The Commentariat -- May 10, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Julie Davis & Jonathan Soble of the New York Times: "President Obama will become the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, Japan, the White House announced on Tuesday, making a fraught stop this month at the site where the United States dropped an atomic bomb at the end of World War II." -- CW 

Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: "In a new report out Tuesday..., [U.C.-Berkeley researchers] find that one-third of the families of 'frontline manufacturing production workers' are enrolled in a government safety-net program. The families' benefits cost state and local governments about $10 billion a year on average from 2009 to 2013, the analysis found. Those production workers, roughly 6 million, represent about half of all manufacturing workers.... The findings show ... that 'with manufacturing jobs, production jobs, that’s really no longer true. The new production jobs are less likely to be union and more likely to be low wages.'... Eight of the 10 states that top the list of percentage of production workers whose families draw assistance live in the South....” -- CW 

Simon Romero of the New York Times: " In a stunning twist in the effort to impeach President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, the new speaker of the lower house of Congress has changed his mind — less than 24 hours after announcing that he would try to annul his chamber’s decision to impeach her.... Waldir Maranhão ... said on Monday that he would to try to annul the April 17 impeachment vote against the president, citing concerns about procedural irregularities. But in a decision made around midnight here, and widely circulated in the early morning on Tuesday, Mr. Maranhão told Renan Calheiros, the head of the Senate, that he was revoking his earlier decision." -- CW 

Simon Denyer & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the Washington Post: "A U.S. warship sailed within 12 miles of one China’s largest artificial islands Tuesday, part of a continuing effort by the Pentagon to demonstrate that the United States remains undeterred by the rapid Chinese military buildup in the South China Sea. The presence of the USS William P. Lawrence, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, prompted the Chinese military to scramble three fighter jets that monitored the destroyer, along with three Chinese ships, until the American vessel left the area." -- CW 

*****

Presidential Race

Nebraska Republicans hold a presidential primary today. Democrats & Republicans hold primaries in West Virginia today.

Jonathan Chait of New York: "About a decade ago, it became clear to some of us that the Republican and Democratic parties were not at all alike. The two were different, not just in their beliefs but in their methods and political style...Trump’s capture of the Republican nomination is the most emphatic, but only the most recent, indication that the Republican Party’s internal culture is a total failure." --safari

Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg: "At a campaign stop Monday in Northern Virginia, Hillary Clinton reiterated her support for a government-run health plan in the insurance market, possibly by letting let Americans buy into Medicare, to stem the rise of health-care costs.... While Clinton long has supported including a public option in the insurance market, her campaign said she was floating the idea of letting Americans not yet of retirement age buy into the Medicare system as one way of accomplishing that. She's also open to creating a separate government-run option on the Obamacare exchanges." -- CW

Brian Beutler of the New Republic: Bernie Sanders has the capacity to turn the Democratic party back into a progressive outfit. CW: First move: he should demand the ouster of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, head of the DNC.

Julian Hattem of the Hill: "The State Department has lost all archived copies of the emails sent to and from the man believed to have set up and maintained Hillary Clinton’s private email server during the four years she served as secretary, it said on Monday. However, the department has recovered some of IT specialist Bryan Pagliano’s messages, according to spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau, in apparent contradiction of a Republican National Committee (RNC) court filing earlier in the day." ...

... CW: Here's something I don't get: I don't go out of my way to save my old e-mails (but if they're personal correspondence, I don't trash them), much less "archive" them, but if the FBI wanted to find out what I wrote to somebody in 2014 or even 2010, they could find the correspondence. Needless to say, there aren't any laws -- as there are for communications among federal employees -- requiring me to keep this stuff. So how come my non-archives are accessible & the State Department's are not?

