The Commentariat -- June 6, 2016

Presidential Race

Danica Coto & Lisa Lerer of the AP: "Hillary Clinton overwhelmed Bernie Sanders in Puerto Rico's Democratic presidential primary on Sunday, putting her within striking distance of capturing her party's nomination. After a blowout victory Saturday in the U.S. Virgin Islands and a decisive win in the U.S. territory, Clinton is now less than 30 delegates short of the 2,383 needed to win the nomination, according to an Associated Press count." -- CW

John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "he Democratic primary season comes to a climax on Tuesday, when six states will vote: California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The biggest prize is California, where the race appears to be tightening.... Even though [the California results are] unlikely to affect who gets the nomination, it could have a major impact on where the Democratic Party goes from here -- toward unity or discord." -- CW

Ed Kilgore: "With Hillary Clinton drifting towards a majority of pledged delegates, it wasn't so clear California would matter that much to Democrats.... But the thing to remember is this: a narrow Sanders win will be mainly of psychological value...A big net delegate harvest for Sanders will require a big popular vote victory, and the polls just don't show that as remotely likely -- barring some really strange pro-Bernie turnout dynamics. So the current din of hype over who will 'win' California is largely a shuck." --safari

E. J. Dionne: "Hillary Clinton gave the speech about Donald Trump that, with a few changes, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) could have given. And he should have.... Instead of sticking to his vaunted principles, Ryan forged a link between the Republican Party and Donald Trump that may endure in public consciousness long after this campaign is over.... [Republican] party leaders have decided that Trump's nativism and racism, his utter disrespect for the judicial system, his soft spot for foreign dictators and his latent authoritarianism matter far less to them than holding on to power in Congress. It will be up to the voters to decide how big a price Ryan, Mitch McConnell & Co. should pay for this." -- CW

Judging Trump. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump said Sunday that a Muslim judge might have trouble remaining neutral in a lawsuit against him, extending his race-based criticism of the jurist overseeing the case to include religion and opening another path for Democrats who have criticized him sharply for his remarks.... [John] Dickerson [of CBS's 'Face the Nation'] asked Mr. Trump if, in his view, a Muslim judge would be similarly biased because of the Republican presumptive nominee's call for a ban on Muslim immigrants. 'It's possible, yes,' Mr. Trump said. 'Yeah. That would be possible. Absolutely.'" ...

... CW: We know Drumpf's sister is a federal judge, but I'll bet he doesn't think women "look judicial," just as he says Hillary Clinton "doesn't even look presidential," so let's rule out female judges, too. And why not "the blacks," (acknowledging as we do that Trump has "his African-American"). So pretty much the only kind of person who is fit to sit in the Trials of Trump are white, European-heritage, Christian guys (though maybe we'd better rule out judges of Spanish or Portugese heritage. Italians? Greeks? I'm not sure.) Also, too, they should probably be Republican appointees. Of course, any judge, no matter his pedigree, is unfaaair the minute he rules against a Trump motion. ...

... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "In May, Trump released a list of potential Supreme Court nominees in a Trump administration. Every single person on his list is white." -- CW ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post adds to the list: "Let us ... try to isolate which judges Donald Trump would like to bar from overseeing any future legal disputes involving his get-others-rich-quick schemes.... Judges from the Democratic party.... Judges who are immigrants.... Judges who are women.... Judges who are black.... Judges with physical disabilities." -- CW ...

... Chas Danner of New York: "In other news, RNC chair Reince Priebus has assured the Washington Examiner that Trump's rhetoric regarding Hispanics is likely to evolve between now and the election.... Of course, that theory of evolution is not yet supported by evidence outside the minds of establishment Republicans who now find themselves chained to the Trump Express." On Bump's list, Danner writes: "(It's probably also worth excluding otherwise eligible men who have low energy, have wives who aren't tens, or are named Mitt Romney.)" -- CW ...

... CW: As the list of "unqualified" judges grows, it will become apparent that the only person capable of judging Trump is Trump Himself. So if you think digby is exaggerating when she writes that if Trump is elected, "we will have our very own Putin," you might want to have another think. ...

