I want to say that it can’t possibly be true, but the New York Daily News is reporting that Donald Trump, who just arrived in Germany for the G-20 conference, doesn’t have anywhere to stay, as no one at the White House thought ahead to make arrangements. But, who knows? This is, after all, the same administration that was apparently meeting in darkness in the weeks after the inauguration, having fired everyone in the federal government who knew where the White House light switches were… Regardless of how true this particular story might be, by all accounts, it seems as though this international trip of Trump’s is already shaping up to be more of a disaster than the last one, where, after lavishing praise on authoritarian dictators, he shoved the Prime Minister of Montenegro aside to be at the front of a group photo.
While the administration put the otherwise unemployable Sebastian Gorka in front of reporters this morning to announce that “American leadership under Donald J. Trump is back in the White House,” the only thing most people I know wanted to talk about was the fact that, absent any real leadership from the current administration, China and Germany are expected to emerge as the new leaders of the developed world, leaving Trump on the outside, looking like the pathetic loser that he is, as other world leaders do their best to avoid even the most cursory contact with him… that, and the fact that, in Poland yesterday, instead of taking the opportunity to come out forcefully against Putin, Trump used his time in front of reporters to rant about Obama, the so-called “fake news,” and the untrustworthiness of the American intelligence community.
[Here’s a little lesson for any of you out there who might be considering a career in politics. If you’re trying to rally international support for sanctions against a dangerous rogue nation, like North Korea, using evidence compiled by the U.S. intelligence community, it might not be so smart to talk at length about how our intelligence agencies can’t be trusted. Furthermore, it’s probably also not a great idea, for what it’s worth, to seek support from those NATO members who, just a few weeks beforehand, you accused of being deadbeats, going so far as to suggest that, if they were attacked, you might not honor existing mutual defense pledges.]
Here, in case you missed them, are two short videos of Trump addressing reporters on the subject on the “fake news,” how good his ratings were for The Apprentice, and the Russian interference in the election that placed him in the White House. [Trump, in this video, begrudgingly admits that it was “probably Russia” that hacked the DNC, but goes on to say, “nobody really knows for sure,” suggesting that other countries could have actually done much of it. He also suggests that, if indeed Russia was responsible, it’s more Obama’s fault than his, as the former president didn’t do more to stop it, not acknowledging the fact that, if Obama had interceded more forcefully, the GOP most surely would have moved to impeach him for having interfered in the election on Clinton’s behalf. And, furthermore, it also doesn’t acknowledge that Obama did, in fact, take steps to address the issue by imposing sanctions against Russia – sanctions which Trump, we’re told, is presently attempting to roll back.]
Trump attacks the media, CNN and NBC, in Poland: "They have been fake news for a long time." pic.twitter.com/xCxaUDE9pT
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 6, 2017
Watch: Trump is asked if he believes Russia interfered in our election, instead attacks Obama and the media. https://t.co/IrfviRPwru
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 6, 2017
So we sit and wait to find out what happens tomorrow, when Putin and Trump meet fact-to-face… While Trump did call on Russia today “to cease its destabilizing activities (in Europe),” most folks, I think it’s safe to say, don’t think he’ll stand up to the Russian dictator and demand that he stop interfering here in America, where it’s now thought that the Kremlin had up to one thousand paid trolls spreading false stories about Hillary Clinton in swing states prior to the election. In fact, what most of us think is that, as reported last week, Trump will attempt to stay in Putin’s good graces by offering to help roll back the Obama sanctions.
And that’s where things are today in America, a little over half a year into the Trump administration, on the day when news broke that both Ethics Office Director Walter Shaub resigned and Trump’s Russian-born business partner, Felix Sater, has agreed to co-operate with an international money-laundering investigation.
But not to worry… As Trump told reporters in Poland yesterday that “everyone” in the United States is “getting very rich” now that he’s President. [So, how are you spending your fortune? On food? Health care?] Oh, and, according to Trump, no one at the G-20 is talking about his relationship with Putin, or the fact that the Russians helped put him in power. No, according to Trump, all anyone wants to talk about is how terrible John Podesta is.
Everyone here is talking about why John Podesta refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA. Disgraceful!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 7, 2017
update: Trust me when I tell you that more people at the G-20 summit this morning are talking about the fact that Trump just met with Putin, the man who essentially stole our last presidential election by way of cyber warfare, and patted him on the back… No one gives a fuck about Podesta… We’ve got a civilization to save.
24 Comments
If he doesn’t mention the election hacking to Putin, will he at least mention this?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-07/russians-are-said-to-be-suspects-in-hacks-involving-nuclear-site
Only a weak & impotent leader would spend more time attacking his predecessor & the free press than those in the world truly threatening US.
If Trump fails to stand up to Putin, the Kremlin will conclude “he is too weak to stand up to them at all.”
You mean like Sanders did? (Ok his primary opponent)
An embarrassment to the world.
“Donald Trump has transformed the United States into a laughing stock and he is a danger to the world.- German paper- Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel also sharpened their knives for the First Daughter, who they call a bullshit-feminismus.
https://twitter.com/meckpommsf/status/883274894473129984
According to McMaster, Trump is going into today’s meeting with Putin with “no specific agenda.”
“It’s really going to be whatever the president wants to talk about,” McMaster told the press.
Sounds like a winning strategy, doesn’t it?
