Extremely distressing news from the Guardian by Luke Harding about the great Vladimir Bukovsky (above): 

The Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky has been on hunger strike at his home in Cambridge for more than a week in protest at what he calls the “Kafkaesque” British judicial system.

Bukovsky was charged last year with child pornography offences. He strenuously denies the allegations. In August he took the unusual step of suing the Crown Prosecution Service for libel: he is seeking £100,000 in damages and claims the CPS has “falsely and maliciously” hurt his reputation.

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Maxing out maudlin to a pinnacle of banal that overshadows even audacious theft and exploitation, behold Ronald Reagan as heavenly sock puppet of #NeverTrump, breaking his own 11th commandment not to speak ill of other Republicans with a whopper straight from "Jimmy's World," brimming over with a tear too gaudy for Bambi. 

I think what they meant to say was: Congratulations to the presumptive GOP nominee, Donald Trump, on his outstanding sweep of five states yesterday. Yuge! It's time for conservatives and populists in the Republican Party to come together and unify and defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall.

Laura Ingraham put it beautifully last night:



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Part 18 of the "Post-Constitutional Election" series is here.

Curly Haugland is an unbound RNC delegate from Bismarck, North Dakota, and a member of the national convention rules committee. He is also something of a regular on cable, especially CNBC, where, in the calmest of tones, Curly will explain that ours is a nation of delegates, not voters -- at least as far as the GOP presidential nominating process goes.

To be sure, Curly doesn't know why his party even bothers to hold primaries. It's not that the contests are completely irrelevant -- the delegates "use the primaries to get some kind of an indication of the preference of the population" -- but, as Curly puts it, "the delegates at the convention choose the nominee, not the voters."

Bismarckian delusions of grandeur? Not...

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Pt. 17 of the "Post Constitutional Election" series is here.

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This is getting interesting.

Donald Trump is now the only candidate running for president of the United States to call for the release of the 28 redacted pages in the 9/11 commission report. These pages, which are believed to implicate Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 attacks, were hidden away by the Bush administration, and continue to be withheld from public view by the Obama administration.

Sen. Rand Paul also supports releasing the 28 pages. While still a presidential candidate, Paul introduced a Senate amendment in June 2015 to declassify the 28 pages. 

...

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In this excellent overview of the 9/11 cover-up the Bush-Obama administrations have engineered and perpetuated, symbolized by those 28 redacted pages of the 9/11 report, former US Senator and Florida Governor Bob Graham, still campaigning tirelessly for the 28 pages' release, makes a point I had not heard before.

(Out on the hustings, by the way, Jeb Bush claimed not to know what the 28 pages were.)

Graham says there is even more than truth and justice at stake. Having continued to hide the role of Saudi Arabia in 9/11 from the American people, the US government has in effect given the original Islamic state a green light for global jihad.

Graham:

I think that the Saudia have gotten the message that given what they know they did in 9/1 that the United States' failure to react is essentially a form of impunity, that we can do anything we want...

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Part 16 of "The Post Constitutional Election" series is here.

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Among the stranger phenemena of this campaign season are Ted Cruz's segues from real person into the character played by Michael Douglas in the 1995 movie The American President. I have posted two performances above; there may be more.

On "defending" wife Heidi from Donald Trump's dread "retweet" -- already absurdist melodrama -- the bizarro fact is that Ted Cruz relied on the lines of a script, not his own mind, to speak out. And not just the lines. Cruz further stole Michael Douglas's performance of those same lines to try to generate righteous anger over his wife's "attack." Think about it: The man's wife is supposed to be under attack, and, in response, he plays a part, thick, like a ham. Such "scenes" have sparked some amusement, but little reflection on the oddness of...

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Whenever Hiroshima is in the news -- lately, for Secretary of State John Kerry's visit and talk of President Obama's possible visit -- some number of opinion pieces follow, weighing President Truman's decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japanese cities at the end of World War II in the Pacific. Left or Right, most of these pieces seem to write themselves, following narrow and constricting lines of accepted narrative, as though the writers were actors reading lines in a play.

One in particular caught my attention this time aroound, namely for its headline, "Simply no other choice," which perfectly encapsulates the fore-ordained school of U.S. history that cancels questions and punishes exploration.

It made me think to repost the following August...

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Part 15 of the Post Constitutional Election series is here.

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To: Brent Bozell

I read the statement you made as president of the Media Research Center, applauding CNN and MSNBC for banning Trump supporter Roger Stone from their presidential election coverage.

CNN, Politico reports, banned Stone in February over his tweets about Jeb Bush supporter and CNN analyst Ana Navarro (Stone called her “Entitled Diva Bitch,” “Borderline retarded,” and “dumber than dog s---” [stet]). The MSNBC ban follows Stone's recent radio discussion of his planned Stop the Steal movement at the upcoming GOP convention...

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This is rich? This is chuptzpah? This is "mental"?

It's all of the above.

Ted Cruz, the man who will tell a different story to different audiences without the slightest decreasing of his furrowed brows, has just signed an amicus brief with 42 other GOP senators challenging Obama's November 2014 executive amnesty.

That would be the same executive amnesty that Houston global immigration superlawyer Charles C. Foster publicly supports. And that would be the same Charles C. Foster, profiled here, with...

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Sunday morning, dogs wallked, NYT on the doorstep. 

Say, how about taking a break from Page One?

Ok, good idea.

Not.

Arts & Leisure, lead story:

"Through the Prism of Gender: The surge of women-only shows sharpens the focus on artists who may have been overlooked and whose works make be undervalued."

Sunday Business, lead story:

"Goldman's Open Book: A gay, Latino partner is testing the bank's culture with his ideas on transparency and technology."

Second lead:

"Sexy Sells, but It Doesn't Always Pay: Romance novels are booming, and they need a steady stream of fresh Fabios for their covers."

Sunday Styles, Vows:

"A Husband's Secret Takes Its Toll: A happy marriage unravels as he faces his need to become a woman."

Sunday Review:

Lead story: "The Tampon of the Future: When you say you're...

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Part 14 of The Post-Constitutional Election is here.

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Charles C. Foster (above) is a pro-mass-immigration, pro-executive amnesty Houston superlawyer. 

He supports the import of Syrian refugees into the state of Texas, as he explained in this 2015 op-ed in the Houston Chronicle.

He supports Obama's executive amnesty, as he wrote in a 2014 op-ed in...

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Smokin' hot off the Youtube, with thanks to Ken Sikorski of Tundra Tabloids.

The transcript of the Trump-Matthews exchange is here.