May 16, 2026

Louisiana Senate Race. Theodoric Meyer of the Washington Post: “Sen. Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict ... Donald Trump in his impeachment trial for his role in fomenting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. On Saturday it could cost him his seat. Cassidy is up for reelection for the first time since his impeachment trial vote. He faces two primary challengers: Rep. Julia Letlow, whom Trump has endorsed, and John Fleming, the state treasurer, who has cast himself as the true conservative in the race. The top two candidates will advance to a runoff if no one wins a majority of the vote in Saturday’s primary.... After polls opened in Louisiana on Saturday morning, Trump, in a Truth Social post, called Cassidy 'a disloyal disaster' and urged voters to choose Letlow. “[Cassidy’s] entire past campaign for the Senate was about “TRUMP,” how he’s with me all the way, and then, after winning, he turned around and voted to IMPEACH me. … Now he’s going to get CLOBBERED,' Trump wrote.”

New York. Stefanos Chen & Ashley Southall of the New York Times: “Thousands of workers for the Long Island Rail Road walked off the job early Saturday morning, staging the first strike in more than 30 years for America’s busiest passenger railway and grinding service to a halt. After three years of failed contract negotiations, two federal interventions and a volley of last-minute bargaining, unions representing about half of the work force decided to take to the picket line to protest what they called insufficient wage increases. Five unions representing more than 3,500 workers — including engineers, signalmen and machinists — called the strike after contract discussions with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the railroad, fell apart. Kevin Sexton, a vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, one of the unions, said the two sides could not agree on raises in 2026, or on issues like health care contributions.”

Franklin Foer of the Atlantic: “Xi used [Trump's] visit to humor the lame-duck president, waiting for his time to pass. During the first Trump administration, foreign leaders flattered and accommodated the president out of deference to American power. They feared it; they relied on it. During the second administration, and especially since the beginning of the Iran war, their calculus has quietly shifted — not because the strategy of obsequiousness has failed, but because it’s no longer worth the trouble. Like many of his counterparts around the world, Xi has begun to assume that it’s not just Trump who is term-limited; it’s also his nation.... Supporters of the war argued that it would deal China a severe blow by eliminating one of its most potent allies. But the Gulf nations most threatened by Iran have actually turned to China.... Without exerting itself much, Beijing has profited from America’s self-immolation.” Thanks to akaWendy for this gift link.

The Not-Trump Video of the Day:

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Trump in China -- the Opera Buffa, Epilogue.

Chinese & U.S. delegations meet. What's the matter with this picture?
Hint: Why is no one wearing a red dress?

Anton Troianovski & David Sanger of the New York Times: “As Air Force One took off from the Chinese capital on Friday, it remained unclear what deals, if any..., [Donald] Trump had clinched with Mr. Xi. But the two-day summit in Beijing underscored how far he has shifted the foundations of American policy toward China in the wake of his humbling retreat from last year’s trade war. He has thrown aside the adversarial approach of his first years in office, the Biden administration and the beginning of his own second term. What’s more, he has largely waved aside the warnings outlined in the Pentagon’s annual, unclassified accounting of China’s capabilities and intentions, which lays out a plan to push the United States out of the Western Pacific, engulf Taiwan, claim more territory in the South China Sea and escalate cyberattacks on the United States. He acknowledges that these threats are real. He has just reversed his view of how to deal with them.

“In Beijing, Mr. Trump clapped for Chinese children waving American flags, toasted the 'special relationship' between the American and Chinese people, called Mr. Xi a 'great leader' and exclaimed that the garden where he walked with Mr. Xi held 'the most beautiful roses anyone’s ever seen.' When Mr. Trump introduced the Chinese leader to the 17 or so American executives who came to Beijing, he said they had joined him 'to pay respects to you, China.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It would be nice if this were part of some well-wrought policy of "holding our friends close but our enemies closer." Instead, Trump treats our friends with contempt and grovels before our enemies. It's disgusting. He is desperate to be invited into the dictators' club. And they are laughing at him. Update: Heather Cox Richardson (linked below) agrees: "Trump appears desperate to be included as an equal in the world of strongmen, apparently not understanding that America’s strength was always about its alliances." ~~~

~~~ Clueless Trump Plays into Xi's Hand. Isaac Arnsdorf, et al., of the Washington Post: “'It’s the two great countries. I call it the G-2. This is the G-2,' [Donald Trump] said in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity that aired Friday and was taped after Thursday’s bilateral meeting with Xi. 'I think it’ll go down as a very important moment in history.'... The image of two superpowers on similar footing was exactly what Xi aimed to achieve with the visit, analysts said.... Julian Gewirtz..., China director on the National Security Council under President Joe Biden, [said,] 'Xi used the opulent optics of the visit to make clear to the world that China and the United States are the two dominant, equally matched superpowers. There is no going back.' Trump came into the summit without clearly defining his strategy or goals..., and he left without announcing firm commitments or developments on ... issues.”~~~

AP photo.

