Author: craigcrawford

Space.com: “A robot has built a prototype launch-and-landing pad in Hawaii, potentially helping pave the way for automated construction projects on the moon and Mars.”

NPR’s veteran legal correspondent Nina Totenberg reports:

I’m told that the Republicans in the Senate actually sent some sort of a back-channel message to the White House that if it were Garland that they would confirm him if the Democrats prevail in the presidential election, that they would confirm him in the lame-duck session and that the whole caucus would be on board, that it wouldn’t be a fight.

If this is true, surely Obama consulted Hillary, and if not, she ought to raise hell (via back channels, of course) and make her own pick. If the deal is Hillary has to win the election for Obama to get his Supreme Court pick, then she deserves a piece of the action.

Sadly, here we go again. Front runners from our elite-funded duopoly parties half the country will hate, whomever is elected. More intramural bickering among parties working for the same monied interests, posturing gridlock to disguise their mutual aim to change nothing, and certain hopelessness for soon to be ignored working folks ahead, no matter what happens in November, despite the promises they will hear once more with phony feeling in yet another forgettable campaign summer.

Oh well. Status quo all over again. You’re on your own America. At least you are used to it.

Is it possible the presidency has become irrelevant?

After all, the Founders didn’t mean for it to be much, proscribed its limited powers in Article II as secondary to the legislative branch in Article I, and seriously considered simply entitling the office “Chief Magistrate” but did not do so only to avoid offending George Washington, who gave no opinion on the matter.

Perhaps all that’s left of the presidency is as a marketing vehicle for commercial media. A fantasy for demographic role playing. And a grand illusion for us all to pretend that someone is in charge, so that half of us can hate them.

Here is your Super Tuesday III returns thread.

Voters in a bunch of states today decide who lives or who goes away in presidential politics. Is it time for Rubio to find another job if his home state rejects him? Will Ohio Gov. Kasich get a hall pass from his constituents? Can Sanders win an excuse to go on, despite the delegate math piling up against him? The questions answer themselves, but still worth watching.