memeorandum: Life amid the ruins of QAnon: ‘I wanted my family back’ (Washington Post)

11:15 AM ET, February 24, 2021

Top Items:

New analyses show Johnson & Johnson's one-dose vaccine works well. — Johnson and Johnson's vaccine has a lower efficacy rate than the vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, which are both around 95 percent. … But in South Africa, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is so far the clear winner.

Discussion: HotAir

Washington Post:

FDA review confirms safety and efficacy of single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, especially against severe cases — A Food and Drug Administration review released Wednesday of the single-shot coronavirus vaccine made by pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson found it was safe …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, UPI, NPR, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Week and Fox News

Sarah Owermohle / Politico:

FDA confirms J&J vaccine is safe and effective — Johnson & Johnson's single-dose Covid-19 vaccine appears safe and effective, particularly against severe disease, though questions remain about how well it works in older people, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, CBS News, ABC News, Al Jazeera, National Review and The Verge

Berkeley Lovelace Jr / CNBC:
FDA staff endorses Johnson & Johnson's single-shot Covid vaccine for emergency use

Discussion: The Hill, NBC New York, The Guardian, Denver Post, Orange County Register, IJR, Cyprus Mail, STAT, Grand Forks Herald and New York Post

Bloomberg:
J&J Covid Vaccine Found Effective by FDA Before Panel Meets

Discussion: Townhall, The Colorado Sun and Gothamist

Sarah Mucha / Axios:

Scoop: Senate committee postpones hearing for imperiled Tanden — The Senate Homeland Security Committee is postponing a confirmation hearing scheduled Wednesday for Neera Tanden, Axios has learned, a potential death knell for President Biden's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

Discussion: USA Today, Politico, The Hill, CNN, Washington Post, Breitbart, Talking Points Memo, ABC News and Raw Story

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:
The people concerned about Neera Tanden's incivility sure didn't seem to mind the Trump era's

Discussion: The American Independent, Althouse, Roll Call, CNN, Vox, HuffPost, Forbes, Raw Story, Vanity Fair and The Daily Caller

Alayna Treene / Axios:
Exclusive: Bernie ready to roll on roads

Discussion: Townhall

Andrew Restuccia / Wall Street Journal:
Biden Budget Office Nominee Tanden to Face Committee Votes Amid Opposition

Discussion: CBS News, The Hill, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Forbes, National Review, Roll Call, New York Post, Townhall and Los Angeles Times

Karen Hinton / New York Daily News:

How to counter penis politics: What it's like to work for Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio — I've worked for and with powerful men in and around politics my whole life. From Mississippi, where I grew up, to Washington and New York, I've been a woman in a field where power and ambition drive both sexes …

Alex Pareene / New Republic:

The Andrew Cuomo Show Has Lost the Plot — Halfway through a recent New York Times story about Governor Andrew Cuomo's long (but perhaps not widely known) history of governance-by-bullying, an ally tried to defend his signature political style. He didn't say that Cuomo's behavior was ethical, or reasonable, or even responsible.

Discussion: YouGov, Washington Examiner and Sean Hannity

Alexi McCammond / Axios: Progressives see N.Y. AG as potential Cuomo challenger

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

LGBT Identification Rises to 5.6% in Latest U.S. Estimate — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Gallup's latest update on lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender identification finds 5.6% of U.S. adults identifying as LGBT. The current estimate is up from 4.5% in Gallup's previous update based on 2017 data.

Discussion: USA Today, The 19th, Washington Examiner, The Hill and National Review

Samantha Schmidt / Washington Post: 1 in 6 Gen Z adults are LGBT. And this number could continue to grow.

