As we wade through the T-Rump/Bad-Billy Barr bullshit, Joe Biden is making great music across the pond at the G7 summit in the UK, and in doing so, seemingly his very presence has a warm-cuddly effect on people worldwide after the last four years of horror.

A new survey by Pew Research shows the US is back:

Our 20th annual @pewglobal survey of America's image abroad finds a dramatic shift, with a significant uptick in ratings. President Biden also receives much higher ratings than President Trump across 12 nations surveyed both this year and in 2020. https://t.co/BApN6PqFJY

— Michael Dimock (@MichaelDimock) June 11, 2021

Details at Pew Research yesterday:

In each of the 16 publics surveyed, more than six-in-ten say they have confidence in Biden to do the right thing in world affairs.
Looking at 12 nations surveyed both this year and in 2020, a median of 75-percent express confidence in Biden, compared with 17-percent for Trump last year.

During the past two decades, presidential transitions have had a major impact on overall attitudes toward the U.S. When Barack Obama took office in 2009, ratings improved in many nations compared with where they had been during George W. Bush’s administration, and when Trump entered the White House in 2017, ratings declined sharply.
This year, U.S. favorability is up again: Whereas a median of just 34-percent across 12 nations had a favorable overall opinion of the U.S. last year, a median of 62-percent now hold this view.

In France, for example, just 31-percent expressed a positive opinion of the U.S. last year, matching the poor ratings from March 2003, at the height of U.S.-France tensions over the Iraq War.
This year, 65-percent see the U.S. positively, approaching the high ratings that characterized the Obama era.
Improvements of 25 percentage points or more are also found in Germany, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands and Canada.

Still, attitudes toward the U.S. vary considerably across the publics surveyed.
For instance, only about half in Singapore and Australia have a favorable opinion of the U.S., and just 42-percent of New Zealanders hold this view.
And while 61-percent see the U.S. favorably in Taiwan, this is actually down slightly from 68-percent in a 2019 poll.
…
Nearly eight-in-ten Germans (78-percent) have confidence in Biden to do the right thing in world affairs; a year ago, just 10-percent said this about Trump.
Similar differences are found in Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands, and in all nations where a trend is available from 2020 there is a difference of at least 40 percentage points.
…
Looking at 12 countries polled during the first year of both their presidencies, a median of 77-percent describe Biden as well-qualified to be president, compared with 16-percent. who felt this way about Trump.

All looks good, huh? We seemed to be on a come-back, but hold your democratic horses. Buried in that Pew research report was a humbling view from other countries about the state of our democracy, freedoms, and what-not. The shit from T-Rump remains, as the current Billy Barr/DOJ scandel attests.
Some nasty returns via Pew:

In addition to the concerns some have about how America engages with other nations, there are also concerns about domestic politics in the U.S.
The 16 publics surveyed are divided in their views about how well the U.S. political system is functioning, with a median of only 5o-percent saying it is working well.

And few believe American democracy, at least in its current state, serves as a good model for other nations.
A median of just 17-percent say democracy in the U.S. is a good example for others to follow, while 57-percent say it used to be a good example but has not been in recent years.
Another 23-percent do not believe it has ever been a good example.

T-Rump’s legacy endures beyond Mar-a-Lago even still. Brian Klaas at The Washington Post this morning: ‘The United States has lost the moral high ground. The world might have always been wary of lectures from the United States about the virtues of democracy and freedom, but at least those on the receiving end of those lectures often believed that the country giving the lecture knew how to build a successful democracy. That’s no longer true.‘

And the way Republicans are acting with stone-cold voting suppression tactics across the country, and stonewalling Biden’s every move just about, the US certaintly hasn’t won any converts worldwide in the democracy title.

Add insult to injury — a kind of synopsis on Billy Barr’s up-to-his-eyeballs in this ugly shit via Bess Levin’s piece today at Vanity Fair:

“In my 30 years in Washington representing people in front of Congress, and at DOJ working in government and the executive branch as a staff member like those staff members who got subpoenaed in Congress, it is completely without a precedent,” attorney Norm Eisen, who served as counsel for House Democrats during Trump’s first impeachment, told CNN on Thursday.
“It’s groundbreaking and earth-shaking. And there are going to be consequences. There’s going to be fallout. You’re going to see congressional observations, you’re going to need a policy or laws to protect reporters and members of Congress. They even went after the child of one of these targets on the Hill to get information about a child’s account from Apple! And then there’s the question of Bill Barr … we’ve already had two judges criticize him for a cover-up in connection with protecting Trump from obstruction charges. Now people are going to be looking at his law license afresh. So expect a lot of legal fallout from this.”

Here we be…

(Illustration out front: ‘Tower of Babel,’ a 1928 woodcut by M. C. Escher, found here).