memeorandum: McDonald's, Other CEOs Tell Investors $15 Minimum Wage Won't Hurt Business (Newsweek)

4:40 PM ET, April 5, 2021

Top Items:

Half of Republicans believe false accounts of deadly U.S. Capitol riot: Reuters/Ipsos poll — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Since the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have pushed false and misleading accounts to downplay the event …

Discussion: Mediaite, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Forbes, Mock Paper Scissors, POLITICUSUSA, Crooks and Liars, Insider, Bulwark+ and Political Wire

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

The eruption of fake GOP outrage at MLB is actually very clarifying — Opinion by — Here's a juxtaposition that neatly captures the state of today's GOP: Republican lawmakers are telling their voters to get angry at corporations that express support for the voting rights of African Americans …

Discussion: Salon, Bloomberg, Eater, Talking Points Memo and The Root

David Gelles / New York Times:
Inside Corporate America's Frantic Response to the Georgia Voting Law

Discussion: New Republic, Vanity Fair, Commentary Magazine, IJR and Deadline

Brian Slodysko / Associated Press:
Corporations gave over $50M to voting restriction backers

Discussion: The Root, Common Dreams and Daily Kos

Rep. Matt Gaetz / Washington Examiner:

The swamp is out to drown me with false charges, but I'm not giving up — Washington scandal cycles are predictable, and sex is especially potent in politics. Let me first remind everyone that I am a representative in Congress, not a monk, and certainly not a criminal.

Discussion: USA Today, New York Times, Insider, The Hill, IJR, Law & Crime, New York Post, Talking Points Memo, The Intellectualist, Page Array, The Week, Raw Story, Florida Politics, Mediaite, The New Civil Rights Movement and Political Wire

Katie Hill / Vanity Fair:

Matt Gaetz Defended Me When My Nudes Were Shared Without My Consent. Now He's Accused of Doing Just That — Matt and I forged an unlikely friendship in Congress, and he was one of the few colleagues who spoke out after a malicious nude-photo leak upended my life.

Discussion: Washington Post, Washingtonian, CNN, Political Wire, The Week and The Daily Beast

Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:
Gaetz defends himself: I'm ‘not a monk’

Discussion: Washington Examiner and The Intellectualist

Jess Bravin / Wall Street Journal:

Supreme Court Dismisses Case on Trump Blocking Twitter Followers as Moot — Plaintiffs lawyer applauds precedent of lower-court ruling against ex-president; Justice Thomas criticizes Twitter's permanent ban of Trump after Jan. 6 — WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court Monday dismissed a lawsuit …

Devin Dwyer / ABC News:

Google wins big in Supreme Court clash with Oracle — The dispute was called the “copyright case of the century.” — Catch up on the developing stories making headlines. — Shwan Thew/EPA via Shutterstock — In the multi-billion Supreme Court clash between two titans of tech, Google emerged as the victor on Monday.

Discussion: Law & Crime, New York Post, Mercury News, Washington Examiner, Associated Press, Washington Post, Politico, 9to5Google, SCOTUSblog, Bloomberg, Deadline, The Verge, USA Today, CBS News and UPI, more at Techmeme »

Nicholas Rowan / Washington Examiner:
Supreme Court dismisses case challenging Trump Twitter blocks

Discussion: Associated Press, USA Today, The Federalist, Politico, Louder With Crowder, Reason, Fox News, Florida Politics, NBC News and Washington Post, more at Techmeme »

Adam Klasfeld / Law & Crime:
Supreme Court Rejects Alex Jones's Bid to Overturn Sanctions for Rant Threatening Sandy Hook Families' Lawyer on His Show

Discussion: The Hill, Associated Press and Raw Story

Adam Liptak / New York Times:
The Supreme Court vacates ruling that Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking people on Twitter.

