Top Items:
Garrett M. Graff / Politico:
The Story Behind Bill Barr's Unmarked Federal Agents — Few sights from the nation's protests in recent days have seemed more dystopian than the appearance of rows of heavily armed riot police around Washington in drab military-style uniforms with no insignia, identifying emblems or name badges.
Discussion:
Washington Post, New York Times and Talking Points Memo
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New York Times:
Trump Agrees to Send Home Troops From Washington, Easing Tensions With the Pentagon — But what appeared to be an uneasy truce between the White House and military leaders did not mean the conflict was over. — WASHINGTON — President Trump agreed on Thursday to begin sending home 82nd …
Discussion:
ABC News, Talking Points Memo, Defense One, The Daily Beast, New York Post, Politico, Mediaite, fox8.com, POLITICUSUSA and No More Mister Nice Blog
Washington Post:
How Mattis reached his breaking point — and decided to speak out against Trump — For former defense secretary Jim Mattis, it was the last straw: the sight of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, walking the streets of downtown Washington in battle-ready camouflage amid a show of brute federal force.
Discussion:
Business Insider, Fox News and Just The News
Steve Inskeep / NPR:
Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Condemns Trump's Threat To Use Military At Protests
Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Condemns Trump's Threat To Use Military At Protests
Discussion:
Washington Post, Brookings, New York Times, Progress Pond, The Hill, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and Axios
Deroy Murdock / Fox News:
Mattis wrongly criticizes Trump - ignores facts about rioting and president's accomplishments
Mattis wrongly criticizes Trump - ignores facts about rioting and president's accomplishments
Discussion:
Anchorage Daily News, One America News Network and Washington Post
Paul LeBlanc / CNN:
Trump shares letter that calls peaceful protesters ‘terrorists’
Trump shares letter that calls peaceful protesters ‘terrorists’
Discussion:
Defense One and Daily Kos
Matthew Choi / Politico:
Protesters sue Trump and Barr over ousting from Lafayette Square
Protesters sue Trump and Barr over ousting from Lafayette Square
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and The Crime Report
New York Times:
New York Times Says Senator's Op-Ed Did Not Meet Standards — After a staff uproar, The Times says the editing process was “rushed.” Senator Tom Cotton's “Send In the Troops” essay is now under review. — Executives at The New York Times scrambled on Thursday to address the concerns …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, National Review, Associated Press, The Daily Wire, Vanity Fair, Columbia Journalism Review, Althouse, The Guardian, Townhall, Breitbart, Mediaite, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Washington Free Beacon, Politico, New York Post, Washington Post and Patterico's Pontifications, more at Mediagazer »
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Rich Lowry / National Review:
The Inside Story of the Tom Cotton Op-Ed that Rocked the New York Times — The Cotton team explains how the explosive piece got accepted and edited. — When a newspaper publishes a bombshell op-ed, it doesn't want the chief casualty to be its own credibility.
Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:
Tom Cotton's Fascist Op-Ed — How should opinion pages respond to the right's authoritarian turn? — Before Donald Trump became president, most newspaper op-ed pages sought to present a spectrum of politically significant opinion and argument, which they could largely do while walling off extremist propaganda and incitement.
Matt Welch / Reason:
New York Times Journalists Scared To Have an Op-Ed Page — Last night, The New York Times, which has long maintained the pretentions of being the serious journalistic institution in the United States, published an article about how its own employees were scared—not just irritated, or …
Press Herald:
Our View: To President Trump: You should resign now — He lacks the character, maturity and judgment to lead the country in a perilous time.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Raw Story and The American Independent
Ryan J. Reilly / HuffPost:
Law Enforcement Seizes Masks Meant To Protect Anti-Racist Protesters From COVID-19 — The masks, reading “Stop killing Black people,” were meant to quell the spread of the coronavirus, which has disproportionately affected Black Americans. — WASHINGTON ― Law enforcement agents …
Jeff Cox / CNBC:
May sees biggest jobs increase ever of 2.5 million as economy starts to recover from coronavirus — Nonfarm payrolls rose by 2.5 million in May and the unemployment rate fell to 13.3%. — Wall Street estimates had been for a decline of 8.3 million and a jobless level of 19.5% …
Discussion:
Fox Business, The Daily Caller and Disrn
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Eli Rosenberg / Washington Post:
Unemployment rate drops to 13 percent, as the economy picked up jobs as states reopened
Unemployment rate drops to 13 percent, as the economy picked up jobs as states reopened
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
Rebecca Rainey / Politico:
Unemployment drops in May to 13.3 percent as states reopen
Unemployment drops in May to 13.3 percent as states reopen
Discussion:
Redstate, The American Independent, ABC News, The Hill, New York Times and Daily Kos
Reid J. Epstein / New York Times:
Biden Says About ‘10 to 15 Percent’ of Americans Are ‘Not Very Good People’ — Mr. Biden, speaking to black supporters about the need to improve the country, accused President Trump of dividing the nation and pledged to unite it. — WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. told …
Discussion:
Mediaite
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Joseph Wulfsohn / Fox News:
Biden claims ‘10 to 15 percent’ of Americans are ‘just not very good people’
Biden claims ‘10 to 15 percent’ of Americans are ‘just not very good people’
Discussion:
Washington Post, RealClearPolitics, Althouse and The Hill
Amanda Terkel / HuffPost:
The Police Have Shown Their True Colors — When they say they don't have too much power and don't act with impunity, will you still believe them? — Over the past week, protests have broken out nationwide over police brutality, the targeting of Black people and the lack of accountability for these actions.
