Problems Accelerate in Europe

While Americans Obsess Over the Petty

This post does not denigrate the protests by professional athletes who are concerned over racial justice and other issues in the nation. Those protests are legal, appropriate and heartfelt. But the President has made them into an issue of division in his attempt to divide America into Us and Them. And in doing so he has elevated the protests into being a greater issue than is appropriate without creating the focus on the issues, which are the really important things.

And even worse, America's infatuation with the fatuous is obscuring the nation's focus on where it should be, which among other things is the growing concern about Europe. That area is becoming a serious mess.

Britain is struggling with an ill advised decision by the electorate to leave the EU. The Prime Minister is weak and ineffective. Scotland is still talking about leaving and the Conservative party is so bad that it is elevating an offensive and myopic Labour leader to prominence.

France elected a young dynamic leader, and then when he tried to implement the policies he ran on the electorate deserted him.

Germany is split, and for the first time in the post war era neo-Nazi hard line right wingers will enter the national legislature. It is not clear yet how Merkel will be able to form a coalition government.

Poland is falling further under the sway of right wing nationalists who are destroying some democratic norms in the country.

Hungary has for several years been controlled by xenophobic right wing leaders who also are enemies of democracy.

Turkey, which could have been a great member of Europe, a democratic Muslim majority nation, is now subject to a sectarian dictator who has destroyed any hope that Turkey would be a constructive member of the EU. That Turkey could join the EU is now just a fantasy.

Finally, Spain's government reacted in the worst way possible to the effort in Catalonia to hold a referendum on independence. Instead of just ignoring the voting the Spanish government violently attacked its own citizens and probably intensified the crisis.

But in the U. S, focus is on a stunt driven VP who thinks the American people are so stupid that they can be fooled by a pre-planned drama. Ok, maybe his followers are that stupid.