The Commentariat -- April 25, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "The family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy whose fatal shooting by the Cleveland police in 2014 prompted national outrage, is set to receive $6 million from the city in a settlement announced Monday in federal court records." -- CW

Kirk Semple of the New York Times: "... an international panel of investigators ... ha[s] been examining the ... [disappearance of] 43 students ... in the city of Iguala[, Mexico] one night in September 2014 amid violent, chaotic circumstances.... The reason for the students' abduction remains a mystery. Despite apparent stonewalling by the Mexican government in recent months, the panel's two reports on the case, the most recent of which was released on Sunday, provide the fullest accounting of the events surrounding the students' disappearance, which also left six other people dead, including three students, and scores wounded." -- CW

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "As the [U.S. Supreme Court] justices are set to review ... former Virginia governor [Bob McDonnell]'s [R] conviction this week, other politicians will be watching for a decision on when a favor crosses the line into an 'official act,' an area that has become increasingly blurry in the world of campaign contributions." -- CW

Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: Muskogee County, "Oklahoma police took $53,000 from a Christian band raising money for an orphanage. A Texas man who is a refugee from Burma was carrying the cash -- most of it from ticket sales for the band he managed -- in his car when officers stopped him and seized the money under the state's forfeiture law.... Oklahoma has some of the most permissive forfeiture laws in the nation, according to a 2015 report by the Institute for Justice, a civil liberties law firm." -- CW

Larry Neumeister of the Boston Globe: "New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady must serve a four-game 'Deflategate' suspension imposed by the NFL, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, overturning a lower judge and siding with the league in a battle with the players union." -- CW

*****

Staff writers of the BBC: "US President Barack Obama has dismissed North Korea's proposal to suspend nuclear tests if the US ends its annual military exercises with the South. On Sunday Mr Obama told reporters that the US did not take such a proposal seriously and that Pyongyang would "have to do better than that". The North's foreign minister Ri Su-yong made the offer in a rare interview. Mr Ri's comments came as the North said it fired a ballistic missile from a submarine off its eastern coast." --safari

Missy Ryan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Obama will announce the addition of 250 Special Operations troops to the American advisory force in Syria, U.S. officials said Sunday, the administration's latest move seeking to intensify pressure on the Islamic State." ...

... Juan Cole calls this announcement the "ISIL Endgame." --safari

Alison Smale & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama said on Sunday that he was confident the United States and the European Union would succeed in negotiating a new trans-Atlantic trade deal by the end of the year, saying the benefits of such an agreement were 'indisputable.'... Mr. Obama spoke while standing next to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany at a news conference in Hanover as they prepared to preside over the opening here of the world's largest industrial trade fair. In the evening, Mr. Obama and Ms. Merkel hosted a dinner for 29 chief executives of major American and German companies." CW ...

... She Is Not Amused. Michael Memoli of the Los Angeles Times: "Asked Sunday how she viewed the prospect of working with a President Trump, given his harsh criticism of her refugee policy, Merkel first stared icily at the reporter who posed the question -- and then quickly dismissed it." -- CW

David Sanger of the New York Times: "The United States has opened a new line of combat against the Islamic State, directing the military's six-year-old Cyber Command for the first time to mount computer-network attacks that are now being used alongside more traditional weapons. The effort reflects President Obama's desire to bring many of the secret American cyberweapons that have been aimed elsewhere, notably at Iran, into the fight against the Islamic State -- which has proved effective in using modern communications and encryption to recruit and carry out operations." -- CW

Deb Reichmann of the AP: "The Obama administration will likely soon release at least part of a 28-page secret chapter from a congressional inquiry into 9/11 that may shed light on possible Saudi connections to the attackers. The documents, kept in a secure room in the basement of the Capitol, contain information from the joint congressional inquiry into 'specific sources of foreign support for some of the Sept. 11 hijackers while they were in the United States.'" -- CW

Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "There are only two countries on the planet that currently jail people for being too poor to pay the government for getting arrested: The United States and the Philippines.... In any given year, city and county jails across this country lock up between 11 and 13 million people just because they aren't rich enough to write a check for a few hundred dollars.... Jason Flom..., CEO of Lava Records..., wants to get rid of cash bail. Boom." Lithwick interviews Flom. -- CW

Jesse Eisinger of the New Yorker on why the S.E.C. didn't bring criminal charges against Goldman Sachs' top bankers. CW: Sounds an awful lot like Wall Street has "captured" the regulatory agency, which will come as little shock to Reality Chex readers.

