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CLIFF’S NOTE: Today we have a guest column by one of the great journalists, Brian Karem. Subscribe to his podcast podcast/substack "Just Ask The Question, [ [link removed] ]” and "Reporter’s Notebook [ [link removed] ].”
by Brian Karem
European leaders are headed to the United States to help Humpty Trumpty put himself together again.
President Donald Trump’s latest self-inflicted wounds occurred after he invited Vladimir Putin to Alaska to try and end the war in Ukraine; a war Trump promised he would end “Day One” of his new administration.
So, what happened?
Trump applauded a war criminal.
He stood with Putin in front of American fighter jets – the very same jets that on occasion escort Russian bombers back to Russia when they “inadvertently” stray into American air space.
He met Putin and shook his hand with smiles and cameras rolling on the Red carpet as if it were a Hollywood opening night.
Trump entered the summit hoping to get a ceasefire. He left without one.
There will be no immediate ceasefire.
There won’t be a ceasefire.
Russia wants to keep the territory it has stolen. Putin really likes the Donbas region. It’s heavily industrialized and noted for its steel and coal production.
Putin the long playing Russian, met Trump the American short-stroke master.
It says something that Trump’s own people were so concerned with the meeting they wouldn’t let Trump meet with Putin by himself.
If we’re lucky our children will survive and build a better world.
While Putin might be playing his idea of a long game, he cannot see beyond his own existence and neither can Trump. It is, however, still worth noting that no other President, even the so-called “demented Joe Biden” ever got played like Trump got played by Putin this week.
Donny entered with a bluster, telling reporters [ [link removed] ] that Putin’s recent bombing raids prior to the Summit weren’t the negotiation tool Putin thought it was. “He’s a smart guy. Been doing this a long time, but so have I,” Trump told us.
Been doing what? No. Seriously. What? Apparently Trump wasn’t talking about making deals, diplomacy, politics or anything resembling public service. Putin took him to town.
Trump said he wanted to see a cease fire rapidly. “I’d like to see it today,” he said, though he admitted that unlikely. He also said he wanted the killing to stop. “They lost 7,011 people last week. It’s crazy,” the President said.
On only two issues do I believe Trump speaks the truth. One of those is his anti-war stance. “War is stupid,” Trump has said often. On that the man is not wrong. How he handles the issue stinks, but not the sentiment.
Trump’s head is full of misfiring and disconnected neurons. He’s like a 46 Packard, once shiny and new and ready to roar. Now; rusted out, chipped and faded paint; an engine that belches out a stench as its motor misfires because of a dashboard and engine full of ancient circuits, shorted and frayed.
“They’re not doing business with us until we get the war settled,” Trump said. “We have the hottest economy,” he adds that phrase at the end of nearly every sentence. It’s one of his favorite ways to punctuate statements about anything from immigration to redesigning the White House.
And since I get the Big Beautiful ICE to enforce our laws, we have the hottest economy.” Or, “And when I got here Biden had destroyed the United States. I literally built it out of mud. And I’m calling in the National Guard. Joe Biden created crazed drug gangs, cartels, bedwetters, violent, the most violent immigrant criminals.
He encouraged blood thirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youths, drugged out maniacs and worse . . . homeless people who rampage through the city streets. Now? We have the hottest economy. People are calling me up all the time wanting to make deals.
Trump went to Alaska saying Putin wanted a piece of the economic powerhouse that is the United States and it was an effective bargaining tool, while all Putin had to bargain with was launching drones.
“I think they’re trying to negotiate. In his mind that helps him make a better deal if they can continue the killing. He thinks that gives him strength in negotiating, but I think it weakens him.” Trump said land swaps were up to Ukraine and he wasn’t there to negotiate for Ukraine.
But all that came to an end when Vlad the Impaler came to Alaska to meet Donny. He climbed into Trump’s private limousine, to speak semi-privately. Then after three hours of negotiations, Putin cut-off Trump, took the first lectern in the press briefing and ditched protocol to speak. The Host usually speaks first, but not on Friday.
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Putin’s four minute introductory remarks in Alaska sounded as if he were preparing to make Alaska his next land grab. Trump got played. All Putin had to say was the he believed Trump won the 2020 election.
Truth is, Putin? He couldn’t care less. If that’s all it cost to buy Trump, Putin figures he got off cheap. Trump thinks he won. His minions shout faithfully for their lord and savior Trump and the new medieval age continues.
Oligarchs. Serfs and AI – oh my.
