Someone cares about me

Beautiful sunny day today. High temp of 64F. I pumped up the tires on my bicycle and took it out for a ride (and quite wore myself out). Along the way I stopped and voted. And saw more voters than I usually do in a non-presidential election.



Senator John Cornyn of Texas, one of Mitch McConnell's deputies and member of the Judiciary Committee, has a few words of warning for anyone Obama might name to the Supremes:

What I don't understand is how someone who actually wants to be confirmed to the Supreme Court would actually allow themselves to be used by the administration in a political fight that's going to last from now until the end of the year.

Translation: We're going to beat you up so bad – you'll "bear some resemblance to a piñata" – that it's going to ruin your career (I thought they were just going to ignore the nominee). Senators are beginning to sound like gangsters? – nice legal career you have there, be a shame if something happened to it.

Minority leader Harry Reid jumped all over Cornyn's remarks. Cornyn doubled down – whatever harm would be Obama's fault for actually nominating them.



The GOP controlled Missouri Senate is trying to pass a "religious freedom" bill, otherwise known as a license to discriminate bill. This bill is slightly different – it is an amendment to the state constitution. The eight Democrats in the Senate have started a filibuster. They're going without sleep and rotating time on the floor to stop it. The filibuster has passed 30 hours, making it the longest filibuster in Missouri history. They intend to go through a second night. It is so good to see Democrats put out such an effort to protect us! It wasn't all that long ago when Dems ignored us. We know quite well the GOP will use this against these valiant Dems. Chris Reeves of Daily Kos has been doing a live-blog, giving updates on what is happening on the floor. LGBT people (and, no doubt, other minorities and the poor) have been bullied by the Missouri legislature. Reeves got choked up when someone sent him an email "It's good to know someone in Jeff City cares about me."



Melissa McEwen of Shakesville is delighted with an article by Paul Krugman in the New York Times. He discusses Trump not being an outlier in GOP policies, but firmly centered in those policies. Trump is a con man, yes, but so are the other GOP prez. candidates as well as the leaders of the GOP. What they don't like is that Trump is disrupting their con. And their con? McEwen says it is convincing people who aren't obscenely wealthy to vote for a platform designed to exploit them. More on that con here.

Why is McEwen so delighted with Krugman's article? She's been saying the same thing for 8 months. Now with an Important White Dude saying it perhaps the media will take notice.