David Daley, in New York, writes a long piece on the "REDMAP ratfuck." -- CW

Whistling Dixie. Jim Webb, who claims to be a Democrat who should be president, in a WashPo op-ed: "One would think we could celebrate the recognition that Harriet Tubman will be given on future $20 bills without demeaning former president Andrew Jackson as a 'monster,' as a recent Huffington Post headline did. And summarizing his legendary tenure as being 'known primarily for a brutal genocidal campaign against native Americans,' as reported in The Post, offers an indication of how far political correctness has invaded our educational system and skewed our national consciousness." -- CW ...

... Eric Loomis of LG&$: "This is classic Webb. Downplay genocide, not even discuss slavery, totally avoid Jackson's utterly disastrous economic policies, play up the violence and manliness." -- CW

Eyal Press of The New Yorker has a very long read on systemic torture and abuse of mentally-ill inmates within our prison system. The lede: "In Florida prisons, mentally ill inmates have been tortured, driven to suicide, and killed by guards." --safari ...

    ... CW: Had just read this myself. Depressing but compelling. And, sadly, not limited to Florida.

Presidential Race

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Even as his chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination slip away, Senator Bernie Sanders and his allies are trying to use his popularity to expand his political influence, setting up an ideological struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party in the post-Obama era. Aides to Mr. Sanders have been pressing party officials for a significant role in drafting the platform for the Democratic convention in July, aiming to lock in strong planks on issues like a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage, breaking up Wall Street banks and banning natural gas 'fracking.'" -- CW ...

Steven Dennis of Bloomberg: Bernie Sanders, "whose insurgent campaign has energized millions on the left and challenged the prohibitive favorite, said Sunday on ABC's 'This Week' that he would work to defeat the Republican candidate if [Hillary Clinton is] the Democratic nominee. Still, he urged her to adopt many of his agenda items." -- CW

Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont did his best on Sunday to avoid talking about comments made by one of his supporters, the actress Rosario Dawson, who invoked Monica Lewinsky at a rally for Mr. Sanders this weekend." -- CW

Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton unveiled a major new attempt to use Donald Trump's words against him at the weekend, as both she and rival Bernie Sanders adjusted course near the end of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. While Clinton turned toward an anticipated general election showdown with Trump, Sanders invited Democrats to take a broader view of his role in the race than just as a contender, telling CNN he was out to 'revitalize American democracy'." -- CW

... ** Tax-Dodgers-in-Chief. Rupert Neate of the Guardian: "... Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump ... share an affinity for the same nondescript two-storey office building in Wilmington[, Delaware]. A building that has become famous for helping tens of thousands of companies avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in tax through the so-called 'Delaware loophole'.... Both ... Clinton and ... Trump -- have companies registered at 1209 North Orange, and have refused to explain why.... This squat, yellow brick office building just north of Wilmington's rundown downtown is the registered address of more than 285,000 companies. That's more than any other known address in the world, and 15 times more than the 18,000 registered in Ugland House, a five-storey building in the Cayman Islands that President Obama called 'either the biggest building in the world, or the biggest tax scam on record'." -- CW Read on. ...

... "Crooked Hillary." Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: Hillary "Clinton needs to find her voice on the question of campaign finance -- to talk more about money, not less -- because valid doubts about the integrity of the system are fuelling Trump's campaign, too. That won't change if Bernie is gone.... There are legitimate concerns about the role of money in politics that go well beyond quid-pro-quo bribery, such as the effect that being in a closed conversational circle with wealthy donors can have on a politician's world view and priorities. Sanders, though he might do so less derisively, has a right to raise them." -- CW ...

... John Amato of Crooks & Liars: "... Republicans have let out one of their big strategies they'll use against a possible Hillary Clinton presidential run - Swiftboating Benghazi." -- CW ...

