Week of China as Trump Trip Tumbles, Voting Rights Aborted, Wars Slide On
Putin Hides, Who Cares Economy, SCOTUS Goes Repub, Manders of Gerry, Epstein/Trump Victims

…with those whom Trump chooses to accompany him to China.

As huge crowds in Hungary joyfully greeted a return to democracy:

In Moscow’s annual Victory day:

Why Putin’s mini-march?

The same analysis is now available in audio format, as Richardson narrates in podcast.

Trump announced Putin’s plea for generous offer of a three‑day ceasefire with Ukraine including a prisoner exchange, that would, by some cosmic chance, coincide with Russia’s annual May celebration of Stalin’s victory over Hitler.

The small size of the celebration, sadly, is produced by fear of attack, and by depletion of weaponry to display.

Canceling the celebration would have been, for Putin, an unacceptable humiliation.

Also humiliating would be large scale public notice of the miniscule size of this year’s parade. So Putin bans foreign press from the small quiet event.

Instead, Zelenskyy makes a public announcement accepting a ceasefire and giving Putin permission to hold the tiny parade. He even includes in his proclamation the exact military targeting coordinates of the May parade along with his promise not to interfere.
The miniscule parade, of course, then gets extraordinary international notice.

Meanwhile…

Trump is trapped in a vice of his own making.

The one emotional idea behind Trump, his greatest aspiration, has been to prove himself better in every respect than Barack Obama. That America’s only Black President is superior to him in any way is anathema. It just can’t happen!

And yet.

Trump must now accept terms not even close to what Obama achieved without violence, terms Trump ripped up when taking office.
OR
Trump can carry on a war with no defined endpoint, and drag down the US and much of the world:
A trap Obama never would have stepped into.

Marcy Wheeler brings us a video summary of the TrumpTrap humiliation our leader has set for himself:

Funny, in a devastating sort of way.

Quoting WLRN Public Media, Florida:

Testifying in Florida:

Guess which names in the Epstein files have not been released as required by law.

My favorite:

From The Borowitz Report, Trump is furious after a cabinet meeting during which JD Vance covers him with a sheet.

The stern order, of course, is leaked to the press.

And it gets worse.
By an overwhelming margin, most Americans think Trump doesn’t have the temperament for the job.

Julian Sanchez is right about these particular Republican judges basing two rulings on something other than law.

According to the court of Republican judges, the law says redistricting in Virginia, to be legal, must be okayed by voters in a referendum. So the legislature follows the ruling and holds the referendum the court has mandated.
A referendum is held. The voters say go ahead with redistricting.

Then the very same court, with the same judges, rules that the law is different than they said before. Doesn’t matter what voters say after all.

Jason Linkins has a suggestion. Maybe fight back?.

And

SCOTUS now allows all that cut and divide, even when the openly stated purpose is to keep Black people out of office.

Justices say their ruling is to prevent discrimination against White people.
Really! That’s what they say.

Brian Beutler suggests the deeper purpose is to put an end to the remaining threat to increasing unpopular Republican rule.
The threat to Republicans, the threat they want to eliminate?
Democracy.

The Democratic response seems to be passive, grudging, acceptance:

Brian suggests that, if the coming Blue wave is substantial, but not substantial enough to substantially overcome Republican stealth, getting a majority of seats, but not a super majority reflecting actual votes, Republican judges are likely to find just enough pretext to overturn the few seats Republicans will need to save them from voters.

The basic reason? Republicans have learned to abuse their power. Democrats have learned to cut their losses, putting their faith in future elections.

Dems are playing to play, not playing to win.
When you’re playing to stop a coup, that strategy sacrifices democracy.

Brian suggests forceful steps for Democrats to take, mainly to respond as aggressively as they can.
This has value, even if they don’t win.

He is not optimistic:

She will, however, fill out and cast a ballot.

She’s impressed that Mamdani is moving hard to keep his campaign promises.

About socialism–
She quotes Missouri’s (and America’s) Harry Truman, in a speech very near where I grew up, speaking when I was a year old:

Jess Piper’s reaction:

Fair-minded:

Reverse discrimination:

And, yes, it is satire. Pointed satire reflecting real attitudes.

The scientists were deported.

You could take everything I know about their branch of science, science in general, and their research, fit it all into a mosquito, and still have room for a Republican’s heart. So I have no basis for an opinion.

What Professor Myers relates next is disturbing.

The American scientist who runs the lab doing the plant research thought the accusations and the deportations were silly and unfair.
The plants in question were not dangerous.

He said so and wrote a letter to the court on behalf of one of them.

Someone in government asked the University of Michigan to lock the American scientist out of his lab.

So they did.

Well…

Consider Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson and a political deal concerning a large, very large, huge surplus in Wisconsin.

The budget itself has the ingredients of Mom’s favorite desert.

Remember, James is a conservative, and so a bit more cautious:

But James brings in the fun by making fun of Wisconsin politicians: Republicans and Democrats and Republicans and Republicans.

And yeah, he skewers them.

News Corpse points to a parallel from history, a similar call from another famous figure.

Okay, there is some injustice in the sin of the son ascending to the parents.

M. Bouffant follows with two more incidents, one a racist verbal road rage incident involving a past libertarian candidate (hub boy!) who has a history of racist rants, and a California man brandishing at times a machete and a firearm while threatening neighbors strolling or driving by. One was a 13‑year‑old boy.

The guy is finally in custody after crashing his car into a neighbor’s home and attacking a couple with an ax.

And a bad day was had by all.

He begins with a headline:

He smoothly glides through to:

The fun is in the path along which he guides us to get there.

He begins with an obvious insight that often does not occur to those of us in the faith:

Personal note: As I recall, when I have written about my own beliefs, Infidel’s comments have been reflective, not disrespectful. In that, he serves as a model and I try to follow his good example.

Bruce sets us straight.

Major complaint:

Beginning with what came before modern medical care:

dea

After that, medical history gets better different.

…and connects it to newly released UFO files.