Trump Trickery by Foxymoron

The attempts by Trump to get another "conservative" member of the Supreme Court before the election show his level of trickery. Hopefully the "right-thinking" Republicans will vote against this move, and the Senate will correctly delay the appointment.

"Tricks with trumps" was the theme of this week's hand and John Bernard showed how to make 11 tricks as East despite seemingly having two hearts and a club to lose. 

Jenny's 2H showed hearts and a minor, in the modern style, and Nigel Stuttard elected to show four spades and a heart stop with 3H. Very reasonable as 3NT is quite likely to be the right contract if partner does not have four spades. Maybe he has Jx in hearts for example. East bid 3S and West raised to game. South led a trump, which was as good as anything else, as the battle is to avoid giving the overtrick. Declarer drew trumps, South pitching a heart, and then played the ten of diamonds to the king and the ace of diamonds, dropping the jack.Now he played the queen and nine of diamonds, discarding a club from dummy. 

South threw a club on the first of these, but If he threw another club on the "Curse of Scotland", he would be thrown in with the king of clubs to give East the king of hearts. Therefore he threw a heart, but declarer crossed to the ace of clubs and played a heart to the king. South won and cashed another high heart, but was now forced to yield the eleventh trick to the ten of hearts or the queen of clubs, a trump endplay.

I hope that the endgame will be just as uncomfortable for Donald Trump over the next couple of months. That reminds me of a crossword clue from Private Eye a year or two back:  "Mooning in a suit contract?" (9)