Victoria McGrane of the Boston Globe: "'They’re looking at a Trump-Clinton election as probably not the best choice for anybody,' said former House majority leader Eric Cantor, a Republican who is now vice chairman at investment bank Moelis & Co. 'He’s a businessman ... [but] he’s been on so many sides of every issue that you never know.'... Cantor said he will back Trump, despite disagreeing with much of what the candidate says, but other industry officials predict Trump will have a hard time attracting support from the financial sector — and he even risks losing support to Hillary Clinton." --safari

Nick Gass of Politico: "Donald Trump is opening his general election campaign the same way he started his primary bid and continued for the majority of the past year: by putting his haters — especially in the media — on blast.... On Monday, everyone from fellow Republican politicians to conservative activists to once-friendly cable TV hosts felt his wrath." --safari

Maggie Haberman & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Facing a steep challenge as he prepares to meet with Republican leaders about uniting their splintering party, Donald J. Trump on Monday struck a more conciliatory tone about House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, disavowing an ally’s call for a primary challenge against Mr. Ryan. Mr. Ryan responded by saying he would step down from his position as chairman of the Republican National Convention in July if that is what the party’s presumptive nominee requests." -- CW 

Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News "Donald Trump is looking beyond the convention, the fall campaign and election itself to begin to plan for a massive takeover affecting four million employees: the governing stage. In a new role, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will serve as chairman to assemble a transition team of experts on domestic and foreign policy to begin the organizational architecture for a future Trump administration." CW: Um, apparently Christie really doesn't think "governor" is a full-time job.

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "... Mr. Trump has no fund-raising apparatus to resort to, no network of prolific bundlers to call upon, and little known experience with the type of marathon, one-on-one serial salesmanship and solicitousness that raising so much money is likely to require — even if individuals can contribute up to the current limit of $334,000 at a time to the party.... While Mr. Trump’s continued feud with the Republican establishment was likely to cheer his supporters, his intense need for money to run his general election campaign suggests the degree to which he will rely heavily on the party’s existing infrastructure." -- CW ...

... Making America Bankrupt Again -- Trump Picks a Campaign Finance Director. David Dayen in the New Republic: "... in selecting [Steven] Mnuchin, not only has Trump submitted to the realities of presidential campaign finance; he’s chosen one of the most notorious bankers in America to carry it out." -- CW  ...

... Russ Choma of Mother Jones (May 5): "Donald Trump has slammed Washington insiders, lobbyists, and Wall Street as he has tapped populist anger to snag the Republican presidential nomination. Yet when it came time to pick the top money man for his campaign, he turned to a hedge-funder best known for running a bank that made billions off taxpayer bailouts and, by one account, cost the federal government $13 billion. On Thursday, Trump named Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner and a hedge-fund boss from Los Angeles, as his national campaign finance chairman." -- CW 

... CW: One of the best parts of being a Trump supporter is that you can back him for one thing -- his adorable racism -- and never have to face the realities (or indeed know anything about them) of what kind of scumbag he is. ...

... Why "Trump Can't Pivot." Jamelle Bouie: "The real test of Trump’s ability to shift to a general election is whether he can make his core principles palatable to a broad audience, or at least obscure them enough to escape scrutiny. And yes, Trump has core principles. If there’s one constant in Trump’s rhetoric, from his role in the 'birther' movement five years ago to his present campaign, it’s his nativism, his anti-Muslim attitudes, his assorted flavors of bigotry.... He boosts racists on social media, is friendly (or at least not-hostile) to real-life white supremacists, and has refused to disavow anti-Semitic attacks from his online supporters. Even now, after winning the GOP nomination, he indulges misogyny and misogynistic attacks." -- CW ..

... Amanda Marcotte in Salon: "There were various points during the Republican primary where [Trump] was clearly trying to make an effort to act more professional, and it inevitably turned sideways as his overwhelming desire, nay need, to push people’s buttons and express his deepest self (who is an asshole) came roaring out. This will continue to happen, I am sure of it. Doubly so because his opponent is a woman, and he won’t be able to resist the urge to try to put her in her place, which will invariably backfire.... His one tool for getting [media] coverage — being the worst — is what will bring him down." -- CW 

I'm not a constitutional scholar, so I can't necessarily say, but are you eligible to run if you are a man-baby or a baby-man? I don't know. But he is a man-baby. He has the physical countenance of a man and a baby's temperament and hands. -- Jon Stewart, at a University of Chicago event ...

