A worthless trip

"There was fanfare for sure. And the Chinese thought the conference was a HUGE success. Plus (and this was funny), the Chinese blamed western media for 'over blowing' the now famous 'snub'."

What a waste of time, money and aviation fuel. The G20 meeting, recently concluded in China, was nothing more than a joke. Donald Trump is right. He thought Obama should have gotten back on the plane and left right after the first snub. I agree. However, the question goes much deeper than just to leave in response to a snub. How did we get here? How did the most powerful nation in the world, who does so much for so many, become a punching bag?

There was fanfare for sure. And once it was over, the Chinese thought the conference was a HUGE success. Plus (and this was funny), the Chinese blamed western media for "over blowing" the now famous "snub". I could say it was just an oversight, but when every other leader gets the red carpet treatment, and Air Force One is forced to park someplace on the tarmac all by its lonesome, that transcends coincidence.

My amusement (or maybe bemusement), was for this new leader of the Philippine Islands to call our President (translated) a SOB. I will say this much, this new leader has balls, and he has gall. And not a very good sense of history. Quite a bit of American blood was spilled on his territory getting rid of the Japanese menace. Quite a few American dollars have been spent on his territory to build and maintain Clark AFB. The economy of the the Philippines has benefited greatly from having Americans close by. 

This G20 was an excellent opportunity to have the big three (China, Russia and the US), kiss and make up and get some rock solid agreements on sticky issues. Did not happen. No agreement on how to handle a cease fire in Syria. So talk what-so-ever on the continual hacking done by the Russians. No talk about the illegal islands China has manufactured in the South China Sea. Nope.

There was however, agreement right before the conference started between China and the US to the terms of the Paris accord. I would love to see the fine print on that one. My bet is that China's terms (as a developing country) are much different than ours. In other words, China can keep burning coal like gang busters while we are putting our coal industry out of business. 

Speaking of the Paris accord, I wonder how much carbon was put into the air by flying all those planes to China for the conference. I know, I know - big picture. But the big picture for this conference is hardly worth looking at. Or as was said in Macbeth, this conference was "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."