"Leading polluters China and the US were conspicuously absent." It sounded like we weren't welcome because we might distract from or derail other nations' working toward sincere commitments.

The Independent: US, UK and other major polluters sidelined at ‘no-nonsense’ UN climate ambition summit

He explained that only countries' leaders were allowed to speak, and so because Biden didn't attend, the U.S. couldn't speak.

Kerry sounded a lot more optimistic than I am about what's possible, while being less optimistic about whether people would act quickly enough.

I love John Kerry, but he has experience as both a diplomat and a politician.

Why didn’t Joe Biden attend?

I wondered, too. I also thought he was too optimistic about, for example, carbon capture. But I give him credit for going on TV and speaking highly about the summit instead of complaining that the US was snubbed. And I thought he would have been a helluva president had he not been swiftboated.

Ah yes, the Republicans love veterans, unless a decorated veteran is running against their president who volunteered to fly for the National Guard (not that there’s anything wrong with that…) Just as they’re big fans of law enforcement, unless it’s their president breaking the law. (“Don’t you dare say, ‘lock him up!’”)