~~~ Lily Kuo, et al., of the New York Times: Xi leads Old Man Trump down the garden path. ~~~

~~~ No Doubt This is Greek to Trump. Chad de Guzman of Time: “'The world has come to another crossroads,' Chinese President Xi Jinping told ... Donald Trump on Thursday.... Then Xi asked: 'Can China and the U.S. overcome the so-called “Thucydides Trap” and create a new paradigm of major-country relations?' Xi was referring to the ancient Athenian historian and military commander Thucydides, who wrote The History of the Peloponnesian War, recounting the nearly three-decade conflict between the former Greek poleis (city-states) of Athens and Sparta. In his account, he wrote: 'The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon [Sparta], made war inevitable.'... In the modern context, China is Athens, challenging the U.S. as today’s Sparta.... It’s not the first time Xi has brought up the trap.” Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Heather Cox Richardson: “Somebody must have explained [to Trump] the meaning of Xi’s Thucydides Trap comment, but rather than taking offense, Trump on May 14 said Xi 'was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100% correct. Our Country suffered immeasurably with open borders, high taxes, transgender for everybody, men in women’s sports, DEI, horrible trade deals, rampant crime, and so much more!...'” 

An insane level of corruption — even for Trump.... A $1.7 BILLION slush fund for Trump’s hand-picked stooges to hand money to January 6 insurrectionists and his political allies. -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), on X, Thursday ~~~