... ** Garrett Epps of the Atlantic: "At its rawest, [Trump's] claim amounts to, 'Who are you -- African American, woman, Jews, "Mexican" -- to judge a real citizen, a white man?'... The re-introduction of this crude, explicit racism into politics is repellent. More repellent yet, in a sense, is the effort now beginning -- by figures like [former U.S. Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales, Joel Pollack of Breitbart, The Daily Caller, and other conservative outlets -- to mainstream this dangerous deviancy." -- CW

** Larry Summers in the Washington Post: "On June 23, Britain will vote on whether to remain in the European Union. On Nov. 8, the United States will vote on whether to elect Donald Trump as president.... Both could yield outcomes that would have seemed inconceivable not long ago. Both pit angry populists and nationalists against the traditional establishment.... Yet, as great as the risks of Brexit are to the British economy, I believe the risks to the U.S. and global economies of Trump's election as president of the United States are far greater. Indeed, if he were elected, I would expect a protracted recession to begin within 18 months. The damage would in all likelihood be felt far beyond the United States." Summers explains why. And for once he writes in plain English. -- CW

Goofy Elizabeth Warren, sometimes known as Pocahontas, bought foreclosed housing and made a quick killing. Total hypocrite! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, May 25

The overall pattern demonstrated in the 25 real estate transactions don't support Trump's claim that she made a 'quick killing' out of foreclosed homes. Instead, Warren mainly helped family members by purchasing or financing homes that were then held for years. Her family members did appear to profit from some transactions, but only modestly. This ... fits the profile that has been portrayed by Warren and her aides -- a sister helping out her brothers and other relatives, mainly through loans. There's nothing hypocritical about that. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

Other News & Views

Anne Usher of Politico: "[E]ven if Trump is elected, taking down Paris is going to be a lot harder than he thinks. That's certainly the view of Jonathan Pershing, President Obama's new climate envoy, who's rushing to Trump-proof America's commitment to the pact -- minimizing ways in which a President Trump could obstruct the global carbon reduction plan." --safari

Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "There are few relationships between President Obama and another world leader more unlikely than the one he has with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. The two have a public warmth -- or 'chemistry,' as the Indian news media like to describe it -- and that is likely to be on display Tuesday when Mr. Modi visits the White House for the second time in two years. It will be the seventh time the two leaders will have met." CW: This is one of those stories where the writer stakes out a storyline, then goes on to refute it. It is interesting, though, for some of the content.

Brian Beutler: "It is ... the Republican Party's plainly stated intention to preserve a Supreme Court vacancy so that Trump might fill it. The notion that Trump, through network effects, political pressure, and use of the Senate confirmation power, would nominate movement conservatives to positions of power is the connective tissue binding Republican leaders to a candidate they nearly all understand to be a political and moral wrecking ball. Trump's power as president to fill Supreme Court vacancies (which arise relatively infrequently) would accompany the power to fill scores and scores of other vacancies across the federal bench. That means more [bigoted judges], the GOP hopes and assumes, and more opportunities for a conservative Supreme Court to overturn liberal policy, whether on the basis of conservative theories of jurisprudence, rank opportunism, or thinly veiled bigotry." CW: You'll have to read the whole post to see how Beutler builds his case.

Democracy in Action. Eleanor Clift of The Daily Beast: "It should get our attention when a lone senator stops a popular piece of bipartisan legislation, blocking passage and opposing the prevailing opinion even in his own party. That's what Republican Senator Tom Cotton, a rising star in the GOP, has done and in a few weeks he'll have successfully killed the much needed and long overdue reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974.... The bill also has the backing of 5000 law enforcement agencies across the country, including dozens in Arkansas, and would have passed the U.S. Senate by unanimous voice vote earlier this year if Cotton hadn't stepped in with his 'hold.'" --safari

Eric Lipton & Julie Creswell of the New York Times: How "a stable of wealthy clients from the United States [hid millions of dollars in assets] are outlined in extraordinary detail in the trove of internal Mossack Fonseca documents known as the Panama Papers.... The Times's examination of the files found that Mossack Fonseca [-- a Panamanian law firm --] also had at least 2,400 United States-based clients over the past decade, and set up at least 2,800 companies on their behalf in the British Virgin Islands, Panama, the Seychelles and other jurisdictions that specialize in helping hide wealth.... For many of its American clients, Mossack Fonseca offered a how-to guide of sorts on skirting or evading United States tax and financial disclosure laws.... In 2001, Sanford I. Weill, then the chief of Citigroup, set up an offshore account called April Fool for his yacht." -- CW

Thanks, Fed! Paul Krugman: "... what is causing the economy to slow? My guess is that the biggest factor is the recent sharp rise in the dollar, which has made U.S. goods less competitive on world markets. The dollar's rise, in turn, largely reflected misguided talk by the Federal Reserve about the need to raise interest rates.... There are other policies that could easily reverse an economic downturn. And if Hillary Clinton wins the election, the U.S. government will understand perfectly well what the options are. (The likely response of a Trump administration doesn't bear thinking about. Maybe a series of insult Twitter posts aimed at China and Mexico?)" -- CW

