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."

The Commentariat -- May 7, 2016

Afternoon Update:

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 but cautioning that there remains 'so much more work that needs to be done.'" -- CW

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

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

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

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.

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

*****

Presidential Race

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "In a biting critique of the presumptive Republican nominee, President Obama said Friday that Donald J. Trump should be subjected to serious scrutiny and not be allowed to treat the presidential campaign like 'a reality show.'" The President also remarks on the Democratic race. CW: Watch the video:

ConservoHillary. Amy Chozick of the New York Times: Hillary "Clinton's campaign is repositioning itself, after a year of staking out liberal positions and focusing largely on minority voters, to appeal to independent and Republican-leaning white voters turned off by Mr. Trump.... Mrs. Clinton has broadened her economic message, devoted days to apologizing for a comment she previously made that angered working-class whites, and has pledged that her husband, former President Bill Clinton..., would 'come out of retirement and be in charge' of creating jobs in places that have been particularly hard hit. The effort is a striking turn after she spent the past year trying to to mobilize the liberal wing and labor leaders in the Democratic Party." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Luke Hammill of the Oregonian: "Trump and supporters from across Oregon -- which the candidate repeatedly pronounced 'Ore-gone' -- descended on Eugene, a city known as a strong outpost of progressivism, to kick off the weekend in what amounted to a victory party." CW: Hammill emphasizes the "NeverHillary" "progressives" who showed up at Trump's rally, clear evidence that progressives can be idiots, too.

The Narcissist at Work. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "During a joyful, victorious rally speech in West Virginia on Thursday night, Trump told his crowd of 13,000 that they no longer had to vote in Tuesday's Republican primary -- even though there are still a number of contested local races on the ballot." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)

I would borrow knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal. And if the economy was good it was good, so therefore, you can't lose. -- Donald Trump, CNBC interview, Friday ...

... ** Washington Post Editors: "AMONG THE many misconceptions fueling Donald Trump's presidential campaign, one of the most stubborn, and most pernicious, is this: Government should run like a business.... Trump separately hypothezied that the United States 'can buy back [debt] at discounts....' [and he would 'make a deal.' with creditors]... The minute the United States tried to reduce its debt load by offering creditors less than 100 percent of principal and interest -- i.e., by 'discount,' or 'making a deal,' ... every institution that had taken this country at its word would be instantly destabilized. Those institutions would include the Chinese government and others abroad..., the Federal Reserve..., and the Social Security Trust Fund.... And don't get us started about pension funds, money market mutual funds and community banks.... Mr. Trump ... [set] a new record for economic recklessness by a major party presumptive nominee, in his first week in that role." ...

... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Every assessment of risk in the financial system is based on the idea that the least risky thing is lending money to the federal government. If that turns out to be much riskier than previously thought, then everything else becomes much riskier too. Business investment will collapse, state and local finances will be crushed, and shockwaves will emanate to a whole range of foreign countries that borrow dollars.... This is the second time this week that Trump has revealed a profound ignorance of an issue related to government debts. The early instance in which he kept proposing that Puerto Rico declare bankruptcy even though doing so is illegal was on a question that's very important to Puerto Ricans...."

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "It is not too much to say that centuries of American prosperity have been undergirded by the 'full faith and credit of the United States.' In other words, the US always pays its debts in full and on time. Indeed, it's black letter text in the US constitution that the country's debt can never even be questioned. Defaulting on the national debt would clearly be unconstitutional.... The entire architecture of the global economy and the United States place in it rests on the certainty and basic risklessness of US government debt obligations. It's as simple as that.... When it comes to macro-economics and global economics Trump is a huge ignoramus who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the Treasury." -- CW ...

... John Cole of Balloon Juice: "This jackass actually thinks defaulting on the US Debt would work just like arbitration after a bankruptcy where bond holders would settle for pennies on the dollar.... We're so fucked if this lunatic wins." -- CW

... CW: It's worth noting that the idiot who put this idiotic idea in Trump's idiotic brain was the idiotic three-named Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times & CNBC.