Discussion: NPR, Variety, The Federalist, New York Post, Slate, Associated Press, Insider, Forbes, Deadline, The Wrap, CNN and Washington Times, more at Mediagazer »

Tucker Higgins / CNBC:
Supreme Court erases ruling against Trump over his Twitter account

Discussion: UPI, Al Jazeera, CBS News, Outside the Beltway and Bloomberg

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Republicans Love Infrastructure, Unless It's Paid For, or Not Paid For — Republican Senators say they would love to pass a big infrastructure bill. They are publicly begging Joe Biden to stop his partisan strategy and sit down with them to negotiate a bill both parties can support.

Discussion: Reuters, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Washington Times, HotAir, The American Independent and POLITICUSUSA

Bloomberg:
Manchin Balks at Biden's Corporate Tax Increase, Favors 25% Rate

Discussion: Politico, The Hill, Forbes, IJR and Townhall

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Two Dem senators balk at Biden's new spending plan

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Washington Free Beacon and Breitbart

Zachary Evans / National Review:
Manchin Comes Out against Biden Infrastructure Bill

Discussion: New York Post, TheBlaze, The Daily Caller and The Week

Jim Geraghty / National Review:

Why Is Major League Baseball Expected to Boycott Georgia, While Other Businesses Aren't? — This Thursday, the PGA Tour and Masters Tournament will begin in Augusta, Ga., despite the National Black Justice Coalition calling upon the PGA Tour and Masters Tournament to pull the upcoming event …

Discussion: Power Line, The Federalist, The Athletic and HotAir

Quint Forgey / Politico:
Texas governor rejects first-pitch invite over MLB's All-Star snub

Discussion: Fox News, The Hill, Mediaite, OutKick, IJR, The Texas Tribune, TheBlaze, Houston Public Media, TMZ.com and New York Post

U.S. Senator for Florida, Marco Rubio:
Rubio Asks MLB Commissioner if He'll Give Up Augusta Golf Membership

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Arkansas Online:

Governor vetoes transgender bill, calls measure a ‘product of the cultural war’ — Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Monday afternoon he vetoed a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth. — Hutchinson, a Republican, said he believed House Bill 1570 interfered with the relationship between doctors and patients.

Discussion: CNN, HuffPost, The Daily Beast, The Gateway Pundit, The 19th and ABC News

Orion Rummler / Axios:
Arkansas Gov. vetoes bill banning gender-affirming care for trans kids, calling it “extreme”

Discussion: The Hill, Daily Kos and ArkansasTimes

Samantha Schmidt / Washington Post:
Arkansas governor vetoes bill banning medical treatments for transgender youths

Discussion: Associated Press, NBC News, New York Times, Politico, National Review, Insider and Raw Story

National Review:

60 Minutes' Dishonest DeSantis Hit Job — CBS tried to manufacture a Ron DeSantis scandal where none exists. It failed miserably. — There is no more accurate way of describing last night's 60 Minutes segment on Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida than as a political hit job.

Discussion: The Daily Wire, Fox News, Washington Examiner, HotAir, The Daily Caller, wtsp.com, Townhall, Breitbart, RedState, Louder With Crowder, OutKick, USA Today, HuffPost, Crooks and Liars, TheBlaze, The Hill and Insider

Joseph Wulfsohn / Fox News:
CBS' ‘60 Minutes’ shames DeSantis for prioritizing seniors in vaccine rollout, suggests they weren't high-risk

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, The Federalist, RedState, Florida Politics, Townhall, Breitbart, Mediaite and Instapundit

Sharyn Alfonsi / CBS News:
How the wealthy cut the line during Florida's frenzied vaccine rollout

Discussion: RedState, Tampa Bay Times, Washington Examiner, American Thinker, Axios, HotAir, National Review, The Daily Wire, The Daily Caller, Twitchy, Reason, IJR, Raw Story, The Root and Orlando Weekly

republicanleader.senate.gov:

McConnell: Corporations Shouldn't Fall for Absurd Disinformation on Voting Laws — 'There is no consistent or factual standard being applied here. It's just a fake narrative gaining speed by its own momentum... Businesses must not use economic blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas …

Discussion: Washington Post, National Review, Insider, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, IJR, One America News Network, Fox News, HotAir, Axios, Washington Examiner, Mock Paper Scissors and Townhall

Washington Post:

A QAnon revelation suggests the truth of Q's identity was right there all along — The extremist movement's leader had purported to be a top-secret government operative. But a possible slip-up in a new documentary about QAnon suggests that Q was actually Ron Watkins, the longtime administrator of the 8kun message board.