John Oliver on low-life debt buyers and their multiple scams --safari

Sarah Carr of Slate: "If you want to know what America will look like in a generation, look at its classrooms right now. In 2014, children of color became the new majority in America's public schools...Right now, schools and school systems across the country are confronting a question that our society at large will need to answer in the coming years: Do Americans have the will and understanding to build a more inclusive, and less deeply segregated, nation? In many parts of America -- urban, rural, and suburban -- that will require a radical upending of the status quo." --safari note: interesting read, especially for you (ex)teachers out there.

Beyond the Beltway

Chris Kenning of the Louisville Courier-Journal: "A day after boxing titan Muhammad Ali died at age 74, his family announced his funeral would be held Friday in his hometown of Louisville and include a motorcade through the city, private burial at Cave Hill cemetery and a public memorial at the KFC Yum! Center with eulogies by former President Bill Clinton, Billy Crystal and Bryant Gumbel." -- CW

It Depends on How Long It Takes to Commit the Crime. Elle Hunt of the Guardian: "The father of a former Stanford University athlete convicted on multiple charges of sexual assault has said his son should not have to go to prison for '20 minutes of action'. Brock Turner, a former swimmer at Stanford University, was on Thursday sentenced to six months' imprisonment and probation for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.... Turner was expected to spend only three months of a six-month sentence...." CW: How nice that the judge pretty much agreed with Pops. By their standard, drive-by shootings should not be prosecuted. Why waste the public's money building a case against somebody who should go to jail for maybe a couple of days tops for a crime that took only a second?

Way Beyond

Raphael Minder of the New York Times: "Swiss voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to guarantee an income to Switzerland's residents, whether or not they are employed, an idea that has also been raised in other countries amid an intensifying debate over wealth disparities and dwindling employment opportunities. About 77 percent of voters rejected a plan to give a basic monthly income of 2,500 Swiss francs, or about $2,560, to each adult, and 625 francs for each child under 18, regardless of employment status, to fight poverty and social inequality and guarantee a 'dignified' life to everyone." -- CW

Jim Gomez of the AP: "The Philippine president-elect [Rodrigo Duterte] has encouraged the public to help him in his war against crime, urging citizens with guns to shoot and kill drug dealers who resist arrest and fight back in their neighborhoods.... If a drug dealer resists arrest or refuses to be brought to a police station and threatens a citizen with a gun or a knife, 'you can kill him,' Duterte said. 'Shoot him and I'll give you a medal.'...'If you're still into drugs, I will kill you, don't take this as a joke. I'm not trying to make you laugh, son of a bitch, I will really kill you,' Duterte said to loud jeers and applause." -- safari note: How long until Drumpf starts lauding this strongman, too?

News Lede

Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Colin is located over the Gulf of Mexico as of early Monday morning and is expected to continue to move to the north-northeast. Colin is expected to make landfall along the Gulf Coast of Florida late Monday. This system is then expected to be somewhere near or off the coast of the Carolinas by later Tuesday." -- CW

The Commentariat -- June 5, 2016

Presidential Race

Chas Danner of New York: "Nearly 18 million Californians are now registered to vote, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced on Friday, the most voters ever registered in advance of a state primary there. 98 percent of the almost 650,000 new voter registrations occurred over the final 45 days of registration, which ended on May 23, and 76 percent of them were for the Democratic Party. That may be welcome news for Bernie Sanders...." CW: As Dan Balz points out in the article linked below, Trump has "wasted time" in California because he thinks he can win the general election there. A Republican has not won the California presidential election since 1988.

Democrats are holding their primary in Puerto Rico today.

AP: "Hillary Clinton scored a sweeping win in the US Virgin Islands on Saturday, picking up all seven pledged delegates at stake as she inched tantalizingly close to the Democratic nomination. She is now just 60 delegates short of the 2,383 needed to advance to the November general election. The party said Clinton won 84.2% of the vote, while Bernie Sanders earned 12.2%. Under Democratic National Committee rules, a candidate must win at least 15% of the vote to be eligible to receive delegates." -- CW

Ken Thomas of the AP: "Nearing the end of the primary season, a defiant Bernie Sanders predicted Saturday that the Democratic presidential process would lead to a contested summer convention against Hillary Clinton, pushing back against the likelihood that the former secretary of state will soon declare victory." CW: Good luck with that, Bernie.

Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: (Also linked below.) Clinton has made plenty of bad moves with regard to her e-mail server. The pressure that is on her as a result cannot all be ascribed to her enemies, and if she ignores that she will only help them. It is, for example, unfathomable that she and her campaign allowed her decision not to cooperate fully with the State Department's Inspector General to come as a surprise to the public when his report was issued last month, in contradiction with the campaign's public message. That was entirely within her team's control." -- CW

Louis Nelson of Politico: "Donald Trump is an 'insecure moneygrubber,' Sen. Elizabeth Warren told the assembled Democrats of Massachusetts at the state's party convention Saturday. He is also, according to Warren's prepared remarks: Scary, loud, outrageous, offensive, small, a failure and fraudster-in-chief. Those are just a handful of the bombs Warren hurled Trump's way in her Saturday afternoon address, after which she told reporters that she doesn't believe in the superdelegate process, and has 'no timetable' for making an endorsement in the Democratic race." -- CW

The Not-Ready-for-Prime Time Player. Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "It's been almost five weeks since Donald Trump's victory in Indiana made him the presumptive Republican nominee. Here's what's happened since: He's wasted time, proved to be a sore winner and veered sharply off message. He's put a higher premium on settling scores than finding a script that will appeal to a wider, general-election audience.... Trump can't seem to let go of any perceived slight or grievance. He can't accept the idea of winning graciously. He still feels disrespected, by fellow Republicans and especially the media. He feels he hasn't gotten all the credit he deserves." -- CW

I was told to do one thing. And that one thing was . . . to show up to teach, train and motivate people to purchase the Trump University products and services and make sure everybody bought. That is it. -- James Harris, a Trump "University" instructor

... Fraudster-in-Chief. Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: "Trump University would be a noble endeavor, [Donald Trump] said [when he introduced the venture], with an emphasis on education over profits. It was a way for him to give back, to share his expertise with the masses, to build a 'legacy as an educator.'... Trump University was not a university. It was not even a school. Rather, it was a series of seminars held in hotel ballrooms across the country that promised attendees they could get rich quick but were mostly devoted to enriching the people who ran them....

The focus on Trump University also reignited a controversy in Texas over the decision there by the state attorney general not to file a fraud case against the business. Newly disclosed documents reported by Texas media show that investigators had probed the company for seven months and recommended a lawsuit. The inquiry was shut down when Trump University closed up shop in the state. Trump later gave $35,000 to the gubernatorial campaign of then-Attorney General Greg Abbott. ...

... CW: This is really an indictment of Trump. Trumpbots who read it will turn in their "Make America Great Again" chapeaux.

Matt Viser of the Boston Globe: "Donald Trump has paid men on his campaign staff one-third more than women, while Hillary Clinton has compensated men and women equally, according to a Globe analysis of payroll data for both campaigns. Trump's campaign staff is also far less diverse than that of his likely Democratic opponent. Only about 9 percent of his team are minorities, compared with nearly a third of Clinton's staff." -- CW

No, Donaldo, These People Are Not "Your African-Americans." David Mack of BuzzFeed: "On Saturday morning, Donald Trump shared a tweet from a supporter that purported to show a black family on the 'Trump Train.'" The family pictured, however, are not on the "Trump Train." They don't support Trump, & the photo was originally published in "an article from Cincinnati, Ohio station WCPO about the Midwest Black Family Reunion in August." -- CW

Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: (Also linked above.) "'The only reason she's been dragged so far left, believe me, is that she [Hillary Clinton] doesn't want to go to jail over the e-mails.'... 'If I win,' Trump said, then ... muttered something about statutes of limitations and what he would tell his Attorney General to do.... The idea that Presidents can use prosecutors to protect or attack their enemies, and that winning elections can make legal problems -- fraud allegations, perhaps -- go away may say more about why the job looks so good to Trump than it does about the e-mail story. It adds to the list of alarms about the disregard for the rule of law with which he might govern.... He added a line that he has used, in one form or the other, for months: 'The fact that they even allow her to participate in this race is a disgrace to the United States. It's a disgrace to our nation.'.... 'She should not be allowed to run' is an attack on Clinton's legitimacy as a candidate. Similarly, birtherism, of which Trump was the braying champion, was an attack on Obama's legitimacy...." -- CW

