What a Difference Two Years Makes ... or Not

Two years ago, today, I posted:

Are all the president’s loved-ones accounted for? Surely there must be a stress-induced explanation for what he did, and failed to do, standing next to Vladimir Putin today in Helsinki....

The gag was an implication that the Russians must have kidnapped a member of the president's family as leverage. How else to explain the events reported, also two years ago, today, by the BBC in a summary of the strange behavior of the President of the United States at a summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland.

In addition to the 12 indicted Russians mentioned briefly in the July 16, 2018 BBC story, the Mueller Investigation would go on to secure confessions or trial convictions against eight US citizens (plus federal charges against another dozen Russian individuals and entities.

Later, after reading the redacted report of that investigation, I concluded that, were I seated on a grand jury presented with the volume and specificity of the evidence in the report, I would be compelled to vote for indictment in most, if not all, the instances the report detailed.

Roger Stone, whose sentence was commuted last week — was prosecuted and convicted by a jury of seven felony crimes. Commuted - not pardoned - Roger Stone remains a convicted felon who will do no jail time or reparation for his offenses.

Today, the American president continues taking the side of Vladimir Putin against the investigative findings of the US Intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and the president continues taking the side of confessed and convicted criminals working against US interests in and in parallel with his administration.

Other than that, I imagine the president's first instinct every day is to put America first, unless it isn't.