Scalia. Dead. Yesterday.

I knew about it then, but God asked me to announce it only on a Sunday. 

Dead and (one hopes) gone...

Actually, I found out while I was sitting in a car in the Academy Sports & Outdoors parking lot, waiting for Stella who was trying to buy tennis shoes. I struggled mightily to find a free, unpassworded WiFi available from the parking lot. I found one, with a signal strength so low that its download transfer rate was only 1mbps. About the only news list I subscribe to is The Guardian (what? you expect an American news service to publish straight info on American politics, etc.? gimme a break!), and I saw the announcement of Scalia's death pass quickly before my eyes, but the connection was so iffy I gave up and dismissed the browser. But even the dismissal didn't get through the bad connection; I received one article from the Guardian, sans photos, and read the basics.

I have never had any sympathy for that man. He was a smiling dogmatist, with no redeeming qualities I could ever find. (I guess that makes me one of those "liberals" The Guardian said found him "infuriating" ... fair enough.) Read the article at ThinkProgress for a list of possible consequences of Scalia's sudden absence on the Court; be forewarned, they range from actually beneficial to nearly "chaotic" (their word, not mine). Now that there is a 4-4 tie between conservatives and moderates (the last actual liberal retired and died over a decade five years ago), cases which provoke an ideological reaction from the Right will rebound to the lower court in which they originated; in many cases, that court has more "tighty Righties" than the Supremes... and the result will apply only to the circuit in which that court operates. In other words, no help for Texas, Louisiana or Oklahoma. Sucks, if you ask me.

Here are other articles I found once I had a solid connection from inside a bookstore:

• Moments After Scalia’s Death Is Confirmed, GOP Senate Staffer Pledges To Block Any Obama Replacement
  

  So did Sen. and presidential candidate Ted Cruz, I read somewhere. Grrrr... if he becomes president, he shall appoint NO Supremes; I would hope the Democrats in the Senate will see to that.

• Antonin Scalia's death calls supreme court gun rights stance into question
  

  That would be District of Columbia v Heller.

• Supreme court justice Antonin Scalia dies: legal and political worlds react
  

  The summary bulleted list contains useful links.

That will do for the moment. Ted Cruz and other Repugnant members of Congress are vowing to torpedo anyone... ANYONE... Obama nominates to replace him. Dog help the next Repub president, whenever they manage to steal that office again...

Benghazi... Benghazi... Benghazi...

For once, congressional Republicans seem to be using their metaphorical guns to shoot themselves in the metaphorical foot (House Majority Leader and [possibly former] Speaker-in-waiting Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA); Benghazi Select Committee chair Rep. Trey (!) Gowdy; etc.) and even conservative print and broadcast political commentators are starting to notice.

And for once, congressional Democrats are starting to feed this free grist to the political mill.

Is it just me, or does anyone else look at Trey Gowdy's actions as chair of the Select Committee and find her/himself reminded of former Rep. Dan Burton (R-Indiana) of the GROS Committee, um, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee? the same style of battering one or more Democrats (in Burton's case, hundreds) with a sledgehammer while refusing to call GOPers to answer equivalent questions? When I hear Republicans whiiiining they are victimized by partisanship perpetrated by Democrats, I can't help thinking of Burton and gritting out through clenched teeth, "you bastards had it coming" ... now I can think of Gowdy as well.

In any case, there's at least a possibility after McCarthy's Clinton-related gaffe and Gowdy's offensively partisan chairmanship that Democrats may see GOPers get their just deserts. (Not to be confused with Gov. Chris Christie, who clearly gets just his desserts...)

Republican Death Obsession

A Supreme Court death spiral for ObamaCare. Death panels for coverage of end-of-life counseling. Getting rid of the death tax. Why would anyone trust the death-obsessed GOP at the helm?

