memeorandum: The Plot Against the President — “These guys have perpetrated the greatest crime against the American people ever seen.” (Mark Tapson/Front Page Magazine)

11:35 AM ET, June 23, 2021

Top Items:

State university faculty, students to be surveyed on beliefs — Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested that budget cuts could be looming if universities and colleges are found to be “indoctrinating” students. — TALLAHASSEE — In his continued push against the “indoctrination” of students …

Discussion: Raw Story, The Capitolist and Washington Post

Max Boot / Washington Post:
Ron DeSantis is showing Trump-level skill at waging culture war

Discussion: Washington Times and No More Mister Nice Blog

Travis Gibson / WJXT-TV:
Gov. DeSantis signs civic literacy bills, takes aim at socialism, communism

Discussion: Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Florida Politics, Townhall, flsenate.gov and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis

New York Times:

The Most Detailed Map of New York City Mayoral Primary Results — New York City voters cast their ballots for mayor on Tuesday, and it became clear that the competitive Democratic race would be decided by the city's new ranked-choice system. It is likely to be weeks before a winner is known.

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Reuters, PIX11, NPR, Reason, Insider, Vox and OpenSecrets.org

New York Times:
New York Primary Election Results

Discussion: NPR, The Guardian, TheBlaze, Mediaite and Washington Examiner

Max Gowins / Decision Desk HQ:
Election Results: NYC Municipal Primaries and More

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Republicans Say Voting Protections Trample ‘States’ Rights.' Uh-Oh. The chilling future implications of a very old argument. — The brief Senate debate over voting rights was treated as an anticlimax, chiefly because its bottom-line result — fewer than ten Republican senators …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, CBS News, Washington Post, Insider, The Guardian, The American Independent and IJR

Nate Cohn / New York Times:
A Bill Destined to Fail May Now Spawn More Plausible Options

Discussion: Issues & Insights, Forbes, HuffPost, Townhall, The Daily Signal, Ohio Capital Journal, One America News Network and Roll Call

CBS News:
Senate Republicans block Democrats' voting rights bill from advancing

Discussion: The Message Box, The Hill, Washington Post, Daily Kos, CNN, The Western Journal, claytoonz, Digby's Hullabaloo, BizPac Review, The Daily Beast, The Federalist, Roll Call, Common Dreams and Politico

Washington Examiner:
Democrats lie about lying about voter ID

Discussion: HotAir, Daily Kos and The US Sun

Washington Post:
Democrats signal a shift toward accepting voter ID laws

Discussion: HotAir, Las Vegas Review-Journal, The Atlantic, Spotlight PA, Fox News, Insider, FiveThirtyEight, The Crime Report and Political Wire

CNN:

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner distance themselves from the former President and his constant complaints — (CNN)With each passing day away from Washington, former President Donald Trump's grievances continue unabated. And those complaints appear to be driving away two of the people …

Discussion: Insider and Raw Story

New York Times:

Saudi Operatives Who Killed Khashoggi Received Paramilitary Training in U.S. — The training, approved by the State Department, underscores the perils of military partnerships with repressive governments. — WASHINGTON — Four Saudis who participated in the 2018 killing …

Discussion: Mock Paper Scissors, Slate, Raw Story, One America News Network, Reuters, The Times of Israel, Insider, Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Political Wire

Luis Ferré-Sadurní / New York Times:

India Walton, a socialist candidate, stuns longtime incumbent in Buffalo mayor's race. — A progressive challenger running her first campaign was poised on Tuesday to beat Buffalo's four-term Democratic mayor in a primary upset that would upend the political landscape in New York's second-biggest city …

Discussion: Washington Post, Crooks and Liars, NBC News, Forbes, Mother Jones and Twitchy

Robert J. McCarthy / Buffalo News:
India Walton claims upset in Buffalo mayoral race; Byron Brown pins hopes on absentees

Discussion: WIVB-TV, NBC News and HuffPost

Jon Campbell / Democrat and Chronicle:
India Walton, a socialist, poised to become Buffalo's first woman mayor

Discussion: Mother Jones

Bloomberg:

