Daily Kos

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is working to up-end Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's plan to quickly pass fast-track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Reid says he'll hold up that bill until the Senate first addresses highway funding and PATRIOT Act reauthorization—both of which have deadlines attached to them. Then, Reid says, once those important and time-sensitive issues have been resolved, he'll be fine with the Senate turning to Trade Promotion Authority (though he opposes that legislation). Republicans are ... unhappy with him.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell implored his caucus to band together against Reid, sources inside the room said.

“It takes a bit of an adjustment to move from majority leader back to minority leader,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who has served as an emissary between Reid and McConnell. “Maybe Sen. Reid has got some adjusting to do. It’s the prerogative of the majority leader to set the schedule. … He should understand that.”

And it's the prerogative of the minority to hold things up and get in the way, as Republicans well know, that having been their specialty when in the minority. If there are 41 Democrats who don't want TPA to move forward until highway funding is no longer in danger of running out, they can make that happen. Republicans just want Democrats to play by different rules than they themselves play by. As usual.

With few exceptions, Senate Democrats—even some who may support TPA—are on Reid's side:

“The TPA has time. The highway bill and a couple of other things don’t,” [Sen. Dianne] Feinstein concluded. [...]

“Look, here’s the bottom line. We have two immediate deadlines: [Surveillance] and highways. If we get on trade, we’ll never get to them,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “What Harry has done makes some sense.”

Probably the bigger threat to Democratic unity on this is that President Obama very much wants TPA passed, and some Democrats who would stand firm against Republicans may be more vulnerable to pressure from the White House. That said, Obama also wants highway funding, which expires at the end of the month, right in time for construction season. So he at least has something to think about when deciding how hard to pressure Democrats to vote for TPA now, first, right away.

Whatever happens, Harry Reid continues to be a delight in his current role.

Republicans can, more or less, learn. Or they can at least drop one lie and switch to another. In this case, it's grudgingly admitting that lots of people got coverage under Obamacare now that there's no way they can plausibly deny otherwise. But while they may have to now accept that millions have coverage, now they're arguing that Obamacare is bad coverage so it shouldn't really count.

Asked Sunday about his previous statement, Boehner said on NBC's "Meet the Press": "Yeah, you know why there's more people insured? Because a lot more people are on Medicaid.

"Giving people Medicaid insurance is almost like giving them nothing, because you can't find a doctor that will see Medicaid patients, Boehner added. "And so where do they end up? The same place they used to end up, in the emergency room."

Speaking on the Senate floor last week, Barrasso did not mention the number of people who have signed up; he instead focused on the caliber of the coverage, saying, "there is a difference between coverage and care."

When a Republican says "It's a fact," that's when you know they're being less than fully truthful. But it's actually kind of funny to hear a Republican use the argument that liberals have used for years to argue for single payer. No, coverage isn't the same as care, but it's not really true that the problem is as bad—or worse—under Obamacare than back in the bad old days. Even if you accept the false premise that most of the new enrollees have worthless Medicaid, Medicaid isn't worthless. Ask an expert. In this case, Rachel Garfield, senior researcher at the Kaiser Family Foundation, who says "On most measures, people with Medicaid fare about as well as people with private insurance, particularly with access to basic services. […] Where Medicaid has had some challenges is in access to specialty care."

How about the inability to find care? No, not so much according to a Commonwealth Fund survey. As of last July, 60 percent of people who had the new coverage—both private and Medicaid—said they'd already found and visited a doctor or gotten prescriptions filled and 75 percent said finding a doctor was easy. And 67 percent of them were able to get an appointment within two weeks. But only 58 percent were able to get an appointment with a specialist within two weeks. But wait! Cuz 58 percent is still a large majority.

Surely, though, people on Obamacare must hate it. Once again, no. Turns out, according to JD Powers and Associates, people with private plans on Obamacare like them better than people who have employer-sponsored coverage. Why? Because they have choice, and they feel like they're getting a good deal.

One more Obamacare lie, circling the drain. But hey, if they really are worried that there isn't enough access to care out there, maybe they should focus their "replacement plans" on making access better. Like that'll ever happen.