Discussion: Raw Story and Althouse

New York Times:

White Evangelical Resistance Is Obstacle in Vaccination Effort — Millions of white evangelical adults in the U.S. do not intend to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Tenets of faith and mistrust of science play a role; so does politics. — Stephanie Nana, an evangelical Christian in Edmond …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

The New York Times Company:

Frank Bruni Stepping Down as Columnist; Named Endowed Chair at Duke University — Frank is joining Duke University as an endowed chair in journalism in June. He will no longer be a columnist but will continue to write his newsletter and will remain a contributing Opinion writer.

Discussion: The Hill

Judd Legum / Popular Information:

Facebook pledged to suspend political donations, then quietly funneled $50,000 to GOP group pushing voter suppression laws — On January 11, Facebook announced that “following last week's awful violence” it was suspending donations from its political committee “for at least the current quarter, while we review our policies.”

Discussion: Raw Story and Media Matters for America, more at Techmeme »

The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Philly may have just revolutionized evictions | Editorial — Philadelphia is on the verge of upending evictions as we know them.Last Wednesday, the Municipal Court of Philadelphia, which houses landlord-tenant court, released a new order following the extension of the CDC's nationwide eviction moratorium through June.

Newsweek:

McDonald's, Other CEOs Tell Investors $15 Minimum Wage Won't Hurt Business — Big restaurant chains are telling investors that a national minimum wage hike wouldn't be a big deal—even as their corporate lobbying groups in Washington fight plans for a $15 minimum wage.

Nick Paton Walsh / CNN:

Satellite images show huge Russian military buildup in the Arctic — (CNN)Russia is amassing unprecedented military might in the Arctic and testing its newest weapons in a region freshly ice-free due to the climate emergency, in a bid to secure its northern coast and open up a key shipping route from Asia to Europe.

Discussion: New York Post and The National Interest

Ryan Mills / National Review:

Small-Time Landlords Struggle to Keep the Lights on as ‘Devastating’ Eviction Moratorium Continues — Stephanie Graves had a decision to make: buy new signage so she could open the pool at one of her apartment complexes, or pay the electric bill. She couldn't afford both. — Ultimately, it wasn't a hard decision.

Discussion: HotAir and One America News Network

Daniel Kreiss / Wired:

Polarization Isn't America's Biggest Problem—or Facebook's — A debate is raging over the social media giant's role in dividing the country. But it's the US's deeply-rooted inequities that tech should focus on. — LAST WEEK WAS a telling time in America.

Melanie Zanona / Politico:

Cheney snags victories ahead of her next battle with Trumpworld — Rep. Liz Cheney took on the Trump wing of her party and survived its attempt to politically kneecap her. But it's only the beginning of what looks like a yearslong fight for her place in the GOP.

Discussion: Washington Post and Breitbart

Alex Seitz-Wald / NBC News:

‘The 45th’: Why Trump is abandoning his iconic brand for a number — WASHINGTON — Donald Trump spent a lifetime putting his name on steaks to skyscrapers to stimulus checks, but now, the former president appears to be replacing the gold-plated surname with a number: 45.

Discussion: Raw Story

Lara Jakes / New York Times:

Gayle Smith, who helped lead the U.S. response to Ebola, will run Biden's vaccine diplomacy. — An ardent advocate of protecting some of the world's poorest countries from Covid-19 has been selected to lead the Biden administration's vaccine diplomacy, which will be a new post at the State Department.

Discussion: The Week