memeorandum: The Phony Debt-Ceiling ‘Calamity’ (Wall Street Journal)

10:05 AM ET, May 23, 2023

Top Items:

Patrick Smith / NBC News:

Driver arrested and Nazi flag seized after truck crashes into security barriers near the White House — The driver of the U-Haul truck faces multiple charges after the Monday night incident, which the Secret Service said may have been intentional. — A driver was arrested and a Nazi flag …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Mediaite, New York Times, Reuters, Washington Times, New York Daily News, Associated Press, Metro.co.uk and The Post Millennial

Nathan Howard / Reuters:

Driver detained as truck crashes near White House; Nazi flag found — The U.S. Secret Service said it had detained the driver of a rented box truck that crashed into security barriers near the White House on Monday night, perhaps intentionally, but that there were no injuries or ongoing danger.

Discussion: USA Today and Rolling Stone

CNN:

U-Haul driver faces multiple charges after crashing into a security barrier near White House in Lafayette Square, police say — The driver of a U-Haul who crashed into a security barrier in Lafayette Square near the White House Monday night was arrested on multiple charges …

Discussion: Fox News, NBC News, The Hill, RedState, Washington Post, The Daily Beast, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, New York Post and UPI

Troy Pope / wusa9.com:

U-Haul truck smashes into security barrier near White House, driver arrested — Investigators say the 19-year-old driver intentionally crashed into the gates on the outside of Lafayette Park. — WASHINGTON — The Secret Service is investigating after a U-Haul crashed into Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House.

Discussion: Associated Press, CBS News, New York Post, The Messenger, Washington Examiner, RedState, al.com, Washington Times, WTTG-TV, Joe.My.God., WDTN.com, The Gateway Pundit, Twitchy and ABC7

Reuters:
White House: driver detained after truck crashes into security barriers near residence

Discussion: NBC New York, CBS News and NBC Chicago

New York Times:

Prosecutors Sought Records on Trump's Foreign Business Deals Since 2017 — The special counsel scrutinizing the former president's handling of classified documents issued a subpoena to the Trump Organization seeking records related to seven countries. — Federal prosecutors overseeing …

Discussion: CNN, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Just Security, HuffPost, Mediaite, Washington Press and Joe.My.God.

CNN:
Trump's attorney took notes that say the former president wanted to fight subpoena for classified docs

Discussion: Vanity Fair, Insider, Raw Story, New Republic, Talking Points Memo, Occupy Democrats, Washington Post and Alternet.org

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:
Mar-a-Lago prosecutors sought records of Trump Organization deals

Discussion: The Hill, ABC News and Raw Story

Matt Lewis / The Daily Beast:

Free Advice for Ron DeSantis: Don't Run for President — The Florida governor is uncomfortable around regular people, hides from the media, and is too skittish to take on Trump. What's the point in running at all? … I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) …

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story and Semafor, more at Mediagazer »

Tara Palmeri / Puck:

Ronny on the Run — Lessons from a day shadowing a press-any and socially uncomfortable presidential hopeful. — Last week, I made a pre-election year pilgrimage to New Hampshire, where I was able to hit a lobster shack and drive around with Governor Chris Sununu for hours on end.

Discussion: Twitchy

Hannah Knowles / Washington Post:
DeSantis envisions shaping ‘7-2 conservative majority’ on Supreme Court

Discussion: CNN, Fox News, HuffPost, Politico, Joe.My.God., Washington Examiner and Florida Politics

Eugene Robinson / Washington Post:
Ron DeSantis's presidential campaign could be brief

Discussion: New York Times, Mediaite, Raw Story, HuffPost, The Post Millennial, Washington Examiner, Just The News, Politico and Florida Politics

Benjamin Weiser / New York Times:

E. Jean Carroll Seeks New Damages From Trump for Comments on CNN — The former president's repeated denials that he sexually abused Ms. Carroll “show the depth of his malice” and merit heavy damages, her lawyer wrote. — E. Jean Carroll, who this month won $5 million in damages …

Dan Mangan / CNBC:
Trump faces $10 million defamation claim by E. Jean Carroll after CNN town hall remarks

Axios:

Scoop: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin reconsiders 2024 bid — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is reconsidering a bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, after earlier taking himself out of the race as polls made former President Trump look increasingly formidable, top Republican sources tell Axios.

Discussion: Fox News, Breitbart, One America News Network, Blue Virginia and Political Wire

Steve Henson / Los Angeles Times:

Dodgers apologize and invite Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to Pride Night — Less than a week after removing the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from their lineup, the Dodgers on Monday re-invited the organization to Pride Night amid backlash from LGBTQ+ and civil rights groups as well as local politicians and even Dodgers employees.

Discussion: KTLA, Balloon Juice, Joe.My.God., HuffPost, The Gateway Pundit and KRON4

Grayson Weir / OutKick:
DODGERS RE-INVITE ANTI-CATHOLIC DRAG GROUP TO PRIDE NIGHT, ISSUE APOLOGY TO LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY DESPITE LETTER FROM MARCO RUBIO

Curbed:

How Much Does It Cost to Live Like This? — We asked young New Yorkers about their dream futures. Then we calculated exactly how much each would cost. — You begin shopping for your future the moment you become an adult in New York City. Rich and well-furnished lives are aggressively paraded about.

Discussion: National Review and Althouse

Julie Rovner / NPR:

Abortion bans drive off doctors and close clinics, putting other health care at risk — The rush in conservative states to ban abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade is resulting in a startling consequence that abortion opponents may not have considered: fewer medical services available for all women living in those states.

