The Lie Trump is Servicing

 

While people are wondering whether Ukrainian President Zelenskyy needs to do some backtracking to make proper amends and all that and get back to the table with the US, Russian foreign minister Lavrov is out here calling this man a traitor to the Jewish people and basically a "Nazi". This has been a big part of Russian propaganda. It is, for so many reasons, especially disgusting to project this made-up bullshit to this man, who comes from a heroic family that fought against the Nazis, for the very obvious reasons. 

If the reasons aren't obvious to you--get off the internet, read books, touch grass. What the fuck is wrong with you? Why would you believe stupid made-up shit just because it matches the thing you want to believe? Shouldn't what is actually true matter? 

Trump has proposed that Zelenskyy is somehow the reason, being elected to the presidency of Ukraine in 2019, for the invasion that started in 2014 and which his own good buddy Manafort knows a whole lot about. (I get why Trump faithful try to step around all that. It's messy for them, no?) 

The Touch, the Feel of Cotton

 

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the Commander of the Russian Armed Force’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Unit, as well as one of his Deputies were Killed in a Bombing earlier tonight at the Entrance to an Apartment Building in the Ryazansky District of Moscow. pic.twitter.com/FhbzUuwwlj

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) December 17, 2024

I'm sure this guy has a family and all that, but so you know, the term you see online regarding explosions: Bavovna!  has to do with cotton, and this is really interesting to me at the moment. 

So anyway, I was thinking when I first started seeing "Bavovna!" that it was like some onomatopoeia thing. The sound of an explosion. We say "BOOM!" So why not? "Ba-VOV-na!" ka-BOOM! 

It means "cotton".  Little puffy cloud. RU colonizing language and people--you'll see.

Anyway, Ukraine gave some Bavovna fuel to Syria. Even RU says so.  (Sell our weapons to end Assad--I am not even MAD!)  And RU has to withdraw when they were having such an influence in Africa:

TWGB: The Russia, Russia, Russia Thing Still is Not a Hoax

 

So apparently, some fake and dumb shit is circulating on the internet that is sourced from Russia. This is no surprise after three elections with Trump, but for the newly TWGB-stooled folks, it has to do with creating election-related insecurity. Some of it has to do with Haitians--wow! Really? Following on the gross and racist lies that came from the Trump campaign recirculating white supremacist bullshit via Vance from actual white supremacists? Except in swing state Georgia, not sort of red Ohio? And the Russians pulled some shit about swing state Pennsylvania, too. 

They are being "tactical". As in, bloody obvious. 

The problem isn't whether Trump is "colluding".  It really hasn't been, although hit dogs holler. It's been "Why is Trump the guy Russia favors?" because they sure the hell don't want a strong leader for us. They would want a basically supine eager-beaver. And this is, sadly, what Trump is. Just a lil' puppy having excitement pee running down his leg to be acknowledged by someone he thinks has the kind of "real power" he wants. And this pretty much is what Neckbeard Chamberlain would be giving us as well. 

TWGB: This Polished Coprolite

 

So, Monday I found myself thinking about Trump wanting and accepting Purple Hearts even though his probably fake bone spurs prevented him from actually serving our country when young when Trump stood in front of a backdrop of ruin and disaster and human tragedy--and accepted a french fry pin for doing a dopey photo op in a swing state from someone who for some reason decided that the way to handle Trump is to go the "Dear Leader" juche approach. Trump, while there, having disrupted relief efforts, defended his lies about FEMA that already resulted in the arrest of a man who threatened violence. 

It's really, really hard to imagine a shittier human being--but just watch! He gets shittier!

He since went on to say, in all sincerity to a person asking about what he would do regarding education that he would end the gender re-assignment surgeries that absolutely are not happening in schools. You can't get Tylenol in a public school without a permission slip. Teachers are buying crayons and construction paper out of pocket. And this deeply disturbed person thinks hours-long surgeries are being given out for free to minors? With no parental consent? And he said it all to demonize schools, teachers, trans kids. To spread hate as fertilizer for his own benefit.

It's beneath contempt to think that anyone takes this seriously. It's "children who identify as cats use litter boxes at school" level stupid. Anyone with a modicum of critical thought would understand why you don't say something that weird and wrong out loud where thinking people could hear--

Yes, He is Weird--and Corrupt

 

Donald Trump and Adin Ross dancing is just weird!

Seriously, does someone tell him this is good for his poll numbers? pic.twitter.com/RBYvRVFmev

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) August 5, 2024

I don't know a whole lot about Adin Ross, the streamer who gifted Trump a Rolex and a Cybertruck with a wrap of his attempted assassination pose, but I think it's interesting that Trump just thinks his weird dancing, the tackiness of this display, and openly praising Kim Jong-Un and Venezuela's Maduro to a seat-sniffer are somehow not weird.