Donald Who? Andrew Restuccia & Tony Romm of Politico: "Republican Party leaders are courting Beltway insiders to help write a platform that wins over the special interests that Donald Trump regularly trashes on the campaign trail.... The Republican National Committee is barely talking about Trump as it meets with virtually every Republican-leaning business interest in town.... The RNC has organized as many as 10 closed-door huddles with business lobbyists to discuss the party's platform -- and not incidentally, engage the business establishment, many of whom feel alienated by a candidate who calls for ripping up trade agreements and boycotting companies such as Apple and Carrier that run afoul of his positions." -- CW

Senate Race

Sorry, GOP. Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: The two top contenders in California's Senate race are the state's attorney general Kamala Harris & Rep. Loretta Sanchez. Both are Democrats. "And their competition says as much about California as it does about the candidates. In a state with one of the most diverse electorates in the nation, where Latinos are the largest ethnic group, a victory by either woman would be a milestone: Ms. Harris would be the first black woman in the United States Senate since Carol Moseley Braun, an Illinois Democrat who served from 1993 to 1999, and Ms. Sanchez would become the first Latina elected to the Senate." -- CW

Other News & Views

David Remnick of the New Yorker: "... Ali became arguably the most famous person on the planet, known as a supreme athlete, an uncanny blend of power, improvisation, and velocity; a master of rhyming prediction and derision; an exemplar and symbol of racial pride; a fighter, a draft resister, an acolyte, a preacher, a separatist, an integrationist, a comedian, an actor, a dancer, a butterfly, a bee, a figure of immense courage." CW: Remnick has written a book on Ali. ...

... Charles Pierce: Ali "embodied the country, in all its historic, inherent contradictions, in all its promises, broken and unbroken, and in all of its lost promises and hard-won glories. He insisted on the rights that the country said were his from birth and, in demanding them, freed himself to enjoy them, and freed the country, if only for a moment, to be something more than even the Founders thought it would be." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Steve M. uncovers shocking news! Headline: "Muhammad Ali gave Muslin prayer book to the President!" You see, you see, Obama was a Muslim just as the wingers said. Oh, wait. The president Ali gave the prayer book to was Ronald Reagan. Never mind. We all know Saint Ronald of Reagan was no secret Muslim.-- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

American "Justice," Ctd. Dayna Evans of New York: "Brock Allen Turner, the former Stanford swimmer who was discovered raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster on campus in January of last year, will be sentenced to six months in county jail and probation. Prosecutors had recommended that Turner receive a sentence of six years, but judge Aaron Persky determined that Turner's age -- 20 -- and lack of criminal history warranted him a much shorter sentence. 'A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him,' Persky said at Turner's sentencing on Thursday." CW: Because it's not so bad if a nice blue-eyed, blond Stanford boy rapes you. ...

... Amy Nutt of the Washington Post: "In an online survey about sexual activity and attitudes, more than half the men who played an intramural or intercollegiate sport reported coercing a partner into sex. Of the sexually coercive behaviors listed on the survey, including 'I used threats to make my partner have oral or anal sex,' almost all met the legal definition of rape." -- CW

Jason Leopold, et al., of Vice report that, contrary to NSA Claims, documents obtained via the FOIA show that Ed Snowden did try to tell numerous NSA oversight officials about his concerns re: abuses of privacy before he released a trove of documents to reporters. CW: The story is dense, difficult reading; Marcy Wheeler is one of the co-authors, & it has her convoluted style written all through it.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Elisabetta Povoledo of the New York Times: "A year after approving the creation of a new tribunal to discipline bishops who covered up child sex abuse by priests, Pope Francis scrapped that plan on Saturday and issued new guidelines to oust those who have been 'negligent' in handling such cases. Under the new guidelines, issued in an apostolic letter, Roman Catholic bishops who have failed to properly handle sex abuse cases will be investigated by four Vatican offices. If the bishops are found to have betrayed their mission, they will be removed 'to protect those who are the weakest among the persons entrusted to them.'" -- CW

News Lede

NPR: "David Gilkey, an NPR photojournalist who chronicled pain and beauty in war and conflict, was killed in Afghanistan on Sunday along with NPR's Afghan interpreter Zabihullah Tamanna. David and Zabihullah were on assignment for the network traveling with an Afghan army unit, which came under attack killing David and Zabihullah." -- CW

The Commentariat -- June 4, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Steve M. uncovers shocking news! Headline: "Muhammad Ali gave Muslin prayer book to the President!" You see, you see, Obama was a Muslim just as the wingers said. Oh, wait. The president Ali gave the prayer book to was Ronald Reagan. Never mind. We all know Saint Ronald of Reagan was no secret Muslim.-- CW ...

