memeorandum: Venezuela's Maduro Cracks Down on His Own Military in Bid to Retain Power (New York Times)

7:10 AM ET, August 14, 2019

Top Items:

Jeffrey Epstein Death: 2 Guards Slept Through Checks and Falsified Records — The guards did not check on him for three hours, officials said. The disclosures came as the guards and the warden at the jail were removed. — The two guards who were in the jail unit where Jeffrey Epstein …

Discussion: Townhall, New York Post, Slate, PJ Media Home, CANNONFIRE, Daily Wire, Patterico's Pontifications, The Marshall Project, Mediaite, CNBC, BuzzFeed News, VICE and Fox News

Jane Lytvynenko / BuzzFeed News:

Epstein's Death Was On 4Chan Before Officials Announced It — Now Authorities Are Investigating — The New York City Fire Department is investigating whether a first responder posted about Jeffrey Epstein's death on a notorious internet message board prior to officials announcing it to the public, BuzzFeed News has learned.

Discussion: Sputnik International, New York Post, Breitbart, Rolling Stone, Big League Politics, Mediaite, Law & Crime, Hot Air, Boing Boing, Daily Wire, Talking Points Memo, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story and CBS News, more at Mediagazer »

Morgan Chalfant / The Hill:

DOJ reassigns warden after Epstein's apparent suicide — Attorney General William Barr has ordered the Bureau of Prisons to temporarily reassign the warden at the New York federal prison where accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was found dead over the weekend pending federal investigations into his apparent suicide.

Discussion: NBC News, CNBC, Washington Post, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, WPTV, The Daily Caller and TheBlaze

Associated Press:
The Latest: Epstein guards suspected of falsifying logs

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Ken White / The Atlantic:
Thirty-Two Short Stories About Death in Prison

Discussion: Boing Boing, The Week, Popehat and Townhall

Simon Shuster / TIME:

A Kremlin-Linked Firm Invested Millions in Kentucky. Were They After More Than Money? — Last summer, it looked like things were finally about to change for Ashland, Ky. For two decades, the jobs that once supported this Appalachian outpost of 20,000 people on a bend in the Ohio River …

Washington Post:

How a McConnell-backed effort to lift Russian sanctions boosted a Kentucky project — In January, as the Senate debated whether to permit the Trump administration to lift sanctions on Russia's largest aluminum producer, two men with millions of dollars riding on the outcome met for dinner at a restaurant in Zurich.

Discussion: The Week

Susan B. Glasser / Foreign Affairs: Putin the Great — Russia's Imperial Impostor

Reid J. Epstein / New York Times:

John Hickenlooper Mulling Ending Presidential Bid to Run for Senate — CLEAR LAKE, Iowa — Former Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado is in discussions about ending his presidential bid and entering the race for his state's Republican-held Senate seat, potentially giving Democrats a strong candidate …

Discussion: Denver Post, FiveThirtyEight, ABC News, The Colorado Independent, Talking Points Memo and Axios

Oliver Darcy / CNN:

New York Times demotes editor who sparked fury — New York (CNN Business)Jonathan Weisman, the deputy Washington editor for The New York Times (NYT), has been demoted after a pair of incidents in which he ignited controversy on Twitter (TWTR), the newspaper said Tuesday.

Discussion: Hot Air, Sputnik International, The Wrap, Politico and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Ethan Brown / The Appeal:

A No-Holds-Barred Assault on Prosecutors — Attorney General William Barr pushed back against reforms by progressive prosecutors—but perhaps his greatest vitriol was reserved for the Boston DA's attempt to rein in police. — U.S. Attorney General William Barr lashed out at progressive prosecutors …

Discussion: Raw Story and Daily Wire

Daniel Nichanian / The Appeal: 22 NOTES FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR

John Binder / Breitbart:

Exclusive—Watch: Leftists Threaten Contractor in Fla; Day Before ICE Facility Shot at in Texas — A group of open borders activists threatened employees of a government contractor in Florida that provides facility space for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

KSAT-TV:
FBI investigating shooting into ICE offices in San Antonio as a ‘targeted attack’ against feds

Discussion: Summit News, RedState and twitchy.com

Lauren Egan / NBC News:

Trump says he's losing as much as $5B being president — During a visit to a Pennsylvania factory, the president claimed without evidence that he was losing money while in office. — MONACA, Pa. — President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that being president will personally cost him billions of dollars …

Discussion: Raw Story, The Week and Associated Press

Washington Post:
Trump energy speech in Pennsylvania sounded more like a campaign rally

Discussion: One America News Network and Politico

Aris Folley / The Hill:

Over 70,000 people sign petition to rename Fifth Avenue outside Trump Tower after Obama — More than 70,000 people have signed onto a petition that seeks to rename the portion of Fifth Avenue in front of the Trump Tower in Manhattan after former President Obama.

Discussion: Fox News

John Amato / Latest from Crooks and Liars:

AOC Pwns Barstool Sports Creator For Threatening Employees Over Unionizing — Dave Portnoy really ought to know better than this, but apparently testosterone trumps brains. — Dave Portnoy, the creator of Barstool Sports, threatened he would fire all his employees if they responded …

Discussion: Breitbart, Variety and Spectator USA, more at Mediagazer »

Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg:
Ocasio-Cortez Chides Barstool Sports for Anti-Union Tweets

Discussion: PJ Media Home, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story and Rolling Stone

Aidan McLaughlin / Mediaite:

Man Sues CNN's Don Lemon for Alleged Assault at Sag Harbor Bar — A man is suing Don Lemon, claiming the CNN host attacked him at a Hamptons bar last summer. The suit, obtained by Mediaite, was filed Sunday and seeks unspecified damages for “emotional pain and suffering.”