These Two People Had a Phone Conversation:

It wasn't like furious or anything; it was just like, 'What do I need to do?' And so I said, 'Listen -- my view is just relax and be gracious, and I will talk to Paul and we will try to work on this.' -- Reince Priebus, RNC Chair-for-Now, on his chat with Donald Trump

I told Reince that I thought it was totally inappropriate what Paul Ryan said and thought it was good for me politically. But Reince feels, and I'm okay with that, that we should meet before we go our separate ways. So I guess the meeting will take place and who knows what will happen. -- Donald Trump, on the same chat with Chair-for-Now

Gail Collins: "There's no reason you couldn't do the Republican vice-presidential search as a reality show.... The contest for the second slot is already a lot like 'The Celebrity Apprentice.' Everybody has to refer to the candidate as 'Mr. Trump' and pretend his boorish exhibitionism is actually a demonstration of sublime leadership." CW: Hilarious, but while you're laughing, remember that "President Trump" is not at all funny.

Another NeverTrump Bush. Patrick Caldwell of Mother Jones: "Jeb Bush won't be voting Republican this fall. The former presidential candidate wrote on Facebook Friday afternoon that he won't be voting for Donald Trump ... in the general election. But it looks like Bush will just skip voting for president, saying that he can't support Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton either. 'Donald Trump has not demonstrated that temperament or strength of character,' Bush wrote. 'He has not displayed a respect for the Constitution. And, he is not a consistent conservative. These are all reasons why I cannot support his candidacy.'" -- CW ...

... And Another. Dana Bash of CNN: "Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Donald Trump's most outspoken Republican critics, says he will not vote for either Trump or Hillary Clinton for president this year." -- CW ...

... CW: The irony is that these guys are rejecting Trump for the wrong reason: that he's "not a reliable conservative Republican." They don't bother to mention that he's both a racist & an ignoramus; they don't get that part of the reason racist & ignoramus GOP voters support Trump is that he's pledged (not that his pledges mean squat) not to blow up their Social Security & Medicare & not to send their jobs to China (even though he's done that himself as a private b'nessman). ...

... Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Friday brought another day of incredible division and revolt [within the GOP] with Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham falling in line not behind Trump, but behind House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said a day earlier that he cannot yet support the brash real estate mogul as his party's standard-bearer. Trump, instead of trying to make peace, lashed out. He fired off a vicious statement, calling Graham an 'embarrassment' with 'zero credibility.' Then he laced into both of his former rivals during his rally in Omaha, Nebraska.... 'But I won't talk about Jeb Bush. I will not say -- I will not say he's low energy. I will not say it,' Trump told a boisterous crowd who booed at the mention of his critics. '... And I won't talk about Lindsey Graham, who had like 1 point, you ever see this guy on television? He is nasty.... He leaves a disgrace, he can't represent the people of South Carolina well.' Trump also alternated on Friday between shrugging off Ryan's bombshell announcement and scorching him." -- CW

Shadi Hamid of The Atlantic: "It still remains (somewhat) unlikely that Donald Trump ... can win a general election. Regardless of the final outcome, however, the billionaire's rise offers up a powerful -- and frightening -- reminder that liberal democracy, even where it's most entrenched, is a fragile thing...The candidate has exposed the tension between democracy and liberal values -- just like the Arab Spring did." --safari

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Donald Trump appears to have escaped the possibility of an awkward federal class-action trial over his Trump University real estate program taking place just as his campaign for the White House shifts into high gear. At a hearing in San Diego on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel set the trial in the lawsuit to begin Nov. 28, with jury selection to begin a few weeks earlier, local press reports said." -- CW

... Yeah, well, he has the Darth Vader vote. Nick Gass of Politico: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney will support Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for president, he told CNN on Friday." -- CW

CW: A contributor has noticed the white circles around this man's eyes, circles that show up in a lot of photos. She presumes, as do I, that he wears goggles when he spray-paints the tanning stuff on his pasty white face. (It wasn't long ago that Marco Rubio said this man had "the worst spray-tan in America.") Weird that an old white guy who despises people of color goes to so much trouble to color his own face. The contributor made some unflattering comments about the man's face, but I would nevah mock a person's appearance, so you'll have to do that yourself.

Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "In spite of his insistence that he will not run, Mitt Romney is being courted this week by a leading conservative commentator to reconsider and jump into the volatile 2016 presidential race as an independent candidate. William Kristol, the longtime editor of the Weekly Standard magazine and a leading voice on the right, met privately with the 2012 nominee on Thursday afternoon to discuss the possibility of launching an independent bid, potentially with Romney as its standard-bearer." -- CW

Other News & Views

Scott Shane & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The anonymous source behind the huge leak of documents known as the Panama Papers has offered to aid law enforcement officials in prosecutions related to offshore money laundering and tax evasion, but only if he is assured that he will not be punished. 'Legitimate whistle-blowers who expose unquestionable wrongdoing, whether insiders or outsiders, deserve immunity from government retribution,' the source, who has still not revealed a name or nationality, said in a statement issued Thursday night." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Kyle Whitmire of al.com: "For the second time in his career, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore faces charges before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary and potential removal from office. Until that court hears and rules on those charges, Moore will be suspended with pay from his position atop the state's highest court. On Friday, the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission forwarded charges to the commission, accusing the chief justice of violating judicial ethics in his opposition to same-sex marriage." -- CW

Fernanda Santos of the New York Times: "The federal Children's Health Insurance Program, known in Arizona as KidsCare..., a health care program for children of the working poor that had been left out of the budget approved by the Arizona Legislature this week, was resuscitated on Friday, after Democrats and moderate Republicans agreed to attach it to a bill expanding disabled students' eligibility for school vouchers.... The senators did so under intense protests from conservative lawmakers.... The House of Representatives had already passed it 38 to 21 late Thursday.... Late Friday afternoon, Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, wrote on Twitter, 'Just signed KidsCare.' Now, Arizona will no longer be the only state in the country where children whose parents make too much to qualify for Medicaid yet too little to afford private insurance do not qualify for subsidized health care." -- CW

Annals of "Justice," Ctd. Radley Balko of the Washington Post on how South Carolina "investigates" police shootings. -- CW

Sara Ganim of CNN: "There are now two allegations by men who say they were sexually abused by Jerry Sandusky, who also say they reported their abuse to the legendary coach [Joe Paterno] in the 1970s. One of those allegations was made public in a court order related to a lawsuit Penn State University filed against its former insurer over who should have to pay settlements to the more than 30 men who have come forward as victims of Sandusky. The victim was not identified, and the details come from a deposition that is sealed. The other has spoken to CNN, in great detail...."

Peter Beinart of The Atlantic: "Kudos to Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse for reaffirming in a widely discussed 'open letter' that he won't support Donald Trump. I just wish the letter weren't so self-righteously dumb. Sasse, often mentioned as a potential third-party candidate, addresses his missive to the 'majority of America' that believes that 'both leading presidential candidates are dishonest.' He goes onto declare that neither Trump nor Hillary are 'honorable people' nor 'healthy leader[s],' whatever that means." --safari

Way Beyond

Robert Booth of the Guardian: "Sadiq Khan has been elected mayor of London, reclaiming the post for Labour after eight years of Conservative rule and becoming the first Muslim mayor of a major western capital." CW: Donald Trump has said he would not rule out nuking Europe. Maybe he'll start with London, which could put a bit of a crimp in our "special relationship" with Great Britain.

Helena Smith of the Guardian: "In a letter - leaked three days before eurozone finance ministers are scheduled to discuss how best to put the crisis-plagued country back on its feet -- IMF chief ChristineLagarde issued her most explicit warning yet: either foreign lenders agree to restructure Greece's runaway debt or the Washington-based organisation will pull out of rescue plans altogether." --safari note:Maybe they should call up the Donald. His brain is bigly.

