THE NEW YORK TIMES: Right-wing hate machine.

OK then.

CHANGE: Trump expected to sign religious liberty executive order.

WAIT… WHAT? FDA May Make Too Many Pizza Toppings a Crime.

The rule will require, among other mandates, that all restaurants and other retail food outlets, such as movie theaters, operating as one brand with at least 20 stores display a calorie count in addition to other nutritional information for all standard menu items on the establishment’s “menus and menu boards.”

To demonstrate the potential scope of that provision, Lynn Liddle, a former executive vice president at Domino’s Pizza, said, “‘Menu’ can refer to any writing that [is] ‘used by a customer to make an order selection at the time the customer is viewing the writing’”—possibly including flyers and other advertisements.

“We no longer know what a menu is,” Liddle said, to point out how confusing the rule is.

When an executive of a major national corporation can no longer ascertain the meaning of the word “menu,” a rule has problems.

During the rule’s notice-and-comment period, some food purveyors raised concerns “that restaurants that ‘unwittingly misbrand their menu offerings’ will be held liable for their food that is misbranded under this rule and related provisions of the FD&C Act.”

The FD&C Act makes misbranding a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment up to one year and a fine of up to $1,000, with more severe sanctions for repeat offenses (21 U.S.C. § 333).

Imagine a mom & pop operation trying to comply with these regulations.

THAT MEANS IT’S WORKING: Ouster Of Molina Family May Be Bad For Insurer’s 1M Obamacare Patients.

The surprise ouster of the top two executives at family-run Molina Healthcare could bring to an end the commitment the insurer has had to the individual business under the Affordable Care Act.

About 9% of all Americans enrolled in the ACA’s public marketplaces are enrolled in Molina health plans, and departing chief executive Dr. J. Mario Molina was outspoken for the business, most recently chastising Congress and the Donald Trump White House for not funding cost-sharing reductions for ACA patients.
…
“In light of the Company’s disappointing financial performance, the Board has determined to change leadership in order to drive profitability through operational improvements,” said Dale B. Wolf, a board director who was named non-executive Chairman of the Board on Tuesday.

The Molina brothers’ devotion to ObamaCare cost them their jobs.

ANALYSIS: FALSE. Venezuela Is Heading for a Soviet-Style Collapse.

It’s too late for Venezuela to disintegrate as quietly as the U.S.S.R. did.

BAN GLUE GUNS: We Must Stop the Gun-Panic Epidemic.

LOST AND FOUND: Sarah Hoyt’s short story “prequel of sorts” to her new novel, Darkship Revenge.

I haven’t started reading Revenge yet, but love the other books in the series.

“SHUT UP,” SHE EXPLAINED. Wasserman Schultz: Public should mind your own business on Obama $400K speaking fee.

“Of all people to question … their commitment to getting money out of politics, to really making sure we restored integrity to political finance process, President Obama couldn’t have done more,” Wasserman Schultz told CNN host Erin Burnett on Tuesday evening.

Wasserman Schultz, who was ousted as Democratic National Committee chairwoman last summer for colluding with Hillary Clinton’s campaign, said Obama has a history of fighting “against the big banks,” despite his decision to now accept a large sum of money to address the Wall Street group.

“Look, it is none of anyone’s business what someone who is a member of the private sector decides to accept in terms of compensation,” Wasserman Schultz added. “With all due respect to anyone who chooses to comment publicly on what Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or anyone earns as a member of the private sector, it’s just MYOB.”

To translate into ObamaSpeak, “If you like your opinion, you can keep it to yourself. Period.”

WAITING TO INHALE: American Airlines Will Shrink Legroom in Coach — Again.

An American spokesman said Tuesday that the carrier’s Boeing 737 Max jets, the first of which should arrive later this year, will have only 30 inches of seat pitch in most coach seats, giving passengers an inch less space than in the airline’s older model 737s.

Worse, “up to three rows” will have 29-inch pitch, roughly equivalent to what ultra low-cost carriers, including Frontier Airlines, give passengers. Except for the discounters — they generally have 28 or 29 inches of pitch — U.S. airlines have been reluctant to shrink standard pitch below 30 inches. (Pitch is the distance from any spot on a seat to the same place on the seat in front of it.)

American did not say how it will decide which passengers sit in the rows with the least legroom. But the spokesman said passengers will hardly notice having less room.

Uh-huh.

Smaller seats also mean smaller tray tables — and some are already too small to hold a cocktail and a 10-inch tablet at the same time.

BRIDGET JOHNSON: “In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director James Comey offered an impassioned defense of his decision to announce an additional investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails at the end of October.”

Read the whole thing.

TIPPING POINT? Most of Aetna’s revenue now comes from government programs.