America's Dumbest Congressman, also known as Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, has finally weighed in on the frothing conspiracy theories surrounding Jade Helm 15 because of course he has.

“Over the past few weeks, my office has been inundated with calls referring to the Jade Helm 15 military exercise scheduled to take place between July 15 and September 15, 2015. This military practice has some concerned that the U.S. Army is preparing for modern-day martial law.

Keep in mind that Louie Gohmert represents the single dumbest district in all America, as evidenced by Louie Gohmert being put in office at all. When he says he's being inundated by calls from deeply paranoid stupid people, I think we can believe him.

Certainly, I can understand these concerns. When leaders within the current administration believe that major threats to the country include those who support the Constitution, are military veterans, or even ‘cling to guns or religion,’ patriotic Americans have reason to be concerned. We have seen people working in this administration use their government positions to persecute people with conservative beliefs in God, country, and notions such as honor and self-reliance. Because of the contempt and antipathy for the true patriots or even Christian saints persecuted for their Christian beliefs, it is no surprise that those who have experienced or noticed such persecution are legitimately suspicious.

TL;DR: Obama scary. Longer version: We have already concocted so many different conspiracy theories about Obama that a group of paint-drinking lunatics claiming Obama will be using the military to round up "patriots" and imprison them in Walmart sounds pretty reasonable at this point.

Once I observed the map depicting ‘hostile,’ ‘permissive,’ and ‘uncertain’ states and locations, I was rather appalled that the hostile areas amazingly have a Republican majority, ‘cling to their guns and religion,’ and believe in the sanctity of the United States Constitution. When the federal government begins, even in practice, games or exercises, to consider any U.S. city or state in 'hostile' control and trying to retake it, the message becomes extremely calloused and suspicious.

While godforsaken desert hellholes do tend to skew conservative all over the world, can't imagine why, I'm going to guess it's a coincidence. That said, one of the points of conducting such training exercises is that in a real conflict troops will probably be working in "hostile" or "uncertain" territory, and so the pretended-at map of the exercise ground probably has to mark out at least some area as "hostile" or it wouldn't be much of a war game, now would it. An exercise in which all areas are labeled "super-friendly" or "puppy playdate center" would be grand if the sitting president wanted to invade Lollipop Mountain, but as of now most such conflicts take place in blisteringly hot desert hellholes with poor infrastructure, heavily armed roving gangs of authority-defying nutjobs, and led by hostile theocratic regimes that think the American president might be the devil. If some group of military leaders considers all that and thinks "Texas?" you have only yourselves to blame.

But wait, there's more below the fold.

Hillary Clinton lobbed a grenade into the Republican field Tuesday when she gave her full-throated support to the undocumented community—backing both a path to citizenship and deportation relief for Dreamers and their parents.

"I'm ready to have this discussion with anyone, anywhere, anytime," she said.

It didn't take long for some GOP hopefuls to pounce. Newly minted Republican candidate Carly Fiorina told CNN that Clinton was "pandering." Then she offered this innovative fix:

"I think we need to start with some basics, ya know, I think we need to secure the border."

Oh, that Carly—just so fresh and entrepreneurial. But the GOP's new darling in Iowa, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, was not to be outdone, going on an anti-immigrant tweet rant Wednesday.
Surprisingly, only 63 of Walker's 128,000 followers retweeted that last one within the first hour. Certainly, Walker expected more given the latest New York Times/CBS News poll showing that nearly half of Republicans think undocumented immigrants should be deported.

On immigration, 46 percent of Republicans said illegal immigrants should be required to leave the United States, while only 16 percent of Democrats said the same.  And while 71 percent of Democrats said illegal immigrants should be able to stay in the country and apply for citizenship, just 38 percent of Republicans said they should be allowed to remain in America and pursue citizenship.

That same poll, released Tuesday before the immigration event, found Clinton dominating even the GOP's most immigration-friendly candidates.
Interestingly, neither Marco Rubio nor Jeb Bush has had any response to Clinton's event. That's probably because they know they can't win the White House without at least some Latino support.

But if you want to get a sense of the tough spot Clinton has created for Republicans in the general election, one need only look at yesterday's Twitter feed from conservative Latina pundit and former McCain National Hispanic co-chair, Ana Navarro. Navarro attempted to tamp down the enthusiasm of immigration activists and rebut the media's read on Clinton's comments.

The Department of Transportation predicted last July that there would be an average over the next decade of 10 major derailments a year of trains carrying crude oil or ethanol. Wednesday morning there was another one, this time in Heimdal, North Dakota, a tiny town about 50 miles east of Minot. It was the fifth such derailment nationwide this year.

At least six tank cars caught fire when a BNSF train hauling crude oil from the Bakken formation derailed at about 7:15 AM CT.

The Federal Railroad Administration issued a statement:

"A crude oil train has derailed near Heimdal, North Dakota this morning, resulting in a large fire involving several tank cars. The town of Heimdal is being evacuated. The FRA has deployed a ten person investigation team to the site and will be conducting a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident. Today's incident is yet another reminder of why we issued a significant, comprehensive rule aimed at improving the safe transport of high hazard flammable liquids. The FRA will continue to look at all options available to

The tank cars involved at Heimdal were CPC-1232, an upgraded model that the industry has said would improve safety as they replaced the older DOT-111 tank cars. But this is the fifth in the past six such derailments in which CPC-1232 tank cars were punctured and burned.

One of the problems with oil from the Bakken Shale formation of North Dakota and Montana is that it is more volatile than other oil. North Dakota issued its own rule last month mandating that companies remove volatiles before shipping. But state regulators there are notoriously cozy with the oil and gas industry, frequently reducing fines for environmental violations by 90 percent, when they are imposed at all. So it remains to be seen whether the rule will have an impact on derailment spills and fires.

According to a review of records by the Associated Press, there have been at least 24 oil-train accidents since 2006 in the U.S. and Canada that involved a fire, derailment or significant amount of fuel spilled.

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued new regulations last week that the industry says are too strict and that critics, including several members of Congress, feel aren't strong enough. Among the things they will do is require that the steel walls of tank cars must be 9/16ths of an inch thick instead of the half-inch the industry wants. The regulations also require that electronically controlled pneumatic brakes be used on most trains carrying high-hazard flammable fluids by 2023 at the latest and that the top speed on all crude oil trains be 50 mph.

   

• Today's comic by Matt Bors is X-Race Specs:
  
• Former Speaker Jim Wright dead at 92:

  James “Jim” Wright Jr., the former Congressman and Speaker of the House from 1987 through 1989, died Wednesday morning the age of 92. He is survived by his wife, Betty, and four children. [...]

  He was re-elected to the U.S. Congress 17 times. After an ethics inquiry spearheaded by then-Rep. Newt Gingrich, Wright resigned during his term as speaker in June of 1989. Calling the year-long House Ethics Committee investigation into speaking fees and gifts an “agonizing experience,” Wright maintained his innocence, reiterating 20 years after the investigation that he was “convinced” no laws or House rules were violated.

• ADP private employment report signals weak government employment report Friday: Automatic Data Processing announced Wednesday that the economy created 169,000 seasonally adjusted new private-sector jobs in April. That was far below the expert consensus of 205,000. Although the ADP estimates of job growth frequently don't mesh with the government's numbers, last month its lower-than-expected estimate hinted that the Bureau of Labor Statistics report might show that fewer jobs than the 200,000+ in 12 of the 13 previous months. Sure enough, the BLS reported the lowest new jobs gain in 34 months. Although the ADP report showed gains, it estimated that 10,000 manufacturing jobs were shed in April. While the service sector generated 170,000 new jobs, the goods-producing sector lost 1,000 jobs, ADP stated.
• New York's record for corruption moves up a notch or two:

  ther states have plenty of corruption, but it’s hard to beat New York when it comes to sheer volume. The indictment Monday of Dean Skelos, the state Senate majority leader, and his son Adam came just three months after charges were brought against Sheldon Silver, then the Assembly Speaker. Having the top leaders in both chambers face indictment in the same session is an unparalleled achievement, but Skelos is now the fifth straight Senate majority leader in Albany to face indictment.

  New York doesn’t so much have a culture of corruption as an entire festival. So far, Senate Republicans are standing by Skelos, but if they decide to make a change, they probably won’t turn to Thomas Libous, the chamber’s Number Two leader. He faces trial this summer on charges of lying to the FBI, while his son faces sentencing later this month on similar charges. All told, more than two dozen members of the New York state legislature have been indicted or resigned in disgrace over the past five years.

• Orioles seek to make "ReOpening Day" a celebration of Baltimore pride.
• Viewing historical map collection just got a lot easier:

  IT JUST GOT way, way easier to search and browse the US Geological Survey’s collection of historical topographic maps, thanks to a new online map viewer. These maps—more than 178,000 of them—date back to 1880, and they cover the entire country. Best of all, they’re free to download for anyone who wants to, say, check out the contours of the Grand Canyon or study the urbanization of the San Francisco Bay Area (see below).

  Hunting for historical topo maps on the USGS site used to be confusing and annoying. It involved a lot of clicking on what you hoped was the right thing, squinting at the tiny preview maps, and twiddling your thumbs while the enormous full-sized version downloaded. And then starting over when it turned out to be the wrong thing.

• These Daily Kos community posts were the most shared on Facebook May 5:
  

  U.S. is 33rd best place to be a mother in the world. Yes, 33rd. Behind Portugal, Belarus, Croatia., by james321

  Head of Kansas GOP Calls Waitress Who Returned Brownback's Tip "Arrogantly Stupid" and "Ignorant", by Dartagnan

  Are you sick of highly-paid teachers?, by sboucher

• Daimler debuted the first self-driving semi-truck atop Hoover Dam. But you can't have one yet:

  Taking a line from astronaut Neil Armstrong, Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard of Daimler Trucks and Buses told the crowd bused to the site from Las Vegas for the news conference that they were about to witness "a short drive for man and a long haul for mankind."

  "We are really showing that we're at the cradle of innovation," Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said Tuesday after helping affix the state's automated vehicle license to the truck.

  The truck isn't quite a working reality, though. For one, Daimler isn't taking customer orders just yet.

• Cop who got free Starbucks coffee and spilled it on himself suing for $750,000:

  WRAL-TV reports attorneys said in court Monday that Raleigh officer Matthew Kohr should be compensated for burns, blisters and emotional damage caused after the officer spilled the coffee in his lap in 2012.

• Woman held hostage at knifepoint by boyfriend summons help via pizza app.
• Team Blackness discussed the problematic framing and coverage of the #BaltimoreUprising and the fact that some people are purposely trying to make things worse. These include internet racists with their #BaltimoreLootCrew. Also discussed was the ridiculous claim that Freddie Gray broke his own spine and the incredibly high bail set for one protestor who smashed a police car window. Subscribe on iTunes | Subscribe On Stitcher | Direct Download | RSS
• On today's Kagro in the Morning show, more awful GunFAIL. Greg Dworkin: Hillary on immigration & Jeb's IA disaster. Christie still toast. Skelos family seems smart. At FEC: more $, less oversight. Joan McCarter on Hobby Lobby fallout, NSA tech toys. Sanders. Patriot Act games. Gop's new ACA attack, kos wrecks old one. Emerging rural hospital crisis.
  
  

Sometimes the left hand just doesn't know what the right is doing ... or it doesn't care ... or frankly, it thinks the right hand is an idiot. That was the case for Fox News Latino following Hillary Clinton's strong immigration policy pledges at Tuesday's campaign event in Las Vegas. Here's the FNL headline:
And then there's the right hand, Fox Nation: Nice.

A Hillary Clinton rival whines:

One Democratic 2016 campaign adviser who spoke to Business Insider said they believe the Democratic National Committee's debate schedule was "worked out" to benefit Hillary Clinton and hurt her opponents.

The adviser, who requested anonymity in order to speak frankly about the party's campaign arm, suggested the DNC is hosting a small number of debates in an attempt to give Clinton's more low profile rivals "less screen time." They also suggested the relatively late schedule of the debates will make it harder for Clinton's lesser known rivals to introduce themselves to voters.

First of all, is there any reason this "adviser" got anonymity for this attack? We're supposed to take Clinton's rivals seriously when they're too afraid to attack her on the record?

Given what we've been hearing from other reports, this adviser almost certainly works for former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. Perhaps he doesn't want to overly damage his vice-presidential chances?

Furthermore, six sanctioned debates is more than enough. It's funny watching this dinosaur of an "adviser" whine about "screen time" at a time when candidates have myriad avenues to deliver their message across infinite screens. Poorly watched debates aren't the answer for a candidate looking to catch fire. Howard Dean and Wesley Clark caught fire in 2003 before a single debate took place. Barack Obama likewise did the same in 2007. The debates actually hurt Dean, and by the time they took place in 2007, Obama was already off to the races.

Debates may have had an outsized level of influence in campaigns from the '60s to the late '90s, but we live in a different world now. Stop whining about the old rules, and learn to play by the new ones. Six debates is more than enough for candidates to differentiate themselves, particularly after they've used new media tools to introduce themselves to primary voters.

That said, the DNC is wrong on one major aspect: the rules allow it to bar any candidate from attending its sanctioned events if they participate in any other debates. That blatantly undemocratic clause needs to be ignored by all candidates. If you don't want to call it a "debate," then fine, but if candidates want to participate in joint forums, hangouts, gatherings, symposiums, roundtables, or whatever, that's their right as Americans and fuck the DNC for trying to squash it. Hillary can show up to those additional events if she wants to. Or not. No one is forcing anything on anyone.

If the insurgent candidates want to generate some attention, they should openly flaunt that rule then demand to be included in the sanctioned debates. And if the DNC holds its ground, all of Clinton's opponents should boycott until Clinton is forced to either stand alone on stage like an idiot (thus the story becomes a farcical event), or she asks the DNC to bend the stupid rule.

I keep coming back to this because it is just so crazy. Last time I focused on his "ask any employer" line, today, I'll highlight another part:

TODD: You made some dire predictions about health care. 2014 you said fewer people would have health insurance. According to plenty of surveys, more people have health insurance today than they did before it went down from – the uninsured rate went down 17 percent to just under 12 percent. You said it would destroy jobs. The first year it was implemented, the country added 3 million jobs. Why…

BOEHNER: Obamacare made it harder for employers to hire people. The economy expands and as a result, you are going to have more employees because businesses have to. But if you can ask any employer in America, and ask them whether Obamacare has made it harder for them to hire employees, they’ll tell you yes. Because it’s a fact.

Here is Boehner's prediction about Obamacare:

[Obamacare] will bankrupt our nation, and it will ruin our economy.

He also tweeted this:

Pres. Obama's #hcr law is expected to destroy 2.3 million jobs.

So ... he first predicts that passing the law will "ruin the economy" and bankrupt us, but now he says "The economy expands and as a result, you are going to have more employees because businesses have to."

Um, dude? How can that economy be expanding if Obamacare was going to bankrupt the nation and ruin the economy? In fact, in one 14-minute press conference, Boehner uttered the words "job-killing" seven times! Nevermind the fact that the deficit is going down, and the ACA is a major reason for that.

Of course, Boehner isn't the only nutbag who made insanely wrong predictions about the ACA. Rush Limbaugh said the law would cost the nation "2.5 million jobs minimum’ and would be a ‘literal tragedy,'" while Glenn Beck said, "This is the end of prosperity in America forever, if this passes. This is the end of America as you know it."

Former Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said, "There will be no insurance industry left in three years", and he said that five years ago. Former Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) said, "It’s going to destroy our economy. … It’s going to push us into a total economic collapse," while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said "It will hurt the economy, it will kill jobs."

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said, "I think that what's going to come out of Obamacare is worse than anybody can imagine. I think it will lead to bankruptcy in the states that are fully embracing it." Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) said, "Firm after firm telling the White House, the administration this isn't going to work." Carly Fiorina was apoplectic, "I just don't think we can afford to wreck one-sixth of the economy and what is arguably a very excellent healthcare system." Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) was besides himself, "The full extent of damage the PPACA causes to small businesses, the nation’s economy, and the American health care system will only be revealed with time."