~~~ Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: take up ABC News' story (linked yesterday) about Trump's planned $1.7BB heist/slush fund to pay off criminals and accused criminals with taxpayer funds. “... Mr. Trump’s insistence on taking vengeance has created chaos and confusion at the highest levels of his own administration. To avoid having to explain themselves, the Justice Department and White House are now racing to iron out a settlement and withdraw the suit before the judge can evaluate its legitimacy, The Times reported this week.” ~~~

~~~ Andrew Egger of the Bulwark: The story of Trump's $10BB lawsuit against the IRS "is one that piles intolerable outrage on intolerable outrage. There’s the baseline obscenity of the lawsuit in the first place.... [Ten billion dollars] was always a ludicrous ask in damages for the leak of his tax returns — a leak perpetrated by an outside contractor, not one countenanced in any way by the IRS. (That contractor, Charles Littlejohn, was caught and is serving a five-year prison sentence.) There’s the obvious conflict of interest. The IRS has fought other lawsuits brought on the basis of Littlejohn’s leaks, arguing it isn’t liable for the misdeeds of a contractor. But the idea that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s IRS would fight as hard to keep money out of the hands of Bessent’s boss was laughable from the start. Then there are the extraordinary steps the White House and IRS have taken to prevent the federal judge overseeing the case, Kathleen Williams, from weighing in on that obvious conflict of interest.... And then, of course, there’s the unbearable rottenness of the purported settlement fund itself...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ David Kurtz of TPM: "It’s not clear if settling the case before Judge Williams rules would leave the judge with any authority to review the settlement, and it’s a tricky legal question whether any outside parties would have legal standing to challenge the settlement. All of which is why the parties seem to be rushing to settle the claims before the May 20 briefing deadline." Worth reading for Kurtz's explanation of the advice offered by a six-person independent panel Judge Williams consulted.

The Bully Forges Ahead. Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Friday said his administration had selected Washington’s West Potomac Park as the site of his planned 'National Garden of American Heroes.'... 'This magnificent exhibition of statues will be located in West Potomac Park, which we are transforming into one of the World’s most beautiful public spaces,' Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.... West Potomac Park ... is among the most tightly controlled federal lands in the District of Columbia. Large portions fall within the 'reserve' area governed by the Commemorative Works Act, in which any new memorial project would probably require congressional approval as well as review by federal planning bodies. White House officials ... have not specified whether ... [they will seek] congressional approval. The law also says that a commemorative work 'may not be authorized until after the 25th anniversary of the event, death of the individual, or death of the last surviving member of the group.' Several dozen people on previous lists released by the White House ... have died within the past 25 years.”

The Men We Murdered. Tiago Rogero of the Guardian: “A five-month investigation has named 13 previously unidentified victims of US attacks on boats allegedly carrying narcotics in a campaign that has killed nearly 200 people in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. It is unclear if the US has ever identified any of its 194 victims before attacking them, and the names of just three had previously emerged, after their families launched legal cases against the White House. The Trump administration has consistently sought to justify the killings, which began during last year’s military buildup towards Venezuela, by arguing those targeted were 'narco-terrorists' transporting drugs to the US. But a joint effort by 20 journalists led by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) this week published the identities of 13 of those killed, some of whom showed no indication of involvement in drug trafficking. The CLIP’s report showed that all the victims identified so far, including those who may have had some involvement in drug trafficking, came from extremely poor communities across Latin America and the Caribbean.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: “This week, the Trump administration dramatically ramped up pressure on Cuba. The American embargo has left the country’s oil reserves empty. The U.S. military and spy agencies have stepped up surveillance flights around the island. Officials privately spoke of a coming buildup of armed forces in the region. And John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, visited on Thursday to deliver a stark demand: shut down Russian and Chinese listening posts and take steps to open the economy. Then came word, from people familiar with the U.S. government’s deliberations, that federal prosecutors in Miami were working on an indictment of Raúl Castro, the brother of Fidel.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It is hard to exaggerate how stupid -- and of course how undemocratic -- it is to try to control the people of another country. The reason we have been living with the Castros for 65 years is that the U.S. government propped up the previous corrupt Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista and coddled him when he was exiled to the U.S. (He had a swell mansion in Daytona Beach.)

Connor O'Brien of Politico: “Top Republicans on Friday condemned the Pentagon for canceling a U.S. troop deployment to Poland, an abrupt move that also appeared to catch Army leaders by surprise. The decision, House Armed Service Committee members said, amounted to a gut punch to the NATO ally and to a Congress that has sought to beef up the U.S. presence in Europe. They made those frustrations clear at a hearing with Army officials.... Lawmakers demanded Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and acting Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve explain why the cancellation had occurred. The pair indicated the administration only made the decision in recent weeks and did not provide a rationale for it. Their acknowledgment about the suddenness of the decision stands in contrast to the Pentagon’s public statement.... Acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez said Thursday that the decision was 'not an unexpected, last-minute decision.'”

Joseph Gedeon & Cate Brown of the Guardian: “The Pentagon has quietly dismantled a program it is legally required to operate to prevent and respond to civilian deaths in US military operations, according to its internal watchdog. A report released by the department’s inspector general concluded the US military no longer has the people, tools or infrastructure needed to comply with two federal statutes requiring it to maintain a functioning civilian casualty policy, and operate a Civilian Protection Center of Excellence (CP CoE). Donald Trump’s administration has been accused of making deep cuts to the Pentagon’s civilian harm mitigation and response (CHMR) program, designed to handle training and procedures critical in limiting civilian harm in theaters of war. While the program has not been officially canceled, the inspector general’s report said that funding had ended for a data management platform; committee meetings had halted; and many dedicated personnel had been lost or reassigned.”

When the Trump News isn't getting more and more scandalous, it's getting more and more bizarre: ~~~

~~~ "Erection Connection." (Keep Reading.) Pathikrit Sen Gupta of News 18 (India) (based on a firewalled CNN report by Andrew Kaczynski: "The Trump administration appointing a urologist specialising in penile implants to lead a critical public health briefing on the Hantavirus outbreak has ignited a firestorm of criticism across both medical and political circles in the United States. Beyond the immediate questions regarding Dr Brian Christine’s relevant expertise in virology or infectious diseases, as per a CNN report, the official is facing intense scrutiny over a documented history of far-right commentary on social media. The situation has left public health advocates questioning the vetting process used by the administration during a burgeoning health crisis. While he is a highly regarded specialist in urological prosthetics and penile reconstructive surgery, his primary clinical focus bears little relation to the epidemiology of zoonotic viruses.... [In addition, posts Dr. Christine wrote] reportedly included far-right rhetoric, disparaging remarks about minority groups, and the endorsement of fringe political theories that run contrary to inclusive public health standards." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

