At home and abroad
Good Tuesday morning to all.
Allow me a couple of comments about the U.S.-Russia summit in Helsinki, Finland yesterday.
We're in a dark and rather dangerous place now, and my feelings echo virtually all of the analysis and coverage that I've read over the past eighteen hours. What President Trump did in siding with President Putin and against the entirety of the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities is unprecedented and I am honestly unsure what can be done about it.
Officials in the Trump Administration can resign and make some noise on their way out of their positions, but that won't really change anything. And our Republican-controlled Congress has done what it always does....make some statements about how bad all of this is, but it never leads anywhere.
For my part, those average citizens who are not happy with our current course have one clear alternative--vote. No, we're not voting in a presidential election, but the entirety of the House of Representatives is up for reelection in November, as are many Senators, Governors and Mayors. If you don't like how our governments are handling things, you have the ability to influence changing those governments. And not only should but MUST exercise that right.
And it's easy to forget that the events in the Trump European trip that preceded the meetings in Helsinki were equally unsettling. The President essentially demanded that NATO members "pay into" NATO in greater amounts than before, when it's well documented that he doesn't have a clear understanding of NATO funding. In the end, though, he claimed that all was well, NATO was strong and it was all because of him.
Likewise his side trip to the London area to meet with British PM Theresa May and Queen Elizabeth II. He gave an interview to the Sun newspaper damning May's handling of Brexit, claiming he told her what to do (he apparently advised her to sue the European Union) but she didn't listen, that outgoing Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson would make a great Prime Minister and on and on and on.
Then he committed numerous faux pas in meeting with the Queen, some forgivable, some less so. He kept her waiting for nearly fifteen minutes, then walked awkwardly with her to review some of the Palace Guard that stood at attention for the occasion. It was reported that Trump and his wife Melania spent less than an hour with the Queen.
The ugly American abroad, one could say.
Allow me a couple of comments about the U.S.-Russia summit in Helsinki, Finland yesterday.
We're in a dark and rather dangerous place now, and my feelings echo virtually all of the analysis and coverage that I've read over the past eighteen hours. What President Trump did in siding with President Putin and against the entirety of the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities is unprecedented and I am honestly unsure what can be done about it.
Officials in the Trump Administration can resign and make some noise on their way out of their positions, but that won't really change anything. And our Republican-controlled Congress has done what it always does....make some statements about how bad all of this is, but it never leads anywhere.
For my part, those average citizens who are not happy with our current course have one clear alternative--vote. No, we're not voting in a presidential election, but the entirety of the House of Representatives is up for reelection in November, as are many Senators, Governors and Mayors. If you don't like how our governments are handling things, you have the ability to influence changing those governments. And not only should but MUST exercise that right.
And it's easy to forget that the events in the Trump European trip that preceded the meetings in Helsinki were equally unsettling. The President essentially demanded that NATO members "pay into" NATO in greater amounts than before, when it's well documented that he doesn't have a clear understanding of NATO funding. In the end, though, he claimed that all was well, NATO was strong and it was all because of him.
Likewise his side trip to the London area to meet with British PM Theresa May and Queen Elizabeth II. He gave an interview to the Sun newspaper damning May's handling of Brexit, claiming he told her what to do (he apparently advised her to sue the European Union) but she didn't listen, that outgoing Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson would make a great Prime Minister and on and on and on.
Then he committed numerous faux pas in meeting with the Queen, some forgivable, some less so. He kept her waiting for nearly fifteen minutes, then walked awkwardly with her to review some of the Palace Guard that stood at attention for the occasion. It was reported that Trump and his wife Melania spent less than an hour with the Queen.
The ugly American abroad, one could say.
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