The type of diversity that we seek can actually destroy us.

 CNN has an article out today discussing President Trump's celebration of Black History month and arguing that his effort to halt the use of diversity as a criteria for employment in the government is inconsistent with a celebration of social progress within the black community. I disagree with CNN and wholeheartedly agree with President Trump. Selecting government officials because they were born men, and now wear lipstick, is not a sensible thing to do. Just as denying a person a position because he or she is black is wrong, hiring a person because he or she is black is equally wrong. Job related qualifications should be the criteria, not diversity for diversity's sake.

This argument is ludicrous, and very unfortunately, a comment on the mindlessness of the American people. There. are literally millions of people in this world that are fighting for enough food to stay alive and you and I are pretending that we are engaged in bettering mankind by increasing the social, cultural and racial diversity of our civil service. What we are is much different. We are a bunch of privileged, wimpish, malcontents that were born into wealth beyond belief and are focused on one or another imaginary world invented out of whole cloth and totally unrelated to what is happening outside of our non-existent borders.

People in the rest of the world are jealous of our wealth, and aware of our weaknesses. They play us in different ways depending on their own strengths and weaknesses. Our current fascination with diversity is well understood by our friends and enemies alike and their policies vis-a-vis America are adjusted accordingly. Trump's efforts to change America are not only disturbing the status quo inside this country but also in virtually all of the rest of the world and it goes well beyond diversity. We are presently involved in a major challenge to the status quo in the entire world. There are opportunities and dangers. It is way too bad that the American people refuse to think about what is happening. If we were unified, we could actually change the world for the better, but if we continue to mindlessly urinate on each other we are going to miss the opportunity and risk further complicating and demeaning our future.

It is infinitely ironic that the type of diversity that we seek can actually destroy us.

Europe's level of participation in NATO

 President Trump, Vice President Vance, Secretary of Defense Hegseth are uniformly critical of Europe's level of participation in NATO and the NATO countries are trying to get their heads around the vigor of the criticism that is presently coming their way from Washington. Now, we have Trump's decision to negotiate the end of the war in Ukraine directly with Putin, without so much as a whisper to any of our European allies about what he has in mind. On top of all of that, the American President is gratuitously maligning the Ukrainian President publicly.

I advocate stopping this very dangerous, very ridiculous war, and have written to that effect since it started three years ago. I advocate bringing Russia back into the family of nations even though I see Putin as being a thug of the worst sort. Having said all of that, I do not like President Trump's unhelpful, over-simplified, ignorant, rhetoric regarding the start of the idiotic war, nor do I approve of his gratuitously maligning President Zelensky. I understand that he is in something of a hurry, but his haste is needlessly working against him. He is once again making enemies of friends needlessly and it will tarnish whatever positive results he will be able to achieve vis-a-vis the stupid war.

I presume that our President feels that he does not have time to pussy foot around, and he wants to cut to the core of all of the problems that afflict this country. The very magnitude of the effort is generating massive amounts of unease, not only here in this country but around the world. My guess is that Trump would agree with me and would argue that his actions are necessary to bring about the change that is required to reverse the trends that are destroying us. I argue that he could accomplish all of the things he wants to do without the extreme rhetoric, but I would have to accept that this particular individual probably can not help himself. He is built differently than the rest of us - for good and for not so good.

PS: All of this jabber is causing heightened concern and intensified hostility within the American public. That too adds to our problems internationally. The world sees a badly confused America in an increasingly dangerous environment. That situation tends to result in poor decisions everywhere we look. Trump badly needs a home run somewhere among the many problems that he is addressing if he is to restore some luster to his presidency in the near term. He has a lot of irons in the fire and that is very impressive, but he needs some obvious success somewhere to keep the support of a majority of the American public and reassure those foreigners that want to continue to believe in American leadership.

Ukraine wasn't invited.

 CNN quotes President Trump today talking about Zelensky's complaint that he is not being included in the negotiations between Russia and the United States to end the war in Ukraine. “Today I heard, ‘Oh well, we weren’t invited,’” the president said, referring to Ukraine’s complaints that it’s not been allowed to take part in the opening talks in the nascent peace process. “Well, you been there for three years. You should’ve ended it after three years. You should’ve never started it. You could’ve made a deal,”

This is classic Trump and is an example of one of my criticisms of our president. He over simplifies the situation and thus needlessly opens himself up to serious criticism. He is, of course, talking about the effort by some Ukrainians to sever their ties with Moscow and Putin's refusal to let that happen. Trump here appears to be of the opinion that Zelensky and those that think the same way that he does, overreached and provoked Putin needlessly.

It is necessary to understand the situation three years ago, if we are to understand where we are today. Zelensky was part of a group that wanted to create more distance between Kiev and Moscow. Putin decided to stage a coup and ordered a blitzkrieg that intended to take Kiev and force Zelenskyy out of office. Putin's military let him down by literally running out of gas on the way to Kiev. Biden jumped in and, over simplistically, provided just enough military support to stop the blitzkrieg and stymie the coup that was planned. Three years later we are where we are today and Trump is trying to stop the killing as well as the destruction of the world's economy.

