I’M EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Senate Is Expected to Vote to End Supreme Court Filibuster.

The first procedural vote on Judge Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s nominee to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, is expected Thursday morning—a vote where the GOP is expected to fall short. As a result, Senate Republicans are expected to use a procedural motion that would eliminate the filibuster for this and future Supreme Court nominations—expanding on changes that Democrats initiated in 2013.

“Judge Gorsuch will be confirmed to the Supreme Court this week. It is unfortunate that we may have [to] break longstanding precedent to do so, but Senate Democrats’ actions are to blame for that,” said Sen. John Boozman, an Arkansas Republican.

Go Reid or go home.

IF I GET IN TROUBLE, I JUST WANT CNN TO BEND OVER BACKWARDS FOR ME LIKE IT’S DOING FOR SUSAN RICE: “Following reports that Rice requested the identification of Trump transition team members who were caught up in raw intelligence, there have been extreme and notable differences along the cable news landscape on how this story is to be treated. For the most part, CNN has handled the story as largely a smear effort against Rice.”

SHAKEUP: Bannon reportedly threatened to leave White House after NSC shakeup.

Rebekah Mercer, a top Republican donor, had to urge Bannon not to quit after he was removed from his post, sources told Politico. Mercer “tried to convince him that this is a long-term play,” a GOP operative said. Bannon reportedly opposed the change and wanted to quit if the president gave the OK.

“It hasn’t all been fun, and I know he’s been frustrated,” one Republican close to Bannon said.

The White House said that Bannon had not attempted to leave the White House and Bannon added that any indication that he threatened to resign was “total nonsense.”

Bannon’s removal from the National Security Council comes as Jared Kushner’s role in the White House has increased. Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, was recently chosen to lead efforts to cut out bureaucracy from the federal government and visited Iraq in the beginning of the week.

After Kellyanne Conway (and Trump himself), Bannon and Kushner are probably most responsible for Trump’s election, but there seems to be more than a little friction between the two in the White House.

BIG SPENDER: How Jeff Bezos is using Amazon’s success to fuel Blue Origin’s space effort, a billion dollars at a time.

“My business model right now for Blue Origin is, I sell about $1 billion a year of Amazon stock, and I use it to invest in Blue Origin,” he told reporters here at the 33rd Space Symposium. “So the business model for Blue Origin is very robust.”

Bezos threw out the figure half-jokingly, after noting that he typically doesn’t reveal how much he’s spending. But he made clear that his in-house space effort, headquartered in Kent, Wash., takes a noticeable chunk out of his estimated $78 billion fortune.

He said the development cost for Blue Origin’s New Glenn orbital launch system, which should be taking off from a Florida launch facility by 2020 or so, is likely to be on the order of $2.5 billion.

Some small part of my $99-a-year Prime membership is going into space.

THERE ARE HARD QUESTIONS, AND THERE ARE EASY QUESTIONS. THIS IS AN EASY QUESTION: Why Is Elizabeth Warren So Hard To Love?

AND OBAMA OPERATIVES WILL BE LEAKING TRUMP’S FROM NOW UNTIL THEN: The Public Won’t See the Rest of Hillary’s Emails Until 2020.

Justice Department attorney Jennie Kneedler told U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg Tuesday that “processing takes time.” She also told Boasberg during the status hearing on the case that the continued review of the former secretary of state’s emails was “not the best use of State’s time.”

Cut their entertainment and conference budget in half until the job is done, and they’ll miraculously find the time. They’re foot-dragging to protect her, as they’ve been doing all along.

Meanwhile we saw under W. — and we’ll no doubt see under Trump — that FOIA requests for stuff that makes a Republican administration look bad get processed by the bureaucracy with miraculous speed.

AFTER YOU ERASE HISTORY, WHAT DO YOU DO FOR AN ENCORE? …And then What?

NAMING AND SHAMING:Elizabeth Warren Goes Silent on Equal Pay Day After Free Beacon Report.

CLEARING THE LEGAL GROUNDS TO GET US TO SPACE:The “Non-Interference” Provision of Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty and Property Rights. (I think people should be able to claim property rights to outer space, at least if we intend to go there.  But I’m not a lawyer.  Laura is.  And while she agrees with my goals she’s very cautious about parsing what we can actually work with – SAH)

YOU SHOULD READ THIS, AND NOT JUST BECAUSE I’M MENTIONED IN THE FOOTNOTES: Civic Nationalism, Part I: Magic Dirt Theory.

IN THE EMAIL FROM SHARON GERLACH: Burning Books.

THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE: Shock: Days After ESPN Releases New Guidelines on Political Statements From Employees, They Bounce Conservative-Leaning Host In Favor of Liberal-Leaning Host.

A CASE OF MYTHTAKEN IDENTITY:Woman walking around naked claims she’s a mermaid.

PROBATION? THAT’S IT? Stripper gets probation for drugging clients, taking their money.

PUSSY HATS WON’T: Posing with cats will revolutionize your Tinder game.

CHARLIE MARTIN: Her name was Steph.

In John Gunther’s Death Be Not Proud, a book written long before I was born, he makes the observation that cancers starting with “glio” are death sentences. That’s been true until, well, about now, when suddenly we’re seeing a bit of progress. Faster, please.

WHAT “BLACK LIVES MATTER” HAS BECOME: “Now, I’m getting interested in the question of how much makeup to wear to a protest.”

DON SURBER: Trump trolled the media to cover Obamagate. “Hate to say I told you so. But I did.”

Who are you kidding, Don? You love to say “I told you so.” That’s half the fun of blogging.

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THE FBI, CIA: DWI, USA: FoxNews confirms off duty US Secret Service agent arrested at MD hotel on alleged prostitution charges per law enforcement sources.

GIVEN THE SPLC’S OVERWHELMINGLY PARTISAN POLITICAL NATURE, AND ITS ROLE IN ENCOURAGING ACTUAL HATE CRIMES, THIS SEEMS REASONABLE. FAIR To IRS: Remove Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) Tax Exempt Status. “Any honest examination of this record can only lead to the conclusion that the SPLC was engaged in on-going prohibited political activity.” I think a lot of “nonprofit” groups are vulnerable on this front, and have simply relied on cover from a friendly IRS.

WELL WITHIN CNN PARAMETERS FOR BELIEVABILITY: WATCH: CNN actually claims Rachel Dolezal is a black woman.

OBAMAGATE SPYING UPDATE: Reports in unmasking controversy were detailed, had info about ‘everyday lives.’

The intelligence reports at the center of the Susan Rice unmasking controversy were detailed, and almost resembled a private investigator’s file, according to a Republican congressman familiar with the documents.

“This is information about their everyday lives,” Rep. Peter King of New York, a member of the House Intelligence committee said. “Sort of like in a divorce case where lawyers are hired, investigators are hired just to find out what the other person is doing from morning until night and then you try to piece it together later on.”

On the House Intelligence Committee, only the Republican chairman, Devin Nunes of California, and the ranking Democrat Adam Schiff, also of California, have personally reviewed the intelligence reports. Some members were given broad outlines.

Nunes has consistently stated that the files caused him deep concern because the unmasking went beyond the former national security adviser Mike Flynn, and the information was not related to Moscow.

President Obama, of course, got his start in national politics when sealed divorce records became public.

HEH:

I wonder how people would react if a Trump-supporting “patriotic dance party” were to erupt in front of the Obamas’ house some night to raise awareness about — say — the unmasking and leaking of American citizens’ names from intelligence reports. I’m sure “the internet” would explode in ecstasy to see the neighbors smiling and clapping along with the Trumpies — especially if they were doing it with panache!

Sounds like racism, straight up.

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