Trump could save his presidency and the reputation of America if he merely paid attention: Gaza, Ukraine, Netanyahu, Putin. Time for Red Lines; Not Red Carpets.

Among the literary works I taught when I was a high school English instructor was the dismal dystopian Ayn Rand novella, Anthem, a cautionary tale about the dangers of collectivism and the loss of individuality. (Rand died 25 years before Facebook was a thing—she would not have cared for social media.)

In her imagined world (that seems to evolve from some cataclysmic event that returned us all to the Stone Age), children were conceived in the Palace of Mating, assigned a job by the government, and, when they reached the age of 40, were sent to the Home of the Useless. (Coincidentally, the average age of today's U.S. Senate is 63.8 years; the House, 57.7 years.)

I'm not an ageist—I can't afford to be—and the current Congressional impotence is more political than chronological. Not only that, but sometimes even good intentions fall short.

I have been tough on RFJ Jr. and rightly so—I believe scientists and health professionals who agree that his arrogance and harebrained opinions on vaccines will eventually create countless unnecessary deaths. Still, it seemed his position on food additives had some merit. Now it turns out that most of the coloring ingredients he opposed were harmless—even helpful in making some nutritious food more appetizing. Most of his other suggestions were more performative than corrective, designed to rally his acolytes. And sadly, I suppose, what he didn't screw up, his political party took from him. Thus, the final watered-down MAHA draft does not recommend severe restrictions on ultra-processed foods. (Note to RFK: Perhaps citing non-existent sources isn't such a good idea after all?) Worse still, the powerful Department of Agriculture lobby sabotaged Kennedy's more worthy ideas on reducing dangerous pesticide use. And so, in the end, the upshot of all his health initiatives seems to have distilled down to one: don't vape.

Point taken.

That failure pales by comparison to Trump and the fiasco in Alaska (We'll have to change a spelling to make it rhyme.), where we saw the red carpet rolled out for Vladimir Putin, an aggressor who invaded a sovereign democracy, claimed its territory for his own, used weaponry to level churches, museums, schools, and hospitals, and continues daily to polish his reputation as a murderer. This is the man Trump admires, calling him smart and strong. He may be both, but let's not forget he's also a savage dictator. That matters too.

And so Trump, neither smart nor strong, hoped to negotiate so that Russia wouldn't steal any more land but would get to keep whatever they stole already. As Seinfeld said when Costanza was plotting a deal to make less money, "This is how they negotiate in the bizarro world." 

Or maybe in the home of the useless, where Trump seeks a way to reduce voter turnout by issuing an executive decision to end mail-in ballots. He is so fearful of the majority in a democracy that he hopes to disenfranchise as many voters as he can. Not coincidentally, Putin thinks mail-in ballots create irregularities, and dictators who "win" 92% of the popular vote don't like irregularities. Putin talks; Trump listens. And with the midterms on the horizon and Trump's popularity tanking, expect the worst from the man who today labeled Netanyahu a war hero for launching an illegal attack on Iran.“Bibi is a good man," Trump said. "He’s a war hero because we work together. He’s a war hero. I guess I am, too.”

It doesn't seem that paying attention is in the offing any time soon.