Like the choice of JD Vance for running mate, this is a thing his sons encouraged.  I do not know if gifts were a factor in his decision to do the stream, but I do know he doesn't seem opposed to them.

We still only know so much about what looks like a "gift" (or bribe) from his favorite dictator, Al-Sisi, because he had AG Bill Barr shut that investigation down. We know he does love himself some dictators, though. .And he loves billionaires. And what government can do for himself. 

I will never understand the people who want to believe this weirdo is a "man of the people" who will do anything for them. That he even says such things in the midst of this circus is the line a would-be dictator would feed people. But at bottom, he is just about selling access. 

And he is very weird. 

"Unity" Trump and the New Attitude

 

Trump: Crazy Nancy Pelosi followed by a hammer motion. pic.twitter.com/TpXuwZlv0Z

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) July 19, 2024

As the pundits were desperately hoping for--Ecce Homo: the Man Reborn,  who was definitely not going to ramble on, self-pityingly, spitefully, mockingly, calling Nancy Pelosi crazy while once again referring to the tragic assault on her husband, referring to the "China virus" in a way that has inspired racist animosity against Asian people, degrading the discourse as you know....

He always does. Was he supposed to change, now? After all this time? On his biggest stage, he gave an extended-play version of his regular rally speech, with a cameo from our old friend the "late, great Hannibal Lector" and a wistful concern that Kim Jong-Un misses him. 

I'm only mildly surprised we were spared his feelings about the water pressure in his toilets. 

Biden is old. Sure. He gets tired. Sure. He gets tongue-tied. And then there are the things that deliberately come out of Donald Trump's sewer of a mouth. 

Was there anything upbeat at all in his speech to the RNC, coming after the brilliant use of the lead-up by showcasing the values of the current party as represented by Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan and Dana White?

Well, there was a shout-out to Tom Homan, a former Trump Administration official who is a significant contributor to Heritage Foundation's Project 2025--which we were not supposed to think about as being the Trump Agenda except for being constantly reminded of it. But then again, Trump also gave a shout-out to Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who is "doing a great job". At what, I'd bet you two ham sandwiches you could not say. Does Trump think he's still governor? 

Hmm. What if the answer was leadership all along?

A record number of NATO allies are hitting their defense spending target during war in Ukraine
20 countries are hitting their targets, versus only 6 before Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Biden currently meeting with NATO Secretary General at the White House pic.twitter.com/u1JXcC5T48

— Selina Wang (@selinawangtv) June 17, 2024

This is Trump's constant complaint about NATO: he claims they don't "pay". Of course, he always talks about it like it's a protection racket (one of the few schemes, like money laundering, bankruptcy and lawsuits) he really does understand. Maybe the difference is that Putin has shown the free world what he is (although Trump is a weakling who still has need for him) and Biden has shown proven leadership. 

Trump doesn't get or deserve respect. Who are his buddies? Kin Jong Un--Putin's ammo provider? We know what Trump is, too--and that he will abandon allies for his own sake. We know that because he tells us.

The GOP are Not Serious People

 

During a discussion about whether to ban TikTok, Nikki Haley called Vivek Ramaswamy "scum" in the third Republican debate on Wednesday, as the two presidential candidates once again went at each other repeatedly and fiercely on the debate stage. pic.twitter.com/lWXqHM7xAt

— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 9, 2023

You know, I only like one thing about Nikki Haley, and it is her palpable dislike of Vivek Ramaswamy because: Girl, same.  He's a smug know-nothing jerkface who says outrageous things trying to provoke a moment when he is way out of his depth but finds himself in an environment where people hear sizzle and think "steak"--not "flash in the pan."

She just isn't much better, she's only been at it longer, and that is the feeling I get about the 2024 GOP field. And Trump has been at making up shit and getting applauded for it longest and is best at it, and wasn't even arsed to be there so, DERP! He won. By sheer default. As in, he didn't show up, but, um, neither did anyone else there. Chris Christie attacked him--but from a little place called "too little too late." And while Nikki Haley said Trump wasn't right for this time, she never really articulated why or let us know if there was some PRESSING REASON for his not being right. And we all probably know she'd vote for him--right? 

As for Trump, the twice impeached and four-times indicted one-term wonder, he said his friend Lil' Kim the Rocketman, who sent him "love letters" was responsible for over a billion people. 

Trump, confused: Kim Jong Un leads 1.4 billion people

(North Korea has a population of 26 million) pic.twitter.com/yJua4sbG7m

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) November 9, 2023

He's maybe thinking of President Xi of China? But who knows, when this is a guy who thinks Hannibal Lecter loves him?  (Hannibal Lecter, can you believe? We're hearing more and more good things. A man of excellent taste.)

