The Commentariat -- April 5, 2016

Many thanks to the "super-contributors" who have been posting entries on the Commentariat since Saturday. -- Constant Weader

Evening Update! (6:45pm EDT): According to The Huffingon Post all three Republican candidates are running neck-and-neck in the Wisconsin primary. With 0% of the precincts reporting Cruz, Kasich and Trump are each reporting 0% of the vote so far. -- unwashed

Afternoon Update:

Renae Merle of the Washington Post: "President Obama made a forceful case Tuesday for stopping corporations from moving their headquarters overseas in order to avoid U.S. taxes, saying they are taking advantage of the American economic system and saddling the middle class with the bill.... Obama praised regulations issued the day before by the Treasury Department aimed at making more difficult these so-called inversions, in which U.S. companies combine with foreign firms to reduce U.S. taxes. Tax avoidance is a global problem, Obama said, pointing to an enormous leak of documents from a Panamanian law firm that allegedly detail the offshore shell companies and tax shelters used by rich leaders around the world."

Wow! Steve Erlanger of the New York Times: "The prime minister of Iceland resigned on Tuesday after an enormous leak of documents from a secretive Panamanian law firm about offshore shell companies and tax shelters. The resignation of the prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, was the first prominent political fallout from the document leaks, which have shed unflattering light on the private financial activities of many rich and powerful people around the world." -- CW ...

... Liam Stack of the New York Times provides a primer on the Panama Papers. -- CW

Liz Robbins of the New York Times: "In 2012, the Department of Homeland Security set up the fake University of Northern New Jersey "as part of a sting operation to ensnare criminals involved in student visa fraud. On Tuesday, that operation resulted in the issuing of arrest warrants for 21 people in the New York metropolitan area, the United States attorney for New Jersey, Paul J. Fishman, and Sarah Saldaña, the director of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announced at a news conference in Newark. The people arrested were brokers who knowingly recruited foreign students, mainly from China and India, to an institution that would not have real classes in order to obtain student visas." CW: Rather than setting up a whole new fake university, DHS could have just borrowed Trump University. Either way, Chris Christie would be the right choice for chairman of the board of trustees.

Reed Abelson of the New York Times: "There were widespread predictions that [with the advent of the ACA,] employers would leap at the chance to drop coverage and send workers to fend for themselves. But those predictions were largely wrong. Most companies, and particularly large employers, that offered coverage before the law have stayed committed to providing health insurance."

Bob Woodward & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump says he will force Mexico to pay for a border wall as president by threatening to cut off the flow of billions of dollars in payments that immigrants send home to the country, an idea that could decimate the Mexican economy and set up an unprecedented showdown between the United States and a key diplomatic ally. In a two-page memo to The Washington Post, Trump outlined for the first time how he would seek to force Mexico to pay for his 1,000-mile border fence, which Trump has made a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and which has been repeatedly scoffed at by current and former Mexican leaders." ...

... CW: In the realm of self-defeating, this is a real winner. What do you suppose the starving Mexican people would do if they could no longer get cash from their relatives in the U.S.? Oh, I know, they'd come to the U.S. in hopes of getting a job working for Ivana Trump. Trump may have a very good brain, but it's the kind that can't think of consequences.

Getting off the airplane ... Seeing all the green and gold and the green and gold until I'm dead and cold paraphernalia everywhere.... This awesome awakening, the shifting and sifting and the exposing of this rabid bite for them to hang on to any kind of relevancy and to hang on to their gravy train.... Inducing and seducing them with gift baskets ... 'Come on over the border and he's a gift basket of teddy bears and soccer balls.' -- Words, in the order delivered this weekend in Wisconsin, in a campaign speech by a prominent supporter of Donald Trump

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The backlash against a North Carolina law that bars local governments from extending civil rights protections to gay and transgender people continued Tuesday, with PayPal saying it is abandoning plans to expand into Charlotte in response to the legislation. This decision came just weeks after PayPal, the California-based online payments firm spun off from eBay, said it would open a global operations center in Charlotte, a move that state officials said would bring millions to the local economy and employ 400 people.... North Carolina's law was introduced to override a civil rights ordinance passed in Charlotte this year that said transgender people in the state's largest city could use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity."

*****

** Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously ruled that states may count all residents, whether or not they are eligible to vote, in drawing election districts. The decision was a major statement on the meaning of a fundamental principle of the American political system, that of 'one person one vote.' As a practical matter, the ruling mostly helped Democrats.... The court did not decide whether other ways of counting were permissible." The decision, written by Justice Ginsburg, is here. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ian Millhiser: "Justice Ginsburg just shut down one of America's most notorious white rights activists." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "These days, conservatives don’t suffer too many unanimous defeats at the Supreme Court.... But that's what happened [Monday], when the Court handed down an 8-0 ruling in a case called Evenwel v. Abbott, which had the potential to upend an understanding of democratic representation that has existed for two centuries, and give Republicans a way to tilt elections significantly in their favor before anyone even casts a vote.... But losing cases like this one is part of the way they do business. With a (usually) friendly Supreme Court, in recent years they've employed a strategy of maximal legal audacity, one that has yielded tremendous benefits to their cause.... This case was a real long shot from the beginning.... But this case leaves an open question, which is whether a state can switch to an eligible-voter count in order to draw its districts if it chooses." -- CW ...

... Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog: "... the main opinion bore many signs that its warm embrace of the theory of equality of representation had to be qualified by leaving the states with at least the appearance of the power of choice, to hold together six solid votes." (Alito & Thomas each wrote concurring opinions.) -- CW

... ** BUT (and this is good news). Rick Hasen: "A long section of Justice Ginsburg's opinion recounts constitutional history, and relies on the fact that for purposes of apportioning Congressional seats among states, total population, not total voters, must be used.... Perhaps the most important aspect of Justice Ginsburg's opinion, and especially notable because it attracted the votes of not just the liberals but also Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kennedy, is the Court's refusal to give Texas the green light to use total voters if it wants in the next round of [state] redistricting." -- CW

... New York Times Editors: "Voting is a fundamental constitutional right.... The problem, as [federal] Judge [Lynn] Adelman and others have documented again and again and again, is that voter-ID laws are a destructive solution to a nonexistent problem.... a federal appeals court inexplicably reversed [Adelman's] decision and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case last year, allowing the law to go into effect.... If there were any doubts about the bad faith of these laws, consider this: The Wisconsin law requires the state to educate voters about acceptable forms of ID and how to secure them -- a particularly important public service for the roughly 300,000 state residents estimated not to have the proper ID. But despite requests from the state's nonpartisan Government Accountability Board for $300,000 to $500,000 for that effort, the Legislature provided no funding. Instead, Governor [Scott] Walker [R-Koch] signed a bill in December to dismantle the board." -- CW

...And this is the bad news. The Washington Post piece (linked above) reminds readers of the modus operandi wingnuttia when attempting to drag the country off the cliff to the far right, via SCOTUS decisions: send up a long shot bill which, even if it fails as this one did, opens a new round of questioning that could lead to incremental wins for the knuckledraggers. Tierney Sneed in a Talking Points Memo piece points out that although the Supremes may have spoken unanimously on Evenwel, that does not mean wingers will pay the slightest bit of attention. Edward Blum "...the conservative legal activist who brought the lawsuit is claiming he has found a silver lining and is hinting at a coming crusade to take another swing at one person, one vote." Blum has a long history of attacking voting rights. The Meet Ed Blum page on the American Enterprise Institute website, for which Blum is a visiting fellow (what, not a "scholar" like everyone else?), lists him as the director of the Project on Fair Representation and says that he "...studies civil rights policy issues such as voting rights, affirmative action, and multiculturalism." Makes it sound like he's a microbiologist studying infectious diseases. He certainly has been working to cure the "diseases" of voting rights and civil rights and like any chronic infection, he will be back. -- Akhilleus

... That Nice Chuck Grassley. Michael Shear of the New York Times: Senator Charles E. Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, on Monday invited President Obama's Supreme Court nominee to breakfast to explain, face to face, why Republicans have no intention of holding hearings on his appointment." CW: Yeah, come on by so I can punch you in the face. Grassley's spokeswoman claims Grassley's agreeing to serve Judge Garland poisoned pancakes for breakfast is evidence of the Senator's being "a nice person." Bull. It's evidence he is likely to have a formidable Democratic challenger who already is accusing him of refusing to do his job.

Angela Keane of Bloomberg: "President Barack Obama sat side-by-side with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Oval Office on Monday, offering a symbolic rebuke to ... Donald Trump, who has questioned whether there's still a need for the defense alliance." -- CW

Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Senate Republicans are wading into the contentious court fight over President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration by filing a legal brief with the Supreme Court that declares Obama's controversial moves a 'stark contravention to federal law.' The amicus brief is a significant assertion from most members of the Senate GOP conference that Obama's executive actions -- whose future depends on the eight justices now sitting on the Supreme Court -- should be ruled unconstitutional." -- CW

Digby in Salon on the never-ending "American war for democracy": "When Paul Ryan talks about 'makers and takers,' National Review denigrates minorities and poor whites, and Republican legislatures suppress the vote, they are echoing the ideas, the language, and the actions of Civil War-era slave owners." -- CW ...

... ** Ryan Cooper of the Week: "The [Republican] party's intellectual apparatus (distinct from the Trumpist insurgency) has more-or-less fully regressed to an economic libertarianism straight out of the 1920s. They view basically all government programs outside of the military and the courts as illegitimate, to be slashed or eliminated wherever possible. The only problem with this is that when you try it, the results are immediate disaster.... It took many years for Republicans to talk themselves out of the fact that Herbert Hoover's presidency was a disastrous failure, but with the exception of Trump, Hooverism is where they stand." Read the whole post. -- CW

Tim Johnson & Marisa Taylor of McClatchy News: "From the White House to the Kremlin, and on to Panama City, Vienna and London, governments reacted to the disclosure of the so-called Panama Papers, a law firm's once-secret database that details the offshore interests of 12 current or former world leaders, as well as 128 other politicians and public officials. No U.S. politicians of note were found in the archives of the Mossack Fonseca law firm, a global leader in setting up offshore corporations. The U.S. Justice Department signaled that it could focus its gaze more intently on political corruption even when it occurs outside of U.S. borders." -- CW ...

Once the IRS becomes aware of the identities of these people, I almost can guarantee you that they will do some kind of triaging of the data to see if there are U.S. people in there and based on the results of that, they may elect to go after people. -- Daniel Reeves, who helped create the [U.S.'s] IRS offshore compliance unit ...

... Julia Edwards & Julia Harte of Reuters: "The U.S. Justice Department is reviewing reports about the offshore financial arrangements of global politicians and public figures based on 11.5 million leaked files from a Panamanian law firm, a department spokesman said on Monday. The department is determining whether the findings point to evidence of corruption and other violations of U.S. law." -- CW ...

... Matt Yglesias of Vox on the Panama Papers: "Even as the world's wealthiest and most powerful nations have engaged in increasingly complex and intensive efforts at international cooperation to smooth the wheels of global commerce, they have willfully chosen to allow the wealthiest members of Western society to shield their financial assets from taxation (and in many cases divorce or bankruptcy settlement) by taking advantage of shell companies and tax havens." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sometimes Capitalism Is Awesome. Brian Fung & Matt McFarland of the Washington Post: "Most of the best selling cars in America ... generally hit around 300,000 in sales every year. Tesla saw 276,000 people sign-up to buy its newest all-electric Model 3 sedan -- in two days .... even though Model 3 is not expected to be delivered until the end of next year.... That massive number, which far exceeded optimistic forecasts, upends traditional thinking about how to sell cars and is expected to spur the auto industry to shift more dramatically to market electric technology to consumers, analysts said." -- CW

Doc Whitey Don't Feel Your Pain: Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "African Americans are routinely under-treated for their pain compared with whites, according to research. A study released Monday sheds some disturbing light on why that might be the case." CW: Looks as if many young medicos are both stoopid and racist. ...