Dan Avery / NBC News: Americans are identifying as LGBTQ more than ever, poll finds

Jacqueline Alemany / Washington Post:

Power Up: What senators still want to know about Jan. 6 attack from defense and FBI leaders — Good Wednesday morning. This is the Power Up newsletter. Tips, comments, recipes? Reach out and sign up. Thanks for waking up with us. — The investigations

Discussion: New York Times, Raw Story, Wall Street Journal and The Intellectualist

Dan Froomkin / Press Watch:
It wasn't an ‘intelligence failure’ that left the Capitol Police unprepared - it was racism

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, BizPac Review, The Intellectualist, The Week, Becker News and CNN

Politico:
What we know — and still don't — as Congress starts its Jan. 6 investigation

Discussion: CBS News and Washington Post

David Siders / Politico:

Texas disaster puts Beto O'Rourke back in business — While Ted Cruz was getting clobbered for fleeing Texas amid its historic winter storm, the Democrat he defeated in 2018, Beto O'Rourke, was already deep into disaster relief mode — soliciting donations for storm victims …

Discussion: El Paso Times and HuffPost

Mary Grace Granados / Dallas Morning News:
Oak Cliff party store has a new political piñata depicting Ted Cruz on his way to Cancún

Discussion: The Hill, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth and Political Wire

NBC News:

Retired NYPD cop charged in Capitol riot, accused of attacking officer with flagpole — A retired New York police officer faces charges for participating in the U.S. Capitol riot last month, accused of having attacked a Capitol Police officer. — Federal prosecutors alleged Tuesday in court that the man …

Discussion: New Republic, The Week, CNN and NBC New York

Washington Post:
Retired NYPD officer attacked D.C. police officer like ‘junkyard dog,’ prosecutor alleges

Discussion: Gothamist, Fox News and Media Matters for America

Washington Post:

Life amid the ruins of QAnon: ‘I wanted my family back’ — An epidemic of conspiracy theories, fanned by social media and self-serving politicians, is tearing families apart. … She bought ammunition, camping gear, a water purifier and boxes of canned food.

Hans Nichols / Axios:

Scoop: Biden will call Saudi king ahead of damning report — President Biden plans to call Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Wednesday, ahead of the public release of a potentially damning intelligence report about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a source briefed on the call told Axios.

Discussion: Foreign Policy, Middle East Monitor, Al Jazeera and The New Arab

The Daily Beast:

NY Prosecutors Are Looking at Don Jr. in Trump Biz Probe — The Daily Beast has learned that investigators have been asking questions in recent days about Trump's eldest son as they expand their criminal probe into Trump's business empire. … For months, some of Donald Trump's top advisers …

Discussion: Insider, New York Times, Raw Story, Palmer Report, Political Wire and The Intellectualist

Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:

Romney predicts Trump would win the 2024 G.O.P. nomination if he ran for president. — Senator Mitt Romney of Utah said on Tuesday that he believed Donald J. Trump would win the Republican nomination for president if he ran for his former office in 2024, another indication of Mr. Trump's perceived strength in the party.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Politico, NBC News, CBS News, National Review, TheBlaze, Bloomberg, HuffPost, IJR, Disrn, The Daily Boulder, BizPac Review, The Hill, Washington Times and New York Post

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

One America News clashes again with White House correspondents over Trump-approved camera tent — One America News, the upstart right-wing cable channel that was granted special status by the Trump White House, is clashing again with its mainstream colleagues on the presidential beat.

Walter Olson / The Dispatch:

House Democrats Go Fox Hunting — There is no ‘fake news’ exception to the First Amendment. — 4 hr ago — When elected officials browbeat the executives of regulated telecom, video, and app companies trying to get them to drop the main news channel of the political opposition …

Discussion: TK News, Liberty Unyielding and Instapundit

Issues & Insights:
The Government Censors Are Here — Congressional Democrats are demanding to know what …

Discussion: PRESS RUN, The Federalist and The National Interest

Mitt Romney / Wall Street Journal:

Biden's Stimulus Bill Is a $1.9 Trillion Clunker — Senate Republicans are eager to get aid where it's needed, reopen schools and encourage work. — Democrats are anxious for any excuse to blow up the Senate filibuster, the last procedural hurdle to one-party government.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Post, Insider, Raw Story, Deseret News and Fox News

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: 9/11 Commission leaders issue a warning to Pelosi — DRIVING THE DAY — When Republican TOM KEAN became head of the 9/11 Commission, he got a call from TIM RUSSERT asking him to come on “Meet the Press.” Kean said he'd only appear if his Democratic counterpart on the commission, LEE HAMILTON, were invited too.