Begins about 2:45 min. in:

Jonathan Martin of the NYT: "Senator Ted Cruz’s supporters are mounting an effort to seize control of the Republican platform and the rules governing the party’s July convention, the first indication that Mr. Cruz will not simply hand his delegates over to Donald J. Trump...Mr. Cruz’s supporters and other conservative activists are also deeply concerned about Mr. Trump’s general election agenda, and want to ensure that he does not alter the party’s platform. " --safari

Calling all Clowns. William Petroski of The Des Moines Register: "Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday that U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst would be great choice for vice president as Donald Trump's running mate, and he hopes to personally tell the business magnate of his enthusiasm about having her serve on the Republican Party's national ticket." --safari ...

... CW: Turns out John McCain likes Joni Ernst for veep, too. As we know, McCain is a very excellent veep-picker. As Charles Pierce notes, "Joni Ernst ... is Sarah Palin, if you substitute pig testicles for moose jerky." -- CW 

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Virgil Texas in the Washington Post: Fictional pundit Carl "The Dig" Diggler predicted primary & caucus results with more accuracy than Nate Silver. You can keep up with the Dig here. -- CW 

Other News & Views

Michael Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: "A review of the law firm [Mossack Fonseca’s] internal files by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and other media partners has identified offshore companies created by Mossack Fonseca that were tied to at least 36 Americans accused of fraud or other serious financial misconduct.... Some of the Americans have been convicted of fraud or other crimes.... Others have been sued in civil cases launched by securities regulators or private plaintiffs." -- CW ...

... Ana Swanson of the Washington Post: "The Washington Post is joining a group of global media organizations in publishing a searchable database of more than 300,000 opaque offshore entities." The dateabase is here. CW: If you've got nothing better to do for the next few years, search away.

CBS News: White House foreign policy advisor Ben "Rhodes is facing an onslaught of criticism for his comments in a New York Times Magazine article published Sunday. In the piece, Rhodes said he used advocacy groups to create an echo chamber of supporters. He dismissed Washington's foreign policy establishment. And he described reporters as uninformed about world affairs." CW: I have not followed this story, but this CBS report seems to be a pretty good summary. The original NYT Magazine story by David Samuels, which I haven't read, is here. And here's an exemplary critique, by Thomas Hicks of Foreign Policy, who labels Rhodes an "asshole" and "an overweening little schmuck." For starters.

Mark Berman, et al., of the Washington Post: "North Carolina and the Justice Department announced dueling lawsuits on Monday, a sharp escalation in a confrontation over the state’s so-called 'bathroom bill' that has become the epicenter of a larger fight over transgender rights." -- CW 

Isaac Chotiner of Slate: "According to a new study from the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, anti-Muslim hate crimes increased in 2015, coinciding with attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, and the rise of Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president who has called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States...It was during December that the study saw a huge spike, recording 53 separate attacks on Muslims during this month, nearly one-third of the total in the entire year."--safari 

Beyond the Beltway

Tresa Baldas of the Detroit Free Press: "The Flint water crisis has triggered yet another lawsuit, this one filed by the city's former administrator, who claims she was wrongfully fired for blowing the whistle on the mayor of Flint for allegedly trying to steer money from a charity for local families into a campaign fund." -- CW 

Taking one for the team. Jonathan Shorman of The Topeka Capital-Journal: "The financial earthquake shaking Kansas can be felt throughout the country...Kansas is altering the course of other states, influencing tax policy in ways both big and small. Other states are seeking to avoid Kansas’ rolling fiscal crisis, even as they work toward tax cuts of their own." -- safari  

Way Beyond

Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "Brazil’s political tumult has deteriorated into a full-blown constitutional crisis after a little-known and newly appointed lower house speaker proclaimed the annulment of last month’s impeachment vote against president Dilma Rousseff. The surprise move – which was immediately challenged by senior figures in the senate – provides a new twist in the country’s ongoing political drama that would stretch the credibility of a House of Cards plot." --safari

The Commentariat -- May 9, 2016

This is starting out to be a Slow Gnus day:

Presidential Race

George Skelton of the Los Angeles Times: "Bernie Sanders wants everyone to be offered a tuition-free college education and he's called crazy. America can't afford it, naysayers scoff.... But too many of us in California forget: This state did provide tuition-free college for generations. That helped California achieve greatness by broadening the middle class and providing opportunities for upward mobility not available in other states.... Now [California tuition is] ridiculous: roughly $14,500 at UC and $6,800 at the state universities.... To paraphrase Robert F. Kennedy, Sanders dreams of things the way they were -- at least in California -- and asks why not again? Actually, there's no good reason." -- CW

Ed Rendell Wishes to Remind You that Philadelphia Is a Stone's Throw from New Jersey & He Can Be Just as Rude as Chris Christie. Harper Neidig of the Hill: Ed Rendell, "the chairman of the Philadelphia 2016 Host Committee for this summer's Democratic National Convention said supporters of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders have to 'behave themselves' [and 'not cause trouble'] when the Vermont senator loses the nomination." -- CW

Desperately Seeking a "47-Percent" Moment. Jonathan Swan of the Hill: "Republican operatives are scouring the country for transcripts, notes or secret recordings of Hillary Clinton's paid speeches to Goldman Sachs in hopes of finding damaging material for the general election. Clinton has rebuffed calls from Bernie Sanders to release the transcripts of her three speeches to the Wall Street giant, which she delivered in 2013 to the tune of $225,000 per appearance. She has repeatedly said she will release the transcripts of her paid speeches when all the presidential candidates agree to do so." -- CW

CW: I suppose it bears repeating, since we are unlikely to hear much about this in the general election: both Hillary Clinton & Donald Trump use "tax havens" to protect themselves from paying taxes at the rate many of us do. Clinton has often suggested closing various tax loopholes, but she has never made any effort to do so; Trump is, of course, all over the place on this subject, but it is hard to believe he would ever move to normalize taxes for rich individuals & corporations. Nomi Prins, of TomDispatch, republished in Salon, reports.

Enough About You, Let's Talk About Donald! John Dickerson on CBS' Face the Nation had a sit down with Hillary Clinton that aired on Sunday: Joe Concha of Mediaite, this interview "...was not only profoundly disappointing, but even disgraceful.... particularly for someone as seasoned as the 47-year-old CBS political director and host. Never have there been so many questions to a presumptive presidential nominee that were so unfocused, so tilted, so teed-up, so non-probing than whatever that was Dickerson served up.... Eight of the first nine questions weren't about her. They targeted her competition instead. Not one policy question or clarification was asked." -- Akhilleus

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. The headline on the front page of today's WashPo is "Clinton's Wonky Plan for U.S. Contrasts with Rivals' Grand Ideas." On the story page itself "Grand" becomes "Grandiose," which is a slightly more fair characterization of Trump's "ideas," if not Sanders'. The story itself, by David Fahrenthold, comes off as critical of Clinton, IMO, for having actual plans as opposed to Trump's ever-altering "ideas." -- CW

Daffy or Demented? Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has called for the elimination of the federal minimum wage, as he retreated from primary promises and once again refused to release his tax returns because of 'a link' to an audit.... [Trump] repeatedly said he would support a higher minimum wage, a reversal from his position when he had conservative opponents. But he insisted on Sunday that states should decide such wages.... He said he hoped to release the returns before the general election, but would not pledge to do so." -- CW

Liar or Demented? Evelyn Rupert of the Hill: "Donald Trump threw a new claim Hillary Clinton's way at a Saturday rally, telling the crowd that the Democratic front-runner wants to do away with the Second Amendment."CW: Trump is probably unaware that a president can't just "abolish" a Constitutional Amendment. In fact, I have little doubt that President Trump would "abolish" -- and ignore -- every part of the Constitution that didn't suit him. That's what dictators do.

