Pam's Points: What will Trump-Putin Helsinki meeting bring?

A six-meter high cartoon baby blimp of U.S. President Donald Trump is flown as a protest in Parliament Square in London last week as a protest to his visit to Britain. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
A six-meter high cartoon baby blimp of U.S. President Donald Trump is flown as a protest in Parliament Square in London last week as a protest to his visit to Britain. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Helsinki's big moment

It's going to be a big day in Helsinki, Finland.

Will President Trump heed Democrats and get back on the plane to come home - sending Vladimir Putin an unmistakable message of disgust and distrust now that 12 Russian intelligence officers have been named in an indictment charging them with interfering in our 2016 election? We probably shouldn't hold our breath on this one.

Will the president abandon the winding down of the war in Syria to Putin - leaving the blood, sweat and tears of U.S. troops in vain so that Putin ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may stay in power?

Will Trump bless Moscow's annexation of Crimea and its aggression in Ukraine, or will he tell the Russian president to back off?

Will he and Putin agree to continue reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world, or will they scrap the draw-down plan altogether?

Yep. Big day. Especially for a planned four-hour meeting.

Tick tock, tick tock.

Strzok and Congress debacle

Partisan dysfunction was on full display in Washington during the hourslong shouting match that doubled as a House hearing into alleged FBI bias in the Russia investigation.

Instead of asking questions about how and why Russian hackers were trying to secure the 2016 election for Donald Trump, GOP Congress members forced the FBI agent who oversaw the opening of the Russia investigation to defend himself from blistering attacks.

But Peter Strzok - who, make no mistake, stepped in a mess of his own making and hurt our country when he shared personal comments on his FBI phone with his FBI lawyer mistress - gave Congress members as good as he got, rejecting accusations that he let his private political views bias his official actions.

"Let me be clear, unequivocally and under oath: Not once in my 26 years of defending my nation did my personal opinions impact any official action I took," Strzok told House lawmakers investigating what Republicans say is evidence of rampant bias at the top levels of the FBI.

""I understand we are living in a political era in which insults and insinuation often drown out honesty and integrity," Strzok said. "I have the utmost respect for Congress's oversight role, but I truly believe that today's hearing is just another victory notch in Putin's belt and another milestone in our enemies' campaign to tear America apart."

Tennessee Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen said Strzok deserved a Purple Heart.

America needs a Baby Trump balloon

Tens of thousands of demonstrators turned out in London alone as the "Trump Baby" balloon was launched above Parliament Square. The Washington Post said people banged pots and pans and chanted slogans as they watched and protested Trump's visit to Britain.

What happens to that balloon now?

Can some Americans borrow it to fly when the campaigner-in-chief blathers at rallies instead of doing the work of a president?

Some things are working

Need some good news?

There is some left in the world.

For instance: ExxonMobil has left the anti-science lobbying group ALEC.

The Union of Concerned Scientists announced Friday that its push - bolstered by the support of ordinary people like us consumers, as well as climate science partners and shareholders - prompted ExxonMobil to finally take the positive step of leaving the American Legislative Exchange Council.

ALEC is one of the primary industry groups behind decades of climate science disinformation. Companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron for years have spent millions paying industry groups like ALEC to lobby against sensible climate policies and cast doubt on credible climate science.

With ExxonMobil pulling its support from ALEC, the lobby group is losing one of the major funders of its climate disinformation campaigns. This is a huge step in slashing the fossil fuel industry's political clout. But our work isn't done.

Other oil giants like BP, ConocoPhillips, and Shell have quit ALEC in recent years, with Shell citing the group's stance on climate change as "clearly inconsistent with our own."

Now the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy organization, will move its attention to Chevron and urge similar action.

We can help. It's called the power of the wallet.

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