Discussion: Washington Post, Just Security, No More Mister Nice Blog, Morning Consult and The Federalist

Rachel Lerman / Washington Post:

Major Trump backer Rebekah Mercer orchestrates Parler's second act — Mercer, whose family also invested in right-wing news site Breitbart, controls two of the three board seats at the company — When social media website Parler's founding CEO John Matze was pushed out last month …

Sarah McCammon / NPR:

Evangelical Leaders Condemn ‘Radicalized Christian Nationalism’ — A coalition of evangelical Christian leaders is condemning the role of “radicalized Christian nationalism” in feeding the political extremism that led to the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by supporters of former President Trump.

Discussion: The Guardian and Raw Story

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

New York Times Calls for Workplace Changes in Diversity Report — “The Times is a difficult environment for many of our colleagues,” the report found. People of color described “unsettling and sometimes painful day-to-day workplace experiences.” — Top executives at The New York Times …

Discussion: CNN, more at Mediagazer »

ProPublica:

Sheryl Sandberg and Top Facebook Execs Silenced an Enemy of Turkey to Prevent a Hit to the Company's Business — Amid a 2018 Turkish military campaign, Facebook ultimately sided with Turkey's demand to block the page of a mostly Kurdish militia. “I am fine with this,” Sandberg wrote.

Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic:

A Simple Rule of Thumb for Knowing When the Pandemic Is Over — Editor's Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here. — In the middle of January, the deadliest month of the pandemic, one day after inauguration …

Discussion: HuffPost

Lindsey Boylan:

My story of working with Governor Cuomo — “Let's play strip poker.” — I should have been shocked by the Governor's crude comment, but I wasn't. — We were flying home from an October 2017 event in Western New York on his taxpayer-funded jet. He was seated facing me, so close our knees almost touched.

NBC News:

Democrats' biggest gains from 2008-2020 came in these Georgia counties — WASHINGTON — When former Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., announced this week that he will pass on a 2022 Senate comeback bid, he went out of his way to suggest that Georgia “is not a blue state.”

Discussion: New York Times and HotAir

Barak Ravid / Axios:

Scoop: U.S. and Israel to convene strategic forum on Iran — The United States and Israel have elected to reconvene a strategic working group on Iran, with the first round of talks on intelligence surrounding the Iranian nuclear program expected in the coming days, Axios has learned.

Phil Mattingly / CNN:

First on CNN: Biden's Covid plan gets backing from more than 150 top business leaders — What Biden said he would do for the Covid-19 economy — (CNN)More than 150 senior executives from some of the largest American companies across several major industries have lined …

Discussion: Insider, The Hill and Partnership for New York City

John Gizzi / Newsmax:

Will Ex-Sen. Perdue's Exit Mean Sen. Herschel Walker, R-Ga.? — Not since Aug. 20, 1956, when former Sen. Millard Tydings, D-Md., suddenly withdrew from a bid for the seat he lost six years earlier, has the abandonment of a former U.S. senator from a comeback campaign had such an impact …

Discussion: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

CBS News:

Federal judge indefinitely blocks Biden administration's 100-day moratorium on most deportations — Houston — A federal judge late Tuesday indefinitely banned President Joe Biden's administration from enforcing a 100-day moratorium on most deportations. U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton issued …

Discussion: HotAir, Washington Times, CNN, Forbes and Fox News

Johnny Diaz / New York Times:

Arizona Man Is Accused of Faking Own Kidnapping to Evade Work — When the police arrived, they found the man with his hands bound behind his back by a belt and a bandanna “stuffed in his mouth” in Coolidge, Ariz. — The authorities in Arizona accused a man of going to extreme lengths …

Discussion: Insider, The Hill and TheBlaze

Des Moines Register:

It violates free press rights to bring to trial a Des Moines Register reporter arrested while covering a protest — Editorial: The pending charges against a Register reporter who was arrested while covering a social justice protest last spring are a clear infringement on the freedom of the press.

Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner:

‘Keep the schools shut’: Teachers rage against the machine — ROCKVILLE, Maryland — “Enough is enough,” declared Jeremy Levine, a featured speaker at the teachers union rally. “You will not sacrifice our lives, disrupt our communities, and endanger our students, for what? Test scores?