Demented! Glenn Thrush of Politico: "Mark Salter, the most prominent and most defiant Republican to announce his support of Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, thinks the 2016 campaign could literally -- no joke -- drive the billionaire developer insane.... 'He's going to lose, and I think he's got kind of an unstable personality to begin with,' Salter told me last week.... 'I think he could come apart, you know, in some kind of visible way,' ... Salter said. 'I think that's quite possible.... I'm not a psychiatrist, but there is something wrong with [the] guy.'" -- CW

Paul Krugman: "Truly, Donald Trump knows nothing. He is more ignorant about policy than you can possibly imagine, even when you take into account the fact that he is more ignorant than you can possibly imagine. But his ignorance isn't as unique as it may seem: In many ways, he's just doing a clumsy job of channeling nonsense widely popular in his party, and to some extent in the chattering classes more generally."

Greg Sargent: "There's a lot of chatter out there to the effect that Donald Trump is shifting his stances on taxing the rich and on the minimum wage. He's moderating his positions for the general election! He's going to get to Hillary Clinton's left on economic issues! The only problem with this reading -- which is based largely on what Trump said on the Sunday shows yesterday -- is that it didn't actually happen.... Given that his plan cuts [upper-income] taxes dramatically, this supposed 'openness' to a shift is meaningless.... Trump is not proposing to raise taxes on the rich." -- CW

Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "More than 50 veterans released a statement Sunday calling on presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump to show respect for the country's veterans and donate the millions of dollars he allegedly raised during a fundraiser several months ago.... Earlier this year, Trump skipped the seventh Republican presidential debate over disagreements with the host network, Fox News. Instead, he held a fundraiser for raise money for military veterans. A report in March said Trump had donated less than half of the $6 million he raised for military veterans during the late January fundraiser. About $3 million was given to 24 charities the presumptive nominee chose, according to the report." -- CW

Jake Tapper of CNN: "Top officials of the Cruz campaign are convinced there is one specific step that could have stopped Trump -- [a Cruz-Rubio ticket --] and they blame Sen. Marco Rubio for not taking that step." CW: So this is the Cruz team saying, "Carly Fiorina, you're no Marco Rubio."

Sycophancy Works! Russell Berman of The Atlantic: Donald Trump on Monday made perhaps the most important hire of his presidential campaign to date, choosing Chris Christie to lead his transition team if he wins the White House in November. -- Akhilleus ...

... Akhilleus: Berman goes on to assert that Christie appears to be operating "...pretty independently from the campaign." But then reports that "A Trump spokeswoman directed questions about his role to Christie's gubernatorial office, which promptly referred those queries back to Trump's campaign." Errr....doesn't sound all that independent. It's also worth noting that the last Confederate to run a White House transition team was Dick Cheney.

Other News & Views

Beyond the Beltway

Jenn Abelson, et al., of the Boston Globe: "... a growing number of former students at New England private schools ... are breaking their silence about sexual abuse by staffers. They are emboldened by a cascade of recent revelations about cases -- many of them decades old -- that were often ignored or covered up when first reported, and that school administrators still struggle to handle appropriately today." This is a long, investigative piece. -- CW

Science or Sciencey? John Oliver, reviewed in Salon, expounds on the danger of sciencey sounding studies that purport to offer serious information to the public. "'Not all scientific studies are equal..Some may appear in less-than-legitimate scientific journals. And others may be subtly biased because of scientists feeling pressure to come up with eye-catching positive results.'" As a case in point, the Salon article highlights advice provided by NBC Today Show personality, Al Roker. "I think the way to live your life is you find the study that sounds best to you and you go with that." -- Akhilleus

Akhilleus: Of course I get all my health advice from Al Roker. Just another example of the astonishingly irresponsible bullshit passed on by TV personalities. "Find the study that sounds best and go with it". What if the study suggested that hunkering over a highway overpass with a rifle and shooting at passing cars was a good way to relieve tension? Morons.

Way Beyond

Alison Smale of the New York Times: "Austria's chancellor [Werner Faymann] resigned abruptly on Monday after nearly eight years in office, throwing his country into deeper political uncertainty after a first round of presidential elections last month in which the two governing establishment parties failed to muster even a quarter of the popular vote. The resignation occurred amid a rightward shift in Austrian politics, fueled by anxieties over the migration crisis." CW: Not a good sign, is it?

