1) I read a report that Trump has announced that he wants to take the criminal beneficiaries of his clemency, Lorance, Golsteyn, and Gallagher, on campaign with him. Do we have here another quid pro quo? I’ll pardon you if you’ll be part of my road-show.

Right-wing propagandists were ardent in their support of these three, and Trump’s clemency is bound to play well, as he anticipated, with his BaSe, most of whom ascribe to the exceptionalist position on war crimes, sc.

          American warriors do not commit war crimes, 

          or if they do, it’s just an excess of pardonable zeal [extreme patriotism], 

          or if they do, those they abuse or kill are savage enemies of the U.S.

These pardons also appeal to the BaSe’s cult of the veteran. The American people are feeling so guilty about the huge waste of American lives in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere that they reflexively beatify veterans and canonize war criminals.

2) Two obedient senators, obeisant to Trump’s command, voted to block the resolution that acknowledges the Armenian Genocide. One was Lindsey Graham, Trump’s factotum, the other David Perdue, the fellow whose memory played such tricks on him after the “Shit-hole countries” Meeting. Trump is trying to buddy up to his fellow strongman, Erdogan, and, of course, the Turks have always maintained that there was no Armenian genocide, just lots of war crimes. Of course, when it comes to genocide, America’s slaughter of the Indians might make us careful not to throw the first stone.

“Selena Gomez Shows Off Her New Thigh Tatoo”: This is a headline I saw on what is assumed to be a respectable news website. Isn’t this unutterably silly? Oh, maybe I’m being too confrontational. All I can say is that I do not know who Selena Gomez is, so I cannot share the excitement about her new thigh tatoo.