StupidiNews!

• European terror officials have many questions to deal with after the arrest and capture of Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam over the weekend in Belgium.
• Colombia's FARC rebels will meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry as part of President Obama's historic visit to Cuba on Monday.
• North Korea has again fired short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan after similar missile tests on Friday, as part of a protest against annual US-South Korean joint military exercises.
• Brazil is dealing with former President Lula da Silva's appointment as current President Dilma Rouseff's chief of staff amid protests demanding Rouseff's impeachment on corruption charges.
• NASA astronaut Jeff Williams will be the first astronaut to serve three stints aboard the International Space Station as his ship docked successfully with the ISS on Friday.

Last Call For Viva Cu-Bama

The First Family made an historic visit to Cuba today, the first US President to step on US soil in decades, as the president will address the Cuban people in Havana this week.

President Barack Obama touched down in Cuba on Sunday, definitively ending a half-century of estrangement in a dramatic personal demonstration of his core foreign policy principle of engaging America's enemies. 

It's a shift that the change-minded president hopes will nudge the Communist government here to grant more freedoms to its people and open new economic channels for American businesses. The President and his allies also hope a successful détente will offer something bigger: a lasting example of diplomacy's power in dealing with longtime foes. 

Just before Obama stepped from Air Force One -- carrying an umbrella as a persistent rain fell on the tarmac -- he sent a message to Cubans on a platform that until recently would have been unheard of in the repressive regime. 

"¿Que bolá Cuba?" he wrote on Twitter, using an informal Cuban greeting. "Just touched down here, looking forward to meeting and hearing directly from the Cuban people."

This will share President Obama's foreign policy legacy along with Syria.  I'm hoping more attention is paid to how important normalizing relations with Cuba is.

We'll see.

Trump Cards, Con't

Can we call Trump and his supporters a threat to the country yet, folks?

VIOLENCE at another Donald Trump rally, this time in Tucson, AZ. Man hits and kicks protester: pic.twitter.com/7FWuSeE0Jt

— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorpNBC) March 19, 2016

NBC News reporter Frank Thorp caught video of a man swinging at a protester at Trump’s Tucson, Arizona rally on Saturday and appearing to kick and stomp while the protester was on the ground.

The video shows the man taking swings at a person who is apparently down on the ground as security and police rush over to the area. The man then continues striking the person with his feet but is stopped when police handcuff him.

The video does not show what prompted the violence.

Video taken at the same rally reportedly show’s Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, roughly grabbing the collar of a protester and yanking him. Lewandowski himself was accused of violence for grabbing and yanking a female reporter for conservative website Breitbart earlier this week.

Here is Donald Trump's campaign manager in the Tucson crowd grabbing the collar of a protester. pic.twitter.com/JZ9RntWlHY

— Jacqueline Alemany (@JaxAlemany) March 19, 2016

Not going to be long now before we get to the lynchings and the lethal stuff, right?  Campaign's young.  Just wait until these guys figure out they will be denied their glorious white rule by voters in the general...

Sunday Long Read: Working Out

If you're not familiar with Adam Neumann and his company, WeWork, you very soon will be. Neumann is on a multi-billion dollar quest to reinvent the American workplace for the era of internet automation and the 24/7 contractor job, where everyone lives, works, and plays together in the same place, the ultimate extension of urban planning.

Neumann and his cofounder, Miguel McKelvey, founded WeWork in 2010 with a simple business model: The company rents office space from landlords wholesale, breaks it into smaller units, and subleases it at a profit. WeWork, which now has 77 locations and more than 50,000 members, says its ultimate potential is much bigger—and investors agree. In February 2014, WeWork’s backers valued the company at $1.5 billion; by last week, its valuation had jumped to $16 billion, making WeWork, on paper, the world’s 6th most valuable private startup.

Every modern generation has sought to remake the workplace, from the introduction of the cubicle in the 1960s to the 1990s’ foosball tables and flexible hours. Now members of the generation that would rather make a job than take a job are embracing coworking environments where they can operate independently while still drawing support and networking opportunities from peers. Neumann calls these people the We Generation, which, he says, "cares about the world, actually wants to do cool things, and loves working."

Critics look at WeWork’s business model of trading spaces and shrug, That’s it? Its high valuation has made it a staple of lists predicting which unicorn startups will fail. "Their multiples are more like a tech company than what a real estate company would get," says Charles Clinton, who runs a real-estate-funding platform called EquityMultiple. "There’s a feeling that that doesn’t really make sense." If the economy wobbles, skeptics contend, WeWork’s customers will scurry back to cafés with free Wi-Fi.

