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Gulf Shores     Hello, America!  Read the papers and take notes.  This is what it looks like when we go from being the worlds’ greatest superpower to just another weakling in the school yard.  Like the comedian used to say, “We get no respect.”

At the last minute we demand for some unknown reason that an Iranian tanker being held by the British in Gibraltar for months be turned over to us, and what does our closest ally, Britain do?  Turn it back over to Iran, that’s what.  Who cares what the US says about Iran and our little go-it-alone sanctions?  Nobody much.

Trump on some kind of ego-drug trip meets with the President of Pakistan.  Says, hey, youse, how about I mediate the dispute in Kashmir between y’all and India?  This is something I’m good at.  Just look at the progress I’ve made in the Middle East.  India’s Modi, another authoritarian my-way-or-the-highway guy, within two weeks moves troops into Kashmir, cuts off the internet, ends statehood, and holds the largely Muslim population in their part of the disputed territory claimed by India, virtual prisoners.  What’s America going to do about that?  These are two nuked up world powers.  What do they care about Trump bloviating some more?  If he were to bother that is.

North Korea?  Boy, we’ve done a great job there bringing world peace.  How many missiles did they test today?

Don’t even start me on Russia.  I’ve been there.  Moscow and St. Petersburg are great cities.  The people were wonderful.  The government?  That’s another story.  They’re trying to develop a nuclear-powered long-range missile that isn’t part of any disarmament treaty, but, hey, we’ve torn all of those up anyway.  Lost five of their scientists in a test the other day. What do we care?  Our scientists tried and failed to do this twenty years ago.  What makes the Russians think they can solve this puzzle?  What were they, the first in space or something?  And, besides, Putin and Trump are back-slapping buddies.  They sure wouldn’t interfere in the elections of the most powerful country in the world, would they?

Trump told Turkey, don’t buy any jets from anybody but me.  Turkey flipped us off and now is threatening to go after our Kurd allies at their border.

China is giving us the red ass.  Trump’s trade war is his own personal Vietnam that he doesn’t know how to pull out of, even as it threatens our economy and the world’s.  Meanwhile he has to bailout farmers for billions and pulls back on his latest threats until after Christmas tacitly acknowledging his trade mess hurts US consumers.

Syria?  Afghanistan?  Iraq?  Let’s just not talk about it, ok?

We’ve become so weak and ill-regarded that we can only bully very small countries.

On second thought, that’s not exactly true either, since you just mentioned Venezuela, didn’t you?

Looks like the only country Trump can bully is Israel.  He tweets that he wants to bar two of the squad.  Republicans, Democrats, and Israeli groups in that country and the United States go crazy about how stupid it was for him to carry his personal, political vendetta to another country, and how even more moronic it was for Israel’s Prime Minister to buckle his knees to the bully.  The next day, Israel relents so that Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib from Michigan can visit her 90-year old grandmother and relatives living on the West Bank.

Wait until we see how itty-bitty Denmark slams the door on Trump’s hand when he brings up wanting to buy Greenland, for goodness sakes.

This is what it has all come to in less than three years.  Sadly, we all know, it can get even worse.

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Please enjoy Shakedown from Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band.

Thanks to KABF.