... digby: "I have a sneaking suspicion that Trump's going to get a lot more down and dirty than that, however. He's shown he's not afraid to sink as low as it gets. Benghazi ain't it." -- CW

Sidney Blumenthal in The Atlantic: "One hundred and sixty years after the founding of the Republican Party, Donald Trump has evoked Abraham Lincoln as a standard for his branding.... But Lincoln became 'presidential' by resisting not only slavery but also isolating nativism.... The Republicans are now going the way of the Whigs by embracing the politics that helped destroy them." --safari

Too Little, Too Late. Matt Flegenheimer & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senator Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio have agreed to coordinate in future primary contests in a last-ditch effort to deny Donald J. Trump the Republican presidential nomination, with each candidate standing aside in certain states amid growing concerns that Mr. Trump cannot otherwise be stopped. In a statement late Sunday night, Mr. Cruz's campaign manager, Jeff Roe, said that the campaign would 'focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Governor Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico.' Minutes after Mr. Roe's statement, the Kasich campaign put out a similar message." -- CW ...

... The Washington Post story, by Sean Sullivan & Dave Weigel of is here. -- CW

Simon Maloy of Salon: "Large segments of the Republican Party and the conservative movement have arrayed themselves in opposition to Trump to ward off the political reckoning his candidacy threatens, but there are some people who want Trump to win precisely because his nomination would inflict much-needed violence upon the Republican Party as it currently exists. Bruce Bartlett, a former official in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and a longtime critic of the GOP's increasingly conservative politics, sees Trump as both a product of the Republican Party's decline and a potential catalyst for its eventual reclamation." --safari

AP: "A 20-year-old Connecticut man is facing charges after authorities say he tweeted out a bomb threat during a Donald Trump rally Saturday. Connecticut State Police say the U.S. Secret Service contacted them Saturday afternoon after they say Sean Morkys posted on Twitter, 'Is someone going to bomb the trump rally or am I going to have to?'" CW: Thanks, kid, for making the Trump opposition look insane AND giving Donald a legitimate grievance. Idiot.

Beyond the Beltway

Staff writers of The Seattle Times: "Vandals have tagged a Seattle church with racist graffiti that includes swastikas and a message telling its congregation to 'go back' to Africa. The Seattle Police Department is now investigating the messages...The church believes the vandalism occurred at some point between Friday and Sunday morning." Via The Daily Beast --safari

Guardian: "Eight family members found shot dead at four homes in rural Ohio were targeted for execution in a planned 'sophisticated operation', authorities have said as their investigation entered a third day. They said that remaining members of the tight-knit Rhoden family and other residents of Pike county should arm themselves if they feared further attacks from the killers, who were still at large. Charles Reader, Pike county sheriff, and Mike DeWine, Ohio attorney general, said on Sunday it was clear the victims, ranging in age from 16 to 44, were deliberately singled out for attack, most of them while they slept, rather than killed at random or in a crime of passion. Several marijuana-growing operations were found at the crime scenes, they added, although it was unclear what, if any, role the operations had played in the killings." CW: Arm yourselves? Really?

Christian McPhate of the Dallas Observer: "Tracy Murphree, the GOP candidate for Denton County sheriff, posted on Facebook that he'd beat the hell out of a transgender person who tried to piss in a bathroom where Murphree's daughter was peeing." -- CW ...

... Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: Murphree is expected to win the election. -- CW

Sarah Burris of RawStory: "A preacher in Alabama wants you to know that sex will kill your brain cells, make you homeless and was brought by God as a means of punishing people...Many right-wing religious have deep and profound problems with sex. They want to regulate when you can have it, how you can have it and who you can have it with. But, this guy has taken the anti-sex philosophy to a whole new level of hostility." --safari

The racist origins of tipping. Maddie Oatman of Mother Jones: "On the surface, tipping seems little more than a reward for astute recommendations and polite, speedy service. But the practice has unsavory roots.... European aristocrats popularized the habit of slipping gratuities to their hosts' servants, and by the mid-1800s rich Americans, hoping to flaunt their European sophistication, had brought the practice home." --safari

Way Beyond

Ali al-Mujahed & Hugh Naylor of the Washington Post: "Signaling a major shift in Yemen's grinding civil war, Saudi-backed forces Sunday appeared to mount a large-scale offensive to drive militants aligned with al-Qaeda out of their strongholds in the country's south." -- CW

S. Nakhoul, et al., of Reuters: Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, overseeing Saudi Arabia's economy, unveiled ambitious plans on Monday aimed at ending the kingdom's 'addiction' to oil and transforming it into a global investment power, including changes that would alter the social structure of the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom by pushing for women to have a bigger economic role and by offering improved status to resident expatriates." -- LT

