Ah yes, it’s getting to be time for wedding planners in the South to really focus on which Saturdays in the fall they must avoid.

Here are some pre-autumnal midday news/views concession stand treats:

* Jeb Bush continues to play with fire on phasing out Medicare.

* Tom Cotton compares John Kerry to Pontius Pilate. I guess the Judas role is saved for Obama.

* Idea bruited about at RGA meeting for candidate boycott of debates that include Trump is going nowhere.

* At the Prospect, Mark Huelsman exposes the targeting of minority students by predatory for-profit colleges.

* At the Atlantic, Russell Berman looks into the weird saga of Paul LePage’s feckless deployment of vetoes, now hanging fire in court.

And in non-political news:

* Hope for El Nino-generated rain moves north in California, could reach reservoirs.

As we break for lunch, here’s Depeche Mode performing “Enjoy the Silence” in Milan in 2006.

YouTube video

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.