... Charles Pierce: Ali "embodied the country, in all its historic, inherent contradictions, in all its promises, broken and unbroken, and in all of its lost promises and hard-won glories. He insisted on the rights that the country said were his from birth and, in demanding them, freed himself to enjoy them, and freed the country, if only for a moment, to be something more than even the Founders thought it would be." -- CW

*****

White House: "In this week's address, the President discussed his return to Elkhart, Indiana, the first town he visited as President and one that was among the hardest-hit by the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes":

** Nikos Konstandaras, editor of the Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini, in the New York Times: "... politics is a set of variations of the war between personal ambition and collective need, often at odds with each other but also with the potential for creative coexistence. The stakes are always high.... Strongmen exploiting their celebrity, projecting uncompromising bravado, harnessing popular discontent with promises to overturn the current order, have always been a basic ingredient of politics.... Donald J. Trump, Vladimir V. Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Rodrigo Duterte (the newly elected president of the Philippines who promises mass murder of 'criminals'), have one thing in common: Each bases his power on public support. However despotic they are, no one can deny that they (Mr. Trump excepted, so far) were elected.... They are products of democracy, even as they undermine its institutions and its norms, like oligarchs or dictators of predemocratic times." -- CW

Josh Lederman of the AP: "President Barack Obama shortened the sentences Friday of 42 people serving time for drug-related offenses, continuing a push for clemency that has ramped up in the final year of his administration. Roughly half of the 42 receiving commutations Friday were serving life sentences." -- CW

AP: "President Barack Obama has signed into law a measure meant to bolster protections for Native American children placed into the tribal foster care system. The measure signed Friday requires background checks before foster care placements are made by tribal social services agencies. The agencies will review national criminal records and child abuse or neglect registries in any state in which a would-be foster parent has lived in the preceding five years." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Here in America we don't let our differences tear us apart. Here in America we don't give in to our fears, we don't build walls to keep people out. -- Michelle Obama, at CCNY, Friday ...

... David Chen of the New York Times: "In tones both aspirational and political, Michelle Obama on Friday used her last commencement address as first lady to salute graduates of the City College of New York as 'living, breathing proof that the American dream endures,' while also criticizing 'name-calling' leaders who engage in 'anger and intolerance.' Mrs. Obama did not specifically mention Donald J. Trump.... But her intent could not have been clearer as she warned that 'leaders who rule by intimidation -- leaders who demonize and dehumanize entire groups of people -- often do so because they have nothing else to offer.'" -- CW

Fiscal Policy Matters. Jared Bernstein: "In an unexpectedly downbeat jobs report, employers added only 38,000 jobs last month, the worst month for job gains since employment started recovering in 2010.... The negative report surely puts the nail in the coffin of a Fed rate hike at their meeting later this month.... With borrowing costs still as low as they are, a smart move by policy makers would be to quickly start up an infrastructure program, perhaps in the critically important areas of water safety or our long-ignored public school facilities." CW: See also President Obama's weekly address.

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I'm not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality.... If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn't have to draft me, I'd join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I'll go to jail, so what? We've been in jail for 400 years. -- Muhammad Ali, at a fair housing rally in Louisville, Kentucky, ca. 1967

... New York Times: "Muhammad Ali, the three-time world heavyweight boxing champion who helped define his turbulent times as the most charismatic and controversial sports figure of the 20th century, died on Friday in a Phoenix-area hospital. He was 74." -- CW ...

... New York Times: "The president and Michelle Obama ... issued a statement Saturday on the death of Muhammad Ali." -- CW ...

... New York: "TV channels are dropping their regularly scheduled programs to air specials honoring The Greatest. Michael Mann's sublime film Ali, starring Will Smith (giving what he still considers to be his finest performance), is also streaming on HBO.... Here are the upcoming programs, which will be updated as more are announced." -- CW

Dave Zirin of the Nation: " What Muhammad Ali did -- in a culture that worships sports and violence as well as a culture that idolizes black athletes while criminalizing black skin -- was redefine what it meant to be tough and collectivize the very idea of courage." -- CW