** Roger Cohen of the New York Times: "In his victory, a triumph over the slurs that tried to tie him to Islamist extremism, [London Mayor-Elect Sadiq] Khan stood up for openness against isolationism, integration against confrontation, opportunity for all against racism and misogyny. He was the anti-Trump.... Sadiq Khan's victory is reassuring because he represents currents in the world -- toward global identity and integration -- that will prove stronger over time than the tribalism and nativism of Trump." -- CW ...

... Juan Cole: "The press is declaring Sadiq Khan, victor in the electoral contest for mayor of London, the 'first Muslim mayor of a major European city.' They mean of course, something like 'the first Muslim mayor of a really big Western European city in the modern period (say the past two centuries).'... Islam is a major European religion and is a nearly 1300 year old tradition there." -- CW

Jonathan Kaiman & Sunshine de Leon of the Los Angeles Times: "Filipinos flocked to polling stations Monday to elect their 16th president in one of the most closely watched and emotionally charged elections in recent memory.... The presidential race has a clear front-runner: Rodrigo Duterte, 71, a tough-talking city mayor from the country's south.... Critics have raised concerns about his many profane comments and his alleged human rights violations. Duterte has joked about rape and infidelity, and promised to clean up crime by killing thousands of criminals and dumping their bodies in Manila Bay." CW: Sound familiar?

The Commentariat -- May 8, 2016

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama delivered an impassioned call to civic action and responsibility at Howard University's commencement Saturday, giving an upbeat assessment of the nation's trajectory...." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... A pretty, pretty good address:

** Yes, You Can. Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times: President "Obama could instruct officials at his Treasury Department to close the so-called carried interest tax loophole that allows managers of private equity and hedge funds to pay a substantially lower federal tax rate on much of their income. Forcing these managers to pay ordinary income taxes on the gains they reap in their funds would accomplish two things. It would take away an enormous benefit enjoyed almost exclusively by some of the country's wealthiest people. And, tax experts say, it would generate billions in revenue to the government each year.... Changing the carried interest loophole [does not] require an act of Congress," tax experts say. -- CW

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: Chief Justice John Roberts is "a fierce defender of the judiciary's independence and a firm believer in judicial restraint -- albeit a kind that at times is apparent only to him." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Robert McCartney of the Washington Post: "The Federal Transit Administration, citing Metro's botched response to Thursday's fire at the Federal Center SW station, on Saturday issued a series of emergency directives to the transit agency and threatened to shut down all or parts of the nation's second-busiest subway unless it took 'urgent action' to ensure passenger safety. In its toughest measures since it took over direct safety oversight of Metro in October, the FTA ordered daily inspections for 'hot spots' and water leaks along tracks, as well as reductions in the number of railcars in service and slower speeds for trains so less power is used." -- CW

Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "Republicans have blamed the current president for so much that a satirical meme was born. Flat tire? Broken fingernail? 'Thanks, Obama.'...Yet one thing Trump supporters and Democrats agree on is the extent to which the party of Lincoln has been twisted out of recognition by its loathing for the current occupant of the White House. Amid bitter recriminations over Trump's successful exploitation of this mood, many are wondering if the president's greatest legacy may be the desolation of the Republican party, which did so much to frustrate his own time in office but may take decades to recover once he leaves." -- safari

Presidential Race

Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Hillary Clinton won the Guam Democratic caucuses Saturday.... According to unofficial results announced by Guam Democratic Party chairman Joaquin Perez, Clinton won 60 percent to Sanders' 40 percent." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)

Liz Kruetz of ABC News: "During a campaign event in Oakland, California..., [Hillary Clinton] prescribed a new name for the man who is being called the Republican presumptive nominee: The 'presumptuous nominee.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