A Hell Of A ‘Compromise’ To Get Loretta Lynch Confirmed — UPDATED

Emily Crockett, Federal Policy Reporter at RH Reality Check, explains what Turtle McConnell has done:

Senators announced a compromise Tuesday that would move two long-stalled legislative items: a human trafficking bill that has been embroiled in a fight over abortion restrictions, and the confirmation of Loretta Lynch to be the nation’s first Black female attorney general.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had refused to bring Lynch’s confirmation up for a vote until the Senate passed the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act (JVTA), despite Lynch’s undisputed qualifications and strong record on prosecuting human traffickers. The tactic enraged advocates and Black leaders, some of whom staged a hunger strike in protest.

McConnell said Tuesday that once the JVTA is passed, the Senate will move on to Lynch “in the next day or so.”

...

Lynch

Apart from the raw unmitigated arrogance Sen. McConnell displayed in his throw-away remark about "the next day or so," and (IMHO) the very real possibility he will get the bill he wants and then fuck the removal of the anti‑abortion language, the bad news here is that it establishes Turtle's ability to blackmail the entire US Senate... hardly any senator opposes the essence of the bill, or Ms. Lynch's confirmation... to get whatever he goddamned well wants. I am glad Lynch will be confirmed, but I am far from confident we will not live to regret this "compromise."

UPDATE: an agreement has been reached. The bill has passed; Ms. Lynch will be voted on... on Tuesday. It seems goddamned Turtle is in no hurry to fulfill his part of the bargain... what else is new?

Another 5-4 Supreme Court Ruling Hammers Medicaid For 68 Million Americans

Elizabeth G. Taylor and Jane Perkins of the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) (see also Taylor's blog), writing at TPM:

When it comes to health care at the Supreme Court this year, all eyes are focused on the Obamacare tax credits case, King v. Burwell. But a case decided this week, Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center, Inc., has raised significant concerns for the availability of quality health care for those who need it most.

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court turned against decades of legal precedent and ruled that Medicaid providers cannot use the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution to stop state provider payment policies that are inconsistent with the federal Medicaid Act’s requirement for adequate reimbursement rates. That may sound like a bunch of legalese, but the outcome has a real impact on the 68 million-plus people relying on Medicaid. If a state’s Medicaid payment rates are too low (and many providers complain these rates are below their cost of providing services), then provider participation in Medicaid—and the ability of enrollees to obtain care—is at risk.

...

[/face-palm] Yes, that's our Supreme Court, all right.

Dr. GOPer 'fixes' Medicaid

And unfortunately, that's our Medicaid system. Taylor and Perkins note that "Congress established Medicaid in 1965 as a cooperative program between states and the federal government"; the operative word there is "cooperative" ... in states run mostly by Republicans, the state implementation of Medicaid is as obstructionist as the state's governor and legislature can make it. I know: my late mother finally qualified for Medicaid to help with my late father's payments for her otherwise uninsured institutionalization for Alzheimer's disease... the week my mother died in 1990. Dad ended up nearly broke from paying for her treatment. Texas GOPers can be very proud [/irony] of what they accomplished in that case, goddamn them.

If there is one good reason above all others to hold your nose and vote for a Democratic president in 2016, it is to make sure the effing bastards of the Greedy Oppressive Party lack the power to appoint another Supreme Court Justice for at least another four years. A Democratic president will not assure an optimal replacement for a Justice who retires or dies... the GOPers can continue playing their obstructionist politics as surely as they obstruct Mr. Obama... but if the GOP has the presidency and both houses of Congress, it will be an utter disaster for healthcare in America. Don't let that happen!

Michigan GOP Campaign Mailer Bears Phone Number Of Dem Opponent's 91-Year-Old Mother In Hospice

Catherine Thompson at TPM:

A Democratic candidate for the Michigan House said Thursday that the state GOP sent out campaign mailers this week that urged voters to call him to complain about Obamacare.

The hitch: candidate John Fisher said the phone number printed on the mailer connected voters to his 91-year-old mother, who is receiving hospice care.