... AND this will come as no surprise. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "Racial prejudice could play a significant role in white Americans' opposition to gun control, according to new research from political scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In their paper, published in the journal Political Behavior in November, Alexandra Filindra and Noah J. Kaplan found that whites were significantly less likely to support gun control measures when they had recently looked at pictures of black people, than when they had looked at pictures of white people." CW: Remember, the gun control movement that began in the late 1960s was largely fueled by white fears of blacks with guns.

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "A 'foreign fighter surge team' of experts from the F.B.I., State Department and Department of Homeland Security met with their Belgian counterparts a month before the Brussels terrorist attacks to try to correct gaps in Belgium's widely criticized ability to track terrorist plots, American officials said. The half-dozen experts focused on long-term structural fixes to the Belgians' failure to share intelligence effectively and to tighten porous borders, but not on providing information about suspected Islamic State operatives. The recommendations, even if accepted, would not have prevented the deadly attacks at the Brussels Airport and in the city's subway last month, the officials said." -- CW

Presidential Race

Both parties hold presidential primaries in Wisconsin today. See also NYT editorial, linked above.

Alec Loftus in US News: "While [Bernie] Sanders holds a modest lead over ... Hillary Clinton in the Badger State, everything could be thrown into disarray Tuesday with mass confusion about [Gov. Scott] Walker's [R-Koch] convoluted ID requirements.... Under Walker's arcane rules, student IDs at most of Wisconsin's 60-plus colleges and universities are no good, because they don't have the requisite signature or expiration date." CW: Pretty much what I said the other day, tho in much more detail. Loftus notes that the Clinton campaign is doing a bang-up job of exploiting its own base of "urban voters." And there's nothing wrong with that.

Paul Krugman on why black voters lean toward Clinton over Sanders: "One reason I haven't seen laid out, but which I suspect is important, is that they are more sensitized than most whites to how the disinformation machine works, to how fake scandals get promoted and become part of what 'everyone knows.' Not least, they've seen the torrent of lies directed at our first African-American president, and have a sense that not everything you hear should be believed." -- CW

Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: No, Sen. Sanders, you have not released your tax returns "for the last many years." CW: Bernie's excuse is that his wife does the family's tax returns & she's been busy campaigning. I'm not sure about the law, but I think Bernie's campaign could pay an accountant to prepare their returns for public release.

Leading from Behind? Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Although [Hillary Clinton] heaped praise on New York for passing the higher wage [ultimately to $15/hour] and called it a national model, she did not endorse the idea of a $15 wage across the board.... That sets her apart from much of the organized labor movement, which has largely united behind a goal of a $15 national wage. It also marks a difference with rival Sen. Bernie Sanders, who calls the current level 'starvation pay' that should be raised to $15 everywhere." -- CW

Jimmy Vielkind of Politico: "Hillary Clinton ratcheted up her attacks on Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' gun control record Monday, telling a private gathering of state legislators near the State Capitol [in Albany, New York,] that many of the guns used by New York criminals come [from Vermont]." -- CW

Jim Tankersley & Jeff Guo of the Washington Post: Donald Trump "would need to at least double the size of the U.S. economy in eight years, and possibly to quadruple it [to keep his promise of simultaneously paying off the national debt & cutting taxes]. Such growth is, to put it mildly, inconceivable." CW: Nice try, guys, but as Trump advisor Barry Bennett will be happy to tell you, you're just a couple of bullshitting media tools. ...

... Robert Costa of the Washington Post publishes a Trump campaign internal memo. It seems Trump & Co. are very upset with the loyal opposition: "When asked whether his ire was directed more at the national media or the GOP's establishment wing, [the memo's author, Trump senior advisor Barry] Bennett, said, 'Both.... 'The press is printing the narrative that the Republican establishment is setting.'" -- CW

Trump's Goon Squad. Ken Vogel & Brianna Gurciullo of Politico: "... Trump has assembled a privately funded security and intelligence force with a far wider reach than other campaigns' private security operations: tracking and rooting out protesters, patrolling campaign events and supplementing the Secret Service's protection.... [A Politico] investigation ... found that the tactics of Trump's team at times inflamed the already high tensions around his divisive campaign, rather than defusing them.... Among Trump critics who’ve had run-ins with his security, complaints include unnecessary force, discriminatory profiling, and removing people from events based on little more than their appearance." -- CW

Jennifer Rubin, the WashPo's official winger-blogger, writes a good takedown on Trump the Ignoramus & traveler on the long whining road. And kudos to Chris Wallace of Fox "News" (really!) for challenging Donald the Dunce. -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)

Gary Legum of Salon cries some crocodile tears for Scottie: "Pity Scott Walker and the Republicans of Wisconsin. Here they have taken the time and energy to gain power partly by using racial dog whistles, and along comes a group of white nationalists to make the once-implicit coded language suddenly explicit."

In the Media

Jason Easley of Politicsusa offers hope for the future: "Last Friday, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show attracted more younger viewers than every Fox News program that aired from 4 PM-11 PM. Maddow drew 315,000 younger viewers for a Friday night broadcast. Maddow's audience with viewers age 25-54 was bigger that both The O'Reilly Factor (301,000) and The Kelly File (280,000) on Fox News. Maddow's show had the largest 25-54 audience of any of the programs on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News. Even though MSNBC is not on basic cable and appears in fewer homes, Maddow came within 500,000 total viewers of beating Fox News in her 9 PM timeslot."

