Daily Bafflements

• While mourning the death of so-called constitutional “originalist” Antonin Scalia, the GOP has, as promised, completely ignored the Second Article, refusing their “advice and consent” to new Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. Mitch McConnell has refused even a meeting with Garland.

• A new book by sociologist Matthew Desmond examines a new epidemic of evictions, a phenomenon that “has become devastatingly common, wracking whole neighborhoods and destabilizing poor, and usually black, communities.”

• Is the Donald’s campaign magically undermining Citizens United? No, probably not, but it’s driven at least some big money out of politics, reports the Boston Globe. Apparently, some of the uber-rich plan to hang onto their loot rather than toss it into the sinkhole of a failing party being trounced by a reality TV star with a Napoleon complex.