Ex unibus plurum - gumbo diplomacy

 It's all very tiresome. The one  who 'loves uneducated people'...

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Wisely he doesn't go on to say '...because they're easiest to fool into voting for me.'
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...can be expected to behave like a spoilt toddler, but Rubio...

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(who is virtually an acrostic for Rules-Based International Order)
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... is a disgrace. As for Vance, he richly deserves the oblivion for which he's being so patently groomed. He confirm's archy the cockroach's observation that when politicians do get an  idea they usally get it wrong....

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'Needs citation', as our Jimmy would say. The wording is approximate. He (I think he was a he; he was certainly a foil for mehitabel, who often referred to herself as the old dame) said it in archy's life of mehitabel.
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The one good thing about the reality TV show in Venezuela... 

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(Natalie Haynes, a regular but occasional guest on Strong Message Here, recently observed that when Trump said 'It was literally like watching a TV show' her automatic 'Literally'-Abuse Antennae sprang  into action – only for her to realize that this use of 'literally' was unimpeachable...

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(possibly a first for this president, who does so much else that is impeachable) 

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...is that it has thrown light on my feeling that American English is peppered with more accurate pronunciation of some foreign names, while  at the same time harbouring other foreign names that are less accurate.

It is a sort of linguistic Monroe Doctrine.

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(The early nineteenth century, largely defensive, statement of a hemispheric 'sphere of inluence'. It was saying, in  the teeth of European powers wielding colonial (extractive, when not plain exploitative) might in Africa and Asia, 'Hands off anything in the Western Hemisphere; it's nothing to do with you and everything to do with us [you heard: US]'

Later it was Roosevelt that made it offensive (changing from  'Hands off' to 'We can do what we want', and Trump that made it OFFENSIVE ('We can do whatever the hell we want and anyway my daddy's a policeman.')

My understanding of the Monroe Doctrine is based on a Post-Graduate Diploma in Latin American Studies Best Before End May 1975, and is sketchy. You can read more about the Monroe Doctrine and its Corollaries here (Wikipedia) or for more detail (but less actuality) try here – of which this Introduction gives a taste:

       

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Foreign languages spoken in the Western hemisphere (and also in Europe, for obvious historical reasons) get a sensitive treatment in American English, 'Venezuela' gets an /s/ where BE has a /z/. But foreign languages spoken outside the Western hemisphere get a less sympathetic treatment: /ɑjræk/ ('Iraq') springs to mind.

I had in mind a reaction to the National Security Strategy, but that will have to wait for an update. Tempus as my maths teacher used to say, 'has fugitted'.

b

PS

If having a sing is on your list of resolutions, give this a go:

Of course, not singing is an option, but singing spots are about to sell out, and I wouldn't  want to disappoint.