Neumann, who was envisioning WeWork with 100 buildings when he had only two, sees his company as an operating system that brings real estate to life in the same way that Android is an operating system that makes a smartphone more than mere glass and metal. As more spaces open and members join the network, WeWork will have increasing power to offer such services as shipping, software, credit cards, travel, payroll, banking, and training. Eventually, members might join for these benefits alone, without any physical access whatsoever. Neumann also envisions WeWork managing offices on behalf of corporations (which are cutting down on square footage per employee). WeWork will connect them all through an app-based network. "Real estate," according to Neumann, "is just a tool."

He isn’t content simply to remake the modern office; he also wants to change how millennials think about home. WeLive, his new "co-living" residences, is a bet that they’ll value access over ownership. Just like they’re choosing Uber or Lyft rather than buying a car or subscribing to Spotify rather than having a record collection, they will be happy to share their living space, too. The first WeLive, which features common amenities with modest personal spaces, opened in New York City in January. According to leaked financial documents, the company plans to open 68 more in the next two years, the first step toward WeWork creating entire neighborhoods. "It’s a when, not an if," Neumann says of  WeCities.

Of course, in order to follow through on any of these plans, WeWork needs to convince young, urban professionals to buy into its philosophy of living and working together. Which is why, in addition to square footage, WeWork runs on something that doesn’t easily fit on a term sheet. You can call it a mission, a vibe, or culture. Neumann calls it "energy." If anyone can create energy, it’s him. But is it enough to power WeWorld?

On one hand, this is where the corporate workplace is going in the United States, global companies with a majority of contractors, work-at-home options and the 24/7 work schedule.  On the other hand, all of that is just there to create "productivity" by enslaving us.

But Neumann sure as hell is going to get rich off this.  You?  Not so much.

America's Right-Wing Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

A jury took about an hour to convict a right-wing "sovereign citizen" on a terrorism threat charge as he apparently made conference calls instructing people to plan to overthrow West Virginia's state government.

Thomas David Deegan, 39, was found guilty on one count of making a terrorist threat on Friday, after the 12-member jury deliberated for only an hour. He faces 1 to 3 years in prison and a fine of $5,000 to $25,000 when he is sentenced, in April.

Deegan, who represented himself in court, was accused of the plot, which he spoke about in a conference call that was recorded in September.

“The conversation was the actual crime itself,” prosecutor Jason Wharton told MetroNews. “The jury was able to hear the entirety of the conference call as well as some recordings from the regional jail and some other testimony.”

He told participants on the call to shoot anyone who resists them.

He said on the call that he wanted to bring a large number of people to the West Virginia capitol building in Charleston and overtake the building. Deegan denied the charges.

“It was one of 12 calls and was taken out of context,” he said. “I have studied laws and I see where they are going wrong. I just find errors. I never called myself a sovereign citizen.”

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Deegan intended to “remove several state government leaders from their offices, charge them with treason and replace them with sovereign citizens. After apparently setting up a sovereign citizen-style court system, those found guilty of treason would be put to death.”

He also discussed sending armed militants to local police departments.

“We are at war,” Deegan said during one of the conference calls, according to the criminal complaint. “The more that come to Charleston, the less [likelihood] for bloodshed.”

He also said, “If you see the police coming and pulling up in a vehicle, I suggest you shoot them.”

So this joker here is openly threatening to kill cops, kidnap or kill state government officials, and get into firefights, but the real problem in America is Black Lives Matter, right?

The Dump Trump Truck Gains Speed

Donald Trump ran into significant disruptions from protesters in both NYC and Arizona events today, yet another sign that if there's one good thing Trump has accomplished, it's getting Americans to take interest in the politics of stopping idiot Republicans.

Dozens of protesters blocked traffic near a Donald Trump event in Arizona on Saturday, while demonstrators marched in New York City to protest the GOP front-runner.

The protesters in Arizona parked vehicles sideways on Shea Boulevard, blocking both lanes of traffic into Fountain Hills, Arizona, where Trump held a rally Saturday afternoon, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Deputy Joaquin Enriquez told CNN.

