memeorandum: San Andreas fault ‘locked, loaded and ready to roll’ with big earthquake, expert says (Los Angeles Times)

12:45 PM ET, May 5, 2016

Top Items:

This brutal new ad shows the shredding machine that awaits Trump — THE MORNING PLUM: — Predictably enough, the hand-wringing has already begun among some Democrats over the prospect of Donald Trump waging “unpredictable” attacks on Hillary Clinton and the possibility that the Clinton camp will be …

Discussion: Mother Jones, CNN, Politico, Slate, Shakesville and New York Times

David Roberts / Vox:

Why the media will lift Trump up and tear Clinton down — It now seems all but certain that the presidential election will see Donald Trump face off against Hillary Clinton. — We find ourselves at the tail end of a brief period of clarity. For the past few months …

Discussion: CNNMoney, Washington Monthly, NPR, Boston Globe, The Week, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, KFOR-TV, CBS New York, NBC News and Little Green Footballs

Dan Turkel / Business Insider:

NATE SILVER: ‘We basically got the Republican race wrong’ — In September 2015, writer and statistician Nate Silver urged people to “calm down” about the possibility of Donald Trump winning the Republican presidential nomination. — Two months later, he wrote that the media should …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, New York Times, Slate, Liberty Unyielding, Balloon Juice and Washington Monthly

Michael A. Cohen / BostonGlobe.com:

RIP, GOP — On Tuesday night the Republican voters of Indiana delivered the final verdict on the Republican primary race, giving Donald Trump a crushing 15-point victory over Ted Cruz. Two hours after the polls closed, Cruz acknowledged the writing on the wall and dropped out of the race.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Hill, The Foreign Desk, Sky Dancing, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Mediaite, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Media Matters for America, Rush Limbaugh, Talking Points Memo, New York Daily News and ABC News

Wall Street Journal:

Donald Trump Won't Self-Fund General-Election Campaign — Presumptive Republican nominee plans to create ‘world-class finance organization’ to back campaign — Donald Trump won't self-fund his general-election campaign, and will instead create a “world-class finance organization,” …

Nick Gass / Politico:

Scarborough: I won't vote for Trump if he doesn't change — If Donald Trump maintains his hard-line stance on immigration and his call to bar Muslims from entering the United States in the general election against Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Republican nominee is in for a bruising defeat …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Mediaite, Hot Air, The Week, The Resurgent, BuzzFeed and ThinkProgress

Fredreka Schouten / USA Today:

Ted Cruz's $10 million donor backs Donald Trump — 4.7k Shares — WASHINGTON - Toby Neugebauer, a wealthy energy investor, likes Ted Cruz so much that he deposited $10 million into a super PAC designed to boost the Texas Republican's presidential ambitions.

Discussion: CNN and AOL

Brianne Pfannenstiel / Des Moines Register:

Grassley: Trump would nominate ‘right type’ to court — U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Wednesday he thinks Donald Trump, now the presumptive Republican nominee for president, would nominate the “right type of people” to the U.S. Supreme Court. — Grassley noted that Trump …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, The Daily Caller, New York Magazine, Outside the Beltway, Politico, ThinkProgress, The Moderate Voice, The Week, Hot Air, RedState, NBC News, Vox, Washington Post, Media Matters for America and Althouse

Jordan Rudner / The Texas Tribune:
Bush 41, 43 Have No Plans to Endorse Trump

Discussion: Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, Independent Journal …, Mother Jones, Slantpoint, Mediaite, CNN, The Week, Western Journalism, Hot Air, Politico, Balloon Juice, Trail Blazers Blog, Political Wire, AOL and Outside the Beltway

New York Times:
Donald Trump Reaches Out, Quietly, to Republican Establishment

Discussion: ABC News and Salon

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Spoiler: They can't. — Suppose the Republican Party's elites …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Politico and Hot Air

J.K. Trotter / Gawker:
The Best of New York Times Columnist Ross Douthat's Incorrect Predictions That Trump Would Lose the GOP Nomination

Discussion: Political Wire, Washington Post and The Intercept

BBC:
Rolling Stones tell Trump to stop using their music

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The New Civil Rights Movement and Politico

E.J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
Please don't mainstream Trump

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Danielle Allen / Washington Post:
Hillary Clinton is walking into Donald Trump's trap

Discussion: Althouse and The Slot

ABC News:
Senate Dems Field Large Roster of Women in the Year of Trump

Discussion: Political Wire, Associated Press and Washington Times

Ed Rogers / Washington Post:
Democrats don't know how to run against Trump

Discussion: Power Line and The Atlantic

New York Times:
With Donald Trump in Charge, Republicans Have a Day of Reckoning

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Townhall.com, Associated Press, Daily Kos, Washington Post, New York Post, The Daily Caller, Western Journalism, CNN and Refinery29

Betsy McCaughey / New York Post: Donald Trump's policy plans are real, detailed — and great

Luciana Lopez / Reuters:
Trump's deportation plan could slice 2 percent off U.S. GDP: study

Discussion: ThinkProgress, CNBC, The Week and Canada Blog …

Jamelle Bouie / Slate:
Donald Trump Isn't Going to Be President

Discussion: Mother Jones, Washington Post, The San Diego Union … and CNBC

Seth Masket / Vox:
We are witnessing the most massive failure of a political party in generations

Discussion: Politico and Outside the Beltway

Rush Limbaugh:
My Gut: Trump Beats Hillary in Landslide

Discussion: The Federalist, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, Taylor Marsh, New York Post, The Last Tradition, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Western Journalism and The Daily Caller

Ben Sasse / Facebook:

AN OPEN LETTER TO MAJORITY AMERICA — TO: Those who think both leading presidential candidates are dishonest and have little chance of leading America forward: — (...or, stated more simply) — TO: The majority of America: — Note: If you are one of those rare souls …

Discussion: NBC News, RedState, Talking Points Memo, Guardian, Independent Journal …, Hot Air, JP Updates, The Daily Caller, Hit & Run, Mediaite and Politico

Fox News:

Romanian hacker Guccifer: I breached Clinton server, ‘it was easy’ — Marcel Lazar Lehel, 40, is escorted by masked policemen in Bucharest, after being arrested in Arad, 337 miles west of Bucharest. (Reuters) (REUTERS/Mediafax/Silviu Matei) — EXCLUSIVE: The infamous Romanian hacker known as …

NBC News:

Hacker ‘Guccifer’: I Got Inside Hillary Clinton's Server — The Romanian hacker who first exposed Hillary Clinton's private email address is making a bombshell new claim — that he also gained access to the former Secretary of State's “completely unsecured” server.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Politico, Washington Post, Power Line and Washington Times

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:
Trump Blames Hillary for Birtherism, Wolf Blitzer Summarily Fact-Checks Him

Discussion: Guardian and Raw Story

Katie Van-Syckle / Variety:

MSNBC's Chris Matthews Caught on Hot Mic Ogling Melania Trump … ‘Hardball’ anchor has long history of sexist comments — During the network's coverage of Donald Trump's Indiana primary victory speech, MSNBC's Chris Matthews was caught on a live microphone commenting on the appearance of Melania Trump, the Republican nominee's wife.

Discussion: Washington Post, Hollywood Life, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Beast, Scared Monkeys, Althouse, The Week, ABC News, Washington Free Beacon, AOL and Politico

Dylan Byers / CNNMoney:
Chris Matthews' Melania Trump remarks caught on hot mic

Discussion: The Federalist, The Daily Caller, Hot Air and Mediaite

Los Angeles Times:

San Andreas fault ‘locked, loaded and ready to roll’ with big earthquake, expert says — This simulation by the Southern California Earthquake Center shows the shaking that could be felt by Los Angeles during a possible magnitude 8 earthquake on the San Andreas fault.

Discussion: CBS Los Angeles, AOL, Fox News Insider, ScienceAlert, Daily Mail, FiveThirtyEight and LAist

Seung Min Kim / Politico:

McCain on tape: Trump damages my reelection hopes — Publicly, John McCain insists Donald Trump will have a negligible effect on his campaign for reelection. But behind closed doors at a fundraiser in Arizona last month, the Republican senator and two-time presidential hopeful offered a far more dire assessment to his supporters.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Western Journalism, Salon, Independent Journal … and The Week

Travis Gettys / Raw Story:

Trump-loving tow truck driver says God told him to leave disabled Bernie Sanders supporter stranded — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — A South Carolina tow truck driver said God told him to leave a disabled Bernie Sanders supporter stranded along the interstate.

FOX Carolina 21:
Tow truck owner said he refused service to woman because she supports Bernie Sanders

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The American Mirror and Slantpoint

Associated Press:

North Carolina Leaders Denounce Federal Threat on LGBT Law — Giving no indication of yielding to pressure, North Carolina's Republican leaders called a federal warning about the legality of the state's new law limiting LGBT anti-discrimination rules a broad overreach by the government.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Hit & Run, Towleroad, governor.nc.gov and ABC News

Jim Morrill / The Charlotte Observer:
US Justice Department: HB2 violates federal Civil Rights Act

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:

The Republican Horse Race Is Over, and Journalism Lost — Wrong, wrong, wrong — to the very end, we got it wrong. — Just a couple of weeks ago, political prognosticators in television and print media were describing Indiana as the “most important test” for Donald J. Trump and a “firewall” where Ted Cruz “should do well.”