China’s Priorities

* Amid all the talk of China overtaking the U.S. as the world’s biggest economy and becoming a key player in international development, there is one area that continues to hinder China’s progress. For all its hybrid, ethically-challenged economics–including cyber espionage and theft of technology and intellectual property–its military impact is not in sync with its growing economy. The military controls roughly 70 percent of airspace in China. Among other things, it restricts options for departure and arrival routing. It thus limits the number of takeoffs and landings that airports can handle. By comparison, the U.S. military controls 20 percent of America’s airspace.

* Speaking of China, I recall an insightful exchange I had with Chinese officials back in the early 1990s. I was the media relations manager at USF at the time, and the officials were visiting the College of Business as part of their nation’s outreach to capitalist countries. The subject of the recently devolved Soviet Union came up. (OK, I brought it up.) One of the Chinese visitors succinctly summed it up. China, he said, was only about a globally-pragmatic “economic revolution,” not a political one. The Soviets’ fatal mistake: They were experiencing “two revolutions” at the same time: economic and political. In short, the Chinese were no fans of Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika, the restructuring of economic AND political systems, or glasnost, societal and governmental openness.

Foreign Fodder

  • Here’s a telling comment by Mexico’s President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. “For some time now, (Trump) has been very prudent in referring to Mexicans, or he hasn’t said offensive things. I have to thank him for that.” A shout-out for not insulting his people? How low can a gratitude bar go?
  • Interesting title for Cho Myung-kyun, the one who oversees South Korea’s relations with the North: Unification Minister. Wonder if his counterpart in NK has the same title?

Foreign Fodder

  • We recently learned that a Taliban surge resulted in the routing of the Islamic State in Northern Afghanistan. On balance, that is good, but rooting for the Taliban is still weird. Sort of like picking a favorite when the Red Sox and Yankees are playing.
  • Re: Denmark’s public “burqa ban,” where religious diversity and tolerance meets 21st century security concerns. Surely, Allah would understand.

Finland Fiasco And More

  • The “Fiasco in Finland.” Tough-guy negotiator Donald Trump backing down to Vladimir Putin as the geopolitical world watched.

Honest, patriotic Americans had to be as angry as they were embarrassed. Even by this president precedent. No guts with Putin, but plenty of chutzpah and bluster for everybody else. Trump dismissed and insulted his national security experts while treating Putin the way his sycophancy treats him.

But then Trump acknowledged that he had misspoken. He played the double-negative mulligan card. Then back home, he was still misspeaking on matters of Russian meddling to the media. What did he mean by “no”? Or did he say “go”?

This wouldn’t be credible for an “SNL” skit, let alone a “House of Cards” scenario.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins summed it up. “There’s a walk-back of the walk-back of the walk-back of the walk-back?” she rhetorically asked. “This is dizzying.”

  • OK, it doesn’t qualify as collusion, but sometimes it seems that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin share scripts. Here’s a post-summit take of Putin’s: “We can see forces in the United States, which would easily sacrifice Russian-American relationship for the sake of their (narrow group and party) ambitions in domestic political struggle in America.”
  • When Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah and U.S. ambassador to China, was named ambassador to Russia, it was reason to feel (somewhat) encouraged about key Trump Administration appointees. Recall Huntsman was a more than credible Republican presidential candidate in 2012. He was qualified. He speaks Mandarin better than Trump speaks English.

But with the “Fiasco in Finland”—and all that preceded and followed it—it’s time for Huntsman to step down and disassociate himself from this unhinged regime. Right now he is enabling an incompetent authoritarian who has been obviously compromised by Russia.

  • How ironic, at best, that the “fake news media” notably doesn’t include the National Enquirer. Hardly happenstance that the chairman of the tabloid’s parent company (American Media Inc.) is Trump ally-friend David J. Peker.
  • Some things do transcend political partisanship and divisiveness. To wit: Here’s a U.S. Senate vote we’re not likely to see repeated any time soon, if ever: 98-0. That tally resulted from the Senate’s vote on a resolution warning the president not to let the Russian government question American diplomats, such as former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, or other U.S. officials.

Most Americans, if not the president, know that Kremlin critics frequently wind up dead.

  • Barack Obama, along with Michelle Obama, have signed a multiyear deal with Netflix to produce a “diverse mix of content.” Good for them. The Obama presence, in whatever capacity, is welcome.

But that doesn’t satisfy a pragmatic political need. Obama, whose presidency galvanized Trump and the birther brigades who needed a cult hero and scapegoat, could be a difference-maker this fall by helping to rally the Democratic base. He would also be reminding independents and establishment GOPsters that we once had a president with class and eloquence who wasn’t beholden to Vladimir Putin and wasn’t an existential threat.

