History is being made these days. Years hence we will look back on these days as times when civilization itself was under threat by uncivilized elements. I am not partisan.

Do leaders get a pass on arm twisting other nations to get help with domestic political campaigns? Either

Everyone does it, get used to it. OR , No one should be doing it.

The political “genius” of current leadership is to own it and thereby recast our political process as totally transactional;

I.E for sale to the highest bidder. This then is where Capitalism reaches into democracy and takes a big bite out of you and me and our desire to have a civil discussion about how we create a way forward. If how we use and share and manage our Planet is reduced to dollars and cents we may not pass on anything worth having to our kids. That’s like pimping the country and it’s taxpayer’s interests.

I want to be around when the transactional senator’s kids are picking out their nursing home. The senators are pointing out all the money they left , what they hadn’t spent already, as the kids consider the compromises made to get it and what a mess it left them. Lots of luck. You may need more than diapers.