I agree with Trump that Biden failed to deal with the situation adequately, and Zelenskyy, over the years, came to think that he could not only defeat the current Russian invasion, but could also reverse the earlier loss of Crimea and join NATO and the European Union to boot. The Biden Administration waffled and Western Europe salivated. Were I a Ukrainian I would almost certainly support Zelenskyy, but as an American, I support Trump in what is going to be, at best, a difficult negotiation. It is extremely frustrating to be dependent on biased, over-simplistic "news" reporting to assess the situation, made much worse by a president that oversimplifies, but that is where we are.

I have no idea how the theatrics surrounding the Trump/Putin deal that ends the current round of fighting will play out, but I do believe that the two men will come to some sort of agreement that will stop the fighting and the basic political situation inside Ukraine will remain split between the two factions - one aligned with Kiev and one with Moscow. This outcome will have serious reverberations within Western Europe and there will be much specifying, but little real change in the relationship between America and Europe. Troop levels will fluctuate, defense spending levels will wiggle, and there will be endless meetings, but, in the end, the basic alliance between Western Europe and America will remain exactly as it is now. Firm in theory and weak in practice.

No matter what our leaders tell us, there is no chance that Russia and America can go to war with one another without resorting to the use of nuclear weapons that will utterly destroy both of us. The only way that we can avoid mutual destruction is to somehow create more real understanding between us. I don't like Trump and I really don't like Putin, but I support the two men talking to each other. Those of us that do not understand this fact of life are living in an artificial world and their other worldliness will get us killed if we permit them to continue to dominate our political system. Oh, and everybody stop with the knee jerk repetition of today's talking points. They are embarrassing to those of us who want to be proud of our country.

 A friend complained that I had stopped posting to my blog.  I explained that I had reestablished my substantive posts on Facebook now that they permit substantive posting again.  He explained that he did not do Facebook.  Accordingly, I am going to try to post in both places - at least for a while.

Here is today's observation:

According to an article in NPR, Secretary of State Rubio said, in Saudi Arabia, yesterday, that “while Trump's plan for taking over Gaza surprised many, it is what's on the table for now.  What cannot continue is the same cycle where we repeat over and over again, and wind up in the exact same place,  Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force."  That is about as clear as diplomatic speak ever gets.  Trump’s Gaza redevelopment proposal is designed to assist Riyadh in developing a plan for Gaza that is acceptable to Jerusalem and the Palestinian people.  The muscle that is being applied to Amman and Cairo is designed to support Riyadh’s formula, not the Trump plan..

The more interesting part of all of this for me is the motivation of American politicians and political activists in their statements regarding Gaza.  I can not believe that none of them can see what is behind Trump’s superficially unacceptable proposal.  I accept that they are stupid, but I do not believe that they are blind.  I conclude that their domestic political aspirations are more important than speaking the truth and that disturbs me even more than the war in Gaza because it illuminates the cancer that is destroying this country.  I excuse the political rank and file that have never been outside of their own very comfortable lives for not being able to see through diplomatic double-speak, but I can not extend that excuse to those that are paid to govern us, nor can I excuse the journalists that are supposed to explain these kinds of things to the American public in a truthful manner.

Please note that I am not here addressing the negotiations themselves.  I am instead using Gaza to illustrate the internal cancer that is at the root of our societal decline.  A decline that we refuse to accept our own part in bringing about.  Look around you and tell me if you see any two Americans discussing the situation in Gaza in other than partisan terms - including you.  The closest that comes to happening is one of us saying to another that Trump is out of his mind, while the rejoinder is “NO HE IS NOT!  Neither one of us even begin to try to think about why a Jew and an Arab might decide to live next to one another peacefully, nor what we might do to help them decide to do that.  Trump, on the other hand, has the Abraham Accords in his list of real accomplishments.  An accomplishment that no one before him has been able to bring about since the state of Israel was established at the close of the most recent world war.

I am not here saying that I think this ploy of his is going to work, but I give The Donald full credit for trying, and I am openly rooting for him to be successful.  I should also say that I continue to be pleasantly surprised by Rubio in his new role as Secretary of State and I wish him well in his pending discussions in Riyadh about Gaza and the war in Ukraine.  Before I conclude, I would also like to note the difference between Biden’s abortive attempt to brand the Saudi Crown Prince as a pariah and Trump’s effort to make him a central part of our foreign policy.  In this regard I would highlight the decision to make Riyadh the place where we start the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.  None of this is accidental folks.

PS:  I will not blame Rubio if he is unable to bring Lavrov along with us on Gaza.  I do not see that having any real possibility of happening until Trump and Putin decide the Ukraine issue, or at least announce to the rest of us what they have already decided.  Everybody agrees that things are moving very fast, but they may well may be moving even faster than we think.