     ~~~ Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: “Dr. Brian Christine is ... a urologist who hosted a YouTube show called 'Erection Connection,' according to CNN’s KFile. Christine went directly from private practice to become Assistant Secretary for Health last November.... 'He’s said the Covid pandemic led to a wider government plot to control people, compared the Biden administration to Nazi Germany and suggested the Covid vaccine had little effect in stopping the pandemic.'... In addition, Christine 'suggested there may have been a worldwide effort involving George Soros and figures associated with the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset” to use the pandemic to force small businesses to close.'” (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Senate must confirm the Assistant Health Secretary, and it did confirm Christine, who seems to be a protege of Tommy Tuberville. The Senate confirmed Christine "in a recklessly rushed process, [in which] the Republican Senate majority voted in lock-step [in early October] to confirm 107 Trump nominees en masse...."

Susan Svrluga, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Justice Department on Thursday accused Yale School of Medicine of discriminating based on race in its admissions, by favoring Black and Hispanic applicants over White and Asian ones. The department’s allegations are based on a year-long investigation that sought to determine whether Yale’s admissions practices were in compliance with federal civil rights law. The agency determined that the medical school 'continues to intentionally discriminate against applicants based on their race,' despite a 2023 Supreme Court ruling rejecting race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions.” MB: Of course the DOJ used Trump Math to calculate the “discrimination”: it examined only test scores and did not consider “other factors Yale may use in admissions decisions, such as essays, transcripts, letters of recommendation and interviews. Nor did it reveal how much scores and grades weigh in the admissions process. Scores for admitted students of all races were very high, according to the data, but there were small disparities.”

Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: “The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is considering no longer collecting demographic information including race, sex and national origin from major American companies, departing from a practice that began during the civil rights era of the 1960s and was critical to the agency’s efforts to root out workplace discrimination. The EEOC also wants to ax data reporting rules for apprenticeship programs, unions, state and local governments, and schools, as well as reporting requirements in other civil rights laws that protect workers.... The EEOC notified the White House on Thursday of its proposal, which will be published publicly after a review.... The move would align with the administration’s efforts to end diversity programs and deprioritize a key subset of discrimination cases. The data collection has taken place for 60 years under a plank of the Civil Rights Act called Title VII.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, the only thing the EEOC is planning to do is defend White men and maybe pretend to care about antisemitism.  

Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post tells a horrifying story of child abuse and murder that can be attributed directly to ICE's deportation of a mother without her toddler son. ICE's acting director Todd Lyons blamed the mother. “But a review of court records and the mother’s own account contradict ICE’s narrative and raise questions about how the Trump administration is deporting scores of parents, many without their children.... [The mother, Wendy Hernandez Reyes,] does not match the profile of the 'worst of the worst' criminals that the Department of Homeland Security has promised to prioritize for removal. She is a victim of domestic violence, her lawyer said, and has no criminal record.” MB: The link is a gift link, though I don't know how much of a gift it is to invite you to read this truly disturbing report.    

Zachary Small & Deborah Blumberg of the New York Times: “The Smithsonian Institution is once again mentioning the impeachments of ... [Donald] Trump on wall text accompanying his image at the National Portrait Gallery. It had faced scrutiny months ago when text that described the president’s two impeachment trials was removed at a time when Mr. Trump has been critical of the Smithsonian’s depiction of American history and sought to exert greater control over the institution. The Smithsonian had assured historians that the removal was part of a larger revamp of how an exhibition at the gallery that focuses on American presidents presents information to the public. The updated exhibition was unveiled on Friday. In the new wall text accompanying a portrait of Mr. Trump, the impeachments are mentioned in a list of important events from the president’s first term.... Other events on the list are Mr. Trump’s work on the Abraham Accords; his role in efforts to develop Covid vaccines...; the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol; and the George Floyd protests in 2020.”