Enriquez described Shea Boulevard as the main artery into the area and the protesters' actions were causing motorists to drive into oncoming traffic as they tried to get around them. Traffic was backed up for miles due to the blockage. 

"This is causing huge issues for us," Enriquez told CNN. He added, "We obviously have to get this road open."

Enriquez later told CNN that three protesters were arrested and two cars were towed from the boulevard. The deputy emphasized that the arrests were due to protesters blocking the roadway, not because of the protest itself.

Protests at Trump rallies increasingly have become more contentious in recent days. Friday night, protesters outside a Trump rally in Salt Lake City, Utah, tried to breach the venue's doors, causing police officers and Secret Service officers to abruptly shut them as Trump was speaking. And last week, scuffles between protesters and supporters in Chicago led Trump to cancel a rally there.

Trump on Saturday appeared with former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who endorsed the GOP front-runner in January. Arpaio rose to conservative fame with his aggressive roundups of undocumented immigrants and attention-grabbing tactics like clothing inmates in pink underwear.

Speaking to CNN's Fredricka Whitfield earlier in the day, Arpaio said authorities are "going to do everything we can to continue to have this rally," adding that authorities are "ready for any problems."

"We'll do everything possible to make sure we have free speech in this country. Donald Trump has a right to speak out and the people have a right to go in there and hear him speak," Arpaio said. "If certain groups don't like it, that's OK. They have freedom of speech, but they're not going to violate any laws. They're going to have to pay the consequences."

By all means Trump, let's have more footage of your brownshirt goons saying they'll round up the people who oppose you in order to make them pay the consequences.  I really do want that massive Democratic wave to obliterate the modern GOP out of existence in 2016.

The Consequence Of It All

Yet another reminder that protection of your First Amendment rights are guaranteed by the Constitution. Protection from the consequences of exercising those rights are not.

If Georgia chooses to turn the “religious liberty” bill into law, be prepared: Atlanta may not get a Super Bowl.

That was the suggestion from the NFL on Friday when the league released a statement in response to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s question about whether the league had any position on Georgia House Bill 757.

The statement from league spokesman Brian McCarthy reads, “NFL policies emphasize tolerance and inclusiveness, and prohibit discrimination based on age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other improper standard. Whether the laws and regulations of a state and local community are consistent with these policies would be one of many factors NFL owners may use to evaluate potential Super Bowl host sites.”

Falcons owner Arthur Blank has hoped to land multiple Super Bowls in the team’s new stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2017. The NFL has previously moved a Super Bowl from Arizona to the Rose Bowl near Los Angeles in the 1992 season after that state refused to recognize the Martin Luther King holiday.

Indeed, all three of Atlanta's major sports franchises oppose the bill.

Falcons owner Arthur Blank then issued this statement:

“One of my bedrock values is ‘Include Everyone’ and it’s a principle we embrace and strive to live each and every day with my family and our associates, a vast majority of which live and work in Georgia. I strongly believe a diverse, inclusive and welcoming Georgia is critical to our citizens and the millions of visitors coming to enjoy all that our great state has to offer. House Bill 757 undermines these principles and would have long-lasting negative impact on our state and the people of Georgia.”

And then the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks weighed in:

“The Atlanta Braves organization believes that House Bill 757 is detrimental to our community and bad for Georgia. Our organization believes in an environment that is inclusive of all people. In addition to allowing discrimination against citizens of this state, the bill will have a profoundly negative impact on our organization. As a Georgia business and employer, we proudly support Georgia Prospers in its goal to ensure that the state’s workplaces and communities are diverse and welcoming for all people, no matter one’s race, sex, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. We are proud to represent Georgia and are opposed to any law that endorses discrimination against anyone.” 

The Hawks’ organization said:

“For generations, Atlanta has stood at the forefront of civil rights and its diversity is what has made this city a cultural leader in the Southeast. The Hawks strongly believe in the values of inclusion, diversity and equal rights, core principles by which we operate our business and are essential elements in making Atlanta a leading global city.”

Your enshrined bigotry in the name of "religious freedom" will have consequences, Georgia.  Are you prepared to deal with them?

States Of Chaos

Over at New York Magazine, Eric Levitz argues that what the GOP has in store for America should they win the whole enchilada in 2017 is what the smoking wrecks of Louisiana and Kansas are now after years of total GOP control.

