Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Blogger Candidate Forum: Head Spinning



Hello Everyone:

It is a hazy Wednesday and time for Blogger Candidate Forum.  Blogger needed a break from le bleu banlieue but promises to pick it up next week.  In the meantime, we have so much to talk about.  Mr. Donald Trump's embarrassing trip through Europe, culminating in a jaw-dropping press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin was enough to shock Blogger.  The president tried to back track on his comment saying he meant to say "wouldn't" instead of "would."  Right.  He went on to say that he now accepts the findings of the intelligence community and the Senate but now believes that Russian would not attempt to do it again.  Head snapping, right?  It is enough to make Blogger want to hide under the covers with a large box of chocolates.  The only relief from all this chaos was Queen Elizabeth II trolling Mr. Trump.  Royal badass.  With that in mind, let us try to make sense of all this madness.  Pass the chocolate.

Where to begin?  We begin with a blunt assessment of Mr. Trump's trip to Europe--Bigly sad. Disasterous as a matter of fact.  The president's first stop was Brussels, Belgium for the annual NATO gathering. Should have been an easy trip, right? but no.  During the meeting, the president proceeded to excoriate Germany and other member countries for not spending enough on defense.  To add insult on top of insult, he slammed German Chancellor Angela Merkel for being subservient to Russia.  Then he wondered why the United States has to always defend its NATO allies. Ever hear of Article 5? An attack on one is an attack on all.  Guess not.

In an interview today with Fox's Tucker Carlson, the president was asked "why should the U.S. should protect a country like Montenegro, which joined NATO last year,.... (huffpost.com; date accessed July 18, 2018).  The president responded,

Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people,.... They're very aggressive people, and they may get aggressive, and congratulations, you're in World War III.  But that's the way it was set up.

Seriously? Yes, Montenegro is a member country and NATO members are required to defend it, regardless.  The president also patted himself on the back of the increased spending by member nations, "taking credit for funds member countries had previously pledged." (Ibid).  He told Mr. Carlson,

It was very unfair,.... They weren't paying.  So not only were we paying for most it, but they weren't even paying and we're protecting them.  Add that to your equation on Montenegro. (Ibid)

Eventually the president did re-affirm Article 5 at the just completed NATO conference but not before blustering his way through.

Following the mind numbing NATO conference, Mr. Trump made his first visit, as president, and was greeted by protests and Baby Trump.  For the most part, this was a fairly head spinning-free trip.  His meeting with Prime Minister (for now) Theresa May was, interesting especially the part where he "mansplained" Brexit.  Mr. Trump told PM May that she was not being tough enough with the European Union and should sue them.  Thank you for your input, next. However, tea with Queen Elizabeth was, how shall Blogger put it, not quite as graceful as one would prefer.  First, he arrived 15 minutes late.  Word of advice, never keep The Queen waiting for you.   During a review of the Household Guard, which Mr. Trump claimed it was the first in 70 years (wrong), and he walked in front of her.  Fortunately for all, the visit was short and sweet because it was on to the main event, a highly anticipated meeting with President Putin.

Let us start with the basics: Both President Putin and Mr. Trump met in Helsinki, Finland.  This meeting came after the Special Counsel indicted twelve Russians for meddling in the 2016 election. Rather than cancel the meeting, the president went ahead with the summit.  Perfect opportunity to confront President Putin about the matter.

 The two spoke for over two hours on subject ranging from denuclearization to election interference.  Then things went truly off the rails.  The leaders came out for a joint press conference that can only be described as complete disaster for an American president.  During his remarks, Mr. Trump rambled about everything from the ever popular "no collusion," "witch hunt" (the Special Counsel), how he won the electoral college, her emails, blamed former President Barack Obama before finally answering the million dollar question, what did he say to President Putin about election interference.  The president answered the question, don't see any reason why it would be Russia (cnn.com; date accessed July 18, 2018). Essentially, siding with Russia over his own Department of Justice and intelligence agencies.  He went on to say that both countries were to blame for it; basically parsing out blame the United States for having its election hacked.  This had members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, pundits howling treason, and throwing the White House into category 6 damage control mode and President Putin relishing the moment he separated the United States from its European allies.

In an interview with CBS, Mr. Trump said that he does hold President Putin responsible because, after all, he is the Russian leader.

I would because he's in charge of the country just like I consider myself to be responsible for things that happen in this country,.... So certainly as the leader of the country you would have to hold him responsible. (Ibid)

Mr. Trump tried to walk his key statement, saying he reviewed the transcript from the presser and needed to clarify what he said.  Attributing it to a grammatical error,me said,

In a key sentence in my remarks I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't'.... The sentence should have been: I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia.... Sort of a double negative.  (Ibid)

Yes, of course, that explains it.  

Finally, today the White House was doing another round of damage control when the president answered "no" when asked if the Russians were still targeting the United States. Once again Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders fumbled her clarification when she said the president was actually answering another question.  When pressed during today's interview on whether his acceptance of American intelligence analysis meant that President Putin lied when denying Russian involvement, Mr. Trump said he

...didn't want to get it into whether or not he was lying... I can only say that indonhave confidence in our intelligence agencies as currently constituted... (Ibid)

He added that he warned President Putin,

I let him know we can't have this.  We're not going have it.  And that's the way it's going to be.  (Ibid)

Sure, whatever

The president, thus far, has been able to survive all sorts of controversy but this one does not show any signs of going away soon.  The shock of American president siding against his own country may be too much for all but the most hard core Trump supporters to take and could have serious concerns nsequences at the ballot box.

 




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