I am in agreement with ANTON at #8 and that led to a bit from Wislawa Szymborska's poem "Soliloquy for Cassandra," Homer's Trojan priestess in the Iliad whose warning prophesies go ignored, thanks to Apollo's curse.

Here I am, Cassandra.
And this is my city under ashes.
And these are my prophet's staff and ribbons.
And this is my head full of doubts.

Trump long ago demonstrated he can serve up an endless smorgasbord of sh*t sandwiches to the entire Republican Party and they have been so conditioned by their own servitude that they simply mutter, "Please, sirrr, may we have another?" Now we have reached the part where Trump rubs everybody's noses in his corruption, gleefully offering up the yuge, steaming, stinking platter, grinning vacuously and saying, "Whattaya gonna do aboudit, huh?"

That's it, the Trump family, Republican Party, and MAGA ethos rolled into a single motto:

I
REALLY
DON'T
CARE
DO U?

"Decimated" - a favorite word of the regime's gauleiters and other toadies when they fantasize about its performance in Iran - does not mean what the aiders and abetters think it means.

Why, oh, why would (Acting) Attorney General & Trump Personal Attorney Todd "Thank you - I LOVE YOU, SIR!" Blanche roll over for his master on this?

A settlement in the coming days would fly in the face of efforts by the federal judge overseeing the case, Kathleen Williams, an appointee of President Barack Obama in the Southern District of Florida, to try and manage the conflict of interest in the case. Not only has she requested briefings from Mr. Trump's lawyers and the government by next week, she has appointed a group of six well-respected lawyers not otherwise involved in the case to provide her with their views on whether Mr. Trump's lawsuit is legitimate.

A settlement in the coming days would fly in the face of efforts by the federal judge overseeing the case, Kathleen Williams, an appointee of President Barack Obama in the Southern District of Florida, to try and manage the conflict of interest in the case. Not only has she requested briefings from Mr. Trump's lawyers and the government by next week, she has appointed a group of six well-respected lawyers not otherwise involved in the case to provide her with their views on whether Mr. Trump's lawsuit is legitimate.

She would not likely be able to prevent Mr. Trump from simply withdrawing the suit and coming to a private agreement with the federal government. Even if the judge were to ultimately find that the settlement was collusive or reached in bad faith, she would likely be hamstrung in any effort to stop money or other benefits from changing hands.

Former government lawyers and experts see a clear defense to Mr. Trump's suit, and do not see it as one the Justice Department would typically settle on its merits.

And ...

Military intelligence agencies have also reported, based on information from multiple collection streams including satellite imagery and other surveillance technologies, that Iran has regained access to roughly 90 percent of its underground missile storage and launch facilities nationwide, which are now assessed to be "partially or fully operational," the people with knowledge of the assessments said.

The findings undercut months of public assurances from President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who have told Americans that the Iranian military was "decimated" and "no longer" a threat.

He was, indeed, a bitchy curmudgeon. Not a film historian, but one helluva entertaining review writer (providing you were not on the being reviewed end). From his review of Oldboy: "What else can you expect from a nation weaned on kimchi, a mixture of raw garlic and cabbage buried underground until it rots, dug up from the grave and then served in earthenware pots sold at the Seoul airport as souvenirs." He broke some walls and popped a few balloons. Well done and thank you.

What's that got to do with The Ballroom?

I assume the Republicans are aiding and abetting a rolling coup, and that screwing with the midterm elections is a given. I assure any reader this is far, far worse than anything that went on with Nixon.

Why should Old Yeller care or even bother to pretend he cares about the welfare of the American people?

Impeachments, felony convictions, bankruptcies, an attempted coup, and ... not only was he elected to the presidency, he was elected again to that office.

And never, along the way, has he shown any interest in the welfare of the American people.

Why start now?

Indeed, Coriolanus. And afterwards JFK was more careful when it came to accepting assurances of the sort that left him famously observing, "Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan." For example, his skepticism during the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Recall, he made damn sure that at the end of the day he had tapes.)

Yup, Coriolanus, remember it well. Along the way, a German barber I encountered ages ago in AZ had served on the "Eastern Front" in a "special group" until captured at Stalingrad. He was released in the 1950s from some Far Eastern gulag and told he could find he own way home. An Austrian friend's father ended up with the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad. As the ring tightened, he wrote letters home with detailed accounts of imaginary meals because he was starving to death. Then nothing. Later, after the war, the family was told by one of his mates the guy was killed, by another captured. In the early 1050s my friend accompanied his mother to Vienna's main train station whenever the radio announced another batch of repatriated POWs chugging in from the East on the off-chance his dad might be among them. His father never appeared. (Soviet POWs in German hands had almost no chance at all.)

Is Vanky still chumming Chinese waters?

Having lent a powerful hand in making "it"- the fascist slow-motion coup now gathering a real head of steam, thanks to SCOTUS - what it is, John Roberts has the gall to tell us "It is what it is."

Immolating yourself for MAGAFuehrer is showing ultimate love for MAGAFuehrer.
The reward?
Zip, nada, ugatz.
Suckers and losers, one and all.

Thanks to Roberts and his ideological compatriots, next year the Republican Party will be able to fully and joyously celebrate the bicentennial of the Compromise of 1877, whereby it sold out Blacks, ended Reconstruction, and ushered in Jim Crow.

Happy 250th!

This is the same John Roberts who currently serves on SCOTUS?
Shadow Docket Roberts?
Precedent overturning Roberts?
Well, glory be.
Amending somewhat Oscar Wilde's observation, "Irony is wasted on the [willfully] stupid."

"[U]ltimately we control the Strait [of Hormuz], because nothing's going in that we don't allow to go in."
Pete Hegseth
May 12, 2026

When history's crapshoot presents you with an adversary like that? Child's play.

How're those crippling bone spurs coming along?

"After the White House sent out its list, Cisco said its chief executive, Chuck Robbins, was unable to attend ... .Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, wasn't invited and won't be going to China this week, according to a person familiar with Mr. Huang's plans. His absence comes as Nvidia, the world's most valuable company, awaits approval from both China and the United States to begin shipping an early model of the company's A.I. chips, the H200, to China."

What, no Jared?

Old Yeller should be well rested when he arrives in Beijing, having slept through yuge chunks of his recent WH meetings.
Which does nothing to reduce the negative consequences for all of us due to the Cosmic Fool role Trump habitually plays.
Xi and his buddies will have a ball, running rings around Sleepy Don and his lickspittle crew of flatterers.
The Chinese have experience dealing with court eunuchs.

The Republican talent pool is what, exactly? Bog or swamp?