The potential extradition of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman-Loera is making headlines again. A few quick points:

1. The Mexican Judiciary announced today a judge in Mexico's Third District federal criminal court (Mexico City) recently ruled that the U.S. request for El Chapo's extradition to the Southern District of California (San Diego) is legally sufficient, meaning it complied with the treaty requirements. The ruling applies to the Fourth Superseding Indictment in the 1995 Otay Mesa tunnel case. The announcement (in Spanish) is here. [More...]

Happy Mothers Day, to all.

I think The Good Wife series finale is tonight. I'm afraid to click on news because I don't want the ending spoiled, so I'll just turn on the TV in six minutes and find out. I hope it's a good ending to this very uneven season, especially since I'm interrupting my re-reading of the novel La Reina del Sur to watch it, and I'm at a really good part. (I've seen the series on TV at least three times, but I wanted to check some things Geraldo said about the lead character, Teresa Mendoza, and didn't have time to watch 63 episodes yet again. I started thumbing through my copy of the book, and got immersed in it again, so I went back to page 1 and am reading the whole thing again. At least my copy is in English.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome -- TV related or not. (Update below.)

Geraldo Rivera's new interview with Kate del Castillo about El Chapo and Sean Penn is about to begin.

El Chapo was moved today to a prison close to the border. Mexico says it has nothing to do with extradition. It's just a security measure.

Lorraine Berry at Raw Story writes an excellent op-ed: Chronic Pain killed Prince, not pain pills.

Prince was not addicted to pain medication. Prince had a medical condition — chronic pain — which is criminally under-treated. It is also a medical problem that is more likely to be reacted to with stigma and condescension, even challenges about the patient’s moral character, or, if male, masculinity. Pain is still the condition that we treat by telling its sufferers to just “suck it up,” or “maintain a stiff upper lip,” or to stop acting like a “wuss.” And yet, when someone dies from complications of the disease — for that is what chronic pain is — we react with shock and pity and anger that the person died from a drug overdose. Some outlets make money off our confusion about overdose and medications and our fascination with drugs.

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I forgot about this very long Vanity Fair profile of Donald and Ivana Trump by Marie Brenner in 1990. It's frightening how little he's changed, and how the media knew he was full of it but kept writing about him anyway.

I forgot about the wall he tried to build on the West Side of Manhattan to keep out the homeless:

On the Saturday of Donald Trump’s forty-fourth-birthday celebration, I tried to take a walk on the West Side yards above Lincoln Center in Manhattan. The railroad tracks were rusty, the land was overgrown. The property stretched on, block after block. .... The only sign of Trump was a high storm fence topped with elaborate curls of barbed wire to keep out the homeless people who live nearby. It was on this land, at the height of his megalomania, that Trump said he would erect “the tallest building in the world,” a plan which was successfully thwarted by neighborhood activists who were resistant to having parts of the West Side obscured in shadow.

“They have no power,” Trump said at the time, baffled that anyone would resist his grandiose schemes.

The tweet by Donald Trump depicting him eating a taco bowl in his office (made at Trump Tower Grill) and proclaiming his love of Hispanics in celebration of Cinco del Mayo is hilarious. It's been retweeted 73,000 times as of now, and "liked" by 85,000 people. (There's no dislike number, which for all we know, could be in the hundreds of thousands.

I think his account was hacked. Even he's not stupid enough to think anyone would believe he loves Hispanics or would eat that Taco bowl. I don't even believe he eats food from a restaurant in his building. Do you really think he doesn't have a private chef?

Best response I've seen so far: "Can we have the taco bowl for President instead of Trump?" [More...]

President Obama commuted 58 sentences today. 57 of the 58 inmates are drug offenders.

His statement is here. He called for Congress to reform unjust mandatory minimum sentences.

While I will continue to review clemency applications, only Congress can bring about the lasting changes we need to federal sentencing. That is why I am encouraged by the bipartisan efforts in Congress to reform federal sentencing laws, particularly on overly harsh mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. Because it just doesn’t make sense to require a nonviolent drug offender to serve 20 years, or in some cases, life, in prison. An excessive punishment like that doesn’t fit the crime. It’s not serving taxpayers, and it’s not making us safer.

This brings Obama's total number of commutations, to 306, which he says is more commutations than the last six presidents combined.

House Speaker Paul Ryan won't support Donald Trump right now. He said Trump doesn't advance the principles of the Republican party. He doesn't think Trump is running a campaign Republicans can be proud of. He is unhappy with Trump's belittlement and bullying.

Is it Trump's crassness or his values Ryan objects to? Sounds like the former. Ryan sounds like he's trying to dictate how Trump runs his campaign. Memo to Ryan: It's not going to happen.

I've always disliked Paul Ryan's values. You can read his position on issues here.

Watching Republicans fall all over themselves and castigate their fellow Republicans is mildly entertaining. But in the end their views are all the same -- unacceptable.

The Rolling Stones have sent a cease and desist letter to Donald Trump, telling him to stop using their music. They released a statement to the media saying they never gave him permission.

I suggested such a letter two weeks ago when I heard the notes of "Start Me Up" at the end of Trump's victory speech in South Carolina.

I doubt the Stones would let him use their music. They should send a "cease and desist order" telling him they have no sympathy for the devil.

Time Magazine explains why this issue seems to be happening more frequently. [More...]

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports new details in the investigation into the death of Prince. It sounds like an intervention was in the works.

Andrew Kornfeld was one of the three people at Paisley Park the morning Prince was discovered in his elevator. Kornfeld works for a rehab facility in California owned by his father, Dr. Howard Kornfeld. Prince's staff called Dr. Howard Kornfeld the night of April 20, saying there was a "grave medical emergency." Kornfeld couldn't go to MN immediately, so he sent his son to explain the program to Prince, and arranged for a local doctor to do an initial assessment. Dr. Kornfeld intended to fly to MN the next day.

Andrew Kornfeld took the redeye to MN and got to Prince's house the next morning, intending to begin the process of explaining his father's program and convince Prince to enter treatment there. In other words, an intervention. But he never got to meet with Prince.[More...]

The Navy Seal who died yesterday in a shootout with ISIS is Charles Keating IV, grandson of the late financier and real estate developer who was convicted and served jail time in the 1980's savings and loan scandal.

Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Charles H. Keating IV, 31, was shot and killed during a two-hour battle with about 125 militants who had stormed the Kurdish-held town of Tel Skuf, about 20 miles north of Mosul.

Keating “got hit just in the course of his gun battle. Whether it was a sniper or some fighter with his [rifle] is unclear,” Warren said. “This was a gunfight so there were bullets everywhere.”

As the militants advanced, the U.S. force was sent in to extract the Americans and to help the Kurdish fighters, who have been key allies in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.

Here'a a video of the Navy Seals participating with Peshmerga Kurdish forces in direct clashes with ISIS in Telskuf in Mosul. (No graphic images or victims)

How is this not "boots on the ground?"

John Kasich is back in Ohio where he will announce his withdrawal from the race for the Republican presidential nomination at 5:00 pm (ET.)

Trump will be the Republican nominee. Now come the expressions of shock, awe, and more importantly, the jokes.

My view: Hillary will win in November. The longer she can concentrate on Trump instead of Bernie Sanders, the greater her chances. [More...]