It’s like Putin is playing three dimensional chess against a guy playing tic tac toe on a children’s menu at Cracker Barrel.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/world/europe/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-g20.html?
Russian spies are ramping up intelligence-gathering efforts in the US, current and former US intel officials say http://cnn.it/2tPykF4
I keep seeing conservative posts and can’t help but think we have two extremely different views of reality right now. It’s terrifying.
So much for the NPR theory that he would need to be cautious in this meeting, less he add fuel to the collusion stories. At a deep level, i feel the pain of his advisors.
A quick refresher on everything Trump has said in the past about Putin:
https://twitter.com/CNN/status/883323874770866177
You should see the view from over here in Europe. We’ve looked better.
What the world saw yesterday is what we see every day in President Donald J. Trump, and that is: Unapologetic, American leadership.
As I told Laura Ingraham yesterday: “It really is remarkable to think for the last eight years we had an administration that was more often than not apologizing for America around the world, boasting about leading from behind. And in Warsaw, Poland…President Donald Trump reaffirmed our nation’s commitment to be the leader of the free world.”
VIDEO:
https://www.facebook.com/VicePresidentPence/videos/1917504061855276/
The phrase “unapologetic, American leadership” makes me want to vomit.
Trump’s obsessions with ratings is a constant. Indeed it’s all he cares about. Usually if a narcissist feels cornered and derided, he/she becomes highly reactive and goes into a fight or flight mode. I’m hoping for flight, because fight scares me. But acquiescing to his highly distorted sense of reality is not worth it.
I just ask that we please refrain from tribalism re Trump voters. We will need to heal after this atrocity. We need to allow people room to change their political viewpoint. The more we attack, the more we push them deep into their corner. The Trump voters I know feel they are being judged as racist etc unfairly. And so they empathize with Trump when he is attacked. But they also know they were fooled. I don’t see much acknowledgment on the left that we were manipulated into hating HRC by the right. It’s hard to admit we were fooled. Some of the most discerning political thinkers I know were Nader voters who vowed never to be so naive again. Let’s give Trump voters room to change their minds. It’s the only way we get past this. Let’s offer them something that sounds like opportunity not government dependency. Lord knows the DCCC isn’t helping with their latest campaign.
We will need a reconciliation eventually. That’s how progress happens. Let’s cut the self-righteous tribalism now.
I want to make clear that I do think Trump won due to racial and ethnic bias and sexism. But I also think the left and center are vulnerable to perhaps more coded populist appeals to racial and ethnic bias and sexism. Ann Arbor is ample evidence that liberal self congratulation can mask a lot of momentum (under anti-capitalist, community character arguments) towards increasingly adverse outcomes (and exclusion) for the poor, less educated, culturally different, and people of color. Tribalism always works the same way when wielded by people with power and influence. I truly hope this horrendous time helps us aspire to be better humans. I’m not seeing much evidence lately though.
Unfortunately Trump voters are NOT being accused of being racists *unfairly*. However, I am all about using different language such as ‘cultural anxiety’ to address it since it is true that people tend to shut down when their biases are pointed out to them. That isn’t limited to people on the right either, it applies to everyone.
I used to try to address behavior rather than the person, i.e. “that is a racist thing you said” vs “you are a racist” but have found that even that gets people really defensive. It is frustrating to me though because I think direct conversations about such things should help people understand.
However, one of the things about privilege is that one can ignore social problems of discrimination. It takes effort to be respectful and alter one’s speech and behavior so as not to commit micro aggressions and for people with a lot of privilege, they can just ignore it and not worry about what impact their behavior or words might have on others. I sometimes find myself ignoring the discrimination of others when it gets to be too much for me and then I am much happier because there is less conflict in my personal life. It doesn’t usually last long though because when I let people say racist/bigoted things around me, I feel guilty. Oddly I don’t feel guilty when I ignore bigotry directed at me or people like me (which btw, as a fat person in liberal Ann Arbor happens pretty much every day) but only when it is directed at others.
At any rate, I have been practicing a different approach. Instead of being direct, I am going for a more indirect approach. When I talk to someone who says something racist or otherwise bigoted, I try to ask them questions rather than make statements. I haven’t been especially good at this as like most people I am prone to react to bigoty rather than address it calmly but I am getting better. So for example in the comments section on an article about what it is like to weigh 500lbs in response to someone who said that can’t stand it when people think it is ok to be fat, I might ask, “why does it bother you if someone else is ok with their body?” and it has allowed for some interesting discussions and I hope a more persuasive approach. We will see.
“It’s an honor to be with you,” Trump said to Putin, a man who the FBI, CIA, NSA and DNI all agree launched a cyber warfare attack against our country.
Yes, I’m sure that’s the big talk at G20. Not climate change or trade, but why didn’t John Podesta give a server that wasn’t his to the CIA.
According to Neil MacFarquhar, the NY Times Moscow bureau chief, Lavrov said the following after the meeting with Trump:
#Trump said he accepted statements from #Putin that #Russia had not hacked election.
https://twitter.com/NeilMacFarquhar/status/883376956322062336
If he didn’t have hotel reservations in Hamburg, that would mean that the Secret Service didn’t set up his travel or sweep his room in advance. This isn’t the way things are done.
Only a complete fool wouldn’t have seen what a buffoon this man is.
A buffoon I could live with. Trump, however, is a criminal conman intent on bringing out nation down to appease those he’s indebted to.