Given the apparent rightward leaning of many younger Americans over the course of the last decade or so, it's refreshing to read that an increasing number are opting for fact-based reporting in lieu of lies. Nice, in'it? Now if only we can get them to the polls! -- Akhilleus

...And hopefully the public is learning about real conservative extremism through fact-based journalism, like this piece from Rachel Maddow. --safari

More In the (ahem) Media

Trump's comments about making sure women who had abortions were properly punished elicited genuine approbation from the left and plenty of the faux kind from the right. Anti-abortioneers, clued in to how bad it sounds to advocate punishing a woman for making a personal life choice (a goal they've actually espoused for years, by the way, just not in such a clear and unobfuscated manner), lined up to wag their fingers at Herr Donald. But not all. Tom Wurtz, writing in The Blaze, wonders what's the big deal. He dispenses with the nice and lays into fellow abortion foes for not supporting Trump's declaration of punishment wholeheartedly: "A woman wishes to kill her unborn child. A premeditated murder plot is hatched in her mind. She must seek an assassin (doctor) to execute the hit. A contract-for-hire arrangement is reached. A mother then drives herself to a pre-determined scene of the crime and willingly participates in the act. She is clearly an accomplice to murder. Isn't she?" Therefore, she should also be punished and perhaps executed. Wurtz includes a helpful list of accomplices to murder who have all been executed. This is what they believe and make no mistake, winger pols who don't question such thinking believe the exact same thing. Elections DO matter. -- Akhilleus

Beyond the Beltway

David Siders of the Sacramento Bee: California "Gov. Jerry Brown [D], casting a living wage as a moral imperative while questioning its economic rationale, signed legislation Monday raising California's mandatory minimum to $15 an hour by 2022, acting within hours of a similar bill signing in New York.... Brown, a fiscal moderate, had previously expressed reservations about a wage increase. But amid growing concern about income inequality in California and the national thrust of the labor-backed 'Fight for 15' campaign, his hand was forced." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Barbara Goldberg of Reuters: "Princeton University will keep former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's name on campus buildings despite student complaints about his segregationist beliefs, the Ivy League school said on Monday, while also announcing new diversity efforts. While recommending that Wilson's name and image not be removed from Princeton's public spaces and from its Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, a trustees report said it needs to be honest in 'recognizing Wilson's failings and shortcomings as well as the visions and achievements that led to the naming of the school and the college in the first place.'" ...

     ... CW: This is a disappointment & a mistake. When this issue came to the fore some months back, I initially wrote that the Princeton students were overreacting inasmuch as most white people of the day were racists by our standards. Then, when I read what a horrible racist Wilson was, even by the standards of his day, I had to wipe the egg off my face & reverse my ignorant position. It's worth remembering that Wilson was an anti-feminist, too, tho less virulently than he was anti-black.

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Winston Moseley, who stalked, raped and killed Kitty Genovese in a prolonged knife attack in New York in 1964 while neighbors failed to act on her desperate cries for help -- a nightmarish tableau that came to symbolize urban apathy in America -- died on March 28, in prison. He was 81." -- CW ...

Way Beyond

ABC Online [Australia]: "Iceland's Prime Minister is refusing to resign after leaked tax documents known as the Panama Papers revealed accusations he and his wife used an offshore firm to allegedly hide million-dollar investments.... [Thousand of people demonstrated] outside Iceland's parliament in Reykjavik calling for [PM Sigmundur] Gunnlaugsson's resignation was then kicked off on Monday evening." See links to related stories in the main news above. -- CW

The Commentariat -- April 4, 2016

Afternoon Update:

** Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously ruled that states may count all residents, whether or not they are eligible to vote, in drawing election districts. The decision was a major statement on the meaning of a fundamental principle of the American political system, that of 'one person one vote.' As a practical matter, the ruling mostly helped Democrats.... The court did not decide whether other ways of counting were permissible.” The decision, writen by Justice Ginsburg, is here. -- CW ...

... Ian Millhiser: "Justice Ginsburg just shut down one of America’s most notorious white rights activists." -- CW

Jennifer Rubin, the WashPo's official winger-blogger, writes a very good takedown on Trump the Ignoramus & traveler on the long whining road. And kudos to Chris Wallace of Fox "News" (no, really!) for challenging Donald the Dunce. -- CW

David Siders of the Sacramento Bee: California "Gov. Jerry Brown [D], casting a living wage as a moral imperative while questioning its economic rationale, signed legislation Monday raising California’s mandatory minimum to $15 an hour by 2022, acting within hours of a similar bill signing in New York.... Brown, a fiscal moderate, had previously expressed reservations about a wage increase. But amid growing concern about income inequality in California and the national thrust of the labor-backed 'Fight for 15' campaign, his hand was forced." -- CW

Matt Yglesias of Vox on the Panama Papers: "Even as the world's wealthiest and most powerful nations have engaged in increasingly complex and intensive efforts at international cooperation to smooth the wheels of global commerce, they have willfully chosen to allow the wealthiest members of Western society to shield their financial assets from taxation (and in many cases divorce or bankruptcy settlement) by taking advantage of shell companies and tax havens." -- CW

*****

Steve M.: "... Republicans will probably obstruct any appointee by President Hillary Clinton if they hold the Senate next year." CW: Sounds alarming, doesn't it? But I don't see any sensible argument to refute Steve's. What? You think Mitch & Chuck are going to get all sweet & cuddly?

Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker: Researchers have found evidence that "the West Antarctic Ice Sheet ... [is] vulnerable to collapse.... The researchers concluded that just a few more decades of 'unabated' carbon emissions could result in more than three feet of sea-level rise from WAIS [alone] by the end of this century.... [Donald] Trump has repeatedly used Twitter ... to scoff at the very notion of climate change. 'Hoax' and 'con job' are some of his more nuanced comments. 'Bullshit' is another. Ted Cruz is, if anything, worse; he recently claimed that the federal government was 'cooking the books' to demonstrate warming that doesn’t exist.... Disaster is looking like a good bet." -- CW

Presidential Race

Brian Bennett of the Los Angeles Times: "Hillary Clinton said Sunday that the FBI has not asked to question her about her use of a private email server when she was secretary of State, a controversy that has dogged her presidential bid." -- CW ...