I Told Them Not to Do That. Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency request by Democratic officials in Virginia to use a newly approved congressional district map in the midterms that would give their party an edge. Instead, the justices declined to overturn a recent decision by the Virginia Supreme Court striking down the map, a ruling that dealt a major blow to Democrats in the nationwide redistricting fight. The one-sentence emergency order by the justices did not give a vote count or provide reasoning for the decision, which is typical in such rulings. No dissents were noted. The Supreme Court’s ruling blocking the map wipes out four newly drawn Democratic-leaning House districts in Virginia, and was the latest in a string of election-related decisions that the justices have weighed in on in recent months. Abigail Spanberger, Virginia’s Democratic governor, who had initially been reluctant in her support for the redistricting plan, criticized the U.S. Supreme Court and the state supreme court in a post, saying that they had chosen 'to nullify an election and the votes of more than three million Virginians.'” The NBC News report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Spanberger is of course correct on this. The state could still do what Jamelle Bouie suggested here and in a video I embedded May 9. (You can also watch the video on YouTube here.) But Virginia's Democratic officials won't. Because Democrats' idea of "hardball" is to whine at the bent refs. When they're not playing "hardball" -- Democrats' rules, they're playing nice.

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Marie: I guess Jared Polis is never planning to run for public office again. ~~~

~~~ Colorado. Jack Healy & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: “Tina Peters, perhaps the most prominent 2020 election denier who remains behind bars, is set to go free after Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado, a Democrat, commuted her sentence on Friday. The remarkable development cuts short the roughly nine-year sentence that Ms. Peters, a former county clerk in Mesa County, Colo., was given after being convicted in 2024 for her role in a brazen plot to examine voting machines under her control after the 2020 election. Ms. Peters had tried to prove that the machines had been used to rig the contest against ... [Donald] Trump. In an interview at the Colorado State Capitol, the governor said his commutation was not an attempt to placate Mr. Trump, who has leveled a barrage of funding cuts and policy attacks at Colorado in a hostile effort to free Ms. Peters. Instead, Mr. Polis said he believed that Ms. Peters, a nonviolent first-time offender, had received too harsh a sentence because of her embrace of conspiracy theories about Mr. Trump’s 2020 election loss.” Thanks to RAS for the link. The AP report is here.

Tennessee House Race. Stephen Groves of the AP: “Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee on Friday announced that he is ending his bid for reelection, his career upended by the redistricting battles that are sweeping the country after last month’s Supreme Court decision. Republicans in Tennessee this month enacted a new U.S. House map that carves up a Cohen’s majority-Black district, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of ... Donald Trump’s strategy to hold on to a slim majority in the November midterm elections. 'I don’t want to quit. I’m not a quitter. But these districts were drawn to beat me,' Cohen told reporters in his Washington, D.C. office. Cohen is challenging the state’s redistricting effort in court and said that he would reenter the race if that lawsuit succeeded in restoring his old congressional district.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: “The Texas Supreme Court on Friday rejected an attempt by Gov. Greg Abbott to remove Democratic lawmakers from office, ending a high-stakes legal battle that began when the lawmakers fled the state to delay a Republican redistricting drive last year. Chief Justice James D. Blacklock wrote in his decision that the court did not need to intervene in a political disagreement between two branches of the state government — a dispute that raised 'fundamental questions about the allocation of power' — because, as a practical matter, it was already resolved. 'In the end, a quorum was restored in two weeks’ time, without judicial intervention, by the interplay of political and practical forces,” wrote Justice Blacklock, an appointee of Mr. Abbott and his former general counsel. The court, whose nine members are all Republicans, declined to rule on whether breaking quorum was an acceptable form of political protest, or one that could result in removal from office in the future, under different circumstances.”

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Israel/Palestine. AP: “Israel says it has killed the leader of Hamas’ military wing, one of the architects of the Oct, 7, 2023, attacks that triggered the war in Gaza. Izz al-Din al-Haddad was killed in a strike in Gaza City on Friday, Israel’s army said. He was one of the last senior commanders in Hamas’ military who had directed the planning and execution of the Oct. 7. Hamas-led attacks on Israel. Haddad assumed the role after his predecessor, Mohammed Sinwar, was killed, Israeli officials said. On Saturday, Haddad’s family confirmed his death to The Associated Press.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The AP forced me to sign up in order to read this report.