memeorandum: Killing the Pax Americana (Paul Krugman/New York Times)

7:35 PM ET, May 11, 2019

Top Items:

Leaked Letters Reveal Details of NRA Chief's Alleged Spending — Wayne LaPierre expensed $39,000 in clothes in one day, $18,300 for car and driver, ad agency says; NRA says board has ‘full confidence’ in him — National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre billed the group's ad agency $39,000 …

Discussion: Political Wire and Raw Story

Betsy Woodruff / The Daily Beast:

Leaked Documents: NRA Racked Up $24 Million in Legal Bills — The NRA has racked up huge legal bills over the last year that threaten to debilitate the organization, according to documents posted anonymously online that appear to be written by the group's ex-president Oliver North.

Discussion: Slate and Raw Story

Associated Press:

Beto O'Rourke plans ‘reintroduction’ as 2020 buzz fizzles — NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Beto O'Rourke barreled into the 2020 presidential race with breakneck energy and a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants campaign style that saw him leap atop tables to address overflow crowds with the organic …

Discussion: Townhall and twitchy.com

Sam Dorman / Fox News:
Resurfaced video shows Joe Biden pushing border fence, calling for employers who hired ‘illegals’ to be punished

Discussion: Townhall, IJR and CNN

Harry Enten / CNN:
Beto O'Rourke is polling worse than ever

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Axios and American Prospect

Marc Caputo / Politico:
Florida takes shape as Joe Biden's firewall

Discussion: The Argo Journal

Benjy Sarlin / NBC News:
Sanders to join Ocasio-Cortez at rally as climate fight heats up

Discussion: New York Times, RedState and Conservative News Today

Jonathan Allen / NBC News:
As Biden predicts a shorter race, rivals dig in for long fight

Discussion: USA Today

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Killing the Pax Americana — Trump's trade war is about more than economics. — O.K., they weren't supposed to start the trade war until I got back from vacation. And I really have too many kilometers to cover and hills to climb to weigh in on a regular basis or at great length.

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Raw Story

New York Times:

Trump's Tariffs Are a New Tax on Americans — President Trump is undermining the credibility of his trade policies by falsely claiming that China is paying the bill. — The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.

Discussion: Des Moines Register, Fox News, Politico, Slate, Daily Kos, Sputnik International and CNN

Nick Clegg / New York Times:
Breaking Up Facebook Is Not the Answer

Discussion: Gizmodo, Variety, The Verge, Breitbart, TechCrunch, Mediaite and ABC News, more at Techmeme »

Mitch Smith / New York Times:
Frustration Mounts Among Farmers as China Trade Talks Break Down

Discussion: Axios

New York Times:
Trump Sees a China Trade Deal Through a New Prism: The 2020 Election

Discussion: Bloomberg

Kenneth P. Vogel / New York Times:

Rudy Giuliani Cancels His Trip to Ukraine, Blaming Democrats' ‘Spin’ — WASHINGTON — Facing withering attacks accusing him of seeking foreign assistance for President Trump's re-election campaign, Rudolph W. Giuliani announced on Friday night that he had canceled a trip to Kiev in which he planned …

Discussion: CNN, RedState, CBS News, Politico, Vox, Vanity Fair, The Last Refuge, Splinter, Joe.My.God., PJ Media Home, Axios, The Week, The Guardian, New York Post, Big League Politics and Mediaite

Washington Post:

Trump's interest in stirring Ukraine investigations sows confusion in Kiev — MOSCOW — As President Trump and his inner circle appear increasingly focused on Ukraine as a potential tripwire for Joe Biden and Democrats, officials about to take power in Kiev are pushing their own message: Leave us out of it.

Discussion: Fox News and Raw Story

Harry Siegel / New York Daily News: Rudy Giuliani's adventures abroad: How the former mayor is helping Trump anywhere he can

Charles Creitz / Fox News:
Giuliani cancels Ukraine trip, says he'd be ‘walking into a group of people that are enemies of the US’

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Talking Points Memo and News Agency UNIAN

Jacqueline Thomsen / The Hill:

Trump seeks to limit judges' powers on injunctions after legal blows — President Trump is looking to stop lower courts from being able to issue wide-ranging injunctions in a move that could dramatically limit the authority of judges. — The plan comes as groups opposed to Trump have been able …

Discussion: Political Wire

Jamie Raskin / Washington Post: Congress isn't just a co-equal branch. We're first among equals.

Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:

Michael Oren Doesn't Want To Talk About Israel — Michael Oren, born Michael Bornstein in New York in 1955, emigrated to Israel forty years ago and served in the Israeli Defense Forces. After returning to the U.S. to receive a Ph.D. in Near Eastern studies from Princeton …

Anne Barnard / New York Times:

Inside Syria's Secret Torture Prisons: How Bashar al-Assad Crushed Dissent — GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Syrian security officers hung Muhannad Ghabbash from his wrists for hours, beat him bloody, shocked him with electricity and stuck a gun in his mouth. — Mr. Ghabbash, a law student from Aleppo …

Michael Brice-Saddler / Washington Post:

A group raised over $20 million to ‘build the wall.’ Now its supporters want answers. — A December fundraising campaign brought in more than $20 million over the course of a few weeks, its thousands of donors united by a common goal: the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, oft-promised by President Trump.

Discussion: Axios, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos and The Daily Beast

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

The GOP's increasing embrace of Trump's Russia conspiracy theory — On Friday, the former general counsel of the FBI, Jim Baker, decided to speak out. Frustrated by the burgeoning Republican narrative about how the Russia investigation might have been launched under false pretenses …

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Raw Story

Andrew McCarthy / Fox News:
Politics is front and center for Russiagate probe — and the farce has reached new heights

Discussion: Power Line

Matt Zapotosky / Washington Post: ‘There was no attempted coup’: FBI's former top lawyer defends Russia probe

Eliza Collins / USA Today:

Firestorm erupts around Sen. Richard Burr, man behind Donald Trump Jr. subpoena. He's not backing down — WASHINGTON — North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr is not one to make a splash. — So when the Senate Intelligence Committee, which Burr chairs, issued a subpoena to Donald Trump Jr., it didn't leak out for a couple of weeks.

Discussion: HillReporter.com, Raw Story, The National Interest and ThinkProgress

CNN:

Washington is flirting with a debt crisis. No one has a plan to stop it — President Trump: 'It's time to stop this nonsense' — Washington (CNN)The US government is hurtling toward a potential financial crisis, and no one in Washington seems to know how to stop it.

Daily Mail:

EXCLUSIVE: The Mexican father of alleged Colorado school shooter Alec McKinney, 16, was jailed for domestic violence and deported TWICE, with his son posting how he missed him just days before the atrocity — Jose Evis Quintana, 33, was jailed for 15 months for domestic violence …

Discussion: TheBlaze, The Gateway Pundit, Big League Politics and The Daily Caller

Reuters:

Venezuela's Guaido seeks U.S. Pentagon cooperation to solve political crisis — CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said on Saturday he has asked his envoy to the United States to meet with Pentagon officials to “cooperate” on a solution to the South American country's political crisis.

Dan Lamothe / Washington Post:

Pentagon will shift an additional $1.5 billion to help fund Trump's border wall — The Defense Department will reprogram an additional $1.5 billion originally designated for other U.S. military projects to help fund President Trump's border wall, acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan said Friday …