You, Too, Could Get a Ph.D. in Kochonomics. Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: Charles "Koch's donations have fueled the expansion of a branch of economic research that aligns closely with his personal beliefs of how markets work best: with strong personal freedom and limited government intervention. They have seeded research centers, professors and graduate students devoted to the study of free enterprise, who often provide the intellectual foundation for legislation seeking to reduce regulations and taxes.... Koch's academic giving has now landed him at the center of a white-hot debate over freedom and speech on campus. His critics accuse Koch, 80, of corrupting the academy with his money, pushing students and faculty to embrace a small-government philosophy that they say benefits Koch financially." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Jose DelReal & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Democrats and Hispanic activists said Friday that they are increasingly alarmed by a spate of violence at Donald Trump rallies instigated by anti-Trump protesters, fearing that the incidents -- widely viewed on television and social media -- will only help the GOP candidate and undermine their attempts to defeat him.... Democrats and liberal activists said the acts were aberrations out of step with largely peaceful anti-Trump demonstrations. 'It's deplorable, no matter who's doing it,' Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton told CBS News Friday." -- CW ...

... BUT the Violence Will Continue. Dara Lind of Vox: "Donald Trump's campaign has become a locus for confrontation and instability, and that attracts the sort of people who see violence as an acceptable way to get things done.... There are people who feel Trump's rise puts their lives in danger. And many people make decisions about what actions are 'appropriate' differently when they feel personally under threat.... Much of the mass media (specifically television) really does cover Donald Trump without interruption, and doesn't pay much attention to peaceful anti-Trump protesting. Only when protests get tense, confrontational, or violent do the cameras start rolling." -- CW

Jonathan Martin, et al., of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton's blistering new assault on Donald J. Trump has mollified many Democrats alarmed about the closer-than-expected presidential race -- while inflaming Republican fears that Mr. Trump's improvisational style and skeletal campaign will prove inadequate in repelling the type of attack Mrs. Clinton unleashed on Thursday." -- CW

Gail Collins: "Hillary Clinton made a great speech this week.... The bottom line was that America can choose her, or give the nuclear codes to a guy no sane person would put in charge of policing a parking lot.... While Clinton's experience as secretary of state is certainly a plus, her longtime hawkishness should be a minus. She needs to tell the country what she's learned about the limits to American power...." -- CW .

Tim Egan on "Bernie's last stand." CW: Egan has been happy to dismiss Bernie Sanders throughout the political season, & he does so again in today's column, but he does concede that "If Sanders were to concede at last after Tuesday, even if he won California, he could boast of having moved the Democratic Party to the populist left." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lindsey Elefson of Mediaite: "Just as [Trump] did [Thursday] when he tried to claim that he never spoke out in favor of Japan getting its own nuclear arsenal, he tried to insist that everything Clinton said about him in her speech was a lie.... She responded with a link to her site, The Briefing. That link leads to a quote-by-quote breakdown of her speech. Each assertion made about Trump's beliefs is backed up with a link to the interview or press conference during which he said it." -- CW ...

... Here's Clinton's breakdown, via Barbara Morrill of Daily Kos.

Hillary Clinton, Terrorista Extraordinaire. You couldn't get the truth out of Hillary if you waterboarded her. -- Barry Bennett, Donald Trump advisor

But doesn't that conflict with Trump's pledge to bring back waterboarding because it's so effective? -- Paul Waldman

Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg: "Where is the Republican pushback to Hillary Clinton's vicious attack on Donald Trump's foreign-policy qualifications? It's virtually absent, as several commentators noticed.... For one thing, Trump barely has a campaign so far.... There's another facet to the lack of a united party response to Clinton's speech. It's a consequence of the grudging, minimal support he's been getting from high-profile Republicans." -- CW

Rebecca Carroll of the Guardian: "... Donald Trump has been fairly straightforward regarding how he feels in general about black people in America -- he failed to swiftly and effectively disavow former KKK grand wizard David Duke in May, referred to the Black Lives Matter movement as 'trouble' last fall, and during the course of his campaign other things have surfaced, such as his idea to air a 'white v black' season of The Apprentice. Publicly, however, his most brazen racist remarks have been directed primarily at Muslims (a relatively small percentage of whom are black) and Mexicans.... Trump, though, comes across as if black people are not even worthy of his overt racism." -- CW ...

... Ooh, Rebecca, you're so wrong. Why, just today ... Reena Flores of CBS News: "Donald Trump called out 'my African-American over here' during a rally in Redding, California Friday, pointing to a supporter in the crowd. 'We had a case where we had an African-American guy who was a fan of mine,' Trump said at a campaign event Friday afternoon. 'Great guy, in fact I want to find out what's going on with him. You know what I'm -- Oh look at my African American over here.'" -- CW

We are building a wall. He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings. Rulings that people can't even believe. This case should have ended years ago in summary judgment. -- Donald Trump, on CNN, Friday (Emphasis added.) ...