The AFP in the Guardian: "Austria's government was licking its wounds after the anti-immigration far-right triumphed in presidential elections, dealing a major blow to a political establishment seen by voters as out of touch and ineffectual. According to preliminary results, Norbert Hofer of the Freedom party came a clear first with 36% of the vote in the first round of elections.... Candidates from the two ruling centrist parties, which have effectively run Austria since the end of the second world war, failed to even make it into a runoff on 22 May, coming fourth and fifth each with 11% of the vote." --safari

The Commentariat -- April 24, 2016

Presidential Race

Nick Gass of Politico: "Bernie Sanders says the Democratic Party hasn't been fair to him -- but he has mixed feelings on the nominating process overall. 'Do you think this process has been fair to you? The Democratic nomination process?' moderator Chuck Todd asked the Vermont senator in an interview filmed Saturday in Baltimore and aired Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'Yes and no,' Sanders said, going on to criticize the role of the media for neglecting to focus on 'real issues facing America.' The media, he said, emphasizes 'political gossip' rather than 'issues that affect working people.'" CW: If you're looking for shallow media that "emphasizes political gossip," Chuck, you do have a mirror, don't you? ...

... John Wagner & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "... Bernie Sanders said Saturday that many of his losses to Hillary Clinton in Democratic primaries were because 'poor people don't vote.'" -- CW

Harper Neidig of the Hill: "... Bernie Sanders called for criminal justice reform during a rally in Baltimore on Saturday, promising to 'bring justice back to the criminal justice system.'" -- CW

Harper Neidig: "... Bernie Sanders's top adviser [Tad Devine] said on Saturday that the campaign would consider dialing down its criticism of front-runner Hillary Clinton depending on the outcome of the primaries on Tuesday." -- CW

Real Donald Trump? Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "If Donald J. Trump starts to soften his image, Hillary Clinton has a warning for voters. Don't believe it. 'Trump,' she said at a rally [in Rhode Island] on Saturday, 'keeps saying things like, "Well, you know, uh, I didn't really mean it. It was all part of my reality TV show."'... 'If we buy that, shame on us. Because he's already showed us what he believes and he's already said what he wants to do, and he wants to go after every one of the rights we have.' On Saturday, the Clinton campaign also released a video that amounted to a highlight reel of Mr. Trump's incendiary comments. The video said that Mr. Trump 'is getting ready for an extreme makeover.'" -- CW

Kristen East of Politico: "Billionaire businessman Charles Koch said in an interview airing Sunday that 'it's possible' another Clinton in the White House could be better than having a Republican president. Koch, the CEO of Koch industries, made the comment to ABC News' Jonathan Karl for an interview airing on ABC's This Week." -- CW ...

... When two wingers get together to talk on the teevee:

Not Only Trump. Nick Gass of Politico: State Department spokesman John Kirby suggested Friday that "Ted Cruz has also raised eyebrows abroad with his vows to 'make the sand glow' in the Middle East and his comments about Muslim immigrants, though Kirby did not explicitly mention the Texas senator by name." -- CW

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Ted Cruz notched another delegate landslide Saturday, stretching his advantage in a competition that might never occur: the second ballot of a contested Republican National Convention in July. Cruz won at least 65 of the 94 delegates up for grabs Saturday (and he may have won more, but Kentucky's 25 delegates haven't revealed their leanings). The Texas senator has so thoroughly dominated the fight ... that if front-runner Donald Trump fails to clinch the nomination on the first ballot, Cruz is well-positioned to surpass him -- and perhaps even snag the nomination for himself -- when delegates are free in subsequent convention rounds to vote for whomever they want." -- CW ...

... David Wright of CNN: "Texas Sen. Ted Cruz collected the overwhelming majority of Maine's Republican delegates during the state's GOP convention Saturday.... Ahead of the vote, [Gov. Paul] LePage accused the Cruz campaign of going back on a promise to back a 'unity slate' of the state's delegates, a move he portrayed as 'stabbing us in the back.'" -- CW ...

... BUT Trump Is Trying! Kyle Cheney: Deleware "State GOP insiders say [Trump aide Joe] Uddo ripped their long-standing process from his very first phone call and hinted he might refer it to Trump's high-powered law firm, Jones Day. Then, he suggested that continued resistance could lead to a nasty Trump campaign tweet about 'backroom deals in Delaware,' according to three sources familiar with Uddo's interactions.... The spat created bitter feelings between Delaware GOP insiders and the Trump campaign." -- CW ...

