I'm still writing motions. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

British ISIS hostage John Cantlie has re-appeared. ISIS released a new video of him criticizing the United States for bombing an ISIS media kiosk in Mosul. He said the U.S. put innocent lives at risk.

The video is short and has no ISIS violence. You can watch it here.

Cantlie was captured with James Foley and has appeared in many ISIS propaganda videos and Dabiq magazine articles, but none in the past year or so. I think his last video was in February, 2015. While there was an article in the November, 2015 issue of Dabiq purportedly authored by him, it isn't clear when it was written. I hope today's video means he is still alive.

Kate Del Castillo chose Diane Sawyer and 20/20 for her first TV interview about her trip to Mexico with Sean Penn to meet El Chapo and the movie he entrusted to her to make about his life. (Background here and here.) As a long time fan of Del Castillo's acting, I found it very compelling.

Shorter version: She's sorry, but not for what you might think. She's still planning on making her movie about the life of El Chapo (it won't be a romantic comedy.) She's a little angry at Sean Penn. [More...]

I read the other contenders withdrew from the race.

I couldn't disagree more with Obama's announcement that he's tapped Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court.

We don't need another Alito on the Court. It's got enough conservative law and order type former prosecutors.

Republicans will love this choice. It seems to me Obama just wants to appease them and get them to back off their position that the next president should get to choose Scalia's replacement.

So disappointed.

I've got motions due, so no blogging for a day or so.

Has anyone noticed that Donald Trump's ex-wife Marla Maples will be on DWTS starting next week? She supports Donald. Isn't that just like more free publicity for him? [More...]

Bernie Sanders is falling further and further behind in pledged delegates — but even after Hillary Clinton’s Tuesday romp, his campaign says there’s a longshot strategy that lets him regain momentum and win the Democratic nomination by relying on superdelegates even if he comes into the Philadelphia convention still trailing Clinton.

“Our plan on this is we’ve got a long way to go, and we’ve got to demonstrate that Bernie’s the strongest candidate,” said Sanders strategist Tad Devine. “We believe that slowly we can win support for people who aren’t for someone, or who are softly for her, and then we can reach out more.”

[More . . .]

Update 10:45 pm MT: Hillary just took the lead in Missouri, but it's still a virtual tie. She won the other four states today. In Florida, she got over a million votes to Bernie's 550,000.

Missouri is not a winner take all state, so a win by Bernie won't mean much. Bernie spoke in Phoenix, he looks so exhausted and he's hoarse. His first words (of course): "Phoenix, are you ready for a political revolution?" According to David Axelrod on CNN, Bernie spent $4 million on Friday in a single state. He's spending like Jeb Bush, and it seems like it will be just as futile.

Notice that Hillary's campaign is not calling on Bernie to drop out. Personally, I may think it's time, but it's probably correct to say that in the long run, if Hillary wants Bernie's supporters to vote for her in November, it's better not to antagonize them now that the end for him is obviously so close. [More...]

Plenty of politics to talk about. Tomorrow John Kasich and Marco Rubio will find out how voters in their home state feel about them -- going home might not be so sweet, especially for Rubio. I think Kasich will take Ohio, he's got a slight edge over Trump in the latest polls.

In other news: A Palestinian-American fighting for ISIS surrendered to the Kurds/Iraqis today. Russia announced it was pulling most of its military forces from Syria.[More...]

A new name has emerged as a finalist in the Supreme Court sweeps to replace Justice Scalia. Meet Paul Watford.

A new poll at USA Today finds millennial voters now supporting Bernie Sanders would "flock" to Hillary if she and Trump are the nominees.

In a hypothetical Clinton v. Trump contest in November, voters under 35 would choose Clinton by a crushing 52%-19%, a preference that crosses demographic lines. Among whites, she'd be backed by nearly 2-1, 45%-26%. Among Hispanics, by more than 4-1, 61%-14%. Among Asian Americans, by 5-1, 60%-11%. Among African Americans, by 13-1, 67%-5%.

And the yawning gender gap she has against Sanders would vanish: Clinton would carry young men and women by almost identical margins of more than 2-1.

Nearly one in four Republicans would defect to the Democrats if the GOP nominated Trump against Clinton. Just 7% of Democrats would defect to the GOP.

Hillary says she's the most prepared to go up against Donald Trump. She's got thick skin. She talks about what this presidency would mean to our image in the world. She's already getting calls from around the world wanting to stop Trump. She can best focus in on how dangerous a Donald Trump presidency would be.

I just tuned in so I don't know if Bernie has already been on.

The young woman asking about gun violence in poverty stricken neighborhoods seems like a Hillary campaign plant. She asked Hillary a question that everyone knows the answer to and that seems intended solely to let Hillary restate her support for gun control. I'm changing the channel, this town hall seems fixed. [More...]

Hillary Clinton today said Donald Trump may start a fire he can't control.

Clinton is also using Trump’s slogan Make America Great Again as a vehicle for her message, which aims to take the high road by preaching political unity.

“You don’t get the chance to make America great by getting rid of everything that made America great,” Clinton said.

A protester in Ohio today crashed a barricade, resulting in the Secret Service intervening. It was a false alarm. Here's Donald taunting the protesters. He finally trashed John Kasich today in his speech and again said the protesters are Bernie Sanders' supporters.