The Commentariat -- May 6, 2016

Afternoon Update:

ConservoHillary. Amy Chozick of the New York Times: Hillary "Clinton's campaign is repositioning itself, after a year of staking out liberal positions and focusing largely on minority voters, to appeal to independent and Republican-leaning white voters turned off by Mr. Trump.... Mrs. Clinton has broadened her economic message, devoted days to apologizing for a comment she previously made that angered working-class whites, and has pledged that her husband ... would 'come out of retirement and be in charge' of creating jobs in places that have been particularly hard hit. The effort is a striking turn after she spent the past year trying to to mobilize the liberal wing and labor leaders in the Democratic Party." -- CW

The Narcissist at Work. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "During a joyful, victorious rally speech in West Virginia on Thursday night, Trump told his crowd of 13,000 that they no longer had to vote in Tuesday's Republican primary --even though there are still a number of contested local races on the ballot." -- CW

Scott Shane & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The anonymous source behind the huge leak of documents known as the Panama Papers has offered to aid law enforcement officials in prosecutions related to offshore money laundering and tax evasion, but only if he is assured that he will not be punished. 'Legitimate whistle-blowers who expose unquestionable wrongdoing, whether insiders or outsiders, deserve immunity from government retribution,' the source, who has still not revealed a name or nationality, said in a statement issued Thursday night." -- CW

*****

Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "President Obama commuted the sentences of 58 inmates Thursday as part of his ongoing initiative to release federal prisoners who have received severe mandatory sentences for non-violent drug offenses.... Obama [now] has granted clemency to a total 306 inmates, 110 of whom were serving life sentences. Obama has said he will continue granting commutations during his final months in office to inmates who meet certain criteria set out by the Justice Department." -- CW

Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration made final sweeping new rules that for the first time extend federal regulatory authority to e-cigarettes, popular nicotine delivery devices that have grown into a multibillion-dollar business with virtually no federal oversight or protections for American consumers. The 499-page regulatory road map has broad implications for public health, the tobacco industry and the nation's 40 million smokers. The new regulations would ban the sale of e-cigarettes to Americans under 18...." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Shane Harrisof The Daily Beast: "Two senior U.S. intelligence officials said recently that defense and intelligence employees have an 'unbelievable' amount of child pornography on their work computers and devices, and that child porn has been found on the systems of the National Security Agency, the country's biggest intelligence organization. But the NSA, which is responsible for keeping tabs on its own computers as well as military and intelligence agency networks, cannot say...how many times such cases have been referred to law enforcement for investigation and potential criminal prosecution." --safari

"Jesus Didn't Wear a Rolex." Garrison Keillor, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Every time Bob McDonnell talks about his corruption conviction in Virginia, he mentions how Jesus Christ is sticking with him all the way, which surely is true.... The Lord has always been there for thieves and malefactors, but this is mercy; it doesn't mean that Jesus approves of taking more than $150,000 in gifts from a man cozying up to a governor, as Mr. McDonnell seems to suggest.... His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endures to all generations. And wherever two Corinthians are gathered together, there He is in the midst of them." -- CW

Lori Aratani & Paul Duggan of the Washington Post: "The commutes of hundreds of thousands of Washington-area residents will be upended when Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld on Friday unveils his long-awaited plan for a massive overhaul of the struggling rail system." -- CW

Olga Oxman of the Guardian: "A group of more than 2,000 physicians is calling for the establishment of a universal government-run health system in the US, in a paper in the American Journal of Public Health. According to the proposal released Thursday, the Affordable Care Act did not go far enough in removing barriers to healthcare access. The physicians' bold plan calls for implementing a single-payer system similar to Canada's, called the National Health Program, that would guarantee all residents healthcare." CW: Hmmm. Sounds familiar.

Vann Newkirk of The Atlantic: "...Maybe some of the difficulty in talking about race today is attributable to the unhelpful euphemisms of 'racial conflict,' 'racial tension,' and other phrases that suggest an equal amount of instigation across racial groups, if not a perfectly balanced battle. But not all 'racial conflicts' or 'racially fraught' sentiments are the same. Equating them even via casual euphemism dilutes the potency of a truth that has undergirded every aspect of American society for as long as American society has existed." --safari

