Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

~~~

~~~

Monday, November 13, 2017

Putin and Duterte: Trump's BFFs






Trump once again sided with the head of a foreign government, Putin, against our own American intelligence agencies. I've never in my lifetime seen anything like this. If Trump's behavior isn't close to treasonous, I don't know what is. How would the Goopers react to an American president of the Democratic Party siding with and believing a foreign leader over his or her own American agencies?


"The worst part of this is not that Trump takes Putin's word over the evidence-based analysis of his own intelligence agencies. It is not even that he plays the role of a useful idiot as he kowtows to Putin yet again. The worst part, by far, is that a hostile power is engaged in an ongoing attack on America's political system and Trump is deliberately stripping the nation's defenses bare and leaving us exposed to future assaults. It is unilateral disarmament plain and simple. We have never seen this type of weakness in a U.S. president before." --Brookings Institute Director, Thomas Wright




 President Donald Trump said Saturday that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin did not interfere in the 2016 election.

Trump also cast doubt on the intelligence community's findings that Russia launched an elaborate and multi-faceted campaign to meddle in the election.

The CIA released a statement shortly after in which CIA director Mike Pompeo emphasized that he stood by the intelligence community's assessment.

Trump is Putin's Dupe.



Jennifer Rubin, WaPo:


"Russia’s mark: A dangerous fool for a president 

Trump and his followers are willing to believe anything because they want to believe anything that confirms their counterfactual world. Anyone who sides with their alternative universe (Sebastian Gorka, Vladimir Putin, Bill O’Reilly, Roy Moore) is a hero and a victim of those pro-immigrant, globalist, anti-Christian elites. Anyone who presents cold, hard facts (the mainstream media, scientists, allied governments, Democrats, #NeverTrumpers) that explode their dearly held myths is an enemy of the people.Yes, that’s the mental universe in which Trump and his ilk reside. It renders Trump susceptible — eager, even — to believe our enemies, even — especially! — at the expense of American values, security and interests. He’s putty in the hands of wily autocrats. He’s therefore the type of target that counterintelligence operatives dream of — an arrogant fool.



*************************



Trump then continued to the Philippines where he had a meeting with another strongman, Duterte, who uses extrajudicial killings to solve the drug problem in his country.

Trump said he has a "warm" relationship with the Phillipine leader and would not bring up Duterte's human rights violations, so as not to hurt Duterte's delicate, murderous feelings.

Trump is very sympathetic to leaders who murder their own people. He probably is envious, and that's why he's loathe to bring up violations of basic human rights in his meetings with those leaders. 

Trump has brought America's reputation into the gutter, and it appears it will remain there as long as he's in the White House.



12 comments:

Infidel753 said...

Trump has brought America's reputation into the gutter, and it appears it will remain there as long as he's in the White House.

Probably longer than that. The next President will have to work long and hard to repair the country's reputation. As with Bush's green-lighting of torture, I think the stain may never entirely come out.

.....who uses extrajudicial killings to solve the drug problem in his country.

Let's hope Jeff Sessions doesn't get any ideas. He's weirdly obsessed with this subject.

A Former Reader, and Commenter said...


A suggestion, to Shaw, why not encourage honest dialogue between intelligent folks rather than than the stupid and childish school play ground taunts and food fights that you constantly write? Just in the slight chance you don’t already know it, you have become very boringly, irreverent, and noticeably interesting .
Again, just curious.

Shaw Kenawe said...

To: A.F.R.a.C.

Here's my suggestion to you: Start your own blog. I don't write posts on this blog to please you.

Have a nice day.

Dave Miller said...

AFRaC... I think most ppl who comment here would welcome honest dialogue, we've just, as you can see, not seen a lot of conservatives willing to do so.

It's hard to accomplish with ppl who live for binary solutions, hate nuance and prefer to call people libtards, commies, America haters and more.

Shaw Kenawe said...


Dave, that AFRaC is probably an escapee from WYD. I get comments from them almost every day in my comment moderation. Whoever AFRaC is, he/she didn't fool me. If he/she were really a former reader and commenter, he/she would have used the name he/she used when commenting here previously. That's what an honest critic would have done. So I have no doubt AFRaC is a troll and a phony.

Les Carpenter said...

Keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer.