In 2010, the tea-party wave put Sam Brownback into the Sunflower State’s governor’s mansion and Republican majorities in both houses of its legislature. Together, they implemented the conservative movement’s blueprint for Utopia: They passed massive tax breaks for the wealthy and repealed all income taxes on more than 100,000 businesses. They tightened welfare requirements, privatized the delivery of Medicaid, cut $200 million from the education budget, eliminated four state agencies and 2,000 government employees. In 2012, Brownback helped replace the few remaining moderate Republicans in the legislature with conservative true believers. The following January, after signing the largest tax cut in Kansas history, Brownback told the Wall Street Journal, “My focus is to create a red-state model that allows the Republican ticket to say, 'See, we've got a different way, and it works.' "

As you’ve probably guessed, that model collapsed. Like the budget plans of every Republican presidential candidate, Brownback’s “real live experiment” proceeded from the hypothesis that tax cuts for the wealthy are such a boon to economic growth, they actually end up paying for themselves (so long as you kick the undeserving poor out of their welfare hammocks). The Koch-backed Kansas Policy Institute predicted that Brownback’s 2013 tax plan would generate $323 million in new revenue. During its first full year in operation, the plan produced a $688 million loss. Meanwhile, Kansas’s job growth actually trailed that of its neighboring states. With that nearly $700 million deficit, the state had bought itself a 1.1 percent increase in jobs, just below Missouri’s 1.5 percent and Colorado’s 3.3.

Those numbers have hardly improved in the intervening years. In 2015, job growth in Kansas was a mere 0.1 percent, even as the nation’s economy grew 1.9 percent. Brownback pledged to bring 25,000 new jobs to the state in his second term; as of January, he has brought 700. What’s more,personal income growth slowed dramatically since the tax cuts went into effect. Between 2010 and 2012, Kansas saw income growth of 6.1 percent, good for 12th in the nation; from 2013 to 2015, that rate was 3.6 percent, good for 41st.

Meanwhile, revenue shortfalls have devastated the state’s public sector along with its most vulnerable citizens. Since Brownback’s inauguration, 1,414 Kansans with disabilities have been thrown off Medicaid. In 2015, six school districts in the state were forced to end their years early for lack of funding. Cuts to health and human services are expected to cause 65 preventable deaths this year in Sedgwick County alone. In February, tax receipts came in $53 million below estimates; Brownback immediately cut $17 million from the state’s university system. This data is not lost on the people of Kansas — as of November, Brownback’s approval rating was 26 percent, the lowest of any governor in the United States.

Louisiana under Jindal fared no better.

Louisiana has replicated these results. When Bobby Jindal moved into the governor’s mansion in 2008, he inherited a $1 billion surplus. When he moved out last year, Louisiana faced a $1.6 billion projected deficit. Part of that budgetary collapse can be put on the past year's plummeting oil prices. The rest should be placed on Jindal passing the largest tax cut in the state's history and then refusing to reverse course when the state's biggest industry started tanking. Jindal's giveaway to the wealthiest citizens in the country's second-poorest state cost Louisiana roughly $800 million every year. To make up that gap, Jindal slashed social services, raided the state’s rainy-day funds, and papered over the rest with reckless borrowing. Today, the state is scrambling to resolve a $940 million budget gap for this fiscal year, with a $2 billion shortfall projected for 2017. Like Bizarro Vermont, Louisiana can no longer afford to provide public defenders for all its criminal defendants. Its Department of Children and Family Services may soon be unable to investigate every reported instance of child abuse. Education funding is down 44 percent since Jindal took office. The state’s hospitals are likely to see at least $64 million in funding cuts this year.

What has happened to these states should be a national story; because we are one election away from it being our national story. Ted Cruz claims his tax plan will cost less than $1 trillion in lost revenue over the next ten years. Leaving aside the low bar the Texas senator sets for himself — my giveaway to the one percent will cost a bit less than the Iraq War! — Cruz only stays beneath $1 trillion when you employ the kind of “dynamic scoring” that has consistently underestimated the costs of tax cuts in Kansas. Under a conventional analysis, the bill runs well over $3 trillion, with 44 percent of that lost money accruing to the one percent. John Kasich’s tax plan includes cutting the top marginal rate by more than ten percent along with a similar cut to the rates on capital gains and business taxes. Even considering Kasich’s appetite for Social Security cuts, his plan must rely on the same supply-side voodoo that Kansas has so thoroughly discredited. As for the most likely GOP nominee, even with dynamic scoring, his tax cuts would cost $10 trillion over the next ten years, with 40 percent of that gargantuan sum filling the pockets of Trump’s economic peers.

If any of these men are elected president, they will almost certainly take office with a House and Senate eager to scale up the “red-state model.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said of Brownback’s Kansas, “This is exactly the sort of thing we (Republicans) want to do here, in Washington, but can’t, at least for now.” Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s celebrated budgets all depend on the same magical growth that has somehow escaped the Sunflower State.

In other words, the economic collapse into recession that now plagues Louisiana and Kansas is what will be in store for all of America should the Republicans take the White House and keep control of Congress.  America will collapse, both figuratively and literally.

We talk here a lot about how Donald Trump simply cannot be allowed to be in the White House, but no Republican can be allowed.  Kansas and Louisiana are proof that austerity is an abject and total failure, and yet that's what Republicans want to force for all 50 states.

The Ringleader Of The Circus

Trump's major super power (besides his reality-defying hair) is his ability to manipulate the American media like no other candidate before him.  Trump's ruthless "branding" negotiation have exposed how corrupt our news organizations are: if they want access to Trump and his ratings, then they have to pay Trump's price.

Staffers at the five major television networks are grappling with what role their organizations may have played in amplifying Donald Trump’s successful campaign of insults, generalizations about minority groups, and at times flat lies. 

Conversations with more than a dozen reporters, producers, and executives across the major networks reveal internal tensions about the wall-to-wall coverage Trump has received and the degree to which the Republican frontrunner has — or hasn’t — been challenged on their air.

Two network sources also confirmed the unprecedented control the television networks have surrendered to Trump in a series of private negotiations, allowing him to dictate specific details about placement of cameras at his event, to ensure coverage consists primarily of a single shot of his face. 

Network officials say the ratings have born out commercial incentives to devote their campaign coverage to largely unfiltered streams of Trump talking. CBS CEO Les Moonves quipped that Trump “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS, that’s all I got to say.” 

But many inside the networks are growing increasingly disturbed with what they’ve helped create. 

“As a programmer, it’s an easy decision, people watch it,” said one producer. “As an American, I’m sort of troubled by it, because I feel like we contribute it.” 

While there are journalists who have aggressively challenged Trump — notably Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, NBC News’ Chuck Todd, and CNN’s Jake Tapper — much of the coverage, including broadcasting his rallies and events live in their entirety, has been uncritical and even unfiltered, some of it conducted by interviewers unwilling or unable to provide much more than a platform for the candidate. 

Several network and cable news staffers rationalized the amount of Trump coverage as a response to the demand of the viewers and as accurately reflecting his position in the race. 

It’s an argument CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker, has made publicly. When asked if he felt responsible for Trump’s rise, he reportedly told reporters at a lunch this week that “the frontrunner of the party is always going to get a disproportionate amount of attention.” 

Some blamed the other Republicans in the race for being unwilling to attack Trump publicly. Many are unsure of how to cover a candidate like this — one seemingly immune to the traditional expectations of honesty and respect for democratic norms — in this medium.

In 2016 America where reality TV and politics are interchangeable, Trump is the perfect candidate to completely exploit the notion of news media as an entertainment product sold by for-profit corporate business interests and not a check on power as a public good.  Trump was inevitable, given how bad the Village has been for the last 25 years.

And now they worry about the monster they've enabled?

I'd laugh, only the joke's on all of us.

Last Call For Kentucky Smart

This legislation may never get past the Republicans in the Kentucky Senate, or Gov. Matt Bevin, but it's good to know Kentucky Democrats still know how to act like actual Democrats.

All students who graduate from Kentucky high schools, home schools or obtain their GEDs in Kentucky will be able to attend community colleges for free under a bill that passed the Kentucky House of Representatives on Thursday. 

The bill now moves to the state Senate. 

House Bill 626 requires students to apply for available student aid and if so, the state would pay the difference between that and their tuition for up to two years, as long as the student takes 12 credit hours per semester and maintains a 2.0-grade point average. 

Called the “Work Ready” scholarship bill, the legislation would pay for up to six semesters in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, for all new students. 

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, a Prestonsburg Democrat and the sponsor of the legislation, said the program would cost about $20 million a year. It could help 15,000 to 18,000 students in its first year, Stumbo said. 

“It’s a lot of money but think of the bang you get for the dollar,” he said.