... Also, too, Hillary feels sorry for the kids who believe Bernie. Sometimes. Who says Hillary Clinton isn't compassionate? Sometimes. --CW

Patrick Healy & Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times write something of a post mortem of the Sanders campaign." -- CW

An Ordinary Couple. Connon O'Brien of Politico: "Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday dismissed criticism that he hasn't released his full tax returns, even though Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has released eight years worth. Pushed by Jake Tapper on CNN's 'State of the Union' over why he only released a 2014 summary of his returns, the Vermont senator said..., 'My wife does our tax returns. We have been a little bit busy lately,' Sanders said.... Sanders said he would work to make as much of his personal tax information public as soon as possible, but said expectations should be tempered for what will be revealed." -- CW

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "After a contentious vote on Sunday, North Dakota Republicans elected 25 unaligned delegates to send to the Republican National Convention this summer in Cleveland, offering a presage of the confusion and chaos that seems certain to unfold there if the party remains unable to unite behind a nominee.... A disagreement erupted on the convention floor after a group of Republicans challenged party leaders to bring more clarity to the process by asking delegate candidates to declare which presidential candidate they would support in Cleveland.... Even the prospective delegates seemed confused." -- CW ...

... Shane Goldmacher of Politico: "Ted Cruz’s preferred candidates won the vast majority of convention delegates available in North Dakota over the weekend, taking 18 of 25 slots in the state in another show of organizational strength over Donald Trump. It’s still not clear how loyal all of Cruz’s slate will be if the Republican nomination heads to a contested convention in Cleveland, as several included on it told Politico they were only leaning toward Cruz, or simply opposed to Trump." -- CW

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump’s private meeting in Washington on Thursday featured nearly a dozen industry leaders, including a veteran lobbyist and the chief executive of a major airline trade organization, attendees confirmed.... Yet Mr. Trump routinely makes 'special interests' and lobbyists a focus of derision in his stump speeches, making the meeting something of a surprise." His campaign spokesperson said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) arranged the meeting with lobbyists. -- CW

Brian Bennett: "Donald Trump refused on Sunday to rule out running as an independent if he fails to win the Republican presidential nomination, renewing a threat that party leaders thought they had quashed months ago. 'I want to run as a Republican. I will beat Hillary Clinton,' Trump said on 'Fox News Sunday. 'When pressed to rule out an independent run, the New York billionaire said, 'I'm gonna have to see how I was treated.'" -- CW

Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Sunday called on Ohio Gov. John Kasich to drop out of the GOP nominating contest, accusing him of siphoning away potential Trump voters and telling reporters that he expressed his displeasure while meeting with Republican National Committee officials last week.... 'It’s very unfair because he’s taking our votes...,' Trump said." (Emphasis added.) CW: It is clear that in the World According to Trump, anyone who doesn't vote for him, or do his bidding, or bow & curtsy appropriately, is being "very unfair." It's beyond question what he means when he says he won't run as an independent unless "the "party treats him unfairly"; that is, unless he wins the nomination.

... MEANWHILE. Ari Melber of NBC News: "The Donald Trump and Ted Cruz campaigns are working to prevent John Kasich from appearing on the ballot at the Republican National Convention in July, msnbc has learned, an aggressive strategy suggesting the GOP's leading candidates are girding for a contested convention to select the party's nominee. On Sunday, Trump told a supporter that 'Kasich shouldn't be allowed to continue and the RNC shouldn't allow him to continue.... 'I expect the Rules Committee to require a level of support that would leave only two candidates on the ballot at the convention,' a senior Cruz Campaign aide told msnbc." -- CW

Steve Coll of the New Yorker: “'We’re a country that doesn’t have money,' [Donald Trump] told the Times.... 'At some point, we cannot be the policeman of the world.'... In all probability, the U.S. can afford its global-defense commitments indefinitely, and an open economy, renewed by immigration and innovation, should be able to continue to grow and to share the cost of securing free societies. The main obstacle to realizing this goal is not an exhausted imperial treasury. It is the collapse of the once-internationalist Republican Party into demagoguery, paralysis, and Trumpism.” -- CW

Trump "Made Too Many Wrong Mistakes." E.J. Dionne thinks, finally, the Trump candidacy is finished: The past week's episodes "ratify what Trump skeptics said all along: that he is utterly unprepared to be a serious candidate, let alone president of the United States; that an endless stream of insults against all who get in his way wears thin over time; that he is winging it and stubbornly refusing to do the homework the enterprise he’s engaged in requires; and that trashing ethnic and religious minorities can win you a fair number of votes but not, thank God, a majority of Americans." -- CW ...

The Editorial Board of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has come out against voting for Trump tomorrow. However, I have to disagree with them equating Bernie Sanders with Trump as being "the wrong standard-bearer for voter concerns." --unwashed

... Also Has No Idea What Newspapers Do. Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "... Donald Trump on Sunday compared his Twitter account to owning his own newspaper. 'This is a modern form, it's like owning my own newspaper,' Trump said during a Fox News town hall on Sunday, in response to a question from anchor Greta Van Susteren about whether he'd stop tweeting if he is elected president." -- CW

According to Richard Zombeck at HuffPost Politics Donald Trump never wanted to be President: "What began as a con will end as a con. Trump will continue to make bombastic, ludicrous and inane comments, proving to the media—who are all too eager to give him all the attention he wants—that he is wholly unqualified for the job. Other republicans will chastise him for the things that he says, proving to his followers that he is being targeted by an establishment that is afraid of him. Trump will walk away unscathed, his brand strengthened and his dignity intact. He will be the guy who nearly became president, but was too much for people to take." -- CaptRuss

Lady Liberty. A Former Mrs. Trump Knows the Value of Immigrants. Caitlin Yilek of the Hill: "Donald Trump’s ex-wife [Ivana Trump] defended the Republican presidential front-runner’s immigration policies in an interview published in Sunday's New York Post.... 'As long as you come here legally and get a proper job … we need immigrants. Who’s going to vacuum our living rooms and clean up after us? Americans don’t like to do that,'” she added." (Emphasis added.) -- CW

