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April 2016

Posted by New Neo on April 11, 2016 167 Comments
Here's one plausible scenario for Cruz's prospects in a general election. It's worth reading the whole thing, but here's an excerpt:
...[T]he assumption is that Cruz cannot improve his image among the broader electorate, but that's hard to know for sure, because he's never had to do it. While opinions on Clinton are deeply entrenched after her decades in the public spotlight, Cruz isn't as universally known and has more of an opening to get a second look. Cruz would enter the general election campaign with a reputation as an extremist, which the Clinton campaign would do everything to play up. But the risk of such a strategy comes if Cruz is able to defy such a caricature during the election among voters getting to know him for the first time. To quote Shakespeare's Prince Hal: "By so much shall I falsify men's hopes/And like bright metal on a sullen ground/My reformation, glittering o'er my fault/Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes/Than that which hath no foil to set it off."
In other words, Cruz is much less of a known commodity to most voters, and he is therefore more likely to be able to improve his image if he can just soften up just a bit.

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 11, 2016 6 Comments
Hillary Clinton no longer has to feel singled out for being investigated by the FBI. She is now joined by New York City mayor Bill de Blasio. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Mayor Bill de Blasio Defends Fundraising as Probe Widens New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio defended his fundraising activities on Sunday after reports surfaced about a federal investigation into the matter, and said neither he nor his aides have been contacted by investigators. “Everything we’ve done is appropriate and carefully done with many, many lawyers, I assure you,” Mr. de Blasio said during an interview on NBC.

Posted by Miriam Elman on April 10, 2016 13 Comments
In a recent post, we highlighted how Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) is being promoted in America’s liberal Protestant churches. As we discussed, a malicious strain of anti-Israelism has taken root in these progressive churches largely because of a deep-seated organizational dysfunction:
A vocal and strong minority within the church have led the charge, aided and abetted by a host of venomously anti-Israel Palestinians and their useful fools—a coterie of Jewish enablers. Together, they’ve pushed hard for divestment and boycott initiatives against Israel, gaining an institutional footing by exploiting the language of human rights, monopolizing the discourse, and drowning out dissenting voices”.
UCEIO, Huge News on church divestment Our focus in the prior post was on three U.S. mainline churches—the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), the United Methodist Church (UMC) and the Unitarian Universalist Association (Church) (UUA). All three will feature a number of anti-Israel resolutions at their annual meetings this spring. "Officials" of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) recently decided to divest from three companies in its portfolio that do business in Israel and allegedly assist in the violation of Palestinian rights. That investment decision is not the end of the story, however.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 10, 2016 10 Comments
Apparently, Mitch McConnell is trying to undermine the senate run of a conservative candidate from Indiana that he sees as a potential disruptive force like Ted Cruz. CNN reports:
Rep. Marlin Stutzman is a member of the anti-leadership House Freedom Caucus, a conservative in the mold of Ted Cruz and a three-term Indiana congressman who voted against John Boehner as speaker. Now, he wants a promotion to the Senate -- and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his allies want to stop that. Privately, McConnell has made clear to his confidantes that he wants to bolster the candidacy of Stutzman's chief GOP rival, Rep. Todd Young, and push him over-the-top in the May 3 primary, according to sources familiar with the conversations.
This move is purportedly motivated, at least in part, by Stutzman's vote against John Boehner. CNN continues:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 10, 2016 86 Comments
As I noted yesterday, Donald Trump is having problems with delegates, and it sometimes seems that he doesn't understand how GOP nomination rules work or that the rules are different in different states or even that there are rules at all.  Whatever the reason for this impression, it's backed up by the fact that he's only recently begun to organize his team to work on delegates. One Trump campaign shake-up following his discouraging last month or so is his new hire Paul Manafort, a move announced less than two weeks ago.  Manafort is a long-time GOP political operative who has served as an adviser on the campaigns of Bob Dole, John McCain, and Gerald Ford, among others. The New York Times reports:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 10, 2016 11 Comments
Last week, I noted that a coalition of 17 state attorney generals had formed, which intended to promote the climate change agenda by targeting the fossil fuel industry. The first victim of the Climate Change purge is the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a wonderful non-profit organization dedicated to protecting free enterprise from being undermined by progressive activists of all stripes. Attorney General Claude E. Walker of the U.S. Virgin Islands has issued a subpoena in an attempt uncover the content of CEI's comprehensive work on climate change policy.
“CEI will vigorously fight to quash this subpoena. It is an affront to our First Amendment rights of free speech and association for Attorney General Walker to bring such intimidating demands against a nonprofit group,” said CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman. “If Walker and his allies succeed, the real victims will be all Americans, whose access to affordable energy will be hit by one costly regulation after another, while scientific and policy debates are wiped out one subpoena at a time.”

