Fake But Accurate!  “Suicide Bear” appears to be a hoax. I should have suspected. But a well-targeted put-on can become a meme, no? Suicide Bear is the Happy Fun Ball of end-of-life ethics. That’s the ticket. … [Thanks to alert Tweeter R.]

Team Hillary Knows It’s Pandering: Vox immigration reporter Dara Lind tweets:

“Worth noting: HRC campaign stressed path 2 citizenship for DC press this AM. In speech this PM, geared to activists, stressed exec action.”

It’s worth noting because it suggests: a) Activists care more about work permits than citizenship, which gives the lie to the central conceit of the Gang of 8 bill (which assumes illegals want citizenship so much that their advocates would never block enforcement measures, even after they have work permits, if it might prevent them from becoming full citizens); and b) Hillary is wary of voter antipathy to executive amnesty, so when talking to a general audience she stresses a contrast with Republicans on a legislative issue (citizenship). That’s all the triangulation we’re going to get, apparently. …

Call it the Caudillo Test: It’s no longer enough for a Democratic presidential candidate to pledge to reform immigration laws. You have to pledge to end-run the nation’s elected legislature if it doesn’t go along. Good to know! …  P.S.: Hillary appears to have passed the Caudillo Test. Luckily, there is nobody general election voters trust more with unchecked power. Am I right? …  P.P.S.: Immigration activists now want Hillary to talk about amnesty as “part of her stump speech” to non-Latino audiences. In early 2015, or late 2016? I wouldn’t bet on the latter. … 

Update: Hillary’s talk makes it clear, if more clarity were needed, that the “non-citizenship” halfway house favored by Republican politicians is a non-starter — at least if the goal is to woo the Latino vote. Democrats will always be able to outbid Republicans, as Hillary did, by calling non-citizenship “second-class status” (which it is).  Arguably, the “non-citizenship” position is worse, in that respect, for Republicans. It’s one thing to tell illegals “You’re illegal, sorry.” But if you tell them they can have legal status and live here — well, what’t the basis for denying them full rights?  Because they’re brown? The implicit charge of racism, never far from the surface, becomes more plausible, not less. … Of course, if Jeb Bush or Ted Cruz ever makes it past the GOP primaries, they’ll quickly drop the non-citizenship demand (as Jeb already has, once). It’s an untenable positioner’s position. …