memeorandum: Congratulations, America, indeed (Ruth Marcus/Washington Post)

7:45 PM ET, May 18, 2018

Top Items:

‘Multiple fatalities’ reported at Santa Fe High School shooting — SANTA FE, Texas - A shooting at Santa Fe High School this morning has left “multiple fatalities,” a law enforcement source confirmed. — The source said the gunman was a male, but could provide no further information.

New York Times:

10 Dead in Santa Fe, Texas, School Shooting; Suspect Used Shotgun and Revolver — Right Now: A shotgun and a .38 revolver were used by the suspect in the Texas school shooting on Friday, said Gov. Greg Abbott at a news conference. They appeared to be obtained by the suspect from his father, who legally owned the weapons, he said.

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

2018 has been deadlier for schoolchildren than service members … The school shooting near Houston on Friday bolstered a stunning statistic: More people have been killed at schools this year than have been killed while serving in the military. — Initial estimates put the number killed …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Little Green Footballs, Bustle, Hit & Run, The Week, AOL, Bangor Daily News and Political Wire

BuzzFeed:

Here's What We Know About Dimitrios Pagourtzis, The Suspected Santa Fe High School Shooter — Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, was identified as the shooter suspected of killing at least eight people at Santa Fe High School on Friday, the Associated Press and other media outlets reported, citing law enforcement officials.

Discussion: Hot Air, No More Mister Nice Blog and The Gateway Pundit

Associated Press:

Houston-area media reporting fatalities from school shooting — SANTA FE, Texas (AP) — Houston-area media citing unnamed law enforcement officials are reporting that there are fatalities following a shooting at a local high school Friday morning. — Television station KHOU and the Houston Chronicle …

Discussion: New York Times, CNN, Houston Chronicle and KHOU-TV

NBC News:
Shooting suspect Dimitrios Pagourtzis posted ‘Born to Kill’ T-shirt

Discussion: Heavy.com, Splinter and TVNewser

The Daily Beast:
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Suggests School Shooting Because of ‘Too Many Exits’

Discussion: Vox, Bustle, New York Times and Shakesville

Mythili Sampathkumar / The Independent:
Texas school shooting latest: Man turns up to Santa Fe High carrying American flag and gun saying …

Discussion: The Federalist

Emily Shapiro / ABC News:
At least 8 dead in shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas: Sheriff

Discussion: The Atlantic, Mediaite, Shareblue Media, Law & Crime, Townhall and Women in the World

Fox News:
Texas high school shooting leaves 8-10 dead, 1 suspect in custody, 1 detained

Discussion: RedState, BBC, Washington Press, The Guardian, The Gateway Pundit and Atlanta Black Star

Ben Shapiro / Daily Wire:
CNN Says There Have Been 22 School Shootings This Year. That's A Lie.

Discussion: NewsBusters, Bustle, KTLA and The Week

CNN:
There has been, on average, 1 school shooting every week this year

Discussion: RedState, Vox, Bustle, KTLA, The Daily Caller, AOL, NewsBusters, CBS San Francisco, twitchy.com, Conservative Review, IJR, Deadspin, Shareblue Media, CBS Sacramento, babe, Hit & Run, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Shakesville and Daily Kos

Washington Post:

Trump personally pushed postmaster general to double rates on Amazon, other firms — President Trump has personally pushed U.S. Postmaster General Megan Brennan to double the rate the Postal Service charges Amazon.com and other firms to ship packages, according to three people familiar …

Discussion: Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Gizmodo, Washington Press, Bloomberg, New York Magazine, Daily Kos, MSNBC, CNBC, GeekWire, Engadget, The Week, The Verge, BloombergQuint, Mediaite and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »

Reuters:

Exclusive: Special Counsel subpoenas another Stone aide in Russia probe - sources — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed a key assistant of long-time Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone, two people with knowledge of the matter said, the latest sign …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Breitbart, VICE News, Political Wire and The Gateway Pundit

Ruth Marcus / Washington Post:

Congratulations, America, indeed … Congratulations, America, indeed. — President Trump was being sarcastic when he tweeted, at 7:28 Thursday morning, “Congratulations America, we are now into the second year of the greatest Witch Hunt in American History . . . and there is still No Collusion and No Obstruction.”

