memeorandum: Stopping Drug Patents Has Stopped Pandemics Before (Laurie Garrett/Foreign Policy)

4:20 PM ET, May 8, 2021

Top Items:

Liz Cheney's months-long effort to turn Republicans from Trump threatens her reelection and ambitions. She says it's only beginning. — Rep. Liz Cheney had been arguing for months that Republicans had to face the truth about former president Donald Trump — that he had lied …

Discussion: Insider, The Hill, HotAir, POLITICUSUSA, The Guardian, The Week, Raw Story, Michael-In-Norfolk, Associated Press, BizPac Review, DJHJ Media and Politico

Lisa Lerer / New York Times:

Marooned at Mar-a-Lago, Trump Still Has Iron Grip on Republicans — The vilification of Liz Cheney and a bizarre vote recount in Arizona showed the damage from his assault on a bedrock of democracy: election integrity. — Locked out of Facebook, marooned in Mar-a-Lago and mocked …

Discussion: Politico, CNN, Washington Post, Digby's Hullabaloo, Electoral-vote.com, The Guardian, Daily Kos, Hackwhackers, Mother Jones and HuffPost

Brad Bannon / The Hill:

GOP is consumed by Trump conspiracy theories — Share to Facebook Share to Twitter — President Joe Biden's happy 100 days have been a sad time for Republicans. While the new president has unified Americans behind his proposals for building America back better, the Republican Party has been consumed by conspiracy theories.

Discussion: CNN and Morning Shots

Charlotte Alter / TIME:
The ‘Handmaiden of Trump’: How Elise Stefanik Went From Moderate to MAGA

Discussion: New York Times, Fox News, Associated Press, Digby's Hullabaloo, HotAir, CNN and DJHJ Media

Celine Castronuovo / The Hill:
Gaetz, Greene tout push to oust Cheney: 'Maybe we're the leaders'

Discussion: LGBTQ Nation, Associated Press, Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars and BizPac Review

Geoff Earle / Daily Mail:
Final nail in Liz's coffin? Cheney 'secretly orchestrated Washington Post op-ed by all ten living former Defense Secretaries - including her father …

Discussion: The Western Journal, New York Times and Breitbart

Miguel Bustillo / Wall Street Journal:

Cyberattack Forces Closure of Largest U.S. Refined-Fuel Pipeline — Operator of the Colonial Pipeline, the leading fuel conduit to the East Coast, said it had temporarily halted operations after discovering the threat Friday — The Colonial Pipeline, the main conduit carrying gasoline …

Discussion: New York Times, National Review, CNN, The Western Journal, The Week, NPR, FOX 46 Charlotte and Toledo Blade, more at Techmeme »

Washington Post:

Ransomware attack leads to shutdown of major U.S. pipeline system — The attack on top U.S. operator Colonial Pipeline appears to have been carried out by an Eastern European-based criminal gang — A ransomware attack led one of the nation's biggest fuel pipeline operators to shut …

Discussion: Bloomberg, CyberScoop, CNBC, Slate, The Hill, Breitbart, UPI, Politico and New York Post

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Elizabeth Warren's Book Shows She Has No Idea Why Her Campaign Failed — The 2020 Democratic primary took place in a disorienting atmosphere. The 2016 election, in which the supposedly unelectable candidate had defeated the supposedly safe one, seemed to overturn all the conventional assumptions …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Scripting News

Heather Long / Washington Post:

It's not a ‘labor shortage.’ It's a great reassessment of work in America. — Hiring was much weaker than expected in April. Wall Street thinks it's a blip, but there could be much deeper rethinking of what jobs are needed and what workers want to do on a daily basis.

Discussion: Althouse, Common Dreams and CNBC

Christopher F. Rufo / City Journal:

On the Ground … The Wokest Place on Earth — Disney mounts an internal campaign against “white privilege” and organizes racially segregated “affinity groups.” — The Social Order — The Walt Disney Corporation famously bills its amusement parks as “the happiest place on Earth,” …

Discussion: Christopher F. Rufo, Breitbart, OutKick, National Review and TheBlaze

Heather Knight / San Francisco Chronicle:

Alison Collins wants $87 million for damage to her career. These SFUSD employees say she destroyed theirs — When San Francisco school board member Alison Collins sued her colleagues and her own district for $87 million, she described how they “sprinted to judgment” before coming after her …

Wall Street Journal:

Murders Are Rising the Most in a Few Isolated Precincts of Major Cities — A handful of neighborhoods with histories of violence are the primary source of a recent surge in killings in Chicago, New York and elsewhere — A murder wave in U.S. cities that started last year is carrying forward into 2021 …

Discussion: Power Line

HuffPost:

Josh Hawley Says He Doesn't Know If He Saluted Any Rioters, So We Checked — The junior senator from Missouri has been saying he waved to peaceful demonstrators who had nothing to do with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. — On Jan. 6, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) walked outside the U.S. Capitol …

Discussion: Raw Story and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Yahoo News:

‘Conspiracy is hard’: Inside the Trump administration's secret plan to kill Qassem Soleimani — Three teams of Delta Force operators peered through their scopes from concealed locations at Baghdad International Airport last January, waiting for their target: Qassem Soleimani, Iran's most powerful military commander.

