I hate to give y’all two Open Threads back-to-back, but it’s just one of those kinds of days:

1. Federal grand jury indicts ex-North Charleston cop in shooting of Walter Scott — Not terribly surprising, but an important step in an important case.
2. Islamic State Bombings Kill Dozens in Baghdad — Making the success of this administration’s ISIL strategy just look farther and farther away. As James Clapper indicated in the latest Ignatius column, this problem will await the next president.
3. Spurning Unity, Trump Claims ‘Mandate’ to Be Provocative — So apparently, the internal campaign memo says, “Let Trump Be Trump.” As if he would or could be anything else. Meanwhile, it’s being said on the eve of Trump’s meeting with Speaker Ryan that “Trump and GOP leaders might never be on the same page.”
4. Google Announces It Will Stop Allowing Ads For Payday Lenders — This is some good news. Google gets a conscience…
5. Queen filmed calling Chinese officials ‘very rude’ — And she was not amused. See above. The remarkable thing about this is that Her Majesty wasn’t “caught” on some stranger’s phone video. This was released by the Palace. So, all together now: Harrumph!

I guarantee you Fritz Hollings could squeeze all the political correctness out of ANY visit to Hiroshima.

I gave you a break yesterday, but I won’t promise to make this one Trump-free, too:

1. Obama to be first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima — No doubt the president will receive a lot of criticism from those who regard this as another stop on his supposed Apology Tour. You know how he could put a stop to that? Take Fritz Hollings along with him. Or not…
2. China scrambles fighter jets as a U.S. destroyer steams past disputed island — Just so you know that’s going on out there. Showing the flag. Standing up for freedom of the seas. Brinksmanship. Stuff that’s more important than calling a beer “America.”
3. Secretary admits to using $97,000 of church funds to buy drugs — Which apparently was against the rules. Not a huge story, but I needed something local for the mix, and this sort of stuck out. I don’t know what kind of drugs this involved, but I’m going to hazard a guess it was a prescription opioid, which can cause seemingly normal people to do horrific things. Of course, I could be totally wrong on that. I’ll read followup stories with interest, if there are any…
4. Islamic State ‘Kill Lists’ Target Ordinary Americans — If true, this is definitely a new and disturbing wrinkle. One wonders why they didn’t think of it before, if they truly mean to be terrorists.
5. Is Donald Trump Playing The ‘Man Card’? — See? I told you I couldn’t promise anything.

We’re stuck with you-know-who for months to come, so I hope you appreciate this special gift from me to you:

1. North Carolina sues U.S. over ‘bathroom law’ — All right, I’m now convinced of it: North Carolina is engaged in a deep, dark plot to make us in South Carolina look like a buncha dang’ liberals. Oh, and The Wall Street Journal is actually leading its site at this hour with this story about the issue of who goes to what bathroom. Have we hit bottom yet?
2. Sanders favored in West Virginia primary — Is this thing never going to end?
3. Philippines Votes For President; ‘The Punisher’ Leads The Pack — Wow. It seems other electorates are going nuts as well. A generation ago, I remember the uplifting campaign of Cory Aquino. Now this…
4. Panama Papers include dozens of Americans tied to financial fraud — This is about money and offshore accounts and… (yawn). For those of you immune to the soporific effect, this database is now searchable. If you find that I have a vast fortune hidden away somewhere abroad, please let me know, so that I can go to there.
5. The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign-Policy Guru — This is kind of a scary story, about the kid (still in school, albeit graduate school, when 9/11 happened) who is “according to the consensus of the two dozen current and former White House insiders I talked to, the single most influential voice shaping American foreign policy aside from Potus himself.” Not John Kerry, or Hillary Clinton or Robert Gates before him, but Ben Rhodes…

Unfortunately, Indiana also seems to want Donald Trump, which means we’re all in trouble. If you’d like to comment on that or anything else, type away:

1. Indiana Votes, in What Could Be Knockout Blow in Races — If you have thoughts as the results come in, leave them here. Me, I’m fantasizing that Cruz gets fed up and quits after tonight, and Kasich starts getting the attention he deserves, and manages to win enough delegates in the remaining primaries to deny Trump a first-ballot win. Hey, it could happen. If Donald Trump can be on the verge of obtaining a once-great party’s nomination, anything can happen. Oh, you don’t believe in underdogs? I refer you to “Hoosiers.” See photo below.
2. Democrats’ Brand Is Bad, But Republicans’ Is Way Worse — I sense it approaching… the UnParty Moment!
3. US accuses Russia of nuclear sabre-rattling, amid NATO tensions — While we make a mockery of the process of choosing our commander in chief, there’s some serious s__t going on in the world…
4. American killed as U.S. troops get closer to Islamic State battle in Iraq — As this administration continues its excruciatingly gradual escalation, at what point do we drop the “adviser” shtick, and go after ISIL?
5. Father-daughter dance canceled following complaints at elementary school — The complaint apparently was that a lot of kids are left out by a father-daughter dance. After having worked with the SC Center for Fathers and Families for several years, I’ve been acutely aware of the severe problem of father absence in far too many families. This dramatizes it.

“OK, boys — we’re gonna run the picket fence at ’em!”

So, did you have a good May Day, comrades? Well, if not, don’t come crying to me. Nichevo. It can’t be helped:

1. Terrible, awful, horrible news out of Indiana — Did you see the poll results showing Trump with a double-digit lead? Yep. It’s just getting harder and harder for the Republicans to avoid nominating this bizarre character. Which leads to such cringe-inducing stories as this one: What would Trump be like as the Republican nominee? Meanwhile, the candidate’s latest gem: “Trump accuses China of ‘raping’ US with unfair trade policy“
2. Should your workplace have a nap room? — Absolutely. One of the few nice things about our steadily decreasing staff those last few years I was at the paper was that we had an empty office in which we kept a couch. Sometimes, along about 4 in the afternoon when I needed to concentrate on proofs, I’d get this debilitating sinus headache. So I’d go into that room, set my phone to wake me in 12 or 15 minutes, and drop off immediately. I’d wake up feeling great and ready to work hours more — which is great, because I had to do just that. I highly recommend it if you can swing it.
3. CIA ‘Live Tweets’ Bin Laden Raid On 5th Anniversary — Fortunately, the raid itself was well thought-out. This Twitter stunt, I’m thinking, not so much. Look, we killed the guy; it was a thing that needed doing. Let’s not invite the country to celebrate each moment of the experience, OK?

Or maybe you’ve run across something more interesting, which wouldn’t be all that hard. If so, please share…

Several interesting items out there that I’ve run out of time today to turn into separate posts:

1. Roof friend Meek to plead guilty to federal charges — I still find myself wondering, based on what has been reported, why the feds bothered with Meek — did they really think there was a realistic chance the slaughter could have been prevented by him? I suspect it was mostly about having leverage over him when it comes time to prosecute Roof.
2. Cruz and Kasich team up to try to stop Trump — Fascinating. And, I suppose, it’s a good thing. Although it does have its Orwellian aspect. Cruz was going around acting like it’s a personal affront that Kasich was still running, and now he’s is all like, Oceania was always allied with Eurasia…
3. Federal Appeals Court Rules Against Tom Brady, Says He Must Serve Suspension — REALLY? People are still talking about this? An actual, literal federal case about whether a football was sufficiently inflated?
4. Obama outlines plans to expand U.S. Special Operations forces in Syria — Obama is SO intent on not repeating our experience in Iraq. I think he’s safe on that point. This gradual escalation of the involvement of “advisers” feels a lot more like Vietnam… By the way, you may also be interested in reading this recent piece by the editorial page editor of The Washington Post (because editorial page editors are always right), headlined “Obama destroyed Syrians’ ‘glimmer of hope’ that America would intervene“…
5. Cleveland To Pay $6 Million To Settle Tamir Rice Lawsuit — I heard an interesting observation on the radio this afternoon. Some note that in settlements regarding Walter Scott in North Charleston, Eric Garner in New York and a couple of other cases, the amounts were also about $6 million. Leaving the person on the radio to observe that $6 million seems to be the “going rate” for the wrongful death of a black man — on in the Cleveland case, a 12-year-old boy…

Flag of Ecuador. I used to be able to sing the national anthem, but it’s been awhile.

