memeorandum: Top-Paid LA Lifeguards Earned Up To $510,283 In 2021 (Adam Andrzejewski/OpenTheBooks Substack)

5:40 PM ET, June 1, 2022

Top Items:

Heidi Przybyla / Politico:

'It's going to be an army': Tapes reveal GOP plan to contest elections — Video recordings of Republican Party operatives meeting with grassroots activists provide an inside look at a multi-pronged strategy to target and potentially overturn votes in Democratic precincts …

Discussion: Insider, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Election Law Blog, Mediaite, Alternet.org, Rolling Stone, Common Dreams, Fox News and Raw Story

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Opinion Hapless Trumpist Mo Brooks gives away the GOP ‘vote fraud’ scam — You might have noticed that many of the same Republicans who insisted that “voter fraud” cast doubt on Donald Trump's 2020 loss mysteriously don't see fraud at play in elections that they win. This is routinely described as “hypocrisy.”

Discussion: Vanity Fair and Mercury News

Benjamin Wittes / Lawfare:

Thoughts on the Michael Sussmann Verdict — In the years since Donald Trump's election, the former president's supporters and opponents have often seemed to occupy entirely separate factual universes regarding both his conduct and the investigations of it. — In the factual universe occupied …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Federalist, New York Post, Fox News, Raw Story and Ground News

Dennis Aftergut / The Bulwark:

The Humiliation of John Durham — Hired by Bill Barr to investigate the Trump investigators, the prosecutor had little to show for his work even before his defeat in court yesterday. — John Durham, the special counsel appointed days before the 2020 election by Donald Trump's attorney general William Barr …

Discussion: Overtime, Mother Jones, ArnGrimR, Raw Story, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Alternet.org, Townhall, The Federalist, Outside the Beltway and New York Magazine

Alexander Martin / Sky News:

US military hackers conducting offensive operations in support of Ukraine, says head of Cyber Command — In an exclusive interview with Sky News, General Paul Nakasone confirmed for the first time that the US had “conducted a series of operations” in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Discussion: New York Post and The Daily Beast

Sinéad Baker / Insider:
Zelenskyy shuts down Newsmax interviewer who tried to get him to say there would be no war if Trump were president

Discussion: Alternet.org, Raw Story and The Daily Beast

Laura Italiano / Insider:
Still intent on ending NY AG Letitia James' probe of his business, Donald Trump files federal notice of appeal

Discussion: Raw Story

Hugh Son / CNBC:

Jamie Dimon says ‘brace yourself’ for an economic hurricane caused by the Fed and Ukraine war — There are two main factors that has Dimon worried: So-called quantitative tightening, or QT, is scheduled to begin this month and will ramp up to $95 billion a month in reduced bond holdings.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Hill, The Daily Wire, The Western Journal, Fortune, Trends Journal and Breitbart

Bloomberg:
Jamie Dimon Says JPMorgan Is Bracing Itself for Economic ‘Hurricane’

Discussion: New York Post, TheBlaze and Twitchy

Mike Stone / Reuters:

EXCLUSIVE U.S. plans to sell armed drones to Ukraine in coming days -sources — The Biden administration plans to sell Ukraine four MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones that can be armed with Hellfire missiles for battlefield use against Russia, three people familiar with the situation said.

Sandra Sobieraj Westfall / People.com:

First Look at Kathleen Buhle's Memoir: Hunter Biden's Ex on His Affair with Sister-in-Law — and Forgiveness — An exclusive excerpt from Buhle's upcoming book, If We Break, offers a window into how the onetime Biden found healing through her pain … There is a trace of wistfulness …

Discussion: Insider, Politico, CNN, Vanity Fair, Washington Post and New York Post

Associated Press: Biden's ex daughter-in-law opens up about marriage to Hunter

Don Moynihan / Can We Still Govern?:

Anatomy of a fake — What a viral fake news story about “race-based grading” tells us about our media ecosystem — This is the tale of a fake news story, widely shared by a lot of smart people who so badly wanted for it to be true that they didn't care that it wasn't.

