Grand jury returns 16 felony counts against Jussie Smollett

Discussion: CBS Chicago, Bounding Into Comics, Hollywood Reporter, Daily Wire, Hot Air, twitchy.com, Breitbart, RedState and The Gateway Pundit

New York Times:

Only One Roadblock on the Road to Reform: Mitch McConnell — Why no vote on the House-passed ethics and election reform bill, Mr. Senate Leader? “Because I get to decide what we vote on.” — The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher.

Discussion: TheBlaze, Washington Post, Fox News, Hullabaloo and Daily Kos

Jennifer Senior / New York Times:

Teen Fiction and the Perils of Cancel Culture — Readers, not a Twitter mob, should decide the fate of a book. — Late last month, a young man named Kosoko Jackson became the second young adult author in five weeks to pull a debut work just before it hit the shelves.

Alyza Sebenius / Bloomberg:

Russian Trolls Shift Strategy to Disrupt U.S. Election in 2020 — Hackers infiltrate computers to create fake social media users — Fake accounts are used to amplify divisive messages by others — Russian internet trolls appear to be shifting strategy in their efforts to disrupt …

Deanna Paul / Washington Post:

Alabama's Roy Moore is ‘seriously considering’ a 2020 Senate run — Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) may face Roy Moore, his 2017 special election opponent, in Alabama's 2020 U.S. Senate race. The former chief justice of the state's supreme court announced he is “seriously considering” …

Discussion: Reuters

Andrew Sullivan / New York Magazine:

How Should We Talk About the Israel Lobby's Power? — Let's get this out of the way first: Using the phrases “all about the Benjamins” and “allegiance to a foreign country” when referring to the Israel lobby in D.C., as freshman Democratic representative Ilhan Omar recently did, is anti-Semitic.

Discussion: The American Conservative

Tim Ross / Bloomberg:

U.K. Dismisses EU's Brexit Concession as a ‘Disappointing’ Joke — Andrea Leadsom says Commons could hold more votes on exit deal — Leadsom says EU stance is pushing U.K. toward a no-deal Brexit — Follow @Brexit on Twitter, join our Facebook group and sign up to our Brexit Bulletin.

Discussion: Politico and Coffee House

Washington Post:

Lisa Murkowski and Joe Manchin: It's time to act on climate change — responsibly — Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, represents Alaska in the U.S. Senate. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, represents West Virginia in the U.S. Senate. — The two of us have more in common than might meet the eye.

Discussion: ThinkProgress