My wife has suffered a retinal tear and for the moment cannot read or drive, so I have taken a few days off from work to drive her to necessary medical appointments. I am lucky to work for an outfit where the guys at the top have a huge tolerance and understanding for this kind of thing and never give me a hard time about it.
While waiting in the car, I turned on the radio, and happened to hear a report from Bonn along with one sent from Washington yesterday. In Bonn, at the global climate conference, the world mood was that the USA has basically taken leave of its senses, and that the world cannot affort to wait around to see if we even regain sanity on a national level. They interviewed the governors of CA, OR and WA to show that we don't all follow the Trump administration line, but they hold most of the cards, and it is their word which goes down as our official policy. The general consensus is that the rest of the world is perfectly willing to pass us by, and address universal problems head-on without us if we aren't interested in being helpful. They played a quote from the Trump coal idiot, trying to say what a great thing "clean coal" is, and basically compared it to "safe cyanide."
This has expanded to trade and defense. The EU has convened its defense ministers and is organizing an EU defense force--not to replace NATO, but as a back-up in case the USA is out to lunch in time of an emergency--a likely scenario in the EU's eyes as long as the Trumpadors give the orders. The NYT global edition also ran a front page article today on how our trading partners, especially Canada, are already preparing for the USA to abandon NAFTA and are exporting like mad to the world as if the USA didn't exist, which, on many levels, we indeed no longer do, as far as they are concerned.
The German media didn't even bother any more this morning with the "how-could-America-do-this-to-itself" question, as it appears to them that we aren't worried enough to do anything about it. Let us ALL hope that Mueller, along with a nice boost by the people of Alabama, can prove to the world that we shouldn't be written off just yet. For the moment, it is REALLY frustrating trying to convince people in other countries that we are still a viable nation with much to offer in the way of culture, wisdom and material production. The Republican Party seems to be doing its level best to prove the opposite, and if it's really Putin pulling the strings, that makes it criminal, but that revelation, by itself, doesn't do anything improve the immediate crisis.
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