For all the noise that Matt Bevin makes about investing in education and manufacturing technology, and his calls for Kentucky having a work force of the future, it's good to see Greg Stumbo actually put up a bill that does just that.  The bill passed 86-11, meaning that there are plenty of Kentucky Republicans who see this as a good deal too.

Maybe this isn't totally dead on arrival.

Maybe.

Flipping The Script On SCOTUS, Con't

Mitch the Turtle and the Republican base have left vulnerable GOP senators up for re-election in November twisting in the wind on the nomination of Merrick Garland to SCOTUS, and the White House knows it.

Democrats began laying out an aggressive strategy Thursday to get Judge Merrick Garland considered by the Senate and seated on the Supreme Court, over what appears to be implacable Republican opposition. 

The approach, which is being implemented in part by a well-organized group led by former aides to President Obama, involves targeting vulnerable GOP Senate incumbents for defeat by portraying them as unwilling to fulfill the basic duties of their office. The idea is to so threaten the Republicans’ Senate majority that party leaders will reconsider blocking hearings on Garland’s nomination. 

“You’re going to be surprised at how hard we’re going to work to make sure this is on the front pages of all the papers,” Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters after meeting with Garland on Thursday. 

At the White House, Obama held a conference call with thousands of supporters across the country while senior adviser Valerie Jarrett met on Capitol Hill with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters he had no details of a specific request Obama was making on the call. “But I think the president sent a pretty clear signal, though, that this a high priority of his, and he hoped that this would be a priority that people all across the country would share,” he said. 

Before Garland arrived on Capitol Hill for the first time as Obama’s nominee, Senate Democrats rallied in front of the Supreme Court to denounce Republican refusal to consider the nomination. Elsewhere in Washington, advocates on both sides readied for clashes across the country, but focused on states represented by GOP senators up for reelection in November.

A couple months of ads and op-eds running that GOP senators won't do their jobs is going to start hurting.  It's only March and we've got a lot of time to pile on Republicans like Mark Kirk, Kelly Ayotte, Rob Portman, Ron Johnson, Richard Burr, Pat Toomey and a number of open seats, including Rubio's in Florida and Vitter's seat in Louisiana (Hey, Dems can win there, ask John Bel Edwards.)

Dems going on strong offense is what I love to see, and this looks like a great chance to take back the Senate.

President Obama Weighs In On 2016

Now that Donald Trump has all but wrapped up the GOP nomination, President Obama is turning his attention to the Democrats in the primary, and the NY Times is reporting at least that the White House wants donor support united behind Hillary Clinton and soon.

In unusually candid remarks, President Obama privately told a group of Democratic donors last Friday that Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was nearing the point at which his campaign against Hillary Clintonwould end, and that the party must soon come together to back her.

Mr. Obama acknowledged that Mrs. Clinton was perceived to have weaknesses as a candidate, and that some Democrats did not view her as authentic.

But he played down the importance of authenticity, noting that President George W. Bush — whose record he ran aggressively against in 2008 — was once praised for his authenticity.

Mr. Obama made the remarks after reporters had left a fund-raising event in Austin, Tex., for the Democratic National Committee. The comments were described by three people in the room for the event, all of whom were granted anonymity to describe a candid moment with the president. The comments were later confirmed by a White House official.

The White House has all but stayed completely out of the 2016 primary contest, with VP Joe Biden taking an early pass last year.  It looks like that situation has now changed and that President Obama would like party unity behind Clinton, who has a significant delegate lead.

Needless to say, the section of Sanders supporters who were never President Obama's biggest fans aren't taking this news well at all. Meanwhile, President Obama is starting to swing into campaign mode to help Democrats this fall.

Obama and his top aides have been strategizing for weeks about how they can reprise his successful 2008 and 2012 approaches to help elect a Democrat to replace him. And out of concern that a Republican president in 2017 — either Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) — would weaken or reverse some of his landmark policies, Obama and his surrogates have started making the case that it is essential for the GOP to be defeated in November.

As a result, Obama is poised to be the most active sitting president on the campaign trail in decades.

“Do we continue to build on the policies that reward hard-working American families . . . and address challenges for future generations, or do we stop in our tracks, reverse our progress and move in the wrong direction?” Friedman wrote. “This is a choice that the president does not take lightly, and is something he will lay out for the American people with increased frequency in the weeks and months ahead.”