Gabriel Sherman of New York magazine provides an inside look at Operation Trump." 'I’m the strategist,' Trump told me. Which would make him, no matter what your feelings about his beliefs or his qualifications to govern a country, one of the greatest political savants of the modern era." -- unwashed

Congressional Races

David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Florida is again likely to play a crucial role in who wins the White House this year, but the wild, wide-open and largely forgotten race to replace Senator Marco Rubio could also determine which party controls the Senate, which in turn could decide the ideological balance of the Supreme Court.... The White House has weighed in heavily, and remarkably early, in favor of [Rep. Patrick] Murphy in his primary fight against Representative Alan Grayson, who has cultivated a reputation as a liberal firebrand with a willingness to buck party leaders." -- CW

Amanda Terkel of The Huffington Post: "Obama's Endorsement of Debbie Wasserman Schultz Brings In Serious Money...For Her Challenger."

"Tim Canova, a progressive law professor taking on Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), pulled in more than half a million dollars in the first three months of 2016...In the four days following Obama’s endorsement, Canova received nearly $100,000, according to his campaign — almost a quarter of what he raised in the three-month period, even though they never actually fundraised off the endorsement." -- unwashed

Beyond the Beltway

Los Angeles Times Editors: "Even before Southern California Gas Co. plugged the damaged storage well blamed for the worst methane leak in U.S. history, its executives promised to fully offset the emissions released during the break.... Gov. Jerry Brown attempted to hold SoCal Gas to its word ... [by directing] regulators to develop a program, to be funded by the utility, that would cut greenhouse gas emissions in the state. Now that the California Air Resources Board has prepared that program, however, the utility has balked.... SoCal Gas made its position clear in a letter to the air board: The mitigation plan is voluntary and the utility will make good on its pledge in any way it sees fit." -- CW

Way Beyond

Luke Harding in the Guardian: "A network of secret offshore deals and vast loans worth $2bn has laid a trail to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. An unprecedented leak of documents shows how this money has made members of Putin’s close circle fabulously wealthy. Though the president’s name does not appear in any of the records, the data reveals [sic!] a pattern – his friends have earned millions from deals that seemingly could not have been secured without his patronage." -- CW ...

... The Panama Papers: "The files expose offshore companies controlled by the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the king of Saudi Arabia and the children of the president of Azerbaijan.... World leaders who have embraced anti-corruption platforms feature in the leaked documents. The files reveal offshore companies linked to the family of China’s top leader,Xi Jinping, who has vowed to fight 'armies of corruption,; as well as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who has positioned himself as a reformer in a country shaken by corruption scandals. The files also contain new details of offshore dealings by the late father of British Prime Minister David Cameron, a leader in the push for tax-haven reform." -- CW ...

... Fusion has a short list of "famous politicos" outted in the papers. -- CW

Demitrus Nellas of the AP: "An agreement between the European Union and Turkey to deport migrants currently on Greek islands back to the Turkish mainland is to take effect Monday morning, but the operation is threatened by a shortage of personnel." -- CW

Reuters: "Thousands of people have attended a pro-choice rally outside parliament in Warsaw after the leader of Poland’s ruling party backed a call from Catholic bishops for a full ban on pregnancy terminations. Poland already has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. Official statistics show only a few hundred abortions are performed every year, but pro-choice campaigners say underground abortions are common." -- CW

Tempus Fugit. In honor of the upcoming 40th anniversary of his death Gil Troy of The Daily Beast writes an informative tribute to the "Singing Journalist" Phil Ochs. I can only think Phil's been spinning in his grave for the last 15 years. --unwashed

The Commentariat -- April 3, 2016

Kristen East of Politico: "Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran has reversed his position on a hearing and vote for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, just a week after straying from the position of GOP leadership. The senator's office released a statement Friday clarifying Moran's position, saying the senator no longer believes hearings are a necessity." CW: Clarifying? Apparently there is clarity in chickenshit.

Joan Lowy of the AP: " A government-sponsored committee is recommending standards that could clear the way for commercial drone flights over populated areas and help speed the introduction of package delivery drones and other uses not yet possible....."

Mark Sherman of the AP: A potential "Supreme Court appeal from a Hispanic defendant in Colorado raises the prospect that a juror's comments during deliberations can be so offensive that they deprive a defendant of a fair trial ... After a jury convicted Miguel Angel Pena Rodriguez of attempted sexual assault involving teenage sisters at a Denver-area horse race track, two jurors provided his lawyer with sworn statements claiming that a third juror made derogatory remarks about Mexican men before voting guilty.... The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the National Congress of American Indians are among the groups backing Pena Rodriguez, cataloguing examples of trials in which jurors uttered slurs or made derogatory remarks about Native American, African-American and Hispanic defendants." -- CaptRuss

Rocket Man. Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: Jeff Bezos, "the billionaire founder of Amazon.com (and owner of The Washington Post), not only announced ahead of time that his space company would launch a rocket on Saturday, but he live-tweeted it, giving his followers a play-by-play of the event, and a few inside glimpses. Saturday's liftoff from Blue Origin's launch site in West Texas was the third consecutive time the company has launched and landed its reusable New Shepard suborbital vehicle, which consists of a rocket and a capsule designed to take astronauts just past the edge of space." -- CW

Washington Murder Mystery. Steven Myers of the New York Times: "Mikhail Y. Lesin, once a player in the Kremlin's media apparatus, was found dead from 'blunt force injuries' in Washington, fueling speculation of murder." -- CW

Presidential Race

Lisa Lerer & Ken Thomas of the AP: "After a year of campaigning, months of debates and 35 primary elections, Sanders is finally getting under Clinton's skin in the Democratic presidential race. Clinton has spent weeks largely ignoring Sanders and trying to focus on ... Donald Trump. Now, after several primary losses and with a tough fight in New York on the horizon, Clinton is showing flashes of frustration with the Vermont senator -- irritation that could undermine her efforts to unite the party around her candidacy." -- CW

Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of the Washington Post interview Donald Trump: "In his first 100 days, Trump said, he would cut taxes, 'renegotiate trade deals and renegotiate military deals,' including altering the U.S. role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He insisted that he would be able to get rid of the nation's more than $19 trillion national debt 'over a period of eight years.' Most economists would consider this impossible because it could require taking more than $2 trillion a year out of the annual $4 trillion budget to pay off holders of the debt." Un-fucking-believable that he doesn't seem to understand that international trade deficits are the result of business transactions - which do not involve the government. -- CaptRuss ...