Discussion: Townhall and The Kerr Report

Washington Post:

House Republicans to unveil conservative roadmap on climate, energy — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy plans to call for boosting domestic fossil fuel production and streamlining the permitting process for large infrastructure projects — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) …

Matthew Luxmoore / Wall Street Journal:

Documents Reveal Hundreds of Russian Troops Broke Ranks Over Ukraine Orders — Desertions and refusal to engage in the invasion have put Moscow in a bind over how to punish service members without drawing attention to the problem — Hundreds of Russian soldiers have escaped the fighting …

Discussion: New York Times and CBS News

Quint Forgey / Politico:

Biden celebrates ‘pioneer’ Coast Guard commandant — President Joe Biden on Wednesday applauded Adm. Linda Fagan's ascension to commandant of the Coast Guard, making her the first woman to lead a military service branch. — Biden, speaking at a change of command ceremony that saw outgoing commandant …

Discussion: ABC News, YouTube, Al Jazeera, RedState and Twitchy

Felicia Sonmez / Washington Post:
Adm. Linda Fagan becomes first woman to lead U.S. Coast Guard

Discussion: Associated Press, The Guardian, Washington Times and CNN

New York Times:

Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Trial Live Updates: Jury Finds Depp Was Defamed — The jury found Mr. Depp was defamed by Ms. Heard when she described herself in an op-ed as a “public figure representing domestic abuse,” but also that she had been defamed by one of his lawyers.

Discussion: The Guardian, The Hill, USA Today, HotAir, El País, NewsNation, Fox News, The Daily Wire, Associated Press, Breitbart and New York Post

Peter Hermann / Washington Post:

D.C. gun seizures are soaring — but charges aren't sticking — Police say there are legal hurdles to securing convictions even when they recover a weapon. Defense attorneys say they are bringing weak cases. — A D.C. police officer pulled over the driver of a Pontiac Bonneville …

Discussion: The Hill, JONATHAN TURLEY, New York Times and Politico

Tim Pearce / The Daily Wire:
EXCLUSIVE: Majority Of Americans Believe Armed Educators Make Schools Safer

Discussion: Reason, IJR, Big League Politics, Summit News, Townhall and Washington Examiner

CNN:

Uvalde school district police chief declines to answer CNN questions in first public comments in a week — (CNN)Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, the embattled Uvalde school police chief who led the flawed law enforcement response to last week's school shooting and has remained out of the public eye since …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, CBS News, The Hill, Houston Chronicle, Associated Press, Balloon Juice, Mercury News, Insider, New York Post, HotAir, Mediaite, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, Raw Story, The Guardian, The Daily Wire and Alternet.org

Jim Geraghty / National Review:

Joe Biden Is Too Old to Be President — On the menu today: As President Biden continues to misstate his own policies, it is a painful sign that the next president must be someone who has enough youth and energy to handle the pressures of the job. — The Wrong Man for a Tough Job

Discussion: Townhall, New York Post, James's Newsletter, The Gateway Pundit and TheBlaze

Daniel Gligich / The San Joaquin Valley Sun:

Salas comes clean on 11-year age gap on dating apps: ‘I made a mistake’ — A Central Valley lawmaker and Congressional candidate admitted to misrepresenting his age on dating apps after screenshots of his profile went public. — Tuesday morning, The Sun exclusively revealed screenshots taken …

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon and The Daily Wire

Charlie Sykes / Morning Shots:

What the AR-15 Does to a Child's Body — Plus: Durham face-plants — What if we saw the pictures? — At the moment, the question is academic, since no one can really bear the thought of seeing them. But what if we saw the pictures of children blown apart by America's most popular gun?

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and New York Times

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:

Spotify Podcasters Are Making $18,000 a Month With Nothing But White Noise — People on the prowl for a new podcast to consume often go for a stimulating option like a political debate or a true crime mystery to quicken the pulse. But when the din of the world becomes too much …

Heather Knight / San Francisco Chronicle:

A girl fled her war-torn homeland, but found more trauma in San Francisco — The morning began like most in the Saleh family's tiny studio six floors above Turk and Hyde streets in the Tenderloin. The four children rose from their mats on the floor as their parents emerged from the closet where they shared a small mattress.

The UnPopulist:

The Right-Wing Outrage Machine Is Doing Campus Conservatives No Favors — Its over-the-top tactics are a far bigger problem than the lack of intellectual openness … For the bargain price of $5,000-$10,000, Matt Walsh, a columnist for The Daily Wire, a self-described conservative site …

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

The final, brutal collapse of GOP's big Michael Flynn conspiracy theory — Among the many GOP efforts to counterprogram the Russia investigation with thinly constructed conspiracy theories, one of the most persistent ones was the so-called unmasking of Michael Flynn.