  • Most everyone agrees that the Federal Reserve needs independence. Both actual and perceived. It has a lot to do with investor confidence and the fact that the Fed is charged by Congress to maximize employment and maintain stable prices.

Donald Trump seems oblivious to such subtlety and recently chided the Fed—as only he can chide–on interest rate hikes. “I am not happy about it,” said Trump in a CNBC interview. Then, in response to a question about those who didn’t think it appropriate for a president to publicly comment on interest rates or the dollar, he dismissed such concerns in familiar fashion. “I couldn’t care less what they say.” Or maybe he could care less?

  • Of all the supportive parts of the Trump base—from soy bean farmers to Harley Davidson workers—the Trump-acolyte group that still seems most incongruous is the Christian right and evangelicals. Does a politically expedient stand on abortion offset everything else?

“Hate the sin, love the sinner” is a familiar refrain. So is forgiveness. We get that. But why not a candidate with much less to, well, forgive? Why not a candidate whose life isn’t rife with ethical and moral abandonment? Why not a candidate who won’t require hypocrisy as a condition for support? Hate the sin, elect the sinner?

Trumpster Diving

  • This has to be part of anyone’s takeaway from that sham summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin: Something is compromising Trump’s behavior. Increasingly, it looks like it’s a lot more than “golden showers.”
  • Trump accepts the word of Putin that Russia didn’t meddle in our election. He dismisses the word of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats—and demeans the entire intelligence communitywho say they certainly did meddle. How does Coats not quit? Or is he concerned that next up will just be a Trump sycophant who will make matters even worse?
  • Bottom line: Trump is good for Russia, not America. In an international forum, he stands forcefully against American media’s “witch hunt,” but he stands down to Putin.
  • Donald Trump, as we know, is the “enemy of the press.” But he looks almost tolerant when juxtaposed to Vladimir Putin. That’s because the bar is subterranean low. Trump demonizes, stigmatizes, threatens and scapegoats. Putin does mob hits.
  • Speaking of the media, this just in from Donald Tusk, president of the European Council: “America and the EU are best friends. Whoever says we are foes is spreading fake news.”
  • Amid all the back and forth regarding the Russian state’s obvious meddling in the U.S. elections, one quote continues to resonate more than any other. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” It should still Make America Grate.
  • It says a lot about our virulent, divisive politics when Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti are cast as the “good guys.”
  • That Judiciary Committee exchange that featured FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok, the F-bombing Trump disparager, was beyond contentious. It was an in-your-face exercise in mutual contempt that most American observers, including “Saturday Night Live” staffers, would find deplorably embarrassing.

Saudi Societal Affront

Saudi Arabia wanted to improve its Wahhabi image and self-servingly encourage Western investment. So it is now permitting women to legally drive. But they still need male permission to travel and marry.

This isn’t about skewed Western perspective or cultural relativism or insensitivity to religious values. Saudi Arabia remains a demeaning society, just slightly less demeaning than it used to be. Too bad it’s an ally.

Talking: The Right Option

*Donald Trump has been criticized for, among other summit things, legitimizing Kim Jong-un as a world-stage co-equal with the president of the United States. The orchestrated, optics-seen-around-the-world handshake did it. It topped Kim’s ultimate bucket list. It’s a huge, regime-enhancing deal over there; it’s more high-profile grist for the partisan political mill over here.

But while it was hardly a Ronald Reagan-Mikhail Gorbachev moment, it mattered mightily.

Ostensible, strategic quid pro quos are, as has been well noted, yet to manifest themselves. What the U.S. tangibly and verifiably got out of it remains to be seen. We know that.

But there is still this: What happened between Trump and Kim was well within the cardinal rule of statecraft that applies even to rogue dictators with warped priorities. You talk to the leader of the other side, no matter how dark.

Barack Obama voiced that reality during his presidential debates with John McCain. “You talk to your adversaries,” underscored the former president who even Republicans should miss more and more each perilous day. “The notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them … is ridiculous. We were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying we’re going to wipe you off the planet.”

You talk to your adversaries–OK, enemies–because it’s part of any country’s enlightened self interest to do so. Lives are at stake. And if you’re America, it means you’re not too big to share a conference table–and global stage–with a nefarious lesser if the existential interest of imperiled lives is on the line. It is and they are.