So yeah, good one, guys. You don't get to predict dire economic collapse, then say "the only reason employers are hiring is because the economy is doing well." Well, no shit that's why they're hiring. Point is, the economy isn't where you claimed it would be. You were wrong. As usual.

A full seven months after Baltimore City Council President Jack Young began calling for a full-scale Department of Justice investigation into patterns and practices of violence and discrimination by the Baltimore Police Department, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has finally joined the call.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said even though complaints of excessive force and lawsuits alleging misconduct our down over the last few years, "we all know that Baltimore has a fractured relationship with community."

The mayor's request came a day after new Attorney General Loretta Lynch visited the city. The mayor said Lynch understands the urgency of her request.

The DOJ currently has cases and binding agreements called "consent decrees" with police departments and prisons all over the country that have been found to have unconstitutional patterns and practices. It was such an outside investigation that determined that the Ferguson Police Department in Missouri had multiple instances of racism and a widespread pattern and practice of discrimination against African Americans in which constantly arresting them was seen as the primary profit engine for the city government.

Stay tuned as we cover the next steps of this investigation.

Sign our petition to drop the charges against Baltimore protestors.

11:23 AM PT: The DOJ just released the following statement:

“The Attorney General has received Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s request for a Civil Rights Division 'pattern or practice' investigation into the Baltimore Police Department.  The Attorney General is actively considering that option in light of what she heard from law enforcement, city officials, and community, faith and youth leaders in Baltimore yesterday.

Hold on to your hats, folks! Southern Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has entered the presidential race, setting up a fight to the finish with tea party favorite Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for the GOP's most hallowed being: the evangelical voter.

Cruz may have announced his candidacy at Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, but it was Huckabee who delivered some ministerial guidance from a lectern in Hope, Arkansas.

"As Americans, we ought to get onto our knees every night and thank God we still live in a country that people are trying to break into rather than one they're trying to break out of," he said to cheers.

Sorry—if you're not a believer, you don't count to Huckabee. In fact, it's questionable whether he even thinks non-Christians are Americans at all. Perhaps that's because his candidacy might actually succeed if the only people allowed to vote were evangelical Christians.

On that point, Huckabee is in perfect synch with Ted Cruz, who dared to dream a version of that scenario during his Lynchburg, Virginia, announcement in March.

“Roughly half of born-again Christians aren’t voting. They’re staying home. Imagine, instead, millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values.”

Whoa, hold on, Ted. Before you lose yourself in that general-election fantasy, don't forget about the primary, where you and Huckabee will first have to duke it out for the affections of true believers.

Head below the fold for more on this story.

This is why we like polling averages. The day after an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed that Hillary Clinton's overall favorable rating was now even at 42 percent favorable to 42 percent unfavorable, down from March, a New York Times/CBS News poll finds her favorable rating improved since March. According to the new poll, the percent of voters with a favorable view of Clinton has gone from 26 in March to 35 now, and the percent with an unfavorable view has ticked down a point from 37 to 36. By contrast, Jeb Bush is at nine percent favorable and 28 percent unfavorable, with most voters saying they either don't know enough or are undecided.

The poll also found that:

... the number of Americans who think Mrs. Clinton has strong qualities of leadership has risen by eight percentage points, to 65 percent from 57 percent, in that period. Still, Mrs. Clinton begins this campaign with fewer voters saying she possesses such qualities than did in July 2007, near the outset of her first presidential bid.

Still, 65 percent is not exactly terrible. And the New York Times must be disappointed that, despite its best efforts:

... only 10 percent [of Democrats] said foreign donations to the foundation affected Mrs. Clinton’s decisions while she was the nation’s top diplomat. Just 9 percent of Democratic voters said they would not consider voting for Mrs. Clinton.

Take these results for what they're worth, and let the two-day "she's down! no, she's up!" of these two polls serve as a reminder not to take any one poll too seriously.