I've had the reluctant occasion to cover some of these grandiose and amazingly useless events. B-O-R-I-N-G.

It's hard making something of nothing, But media somehow manage to do this time after time for the G-20, the G-7, the finance ministers, the central bankers, the climate alarmists and mavens, any group that can conjure up sufficient alarm in the media to appear to justify another grand gathering requiring breathless media coverage.

Countless millions get spent on getting all of these "leaders" and their entourages and security people and assorted interest group "experts" halfway 'round the world to jawbone and pose for photos, shake hands and cup each other's elbows to show sincerity.

And, of course, to dine sumptuously. All sufficiently isolated from the unpleasant messes of the host's urban lives who don't dine sumptuously and you won't see on the TV news.

Never mind the stunning amount of carbon emitted to accomplish all this. Not to mention the accompanying hot air. Those are worries for another future global gathering.

And what comes out of these Summits of Self-Importance?

Words, Lots of them. All empty. Do you remember what the 37-page joint communique said at the end of this latest gathering of bigs?

Of course not. No one does. Not even the poobahs who were there.

But I'll tell you what wasn't said in this 37-page joint communique. 

Click on this short audio. I'll describe it for you. And I wager you'll be as outraged and disgusted as I was over these gutless leaders who aren't anything of the kind.

I posted another Memory this week in the ongoing series that seems to draw considerable reader interest and Comments.

This one begins a long time ago at the very inception of my lifelong quest to write about the news and where it took me as I strove to get there during the yesteryear of American journalism. High School Was Hard for Me, Until That One Evening That Changed Everything. 

ICYMI, the previous Memory recounted the surprise message my father left for me before he died.

Speaking of that G-20 summit, Joe Biden left there for a jiffy-quick visit to Vietnam. Seven presidents have gone there, two during that bloody war we stumbled into, and the last five in a row to talk about trade and try to convince its socialist leaders to allow more freedom of speech and religion. Of course, that didn't work.

No one knows how long Joe Biden is going to be around one way or the other. So, he had to squeeze in his "historic" visit while he could. 

Here's a revealing anecdote: 

Biden's handlers discovered that most of the reporters covering the G-20 were skipping the Hanoi stopover and heading home because it was less than a day long and clearly perfunctory.

As a result, the White House Comms people canceled the president's New Delhi news conference and moved it to Hanoi, which would require more media to attend. Here's how it went from my colleague Nick Arama in two must-read posts, this one and another follow-up.

So, I wrote this week's column to summarize what's happened in that turbulent relationship over the years since I was there. 

The most recent MOTR audio commentary was a warning to VIP subscribers, and I suppose all news consumers, to be wary of former political operatives who get hired by media as pricey pundits to provide insightful commentary on current events.

But in reality, what they often do is mouth self-serving political talking points like this woman.

Do not miss the opportunity below to Comment on this week's audio. We're trying to get a weekly discussion going here on the topics.