... Brianna Gurciullo of Politico: "Donald Trump ... on Friday, prais[ed Delaware's] ... status as a tax shelter and at one point sharing a story about calling his credit-card company to find out whether it employed people in India." In recounting the phone call, Trump spoke mockingly in what he apparently thought was "Indian"-sounding English. "Trump said he had 378 corporate entities registered in the state, 'meaning I pay you a lot of money, folks. I don't feel guilty.'" -- CW ...

... The Pain in Maine Falls Mainly on the Sane. AP: "Maine's Republican governor says it's hard to understand workers 'from Bulgaria' and workers from India are 'the worst ones.' Gov. Paul LePage said Saturday that foreign workers are being used in restaurants after he criticized a referendum proposal to raise Maine's minimum wage to $12. He says he's disappointed his alternative proposal to hike the wage to $10 didn't get traction. He described Indians as 'lovely people but you've got to have an interpreter.'" -- CW ...

... Nate Silver: "... if the framing of the question matters, Trump has a big advantage: The media is [sic.!] mostly echoing and validating his side of the argument. That's partly because Trump continues to dominate news coverage of the Republican race and therefore has a lot more opportunities to get his message out. It also helps that Trump's system-is-rigged message is relatively simple and plays into the media's master narrative of the Republican race as a conflict between the Republican base and the GOP 'establishment.' The Republicans' delegate selection rules, by contrast, require an attention to detail that narrative-driven stories about the Republican race can misconstrue." Read on. -- CW

Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "As Donald J. Trump ... begins preparing his campaign for a general election, he told voters in Connecticut on Saturday that they should not expect him to start 'toning it down.' Mr. Trump's message at two stops in Connecticut -- first in Waterbury, and later in Bridgeport -- seemed to contradict the closed-door pitch his newly installed campaign chief, Paul Manafort, brought to the Republican National Committee's spring meeting in Florida on Thursday." -- CW ...

... Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas ... has used [Paul Manafort's leaked] comments [to the RNC] to attack Trump's authenticity. He said in interviews Thursday that Trump has been 'lying to us' and is 'pretending' to be a conservative to fool voters. Trump blasted Cruz on Saturday during campaign stops in Connecticut..., accusing him of twisting Manafort's words for political gain. The billionaire showman insisted that Manafort's comments ... merely showcased the reality of adjusting stylistically to different audiences." -- CW ...

... digby: "This notion that Trump is putting on an act is idiotic. Of course he's a showman. But that doesn't mean he isn't a neo-fascist xenophobe and he's been remarkably consistent about it for 30 years or more. He has always railed against foreigners, worshiped the police, and celebrated state violence. That he has different personas in different circumstances is irrelevant to that. I think if you want to see the 'authentic' Trump, just read the Washington Post and New York Times editorial board interviews. He wasn't playing to the crowd, he was among fellow elites. And he relied on a whole bag of tricks to hide the fact that he doesn't know what he's talking about. What comes through is the bravado, the violence, the deviance, the guile." -- CW

Kristen Salaky of TPM: "Following a tense exchange with Fox New host Sean Hannity this week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took another swipe at the network's coverage of Donald Trump and accusations that he's wrangling delegates. 'They know it's not true,' Cruz said, when asked if his strategy was unethical, according to BuzzFeed. 'Donald doesn't handle losing well and when we loses he cries and he screams and he whines and he curses and he insults everybody.' Cruz went on to criticize the editorial decisions of Fox News and who they are 'rooting for.'" -- safari

Frances Sellers of the Washington Post visits the Drumpf family ancestral town of Kallstadt, Germany. "Kallstadt lies in the lush landscape of southern Germany along the Weinstrasse, or wine route, that the Nazis created in 1935 to market the wines as Hitler surged to power and drove out Jewish merchants." -- CW

Other News & Views

Steve Erlanger & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama will meet with Western European leaders on Sunday and Monday amid a growing sense in his administration that Europe is faltering in the face of multiple challenges, undercutting the trans-Atlantic alliance at a critical time." -- CW ...

