Blogocentric Formulations

This Just In - July 20

Trump Plans To Invite Putin For Autumn Visit, Top Spy Boss Coats Caught Off Guard  
Written as part of "This Just In..."   for "Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond" 

Without getting into the politics of it all (or maybe just skirting them a little ), I thought this article was remarkable for two reasons. Well, three... but one of them is related to other news mentioned in the article.

First, after a "tumultuous" summit in Helsinki (to say the least), followed by multiple days of additional Trump statements to walk-back the Helsinki remarks... and then walk-backs of the walk-back... who on Earth thought it would be a good idea to promote the idea of bringing these two world leaders together again? I mean, I have an idea who, but this seems like a remarkably short-sighted piece of news, considering the furor that's still going around about the last meet-up.

Second, our Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats - the Cabinet-level official responsible for overseeing our entire National Intelligence Program - has now, in the course of a week, been thrown under the bus in Helsinki when Trump called him out by name and then suggested that he's inclined to believe Putin's word as that of our intelligence community, and is now being blindsided by the announcement of a subsequent meeting with Putin. And I quote, "[This second meeting with Putin] came as news to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, who was being interviewed onstage at the Aspen Security Forum on Thursday when the announcement took place." I mean, honestly. I don't have a job that's even close to as important as the United States Director of National Intelligence... but if my boss one day decided to publicly announce that he was inclined to believe the CEO of a competing company over me an important issue related to the job he hired me to do... and then a few days later announced that he would be bringing that other CEO to a meeting that I didn't know was happening when it's my job to help arrange and advise on these meetings... I'd be looking for the door. How much abuse are Dan Coats and the other "adults in the room," as they're often referred, going to take before they've had enough of being embarrassed and contradicted on the world stage?

And third, this isn't really related to the meat of the article, but the story does make mention of the fact that, days later, the White House finally got around to ruling out the idea of making former U.S. diplomats and officials available to Russia for interrogation. And to think, it only took half a week and the Senate passing a resolution by a vote of 98-0 to get the White House to acknowledge that allowing Russia to interrogate American citizens who have dedicated their lives to government service is a bad idea. It's astounding to me that the notion was ever under consideration, let alone something Trump considered to be an "incredible offer" from Putin.

I really try not to wade into political commentary on the internet very often, but this week has really been too much. Between all of this and the horrendous European tour that preceded the Helsinki summit, it feels like this week in American diplomacy has been akin to watching a clown car crash into a raging dumpster fire.