Late Night Video — Robin Williams, RIP

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I'm really stunned at this evening's news that Robin Williams died today, apparently of suicide. Many years ago I saw him in a Kansas City club -- the second show. He was on a tear, and the audience was falling off of their chairs laughing. By the time they got to the club's closing time, Williams had a ton of energy and the audience was game to stay -- so the owner closed the club, charged people $5 or something (so he could claim it was a private club since he was keeping the bar open) and Williams went on for at least two hours more. And it was really interactive too -- not only was he conversing with patrons (and then riffing off of the conversations), but he took suggestions for routines. Mostly from Shakespeare. It was utterly hysterical and really smart -- you could tell that he knew the work he was riffing off of. I can't imagine what he has been experiencing, but I know depression can be brutal. Even if you are someone that the world loved so very much.

Monday Open Thread [8.11.14]

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So President Obama will take some kind of executive action pursuant to both his executive authority and laws already passed by Congress to address the immigration problem later this summer. Whatever he does, it will be the basis for impeachment proceedings this fall. Greg Sargent, in one of his latest columns, talked to experts about the limits of executive power. One of those experts was attorney David Leopold, who was the “former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and immigration reform advocate who has consulted with the White House on immigration law.” The upshot is, the President has all the authority he needs under existing law to do what he wants to do. But the GOP will impeach him for it anyway. We also have a lot of polling goodness inside...