Good advice and for good reason. We ought to work from this premise more often in my view.

Norman Wright said...


The G.O.P. continues to find new and hilarious ways to fall on their faces and embarrass themselves. Republicans are simply incapable of governing and their current defense of a pedophile is disgraceful. The Democrats will regain the House in 2018, and they will impeach the trumpanzee. If the Democrats regain the Senate as well, Trump is finished, consigned to the trash heap of history, a fitting, ignoble end for the vulgar blowhard who should never have been elected.

The nation gave the G.O.P. everything, and they fumbled, fuddled, and frittered it all away. The G.O.P. cannot govern. Why would any sane American ever trust that pack of incompetent boobs with anything?

America's future is progressive, and the Democrats have the plans and the competence to lead us there. This was your last gasp, lowbrow deplorables, and you blew it.

skudrunner said...

NW, Agree with most of what you said except democrats have the plan to lead. I agree the GOP cannot lead and should be voted out of office. They had every chance to do some good for the American people but chose to bicker instead. They continue to believe Roe v Wade can be overturned and the NRA is a good organization.

The democrats, better know as the party of Jim Crowe, on the other hand have oppressed minorities in this country for decades. They believe minorities don't need opportunities just give them money and buy their vote. They pass a bill they have not read which provides little other than subsidies for the poorest and punishes the rest. Instead of coming out with a workable solution they just bribe their own members into voting for a horrible healthcare plan. Of course they should be voted out as well.

Start fresh with all new players and have term limits

Shaw Kenawe said...

"The democrats, better know as the party of Jim Crowe, on the other hand have oppressed minorities in this country for decades."

Skud, you have serious problems and you insist on exposing your problems to everyone here for Gawd only knows what reason.

Can you reach back into your memory or at least read some recent history and tell everyone here which party and which president was responsible for passing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts? You do know how to use Google. Go for it.

Now, using the same resource, can you find out which president of which party called the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts "an insult to the South and did NOT support them? HERE: I'LL HELP YOU.

You constantly harp on the fact that the Democrats were the prevailing SOUTHERN party of bigotry and racism, but fail to ever include in your tiresome posts that the Dixiecrats split from the Democratic Party once any hint of desegregation became part of a national change.

It is true that southern Democrats were Jim Crow, but then once the Civil Rights movement gained power, the Jim Crow Democrats became Republicans. That's a fact. The Jim Crow Democrats left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party, but what never changed is that they were always southerners. And today you can proudly report that that party embraces the likes of Steve Bannon and Donald Trump.

Dave Miller said...

Skud, skud, skud...

Can parties change, or are they always static, responsible forever for past sins?

Robert Byrd is a good example. He was a Southern Democrat, and a leader of the KKK. But he apologized, took responsibility, called that time in his life horrible and worked the rest of political life to atone for his sins of virulent racism. Is he forever tainted in your eyes? Are all Democrats guilty of the sins of a past generation of racist leaders even though they have renounced Jim Crowe laws and fought for years for equal rights for all?

Your view of politics, as I've said before, is that it is all a cesspool. That's the view of the worst kind of cynic, one not looking for a workable solution, rather one looking to say the hell with it all.

I feel for people with that view. Are all politicians useless? Are they all liars? Are they all evil? Only in the eyes of the extreme fringes of life here in America. Politics is still an honorable profession and government can be a way to improve the lives of everyday Americans, providing for the "common good" in our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

Sadly, that is not evident in what seems to be your view as expressed numerous times here and elsewhere.

Shaw Kenawe said...


It is interesting, Dave, to note that many of the people who hold views like skudrunner on the sins of the Democratic Party of the past are the same people who say that as Americans they are not responsible for the sin of slavery or racial injustice since that was way before their time and none of their relatives were involved in any of it.

People like them and skud, however, continue to blame the current Democratic Party for what it was then instead of what it stands for now: advocates for social justice and equality.

It is not the Democrats/liberals who are anti-gay, anti-BLM, anti-women's rights, anti-voting rights, anti-choice rights, anti-Muslim. That would describe the current GOP.

Oscar Wilde's definition of a cynic: Someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Norman Wright, history would tend to agree with your assessment. The Founding Fathers were radicals and liberals, the conservatives were the people who wanted to stay loyal to the British Crown.