Central to the White House effort to stop Trump — or, under a less likely scenario, one of his rivals — is reassembling and energizing the coalition that propelled Obama into office; that means African Americans, Latinos, young voters and women.

Who better to mobilize the winning Obama coalition for the Democrats than President Obama himself?  And he's getting some help from the GOP's frontrunner, no doubt.

Many Democrats think that if Trump is the GOP nominee, he will help the Democratic Party solve the mobilization problem. They think that Trump’s strident anti-immigrant positions and his controversial comments about women and minorities will help Democrats in the fall.

Latino voters, especially, are receiving the attention of advocacy groups, including super PACs friendly to the Clinton campaign and to Democrats in general.

We're rapidly approaching the time where the Democrats go on the offensive against Trump and the GOP Senate.  With the announcement of Merrick Garland for SCOTUS and Hillary Clinton now with a commanding lead, the pieces are in place.

You wanted more of the bully pulpit?  You're about to get it.  Big time.

StupidiNews!

• Bernie Sanders has conceded Missouri's primary results to Hillary Clinton, saying demanding a recount over Clinton's 1,500 vote lead wouldn't change the state's delegate count for him.
• North Korea has again fired two test missiles into the sea just one day after President Obama signed into law new sanctions aimed at punishing Pyongyang for earlier missile tests this year.
• Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu says that he is hopeful that a deal with EU officials can be reached on Syrian migrants in Europe, but both sides say they are far apart on an accord.
• Three months after US oil exports began as part of last year's budget deal for the first time in 40 years, US crude is heading everywhere from China to Panama.
• A rare bacterial outbreak in Wisconsin has killed 17 and sickened 54 since December as CDC officials are working to locate the source of the infection.

Last Call For The Destiny Of Demography

This, by Daily Beast's Stuart Stevens, is why I'm not worried about Trump winning.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan won 56 percent of white voters and won a landslide victory of 44 states. In 2012, Mitt Romney won 59 percent of whites and lost with 24 states. But it’s a frequent talking point that white voter enthusiasm was higher for Reagan and turnout down for Romney. Not so. In 1980, 59 percent of whites voted and in 2012, 64 percent of whites voted.

But still the myth survives that there are these masses of untapped white voters just waiting for the right candidate. Call it the Lost Tribes of the Amazon theory: If only you paddle far enough up the river and bang the drum loud enough, these previously hidden voters will gather to the river’s edge. The simple truth is that there simply aren’t enough white voters in the America of 2016 to win a national election without also getting a substantial share of the non-white vote. Romney won 17 percent of the non-white vote. Depending on white voter turnout, a Republican needs between 25 percent and 35 percent of the non-white vote to win. RealClearPolitics has a handy tool so you can play with the percentages.

The Trump campaign talks about being able to reach out to Hispanics and African Americans but it’s not an overstatement to say he would be the most unpopular candidate with either group to ever lead a national ticket. Only 12 percent of Hispanics have a favorable view of Trump with 77 percent unfavorable. Even among Hispanic Republicans, he has a 60 percent unfavorable ranking. Among African Americans, 86 percent have an unfavorable view of Trump.

So let's play with that tool.  Here's the 2012 numbers for Obama-Romney:

If we keep turnout the same, and are SUPER generous to Trump and give him 5% of the black vote, 20% of the Hispanic vote, and 25% of the Asian vote, he still needs more than 64.5% of the white vote to squeak out a win, WAY more than Romney got.

And if we keep turnout the same by percentage, poor Donald would need more than 89% of the white vote to win.

Now let's try my best educated guess: non-white turnout is up, Trump gets a measly 4% of the black vote and 15% of the Hispanic and Asian vote, and turnout among white voters is down (because emoprogs stay home and whine or something) but the white voters who do show up, Trump gets 65% of them, a huge increase in white voter share.

Trump absolutely gets the crap kicked out of him and then some.

This is the scenario I see with Trump running.  You would have to see non-white voter turnout under 50% before the race gets close with the dismal percentages of non-white votes that I think Trump would get. Likewise, unless you think Trump is going to get 18% of all three non-white voting groups (yes, that includes getting 18% of the black vote) he's done.

He can't win, folks.  Marco Rubio? Rubio might have been able to get enough of the Hispanic vote to win, but he'd need something like 60% plus more white votes than Romney got.

So no, the GOP is screwed without black, Asian, and Hispanic votes.  Absolutely.  And this is why they are in full panic mode. 

