memeorandum: Illinois Delays End of Prison Gerrymandering By a Decade (Daniel Nichanian/The Appeal)

11:30 AM ET, February 23, 2021

Top Items:

We identified the 125 people and institutions most responsible for Donald Trump's rise to power and his norm-busting behavior that tested the boundaries of the US government and its institutions … - Insider compiled this database of the 125 people and institutions essential to Donald Trump's rise …

Joe Scarborough / Washington Post:

No amount of disaster can shake the GOP loose from Trump — Five years ago, Donald Trump seized control of the Republican Party by attacking conservative icons, insulting former GOP presidents and disregarding Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment that warned against criticizing other party members.

Discussion: Occupy Democrats, The Week, Real Clear Politics, Esquire, Raw Story, The Hill and Florida Politics

Douglas Schoen / The Hill:
Republicans face an identity crisis

Discussion: National Review and Liberty Unyielding

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Trump taunts don't shake McConnell's hold on Senate GOP

Discussion: The Hill

Politico:

‘A double standard going on’: Democrats accuse GOP and Manchin of bias on Biden nominations — Women's rights activists and allied Democrats are growing increasingly vocal about what they call the unfair targeting of women and people of color nominated by Joe Biden to top posts in his administration.

Discussion: Reason, The Guardian, Daily Kos, Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press, Raw Story and CNN

Olivia Beavers / Politico:

Manchin'd — FOR JOE MANCHIN, IT'S ‘NOT PERSONAL’: The Democratic Senate has hit its first roadblock in its path to confirming President Joe Biden's nominees. But if you ask the West Virginia Democrat who seemed to have delivered the kiss of death to Neera Tanden, he professes no villainous intent toward his party.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Post, CNN, Florida Politics and Wall Street Journal

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: Scoop: Anti-Big Tech crusader poised to join Biden admin

Discussion: National Review, Bloomberg and Rolling Stone, more at Mediagazer »

NBC News:
Split-ticket districts dwindle as all politics becomes more national

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Breitbart

Washington Post:
Now Republicans are offended by mean tweets?

Discussion: Forbes, Vox and Talking Points Memo

New York Times:

Slate Suspends Podcast Host After Debate Over Racial Slur — Mike Pesca of “The Gist” said he was suspended after defending, in a Slack discussion with colleagues, the use of the slur in some contexts. — The online publication Slate has suspended a well-known podcast host after he debated …

Discussion: Althouse, Gothamist and HotAir

Kelsey McKinney / Defector:
Slate Podcast Host Mike Pesca Suspended Following Internal Discussion About Use Of Racial Slur

Discussion: Bulwark+, spiked, HotAir, Fox News and Twitchy, more at Mediagazer »

Santi Ruiz / Washington Free Beacon:

Amazon Pulls Bestseller on Transgender Issues From Store Without Explanation — Amazon steps up censorship campaign against conservative content — Amazon pulled a bestseller on transgender issues from its online store on Sunday without explanation. — Author Ryan T. Anderson tweeted …

Discussion: The Daily Signal, The Daily Caller and Townhall

Wall Street Journal: Tech Censorship Is Accelerating

Jeremy Beaman / Washington Examiner:
Amazon: Buy anything you could ever want, except this book challenging transgenderism

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Stephen Rex Brown / New York Daily News:

Rudy Giuliani tried dodging getting served with $1B Dominion Voting Systems suit: source — Rudy Giuliani spent a week dodging service of a $1.3 billion lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems after publicly declaring he was ready for the legal fight, a source told the Daily News.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story

Jacob Shamsian / Insider:
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says he's losing $65 million over election-fraud claims and it proves he's not pushing conspiracy theories for the money

Discussion: Mic, Talking Points Memo, New York Post, Raw Story, Sun-Sentinel, CBS Miami, New York Times, CBS News and Above the Law

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

David Perdue won't mount comeback bid for US Senate in 2022 — Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue will not launch a comeback bid next year, clearing the way for other Republicans to enter what could be a crowded 2022 race against Democrat Raphael Warnock. — Perdue announced the decision Tuesday …

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, Forbes, National Review and WSAV-TV

David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:
David Perdue pulls himself out of 2022 Georgia Senate race

Discussion: Fox News, Politico, CNBC, The Daily Caller and POLITICUSUSA

The Bulwark:

Wisconsin Republicans Refuse To Condemn Political Violence — Nothing that might be taken as criticism of Donald Trump can be allowed. — We are long-time Republicans who have served in GOP leadership at the county, district, and state levels in Wisconsin.

