A. The Republican drive to people the Judicial Branch with reactionaries, qualifications be damned moves on. Lately a Trump nominee for the Ninth Court of Appeals, one Lawrence C.J. VanDyke, has been rated ‘unqualified’ by the American Bar Association. This evoked howls of rage from right-wing pressure groups that supervise the right-wing subversion of the judiciary. A Republican Senator, Mike Lee, from Utah, added his voice to the chorus of outrage, declaring “If this man is not qualified, I don’t know who is.” He is probably right, he does not know who is qualified. I think it is time for Senator Lee to be removed from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

B. Our Commander in Chief gave the nation a lurid account of the murder of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a report laced with inaccuracies, classified material, and remarkably bad taste. Trump carried on about this raid as if he played a leading part in it. But the fact is that Trump participated in the raid in the way he participated in 9/11, sc., he watched it on television.

Trump gloated over the Isis leader’s death like a kid telling about what finally happened to the bad guy at the end of a kung-fu movie. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was responsible for countless deaths and immeasurable damage,  I’m willing to bet he was a better man than Trump.