U.K. Denies Russia Claim Warning Shots Fired at Warship — Fighter dropped bombs near destroyer in Black Sea, Russia says — U.K. says Russian action was part of ‘gunnery exercise’ — Russia said it used bombs and gunfire in “warning shots” to force a British Navy destroyer …

Discussion: BBC, Associated Press, The Irish Times, USNI News, Breitbart, Metro.co.uk, Al Jazeera and ABC7

Financial Times:

Germany and France seek EU-Russia meeting — Surprise initiative follows US president Joe Biden's summit with Vladimir Putin — Germany and France have called for a new EU strategy of closer engagement with Russia to build on discussions with Moscow in the wake of US president Joe Biden's Geneva summit with Vladimir Putin.

The Moscow Times:

Russia Fires ‘Warning’ Shots at British Warship Near Crimea — A Russian fighter jet and border guard ship have fired “warning” shots at a British warship that the military said violated Russia's borders in the Black Sea near annexed Crimea, state media reported Wednesday.

Discussion: CBS News, The Times of Israel, The Daily Beast, Defense One, Raw Story and The Aviationist

Jonathan Oosting / Bridge Michigan:

GOP investigation finds no Michigan vote fraud, deems many claims ‘ludicrous’ … LANSING —A months-long Republican investigation into Michigan's 2020 election uncovered no evidence of widespread fraud and concluded Wednesday with a recommendation the attorney general investigate those who made false claims for “personal gain.”

Discussion: Washington Examiner, HotAir, Michigan Senate Republicans, Page Array, Detroit News and Raw Story

Hunter Walker / The Uprising:

Yang Presidential Campaign Advisers Blame Tusk Strategies For ‘Crashing’ His Mayoral Bid — This is a special breaking news issue of The Uprising, a daily politics newsletter. If you enjoyed this story and want to read more like it, please sign up! — BROOKLYN, N.Y. …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Politico and NBC News

Axios: Democrats sound alarm on crime as top threat to 2022 election chances

Jazz Shaw / HotAir:
Who won the NYC mayoral primary? Nobody knows

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, KVIA-TV, Associated Press and Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Mike Allen / Axios:

Scoop: New book says Trump talked of COVID killing John Bolton — “Nightmare Scenario,” a book out next week on President Trump's handling of COVID, reports that he said he hoped it would take out his former national security adviser, John Bolton, who had just written an explosive tell-all about his time in the White House.

Discussion: Insider, The Hill, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Raw Story and Political Wire

Devin Dwyer / ABC News:

Supreme Court rules for cheerleader in case involving school rules, free speech on social media — The case involves how schools can enforce rules of conduct on social media. — The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in a major free speech case involving when schools can enforce rules of conduct on social media.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, NPR, Washington Post, Politico, National Review and abc7NY

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Supreme Court Rules for Cheerleader Punished for Vulgar Snapchat Message — A Pennsylvania school district violated the First Amendment by disciplining a student for off-campus speech, the court ruled. — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a Pennsylvania school district …

Discussion: CNN, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, CNBC, USA Today, Insider, NBC Connecticut and Forbes

Politico:

‘Staggering’: Biden breaks from agenda to grapple with bloodshed plaguing big cities — CHICAGO — It was 6 a.m. last week when news broke of a mass shooting in Chicago. Eight people were shot, five of whom died. By 7:30 a.m. a White House official was on the phone with Mayor Lori Lightfoot's office.

Discussion: USA Today

Associated Press:
Biden anti-crime effort takes on law-breaking gun dealers

Discussion: Politico, Fox News, New York Times, WTOP and Bloomberg

Sahil Kapur / NBC News:

Manchin open to Biden's ‘human infrastructure’ plans and undoing some Trump tax cuts — WASHINGTON — A key moderate Democratic senator opened the door Tuesday to investing in President Joe Biden's “human infrastructure” proposals and unwinding some of the Republican tax cuts of 2017.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, POLITICUSUSA and Washington Post

Freddie deBoer:

Education Week: Educational Assessments are Valid, Reliable, and Remarkably Predictive — liberal dismissal of the power of these tools is 100% politics, 0% science … One of the most frustrating recent developments in American politics is that progressive people have suddenly become deeply skeptical …

Miranda Devine / New York Post:

Did Joe inadvertently pay for Hunter Biden's wild night at Chateau Marmont? — It's May 2018, and Robert Hunter Biden is trawling through his favorite Los Angeles escort sites. He orders “Yanna,” a 24-year-old Russian native from Emerald Fantasy Girls. — “Russian, Green Eyes …

Mark Tapson / Front Page Magazine:

The Plot Against the President — “These guys have perpetrated the greatest crime against the American people ever seen.” — Mark Tapson is the Shillman Fellow on Popular Culture for the David Horowitz Freedom Center. — If you haven't yet seen The Plot Against the President …

Jennifer Mercieca / Just Security:

The Propaganda Playbook: A Section-by-Section Dissection of Tucker Carlson's Communication Strategy — Tucker Carlson is very effective at setting the rightwing agenda, telling them what to think about and framing how to understand politics. Ever wonder how he does it?

Laura Reiley / Washington Post:

The rising cost of being in the National Guard: Reservists and guardsmen are twice as likely to be hungry as other American groups — Civil unrest and pandemic deployments have led to extreme food insecurity among National Guard and Reserves — National Guard and reserve soldiers …

Pamela Wood / Baltimore Sun:

Longtime Democratic official Tom Perez joins race for Maryland governor — Tom Perez, who spent the last four years leading the national Democratic Party, is launching a campaign to be Maryland's next governor. — Perez said Marylanders “are punching below our weight” …

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Caller, CNN, Washington Times and Political Wire

Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:

Do Chance Meetings at the Office Boost Innovation? There's No Evidence of It. — For some, the office even stifles creativity. As the pandemic eases in the U.S., a few companies seek to reimagine what work might look like. — When Yahoo banned working from home in 2013 …

Atlantic Council:

The Biden White House plan for a new US industrial policy — National Economic Council Director Brian Deese responds to a question from the news media during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 04 June 2021. The May jobs report indicated that unemployment fell …

Joe Killian / The Progressive Pulse:

PW Exclusive: Nikole Hannah-Jones will not join UNC-Chapel Hill faculty without tenure — Nikole Hannah-Jones will not join the faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill without tenure, according to a letter from her legal team to the university this week. — According to the letter …

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, The Hill, National Review, Fox News, Twitchy, Florida Phoenix and The Wrap

Jaclyn Peiser / Washington Post:

He was preparing for ‘a coming civil war,’ feds say. Now he faces up to 30 years in prison. — Sometimes Paul Miller dressed as Batman's nemesis, the Joker — face paint and all. Other times he wore army-green tactical gear with a red armband adorned with a swastika.

Discussion: Raw Story and Sun-Sentinel

New York Times:

‘We Are Very Free’ How China Spreads Its Propaganda Version of Life in Xinjiang — These and thousands of other videos are meant to look like unfiltered glimpses of life in Xinjiang, the western Chinese region where the Communist Party has carried out repressive policies against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities.

Matt Gertz / Media Matters for America:

The feedback loop the conservative movement is using against “critical race theory” — A feedback loop between powerful right-wing institutions is fueling the GOP's anti-"critical race theory" strategy, which seeks to turn local debates about school curricula into a polarized national issue Republicans …

Discussion: Fox News, PRESS RUN and Townhall

Isaac Schultz / Gizmodo:

Ground Temperatures Hit 118 Degrees in the Arctic Circle — Newly published satellite imagery shows the ground temperature in at least one location in Siberia topped 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) going into the year's longest day. It's hot [Siberia] Earth summer, and it certainly won't be the last.

Discussion: 40 Years In The Desert

Katie Benner / New York Times:

Garland Says Watchdog Is Best Positioned to Review Trump-Era Justice Dept., Not Him — The attorney general said that various inspector general inquiries would help uncover any wrongdoing and that he wanted to avoid politicizing the work of career officials.

Discussion: CNN, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, The Hill and The Daily Beast