Bulwark:
Release it. Read it.
The roles of the criminal justice system and Congress overlap, but they are nevertheless distinct. Conduct that does not rise to the level of criminal prosecution can nevertheless be inconsistent with constitutional standards of conduct. One need not be indictable to be unfit for high office. The president may use his sweeping powers in ways that do not violate the law, but which constitute an abuse of power. Presidential actions may be legal, but also impeachable.
Mueller did not come to a definitive legal conclusion about whether Donald Trump criminally obstructed justice. But only by reading the report—the full report—will we learn why he deferred the decision. Perhaps his intent all along was for Congress and the public to read the evidence and make that judgment. So now it is quite literally up to us.
Axios:
Trump's 2020 plan: Target seniors on Facebook
Between the lines: Other data points pulled from the Facebook ad archive show that the President is using most of those ads targeted towards older people to talk about immigration.
- Trump is using nativist language around immigrants in 54% of his ads, according to BPI. So far Democrats have not responded in kind on the topic of immigration and are focused on fundraising and other policy issues.
- "The one thing the Trump campaign has proven time and again is that they follow the results and optimize for outcomes and not the general consensus," says Zac Moffatt, CEO and founder of public affairs firm Targeted Victory, which specializes in corporate and conservative issue campaigns and causes.
Charlie Cook/National Journal:
The Power of "Negative Partisanship"
In the current political climate, it's more important that the other side loses than your side wins.
There’s something more specific at play, however. Partisanship used to be thought of as something practiced primarily by super-believers, and in some cases that’s still true. But now we are seeing a rise in what’s known as negative partisanship, in which partisan zealots are not enamored with their own party or candidates as much as they loathe anyone in the opposition party.
As Emory University political scientists Alan Abramowitz and Steven Webster observe: “To a greater extent than at any time in the post–World War II era, the outcomes of elections below the presidential level reflect the outcomes of presidential elections. As a result, the famous comment by the late Tip O’Neill that ‘all politics is local’ now seems rather quaint. In the 21st century United States, it increasingly appears that all politics is national.”
Alexis C Madrigal:
The Images That Could Help Rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral
And the young, brilliant professor who made them before he died
“Andrew was relentless at scanning full buildings,” his colleague John Ochsendorf, of MIT, told me. “He would get on top of the vaults and under the roofs to capture the geometry.”
(A year before he died, Tallon posted a brief tour of the upper parts of the choir as a 3-D video to YouTube, embedded below.)
Check out the video above.
Then check out this article about how the cathedral burned by design: contain the fire, save the town. From WaPo:
Why cathedrals are vulnerable to burning quickly and take a long time to rebuild
The iconic church, initially constructed in the 12th and 13th centuries, has heavy stone exterior walls, a roof made of old oak and, below that, a cavernous exterior full of oxygen that feeds flames.
Indeed, Notre Dame was intentionally designed this way. The roof was built of wood so that if it caught fire, it could burn away, but the walls and other structures made of stone wouldn’t burn down. One big advantage of this architectural feature: The fire would be contained by the stone exterior and not put the rest of the city at risk.
And you, it’s horrible and a tragedy, but historically, church fires were all too common, given the combo of wood + candles (or the occasional lightning strike).
OTOH this was not an accident:
David Gorski/Science based medicine:
If there’s one thing that’s been happening as a result of the ongoing and growing measles outbreaks throughout the US, it’s been a backlash against antivaccine viewpoints. It’s the same phenomenon that we observed after the Disneyland measles outbreak four years ago. It was that very backlash that provided the political will in California to pass SB 277, the law that eliminated nonmedical personal belief exemptions to school vaccine mandates. It’s a law that’s worked so far, with significant increases in vaccine uptake observed. Unfortunately, it became clear that SB 277 has a significant flaw. It’s a flaw that I pointed out soon after its passage, namely that any physician can write a medical exemption for basically any reason, regardless of whether that reason has a basis in science and clinical evidence. As a result, soon after SB 277 passed, a cottage industry of selling medical exemptions popped up, pioneered by antivaccine-friendly pediatrician Dr. Bob Sears, who was observed selling them online.
Unfortunately, after the measles outbreak abated, so too did the political will to pass further legislation making exemptions to school vaccine mandates more difficult to obtain.
Morning Consult:
Roughly Half the Electorate Views Christian Nationalism as a Threat
Affinity toward the ideology was best predictor of Trump’s support, per study
s 2016’s election wound down, political scientists scrambled to understand which issue pushed President Donald Trump over the finish line.
And while research showed economic dissatisfaction and prejudice toward immigrants and minorities to be a strong indicator of support for Trump, one study found that the best way to determine vote choice in 2016 was by gauging adherence to Christian nationalist ideology.
“Christian nationalism,” or the belief that the country is or should be a Christian nation that can often include social and political campaigns supposedly aimed at maintaining or reverting back to that status, is not a new phenomenon, but the fervor among its adherents grows stronger amid the United States’ shift toward a more diverse and secular country. A March 22-24 Morning Consult poll finds that nearly half of the voting public views that ideology as an important or critical threat to the vital interests of the country within the next 10 years.
Read the whole thread, it’s not a great set of numbers for Mayor Pete (but it’s early).
TPM:
WH Starts Casting About For New Fed Candidates With Less Baggage
As soon as Republican support became less than guaranteed, the White House quietly began casting about for Federal Reserve Board nominees with less baggage than current likely picks Stephen Moore and Herman Cain.
But, according to a Tuesday Bloomberg report, National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow said that at least for Cain, he’ll personally have to make the final decision about whether or not to exit the confirmation process.
“We are talking to a number of candidates,” Kudlow said. “We always do.”
This seems short term to have worked (Daily Beast):
Bernie’s Fox News Town Hall Was a Ratings Smash. More Dems May Follow Him There.
At least three Democratic presidential campaigns have indicated interest in participating in a Fox News town hall or have begun discussions about doing one.
And some interesting perspective on the decision:
We are not talking about the Trump base (35%, with 45% dead set against) we are talking about persuadables. Charlie Cook pegs them at ~20% and, interestingly, Bernie is making it part of his core strategy.
Of course, I’ve claimed for years that these people exist. So don’t argue with me, argue with Bernie.
Karen Hobert Flynn and Chris Melody Fields Figueredo/USA Today:
Voters finally found a way to get things done and now politicians are thwarting them
Ballot measures can increase turnout and create change. Trying to repeal an initiative approved by voters smacks of arrogance and undermines democracy.
But now legislators are making it harder for voters to pass public policy via citizen-initiated statutes and/or constitutional amendments. In 2019, we have already seen over 100 proposals introduced that would change the ballot measure process; this is more than the previous two years combined. Such legislation has already been signed into law by governors in Arkansas and Utah.