I have avoided writing in recent weeks because events moved so quickly that it was hard to have anything to say that was uniquely worthwhile. I am not sure I have reached the point of worthiness, but nonetheless, I will try. I also wanted to avoid ranting about behavior across the board that was offensive or self-servingly surreal.
I think the best way to begin is to try to take different topics and offer some analysis.
North Korea… plus a few notes about China and America’s Mayor. It is hard to look at what happened with North Korea and not be amazed. By that, I mean that President Trump began by ramping up the rhetoric against North Korea and, in the end, gave them what they wanted and got nothing in return. He’s like an arsonist who starts a fire, arrives with the fire brigade and then expects a medal for helping put out the fire he started. Kim got the meeting that neither Clinton, Bush nor Obama would give him. He is now viewed as a national leader instead of a pariah and, if he succeeds in getting Trump to remove the nuclear umbrella we provide for South Korea and Japan, China will be happiest. I don’t think our President understands how much he is helping China dominate the region with this action while he does his best to make China submit to his desires on trade.
It should be pointed out that China has been terrible on trade issues. The decision to admit them to the World Trade Organization was done with the hope they would play fair. That didn’t work very well, but I am not sure an all-out trade war will work either.
And, of course, we could not make it through this chapter without the contribution of our latest Trump Mini-Me, Rudy Giuliani, adding his comments about Kim begging for the meeting with Trump that were untrue (that is almost redundant), but also didn’t help.
Immigration Policy. And now, I turn to the issue of immigration policy. The only thing that surprises me is that people were surprised by the actions taken against families fleeing to America. Remember Steven Miller and Jeff Sessions were charter members of the “boxcar” crowd. They were the ones who encouraged rounding up people and sending them home in boxcars and they were put in charge of immigration policy by this administration. The policy of separating children from their families is not a bureaucratic mistake. It is what happens when you carry out those policies advocated by the President and his supporters.
My only hope is that the horror of the reality allows people to reevaluate what they really support. If it doesn’t then the vile vulgarities of this policy will mark our country forever and we will cease to be the “city on the hill” that was the basis of American values and exceptionalism.
Maybe our friend the former Mayor can become the new Ambassador to North Korea. At least if he does that, he probably won’t end up marrying a cousin again.
More later…
From This Corner 
I don’t want the following comments to be interpreted in any way as written by a Trump supporter, which I am not. However, one reads Allan’s comments and concludes that all the good is being done by Democrats and that just isn’t true.
North Korea……we find ourselves in the horrible position of a nuclear armed North Korea because the Obama administration did NOTHING to stop their nuclear weapon development program during the 8 years of his Presidency. That is precisely the period when North Korea went from experimentation and development to actual possession of nuclear weapons and ICBMs…….all achieved while Obama did nothing……yes…..Obama put sanctions on North Korea….that is a metaphor for kicking the can down the road, which is exactly what Obama did.
IRAN…..this really is the worst deal in history. Obama agreed to do away with surprise inspections, agreed to give Iran substantial notice when an inspection was about to happen, and agreed to not inspect Iran’s military labs known as Fordow, Natanz, and Parchin. These sites are where most of Iran’s nuclear activities occurred in the past, and if they are cheating, and many people believe they are, this is where the cheating will occur because they are not subject to inspection. Iran wa allowed to keep all of their centrifuges. This deal isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Even worse, it has put the West asleep on the subject of Iran while Iran continues to march forward on possessing nuclear weapons. Can you even imagine a nuclear armed Iran?
Municipal Employee Unions’ Pension Plans…..these unions, which negotiate on the pensions in bad faith with the very democratic officials that they support, have member pension plans that have virtually bankrupted every city and state and local municipality in the country. This is the worst kept secret in politics. Everybody knows these pension plans are ridiculously rich, and unaffordable, yet Democratic Party officials cannot speak out against them or they risk losing the unions support, without which they cannot be re-elected. Talk about incest. Virtually every state and municipal government is drowning fiscally, because of these union pension programs. When teachers get laid off, or schools eliminate programs, a major contributor is the required contribution to these pension plans, which leave little money left over for anything else.
Many other issues on which the Democrats close their eyes , but I need to save something for another post. Plenty of problems caused by Republicans, but Democrats are far from being the saints they would have you believe they are.
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Leo, thank you for taking time to comment — of course, that is the point of my writing the blog. Please note that my criticisms of Democrats, especially the Clintons, have been frequent and direct. Also, your facts on Iran need checking. But please keep responding because this is what we need more of in our country. Best to Judy.
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