Last week, Saudi Arabia and its OPEC+ partners announced that they would be cutting oil production by one million barrels a day.

            A few days later, Saudi Aramco announced a multibillion-dollar investment in China's petrochemical industry.

            Just prior to that, China was instrumental in brokering a deal for Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume diplomatic ties.

            Is China expanding its once regional power into an expanding global one? 

            Last month's visit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin was a highly publicized summit raising many eyebrows in the West but not so much in Washington, D.C.

            It seems like, for the last six years, our elected officials have been too busy pointing fingers, issuing subpoenas, and holding hearings trying to oust each other and nobody's paying attention to the world stage.

            Those who hate us are getting stronger and we seem to be getting weaker, or at least complacent about events happening around the world.

            I agree that we have many problems in our own backyard that need to be addressed.  Homelessness, the economy, and social issues have divided us.  Have we reached the point of no return to a United States?

            Our support for Ukraine is needed.  But, how many of our so-called allies are committed to that effort?  Have we reached a point where whatever support they are giving will just fade away?  Are our officials watching?  Do they really care?  Will our enemies jump on the Putin bandwagon?  Worse yet, will our so-called allies?

            I hope not.

            To listen to our elected officials, there is enough dirt in our nation's capital to fill in the Grand Canyon and there are enough victims of social inadequacies in our country to fill Yankee Stadium 200,000 times.

            Stop it.  Our world is crumbling while elected officials are fiddling.

            We need to hear from all levels of government, including the highest.  Stop hiding and speak to the people of the United States. Then, speak to the people of the world and let them know that United States still exists and we are not hiding from the events going on around us.  Then, tell them what we're going to do about it.

            If you can't take the heat get out of Washington, D.C.

            We need leadership from all branches of our federal government.

            Great leaders write history instead of becoming victims of it.