Loser in Chief

America First may become America Alone

   The U.S. stands to lose its leadership as a world power, largely due to the actions of its current president.
   Insulting, stalling and badgering may work well when negotiating real estate construction or lease contracts, or when trying to get out of obligations rather than pay what you owe. But this often leads to other firms -- banks and contractors, for example -- refusing to do business with you.
   Similarly, using these tactics against sovereign nations means they, too, will abandon you.
   As  Angela Merkel, prime minister of Germany, put it, it's time for European nations to look to their own destiny, since they can no longer expect cooperation and support from America.
   As for the president's plan to negotiate a new trade pact with Germany alone, apart from the European Union, he can't. Germany, as part of the EU, can only participate in trade agreements that involve all other EU member nations.
   That would be like Kansas arranging a trade pact with another nation without the approval of Congress. They can't. It's in the Constitution. Look it up. Free copies are available online.
   Unless, of course, the president's real goal is to destroy the European Union, just as he wants to shatter the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Trans Pacific Partnership regional trade pact.
   America First may well become America Alone.

   And speaking of clods --

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

  -- John Donne