25 September—Despite a court order by a federal judge Donald Trump himself had appointed during his first reign of terror (which, it’s turned out, was only practice for the second), reporters from CNN and MS NOW weren’t allowed to observe Trump’s White House dinner for one of his two BSFs (best scumbag friends) and fellow dictators, Red China strongman Xi Jinping. You know who Trump’s other BSF is and that Trump envies them both and kisses all four of their iniquitous posterior cheeks whenever he feels the urge.

The dinner to welcome Xi was in the White House’s East Room rather than the State Dining Room because the East Room is twice the State Dining Room’s size and Trump had invited scores of hypocritical, self-interested ass-kissing oligarchs like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg to impress Xi.

The Monitor’s Washington correspondent wasn’t banned from the dinner but had more important things to do last night as well as no credentials. But she was able to slip unnoticed into the East Room before the dinner. Don’t ask how. Although sorely tempted to take souvenirs of the vermeil flatware and bone china, she was able to control her kleptomanic impulses, unlike the dinner host and most of his guests, who, however, have more lucrative aspirations.

So our DC correspondent didn’t even take a menu for the meal Trump took pains planning in order to make his Chinese BSF feel right at home. But she did photograph one for the edification of Monitor readers: