Internal links & defunct video have been removed.
Michael White of the Guardian: "British prime minister David Cameron has confounded pollsters and pundits by winning a sensational second five-years term in office for his Conservative party. This time Cameron looks set to be free from the constraints of coalition with the centrist Liberal Democrats. His partners in office since 2010, the Lib Dems were almost wiped out, and their leader, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, resigned on Friday morning. Cameron's victory in Thursday's general election obliterated opposition leader Ed Miliband's hopes of eking out a small win for Labour. He also resigned in the wake of the defeat." ...
... CW: While British elections may have little to do with Americans' choice, this goes to show that bad economic policy -- policy that particularly harms the voters themselves -- is a winner. (See Krugman for context.) So the Brits' decisions don't bode well for our future unless we assume that American voters are way smarter than Great Britain's ignorant jamokes. ...
... Steven Erlanger & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party was projected by a national exit poll to have done well in the British general election on Thursday, but the nation still faced the likelihood that there would be no outright winner." ...
... Dylan Byers of Politico: "Nate Silver fared terribly in Thursday's UK election: In his pre-election forecast, he gave 278 seats to Conservatives and 267 to Labour. Shortly after midnight, he was forecasting 272 seats for Conservatives and 271 for Labour. But when the sun rose in London on Friday, Conservatives had an expected 329 seats, against Labour's 233. The fault, Silver claimed, was with the polling.... [So] what is Silver's added value in an election cycle? His ability to forecast elections is largely dependent on the accuracy of polling. Without that, what is his raison d'etre -- other than to point out how bad polling caused him to make inaccurate forecasts?"
... The Guardian currently (7:40 pm ET) has parliamentary election results on its front page.
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama plans to campaign for a Pacific free-trade zone on Friday by visiting the headquarters of Nike, where executives will announce that they will create 10,000 jobs in the United States if the accord is approved. Nike for years has been used as a case study by opponents of trade liberalization for its reliance on low-wage workers in Asia. But Mr. Obama hopes that the company's announcement will help him argue that a new 12-nation trade agreement could foster more manufacturing jobs at home, rather than shipping more jobs overseas." ...
... Doug Palmer of Politico: "When President Barack Obama visits Nike's headquarters in Oregon to tout trade on Friday, he'll be striding into a feud between the giant sneaker maker and its smaller East Coast rival New Balance.... New Balance, which is headquartered in Boston and has factories in Maine..., employs more than 1,350 of the few thousand workers who still make shoes in the United States, and its officials fear those jobs could be lost if tariff cuts under the deal lead to an influx of cheaper wares from Vietnam. Meanwhile, Nike is pushing to completely eliminate tariffs on shoes made in Vietnam, one of several Southeast Asian countries where it has operations. Those duties amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, the industry estimates." ...
... Greg Sargent: President "Obama's basic bet is that he can re-frame the globalization debate on his own terms. As he put it recently, the globalization horse 'has left the barn.' Thus, the best hope for American workers is to try to put in place a set of rules that creates better labor standards for workers in participating countries -- such as Vietnam -- which would help level the playing field for American workers in ways that would reverse the problems in previous trade deals." ...
... Robert Reich: "Nike isn't the solution to the problem of stagnant wages in America. Nike is the problem.... Americans made only 1 percent of the products that generated Nike's $27.8 billion revenue last year. And Nike is moving ever more of its production abroad. Last year, a third of Nike's remaining 13,922 American production workers were laid off. Most of Nike's products are made by 990,000 workers in low-wage countries whose abysmal working conditions have made Nike a symbol of global sweatshop labor.... Trade agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership protect corporate investors but lead to even more off-shoring of American jobs." Thanks to Janice for the link. ...
... Seung Min Kim & Burgess Everett of Politico: Senate "Republicans are pressing ahead with trade votes, even though Democratic resistance could block the measures." ...
... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "President Obama and Harry Reid are battling one another for Democratic support ahead of an important vote on trade next week. Reid ... is trying to hold his caucus together and stop Republicans from moving quickly to legislation giving Obama fast-track trade authority."
Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "Two of the nation’s biggest banks will finally put to rest the zombies of consumer debt -- bills that are still alive on credit reports although legally eliminated in bankruptcy -- potentially providing relief to more than a million Americans. Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have agreed to update borrowers' credit reports within the next three months to reflect that the debts were extinguished."
Charlie Savage & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court in New York on Thursday ruled that the once-secret National Security Agency program that is systematically collecting Americans' phone records in bulk is illegal. The decision comes as a fight in Congress is intensifying over whether to end and replace the program, or to extend it without changes. In a 97-page ruling, a three-judge panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a provision of the U.S.A. Patriot Act, known as Section 215, cannot be legitimately interpreted to allow the bulk collection of domestic calling records." ...
... Dan Roberts & Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The judges opted not to end the domestic bulk collection while Congress decides its fate, calling judicial inaction 'a lesser intrusion' on privacy than at the time the case was initially argued." ...