Discussion: Raw Story

Politico:

Security officials in charge on Jan. 6 tell Congress conflicting stories — The officials in charge of securing the Capitol on Jan. 6 say a tangled mess of conflicting orders and unanswered calls culminated in an hourslong delay by the Pentagon in deploying National Guard troops to quell …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, NPR, New York Times, Washington Post, Fox News, Associated Press, New York Post, IJR, UPI, ABC News, Bloomberg, NBC 6 South Florida and Raw Story

CNN:
Former US Capitol Police chief to say intelligence didn't point to a riot on January 6

Discussion: WISC-TV and Raw Story

Hans Nichols / Axios:

Scoop: Biden's OMB Plan B — House Democratic leaders are quietly mounting a campaign for Shalanda Young, a longtime congressional aide, to replace Neera Tanden as nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Talking Points Memo

Daniel Nichanian / The Appeal:

Illinois Delays End of Prison Gerrymandering By a Decade — A hard-fought reform will stop the state from distorting political power at the expense of communities that bear the brunt of incarceration. But it won't take effect for a long time. — For years, State Representative La Shawn Ford …

Christopher Cadelago / Politico:

Bloomberg's 2020 aides got an unwelcome surprise in their tax forms — Nearly a year after Mike Bloomberg's $1 billion presidential campaign crashed into Super Tuesday, his staffers are still dealing with the aftershocks. — In recent weeks, aides to the former Democratic candidate started …

Discussion: HotAir

Bret Stephens / New York Times:

Woke Me When It's Over — In the humorless world of Woke, the satire is never funny and the statute of limitations never expires, even when it comes to hamantaschen. — In 2015, Bon Appétit ran an article by the food writer Dawn Perry about hamantaschen, the triangular cookies …

Steven Mufson / Washington Post:

The battle over climate change is boiling over on the home front — Municipalities want new buildings to go all electric, spurning gas-fired stoves and heating systems. The gas industry disagrees — A new front has opened in the battle over climate change: The kitchen.

Discussion: NPR

Katelyn Polantz / CNN:

Oath Keeper now says she didn't meet with Secret Service around the January 6 rally — (CNN)Jessica Watkins, a leader in an alleged Oath Keepers conspiracy in the US Capitol insurrection, changed her story Monday about meeting with Secret Service agents in describing her actions on January 6.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

Julia Wick / Los Angeles Times:

Vaccine access codes for Black, Latino communities improperly used in affluent L.A. areas — A California program intended to improve COVID-19 vaccine availability to people in hard-hit communities of color is being misused by outsiders who are grabbing appointments reserved for residents of underserved Black and Latino areas.

CREW:

Trump reported making more than $1.6 billion while president … Donald Trump reported making more than $1.6 billion in outside revenue and income during his four years as President of the United States, according to a review of his financial disclosures by CREW.

Discussion: Insider

CNN: ‘Where is everyone?’: Inside Trump's DC hotel post-presidency

Ben Casselman / New York Times:

For Women in Economics the Hostility is Out in the Open — Studies have found that the field is plagued by a singular problem of gender bias. The latest evidence comes from the types of questions posed at seminars. — A few years ago, the economists Alicia Sasser Modestino and Justin Wolfers sat …

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Ted Cruz's latest Cancún spin shows the rot of GOP victimization runs deep — Mark it down. Republicans have hit on a new way to spin away their own screw-ups and scandals: By claiming the media focus on their political travails is driven by the press' search for a new Republican victim …

Discussion: The Hill, POLITICUSUSA and The Week

The Guardian:

Revealed: 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar as it gears up for World Cup … Pete Pattisson, Niamh McIntyre, Imran Mukhtar in Islamabad, Nikhil Eapen in Bangalore, Imran Mukhtar in Islamabad, Md Owasim Uddin Bhuyan in Dhaka, Udwab Bhattarai in Kathmandu and Aanya Piyari in Colombo

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Sarah Mucha / Axios:

Missing Marine sparks White House questions — The absence of a Marine sentry outside the West Wing on Monday raised questions about whether President Biden was keeping the schedule publicly outlined by his aides. — Why it matters: A sure way to tell if the president is inside the Oval Office …

Taylor Goldenstein / Houston Chronicle:

AG Ken Paxton and wife Sen. Angela Paxton went to Utah during Texas freeze — While millions of Texans languished in their homes last week without heat, many of them racking up astronomical electricity bills, the state official in charge of consumer protection left to take an out-of-state trip.

Discussion: The Hill, HuffPost, Off the Kuff, Insider, POLITICUSUSA, Washington Examiner, The Texas Tribune, Dallas Morning News, San Antonio Current, Talking Points Memo, The Intellectualist, Forbes, Houston Public Media, Texas Democratic Party, Raw Story and KXAN-TV

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Congressional Job Approval Highest in Nearly 12 Years — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thirty-five percent of Americans currently approve of the way Congress is handling its job, a 10-percentage-point increase since January and the highest Gallup has measured in nearly 12 years.

Discussion: The Hill and Political Wire

Silvia Foster-Frau / Washington Post:

First migrant facility for children opens under Biden — CARRIZO SPRINGS, Tex. — Dozens of migrant teens boarded vans Monday for the trip down a dusty road to a former man camp for oil field workers here, the first migrant child facility opened under the Biden administration.

Discussion: TheBlaze, The Gateway Pundit, Fox News, BizPac Review, Twitchy, Townhall and Althouse

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

The Future of Conservatism Is Flight 93 Elections Forever — Michael Anton has been confronted with a dilemma few writers have ever contemplated: how to handle catastrophic success. Anton's 2016 essay, “The Flight 93 Election,” made a then-shocking case to the right-wing intelligentsia in favor of Donald Trump's election.

The Daily Beast:

CPAC 2021 Will Be One Big Lie Fest—and Fox Nation Is Sponsoring It — Fox News Media is spending $250K on a partisan confab featuring election conspiracy theories—a “desperate” move by a network looking to “pander” to MAGA diehards, staffers say. — BEAST INSIDE

Discussion: Insider, LGBTQ Nation, The Hill, Raw Story and HuffPost

Bonchie / RedState:

Does Merrick Garland Even Know What Day It Is? — Merrick Garland had his confirmation hearing yesterday. The formerly deceased (ok, not really) Supreme Court nominee from the Obama era is being seen as a shoe-in for Attorney General. The expectation is that many Republican Senators will vote to confirm …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Daily Wire, The Gateway Pundit and National File

Rich Lowry / National Review:

Andrew Cuomo Is Everything the Press Accused Ron DeSantis of Being — It never made any sense to lionize New York's governor at the expense of Florida's, except that one had a ‘D’ after his name, and the other didn't. — Throughout the pandemic, the press has been excoriatingly harsh …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and ABC News

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Donald Trump Is Extremely Mad Prosecutors Will See His Tax Returns — Donald Trump's yearslong quest to prevent the public, Congress, or law-enforcement officials from seeing his tax statements came to a resounding end with a unanimous Supreme Court ruling. He did not take the defeat in stride.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Daily Kos, Digby's Hullabaloo, Crooks and Liars and IJR

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Former Trump officials eye bids for political office — Former Trump administration officials are testing the waters for political office, underscoring the former president's lasting influence on the Republican Party as it searches for a post-Trump identity.

Greg B. Smith / THE CITY:

Kids Poisoned After Lead Turns Up in Apartments Declared ‘Lead-Free’ by NYCHA — When public housing tenant Eleanore Bumpurs' daughter and son tested positive for elevated levels of lead in their blood a few years ago, NYCHA managers assured her that the Forest Houses, the Bronx development she called home, was “lead free.”