What should we think of the large numbers of disappointed Americans openly rooting for their newly installed government to fail, even though they cannot offer or hope to install a credible replacement slate? Can an agenda of constant blame and disparagement be the recipe for regaining some role of meaningful national influence? Their challenging task is complicated by the level of transparency offered by the new regime without a complicit media filter. The precedent-setting televised Trump/Vance negotiation with Ukraine’s leader starkly revealed the unflattering moments of strategy and tension inherent in complicated international negotiations with potential universal consequences. It is difficult for the majority of Americans who rely on an hour of daily media news for their political exposure to appreciate the difficulty of top-level leadership responsibility for very large and complex organizations, political or corporate. The sheer collection and weighing of pertinent data and opinion to support rational decisions affecting large numbers of people is daunting. It is not helpful when dissidents persist in predictable negativity on even the most trivial and least popular of issues - like transgender participation in women’s athletics. Phil Osifer