Topics for this week: Putin and Trump; US withdrawal; North Korean missile test; American leadership; Trump's "west;" Financial Times on G-20; poverty; the new farm;

Putin and Trump. This column is "...a speculative account of a memo that Russian President Vladi­mir Putin’s national security team would likely send as he prepares to meet with President Trump for the first time this week. It is not a reflection of how we see the issues; it is a reflection of how we think Putin’s closest aides see the issues." It all seems quite probable, but we will await the consensus after they have met at the G-20 meeting.

The US, a leader no longer? Bloomberg News reports that China and Germany are stepping up, adhering to the political reality of the old saw that "geopolitics, like nature, abhors a vacuum." The story opines, "When world leaders meet in Hamburg on Friday, China and Germany will move in to usurp the U.S.’s role." The principal question, then, does "America First" actually mean the world's most militarily powerful, first or second largest economy (depends on the measure used) will retire to its home shores?
     What are the future implications for our coming generation(s)? For the daughter of an average 71 year-old American, one not as wealthy as Ivanka's father, President Donald Trump?
     Re trade. Economic columnist Paul Samuelson, certainly no radical, left-winger, discusses what he perceives as the president's "trade trap." He says, "The greater objective [of American greatness] was to promote democracy and mixed economies, with power divided between the market and government. To advance this vision, the United States advocated open trade and provided a military umbrella." One an only wonder if the administration clearly thought through long term implication of its trade policy.

North Korea & the 4th. Once again it appears there is a new 4th of July ritual: large fireworks displays in the US and a North Korean missile test. On the "CBS Morning" news program, one former CIA official jokingly opined that it seems that recent North Korean leaders have as their July 4th mission "ruining the holiday" for American intelligence analysts.

American leadership. In this National Journal article, Charlie Cook (Cook Report) looks at the apparent dwindling desire of President Trump to really lead the world's democratic coalition. He said, "...Richard Haass, pres­id­ent of the Coun­cil on For­eign Re­la­tions, wrote last month, “It is in­creas­ingly clear that U.S. Pres­id­ent Don­ald Trump rep­res­ents a de­par­ture when it comes to Amer­ica’s glob­al out­look and be­ha­vi­or."

Poverty. In last Thursday's column, George Will asks, "But what if large causes of poverty are not matters of material distribution but are behavioral — bad choices and the cultures that produce them? If so, policymakers must rethink their confidence in social salvation through economic abundance." What if there is something to the notion that "...[r]eversing social regression using public policies to create a healthy culture is akin to 'nation-building' abroad, an American undertaking not recently crowned with success."
     What if there is something to the notion of a
"success sequence" (high school diploma, job, marriage, family)? Among "...millennials ages 28 to 34, the oldest members of the nation’s largest generation, have found that only 3 percent who follow this sequence are poor...[while f]orty-seven percent who did not follow the sequence are in the bottom third [of family income]."
     What if "unfortunate new realities are the result of the disregard of old principles. [Back in the day, Nathanial] Hawthorne recommended consulting 'respectable old blockheads' who had “a death-grip on one or two ideas which had not come into vogue since yesterday-morning.”

Trump's "West." To what, Eugene Robinson asks, did the president refer as he spoke in various venues on this most recent European trip? He said the values of the west would survive, would triumph. Did he mean all non-Isis areas, non-Islamic areas? Did he mean to include the Chinese and other Eastern civilizations/nations?
     Robinson notes, "If the president read a few history books, he’d know that for most of the past 2,000 years, China and India were the world’s leading economic powers and Europe was a relatively primitive backwater. He’d know that Europe rose to dominance not by erecting walls but by opening itself to the rest of the world." But, who knows what thoughts were a part of "his West?"

G-20, the European view. Here is a part of  the grim assessment from Europe. The Financial Times said,

Confusing civility with comity is a grave mistake in human or international relations. Yes, the G20 summit did agree on a common communiqué after the leaders’ meeting. Some see this as an achievement or an indication that some normality in international relations between the US and other countries is being restored. The truth is that at no previous G20 meeting did the possibility that there would not be a common statement agreed by all participants occur to anyone. Rather than seeing agreement as an achievement, it is more accurate to see the content of the communiqué as a confirmation of the breakdown of international order that many have feared since the election of Donald Trump....In the past month and especially after the G20, it has become clear that Mr Trump’s actions will match his rhetoric.....On the brink of the most important set of international meetings of his presidency so far, he put forward the absurd idea that a main discussion item at the G20 involved Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, making demonstrably false assertions about his role.

It seems especially disturbing that Europeans recognize and see a danger in our president's misstatements and our abandonment of traditional post-WW II leadership.

Farming, container-style. This article explores year-round farming using thermostatically-controlled shipping containers. This may well be a solution for our city food deserts, even future space travelers.

Thank you for reading. Enjoy the next week.