Burning Issues: How Currency Manipulation Costs Us
Trade expert Pat Mulloy, in this Burning Issues video, says the Trans-Pacific Partnership does not address a key driver of the job-sapping trade deficits the United States has with some of its trading partners, currency manipulation.
Six States Vote Tomorrow
Clinton scoops up weekend delegates. NPR: "Delegates from Puerto Rico put Clinton just shy of the 2,383 delegates she needs to clinch ... The Associated Press puts her less than 30 delegates from that threshold. That count includes superdelegates..."
Sanders stays on the attack. W. Post: "Sanders’s volleys kept coming over the course of his 50-minute speech. He hit Clinton hard for not moving quickly in the past to support a $15 federal minimum wage. He dismissed her position on fracking and said that entire energy process must be banned in the United States. Sanders raised another issue on Sunday morning, telling CNN that the Clinton Foundation’s web of relationships with foreign governments was a legitimate concern."
Debate within Sanders campaign on next steps. WSJ: "Tad Devine, a senior Sanders strategist ... voiced a conciliatory note, describing how the two campaigns might set aside differences that have grown more pronounced in the heat of the year-long campaign ... Campaign manager Jeff Weaver ... takes a more aggressive approach ... 'The trajectory is the same regardless of the outcome in California.'"
But CA matters greatly. Politico: "A win in California, his top advisers believe, will enable Sanders to make a much more aggressive pitch to superdelegates and Democrats around the country in the coming weeks ... The Sanders camp believes a defeat there would take the wind out of his sails, in no small part because of the negative media narrative that would result after having spent so much time in the state."
Sanders platform committee pick James Zogby defends his role in HuffPost: "I am, of course, a strong supporter of Palestinian rights, so is Bernie Sanders, and so, according to a recent Gallup poll, are a majority of Democrats. But the crude effort to reduce Sanders’ entire campaign and my entire life’s work to an effort to 'get Israel' betrays an unsettling anti-Arab bias and a bizarre obsession to which I must respond."
Trump Campaign Barely Exists
Trump lacks a campaign apparatus. MSNBC: "Republicans working to elect Trump describe a bare-bones effort debilitated by infighting, a lack of staff to carry out basic functions, minimal coordination with allies and a message that’s prisoner to Trump’s momentary whims."
Trump swipes Gingrich. The Hill: "'I was surprised at Newt,' [Trump] said on Fox News's 'Fox and Friends.' 'I thought it was inappropriate what he said.' Gingrich last weekend criticized Trump’s comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel's Hispanic heritage."
Trump could spark Democratic wave. The Hill: "Democratic leadership aides say a nine-seat pickup is not out of the question and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) has recruited aggressively in second- and third-tier races to take advantage of a possible tsunami."
Breakfast Sides
NYT dives deep into Panama Papers: "...the firm did much more than simply create offshore shell companies and accounts. For many of its American clients, Mossack Fonseca offered a how-to guide of sorts on skirting or evading United States tax and financial disclosure laws ... locating an individual from a 'tax-convenient' jurisdiction to be the straw man owner of an offshore account, concealing the true American owner, or encouraging one client it knew was a United States resident to use his foreign passports to open accounts offshore..."
Republican Congress stuck. Politico: "[Speaker Paul] Ryan and the House GOP leadership face serious challenges to pass a fix for Puerto Rico's debt debacle, funding to fight the Zika virus and the annual spending bills they deemed a top priority. A decision also has to be made on whether to press ahead with the impeachment of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen"
