Isolation

Donald Trump promised to build a wall to keep undocumented immigrants out, and he ended up barricading himself in the White House.  Note the eight-foot fence below.

Trump's approval rating is going down more and more amid the twin disaster of the George Floyd killing and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  Foreign leaders want nothing to do with him unless they have no choice - and not even then.  Famous military men are speaking out against his usurpation of power and his authoritarian tendencies.  There's even proof in the polls that evangelical conservatives are beginning to lose faith (no pun intended) in him, and now a couple of Republican senators, such as Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah, are turning against him.

A caveat, though: It's only June, and election is in November.  The protests against the Floyd killing will eventually die down.  The economy might recover sufficiently by fall.  And there may even be a COVID-19 vaccine as early as October.  And whatever good things happen between now and November, Donald Trump  will take credit for it.  If anything that could improve his fortunes does happen, we can't let him get away with that.  Remember everything that's already happened up to now when you go and vote in November.      

Isolated

Trump just cut the United States off from every other major industrialized country at the Group of Seven summit by inciting tariff threats that could undermine the global economy - and it could also undermine the U.S. economy, but not until after the midterm elections.  He won't endorse their communique on free trade or anything else.  Now even Canada is an enemy.   

Trump showed his true colors when he disregarded a G-7 meeting on gender equality by arriving late at a meeting on that topic.  He's made it clear that the United States - still without a gender equality amendment in its Constitution - can't be bothered with the issue.  And he's right; the people who constantly elect people like Trump to office can't be bothered either.  Again, we're on the outs with everyone else.

So what do I think will happen at the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore this Tuesday?  I don't give a twit.  Nothing will be resolved or even started, but if Trump gets through the summit without chewing with his mouth open, the media, with such low expectations for the summit, will rate it a success and his approval rating will go up twenty points.  All for negotiating with a fellow global pariah.

Oh yeah, Net neutrality ends tomorrow, the House doing nothing to join the Senate in solidarity to preserve it.  I am not posting anything on either of my blogs tomorrow in protest.  I'll be back in this space soon after, with another Beatles White Album song commentary on Thursday, but I don't know how many of you will get to read it, because with Net neutrality gone, with my White Album commentary following the running order of the tracks, and my last commentary before this week focusing on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" . . . well, you can figure out the rest.

Theoretically, I might be cut off from my own blogs - not just my regular blog but my beautiful-women picture blog (I discussed that here) - and maybe even my Family page, because Internet service providers don't want to facilitate access to content on a band most Americans have never heard due to the fact that no one cares about it.

Now that's isolation.