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. David Roberts of Vox: "... that whole superstructure of US politics built around two balanced sides, there will be a tidal pull to normalize this election.... So there will be a push to lift Donald Trump up and bring Hillary Clinton down, until they are at least something approximating two equivalent choices.... No institution needs a competitive election more than the media.... What's more, the campaign media's self-image is built on not being partisan, which precludes adjudicating political disputes.... To date, the anti-Trump position has been safely inside the Washington consensus. That will change once the GOP apparatus inevitably swings around behind Trump and begins accusing journalists who write critical stories of bias." -- CW ... (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Paul Krugman writes what Roberts writes, & adds a bit about the racism that drove the Tea Party & is the prime force behind Trumpism. "I can almost guarantee that we'll see attempts to sanitize the positions and motives of Trump supporters, to downplay the racism that is at the heart of the movement and pretend that what voters really care about are the priorities of D.C. insiders.... That is, after all, what happened after the rise of the Tea Party." -- CW

Presidential Race

Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Here's one reason Bernie Sanders is reluctant to give up the fight: May is shaping up to be a pretty good month for him. On the heels of his Indiana victory Tuesday, Sanders is well-positioned for wins in the upcoming West Virginia and Oregon primaries.... For Hillary Clinton, the prospect of additional Sanders wins is more headache than threat." -- CW

Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders on Thursday vowed to invest billions of dollars in coal-mining communities to create jobs, seizing on the issue as Hillary Clinton faces a backlash for promising to put coal companies out of business. The Vermont senator brought up the future of coal miners while campaigning across West Virginia, which holds its primary on Tuesday, and spoke about poverty at a food bank in Kimball." -- CW

The Los Angeles Times editors interviewed Hillary Clinton. Here's the transcript. -- CW

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors and FBI agents investigating Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email server have so far found scant evidence that the leading Democratic presidential candidate intended to break classification rules, though they are still probing the case aggressively with an eye on interviewing Clinton herself, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter." -- CW ...

... Del Wilber of the Los Angeles Times: "Huma Abedin, a close aide to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, was questioned last month by FBI agents investigating whether classified material was mishandled on the private email server used by the former secretary of State and her aides, according to a person familiar with the investigation." -- CW

** How to Tank the Economy in One Idiotic Remark. Benyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "One day after assuring Americans he is not running for president 'to make things unstable for the country'..., Donald J. Trump said in a television interview Thursday that he might seek to reduce the national debt by persuading creditors to accept something less than full payment. Asked whether the United States needed to pay its debts in full, or whether he could negotiate a partial repayment, Mr. Trump told the cable network CNBC, 'I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal.'... Such remarks by a major presidential candidate have no modern precedent. The United States government is able to borrow money at very low interest rates because Treasury securities are regarded as a safe investment, and any cracks in investor confidence have a long history of costing American taxpayers a lot of money." -- CW ..

... Unbelievably, this is from the same interview. Eric Levitz of New York: "Appearing on CNBC's Squawk Box, Trump reiterated his commitment to a massive increase in infrastructure spending. 'Maybe my greatest strength is the economy, jobs, and building,' Trump said. 'We do have to rebuild our infrastructure.'" CW: There will be no infrastructure spending if nobody will buy U.S. Treasury notes, you bonehead.

Benjy Sarlin of MSNBC: "Two days into his general election campaign, Donald Trump has already signaled he may abandon his positions on two major policy issues: a minimum wage increase and tax cuts for the rich.... Trump's willingness to blithely abandon past positions has made conservative activists deeply skeptical, but it also presents a general election challenge for Democrats: How do you hold a candidate accountable for his positions after he has looked Americans in the eyes during a debate and, with a straight face, denied he ever held contrary views?" ...

     ... CW: I'll tell you how: you just point out that the poor old codger suffers from dementia. Of course he can't remember what he said last month, & of course he imagines he saw things that never happened (like imagining New Jersey Muslims cheering the 9/11 terrorist attack). As you know, I'm serious about this. ...

