From this past week: the Optimist; elites; regime change; moving the goal line; a new bridge; foreign affairs; immigration and the farm bill; historic day.

Optimist, 20 May. The past week's uplifting stories.
     (1) Last Chance Farm: broken men, discarded horses. Life after the race track. Petula Dvorak notes the sad truth,
     "As the crowds in Baltimore knock back their black-eyed Susan cocktails and place their bets at the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, they will be watching not only Kentucky Derby champion Justify but a field of future slaughterhouse meat...[A]t least 52,000 horses — many of them discarded racers — were exported to Canadian and Mexican slaughterhouses in 2016, according to the Equine Assistance Project. The Humane Society puts the number at closer to 79,000." Only a very few "losing horses" will escape.

     (2) Donating to save a life. Australian James Harrison donated blood 1,173 times, gallons and gallons of blood, saving the lives of an estimated 2.2 million babies suffering from a rare genetic disease. He earned the moniker "the man with the golden arm" and the prestigious Medal of the Order of Australia.
     (3) At 37, Freddie Sherrill was homeless, a drug addict, an alcoholic, and illiterate. Now, at 65, he is a college graduate of Queen's University of Charlotte.
     (4) An ear on your arm? Army Pvt. Shamika Burrage almost died when she was ejected from her car during a crash in Texas. Afterward, when she woke up in the hospital, she wasn’t whole. Her entire left ear was gone. That's were this story turns strange and marvelous.
     And more.

Elites. Are you a "cracker barrel" or "Crate and Barrel" voter? Michael Gerson discusses the difference in perception among Americans. Today, when we have the ability (deliberate or otherwise) to avoid unpleasantness by tailoring our news so we do not have to listen to "them," there is a growing gaps in American society. Columnist Eugene Robinson examines the "offensive...and corrosive" idea that "some Americans are more “real” than others." He maintains that it is absolutely false that “ 'Real Americans' elected and continue to support President Trump, they claim, in defiance of snooty “coastal elites” who are hopelessly out of touch with the country. It’s a total crock."

Regime change. A Foreign Policy article about the president's recently announced withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement. Is it, in fact, a first step towards regime change? The author thinks so.
     "...Trump, National Security Advisor John Bolton, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are hoping that viol
ating the Iran deal will let them re-impose sanctions on Iran. They hope this pressure will topple the Islamic Republic, or lead Iran’s own hard-liners to restart its nuclear enrichment program and provide a pretext for the preventive war that Bolton has long advocated."
    He then discusses eight instances that were less than successful. 

DPRK and denuclearization. Are Kim Jong Un and President Trump "birds of a feather" specializing in bad hair and obfuscation? A DPRK spokesperson now says "...the United States must stop insisting that the North 'unilaterally' abandon its nuclear weapons program and stop talking about a Libya-style solution to the standoff." Not to mention joint US -- South Korean joint military exercises and the apparent cancellation of the upcoming second North -- South unity meeting.
     The wily Kim seems to have given President Trump just enough time to "go pubic," only to face the age old diplomatic problem: accept Kim's modifications or cancel the announced summit. As Kim surely knew, the president is wont to tweet ever so loudly about the brilliance of his latest policy maneuver, then be forced to deal with the public fallout when the plan does not play out according to his script. Diplomacy does not necessarily play out as pronouncements made in Trump's more dictatorial board room.

Crimean bridge. This past week, President Putin presided as a 14 mile-long bridge and causeway was opened between Russia and the Crimean peninsula. It was another made for TV event designed to highlight another of Putin's moves to reestablish Russian stature. An accompanying story looks back over the peninsula's long, tortured history.

Inconsistent foreign policy: America, Europe, and Iran. David Ignatius writes that the most important, but unmentioned, aspect of President Trump's foreign policy forays is his inconsistency. The trans-Atlantic alliance has been a fundamental pillar of the post-WW II world, but the president has voiced suspicion and concern about the wisdom and future of this arrangement.
     "Many European leaders have stopped being polite about Trump. After a year and a half of intermittent skirmishes, they’ve started firing back — describing Trump as a danger to Europe’s security interest..." This last notion, Europe's changing perception of where their "security interests" lie, is crucial for America's future. 
     England, France, and Germany are want desperately to keep in place  the inspection aspects of the Iranian agreement. "European officials say that they don’t feel comfortable siding with Russia, China and Iran against the United States, but that the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the deal has given them no alternative." It appears that President Trump has chosen to go it alone.

Immigration and the farm bill. Last week's blog noted the move by some House Republicans to use a discharge petition to force a vote on the fate of young DACA immigrants. Because that move was being blocked, this past week in yet another arcane move, the House Freedom Caucus banded together with other moderate Republicans and Democrats and voted down the proposed bi-annual farm bill (which included school lunch subsidies and food stamps).
     House Speaker Paul Ryan is fearful of the effect an immigration vote might have on the upcoming fall elections. Like a good Speaker, Ryan is leading from behind.

21 May, historic solo flight day. 1917: Charles Lindbergh, to Paris, 33 1/2 hour; 1932: Amelia Earhart, to northern Ireland, about 15 hours.

Thank you for reading. Hopefully May will end for you peacefully, without any extreme weather.