Does Pugnacious Pete have a minder who monitors his behavior vis a vis booze? I'm curious, because both he and Kennedy, a decades-long heroin junkie, act conspicuously weird, even for members of a Trump cabinet.

Poor Elise thought that cushy UN gig was a done deal, sewn up, in the bag. She even went out and got herself a make-do make-over so she could meet and converse with people not keen on being seen in the same room with MAGAt flip-flop foppery with its assorted signage and flaggery. Alas, now it's back to MAGAtland and red-white-and blue flip-flop foppery. So it'll be the usual drone of yee-haws and yahoos for Elise instead of that tinkling dreamland of sweet mercis< and gritty realpolitik. Sirely Mencken would smile, at least a little.

Colonel Chivington will be by momentarily to clear out the National Museum of the American Indian.

"You don't need to be a military expert to know that what the administration did is unconscionable any more than you need to be a meteorologist to know that the sky is blue. It requires only a willingness to speak honestly about serious matters."

That task is evidently beyond the ability of the members of our national security team. Instead, they have lied. They have mocked. The national security adviser, Michael Waltz, has called Mr. Goldberg "scum," even though Mr. Goldberg took more care with sensitive military information than Mr. Waltz did. The head of the F.B.I. has not promised an investigation. Mr. Trump dismissed the affair as a "witch hunt." They have treated this as a media event to be spun rather than a grievous error to be rectified.