"To direct people to call a suffering woman who deserves peace and comfort is beyond the pale," Fisher said in a statement, as quoted by MLive.com. "Their lack of ethics and contempt for personal privacy is just another reason for people to question what – or better, who – the Republican Party stands for, so that they can make a wise decision at the ballot box on Nov. 4."

...

I am more convinced every day: this is who Republicans really are, deep down inside... cruel bastards who would do literally anything to anyone to gain more power. It is not just wrong to negotiate with them, as Mr. Obama wishes: it is wrong to concede them even the smallest point. We must fight, not merely to win elections, but to send this organization of cold, contemptible, morally bankrupt people to the graveyard of history.

Greg Abbott Receiving Campaign Money From... You Guessed It... The Koch Family

Wayne Slater of Dallas Morning News has the story:

AUSTIN — Five months after an ammonium nitrate explosion that killed 15 people in West, Attorney General Greg Abbott received a $25,000 contribution from a first-time donor to his political campaigns — the head of Koch Industries’ fertilizer division.

The donor, Chase Koch, is the son of one of the billionaire brothers atop Koch Industries’ politically influential business empire.

Abbott, who has since been criticized for allowing Texas chemical facilities to keep secret the contents of their plants, received more than $75,000 from Koch interests after the April 2013 explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. storage and distribution facility, campaign finance records filed with the state showed.

...

Is it true, Texas has the best politicians money... and more money, and still more money... can buy? That sounds like a pile of, er, explosive fertilizer to me!

We do have a clear choice: Texans: elect Wendy Davis, for the good of your state.

Or else, meet our new owners:

Real News: Carter Says Bush Didn't Win In 2000; LBJ Tape Shows Nixon Deliberately Delayed Vietnam Peace Talks Until After American Presidential Election

View it at The Real News. This may surprise some aged GOP faithful, but no other American should be even the tiniest bit surprised.



(H/T ellroon for the link.)

'Texas Has The Best Politicians &c' — Rep. Steve Stockman (R) Has Some Secrets

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX)

You know the old saying. And Eric Lach of TPMMuckraker outlines a few of Stockman's secrets related to his income in 2011-12, while Will Tucker at the Houston Chronicle's blog Texas on the Potomac exposes Stockman's repeated failure to report his business ties and sources of income as required of members of Congress by federal law. In addition, the few and sparsely filled in forms which Stockman has submitted have been filed nearly a year late. The whole thing stinks. If there's nothing illegal going on, then Stockman is going to great lengths to hide his legal activities, based on just the small amount that has been documented so far. Here's a small snippet from Tucker's blog post (Lach links to a Chronicle investigation, but you have to be a Chron subscriber to read it; the blog post, on the other hand, is open to the public):

Rep. Steve Stockman has failed repeatedly to disclose business affiliations that stretch from Texas to the British Virgin Islands on his Congressional financial disclosure forms, an investigation by the Houston Chronicle shows.

The Houston Chronicle’s latest investigation published Sunday reveals that Stockman, since his bankruptcy in 2002, created a number of businesses, some of which remain active but were not reported on Stockman’s financial disclosure form as required by federal law.

That form itself was filed nearly a year late—Stockman didn’t disclose his assets or business affiliations in 2012, as required by federal law. The form attributes $350,000 earned by Stockman in 2011 and 2012 to “Presidential Trust Marketing,” an unexplained entity with a name similar to one of Stockman’s assumed names in Harris County: Presidential Trust. ...

...

Stockman, who is from Clear Lake (think: the NASA area), is back in office in a newly created gerrymandered congressional district after over a decade out of Congress. It is obvious that little about him has changed in the intervening years. Many of us felt back then, and still feel now, that Texas was, and would be again, far better represented in Congress if Stockman would simply vanish into the void. I at least would be just as content to see him vanish into a prison cell.