Let me just toss out a few topics before I go give platelets:

1. Ecuador quake death toll rises to 350 — This might not hit home for you, but I lived there for the longest period that I lived anywhere in my peripatetic childhood. Small quakes that would move furniture in our house were a regular part of life.
2. Dow Closes Above 18000 for First Time Since July — And if that floats your boat, I’m happy for you.
3. Oil Slips After Output Deal Fails — Which is both good and bad news. Good because I really don’t want to go back to paying more for gas, and it’s been creeping up lately. Taking the long view, it’s bad from an Energy Party perspective. You know who is the world’s largest producer now? Russia. Because it costs a lot less to produce a barrel there than it does here.
4. Supreme Court Sharply Divided on Obama Plan for Immigrants — Again, it would be nice to have nine justices!
5. A cold-eyed view of allies has left Obama with few overseas friends — Which is not good, geopolitically speaking.

I hope Breakthrough Initiatives doesn’t mind my using this image of a “Starchip” on its way to another star system.

Once, I had to come up with a front page every day whether there was news or not. Now, if there really isn’t enough front-worthy news out there, I can do an Open Thread instead. It’s liberating. No need to find a lede! Nothing even has to be important!…

1. Forget Starships: New Proposal Would Use ‘Starchips’ To Visit Alpha Centauri — This NPR story is very cool. It seems according to Stephen Hawking this other guy, before too much longer we should be able to send tiny, postage-stamp sized probes to other star systems, using sails (check it out, Brian) and lasers. And they’d get there in about 20 years. We’d send bunches of them, to make sure some made it. Interestingly, there are several different artists’ conceptions of what this craft would look like, such as this one.
2. Despite Party Pleas, Ryan Rules Out Presidential Bid — That’s OK, I wasn’t holding my breath for this anyway. Besides, I think he’s doing a passable job as speaker thus far. Let him stick to that — if, you know, the GOP can hang onto the House when their nominee is Trump or Cruz.
3. This white nationalist shoved a Trump protester. He may be the next David Duke. — Interesting piece on a guy who’s gone off the deep end.
4. STIs may have driven ancient humans to monogamy, study says — Well, yeah… and maybe to drink as well. Because this was right about the time we invented beer. “STI,” by the way, is Brit for STD. This is from The Guardian.

Don’t quite feel up to a VFP today, but here are some possible topics:

1. White officer gets probation in black driver’s shooting in Edgefield — They didn’t exactly throw the book at him; they just wafted a few pages in his general direction. The black driver in question was killed. This is kind of a weird outcome. One expects that either the cop would be cleared of wrongdoing, or receive a heavy penalty. This is odd. Oh, and guess what — we still haven’t seen the video.
2. Bible makes list of ‘most-challenged’ books — Methinks the American Library Association is trying to drum up some sympathy from conservative quarters for its concerns about efforts to “ban” books. Where did Holy Writ rate? No. 6 — Four slots below Fifty Shades of Grey and four ahead of Two Boys Kissing.
3. The fall of Edward Lin, the Navy officer accused of espionage and hiring a prostitute — Does the second charge sound kind of anticlimactic after espionage? Like, “We may not get him on the spy charges, but he’s a sailor, so everyone will believe the second one. Let’s also charge him with jaywalking while we’re at it…”
4. Why I’m quitting the ‘Walking Dead’ franchise — I confess I gave up on it myself a couple of seasons back. Are you still watching it? Why? And don’t give me any spoilers. I especially don’t what to know if something bad happened to Daryl…
5. Masters winner was a Gamecock, but not from USC — I had no idea that the Jacksonville State team also called itself the “Gamecocks.” I thought our Gamecocks were unique, for good reasons. The only other thing that interested me out of the Masters was this item from The Onion: “Jordan Spieth’s Family To Wait A Few Days Before Asking Him What The F__k Happened.”