Neocon Cruz Missiles

Everything you need to know about the whole "Would Ted Cruz actually be worse than Trump?" thing is summed up in this Eli Lake piece at Bloomberg View (Yes, the same Eli Lake that doesn't know foreign policy from fried okra and says Trump's foreign policy would somehow be indistinguishable from President Obama's) that details all the Bush-era neocon rejects that have wormed their way into Cruz's foreign policy "brain trust".

The first name on the advisory list that stands out is Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan administration Pentagon official who has emerged as a lightning rod in the Obama era, accused by the Southern Poverty Law Center of being one of the nation's leading Islamophobes. 

When Trump proposed a temporary ban on all Muslim immigration, he quoted from a 2015 survey of American Muslims commissioned by the think tank Gaffney founded, the Center for Security Policy. It concluded that a quarter of U.S. Muslims supported violent jihad against the U.S. This led to speculation in the Washington press that Gaffney was advising Trump. 

But Gaffney is a Cruz man. In an interview, he said that he met Cruz when he was running for Senate in 2012, and that he has briefed him on the FBI's investigation into a Muslim Brotherhood-linked charity known as the Holy Land Foundation and on how Sharia law is a threat to America. "I hope that some of that went into his decision to introduce legislation to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization," Gaffney said. 

Until this year, these views were considered radioactive by the Republican establishment. George W. Bush, after Sept. 11, famously appeared at a Washington mosque and declared that Islam was a religion of peace. Senator John McCain, when he was his party's presidential nominee in 2008, famously rebuked a talk-radio host for calling his challenger "Barack Hussein Obama," a dog whistle to the president's Arabic middle name. In 2012, the campaign of Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, spurned Gaffney and other conservatives who warned that Sharia was a domestic threat.

This time around it's a little different. As Cruz makes the case that he is the last, best chance to prevent Trump from winning his party's nomination, his foreign-policy advisers include not only Gaffney, but also three others who work for Gaffney's think tank: former CIA officers Fred Fleitz and Clare Lopez and former Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Jim Hanson. Also on the list is Andrew McCarthy, a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the first World Trade Center bombing. McCarthy has been outspoken in his view that adherents at least to political Islam are seeking to impose Sharia law in the U.S.

Gaffney alone is bad enough. Gaffney's sidekicks make it worse. McCarthy on top of that is nitro and napalm...and then there are the "serious establishment" types that Cruz currently has who are there to "counter" these guys:

At the same time, Cruz's team includes former officials who reject Gaffney's broad view that any Muslim who believes in Sharia law by definition believes in a totalitarian and violent ideology at war with America. 

"We're at war with a coalition of radical Islamists and radical secularists. It's not all one thing, nor is Islam all one thing," Michael Ledeen, a former Reagan administration official and a Cruz campaign adviser, told me. 

Jim Talent, a former Missouri Republican senator who was a key adviser to Romney in 2008 and 2012, is signed up for the Cruz team. So is Mary Habeck, a former staffer on George W. Bush's national security council, who is an expert on jihadi organizations and has warned against demonizing the entire religion of Islam. 

Another Cruz adviser, Elliott Abrams, helped craft Bush's policy to empower moderate Muslims in the Middle East against radicals. He told me he feels much the same way as Habeck. "It's now 15 years since 9/11, and I think it's obvious that Muslim citizens in the U.S. and Muslim leaders abroad have an absolutely critical role to play in fighting jihadis and other Muslim extremists," Abrams said. "This is partly a battle within Islam that they are going to have fight and win. Alienating these potential allies is the kind of foolish policy that the Obama administration has engaged in when it comes to Arab states that are our allies." 

Victoria Coates, who has been Cruz's main adviser on national security since he came to the Senate, told me this tension on the policy team "is by design and not an accident." She added: "Both Frank and Elliott are people I went out of my way to set up meetings with the Senator. He has met with both of them individually for years."

Let's get this straight, Cruz's foreign policy team is an absolute nightmare.  If Donald Trump was president, I'd say there was a good chance we'd end up in a global war by accident. If Ted Cruz is president, we'll end up in a global war on purpose.

So yeah, in at least this aspect, Cruz would be worse than Trump, if that's something you could possibly imagine. The guys that Dick Cheney found too awful all working for Cruz?  We'd be in World War III before dinnertime on Inauguration Day.

That scares me more than Trump, which should tell you something.