Amanda Little / Bloomberg:

A Baby Boom Would Be Bad — The 2020 census reported the lowest rate of population growth in the U.S. since the post-Depression decade, inspiring a chorus of economic Cassandras who want to reverse this trend. To shore up economic growth, they argue, we need to “raise fertility” and …

Jimmy Vielkind / Wall Street Journal:

Andrew Cuomo Investigation Expands as State Attorney General Looks at Aide's Calls — Inquiry into sexual-harassment allegations looks at whether a top adviser linked access to Covid-19 vaccines to support for the governor — ALBANY, N.Y.—The state attorney general's office has expanded …

Discussion: Fox News, Associated Press, Breitbart, New York Post and Bloomberg

Thomas Colson / Insider:

Trump's widely-mocked new blog shows he is now just ‘shouting into the void,’ say social media experts — Donald Trump's new blog shows he is now just “shouting into the void,” since being banned by Facebook and Twitter, say experts. — Trump has struggled for attention since the bans announced in January.

Discussion: Raw Story and Townhall

JONATHAN TURLEY:

“Keep As Much Money As You Can”: Hunter Biden Disclosures Offer New Details On His Chinese Financial Dealings And Associations — There are new disclosures from Hunter Biden's laptop that offer an added perspective on his dealings with Chinese figures, including Patrick Ho …

Discussion: Daily Mail, DJHJ Media, Breitbart and Townhall

Julie Bykowicz / Wall Street Journal:

Cannabis Goes Corporate: Lobbyists, Unions Seek to Shape Marijuana Industry — Lobbying on federal marijuana policy picked up in the first quarter of 2021, as banks and tobacco and alcohol companies begin to weigh in — HARTFORD, Conn.—The rally at the state capitol on April 20 …

New York Times:

As Republicans Advance Voting Laws, Democrats Scramble to Push Back — Lacking effective legislative or legal ways to stop Republicans from introducing new voting limits, Democrats are applying pressure on their allies in Washington and trying to energize supporters.

Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo, Los Angeles Times, The Takeaway, Crooks and Liars and Common Dreams

Anthony Izaguirre / Associated Press:

Election officials face fines, charges in GOP voting laws — In 2020, election officials tried to make voting easier and safer amid a global pandemic. Next time, they might get fined or face criminal charges. — Republicans are creating a new slate of punishments for the county officials …

Discussion: CNN, POLITICUSUSA and Washington Post

Steven Zeitchik / Washington Post:

Elon Musk is being brought in to save SNL's sagging ratings. He could sink the show in other ways. — In the entertainment and business worlds, there is an argument in favor of the unorthodox host — as well as plenty of warnings — The days before a new episode of “Saturday Night Live” …

Discussion: KIFI-TV, Politico, Althouse and KTVX-TV

Wall Street Journal:

Militants Attack Afghan Schoolgirls, Killing 25 People in Blast — The attack on Shiite area amplifies concerns that Afghanistan will slip into sectarian violence as U.S. withdraws — KABUL—Militants killed at least 25 people in three explosions targeting girls outside a school …

Steven Lemongello / Sun-Sentinel:

Controversial U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene find refuge at raucous joint rally in The Villages — By STEPHEN M. DOWELL / ORLANDO SENTINEL “,sourceId: “QPEEXRFYSZCJTHWTR7BW5I2DJE”, shareUrl: “https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sun-sentinel.com%2Fv isuals%2Fos- pictures-gaetz-greene-20210508 …

Caroline Reinwald / WISN:

Milwaukee FPC votes to ban police chokeholds completely — Public had chance to comment before vote — Hide Transcript Show Transcript — The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox. — Submit — Privacy Notice — The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission …

Olivia Nuzzi / New York Magazine:

How the White House Polices Language in Washington — At Wilmington Country Club recently, after playing his first round of golf as president, Joe Biden engaged in another cherished pastime: He made a gaffe. Speaking to reporters, Biden used the term crisis to refer to the state of the U.S.-Mexico border …

Discussion: Mediaite, Bloomberg and Althouse

Joyce Vance / MSNBC:

Judge Amy Berman Jackson's Barr rebuke opens the door to DOJ accountability — Good government requires transparency. It's why we have a free press, enshrined in the First Amendment. It's why Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once wrote, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants …

Katrina Manson / Financial Times:

Has America had enough of war? … On a Tuesday evening in March, veterans of America's war in Afghanistan are sitting at an outdoor patio bar in Washington, DC. The presence on the menu of steak tartare, lobster ceviche and truffled chips is the only clue that this is a rarefied hotel in Georgetown …