This is not, to say the least, an endorsement of Donald Trump’s modus operandi, especially since his “Little Rocket Man” playground taunts and incineration threats helped, ironically, create the need for a summit in the first place. Especially since his understanding of Korea is likely derived from binge-watching “M*A*S*H.” But it is an acknowledgement that whatever the context, you need to talk. Whether it’s to Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Bashar al-Assad, Ali Khamenei or Nicolas Maduro.

The Korean status quo–from war games and Cold War-remnant U.S. troops to an apocalyptic,  nuclear trip wire has to change someday. So let’s do something before “someday” is too late. Even if the two leaders are incongruous caricatures of real statesmen.

* It’s bad enough to flat out lie and scurrilously scapegoat Democrats for the administration’s aggressive “zero-tolerance” approach to illegal border crossings that has resulted in the inhumane separation of children from their parents, but it’s made worse with an unconscionable religious justification. Attorney General Jeff Sessions cherry picked a verse in the Book of Romans on obeying government law. “God has ordained them for the purpose of order,” he sanctimoniously declared. “I can say that it is very biblical to enforce the law,” underscored deplorably disingenuous White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.

Apparently “What you do to the least of my brethren, that you do unto me” isn’t applicable in the context of presidential fiat, kids-as-pawns politics and what appeals to the Trump base. Here’s hoping the American electorate will show its outrage–and conscience–with a backlash vote that shows “zero tolerance” for hypocritically cruel, political pandering.

* “He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”–That was Trump’s deadpan riff on the relationship that Kim Jong-un has with his people. He was kidding. Of course he was kidding.

Wasn’t he?

* How do you go from being “America’s mayor” to Trump’s pimp, Rudy? From the point man for rallying a 9/11 city to being reviled by good people? From nonpareil to Nosferatu? Ghoul-iani, you sleep too well.

Trumpster Diving

* Trump and Kim arguably deserve each other. The rest of the world deserves better.

* Not that we didn’t know optics was a major part of Trump’s summit “preparation,” but Larry Kudlow underscored that fraught reality when he acknowledged that the president was using the Group of 7 summit for North Korean signal-sending. Apparently counterproductive signals sent to fellow “allies” was not an issue.

Kudlow, the director of the White House National Economic Council, said Trump was “not going to let a Canadian prime minister push him around on the eve of this ( NOKO summit).” That’s why Trump didn’t sign off on the joint communiqué that formally wraps up a summit. It would have made him look weak was the rationale.

* “Fellow Republicans, this is not who we are. This cannot be our party.” That statement was from Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona. Too bad the few GOPsters, such as Flake, who speak out against Trump and his egomaniacal priorities are leaving public office. Real guts–and real “America First” values–are obviously not enough for the sycophantic, enabling cowards who maintain their compromised careers and don’t want to get “primaried” by Trump’s deplorable base.

* When it comes to illegal border crossings and the separation of children, it’s more than the usual political partisans who are weighing in against the Trump Administration. Exhibit A: the United Nations. “The use of immigration detention and family separation as a deterrent runs counter to human rights standards and principles,” pointedly noted–OK, scolded–Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights. For the record, Nikki Haley was not pleased.

* “F*** Trump.” That was Robert DeNiro at the recent Tony Awards. Yes, it’s come to that. We get it. It’s almost too tempting to resist. It’s a high-profile, friendly forum. But it’s not helpful. No more than Michelle Wolf and Samantha Bee. It’s another unsettling, embarrassing reminder that we used to be better than this. This is what a devolving society looks like.

Cuban Transition

Years ago–in the 1990s–my wife and I were visiting with friends in Havana. In their modest apartment sanctuary of privacy and candor–amid lives that were being underlived–one of them acknowledged that the only thing that would truly be a game-changer for the island they loved would be the “biological solution.” That was the ironically respectful euphemism for the death of the Castro brothers. Only then could there be meaningful change.

I reflected on that experience during the recent transition in Cuba where Raúl Castro turned over the presidency to Miguel Díaz-Canel, 57. But the 86-year-old Castro will remain at the helm of the Communist Party, the country’s ultimate authority, until 2021. That’s three more years of being the de facto authoritarian. Díaz-Canel and the rubber stamp National Assembly know that.

No one expects a dysfunctional economy that’s out-of-sync with economic reality and human initiative and features $30-a-month state salaries to now morph into a real marketplace.

After 2021, Castro would still be the revolutionary, iconic elephant in the room–until the “biological solution.” That’s what it will take to ultimately usher in an era that no longer prioritizes Cold War ideology and anti-capitalist swagger over a better 21st century life for its people.