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:
Texas Is Torturing Women Whose Pregnancies Fail

Discussion: Center for Reproductive Rights

Sommer Brugal / Miami Herald:

Miami-Dade K-8 bars elementary students from 4 library titles following parent complaint — A K-8 school in Miami-Dade County last month issued restrictions for elementary-aged students on three books and one poem after a parent objected to five titles, claiming they included topics …

Discussion: Alternet.org

Emily Brooks / The Hill:

Draft Tucker PAC ceases activities after legal threat from Carlson — A recently launched political action committee that sought to push former Fox News host Tucker Carlson to run for president has ceased activities after a legal threat from Carlson's lawyer.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Daily Beast, Joe.My.God., Crooks and Liars, HuffPost, Washington Times, TheBlaze, The Messenger and BizPac Review

A.O. Scott / New York Times:

Good Night, Sweet Prince — Our critic assesses the achievement of Martin Amis, Britain's most famous literary son. — On May 6, at the age of 74, Charles III was crowned king of England. A few weeks later, at 73, Martin Amis died at his home in Florida.

Discussion: Jewish Telegraphic Agency, UnHerd, The Spectator World and Financial Times

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

The looming existential crisis for cable news — The number of cable subscribers, dropping for years, just took a record-breaking plunge. Sooner or later, it will hurt news channels' bottom line. — After a week of promotion and controversy, CNN staged a live town hall telecast …

Jeff Stein / Washington Post:

As funds run short, Treasury asks agencies if payments can be made later — Senior Biden aides are rummaging through the nation's books, looking for new ways to conserve cash while Washington battles over the debt ceiling — The Treasury Department has asked federal agencies whether …

Discussion: Robert Reich

Perry Bacon Jr / Washington Post:

7 news outlets reimagining political journalism in smart ways — Political journalism is in crisis. Over the past few months, BuzzFeed News, FiveThirtyEight, Vice and a number of other outlets that specialize in political news have substantially cut staffing and coverage.

Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:

Here's How Bad CNN's Post-Trump Town Hall Ratings Have Been — This reporting is featured in this week's edition of Confider, The Daily Beast's media newsletter. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here. — More than a week after CNN's disastrous town hall …

Discussion: UPROXX

Olivia Beavers / Politico:

The debt talks are about to test McCarthy's hold on his party — The speaker has to keep conservatives happy or risk a threat to his gavel, while avoiding alienation of his battleground-district members. — Speaker Kevin McCarthy's negotiations with President Joe Biden …

Discussion: The Hill and Political Wire

Axios:

U.S. lawmakers OK'd more pro-gun bills than safety measures since Uvalde — State legislators around the country have passed more laws expanding gun access than they have measures on gun control in the year since the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting that left 19 children and two teachers day …

Discussion: Associated Press

Judd Legum / Popular Information:

Mika Westwolf matters — In the early morning of March 31, Mika Westwolf, a 22-year-old Indigenous woman, was walking on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 93, which passes through the Flathead reservation. Westwolf was struck by a Cadillac Escalade and declared dead at the scene.

Shayna Jacobs / Washington Post:

Trump to appear remotely in N.Y. criminal court to hear judge's warnings — NEW YORK — Former president Donald Trump will appear remotely in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday so that a judge can warn him not to share evidence provided to his lawyers as part of pretrial discovery …

Discussion: NBC News, CNN, Just Security, Insider, Raw Story and Bulwark+

Rich Lowry / National Review:

The Busing of Migrants Has Worked — The ire of Democratic mayors and governors would be best directed at the author of this mess, President Biden. — B — uild the wall" hasn't been a sentiment often heard in South Side Chicago. — But someone held a sign calling for the barrier …

Jared Gans / The Hill:

Trump Organization finishes last in brand reputation survey for second straight year — The Trump Organization, the company led by former President Trump and his family, finished last in an Axios Harris survey of brand reputations for the second year in a row.

Discussion: Axios

Washington Post:

Before-and-after images of the destroyed Ukrainian city of Bakhmut — One year ago, the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, home to some 70,000 people, was known locally for its salt mines and sparkling wine. Today, it is a symbol of Russia's brutal and relentless war.

Discussion: New York Times, Outside the Beltway, Responsible Statecraft, The Guardian, Associated Press, Al Jazeera and Washington Examiner

Alex Shephard / New Republic:

The Democrats Have Already Lost the Debt Ceiling Fight — Six months ago, Democrats were riding high. They had just improbably overperformed in the midterm elections; if it wasn't for the meltdown of New York's Democratic Party, they likely would have held onto slim majorities in both chambers of Congress.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Erick Erickson's Show Notes, RedState, Los Angeles Times, Vox, NBC News, Breitbart, Slate, Roll Call, Digby's Hullabaloo and TASS

Catherine Rampell / Washington Post:

A far bigger problem than book bans? Declining literacy. — Communists. Satanists. Neighbors who lace Halloween candy with heroin. — Every era has its bogeyman, the cartoonish villain who parents worry will corrupt their babies. Today's fearsome predator, apparently, is the local librarian.

Discussion: BizPac Review

Richard Luscombe / The Guardian:

DeSantis's $13.5m police program lures officers with violent records to Florida — Governor's incentive scheme recruits officers with history of excessive violence or who have been arrested since signing up — Numerous police officers lured to new jobs in Florida with cash …

Discussion: Raw Story, Joe.My.God., Political Wire and The Daily Dot

Allyson Chiu / Washington Post:

The little-known unintended consequence of recycling plastics — Breaking down plastics can generate polluting microplastics that wind up in water or the air, one study finds — Instead of helping to tackle the world's staggering plastic waste problem, recycling may be exacerbating …

Jerry Dunleavy / Washington Examiner:

Hunter Biden investigation: Second IRS whistleblower claims retaliation — A second IRS whistleblower has alleged retaliation for raising concerns that Justice Department leadership was “acting inappropriately” on the investigation into Hunter Biden, the Washington Examiner has learned.