George Packer of the New Yorker: Donald Trump "thrashed his way to this summit by understanding ... the decline of American institutions and mores, from Wall Street and the Senate to cable news and the Twitterverse, made the candidacy of a celebrity proto-fascist with no impulse control not just possible but in some ways inevitable.... Conservative orthodoxy, already weakened by its own extremism - the latest, least appealing standard-bearer was Ted Cruz -- has suffered a stunning defeat from within. And Trump has replaced it with something more dangerous: white identity politics.... Bernie Sanders speaks to and for [the working class] -- not as being white but as being economically victimized.... He has ... outperformed Clinton with the white working class." -- CW

Evelyn Rupert of the Hill: "Donald Trump took a swing at Hillary Clinton at a Friday night rally, using President Bill Clinton's affair to counter Clinton's attacks on his standing on women's issues. 'Nobody in this country was was worse than Bill Clinton with women. He was a disaster,' Trump said at a rally in Eugene, Ore. 'I mean there's never been anybody like this and she was a total enabler. She would go after these women and destroy their lives. I mean have you ever read what Hillary Clinton did to the women that Bill Clinton had affairs with? And they're going after me with women. Give me a break, folks.'" ...

... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Trump made similar remarks in Eugene, Oregon, Saturday. ...

     ... CW: In general, Trump is right -- Hillary was a "total enabler" who repeatedly dismissed the credibility of Bill's lovers & orchestrated the management of "bimbo eruptions" -- but I don't know that dredging up her egregious behavior of decades ago will help Trump much now.

Liar or Demented? Maggie Haberman: "Donald J. Trump said he was was 'blindsided' when Paul D. Ryan, the House speaker, withheld an endorsement from him this week, saying that Mr. Ryan had called to congratulate him after he won the New York primary on April 19.... On 'Meet the Press,' Mr. Trump said of the purported phone call: 'He called me to congratulate me. Couldn't have been nicer.'... But a spokesman for Mr. Ryan said Saturday that such a call never took place." CW: If wishes were fishes, Trump would be a truthful man. ...

... Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "... most politicians will drop a talking point if it gets labeled with Four Pinocchios by The Fact Checker or 'Pants on Fire' by PolitiFact.... Trump makes Four-Pinocchio statements over and over again, even though fact checkers have demonstrated them to be false. He appears to care little about the facts; his staff does not even bother to respond to fact-checking inquiries. But, astonishingly, television hosts rarely challenge Trump when he makes a claim that already has been found to be false." Kessler provides "a summary of recent Four-Pinocchio statements made by Trump." -- CW

Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump will not rule out an effort to remove Paul D. Ryan as chairman of the Republican National Convention if he does not endorse Mr. Trump's candidacy. Mr. Trump stopped s hort of calling for Mr. Ryan, the speaker of the House, to step down from his convention role. But in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' Mr. Trump said there could be consequences in the event that Mr. Ryan continues withholding his support." -- CW ...

... Nolan McCaskill & Nick Gass of Politico: "Donald Trump and his allies are lashing out at House Speaker Paul Ryan for his refusal to back -- for now -- the presumptive Republican nominee, with Trump's spokeswoman even declaring Ryan unfit for his job...The same sentiment was expressed Thursday evening by Fox News host Sean Hannity,who told viewers he is no longer 'ready to support Ryan as speaker. 'I'm thinking maybe we need a new speaker,' Hannity said during his show. 'Thoughts?'" --safari

Kristen East of Politico: "Gene Sperling -- a former top national economic adviser to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama who has been advising Hillary Clinton on economic policy -- said Trump's comments [about "making deals" to reduce payments to U.S. Treasury note holders] 'would risk a global financial meltdown, drive up interest rates for Americans for decades, and seriously harm middle-class families.'... 'For Donald Trump to casually announce he would consider defaulting on our debt for the first time in our history shows a stunning lack of responsibility and understanding of the global economy,' he said." -- CW

Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "Former U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey (R-N.H.) called Donald Trump a sociopath Friday, saying he would never support the presumptive GOP nominee...." -- CW

Curtis Tate of The Wichita Eagle: "Former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole endorsed Donald Trump for president on Friday, becoming the only former Republican presidential nominee to do so. Dole, who was his party's nominee in 1996, will also attend the Republican convention in Cleveland in July, where Trump is expected to be nominated." --safari

