Don’t know about you, but I intend to have a fully Republican-candidate-free, Fox-News-free weekend. If that means binge-watching bad TV shows, so be it.

Here are some end-of-the-week midday news/views snacks:

* Iowa unions very annoyed with HRC’s refusal to take a position on TPP.

* Overnight ratings suggest Fox News official candidate debate more than doubled previous high or this kind of event, God help us.

* Lindsey Graham defends Trump against “a ten-minute question that describes him as the biggest bastard on the planet.”

* Nate Silver confidently predicts Trump won’t win a war with Fox News among conservatives, who love them some Fox.

* At the Atlantic, David Graham notes the GOP’s efforts to consign the Voting Rights Act strictly to the history books on grounds that voting discrimination is no longer a problem. Yeah, right.

And in sorta non-political news:

* North Korea delinks its time zones from Japan’s.

As we break for lunch, here’s more Magic Slim, with “I Don’t Want No Woman,” performed in Sweden in 1982.

YouTube video

Our ideas can save democracy... But we need your help! Donate Now!

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.