Discussion:
WIVB-TV, Reason, WKBW-TV and Talking Points Memo
Nick Miroff / Washington Post:
People are sawing through and climbing over Trump's border wall. Now contractors are being asked for ideas to make it less vulnerable. — U.S. Customs and Border Protection has asked contractors for help making President Trump's border wall more difficult to climb over and cut through …
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Trump's Approval Slips Where He Can't Afford to Lose It: Among Evangelicals — Polls and private concerns from top social conservatives show the president's standing with the cornerstone of his base isn't what it used to be. A photo op with the Bible was supposed to help fix that.
Discussion:
Mediaite, PRRI, americamagazine.org, Raw Story and Washington Post
David A. Hopkins / Honest Graft:
Trump, the Floyd Protests, and the End of Confident Conservatism — After Richard Nixon's 1968 election, many conservatives came to believe that their movement naturally represented the political views of most Americans. This conservative faith in the wisdom of the average citizen was cemented …
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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Donald Trump Is No Richard Nixon
Donald Trump Is No Richard Nixon
Discussion:
Washington Post, Raw Story, courthousenews.com and Foreign Policy, more at Mediagazer »
Matthew Continetti / Washington Free Beacon:
American Civilization and Its Discontents — In 1969, Irving Kristol was appointed Henry R. Luce professor of urban values at New York University's Stern School of Business. He delivered his inaugural lecture the following spring. Its title, “Urban Civilization and Its Discontents,” …
Craig Bannister / CNSNews:
Pelosi Suffers 10-Second Mental Lapse On-Camera During Press Conference — House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) appeared to experience a ten-second mental lapse Thursday during an on-camera press conference. — Pelosi was reading from a letter she had sent to President Donald Trump earlier …
Discussion:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and UPI
Peninsula Daily News:
Family harassed in Forks after being accused of being members of Antifa — FORKS —A multi-racial family of four from Spokane was accused of being members of Antifa, followed and prevented from leaving their campsite by trees felled to block the road, Clallam County Sheriff's deputies said.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Raw Story
Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Twitter removes Trump campaign tribute to George Floyd claiming copyright complaint — Twitter on Thursday removed a video tribute to George Floyd posted by President Trump's reelection campaign, claiming it had run afoul of the website's policy on copyrighted material.
Discussion:
Politico, IJR, Al Jazeera, Variety, Associated Press, Just The News, The Guardian and Washington Times, more at Techmeme »
Wall Street Journal:
The Revenge of Jim Mattis — Trump's ill treatment of former advisers is coming back to haunt. — By The Editorial Board — Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's denunciation of President Trump on Wednesday isn't surprising, but it still looks like an important political moment.
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Katelyn Caralle / Daily Mail:
Is John Kelly joining the generals' mutiny? …
Is John Kelly joining the generals' mutiny? …
Discussion:
Washington Post
Patrick Svitek / The Texas Tribune:
Four Texas GOP county leaders share racist Facebook posts, including one juxtaposing an MLK quote with a banana — Gov. Greg Abbott called on two Republican county chairs to resign after they shared a racist conspiracy theory about George Floyd's death. — Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Raw Story, CBS Dallas / Fort Worth, The Sun, KXAN-TV, The Hill and New York Post
Yeganeh Torbati / ProPublica:
New Trump Appointee to Foreign Aid Agency Has Denounced Liberal Democracy and “Our Homo-Empire” — ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. — A new Trump appointee to the United States' foreign aid agency …
Jamelle Bouie / New York Times:
What Happens When It Is the Police Who Riot in the Streets? — It is an attack on civil society and democratic accountability. — If we're going to speak of rioting protesters, then we need to speak of rioting police as well. No, they aren't destroying property.
Bloomberg:
Estee Lauder Workers Demand Heir Ouster Over Trump Support — Employees of Estee Lauder Cos., one of the world's largest beauty businesses, called for the ouster of a board member and family heir over his support for President Donald Trump and criticism of the company's response to the protests against police violence.
ABC News:
Questions arise over Special Forces guarding Donald Trump from protests — “I hate the optics of it,” retired Army Special Forces Col. Robert Wilson said. — On Wednesday night, after five days of at-times violent confrontations between police and thousands joining protests near the White House …
Paul Szoldra / Task & Purpose:
Former Marine commandant on nationwide protests: ‘The time for being silent has passed’ — “We are better than this. Stand up for what is right.” — Former Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller has written an open letter urging all Americans to “stand up for what is right” …
Discussion:
LinkedIn and Digby's Hullabaloo
Alyssa Rosenberg / Washington Post:
Shut down all police movies and TV shows. Now. — Police procedurals have a long, fraught history. I don't know if it's possible for them to find a way forward.
Washington Post:
With White House effectively a fortress, some see Trump's strength — but others see weakness — The security perimeter around the White House keeps expanding. Tall black fencing is going up seemingly by the hour. Armed guards and sharpshooters and combat troops are omnipresent.
detroitnews:
With little social distancing, Whitmer marches with protesters — Highland Park — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who's voiced concerns about other demonstrations potentially spreading COVID-19 in recent weeks, participated Thursday in a civil rights march in Highland Park with hundreds of people who did not follow social distancing rules.
Discussion:
National Review, Townhall, Washington Times, The Daily Caller and Breitbart
CNN:
Emotional debate erupts over anti-lynching legislation as Cory Booker and Kamala Harris speak out against Rand Paul amendment — (CNN)In an emotional exchange on the Senate floor, Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California spoke out Thursday against an amendment …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, POLITICUSUSA, Daily Kos and Truthout