When the KKK whines about PC culture, then adopts it. Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast: "'... We knew what would happen what the liberal media always does,' the (anonymous) Grand Dragon toldThe Daily Beast, before decrying 'political correctness' in America and reiterating that Trump would be 'best.' He alleged that the journalists selectively edited the long interview ['semi'-endorsing the Donald] tomake them look as loathsome and bigoted as possible. 'They wanted to make us seem as racist as [they] could,' the Dragon said." --safari

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. CW: The top story in Saturday's New York Times is a longish piece on the rift in the GOP. The word "racist" or its derivatives never pops up once. Instead, it seems, Trump has an "outsider message." Right. ...

... Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Steve M. "In The New York Times, Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin assess how we got to this Trump moment -- and go a wee bit overboard blaming it all on new media.... But Trump's primary means of transmitting his message is TV. In March, the Times reported that Trump had received nearly $1.9 billion in free TV time; that number, as of the end of April, is up to $2.8 billion." --safari...

... Rob Reiner gives the "journalists" at MSNBC a well-deserved dressing down. These people are clueless morons. --safari:

Beyond the Beltway

Beth Quimby, et al., of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald: "The Old Orchard Beach fire chief [Ricky Plummer] -- who has worked previously at numerous fire departments in Maine and elsewhere in New England and the U.S. -- was charged with arson early Saturday for allegedly setting the April 15 fire that burned 42 acres of the Jones Creek Marsh and forced the evacuation of a nearby condominium complex." -- CW

Bryce Covert of ThinkProgress: "Under current law, states aren't allowed to institute drug tests for unemployment benefits. But that hasn't kept Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) from trying. In July, Walker approved legislation that would implement drug tests for both unemployment benefits and food stamps, neither of which are currently permissible. To get his way, he&'s suing the government to allow him to move forward with implementation...But in the meantime, he took steps this week to do as much as he can under his limited authority." --safari

Michelle Goldberg of Slate: "The long war over sex ed could provide a template for the current fight over trans people and public bathrooms, which is playing out both on the state level -- most notably in North Carolina -- and in local school districts. Both are volatile because they involve kids, schools, and sex...If the battle over sex heralded the beginning of the religious right, the battle over trans people in bathrooms will show us whether the religious right has any power left." --safari

Way Beyond

Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "In a new wave of royal decrees, King Salman of Saudi Arabia on Saturday replaced a number of top ministers and restructured government bodies in a shake-up that paved the way for significant changes in how the state is run." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)

Richard Smart of the Guardian: "North Korea will not use nuclear weapons against other nations unless its sovereignty is threatened, and will work toward nonproliferation and global stability, leader Kim Jong-un has said, according to state media.... In remarks apparently aimed at nations such as South Korea, Japan and the United States, Kim suggested that the nation will look to internationalise further, and 'improve and normalize the relations with those countries which respect the sovereignty of the DPRK and are friendly towards it, though they had been hostile toward it in the past'...But analysts took Kim's comments to congress with a pinch of salt." --safari

News Ledes

CBC (Canada): "A massive wildfire nicknamed 'the beast' has forced a work camp north of Fort McMurray housing first responders to evacuate Saturday night." ...

... New York: "The record-breaking wildfire that has engulfed the city of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada over the past week may yet still double in size, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said on Friday night, warning that, 'in no way is this fire under control.' The Associated Press reports that due to bad weather conditions, including continued high temperatures, dry weather, and high winds, the fire grew on Friday from impacting around 100,000 hectares to more than 156,000 hectares, and another likely two-fold increase in size would encompass additional forested areas, possibly reaching the border of the neighboring province, Saskatchewan, some 90 kilometers east of Fort McMurray." ...

... AP Update: "Officials said Sunday they reached a turning point in fighting an enormous wildfire, hoping to get a 'death grip' on the blaze that devastated Canada's oil sands town of Fort McMurray amid cooler temperatures and light rain. Meanwhile, a massive evacuation of residents displaced by the blaze came to an end."