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 10, 2016 7 Comments
The battle for the Democratic nomination is finally getting very interesting. Bernie Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver recently appeared on CNN and while host Carol Costello was (of course) defending Hillary Clinton's record, Weaver dropped some heavy criticism. Weaver went after Hillary for her ties to corporate cash, a usual tactic for the Sanders camp, and then blamed her for the rise and spread of ISIS.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 10, 2016 29 Comments
President Obama has a history of publicly defending Hillary Clinton on her email scandal, and he did it again today on Fox News Sunday. Such public statements in and of themselves are improper political interference in agencies that report to the President. In a 60 Minutes interview in October 2015, Obama pretty much signaled Justice to lay off Hillary (emphasis added):
Steve Kroft: Did you know about Hillary Clinton’s use of private email server– President Barack Obama: No. Steve Kroft: –while she was Secretary of State? President Barack Obama: No.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 10, 2016 2 Comments
I attended two fascinating lectures at a local biosafety conference this week. The first talk addressed "The Zika Virus Invasion" and the second revealed a potential new weapon to control the spread of the pathogen that has been linked to birth defects and neurological disorders. The Scripps Research Institute's Biosafety Officer, Dr. Laurence Cagnon, focused on entirely on the Zika Virus in her intriguing talk. The expert on virology and microbiology discussed the history of Zika research and reviewed recommendations for working with infected samples and mosquitoes safely. "We are still limited about what we actually know about Zika," said Cagnon. "The recommendations are to treat Zika as guilty until proven innocent". Cagnon noted that before the outbreak in Brazil was widely reported, along with the associated microcephaly birth defects, only 171 professional articles mentioned the Zika Virus. In comparison, thousands were available on other well-known mosquito-borne diseases (including several I have covered here, including dengue fever, chikungunya, and Ebola).

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 09, 2016 25 Comments
Last December I noted the fear I've seen voiced among progressives, particularly on Facebook, that Donald Trump was making Ted Cruz acceptable, Is Overton Window wide open for Ted Cruz?:
I noticed this Facebook comment on the page of a local Ithaca liberal Democrat, on a post criticizing Donald Trump:
Donald Trump looks like the warm-up act. Whoever follows him from the Republican party looks reasonable (and sane) by comparison.
The commenter didn’t use the term, but she was describing how Trump has moved The Overton Window. The Overton Window has been described as follows:
The Overton window is a political theory that refers to the range (or window) of policies that the public will accept. The idea is that any policy falling outside the Overton window is out of step with public opinion and the current political climate, and formulated to try and shift the Overton window in a different direction, or to expand it to be wider.
As Republicans move toward a contested convention, at which Cruz has a strong likelihood of prevailing, I'm noticing more progressive concern. Heather Digby Parton at Salon writes, Ted Cruz’s terrifying reinvention: How America’s most detestable senator is repackaging himself for November:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 09, 2016 25 Comments
In March, Indiana governor Mike Pence signed into law, HEA 1337, abortion restrictions related to diagnoses of Down's syndrome and other disabilities, selective abortion based on race or gender, and on the disposal of fetal remains (they are to be interred or cremated under the new law). At the time, Governor Pence said the new measures were “comprehensive pro-life measure that affirms the value of all human life.” Because abortions are down nationally and by 20% in Indiana over the past five years and is below the national average, there was some question about what practical benefits the law might have. One reaction that the law has had is the formation of a trolling campaign called "Periods for Pence" in which women tweet, email, and phone the governor's office to report on their menstruation cycle and other assorted issues with their vaginas.

Posted by Jonathan Levin on April 09, 2016 7 Comments
As we reported in early January 2015, famed attorney and Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz was dragged into a controversy regarding Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's notorious "Orgy Island," Dershowitz presumed innocent in zero-sum defamation game:
Alan Dershowitz, along with others including Prince Andrew of Britain, were accused in a court filing involving convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein of participating in forced sex with a 17-year old. Despite many celebrities, including Bill Clinton, having spent time on Orgy Island, Dershowitz was the only one actually dragged into the case through mention in the pleadings. The court filing was not criminal, and was not even under oath. It merely was a motion suing prosecutors for agreeing to a light sentence for Epstein, without any evidence accompanying the allegations.
Dershowitz completely denied the charges: Dershowitz and the lawyers filed claims against each other, and now have settled, with the lawyers acknowledging the accusations never should have been made.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 09, 2016 81 Comments
The Boston Globe published a curious tweet yesterday, warning of a front page it "hope[d] never to publish." https://twitter.com/BostonGlobe/status/718537190704353282 Drudge has obtained images of what purports to be the Sunday front page, plus some:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 09, 2016 51 Comments
As we await final results from Colorado, it appears that Ted Cruz will obtain more delegates in addition to the 17 he already has. ABC News reports:
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has locked up the support of 21 Colorado delegates and may scoop up even more Saturday. Slates loyal to Cruz won every assembly in the state's seven congressional districts, which began April 2 and culminated Friday with 12 delegates selected. The Texas senator is well-positioned to pad his total Saturday, when 13 more delegates were to be chosen at the party's state convention. According to an Associated Press count, Trump has 743 delegates, Cruz has 532 and Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 143. It takes 1,237 to clinch the nomination, though there's a real chance no candidate will reach that mark by the national convention in Cleveland in July. Of Cruz's Colorado delegates so far, only 17 were formally pledged to him, and in theory the other four could change their vote in Cleveland. But they were all included on the senator's slates and are largely state party officials who said they were barred from signing a formal pledge for Cruz but have promised to back him in balloting at the convention.
ABC goes on to note that Cruz's "superior organization" has helped him substantially in Colorado, and NBC News is reporting that Trump's performance in Colorado reveals a "chaotic, overwhelmed Trump campaign."

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 09, 2016 17 Comments
Bret Baier of FOX News recently did a report on how the military has shrunk under Obama, and the response was so great, he went back and aired interviews that didn't make it into the program. Baier spoke with three of Obama's former secretaries of defense, and they all told a similar story. The Washington Free Beacon has more:
Obama’s Former Pentagon Chiefs: Military Suffered From Overbearing, Inexperienced White House The U.S. military has been hindered by an overbearing and inexperienced White House under President Barack Obama, according to each of his three former defense secretaries, causing the Pentagon to struggle to carry out operations and make decisions.
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