... Louis Nelson of Politico: "Pressed by CNN's Jake Tapper, Trump repeated his claim that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel's Mexican heritage creates 'an inherent conflict of interest.'... 'But he's an American,' Tapper responded.... Later in the extended back-and-forth on the issue, the CNN host asked Trump whether his assertion that Curiel's heritage makes him unable to do his job is 'the definition of racism.' Trump said it was not." -- CW ...

... Actual Journalism. Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "In all, Tapper made an astounding 23 follow-up attempts.... He finally got a straight answer out of" Trump. ...

... In the video above, we hear Trump boasting that other attorneys general dropped their inquiries into Trump "U." Well, yeah:

... Payoff & Payback. Harper Neidig of the Hill: "Attorneys general in Florida and Texas who declined to pursue lawsuits against the now-defunct Trump University received political contributions from Donald Trump, according to an Associated Press report.... A political fundraising committee supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi [R] received a $25,000 donation from the Donald J. Trump Foundation just days after her office had announced it was looking into joining a multi-state lawsuit against Trump University. Her office later dropped the inquiry, citing a lack of evidence.... Trump donated $35,000 to the successful gubernatorial campaign of then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott [R] three years after a probe into the university's 'possibly deceptive trade practices' was dropped by his office when the university agreed to cease its Texas operations." -- CW

... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: Judge Gonzalo Curiel, when he was a federal prosecutor in California, went into hiding for a time because he was a target of a Mexican drug cartel. CW: This is an aspect of Curiel's career that I haven't emphasized, though it has been reported in a number of reports I linked. And of course it makes Donald Trump's repeated attacks on Curiel all the more disgusting -- as if anything could shame Drumpf. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "It's that mix of grievance and desire to reclaim what is being taken away, that desire for revenge that has been the centerpiece of Trump's campaign from the outset, far more than any sort of economic arguments or anything else.... Having a major party presidential candidate running an explicit racist campaign is quite new. Again, the attacks on Judge Curiel is entirely of a piece with everything Trump has shown us since he kicked this campaign off...." -- CW ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. CW: Just to remind you, Bloomberg is paying Mark Halperin the big bucks to explain that Trump's attacks on Judge Curiel are not "racial" because "Mexico isn't a race."

Dictator-in-Chief. Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post (June 2): "... Donald Trump swung back hard at the PGA Tour on Wednesday for moving a golf tournament from his course in Miami to Mexico, and he sounded an ominous warning about how he would respond to such decisions as president.... 'Think of it: They moved the PGA Tour -- moved the World Golf Championship -- from Miami, where they're furious, to Mexico City. Not good. But that's okay. Folks, it's all going to be settled, you vote for Donald Trump as president. If I become your president, this stuff is all going to stop.'" CW: Anyone who thinks this guy isn't dangerous is a fool. Unfortunately, there's a fool born every minute, & millions of them are of voting age.

Using his powers of sincerest wonkery, Speaker Ryan has discovered that Trump is a bigot. What a surprising development! Who knows what other hidden truths he'll uncover. -- Paul Waldman ...

... Cristina Marcos of the Hill : "Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Friday disavowed Donald Trump's accusation that a judge handling lawsuits against Trump University has a conflict of interest due to his ethnicity. A day after endorsing Trump, Ryan during an interview ... criticized the remarks the presumptive GOP presidential nominee made earlier this week." CW: Nice try, Paulie. You bought him, he's yours. There's a no-return policy on Trumps. And don't pretend you picked up the racist package by mistake -- that's the product's biggest selling point. In fact, it's the only model.

Beyond the Beltway

Mark Berman & Mark Guarino of the Washington Post: "Officials [in Chicago] released a huge array of videos and police reports Friday from about 100 open investigations into police shootings and use of force, a sharp reversal in a city still reeling from the impact of long-withheld footage showing an officer fatally shooting a teenager." -- CW ...

... The New York Times report is here.

Way Beyond

James McAuley of the Washington Post: "A grim succession of shipwrecks and drownings in the Mediterranean Sea this week has highlighted a shift in migrant smuggling operations away from relatively safer routes into Europe and sparked recriminations about whether European governments are doing enough to stem the flow. The rising death toll spiked Friday with the discovery of more than 100 drowning victims off the Libyan coast, as rescuers searched for survivors of at least two other stricken boats in waters off Crete and Egypt. The new wrecks padded a toll estimated to exceed 1,000 this week." -- CW