... Trump also said in the interview "that economic conditions are so perilous that the country is headed for a 'very massive recession' and that 'it's a terrible time right now' to invest in the stock market, embracing a distinctly gloomy view of the economy that counters mainstream economic forecasts." CW: Allow me to remind you that in 2011, Mr. I. Speak toMyself "predicted riots in the street and exorbitantly expensive loaves of bread due to higher oil prices and a declining dollar. But the business mogul overshot the price of bread by more than 12 times." ...

... And Then Some

Glenn Kessler of the Fact Checker at the Washington Post laments that there are only Four Pinocchios available: "Alone among Republican hopefuls, Trump has pledged not to touch entitlement spending. So unless he wants to start breaking some campaign promises, one presumes he would not seek to change the laws governing most mandatory spending. That leaves discretionary spending, which Congress votes on year after year and funds the basic functions of government, such as defense, homeland security, highways, and so forth. In the eight years of a putative two-term Trump presidency, the CBO projects a total of $10 trillion in discretionary spending. So even if Trump eliminated every government function and shut down every Cabinet agency, he'd still be $16 trillion short."

Jonathan Martin & Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "As Donald J. Trump moves closer to the Republican nomination, his unpopularity with large groups of voters suggests a potentially staggering loss in a general election.... In recent head-to-head polls with one Democrat whom Mr. Trump may face in the fall, Hillary Clinton, he trails in every key state, including Florida and Ohio, despite her soaring unpopularity ratings with swing voters." -- CW ...

... But there's this. Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "Few people are thanking the president for low unemployment [in Indiana]. Instead, many discouraged workers are attracted to Donald J. Trump's economic message." CW: Then again, Trump is a white dude.

Ben Schreckinger & Ken Vogel of Politico: "In public, Donald Trump is standing behind embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as he faces battery charges for grabbing a reporter. But behind the scenes, Lewandowski's role in the campaign is shrinking. In early March, Lewandowski ceded authority over many hiring decisions to a lower-ranking staffer. In recent days, the campaign's press office has been overruling his decisions about issuing credentials for campaign events. Going forward, Trump's just-named convention manager, Paul Manafort, is expected to take a leading role not just in the selection of delegates, but in the remaining primaries themselves, according to three people on or close to the campaign." ...

     ... CW: Not that there's anything wrong with picking as an alternate delegate a guy who is in jail awaiting trial on federal charges stemming from his part in the Cliven Bundy stand-off & also participated in the Oregon occupation of the Malheur Reserve. Lewandowski's been doing a great job!

... This Elephant Has a Very Short Memory. Joey Garrson & Dave Boucher of the Tennessean: "Donald Trump's campaign for president is accusing the Tennessee Republican Party of 'doing the bidding' of the national GOP establishment in a calculated attempt to 'steal' pro-Trump delegates and stop them from being a part of Tennessee's GOP delegation.... A Tennessee party official disputes that allegation, instead accusing Trump's camp of distorting the truth while noting Trump will still receive all delegates won from the state." CW: Apparently Trump forgot that way two days ago he admitted that his campaign wasn't doing its job of trying to "steal"/persuade convention delegates to vote for him. ...

... Jamie McGee & Joel Ebert of the Tennessean: "Tennessee Republican Party leaders voted Saturday to finalize a list of delegates to the GOP's national presidential nominating convention over fierce objections from Donald Trump backers, who accused officials of stacking the group against the real estate mogul.... As the committee began its meeting at 10 a.m.dozens of Trump supporters formed a line outside the Hillsboro Village office, voicing frustration over the fact that they weren't being allowed inside for the proceedings. [Trump supporter] Robert Swope, Metro Councilman for the 4th district..., [said] 'Trust me, there will be a war.... I want everyone to remember this moment in the Tennessee GOP because this will come back to haunt them." -- CW ...

... Shane Goldmacher & Kyle Cheney of Politico: Party leaders, alarmed by an intensifying backlash throughout the night, have hired extra security for the event -- which party chairman Ryan Haynes noted had been scheduled to take place in a small, unsecured conference room -- and [they consider[ed] canceling the event altogether." ...

... CW: As I wrote yesterday, Trump's preferred method of negotiation is violence or threats of violence.

Peter Montgomery in Otherwords, via Juan Cole: "There's a darker side to Trump's campaign that should disturb anyone thinking about supporting him: It's electrifying and energizing the white supremacist movement." -safari

Maureen Dowd interviews Donald Trump. "It's ridiculous how many mistakes Trump has made in rapid order to alienate women when he was already on thin ice with them -- and this in a year when the Republicans will likely have to run against a woman." Dowd doesn't make any definitive news, but there's this: Dowd: "I had to ask: When he was a swinging bachelor in Manhattan, was he ever involved with anyone who had an abortion?" Trump: "Such an interesting question. So what's your next question?" So yes. Of course. -- CW

Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump "either can't or won't think before speaking. Shooting from the hip may work on reality TV, but it's no way to run a country -- or even to broker a deal, the art of which seems to have been lost on its author." -- CW

