#NeverTrump Can't Count On Paul Ryan

Welp, Paul Ryan's office suggests he can't do much to stop Trump because Ryan is the chair of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and must remain neutral.

Neck Deep In The Fever Swamp

Katherine Krueger walks us through the strange Breitbart implosion over Trump.

Hiring: Front End Developer

We're hiring a new Junior Front End Developer to help us build out the publishing platform that will shape the future of digital journalism. Interested? Full listing after the jump ...

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Where We're Going

In case you missed it over the weekend, my look at the last 96 hours and where this is going: "Someone Will Die".

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Let It Burn

For all the intensity and escalation of the last 72 hours, the biggest tell isn't the canceled event in Chicago, the protestor rushing the stage in Dayton or the stunning announcement from Trump this morning that he wants to cover the legal bills of the supporter who sucker punched a protestor late last week in Fayetteville. The biggest tell is hiding there in plain sight and yet oddly out of view. Donald Trump realized that he needed to tamp down the heat of his campaign going into last week, not to forestall violence or do the right thing but for a very specific tactical reason. He is on the brink of securing the Republican nomination. But to have a nomination that is worth anything he needs at least the acquiescence of GOP party stakeholders. He told us as much. Thus the repeated calls to unity, the more sedate debate performance and even the rather bizarre invocations of the 'two Donald Trumps.' But that's not how it's ended up. And it's important to consider why.

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Be Careful Or Else

Donald Trump warns Bernie Sanders: Be careful, or my supporters will start going to your rallies!

Someone Will Die

Today we appear to be going further and further into uncharted territory. After the cancellation of Trump's event yesterday in Chicago, we had the incident at the rally in Dayton, Ohio in which a protestor, Thomas Dimassimo, jumped the security perimeter surrounding Trump and tried to rush the speaking platform. Dimassimo was charged with disorderly conduct and inducing panic and later released on bail. At a subsequent event and on Twitter, Trump claimed that Dimassimo was tied to ISIS, apparently on the basis of a hoax video his staff found on Youtube. At yet another event this evening Trump called for the mass arrest of protestors, noting that arrest records would leave an "arrest mark" and "ruin the rest of their lives." Trump also repeatedly blamed "communist" Bernie Sanders for what now appear to be the almost constant protests and disruptions at his rallies.

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Trump Supporter: "Go To Fucking Auschwitz"

Chilling, surreal video. Trump supporters streaming out of rally. One yells either at a protestor or member of the press (not clear whether this is considered a distinction any more): "Go to Auschwitz. Go to fucking Auschwitz." Video after the jump

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2011's Grand Harmonic Convergence

The New York Times is out with a fascinating look at what led to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, the years of spadework and, in the Times telling, a night of humiliation in 2011 that helped galvanize Trump's drive for power and respect in the political world. The night is the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, April 30th, 2011. Trump has already begun his bid to put a footprint in the political world by trying to become the leader of the 'birther' movement, which is to say, the tribal leader of idiots. So he's come as a guest to the White House Correspondents Association dinner, which makes sense since it is where celebrity and political power meet up every year.

But Donald gets much more than he bargained for.

For backers of President Obama, watching him deliver a comedic routine - which every president does at this dinner - is a unique treat. Obama has impeccable comedic timing and an uncanny amount of what the French call sang froid - coolness under pressure. As comedy, it is biting.

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Trump: "It's Payback Time" (really)

I have referred a number of times to the 'revanchism' of Donald Trump's supporters. The term originated out of the French demand to reclaim the eastern territories it had lost to Prussia in the War of 1870. But the literal meaning of the word is "revenge" or "revengism": revanchism is a politics based on one group seeking revenge on another group and reclaiming from the latter group what was wrongfully taken from it. This kind of political orientation has been clear in the Trump movement from the beginning. But under pressure it's coming even more clearly to the fore.

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A Thought

The events of the last twenty four hours are a good example: Trump can try to pivot to the general election. But the primaries will insist on coming along too.

Trump Incident in Ohio

As you can see in the feature story, something happened today at a Trump rally in Ohio. What is clear from the video is that while Trump was speaking at an open air rally in Dayton, Ohio, half a dozen of what appear to be Secret Service agents rushed to him to protect his body. I had heard from people who said Trump had been rushed on the stage. But the video shows clearly that that did not happen. Presumably, the agents saw something they believed to be an imminent threat to Trump and rushed to protect him. We will try to find out more about what happened.

Continuing Comments Gremlins

Updating my post from yesterday, we continue to have technical issues with our comment system. Our tech team is working on a fix. And we hope to have the issue resolved shortly.

We are fully aware of the 39th amendment's protections of the right to comment and are working to fix the problem as rapidly as we can.

The Chicago Meltdown

Interesting segment on CNN just now. Jeff Zeleny is explaining that at least outside the Chicago event the crowds were very diverse - ethnically, in terms of age, individuals and families - and orderly, not violent or threatening. A real cross section. Obviously inside the event things got unruly. But that seems to be a very incomplete picture of what happened.