memeorandum: Texas Stops Enforcing Ban On Mask Mandates In Schools Amid Lawsuits (Nick Visser/HuffPost)

1:30 PM ET, August 20, 2021

Top Items:

‘This Is Actually Happening’ — President Joe Biden and his inner circle were in an ebullient mood. — It was Wednesday morning, Aug. 11, and they were basking in the glow of back-to-back legislative wins. The day before, the Senate had passed a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

Discussion: Fox News, Washington Free Beacon, HotAir, Townhall, USAFeatures.news, Trending Politics, New York Times, The Dispatch, Raw Story, The Daily Caller and Wall Street Journal

New York Times:

Live Updates: Biden to Address Afghan Crisis as Desperation Builds at Kabul Airport — President Biden will speak on Friday amid intense criticism of the evacuation effort. A 17-year-old boy was identified as one of the Afghans who fell from a U.S. military plane as it lifted off.

Discussion: Washington Post, Defense One, Trending Politics, Outside the Beltway, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Los Angeles Times, HotAir, Breitbart, CNN and New York Post, more at Mediagazer »

David Ignatius / Washington Post:

The Best and Brightest never recovered from Vietnam. Will Biden's team fare better? — The Afghanistan disaster has rocked the Biden administration's foreign policy team, which may need months to regain its sense of balance and momentum. — Senior officials don't have time or emotional bandwidth …

Discussion: Insider, CNBC, New York Post, Sputnik News, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, Breitbart, Twitchy, Louder With Crowder, Townhall, No More Mister Nice Blog, New York Times and WV MetroNews

DW.COM:

Relative of DW journalist killed by the Taliban — Journalists and their families are in grave danger in Afghanistan. The Taliban have no compunction about carrying out targeted killings as the case of a DW journalist shows. — Taliban fighters hunting a DW journalist have shot dead …

Discussion: VICE, CNN, HotAir, Insider, Deadline, Al Jazeera, UPI, Variety, Forbes, Sputnik News, Financial Times, Breitbart, Politico, Bloomberg, The Hill and Committee to Protect …, more at Mediagazer »

Michael Crowley / New York Times:

Trump's Deal With the Taliban Draws Fire From His Former Allies — The former president and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, are attacking President Biden over Afghanistan even as their own policy faces harsh criticism. — WASHINGTON — Days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 …

Discussion: Slate, Raw Story, Metro.co.uk, Washington Examiner, coldfury.com, CNN, New York Post, RedState, National Review and VICE

Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times:

Encounter with the Taliban: Punched, detained — then offered an energy drink — FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT AND PHOTOGRAPHER — When I headed out to work, it had been five days since the Taliban took over Kabul. And it was Independence Day, a national holiday, when Afghans celebrate their country's independence from Britain in 1919.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Insider and New York Post, more at Mediagazer »

Ed Morrissey / HotAir:
CNN's Ward: Getting inside the Kabul airport “one of the more harrowing things I have experienced”

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, Washington Free Beacon and NBC News

Reuters:
Facing backlash, foreign powers try to speed Afghanistan exodus

Discussion: Amnesty International

CNN:
The Taliban's mask slips further after militants kill journalist's relative

Discussion: Just Security

BBC:
Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to door manhunt, report says

Discussion: RedState, HotAir, New York Post, Politico, Washington Examiner, SpyTalk, Breitbart, Agence France-Presse and Reuters

Patrick Reilly / New York Post:
Oklahoma mom of 11 rescues members of Afghan all-girls robotics team

Discussion: Washington Examiner, CBS News, TODAY.com, The Hill and The Intellectualist

Vivian Salama / Wall Street Journal:
Confidential State Department Cable in July Warned of Afghanistan's Collapse

Reuters:
Biden's Afghanistan policy counts on issue fading in importance for war-weary voters

Discussion: HotAir, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Politico, The Hill, Louder With Crowder, Washington Examiner, One America News Network, Daily Kos, Ace of Spades HQ, Real Clear Politics and Althouse

Peter Nicholas / The Atlantic:
Biden Is Betting Americans Will Forget About Afghanistan

Discussion: Telegraph, FDD, Ace of Spades HQ, Commentary Magazine, TheBlaze, Washington Times, Power Line and Sputnik News

New York Times:
How News Organizations Got Afghan Colleagues Out of Kabul

Discussion: Breitbart, New York Post and Wall Street Journal, more at Mediagazer »

Sean Davis / The American Mind:
Moral Blackmail — Tell them: we do not negotiate with ostracists.