... Mark Stern of Slate: "As the Second Circuit candidly admits, its decision on Thursday is entirely the result of Edward Snowden's decision to leak details of the bulk collection program two years ago. Before that leak, Americans hoping to challenge NSA surveillance were unable to establish standing -- that is, legal authority to challenge a law -- because they couldn't prove the surveillance targeted them. The documents Snowden leaked, however, proved that the NSA forced Verizon 'to produce detail records, every day, on all telephone calls made through its systems or using its services where on or both ends of the call are located in the United States.' Thanks to that leak, Verizon customers have standing to challenge that surveillance in court, since they can now be certain the government spied on their phone records." ...
... Tom Sullivan in Hullabaloo: "Just because the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday ruled the NSA's bulk collection of phone data illegal is no reason not to reauthorize it. Or so believe leading Senate Republicans.... Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid returned fire.... Not that Reid's bipartisan I Can't Believe It's Not Freedom Act would likely stop all domestic spying. Especially not since, as Dan Froomkin revealed [linked below], spy agencies have got a nifty, new gizmo for turning your phone conversations into searchable text.... As several people pointed out, you can't really re-authorize a practice that was never authorized in the first place." ...
... Dan Roberts & Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Senate Republicans have conceded they may have to temporarily suspend plans for a long-term reauthorisation of the Patriot Act after a court ruling against its use by the National Security Agency dramatically turned around the prospects for surveillance reform in Washington.... A spokesman for [Mitch] McConnell's office insisted he continued to back the Patriot Act renewal and pointed to support for its use by judges in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) courts that were designed to deal with such questions." ...
... digby: "Meanwhile, everyone in DC is doing high fives over the possible passage of the new revamped USA Freedom Act, which will extend certain aspects of the PATRIOT Act while reforming some pieces of it. This is a compromise bill between those who would like to see the Patriot act extended indefinitely and those who want it thrown entirely on the scrapheap of history. The president says he'll sign it. The ACLU says that it does include some reforms so it isn't all bad. The mood seems to be that this is altogether terrific.... This problem of government surveillance is not going to be solved by a congress that is both frightened and corrupt and an executive branch which has no incentive to give back any power it has accrued for itself."
... They Can Hear You Now. Dan Froomkin of the Intercept: "Top-secret documents from the archive of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show the National Security Agency can now automatically recognize the content within phone calls by creating rough transcripts and phonetic representations that can be easily searched and stored. The documents show NSA analysts celebrating the development of what they called 'Google for Voice' nearly a decade ago. Though perfect transcription of natural conversation apparently remains the Intelligence Community's 'holy grail,' the Snowden documents describe extensive use of keyword searching as well as computer programs designed to analyze and 'extract' the content of voice conversations, and even use sophisticated algorithms to flag conversations of interest."
Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "A bill that would give Congress a voice in any nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran passed the Senate overwhelmingly on Thursday afternoon. The measure, which was approved 98 to 1, withstood months of tense negotiations, White House resistance, the indictment of one of its sponsors and a massive partisan kerfuffle over a speech to Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just as an accord was coming together. The lone vote against the bill was cast by Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas. The House is expected to take up the Senate measure as early as next week." ...
... Greg Sargent: "One hundred and fifty House Democrats have now signed a letter expressing strong support for President Obama's ongoing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, I've learned, improving the chances that an eventual nuclear deal could survive the Congressional oversight process.... If a deal is reached that looks like the recently-announced framework, and the GOP-controlled Congress votes to disapprove of it, it's now more likely that there will be enough House Democrats to sustain Obama's veto of that disapproval legislation, allowing the deal to move forward." ...
... Lauren French & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Picking up where Sens. Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio left off, House conservatives plan to press House GOP leaders to allow a series of hard-to-oppose amendments to the Iran nuclear review bill. The move by the conservative House Freedom Caucus could put Speaker John Boehner in a bind. He'll have to decide whether to clamp down on attempts to change the bill as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did in the Senate, angering his right flank -- or to allow votes on their amendments at the risk of tanking the legislation authored by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.)."
Adam Goldman of the Washington Post: "FBI Director James B. Comey said Thursday his agents learned hours before the start of a cartoon contest and exhibit depicting the prophet Muhammad that one of the gunmen had expressed interest in going to the controversial event in Texas, but there was no indication he was planning an attack. Comey said the FBI sent an intelligence bulletin to local authorities through its Dallas field office that included a picture of Elton Simpson, 30, and other details such as his associates and possible license plate numbers."
Thomas Edsall of the New York Times: "Insofar as conservatives identify the erosion of the traditional family as a cause of civic disorder, the erosion is not limited to minority communities in Democratic cities. These trends are increasingly characteristic of white communities in red states.... The high pregnancy and birthrates among white teenagers in states where the Christian right and Tea Party forces are strong reflect the inability of ideological doctrines stressing social conservatism to halt the gradual shift away from traditional family structures.... While right wing commentators are demonizing the social and cultural values of the distressed citizens of Baltimore and their political leaders, they are oblivious to the vulnerability of their traditional moral agenda during a time of inexorable demographic change. The problems of majority black Baltimore are extreme, but many of the trends found there are as extreme or more so in majority white Muskogee [County, Oklahoma].... If conservatives place responsibility on liberal Democrats, feminism and the abandonment of traditional family values for Baltimore's decay, what role did the 249 churches in and around Muskogee play in that city's troubles?" [Emphasis added.] ...
