Based on the Berniebros in our Facebook feeds, Democrats are all for science except for when it comes to delegate math. That said, Sanders gained tremendous momentum last night, guaranteeing that Hillary Clinton may, MAY invite him to campaign for Peter Welch when she’s president. And the Labor Department publicly announced a sweeping new Wall Street regulation, better known as the "that Tom Perez sure would make a swell VP, dontcha think?" rule. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Wednesday, April 6th, 2016:
THE GOP CONVENTION IS GONNA BE WEIRD - Come for the political intrigue! Stay for the simmering socio-economic resentment and rampant gay prostitution! Natalie Jackson: "Donald Trump was having a rough week even before he got clobbered by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in Wisconsin’s primary on Tuesday. Prediction markets — which allow people to bet on what they think will happen — showed his chances of winning the nomination dropping over the last week. The chances of a contested Republican convention requiring two or more votes have climbed to 75 percent. PredictWise, which estimates these probabilities based on those prediction markets, shows that the likelihood of a contested convention has grown 14 percent in just a week. The likelihood of Trump winning the nomination has dropped by 19 percent in the same amount of time... According to FiveThirtyEight, Trump was already 6 percent behind the number of delegates he would need to be on track to win the nomination. The deficit in Wisconsin pushed him even farther behind." [HuffPost]
POLITICIANS TRAVEL TO NON-PARK AVENUE NEW YORK - Ten dollars to the first person to get John Kasich to say "bodega." Amanda Terkel: "The upcoming New York election may be one of the most consequential primaries to date, with both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump fighting to avoid embarrassing losses on their home territory. It’s the first time in modern history that the state has had two competitive primaries...Sanders grew up in Brooklyn, although he’s spent his entire political career in Vermont. But it’s Clinton who is now most closely associated with the state; she was elected to two terms as its U.S. senator and has used that experience as part of her case for why she is best positioned to be president. Losing the state, even if it doesn’t hurt her significantly in the delegate count, would be a mighty symbolic blow…Trump is on firmer ground in New York. He’s lived there his whole life and his golden, gaudy brand is inextricably tied to Manhattan. He’s also resonating in upstate New York, where his messages on trade and the economy have rung true with workers who have seen jobs disappear from the Rust Belt. His first congressional endorsement came from Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), who represents the suburbs and rural areas outside of Buffalo." [HuffPost]
TRUMP LOOKING LIKE A YUGE OPPORTUNITY FOR DEMS - Sam Stein: "Within the confines of the Democratic Party’s vast and amorphous universe of 'strategists' and 'operatives,' theories about the dangers of an imminent Donald Trump nomination have shifted. A month ago, he was a nonconventional pol with emotional appeal to struggling working-class white voters in the Rust Belt, someone who could put traditionally Democratic states into play. As Trump’s self-inflicted injuries have piled up, the anxiety has softened. Increasingly, Democrats see him less as a threat and more as an anchor they could tie around the neck of the Republican Party. On Wednesday morning, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did just that. In an interview with Politico’s Glenn Thrush, she twice made the case that Trump wasn’t wholly different from the rest of the GOP but, rather, the most evocative, noxious incarnation of its platform and approach to governance. In each case, she made the point to tie Trump to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)." [HuffPost]
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security spy on American cities from planes endlessly circling overhead, BuzzFeed reports in a story that is somehow weird, surprising and not surprising.
DELANEY DOWNER - Gary Burlingame, director of lab services for the Philadelphia Water Department, thinks the Flint water crisis has been a bit overblown. “What we don’t have from Flint is a peer-reviewed published study to look at the science of Flint,” Burlingame said… In fact, peer-reviewed research led by Flint pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha revealed Flint’s water treatment failure corresponded to higher levels of blood lead in Flint’s children...HuffPost asked Burlingame whether he believed it was possible for someone to suffer lead poisoning as a result of drinking water with lead in it. He said he couldn’t answer, so HuffPost asked again: is it theoretically possible for someone to get lead in their body from drinking water that has lead in it? “Can somewhere in the world someone drink a water that has a high level of lead that affects their blood? I guess so,” he said. “Sure. That’s what the papers tell us.” Weird! [HuffPost]
DOUBLE DOWNER - Alan Lessard of Canaan, Maine, does not like Paul LePage's food stamp policy. "I am a recently unemployed 47-year-old man. If it wasn’t for my parents, I would be starving. I do not get unemployment and will soon be homeless. I do not qualify for food stamps, because LePage has made it impossible unless I volunteer 20 hours a month at a nonprofit organization. I cannot afford gas to get to the next town or to food cupboards to get handouts. How can I afford to get there three or four times a week? I am told they don’t need more help, but because of this they need more donations!" [centralmaine.com]
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GOVERNMENT ORDERS PEOPLE TO DO JOBS - An attempt to cut out fi-douche-iary sentiment from Wall Street. Dave Jamieson and Shahien Nasiripour: "After six years of debate and lobbying, the Labor Department rolled out a major new regulation on Wednesday that will require virtually all financial advisers to legally act in their clients’ best interests. Known as the fiduciary rule, the new standards are aimed at cutting down on the unnecessary fees that Americans pay to brokers who advise them on their retirement investments. The White House says the rule will address a fundamental conflict of interest within individual retirement accounts, or IRAs — that many brokers, who aren’t legally bound to act in their clients’ best interests, have a financial incentive to shepherd clients toward investments that come with high commissions, regardless of whether it’s right for the customer. Administration officials say the change will put the law regarding retirement funds on par with that of pensions. Pension trustees and administrators are considered 'fiduciaries,' who therefore have a legal obligation to act in the client’s best interests. But when it comes to retirement advice, until now only financial advisers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission have been considered fiduciaries, so brokers were held to a lesser standard." [HuffPost]
JOE MANCHIN JOE MANCHINS - Mike DeBonis: "Senate Democrats have presented a united front when it comes to advancing the confirmation process for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. But should Garland eventually receive an up-or-down vote, that Democratic unity may not endure. Garland met Tuesday with Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who has frequently broken with his party over matters of environmental regulation and gun rights — two issues on which the Supreme Court has significant influence through its constitutional interpretations. Manchin, in an interview Wednesday, praised Garland but said he still has reservations after their hour-long meeting. 'I have concerns,' he said. 'But you know what? He was very straightforward and forthright, and we just have to see. That’s why I would like the committee hearing to proceed. It would really let me know a lot more.'" [WaPo]
TODAY IN D'UH - File this one alongside Citizens United. Andrew Hart: "In a moment of extraordinary honesty, a GOP congressman from Wisconsin said a new voter ID law will help the eventual Republican presidential nominee win the state in November. Rep. Glen Grothman’s prediction, made in response to questions about Tuesday’s primaries in the state, gave credence to critics of voter ID laws who say they are tools used by conservatives to disenfranchise the poor and minorities, many of whom vote for Democrats. Grothman told WTMJ-4’s Charles Benson that despite past GOP candidates’ poor showings in the Badger State, this year will be different. 'Now we have photo ID, and I think photo ID is gonna make a little bit of a difference as well,' he said. Grothman said something similar in 2012, when he was minority assistant leader in the state Senate. At that time, he said the law, which he helped to pass in 2011,could help GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney if it were in effect for the November election because “people who vote inappropriately are more likely to vote Democrat.” [HuffPost]
MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN - Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer: "Embattled former Rep. Aaron Schock has hired high-profile GOP message guru Frank Luntz's firm. Schock paid Luntz Global Partners $10,000 in February, according to a recently released filing with the Federal Election Commission. Luntz Global Partners is doing "communications consulting" for the former congressman, according to Schock's FEC filing. It's not clear what precise role Luntz is playing on Schock's team. The pair previously worked together in 2013, according to campaign filings. But Schock's public relations message is being handled by McGuire Woods, the Richmond, Virginia-based law firm that is also representing him in legal proceedings. Luntz, who has worked with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other Republican leaders, runs a top messaging and public opinion firm." [Politico]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here are some tiny bears.
COMFORT FOOD
- How to be basic.
- A description of mapmakers' fake towns.
- Drinking a gallon of water, one a day, for thirty days.
TWITTERAMA
@adrianchen: Kasich is that last guy at the house party who you're trying to put in an Uber but he's all "It's cool I'll just sleep on the couch!"
@SimonMaloy: based on years of personal experience, I'm guessing Staten Island is probably the Trumpiest goddamn place on earth
@Olivianuzzi: OH at Trump Long Island: "I like a guy who's gonna kick all the garbage outta the country"
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