Discussion: Esquire, New York Post, National Review, New York Post, New York Post, Reuters, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, Amnesty International USA, Reuters, Washington Post, CNN and New York Times

Matthew Rosenberg / New York Times:
Hunted by the Taliban, US-Allied Afghan Forces Are in Hiding

Discussion: Reuters, HotAir, Forever Wars, National Review, New York Post, The American Conservative, Breitbart, Washington Examiner, The US Sun and The Daily Caller

Wall Street Journal:
The Right and Our Afghan Allies

Discussion: Washington Post, National Review, Raw Story, New York Post, Daily Kos and HotAir

Reuters:

EXCLUSIVE FBI finds scant evidence U.S. Capitol attack was coordinated-sources — The FBI has found scant evidence that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result, according to four current and former law enforcement officials.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Insider, RedState, The Daily Caller, Becker News, Trending Politics, TheBlaze, BizPac Review, The Western Journal, The Gateway Pundit, The National Pulse, IJR, Page Array, Townhall, Summit News, Sputnik News and Power Line

Nick Visser / HuffPost:

Texas Stops Enforcing Ban On Mask Mandates In Schools Amid Lawsuits — School districts statewide had flouted Gov. Greg Abbott's ban on mask requirements amid a dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases. — Texas has stopped enforcing Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) ban on mask mandates in schools …

Discussion: Bipartisan Report, Bloomberg, Mock Paper Scissors, CBS News, Forbes, HotAir, Daily Kos, CBS Dallas / Fort Worth, Insider and Political Wire

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Quiet Rage of the Responsible — Let's talk for a minute about Lollapalooza. After canceling in-person events last year, a few weeks ago Chicago once again hosted the long-running music festival, drawing more than 385,000 people. Many feared that the huge, raucous crowds could produce a coronavirus superspreader event.

Discussion: HotAir, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Daily Kos and Off the Kuff

CNN:
Local mask mandates allowed for now after Texas Supreme Court rejects Gov. Abbott's request to intervene

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Bloomberg

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
Govs. DeSantis and Abbott, in denial and risking lives, have betrayed the public trust

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Times:

The new ‘Jeopardy!’ host, Mike Richards, quits. — Mike Richards, who was named the new host of “Jeopardy!” last week, is abruptly leaving the role as the beloved game show confronts a roiling controversy over offensive and sexist comments he made on a podcast several years ago.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Crooks and Liars, Page Array, The Daily Beast, Twin Cities, National Review, KTLA, Hollywood Life, HotAir, NPR, Deadline and Forbes

Star Tribune:

Minnesota GOP chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan forced out amid scandal — She casts deciding vote to give herself $38K in severance — Minnesota Republican leaders forced Jennifer Carnahan out as head of the state party on Thursday, turning a page on a scandal that threatened to consume GOP politics ahead of a pivotal election year.

Discussion: Twin Cities, Associated Press, The American Independent and Fox21Online

J. Patrick Coolican / Minnesota Reformer:
Carnahan resigns as chair of Minnesota Republican Party

Discussion: Raw Story and WCCO | CBS Minnesota

Anne Applebaum / The Atlantic:

Liberal Democracy Is Worth a Fight — Of all the empty, pointless statements that are periodically repeated by Western politicians, none is more empty and pointless than this one: “There can be no military solution to this conflict.” That was what Ban Ki-moon, then the UN secretary-general …

Bob Christie / Associated Press:

Appeals court orders Arizona Senate audit records released — PHOENIX (AP) — An appeals court on Thursday rejected an effort by the Arizona Senate to keep secret records of its ongoing review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County that are in the possession of the contractors conducting the recount.

Discussion: American Oversight, Raw Story and Politico

Ryan Randazzo / Arizona Republic:
Arizona Senate must turn over Cyber Ninjas records related to election audit, Appeals Court says

Discussion: HuffPost, Daily Kos, Bipartisan Report, Arizona Mirror and The Hill

Jim Swift / The Bulwark:

Josh Mandel Lets the Mask Slip, a Little — He doesn't believe what he's saying, at least not all of it. And that's sad. — When I watched this interview with Josh Mandel by Josh Rultenberg, a local reporter for Spectrum News 1 in Ohio, it made me a little sad. Here's the clip:

logically.ai:

EXCLUSIVE: Logically Identifies GhostEzra, Florida Man Behind World's ‘Largest Antisemitic Internet Forum’ — Logically, as part of our mission to understand and counter harmful online misinformation, conducts continuous research into the networks, channels, and actors that play an outsized role …

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Stuart / The Roanoke Star News:

Roanoke College Poll: McAuliffe Holds Lead in Race for Governor: Economy / COVID Most Important Issues — Former Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe holds an 8-percentage point lead over Republican Glenn Youngkin (46%-38%) with 13% undecided in race for Virginia governor, according to The Roanoke College Poll.

Discussion: Blue Virginia

Sam Karlin / The Advocate:

‘Locate us a ring’: Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins challenges Facebook user to a fight — Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins has once again threatened someone on Facebook with violence. — The Lafayette Republican, who has a long history of bizarre social media antics …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

al.com:

As Cullman prepares for Trump rally, city declares COVID state of emergency — With Cullman Regional experiencing overcrowding due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the city of Cullman will be providing more first responders to this weekend's Alabama GOP rally. — The Cullman City Council passed …

Discussion: The Hill, POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story

Jim Huylebroek / New York Times:

The Credibility Trap — It's not hard to find downsides to the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Taliban's treatment of women, journalists and minorities. The danger to civilians who worked with the U.S.-backed government. The loss of American influence in a remote corner of the world.

Robin Bravender / Insider:

Ted Cruz has been doling out jobs to his cousins. His office hurls ‘political slime job’ complaint when asked about it. — Sen. Ted Cruz has hired cousins to work for his Senate office and campaigns. — Ethics experts say it's nepotism that violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the law.

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA