Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Michelle Goldberg, NYTimes: "Stop Giving Trump The Benefit of the Doubt"







"...everything liberals said about the tax bill turned out to be true.

Contrary to Republican claims, wage growth has been anemic. Instead of sharing the wealth with employees, companies have spent record amounts of money buying back their own stock.

The tax cuts are creating larger deficits than Republicans predicted, and those deficits are now being cited as a pretext for cutting spending on the poor.

They remain unpopular. Republicans in some districts have abandoned them as an election issue."





On to Trump's Begging for a Nobel Peace Prize for a Summit with NoKo That May Not Happen:


Watching this unfold should have helped inoculate commentators against Trumpist bamboozlement. It has not. In March, Trump spontaneously accepted an offer, conveyed to him by a South Korean envoy, to meet directly with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea has sought a one-on-one meeting with a sitting American president for years, believing it would legitimate it as a global power, but previous administrations have refused. “No American president has ever agreed to meet a North Korean leader before because that is a huge concession in and of itself,” Robert Kelly, a political science professor at South Korea’s Pusan National University,

Three weeks away from a summit that may or may not actually happen, reports show a president terrifyingly unprepared for high-stakes diplomacy. After being conciliatory for several weeks, Kim Jong-un has started pushing back against the United States, exactly as experts predicted he would. “Mr. Trump’s aides have grown concerned that the president — who has said that ‘everyone thinks’ he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts — has signaled that he wants the summit meeting too much,” David Sanger reported in The New York Times. 

The U.S. government has even issued a commemorative coin about the summit featuring Trump and “Supreme Leader” Kim Jong-un face-to-face, signaling to the world that it’s now the American president who craves legitimation from the North Korean dictator.

The embarrassment that is currently in the White House:

6 comments:

Dave Miller said...

Shaw... when this is the level of critical introspection supporters give Pres Trump, it's hard to see the needle moving much.

"Trump is pretty much running the show solo. Poor guy. I’ve never seen such vitriol against one man..."

"He’s doing a doggone good job too of getting us back to Constitutional government. Almost single handedly."


When Obama was in office, we supported him, but we were also critical of him while he was in office. Many of us thought the ACA was watered down, that he was a neophyte in politics and that he didn't deal harsh enough with the GOP, among other noted criticisms.

Yes of course we blamed the GOP for their "unpresidented" levels of obstruction and of course their support of and dissemination of blatantly racist materials aimed at discrediting President Obama at every turn. But... we didn't turn nearly as blind an eye as the current crop of partisans are doing.

They're doing more than giving him the benefit of the doubt, they really do live in an area filled with "false facts", "alternative facts" and "unique content."

In a world where people like John McCain, Jeff Flake, David Frum, Max Boot, Bill Kristol to name a few, are considered RINOS simply because they abhor the vitriol that comes out of Donald trump's mouth, while supporting his policies, there is little left to be said about many of those inhabiting the extreme right wing of political though in this country.

Trump, because he was elected and is our President might get the benefit of our doubt, at least until the missiles fly. Those that defend everything he does while never being critical? Never!

Anonymous said...

While driving to work this morning, I heard a report that aides are also worried that Trump is focusing on the pageantry and optics of the meeting instead of the briefings on N Korea's nuclear arsenal.

At this stage of the game, why would anyone be surprised by this?

Possumlady

Shaw Kenawe said...

Dave's comment noted these statements by Trumpistas: "Trump is pretty much running the show solo. Poor guy. I’ve never seen such vitriol against one man..."

Written by the same folks who called President Obama a Muslim, who questioned his Christianity, who called him arrogant, a Marxist, Commie, and every other rotten name they could think of. Their hypocrisy is stomach-turning and proof of their utter contempt for the truth.

"He’s doing a doggone good job too of getting us back to Constitutional government. Almost single handedly."

That stateent alone reveals their blindness to Trump's shredding of our Constitutional norms. He's a cheat, a liar, a con artist, and has been enriching himself and his family since he entered the Oval Office. He's a blight on America and all her ideals. He's dragged us down into the gutter and soiled our country's standing in the world. But those people only see an "R" after his name and the power that confers on them while the scoundrel is in office.

They are a minority in this countlry and the world.

Possumlady, Trump is an ignorant bully who knows nothing about diplomacy OR foreign policy. He's interested only in trying to get a Nobel Peace Prize -- another honor given to President Obama, but will NEVER be given to the Tramp who is currently defiling the White House. NEVER!

Dave Miller said...

Correction Shaw... a Moslem.

Anonymous said...

Didn’t any of those genius journalists in the mainstream media notice the obvious fact that John Bolton sabotaged any possibility of serious American talks with North Korea? Why do they think John Bolton mentioned “the Libya model”, thereby ending the talks before they began? Bolton has supported bombing North Korea for how long now?

Ducky's here said...

And in today's legal news, the BBC is reporting that Michael Cohen took a 400 grand bribe from a Ukranian oligarch.

This payment went to guarantee access and talks with Lord Dampnut though Cohen is not a registered lobbyist. Shortly after the Ukrainian president returned home, his country's anti-corruption agency stopped its investigation into Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.

tRump is being given the benefit of the doubt and it is not known if the cash went into the Stormy Daniels slush fund.
What a parcel of rogues.