This week’s Comey testimony took an unexpectedly strange turn.

I have some questions for you, President Comey.

I’m not President.

Did I impeach you?

No.

Did you resign?

No, I was never President.

I’m cold. I want soup.

Lordy!

• Masha Gessen argues Trump’s incompetence doesn’t preclude authoritarianism.

• Matt Yglesias reminds that Congress is to protect us from Presidential misconduct.

• It’s difficult to imagine the Ryan Congress impeaching Trump, no matter what.

• Bernie Sanders explains why he despises the “personality contest” of US politics.

• Our prolonged period of relative global peace may be interrupted in the worst way.

• Suki Kim went undercover in North Korea, that deeply troubled state.

• Garry Kasparov says, quite rightly, that AI won’t be in the hands of the few.

• Old Print Article: Old Print Articles: Deadwood, the widow-maker. (1877)

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Stephen Jay Gould, Alexei Navalny, etc.