When a huckster presidential candidate jokes about nuclear war while real POTUS works to avoid it. Ben Jacobs and Martin Pengelly in the Guardian: "Speaking at a rally in Rothschild, Wisconsin ahead of the state's primary on Tuesday, [Donald Trump] said that if conflict between Japan and nuclear-armed North Korea were to break out, 'it would be a terrible thing but if they do, they do'. 'Good luck,' he added. 'Enjoy yourself, folks.'" --safari

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. New York Times Edition. Steve M.: "An editorial in The New York Times [Saturday] expresses anguish at the GOP establishment's decision to freeze out that nice John Kasich.... The media feels it [sic!] has a responsibility to save the Republican Party from itself.... The press blam[es] itself for the fact that Republican voters admire Donald Trump and want to watch and read about him before enthusiastically voting for him.... Beyond that, the press wants a Republican to admire." Steve reiterates why Kasich is not that admirable guy. -- CW

Senate Race

Melinda Deslatte of the AP: "Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told state Democratic Party leaders on Saturday that he's backing Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell in the U.S. Senate race, and he encouraged them to unite behind one candidate on the November ballot ... Campbell, a member of the Public Service Commission for more than a decade and a long-time state senator before that, called the governor's support 'monumental' for his campaign." Political newcomers Caroline Fayard, an attorney, and Josh Pellerin, a businessman in the oil and gas industry, have also announced they will run for the senate seat being vacated by moral reprobate David Vitter. -- CaptRuss

Beyond the Beltway

Rebecca Traister of New York Magazine, published April 1st: "On the last day of March, the New York State Legislature finalized a budget deal that included not only a promise to raise the minimum wage to $15, but also the nation's newest -- and by far its strongest and most comprehensive -- bill mandating paid-family-leave time for -- most employees. That means that New York has just become the fifth state ... to mandate paid leave. And compared to its progressive predecessors, New York's bill is startlingly robust."safari note: Elections matter y'all.

Jen Kirby and Chas Danner of NY Magazine: "Queens Bull Escapes to College, Gets Rescued by Jon Stewart ... [Stewart] and his wife run their own animal sanctuary, Bufflehead Farm, in New Jersey, and were alerted to [the bull's] plight by the Farm Sanctuary organization, who negotiated the release of the animal." -- CaptRuss

Kate Royals and Sarah Fowler of the Jackson, MS Clarion-Ledger: Mississippi "House Bill 1523, or the 'Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act,' is soon headed to Gov. Phil Bryant's desk after the House concurred with the Senate's version Friday morning." Among other nonsense, the bill protects "individuals whose sincerely held beliefs include that 'sexual relations are properly reserved' to a marriage between a man and a woman, raising questions about whether single mothers could be targeted...Bryant said he has not made a decision about the bill." -- CaptRuss

Charles Pierce of Esquire on the upcoming "shitstorm" in Wisconsin: "All morning, citizens scrambled through the freshening snow into the four local offices [in Madison]of the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles. They were there to get the identification cards they will need to cast a vote on Tuesday under the state's new voter ID law that is having its shakedown cruise that day." -- unwashed. As a former Wisconsinite it's hard to believe how far the Badgers have fallen down the rabbit hole.

Way Beyond

Helena Smith of the Guardian: "Rioting and rebellion by thousands of entrapped refugees across Greece has triggered mounting fears in Athens over the practicality of enforcing an agreement already marred by growing concerns over its legality.... 'We are expecting violence. People in despair tend to be violent,' the leftist-led government's migration spokesman, Giorgos Kyritsis, told the Observer..., 'These are people [that] have fled war. They are not criminals.' With tensions on the rise in Lesbos, the Aegean island that has borne the brunt of the flows, and in Idomeni on the Greek-Macedonia frontier where around 11,000 have massed since the border's closure, NGOs warned of a timebomb in the making. Hopes of numbers decreasing following the announcement of the EU-Turkey deal have been dispelled by a renewed surge in arrivals with the onset of spring." -- CaptRuss

News Ledes

AP: "Joseph Medicine Crow, an acclaimed Native American historian and last surviving war chief of Montana's Crow Tribe, has died. He was 102. Medicine Crow died Sunday...." Read the obituary.

New York Times: "Fierce winds, snow, lightning and hail stomped across the East on Saturday and early Sunday, downing trees, damaging buildings and cutting power to more than 250,000 homes across 14 states. Among the hardest hit were New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with over 35,000 homes in each state dark on Sunday afternoon."

AP: "Authorities say an Amtrak train struck a piece of construction equipment just south of Philadelphia, and some injuries are being reported. Service on the Northeast Corridor between New York and Philadelphia has been suspended.... The impact derailed the lead engine of the train." ...

     ... Washington Post Update: "Local police told affiliate NBC10 that two people had died and at least one was hurt." ...

     ... NEW Wash Po LEDE: "Two Amtrak maintenance workers were killed Sunday when a passenger train bound for Washington plowed into a backhoe machine they were operating just south of Philadelphia.... Amtrak said its scheduled trains would run in the Northeast corridor on Monday, but that riders should expect delays between Wilmington, Del., and Philadelphia."

AP: "A week after taking back the historic town of Palmyra, Syrian troops and their allies on Sunday captured another town controlled by the Islamic State group in central Syria, state media reported. The push into the town of Qaryatain took place under the cover of Russian airstrikes and dealt another setback to the IS extremists in Syria. However, an activist group that monitors the Syrian civil war said the government forces for the moment control more than half of Qaryatain but have not fully secured the town."

Charles J. Gans of the AP: "Latin Jazz saxophonist Leandro 'Gato' Barbieri, who composed the Grammy-winning music for the steamy Marlon Brando film 'Last Tango in Paris' and recorded dozens of albums over a career spanning more than seven decades, has died at age 83...He earned the nickname 'El Gato,' which means 'The Cat,' in the 1950s because of the way he scampered between clubs with his saxophone.... He released 'Caliente' (1976) for the A&M label, which included his popular rendition of Carlos Santana's 'Europa.'" The sensuous "Europa" has long been one of my favorite jazz tenor sax tunes and is emblematic of Barbieri's rich and smoky style. -- CaptRuss