No Country for Sane Men...

AROUND THE BLOCK

I learned…

I learned that this weekend has been particularly bad for America.

First, courtesy of the Associated Press, 

“U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left Thailand on Saturday with his hopes for resuming nuclear talks with North Korea dashed, while facing an escalating trade war with China and a potentially devastating breakdown in relations between key American allies Japan and South Korea.”

And, courtesy of the New York Times, 

“a popular news anchor watched by hundreds of millions of Chinese poured scorn on the United States, using an obscenity to accuse it of sowing chaos. A prominent official blamed Washington directly for the anti-government protests upending Hong Kong. Pointed hostility toward America, voiced by Chinese officials and state-run news organizations under the control of an all-powerful propaganda department, has escalated in recent weeks in tandem with two of China’s big problems: a slowing economy complicated by trade tensions and turbulence in Hong Kong that has no end in sight.” 

And, from the Associated Press,

“July saw the highest number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan in a single month since 2017, the U.N. mission said Saturday. 

Its preliminary findings indicate more than 1,500 civilians were killed or wounded, mainly due to a spike in casualties from insurgent attacks. It did not provide a breakdown of deaths and injuries, but said the overall number was the highest for a single month since May 2017.”

And, finally, from the New York Times,

“U.S. defense secretary, Mark Esper, said Saturday that he was in favor of deploying ground-based missiles to Asia, a day after the United States formally pulled out of a Cold War-era arms treaty that directly limited such weapons. 

“Such a move would be likely to anger China and North Korea, two countries that have long opposed the deployment of U.S. military hardware anywhere near their borders, and would most likely prompt further consternation from allies that Washington was veering dangerously close to starting a new arms race.”

Wow, one day, one newspaper! Isn’t this special? 

Well, not really special, but the norm. This is what we’ve become – a country with no foreign policy; no, rather a country with an inconsistent, incoherent foreign policy. A foreign policy that, incredibly, can alienate our allies and our adversaries at the same time.

All this, coming on the same weekend that at least 29 Americans were slaughtered in two separate mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton…a week after the mass shooting in Gilroy. A weekend in which the El Paso and Dayton shootings were the 249th and 250th mass shootings this year!

And a weekend with evidence that the El Paso shooter, Patrick Crusius, posted an online manifesto that listed, according to the Washington Post, “angry — and, at times, jumbled — motivations for the attack, including rants about a ‘Hispanic invasion.’”

On the same weekend that El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles called the attack racist.

“This Anglo man came here to kill Hispanics,” he wrote. “I’m outraged and you should be too. This entire nation should be outraged. In this day and age, with all the serious issues we face, we are still confronted with people who will kill another for the sole reason of the color of their skin.”

A Hispanic invasion? Convoluted foreign policy? Stalled gun control? Killing others because of the color of their skin? How can this be happening?

Here’s looking at you, Donald J. Trump.

The current vogue expression among Trumpsters regarding those who oppose their hero for his “policies,” his crudeness, let’s face it, his being – “America, Love it or Leave It.” 

Well, we do love it, worts and all. And leaving it would just be a capitulation to those who really do hate what this country actually stands for – where "all men are created equal" regardless of national origin, color, religion or creed. Not those who only love an America that is a "White America," an America with no "Other," an "America First America" with no regard for the rest of the world or respect for the planet we live on. 

So…

In 2007, the Academy Award winner for best picture was the Coen brothers’ film, “No Country for Old Men.” Where are the Coen brothers now and where is their 2019 follow up: “No Country for SANE Men…or Women or Boys or Girls?”