The long game will swallow Trump, Putin and all of us eventually. What happens when they’re gone. If either man believes himself to be the best humanity has to offer the world, who cares? A single-man system ultimately fails.
The only system that has ever come close to team-building is democracy. Democracies, however, have to be populated by educated voters to work. Since George W. Bush introduced us to “No Child Left Behind” every child has been left behind.
Vetted factual information, solid use of the scientific method, appreciation and support for the arts, education, equality, civil rights and due process have been sacrificed at the altar of politics. Donald Trump is the product of 40 years of declining expectations.
Trump bows to Putin. Ergo, the United States is being played by the worst incarnation of Russia since the . . . last worst incarnation of Russia.
If history shows us anything, a civilization that doesn’t improve itself soon ceases to exist. Democracy isn’t the destination. Democracy is the road that leads to liberty. If we stop to go back, we’ll never go forward. Anybody getting the point?
Progress doesn’t stop. It isn’t debatable. It’s a fact. Change is inevitable, but progress, adaptability, are the tools best used to insure a continued human culture.
All that is debatable is the rate of change. Go slower if you wish, but go forward you must.
Sharks die when they stop swimming. Cultures die in much the same way. What we have here is a dead shark. Read that last sentence in Woody Allen’s voice to further understand. The only question is who is Annie and who is Alvy?
The world right now is rudderless, though Putin would have you believe otherwise, and because of thousands of warheads that require a suntan lotion SPF level of 10 million to survive, it is exceedingly dangerous. We live in a country where nearly daily mass shootings occur.
The richest people on the planet have survival bunkers, the world’s climate is headed into the toilet, there is no more rock n’ roll – well some of us are still playing (CS Note: amen!) – and going to McDonald’s for fast food costs more than I used to spend on a date at an expensive restaurant when I was my youngest son’s age.
My five year old grandson faces a world with diminished expectations, fewer options and world that will be dominated by AI.
Every president in my lifetime, with the exception of Kennedy, have significantly contributed to the dilemma. But that’s democracy. A group effort. Still, a team effort, as poor as that effort is, is far superior than one person who thinks they and only they represents the system.
All such constructs are anti-humanity. And what does it teach our offspring? What does it teach our technological offspring? AI will simply be the best or worst of us all.
We can still decide. As we can still decide how to dispense with the current ethical, legal, social and political dilemmas we currently face.
In the meantime, Donald Trump is meeting with European leaders at the White House, Monday. Trump had threatened “severe” consequences for Russia if Putin didn’t end the fighting.
Now he’ll be talking to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky along with what amounts to a NATO Summit trying to sell Zelensky on giving up the Donbas. The last time Zelensky was at the White House he was asked to leave.
Where this ends, no one can tell, but chaos will remain as long as Trump does.
The 2026 midterm elections are the next political battlefield. We have to make sure it is not the last political battle.
We all have to be convinced it is conducted fairly. We all have to have eyes on the process. We all have to respect access by eligible voters. We all have to accept the results.
These should be simple matters. We pioneered this effort. We, more than any other country, respected this effort.
The thing the rest of the world has envied about the United States is its uninterrupted example of peaceful transfer of power since our very first election. That’s what Putin can’t stand. He’s jealous of it to the point that he has to tear it down – plus he really does want to rule the world.
The American people cannot blame each other about our political predicament. We’re all responsible. That’s right, in a Democracy everyone is responsible.
So, instead of blaming each other, figure out a way to do better. Seriously.
It’s as easy as high school football – eleven people working together as a team has the best chance of winning. Imagine if eight billion people could pull that off. I’m on team humanity. Sign me up. Let’s make it better.
Naïve you say? Why I scoff. Simpleton. Ignorant. I’ll accept them all. But give me this; what better goal is there?
Our science shows us a universe of endless possibilities and our fear keeps us from exploring it. Screw that. I’ve had Donald Trump as a president. I fought that bastard in the East Room, Rose Garden, briefing room, rope line, and assorted appearances.
Man, at this point I ain’t afraid of any of that shit.
And I do agree with Trump that “war is stupid.” But Donny is more so and the events in Alaska highlight the fact that every time Trump meets with Putin he comes away looking small.
That doesn’t bode well for the U.S. or the rest of the world.
So, show all the fighter jets you want. Roll out the red carpet. Shake his hand, laugh with him and let him jump in the limo.
Putin doesn’t care. He won’t stop the war in Ukraine until he dies in office of a weird disease or Ukraine gives in.
It’s that simple.
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