... Darlene Superville of the AP: "President Barack Obama, beginning a visit Sunday to Germany, hoped to build momentum for a U.S.-Europe trade deal that has become a tough sell, particularly in Germany. Other issues were on the agenda for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, including efforts to counter the Islamic State group, improve cooperation on counterterrorism, and encourage countries to share law enforcement information. IS says it was responsible for attacks that killed 30 people in Brussels last month." -- CW

Michael Shear & Liam Stack of the New York Times: "At a meeting with young people on the second day of his visit to Europe..., [President Obama] praised the [Black Lives Matter] movement as 'really effective in bringing attention to problems,' but said young activists should be more willing to work with political leaders to craft solutions instead of criticizing from outside the political process. '... you can't just keep on yelling at them,' Mr. Obama said." -- CW: Welcome to Protesters' World, Mr. President. Most protesters think yelling & whining is the point. The most successful freedom movements -- like the remarkable gay rights groups -- knew how to organize & cajole. ...

... Former Sen. Harris Wofford (D-Pa.), in a New York Times op-ed: After Clare, his wife of 50 years, died, Wofford found love again with a young man named Matthew Charlton. "On April 30, at ages 90 and 40, we will join hands, vowing to be bound together: to have and to hold, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part." -- CW

Sabrina Tavernise & Robert Gebeloff of the New York Times: "The first full year of the Affordable Care Act brought historic increases in coverage for low-wage workers and others who have long been left out of the health care system, a New York Times analysis has found. Immigrants of all backgrounds -- including more than a million legal residents who are not citizens -- had the sharpest rise in coverage rates. Hispanics, a coveted group of voters this election year, accounted for nearly a third of the increase in adults with insurance. That was the single largest share of any racial or ethnic group, far greater than their 17 percent share of the population. Low-wage workers, who did not have enough clout in the labor market to demand insurance, saw sharp increases." -- CW

She Danced with the President, but in 30 States She Couldn't Vote. Courtland Milloy of the Washington Post: "Virginia McLaurin, who recently turned 107, was still basking in the glow of her dance with President Obama in February. A White House video of the meeting has been viewed nearly 66 million times. The attention has resulted in invitations to New York and Los Angeles for media interviews. To board an airplane, however, McLaurin needs to replace a long-lost government-issued photo ID" which she has been unable to obtain. "On the bright side..., at least the District didn't require a photo ID to vote.... But roughly 30 states have adopted an array of restrictive voter ID laws, and elderly citizens who live in those states seemed particularly at risk of having their rights denied." ...

AND here are some nice letters in support of child molester & former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Protests surrounding a rally at Stone Mountain[, Georgia,] erupted in violence Saturday as demonstrators trying to confront a white power group set a barricade on fire and hurled rocks and fireworks at police attempting to block them. By midday, park officials worried about the safety of visitors, shut down attractions such as the cable car and amusement center and also canceled the popular laser show. The park remained open. Nine counter-protesters were arrested, most for refusing to take their masks.... In Rome, Ga., about 80 supporters of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement also held a rally Saturday. That event has largely avoided the violence seen at Stone Mountain, although police said two counter-protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct. There were several hundred counter-protesters on hand." -- CW

AP: "A solar-powered airplane landed in California on Saturday, completing a risky, three-day flight across the Pacific Ocean as part of its journey around the world." -- CW ...

Rebecca Piccardo of the Los Angeles Times: "A week after a Palm Beach Zoo animal keeper was killed during a tiger attack, the zoo's president said the keeper had knowingly entered a part of the tiger enclosure with one of the big cats in it -- which is not allowed." -- CW ...

... John Pacenti of the Palm Beach Post: "But in a reflection of how the zoo handled this crisis, some of the public appeared skeptical of the explanation. The Post received anonymous calls immediately casting doubt, but these calls have been ongoing since the mauling and were attributed as 'rumors circulating from disgruntled staff members' by zoo spokeswoman Naki Carter.... And there are no fewer than five ongoing independent investigations into [Stacey] Konwiser's death...." -- CW

Way Beyond

Azam Ahmed & Paulina Villegas of the New York Times: "An international panel of experts brought to Mexico to investigate the haunting disappearance of 43 students that ignited a global outcry say they cannot solve the case because of a sustained campaign of harassment, stonewalling and intimidation against them. The investigators say they have endured carefully orchestrated attacks in the Mexican news media, a refusal by the government to turn over documents or grant interviews with essential figures, and even a retaliatory criminal investigation into one of the officials who appointed them." -- CW