... Russell Burman of The Atlantic: "Trump's slipperiness on policy details has been a theme of his candidacy and, quite possibly, a core part of his appeal to voters. He's a dealmaker, and as he has said repeatedly when pressed about his positions, 'Everything is negotiable.'...Yet Trump's ability to be a political chameleon has significant implications for how Democrats go after him in the fall. 'This is what makes @realdonaldtrump an elusive target,' David Axelrod, President Obama's former top strategist, tweeted on Thursday. 'He believes in himself. Everything else is fungible.' --safari

Olivia Nuzzi of The Daily Beast: "For someone so inclined to overshare -- about his penis size, his sexual prowess, his wife's bathroom habits, her lack of cellulite -- Donald Trump is an intensely private person. He's so private that the privacy terms he forces those in his orbit to agree to verge on unconstitutional, and his opaque plans to enforce privacy measures of undisclosed range as President of the United States have potentially grave implications for the Republic." --safari

Tim Egan on the "new" Donald Trump. -- CW

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: ""The Candidate": "What do we do now?" -- CW

Trump and the mob. Tom Robbins in The Marshall Project (April 27th): "...One helpful lens for determining Trump's views on crime and law enforcement is via his past encounters with those alleged to be on the wrong side of the law. That's his history with the mob. And for all of his tough law and order rhetoric, the record shows the GOP frontrunner has been remarkably tolerant. In the course of his forty years of business deals, Trump has encountered a steady stream of mob-tainted offers that he apparently couldn't refuse." --safari...

...If you prefer video, here is Tom Robbins explaining Trump's mob connections via Democracy Now! (The interview starts around 4:45)

Sam Thielman of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has named an ex-Goldman Sachs partner, Hollywood financier and former Hillary Clinton supporter as his national finance chairman. Steven Mnuchin brings with him an impressive list of contacts in Hollywood and Wall Street. The founder of film finance company Dune Capital, he backed action movies including the X-Men franchise and James Cameron's box office record-breaker, Avatar." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Click on photo to see larger image.Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "On his social media accounts, including Twitter, Mr. Trump shared on Thursday afternoon a photo of himself eating what he called a taco bowl and offering a thumbs up at his desk in Trump Tower, along with the message: 'Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!'... The Tower Grill does not, in fact, offer taco bowls, but the Trump Café has them on Thursday's Cinco de Mayo menu as a 'Taco fiesta!'" -- CW ...

... Chris Plante of the Verge illuminates "everything terrible about Donald Trump's taco bowl tweet." Here's one thing Plante learned on the Intertubes from a guy named Benny: "Donald Trump is eating a taco salad on top of a bikini-clad photo of his ex-wife, Marla Maples." (See circled area of photo.) CW: I'm pretty sure "taco bowls" (which I'll admit I never heard of) are more a Tex-Mex thing than a traditional "Hispanic" favorite.

Robert Costa of the Washington Post interviewed Donald Trump, who, you know, "said a lot of things." Like, Cruz & Kasich "did a great thing for the party because we can now start on all the things that we have to start on." -- CW

Greg Miller of the Washington Post: Donald "Trump will soon be getting briefings from U.S. spy agencies. It might not go well.... 'It beggars the imagination,' said former CIA director Michael V. Hayden, who was among those who briefed President Obama after the 2008 election. 'Given that [Trump's] public persona seems to reflect a lack of understanding or care about global issues, how do you arrange these presentations to learn what are the true depths of his understanding?'... The decision on how much to share and when are traditionally made by the sitting president." -- CW

Paul Ryan Not Yet Ready to Back Trump. Eric Bradner of CNN: "House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday he cannot yet support presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump's presidential campaign. 'I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now,' Ryan's position makes him the highest-level GOP official to reject Trump...Ryan's comments were striking because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday night that he'd back Trump." ... (Also linked yesterday.)

... Akhilleus: There must be some kind of logical fallacy term for the situation in which one self-promoting fraud opts out of supporting another self-promoting fraud. Not to mention a situation in which a different self-promoting fraud DOES decide to support self-promoting fraud number one. Republicans are so confusing!. ...

... Maggie Haberman: "Donald J. Trump said on Friday that he was 'surprised' by the rebuke from Representative Paul D. Ryan..., on Thursday, and added that the party needed to come together.... He confirmed that there were efforts to broker a meeting between the two men next Wednesday in Washington, although he cautioned that there are 'a lot of days' from now till then." CW: It is somewhat surprising that Short Fingers didn't know how many days there are between now & Wednesday, because you can count five days on one hand, no matter how stumpy the fingers. Trump should consider "a lot of days" to be six or more. ...