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Washington Examiner, Digby's Hullabaloo, BuzzFeed News and Raw Story

Henry Olsen / Washington Post:

Opinion The GOP midterm wave is set — and Democrats can't do anything about it — Respected political analyst David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report created a stir last week when he projected Republicans would gain between 20 to 35 House seats in the midterms.

Discussion: Townhall

Associated Press:

Jury indicts Buffalo shooting suspect on terrorism charge — BUFFALO, N.Y. — A grand jury on Wednesday charged the white 18-year-old accused of fatally shooting 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket with domestic terrorism motivated by hate and 10 counts of first-degree murder.

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Al Jazeera, New York Times, Raw Story and NBC4 Washington

Michael Barone / Washington Examiner:

Politics as the leisure of the theory class — Politics has increasingly become, for many Americans, the leisure of the theory class. That's a phrase from the early 20th century sociologist Thorstein Veblen, which I turned on its head in a recent column. He was condemning the showy consumerism …

Discussion: Politico and Washington Post

Matt Stieb / New York Magazine:

Man Who Shot Reagan Granted Full Freedom — John Hinckley, the would-be assassin who shot President Ronald Reagan two months after his inauguration in 1981, was deemed by a federal judge on Wednesday to no longer be a “danger to himself or others.” As a result, he will be free of all remaining restrictions by June 15.

Discussion: Associated Press and The Western Journal

Ana Goñi-Lessan / Tallahassee Democrat:

'It's all about the kids': Florida high school raffles off rifles, handguns — A Florida high school raffled off guns and other weaponry through a month-long fundraising campaign that ended Wednesday. — James Madison Preparatory High School in Madison, a charter school …

LZ Granderson / Los Angeles Times:

Republicans use ‘God’ to turn tragedies into talking points — A number of so-called religious conservatives like to explain away national tragedies — be they natural or man-made — through the lens of God's wrath, or at least indirect punishment for “sins.”

Discussion: TheBlaze and Townhall

Elena Schneider / Politico:

The billionaire ex-Republican who could become L.A.'s next mayor — Even by the cash-flush standards of modern politics, Rick Caruso's run for mayor of Los Angeles has been a shock-and-awe spending campaign. — The billionaire Republican-turned-Democrat has already dropped $34 million on the race …

Austin Goss / KSFY/KDLT:

Sources: Ravnsborg will not pursue re-election in 2022 — Ravnsborg has informed close confidants and Republican delegates that he will not run for re-election as Attorney General in 2022. — PIERRE, S.D. - South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will not run for re-election in 2022 …

Discussion: Raw Story

Justice News:

Former Employee Of NFT Marketplace Charged In First Ever Digital Asset Insider Trading Scheme — Defendant Allegedly Traded on Inside Information About NFTs That Were Scheduled to be Featured on The Homepage of The Largest NFT Marketplace — Damian Williams, the United States Attorney …

Discussion: The Verge, The Daily Dot and Fortune, more at Techmeme »

Drew Magary / SFGATE:

Chesa Boudin is on the brink of political oblivion. He says he's energized. — SFGATE columnist Drew Magary interviews San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin ahead of his recall election. — Chesa Boudin is running out of time. San Francisco's district attorney has less …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Ringside at the Reckoning, Davis Vanguard and National Review

Politico:

U.K. seeks U.S. approval to send rocket systems to Ukraine — The United Kingdom is asking the U.S. to sign off on a plan to send advanced, medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine within a few weeks, according to a person familiar with the matter and a document outlining the proposal …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, New York Times and The Daily Wire

Adam Andrzejewski / OpenTheBooks Substack:

Top-Paid LA Lifeguards Earned Up To $510,283 In 2021 — Baywatch needs to go on pay watch! — Who knew that LA lifeguards—who work in the sun, ocean surf, and golden sands of California— could reap such unbelievable financial reward? — It's time we put Baywatch on pay watch.

Discussion: Breitbart, New York Post and The Daily Wire

NBC News:

‘Outsider’ in Nevada's GOP Senate primary surges, rattling Trump's pick — An underdog candidate in the Nevada GOP Senate primary has unexpectedly tightened the race just two weeks before the election, powered by an enthusiastic grassroots base that appears increasingly inclined to turn away from longtime polling favorite Adam Laxalt.