This seems to be the week that it began to sink in, even among the people who had bought into the conventional Beltway wisdom: Trump means what he says. And this is Trump, the only Trump there is. He's not going to "pivot toward the general election" like the wised-up insiders have been saying he would. He's not capable of change.

Roger Cohen's a confirmed internationalist -- a believer in global trade and in America being engaged militarily and politically, with the rest of the world.  So his chagrin over the sudden opposition to the Obama Administration's signature trade deal is not surprising, but it's good to know what the other side thinks.

Cohen doesn't make any shocking arguments in favor but he hopes the TPP will be approved by Congress before the next election so that:

One year ago, Bernie Sanders stood in the sun on the shore of Lake Champlain and opened his presidential campaign with a promise “to build a movement of millions of Americans.” Critics scoffed, dismissing his supporters as callow youngsters destined to drift once #FeelTheBern stops trending. But Sanders’s campaign proved more popular and resilient than anyone expected. Ironically, many Democrats now want him to terminate his movement and convert it into a get-out-the-vote drive for Hillary Clinton.

But that is not how movements work. The celebrated political movements of American history—abolitionism, progressivism, and civil rights—were never subordinate to political parties. Their leaders did not bow to party elites. Great movements transcend partisanship; they are the makers and breakers of parties.

Read the full story at the Daily Beast

Today would have been John F. Kennedy's 99th birthday. I doubt he would have seen it, even if he had lived out his natural days. He was never in good health. But I grew up with a huge JFK poster in my childhood bedroom, and a little bronze bust of him, the kind banks used to give away, on my shelf. I was born Catholic in Massachusetts in the 60s; Kennedy loomed large in my childhood.

In Rolling Stone a wise friend wrote that one of Donald Trump's great weaknesses is his inability to back down from a fight. Because he's so predictable in that regard, Hillary Clinton will be able to employ numerous surrogates to attack Trump on the theory that he will find himself embroiled in fights with some or all of them. Trump's eagerness to debate Bernie Sanders in California seems evidence of that.

Let's get one thing straight: people are not out to get Hillary Clinton because of her private e-mail server. Hillary Clinton used a private e-mail server because people are out to get her. Yes, she apparently bent and broke the rules, and everyone,  including Clinton, has said how stupid this was. I don't think it's stupid. I think it was the best of several bad choices.

You see, Hillary Clinton doesn't have the option of doing the right thing and not getting attacked. She has not been allowed that option in twenty years.

Lee Chatfield is a Freshman Republican representing a district in Michigan that includes my low-income county, Chippewa, along with some of the richest counties in the state.  His heart, he says, is with God, so naturally he ran as a Tea Party candidate.  He works with the Republican majority to undermine crucial social programs in our beleaguered state because, I don't know--tough love, boot straps, nanny state,the poor don't need it, the rich do, sin, punishment, retribution, all of the above.

So, William F. Weld, former Republican governor of Massachusetts, is running for Vice-President on the Libertarian ticket. That's a ridiculous thing, but it's a ridiculous year, and I'm less interested in this trivial fringe campaign than in what it says that Weld, who was once seen as a real comer in national politics, would even bother with this.

You know how sometimes grandpa seems so cute and well-meaning but then somebody gives him a bourbon and asks him about how the neighborhood has changed over the years and he starts in on the really uncomfortable talk about how everything was fine before the Koreans moved in?

That's where Bernie is now.

He's now arguing that the primary process is biased against him and so the super delegates who he had once claimed were all unfairly in the tank for Hillary Clinton should give him the nomination at the convention.

Yesterday, four days after a small riot took place at the Nevada State Democratic Convention over what Bernie Sanders' supporters say were rule changes depriving Bernie of FOUR DELEGATES and a win that was never going to happen because he had already lost Nevada in FEBRUARY, Bernie Sanders issued a statement warning the Democratic Party that there's a new sheriff in town and they've been really, really bad so whatever happens, it's on them, not him.