... Dana Bash of CNN: "Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry told CNN Thursday he will support Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee and will do everything he can do to help him get elected.... When Perry was a candidate for president earlier in the 2016 cycle, he was the first to come out and criticize Trump and question his conservative credentials, calling his candidacy a 'cancer on conservatism.'" --safari

... BUT. David Sanger & Jim Yardley of the New York Times: "Alarmed by Donald J. Trump's grip on the Republican presidential nomination, world leaders are wrestling with the possibility that, even if he loses the general election, his ascent reflects a strain of American public opinion that could profoundly reshape the way the United States addresses security alliances and trade. From Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul to the headquarters of NATO in Brussels and the vulnerable Baltic nations along Russia's western border, officials and analysts said in interviews that they saw the success of Mr. Trump's 'America first' platform as a harbinger of pressure for allies to pay up or make trade concessions in return for military protection." -- CW

Dahlia Lithwick remembers Ted Cruz from their days on the college debate circuit & from his turn as Texas solicitor general. Entertaining. -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Alan Blinder & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "The Republican leaders of North Carolina's General Assembly defiantly announced Thursday that they would not meet a Monday deadline to suspend or repeal a state law limiting bathroom access for transgender people, setting up a potential legal showdown over what has become one of the nation's most explosive cultural issues. 'We will take no action by Monday,' said Tim Moore, the speaker of the State House of Representatives, referring to the deadline the Justice Department gave the state to tell federal officials whether the law would stand." -- CW

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could lead to nearly 400 death-row prisoners receiving life sentences, a move experts say could be the country's single biggest jettisoning of death sentences in decades.... The uncertain situation dates back to January, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's unique system of imposing death sentences as unconstitutional because it let judges, rather than juries, make the final call. Florida promptly revamped its death penalty, which Gov. Rick Scott (R) said at the time would 'allow families of these horrific crimes to get the closure they deserve.' Left unanswered, though, was whether this Supreme Court ruling was retroactive...." -- CW

Charles Thompson of Pennlive: "A new bombshell dropped in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal Thursday. It came in the form of a single line in a court order on a related insurance coverage case involving Penn State.... The line in question states that one of Penn State's insurers has claimed "in 1976, a child allegedly reported to PSU's Head Coach Joseph Paterno that he (the child) was sexually molested by Sandusky." --safari

Way Beyond

Tim Arango & Ceylan Yeginsu of the New York Times: "In pursuit of more power, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has purged the judiciary of enemies, jailed journalists and crushed anti-government protests. Now, he has ousted his closest political ally, the country's prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, whose modest effort to check Mr. Erdogan’s ambition was too much for the president. Mr. Davutoglu, publicly loyal to Mr. Erdogan even as he pushed back privately on some of his excesses, said Thursday that he would step aside as the leader of the Islamist Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., and give up his position as prime minister." -- CW ... (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker: "Erdoğan is well on his way to becoming a dictator, if he isn't one already.... [President] Obama and Erdoğan are supposed to meet today in Washington. Let's hope President Obama skips the diplomatic language and goes straight to the point: that any leader who jails journalists -- and arms Al Qaeda and bombs the Kurds and jails his opponents -- is no friend of the United States." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Police said three people have been shot at Westfield Montgomery Mall at 7101 Democracy Blvd. in Bethesda on Friday morning and that a suspect is at large. Soon after, a woman was fatally shot at a grocery store several miles away, and authorities are investigating whether the incidents are linked." -- CW ...

     ... Washington Post Update: "A frantic 22 hours of mayhem at a school, a mall and a grocery store jolted two counties as it left three dead and three wounded before a suspect was captured Friday afternoon in a Maryland parking lot near the scene of the final killing. The arrest of Eulalio 'Leo' Tordil, a 62-year-old federal law enforcement officer, followed a manhunt that forced Montgomery County schools, government buildings and retail establishments to lock down." -- CW

New York Times: "After months of gravity-defying gains, the American jobs machine cooled slightly in April, as employers took their cue from other signs that economic growth was slowing by easing up on new hiring. The 160,000 increase in payrolls in April reported by the Labor Department on Friday comes after the best two-year stretch for the job market since the tech-fueled boom of the late 1990s. The unemployment rate stayed at 5 percent." -- CW