Give peace a chance? Guardian: "North Korea will halt its nuclear tests if the US ceases its annual military exercises with South Korea, Kim Jong-un's foreign minister has said in a rare interview with western media. A North Korean submarine launched missile on Saturday in breach of UN bans, and anticipation is building that the North is also preparing to conduct a nuclear explosion." --safari

Press release for MAPS: "The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has formally approved the first-ever randomized controlled trial of whole plant medical marijuana (cannabis) as a treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in U.S. veterans. The DEA's approval marks the first time a clinical trial intended to develop smoked botanical marijuana into a legal prescription drug has received full approval from U.S. regulatory agencies, including the DEA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)."" --safari

The Commentariat -- April 23, 2016

Presidential Race

John Wagner & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "... Sen. Bernie Sanders said in an interview broadcast Friday that he would wait to see what Hillary Clinton includes in her platform before deciding how actively to campaign for her in the fall if she is the party's nominee." -- CW

Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton's advisers and allies have begun extensive discussions about who should be her running mate, seeking to compile a list of 15 to 20 potential picks for her team to start vetting by late spring. Mrs. Clinton's team will grapple with complicated questions like whether the United States is ready for an all-female ticket, and whether her choice for vice president would be able to handle working in a White House in which former President Bill Clinton wields significant influence on policy." CW: So ConservaDem Bill definitely will be back. At least the campaign is admitting it to reporters. I doubt the Presidents Clinton will have Bernie Sanders on their contacts list. ...

... Alan Rappeport & Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Here are some likely contenders -- according to allies and advisers of the Clintons and prominent Democrats -- and a look at their strengths and weaknesses. Sherrod Brown..., Julián Castro..., Tim Kaine..., Amy Klobuchar..., Deval Patrick..., Thomas E. Perez..., Mark Warner..., Elizabeth Warren." -- CW

Amie Parnes of the Hill: "... Hillary Clinton is doubling down on a strategy of not releasing transcripts of speeches she gave to Goldman Sachs and other investment banks.... The issue has been an effective line of attack from [Bernie] Sanders, who has closed the gap with Clinton in national polls. It also appears to have hurt Clinton, who has seen her favorability rating in polls drop below 50 percent. Just as bad, Clinton has seen her marks fall with Americans when they are asked whether they trust her or see her as honest. At the same time, Sanders is now coming under growing pressure to pull back on his attacks after Clinton's big win in New York's primary." -- CW

The Accidental Truth-Teller, Ctd. Jason Noble of the Des Moines Register: "U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley [R] suggested on Friday that the FBI might leak reports of its investigation into presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state. Grassley, Iowa's senior senator and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said an anonymous and unauthorized release of FBI investigative materials could result if officials at the agency believed prosecution of Clinton was stymied for political reasons." -- CW

Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "Joe Biden's made a decision in the Democratic primary race -- but he won&'t say whether he picked Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. The vice president and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, voted early while back home in Wilmington on Friday, four days before the Delaware primary on April 26, when Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maryland will also vote." -- CW

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: Reince Priebus, "the head of the Republican National Committee, implored leaders of his sharply divided party on Friday to rally behind their eventual presidential nominee, suggesting that they ignore Donald J. Trump's assault on the nominating process." -- CW

John O'Keefe of the Washington Post: Uncommitted Pennsylvania delegates could choose the GOP nominee. "While most states award convention delegates on a winner-take-all or proportional basis, 54 of Pennsylvania's 71 delegates -- three for each of 18 congressional districts -- are officially unbound to a candidate and do not have to announce their intentions before Tuesday's vote. The winners can vote for whomever they want at the convention." -- CW

Oops, Forgot about GOP States' Rights Mantra, Bigot Vote. Daily Beast: "Less than 24 hours after saying transgender individuals should be able to 'use the bathroom they feel is appropriate,' Donald Trump backtracked from that pro-LGBT position. Speaking with Sean Hannity on Fox News Thursday evening, the Republican presidential frontrunner decided that while he still believes North Carolina's law overturning local anti-discrimination ordinances is 'causing a lot of problems,' he thinks 'local communities and states should make the decision. The federal government should not be involved.'" CW: Yes, people, you can count on Donald Trump to stand by you for up to 24 hours. ...