Discussion: Breitbart, The Wrap, The Daily Caller, RedState, New York Post, The Gateway Pundit, PJ Media Home, Daily Wire, NB Blog and twitchy.com

Mark Moore / New York Post:

Chris Cuomo once referred to himself as ‘Fredo’ in radio interview — CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who was captured on a viral video getting into a profanity-laced exchange with a person who called him “Fredo,” once referred to himself as the hapless “The Godfather” character in a radio interview.

Alex Horton / Washington Post:
How Fredo, the tragic ‘Godfather’ character, became an insult wielded by Trump

Discussion: Hot Air, The Federalist and Vox

David Brunnstrom / Reuters:

U.S. senator warns China on Hong Kong trade status if it intervenes in protests — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prominent U.S. senator warned China on Tuesday Hong Kong could lose its special U.S. trade status if Beijing intervenes directly to crack down on increasingly violent pro-democracy protests in the city.

Reuters: China tells U.S. to back off after lawmakers condemn Hong Kong violence

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

Facebook Paid Contractors to Transcribe Users' Audio Chats — Social network says it paused human review of conversations — Apple, Amazon, Google have been scrutinized for similar work — Facebook Inc. has been paying hundreds of outside contractors to transcribe clips of audio …

Discussion: Politico, TechCrunch, The Verge, The Guardian, ScienceAlert, Vanity Fair, Mashable and The Week, more at Techmeme »

Annie Karni / New York Times:

No One Attacked Trump More in 2016 Than His Fellow Republicans. The Lesson: It Didn't Work. — WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has called President Trump an “existential threat” to the nation. — Senator Kamala Harris has warned on the campaign trail that the president is a racist.

Daniel Friedman / Mother Jones:

Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos Are Scheduled to Speak at a Conference Organized by a QAnon Supporter — Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos, two former Trump foreign policy aides who both agreed in late 2017 to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation …

New York Times:

Venezuela's Maduro Cracks Down on His Own Military in Bid to Retain Power — MARACAY, Venezuela — A week after Venezuela's intelligence forces detained a retired navy captain, he appeared in a military tribunal a broken man, in a wheelchair and showing signs of torture. — “Help me,” he mouthed to his lawyer.

Will Sommer / The Daily Beast:

Trump Superfan Bill Mitchell Raised Money to Move to D.C. He Moved to Miami Instead — Bill Mitchell's fans and some right-wing personalities are fuming at Mitchell after he said he wanted to interview the big politicians in D.C. and then moved to Miami. — Trump superfan Bill Mitchell …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Miami New Times and Right Wing Watch

Apple Podcasts:

Matt Bruenig's case for single-payer health care — The Democratic primary has been unexpectedly dominated by a single question: Will you abolish private health insurance? Wrapped in that question are dozens more. Why, if private health insurance is such a mess, do polls show most Americans want to keep it?

Ashley Parker / Washington Post:

Top Pence aide will move to Pentagon as new spokeswoman — Alyssa Farah is leaving her job as Vice President Pence's spokeswoman at the end of the month and will join the Defense Department as press secretary, starting in September. — Farah began her tenure at the White House almost two years ago …

Discussion: Politico

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Carlos Maza reportedly leaving Vox after harassment on Twitter — Carlos Maza, the controversial host of the show “Strikethrough,” appears to be on the way out at Vox Media. — Maza was engaged in a running battle with right-wing provocateur Steven Crowder, who the openly gay Latino Maza …

Discussion: TheBlaze

Peter Savodnik / Vanity Fair:

MILLENNIALS, RAPPERS, AND REVOLUTION: INSIDE BERNIE SANDERS'S PLAYBOOK FOR WINNING THE BLACK VOTE — The old, white senator from Vermont has become an unlikely hero to black and Hispanic millennials in Los Angeles. At a private lunch last month in Hollywood, Sanders explained his vision …

Discussion: Washington Post

Kenneth P. Vogel / New York Times:

How a Trump Ally Tested the Boundaries of Washington's Influence Game — WASHINGTON — Elliott Broidy had the kind of past that might have given a more traditional White House reason to keep him at a distance: A wealthy businessman, he had pleaded guilty in 2009 to giving nearly $1 million …

Discussion: Raw Story

Washington Post:

Extreme climate change has arrived in America — 2°C: BEYOND THE LIMIT °C °F — LAKE HOPATCONG, N.J. — Before climate change thawed the winters of New Jersey, this lake hosted boisterous wintertime carnivals. As many as 15,000 skaters took part, and automobile owners would drive onto the thick ice.

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Press Herald and Detroit Metro Times

Bloomberg:

Republican Donors Told to Wait as Pompeo Considers Kansas Senate Run — Secretary of state has given mixed signals on the 2020 race — Pompeo's trips to Kansas, political speeches fuel speculation — Republican political donors have been told to hold off contributing …