... CW: Nonetheless, this analysis has an odor of putting the cart before the horse. Middle-class & wealthy young people also commonly rear children in non-traditional families, but because they have the means to do so, most people don't find their personal decisions problematic. The cause of both Muskogee's & Baltimore's difficulties is poverty, not "lifestyle" choices. ...
... YEAHBUT. No need to worry about poor people. Jessica Roy of New York: "America's Richest Congressman [-- Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) --] Thinks America's Poorest People Are the 'Envy of the World.'" CW: Lucky duckies. ...
... AND, coincidentally, Tamar Lewin of the New York Times helps make my point: "The share of highly educated women who are childless into their mid-40s has fallen significantly over the last two decades.... While finding the right balance of work and family may not be easy, [demographers] say, it has become an everyday challenge, rather than an unusual strain." Lewin's story focuses on these women's interest in "family." She never mentions whether or not "family" includes a husband or wife. Because these women can afford to rear children, their family decisions are personal, not a reflection of "a breakdown of society."
Presidential Race
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The Republican candidates for president lined up on different sides of the debate over whether the nation's intelligence agencies should be allowed to collect data about Americans after a court ruled Thursday that the National Security Agency had acted outside the law. The divisions among the candidates reflected the larger debate inside the Republican Party about reauthorizing the Patriot Act, which will expire in June unless Congress votes to extend it. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky ... cheered the decision.... Coming down on the opposite side of the issue was Senator Marco Rubio.... Senator Ted Cruz of Texas took the middle ground." CW: This must be the first time in history you have read a sentence like that last one, & likely you will never read it in any other context.
** Tim Egan: "Last election cycle, the Republican presidential field was a clown car, holding the thrice-married Newt Gingrich lecturing about values, the pizza magnate Herman Cain fending off sexual harassment claims, and Michele Bachmann confusing John Wayne with a serial killer. That was just the front seat. This time around it's a clown bus, with as many as 17 Republicans expected to compete for the nomination.... For many Republicans, crazy is the new mainstream."
Sara Murray of CNN: "Jeb Bush cited his brother, former President George W. Bush, as one of his main advisers on the Middle East in a private meeting in Manhattan on Tuesday, according to three people who attended the off-the-record event. The comment came as a shock to some who were in the room because Jeb ... has taken pains to publicly distance himself from his brother and his controversial policies, particularly in that area of the world."
Katie Glueck of Politico: "Lindsey Graham is telling donors that June 1 is the likely date for his presidential announcement, according to several sources familiar with the conversations." CW: Be still, my beating heart.
David Sirota, in Salon, sees a new Chris Christie scandal looming on the horizon, one involving hundreds of millions of dollars in high fees New Jersey is paying to increasingly underperforming Wall Street "pension managers," who just so happen to be donors to Christie's campaigns. Apparently the state has to slash pensions so Christie's friends can make higher profits "managing" them. And, oh yeah, Christie just vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have made the payment of pension management fees more transparent.
Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg: "A group of two dozen young activists working out of homes and coffee shops around the country has achieved something rather unusual: mainlining an idea into the upper echelons of the Democratic Party -- including its top presidential contenders -- in just four months. The phrase 'debt-free college' was hardly present in the national political lexicon until the Progressive Change Campaign Committee launched a campaign in January to push Democrats to support the idea of federal assistance to help Americans graduate from college without debt."
Beyond the Beltway
Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch has decided to launch a federal investigation into whether the Baltimore Police Department has engaged in a 'pattern or practice' of excessive force. Lynch's announcement about the Justice Department's probe -- the latest in a string of municipalities that are being investigated by the federal government for civil rights violations -- could come as early as Friday, according to two law enforcement officials."
Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times: "Prosecutors here are expanding an investigation into criminal cases that might have been compromised by revelations of police officers' racist and homophobic texts, Dist. Atty. George Gascon announced Thursday. Gascon's probe has identified 3,000 criminal cases that could have been affected by perceived bias by 14 officers. Investigators will comb through each case to determine whether some convictions must be overturned or pending cases dismissed."
Max Blau of the Guardian: "North Carolina currently has 149 people on death row, but carried out its last execution in August 2006. Since then, North Carolina doctors have refused to work with the state's corrections department to carry out executions even though the death penalty remains legal. Under a proposed law, conservative state lawmakers are hoping to break through that stalemate by letting physician assistants, nurses, emergency medical technicians, and other healthcare workers oversee executions.... [The] measure that would no longer require doctors to be present during executions."
News Lede
Bloomberg: "Payrolls rebounded in April following an even bigger setback a month earlier than previously estimated, a sign companies are confident the U.S. economy will reboot after stagnating early this year. The unemployment rate dropped to 5.4 percent. The 223,000 net increase in employment followed an 85,000 gain in March that was the smallest since June 2012."
;)
Share Article