Mayer, Mercer, Merrick, McConnell

Ms. Mayer wrote the book on Dark Money (now out in paperback with a new preface), and here, in the New Yorker, gives us Robert Mercer — The Reclusive Hedge Fund Tycoon Behind The Trump Presidency.

Enough to make non-billionaires take to the streets, though the UN warns that Americans’ right to protest is in grave danger.  (I’d say that headline is a little strong, but still.)

Republicans effectively “filibustered” Merrick Garland for 10 months — they wouldn’t even let his nomination get that far (the ultimate filibuster) — arguing that we would have to see  what the people wanted in the next election.  By a margin of millions, the people wanted Merrick Garland.

The Electoral College could theoretically elect a president who lost the popular vote by 20 million votes, but — although that would legitimately install an unpopular president — it would not represent the will of the people, any more than Trump’s loss by 3 million did.

Not to mention the loss would have been by more if we had not been attacked by Russia . . . and that most Trump voters were more focused on jobs than on rejecting Merrick Garland.

Mitch McConnell was wrong to flout the Constitution, changing the rules to deny Garland a hearing.  He was wrong to change his own standard and take Trump’s loss by 3 million votes as proof the people wanted a Republican-appointed Justice.  And he will be wrong if he changes the rules the Senate agreed upon, holding Supreme Court nominees — though not lower court judges — to the 60-vote standard.

Three wrongs, let alone all by the same guy, don’t make a right.

I checked in with the friend who suggested Home Depot a couple of years ago at $89.  With the stock at $147 or so, he’s holding on, hoping for double from here over the next three or four years.