Authored by Ben Tanosborn,

Forget about the number of superdelegates; or the several undemocratic manipulations by the Democratic National Committee (DNC).  The reality that stands out loud and clear at the end of April, with almost two-thirds of the primary-caucus vote having been cast, is that Hillary Clinton is commandingly leading Bernie Sanders in the democratically-chosen delegate count by a tally of 55 percent against 45 for the senator. 

Byron York reports on the magical thinking behind the grudging acceptance of Trump by some leading Republicans:

“Trump does bring a little magic to this in that he could shuffle the traditional battleground map,” one former presidential campaign manager told me. “I haven’t seen any data on that, but I’m just getting a feeling that he’s going to put a couple of Midwestern states in play [bold mine-DL].”

by David Haggith

Submitted by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

Last week the House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act requiring women to register with Selective Service. This means that if Congress ever brings back the draft, women will be forcibly sent to war.

Three months ago the Fed released its Fourth Quarter "Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices", which revealed something ominous. It showed that in Q4, lending standards tightened for the second consecutive quarter. This was a problem because as Deutsche Bank pointed out at the time two consecutive quarters of tightening Commercial & Industrial loan standards "has never happened before without it signalling an eventual move into recession and a notable default cycle.