Here’s a nugget that encapsulates the health insurance industry, despite all the noise surrounding the future of the Affordable Care Act: In the first quarter of this year, Aetna collected more premium revenue from government programs (namely Medicare and Medicaid) than it did from commercial insurance for the first time ever.

Why this matters: Most people get their health coverage from their employer, and that historically has been the bread and butter of the insurance industry. But the aging population and expansion of Medicaid managed care means insurers are investing more time and money in the lower-margin (but still lucrative) government programs. Aetna, in particular, has invested heavily in Medicare Advantage.

I’m old enough to remember when ObamaCare was going to take down those blood-sucking insurance companies.

VIDEO: Hilarity Ensues When Arizona Hipsters form an Anti-Fascist Gun Club; Fortunately No One Was Hurt.

JOSH BLACKMAN: Pre-Existing Contradictions.

There is a perverse contradiction about Obamacare’s most popular feature: people overwhelmingly support Obamacare’s protections for people with preexisting conditions, unless they understand that these protections increase the cost of insurance for people without preexisting conditions.

I discuss the results of a September 2009 Kaiser poll in Unraveled:

Under the Affordable Care Act, he said, “for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it the most.” By far, this was one of the most popular aspects of the ACA, if not the most popular provision. A September 2009 Kaiser survey found that 80% of respondents supported this ban – that included 88% of Democrats and 67% of Republicans. Among those supporters, however, only 56% still favored the provision if it resulted in higher premiums; 36% would oppose it. Supporters almost certainly did not realize that requiring insurers to cover sick people would necessarily shift the cost onto everyone else.

Eight years later, the numbers remain remarkably the same. According to a Cato/YouGov survey from March 2017, the support for the pre-existing condition ban flips when people recognize that it imposes costs on everyone else:

By a margin of 63% to 33%, Americans support the ACA’s community-rating provision that prevents health insurers from charging some customers higher rates based on their medical history. However, support flips with a majority opposed 60%-31% if the provision caused the quality of health care to get worse.

Majorities also come to oppose the ACA’s community-rating provision if it increased premiums (55% oppose, 39% favor), or raised taxes (53% oppose, 40% favor).

This divide resembles President Obama’s lie that people can keep the plans they like. Nothing is free.

Americans keep falling for the oldest scam in the world: That government spending is just other people’s money. In the end though, we’re all the other people.

GERSH KUNTZMAN: Hillary Clinton shouldn’t be writing a book — she should be drafting a long apology to America.

Hey, Hillary Clinton, shut the f— up and go away already.

I voted for Clinton on Nov. 8 and thought she’d be a good president.

But she lost. And she still wants us to feel bad about that. And, worse, she’s still blaming everyone else.

On Tuesday at the Women for Women conference, she reminded us again what a flawed candidate she was last year — and what a flawed person she has always been.

In her talk before a friendly audience, Clinton said she’s writing a memoir — and said it’s “painful” to revisit how Donald Trump beat her like a ragdoll in an election that was a lock.

Painful? We’re the ones in pain, Hillary. You’re making millions to process it. We’re the ones living it.

The lingering bitterness isn’t limited to Hillary herself.

COUNTERTERROR: Bedouins Burn ISIS Fighter, Urge All Sinai Tribes to Kick Terrorists to Curb.

‘TIS A PITY HE WASN’T: North Korea Arrests US Citizen For Plotting To Overthrow Govt.

“I NEED WIDER POWERS!” Venezuela plan to rewrite constitution branded a coup by former regional allies.

“It seems that he is doubling down, and not realizing that those who die in the street – whatever colour they wear – are Venezuelans,” said Malcorra.

Brazil’s top diplomat described the proposal for a constituent assembly as a coup d’état. “It is another break with democracy, violating the country’s constitution,” said foreign minister Aloysio Nunes in a Facebook post. Nunes said Brazil could not intervene, but had condemned Maduro’s “escalation of authoritarianism”.

Venezuela is likely to shrug off the accusations, having grown accustomed to criticism from the two countries which have seen a switch of government from left to right in recent years. In Brazil’s case, that shift came about after the impeachment of president Dilma Roussef – a move which Maduro described as a coup.

Maduro – who is struggling to overcome low approval ratings, bloody demonstrations, a deteriorating economy, runaway crime and riots over food shortages – said on Monday that the new constitution was necessary to overcome the gridlock paralysing the country so that the nation’s considerable oil wealth could be channelled to the people more effectively.

Unexpectedly, of course.

HAVE YOU HUGGED A FRACKER TODAY? Oil Forecast to Fall Sharply if OPEC Doesn’t Extend Production Cuts.

Oil markets have largely priced in an extension to the deal struck between OPEC, Russia and other producers late last year.

If that deal isn’t extended, prices could drop below $40, a level not seen for over a year, some analysts say.

If the output cuts are extended when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other suppliers meet on May 25, oil prices would rise to $60 a barrel by the end of the year.

“The market appears to have largely priced in an extension to the output-cut deal,” said Warren Patterson, commodity strategist at ING Bank. “This is a significant risk for the market, with no deal likely to lead to an aggressive selloff.”

Brent crude will average at $57 a barrel this year, reaching $60 in the fourth quarter, according to a poll of 14 investment banks surveyed by The Wall Street Journal in late April. That is broadly unchanged from the previous survey. The banks expect West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. oil gauge, to average $55 a barrel this year.

In early Wednesday trade, Brent was trading at $50.80 a barrel, while WTI was changing hands at $47.90 a barrel.

Supply could be increasing just in time for the annual summertime demand spike, and frackers are in better financial condition today than they were in 2014 when the last glut began.

CUE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: Former RNC Chair on Paul Ryan: ‘Amazing’ His Hair Isn’t Gray or Gone. “My advice to the speaker was don’t take the job, back when he was looking at it.”

COMMUNITY PROPERTY: UK and EU at odds over size of ‘divorce bill’

An EU source has told the BBC that officials in Brussels will not enter into a discussion about potential figures for a final bill, likely to be one of the hardest-fought and most sensitive areas of the Brexit process.

On Wednesday, the Financial Times claimed the likely bill had risen sharply from 60bn to 100bn euros, basing its calculations on new data from across Europe.

Mr Barnier said there was no agreed figure but the UK and EU had entered into “mutual commitments” which must be honoured. “There is no Brexit bill. The final settlement is all about settling the accounts.”

Mr Davis said the negotiations had not started in earnest but he indicated the UK would set down a marker when it came to talks over the divorce settlement.

“We are not supplicants,” he said. “This is a negotiation. They lay down what they want and we lay down what we want.”

Various figures ranging from 50bn to 100bn euros had been knocking around, he said, but he had “not seen” any official numbers. Asked directly whether a figure of 100bn euros – was acceptable, he replied: “We will not be paying €100bn.”

Think of Brexit as a contested divorce between a wealthy couple with zero love left but plenty of bitterness, and you won’t go far wrong.

GOOD MORNING: Liz Sheld’s Morning Brief has everything you need except bacon.

TOP OFF THE SWAMP: Why a Congress that’s protesting wasteful spending wants $77 million more for itself.

MORE MIZZOU FALLOUT: Low Enrollment Hits Apartment Market.

AUTO SALES BLOODBATH: Every OEM Misses April Sales Estimates As Inventories Continue To Soar.

After an abysmal March print and growing speculation on wall street that auto sales are looking less like a “plateau” (Ford’s label not ours) and more like a debt-fueled bubble on the verge of an epic collapse, auto investors were looking toward April auto sales for signs of hope. Unfortunately, the “hope” trade failed to materialize as every single, major auto OEM missed their April sales estimates in fairly spectacular fashion.

Meanwhile, inventory days are still trending higher as OEMs continue to push product on to dealer lots even though sale through to end customers has seemingly stalled.

GM, one of the few OEMs to actually disclose dealer inventories in monthly sales releases, reported that April inventories increased to 100 days (935,758 vehicles) from 98 days at the end of March and just 71 days (681,402 vehicles) in April 2016. But please don’t worry because GM would like for you to know that their soaring inventories are normal and “reflect strong sales”…no really.

It remains to be seen if Detroit is on the brink of a run-of-the-mill recession, or if they’ve stuffed the sales channels deep enough to threaten another 2007-08 collapse.

ANDREW MALCOLM: Trump vows major changes to NAFTA. Good luck with that, sir.

The U.S. and Canada have the largest bilateral economic relationship in the world, along with the world’s longest undefended border, 5,524 miles. Imagine the costs of that wall.

They’re tied by vast electrical, financial, intelligence and law enforcement networks. Nearly $2 billion in trade flows across that border every single day. More trade transits the old bridge between Detroit and Windsor each year than flows between the U.S. and Japan.

Americans have $380 billion directly invested in Canada, while Canadians have about $260 billion investments down south. Exports of goods and services to Canada support about 1.7 million U.S. jobs. The U.S. trade deficit there narrowed to $11 billion last year.

Fully 40 percent of U.S. imported oil comes from Canada before the Keystone XL pipeline.

Canada is 10 percent larger than the United States and forms the only geographical buffer with Russia. Its politics are way more liberal than the U.S., but Canada has probably been our staunchest ally. On a per capita basis, in fact, Canadian families sacrificed more lives in Afghanistan than the U.S.

As for Mexico, exports there support around 1.2 million U.S. jobs. The exchange of goods and services last year totaled about $597 billion with Mexico earning a surplus of around $55 billion, compared to the $336 billion U.S. deficit with China in 2015.

Americans have about $92 billion in direct investments in Mexico. Mexicans have about $17 billion in the U.S.

Those numbers are yuge.