Discussion: CNN, The Moscow Project, New York Times and Sputnik International

Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:
Russian-American Lobbyist At Trump Tower Meeting Described Knowing Hillary Clinton, Associates

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Daily Caller News Foundation

Kate Brannen / Just Security:
Getting to the Bottom of the Trump Tower Meeting

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Examiner and HuffPost

Washington Post:

In blow to GOP, House fails to pass massive farm bill in face of conservative Republican showdown … A sweeping farm bill failed in the House on Friday in a blow to GOP leaders who were unable to placate conservative lawmakers demanding commitments on immigration.

Discussion: Politico, CNN, Booman Tribune, IJR, Hit & Run, Townhall, Daily Caller News Foundation and Wall Street Journal

HuffPost:
Freedom Caucus Sinks Farm Bill

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Juliegrace Brufke / The Hill:
House rejects farm bill as conservatives revolt

Discussion: NPR, New York Magazine, RedState, Washington Press and The Week

Nellie Bowles / New York Times:

Jordan Peterson, Custodian of the Patriarchy — He says there's a crisis in masculinity. Why won't women — all these wives and witches — just behave? — TORONTO — Jordan Peterson fills huge lecture halls and tells his audiences there's no shame in looking backward to a model of how the world should be arranged.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Daily Wire, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Daily Caller, Crooked Timber, The Week, Mother Jones, Instapundit, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and Althouse

Reuters:

More than 100 killed in passenger plane crash in Cuba: state TV — HAVANA (Reuters) - More than 100 people were killed in a fiery crash of a Boeing 737 passenger plane in Cuba on Friday, Cuban broadcaster CubaTV reported. — There were three seriously injured survivors among the 114 passengers and crew …

William Branigin / Washington Post:
More than 100 people dead after airliner crashes in Cuba on domestic flight

Discussion: Breitbart

Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Reports: Boeing 737 with more than 100 passengers crashes in Cuba

Discussion: National Review, Associated Press and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Foreign Policy:

Trump Lawyer Met With Qatari Government Official Days Before FBI Raid — Was Michael Cohen seeking to add foreign governments as clients of his consulting business? — President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, who made millions over the past 18 months soliciting funds from clients seeking entree …

Discussion: USA Today, American Prospect, Talking Points Memo, Washington Press, CNBC, Law & Crime, Raw Story, The Real Deal New York, The Week and HuffPost

Eve Peyser / VICE:

The Onion's Brutal Israel Commentary Goes Beyond Satire — The country's leading humor publication has taken a stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict in a way that most “real” newspapers haven't. — via The Onion — On Monday, as the United States celebrated moving its Israeli embassy …

Discussion: New York Times, IJR and Common Dreams

Andrew Sullivan / New York Magazine:

Obama's Legacy Has Already Been Destroyed — In one respect, it seems to me, the presidency of Donald Trump has been remarkably successful. In 17 months, he has effectively erased Barack Obama's two-term legacy. — I don't want to say or face this. I still want to believe my colleague …

Discussion: The Rush Limbaugh Show

Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Scrapped Training Exercise With South Korea Involving B-52s — South Korea expressed concern in advance of U.S.-North Korea summit, officials say — A training exercise involving U.S. B-52 bombers and South Korean planes was scrapped earlier this week after the South Korean government …

Discussion: Axios, New York Magazine, Washington Post, The Guardian, CNBC and Talking Points Memo

Wall Street Journal: North Korea's Secret Army: How Operatives Abroad Aid the Regime

Jordan Weissmann / Slate:

Actually, the 1 Percent Are Still The Problem — The Atlantic trots out a familiar argument blaming the upper middle class for income inequality. It's wrong. — One of the nice things about Occupy Wall Street was that it provided a tidy shorthand to describe the problem of income inequality …

Discussion: RealityChek

Ahmed Al Omran / Financial Times:

Saudi Arabia arrests campaigners who challenged women driving ban — Saudi Arabia has arrested seven prominent activists who had campaigned to lift the ban on women driving, just weeks before the kingdom prepares to allow female motorists to get behind the wheel.

Ben Hubbard / New York Times: Saudi Arabia Detains Activists Who Pushed to End Ban on Women Driving

David French / National Review:

The Best Explanation for Our Spate of Mass Shootings Is the Least Comforting — On another terrible day, I hate to introduce even more pessimism, but when we discuss mass shootings, one of the first questions we ask is the simplest and also the hardest to answer. Why? Why does this keep happening?

Discussion: Instapundit

Naomi Martin / Dallas Morning News:

White, straight and Christian: Dallas County politician admits rewarding kids for marrying within race — Vickers “Vic” Cunningham, a former criminal district judge now in a runoff to be the sole Republican Dallas County commissioner, acknowledged Friday that in 2010 he set up a living trust …

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Post:

Playboy Playmate took young son on fatal leap from NYC building — A former Playboy Playmate jumped with her 7-year-old son to their deaths from a Midtown hotel Friday — amid a nasty custody battle with her chiropractic ex, sources told The Post. — Stephanie Adams, 47 …

Discussion: ABC News, Law & Crime, AOL, WPIX 11 New York, Gothamist and The Daily Caller

Jacqueline Thomsen / The Hill:

GOP candidate films herself confronting transgender woman using bathroom — A Republican candidate for Congress in California filmed herself confronting a transgender woman using the women's bathroom at a Denny's in Los Angeles. — Jazmina Saavedra, who is campaigning for a seat …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Refinery29, CBS Los Angeles, Splinter and Daily Caller News Foundation

Jennifer Emily / Dallas Morning News:

Frisco hospice exec admits making patients overdose ‘to hasten their deaths’ and make more money — The former executive of a Frisco hospice admitted Thursday to overdosing patients to “hasten their deaths” so the company could make more money, court records show.

Dvora Meyers / Deadspin:

Michigan State's Nassar Settlement Could Set A Troubling First Amendment Precedent — On Wednesday, Michigan State announced that it had settled with 332 survivors of Larry Nassar's sexual abuse for $500 million. Of that enormous sum, $425 million will be divided among the women and girls …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Joanna Chiu / Foreign Policy:

Sexpat Journalists Are Ruining Asia Coverage — Newsroom predators in foreign bureaus hurt their colleagues — and their stories. — Today, I'm known as a strong advocate in my social circles, promoting women's and minorities' voices in media. But when I first moved to China seven years ago …

Scott Bland / Politico:

Ryan-linked group raised $24.6M from anonymous donor — American Action Network, the nonprofit group closely aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, raised a record $41.9 million amid the GOP push to repeal Obamacare and restructure the tax code — more than half of which came from one donor …

Discussion: Political Wire

Vladimir Kara-Murza / Washington Post:

The Kremlin revives a Soviet-style law against dissent — “Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime.” This phrase from Stalin's secret police chief Lavrentiy Beria, even if apocryphal, summarizes the Soviet regime's attitude to repressing its citizens.

Brad Reed / Raw Story:

‘Unfair!’ Rudy Giuliani explodes when CNN's Cuomo plays clip of him saying presidents must obey subpoenas — Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani went on an angry tirade against Chris Cuomo on Friday after the CNN host played an old clip of him saying that presidents must comply with subpoenas to testify.

Discussion: Mediaite

Kevin Robillard / HuffPost:

Sen. Dean Heller's Campaign Paid His Social Media Influencer Son More Than $50,000 — The Republican senator's campaign gave the cash to his son to run its Instagram page and make Facebook and YouTube videos. — Nevada GOP Sen. Dean Heller's campaign has paid his son, a social media influencer …

Discussion: Splinter