We're going to take care of those wounded warriors and we're going to take care of our vets better than anybody. -- Donald Trump, aboard the USS Wisconsin, October 2015 ...

... Tim Mak of the Daily Beast: "Three months ago Donald Trump held a fundraiser for wounded veterans and apparently raised $6 million. But most of that money has yet to be distributed and Trump's chairman for veterans issues couldn't care less." -- CW

Dana Milbank, borrowing from the Passover Seder service, assesses Donald Trump in terms of the "Ten Plagues that God inflicted on the Egyptians: blood, frogs, lice, wild animals, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and slaying of the firstborn." -- CW

Kristina Davis of the Los Angeles Times: "An Orange County woman who wanted to back out as a class representative in a long-running lawsuit against Donald Trump has gotten her wish. Tarla Makaeff, who filed the lawsuit against Trump's now-defunct Trump University six years ago, claimed the litigation had caused her to suffer severe stress and unwanted publicity, especially in light of the combative presidential race.... Three other plaintiffs still will participate in the case...." -- CW

Other News & Views

President Obama & British PM David Cameron hold a press conference:

Britain's Prince George looks a bit wary of President & Michelle Obama, but warms up when he finds out they gave him that hobby horse. -- CW

We're Back in Iraq. Fred Kaplan of Slate: "... we are going to war in Iraq against ISIS. It's not going to be like George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq: It will involve about 5,000 U.S. troops, not 150,000; and local forces -- Iraqi soldiers, Kurdish peshmerga, and various militias -- will be in the lead. But the United States will be directly involved in the fighting and quite possibly the dying. And although [Secretary of Defense Ash] Carter and other senior officials say the U.S.'s mission isn't changing it's clear that, by any reasonable definition of 'mission' and 'changing,' it is." -- CW

Frederic Rich of Salon: "How extreme right-wing market fundamentalism captured the GOP -- and endangered the environment. Republican orthodoxy is deeply hostile to environmental goals -- along with science and basic common sense. Painting environmental protection as inconsistent with the things that people want most [jobs, wealth, and cheap gas] was an astute and successful political strategy for the foes of the Green movement." -- LT

"A good guy with a gun." Matt Drange of The Guardian: Mark Bryant, NRA member from Kentucky, "has developed what is by some measures the most comprehensive database of recent gun deaths and injuries in America... [by]collect[ing] information the government isn't capturing....Bryant isn't 'for or against' gun ownership. He's simply trying to reduce gun violence by building a better understanding of what guns are to America." -- LT

Beyond the Beltway

Sari Horwitz & Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: "Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) will make all ex-felons in Virginia eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential election, part of a years-long effort to restore full voting rights to former convicts. McAuliffe's announcement in Richmond on Friday will allow an estimated 180,000 to 210,000 former felons who are not in prison or on probation or parole to register to vote this year in Virginia, a battleground state, according to a coalition of civil rights groups that had pushed for the restoration of voting rights. Advocates said McAuliffe's move was the biggest-ever single action taken to restore voting rights in this country." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Scott LeMieux in LG&M: "I'm so old that I remember extensive debates on various social media about whether or not McAuliffe was inspiring enough to be worth supporting ... against Ken Cuccinelli. The lesson, as always, is that this way of thinking about elections is really dumb." CW: Exactly. This is why you vote for the Democrat even when he's a jerk. ...

... Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "The executive order bypassed Republicans in the state, who view former felons as potential Democratic voters. Their angry response was swift." -- CW ...

... Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "... the big number of newly enfranchised voters is actually larger than Mr. Obama's 149,298-vote margin of victory there in 2012." However, ex-felons aren't all that into voting: studies "usually find that around 20 percent of ex-felons turn out, even in presidential elections." -- CW

Heide Brandes of Reuters: "An Oklahoma bill that could revoke the license of any doctor who performs an abortion has headed to the governor, with opponents saying the measure in unconstitutional and promising a legal battle against the cash-strapped state if it is approved. In the Republican-dominated legislature, the state's House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a Senate bill late on Thursday. Governor Mary Fallin, a Republican, has not yet indicated whether she will sign it." -- CW

News Lede

New York Times: "As law enforcement officials await the complete results of an autopsy performed [on performer Prince] Friday, they said they would be reviewing local pharmaceutical records as part of a broad effort to understand Prince's full medical history. They declined to comment on reports that Prince had been taking pain medication, saying the investigation was continuing." -- CW