Giving Trump a Good Thinking Over--

 

I don't think it's even rare that Americans of no small patriotism and no short memory have some episode of shudder or start at some random interval of their day and think to themselves--"Donald Trump had access to the nuclear codes!" and it seems like a bad dream, the kind of paralytic nightmare where a weight as thick as a body lays across you as you struggle to awaken, but it is broad daylight, the night terror has been out of office for well over a year, and some part of you wants to believe that Freddy's son is politically dead. He was impeached twice. He was a one-term wonder. The scary clown won't come back and eat you. 

And then some dumb muppet in Ohio auto-Darwinates by picking a fight with the FBI for the honor of defending a pussy-grabbing silver spoon narcissist who used his charisma and talent for spectacular lying to drive a crowbar in the center of our national fault-line. All because the FBI executed a warrant on Trump, and that was supposedly not "OK".  

The idea that Trump can actually do wrong may be foreign to some people (not me, hell no!) but given that supposedly responsible and sober-minded elected GOP officials are also giving the twice-impeached and one-termed Trump some cover seems really ill-advised. Because what if all outwards signs are actually true, and he ultimately does turn out to be, as he as time and time again proved himself, a no-account dead albatross affixed to an anchor? 

I mean, this is just a thought experiment here, but what if, after suspected Russia/Wikileaks collusion, and the Trump Tower meeting with Gospozha Veselnitskaya, and the whole deal with Mike Flynn, and the Comey firing and the Oval Office Meeting with Lavrov with only Russian press in attendance and Helsinki and all this--it turned out that Trump never actually had any intention of putting America first, but only himself? After two impeachments. Both related to the attempt to secure a second term by filthy tactics. 

Putin's Pup

When a story like this breaks:

WASHINGTON — American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops — amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter.

The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year.

Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the officials said. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion.

what else is there to conclude but that, having known about it since March, and having in the meanwhile spoken, presumably quite amiably, with President Putin, having suggested Putin be invited to the G7 summit, other than, among the options considered for dealing with this piece of intelligence, Trump most strongly considered "hoping it never came out" and doing--nothing? After all, wouldn't being pressured to confront Putin during an election year be ever so inconvenient, what with all Trump and Putin have meant to one another?

Just recently, in an interview with CBN, Trump accused former president Obama with treason, without elaborating on what he meant by that. (Although I tend to think it focusses on his wild notion that Obama had Comey "tapp" his phones before the election.) If one were to suggest Trump committed treason, I assure you some people would have to ask "Which time?" Collusion during the election with foreign efforts to destabilize election security (about which more information has recently come to light)? His open support for Putin's denial of that effort in Helsinki, the denial of an act which could be considered an act of cyber warfare, over the honest assessment of the US intelligence community? His interference with aid to Ukraine in a way which would both aid Russia and influence the 2020 election? Or this most recent passive position, this time in the face of Russian efforts to harm our military in an actual war?

A Virulent "Hoax"

Trump calls coronavirus criticism Democrats' 'new hoax' and links it to immigration https://t.co/Q2JfVQtklA

— The Guardian (@guardian) February 29, 2020

"Hoax" seems to be Trump's magic word for dismissing any news he doesn't particularly care for. The story about Russian assistance to his 2016 campaign? He calls it a hoax--but it certainly isn't. The impeachment over his abuse of office in holding military aid over Ukraine's head to extort an investigation into Hunter Biden? He calls it a hoax, but the details of the extortion plot are quite clear when you eliminate his apologists' obfuscations. And now that the stock market, what Trump believes to be a key indicator of his strong economy (it isn't) is being affected by the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, and cases here in the US are documented with some accounting of Trump Administration cock-ups, Trump and his pitiable lickspittles like Mulvaney and Pompeo are comfortable suggesting that this, too, verifiable as many details may be--is a hoax. The virus only exists to fuck with Trump's re-election plans. Pay it no mind.

Of course, if it was a "hoax", that wouldn't entirely explain why, consideration of the coronavirus enters into postponing a summit with Asian leaders. That much is real. But I guess, the hoax part is supposed to be the bit where a whistleblower was removed for pointing out that infectious disease protocols were not observed when dozens of Health and Human Services workers met with Wuhan evacuees, who were not tested, and these personnel afterwards just....went about their business. We aren't supposed to note that the Administration hobbled our pandemic readiness, or that crisis management after the fact is a poor substitute for preparedness when a crisis does hit.

The Script that Flipped

Just so that this does not get lost amidst the impeachment-related stories, Chairman Kim just issued a statement regarding the possibility of future talks with the US:

In a blunt put-down Monday, North Korea rejected what a senior adviser to Kim called another “fruitless” one-on-one with Trump. It was the latest reminder that Trump’s open-door policy for bargaining with authoritarians means those leaders can slam the door in his face.

“We are no longer interested in such talks that bring nothing to us,” said Kim Kye Gwan, a veteran diplomat and Foreign Ministry adviser. “As we have got nothing in return, we will no longer gift the U.S. president with something he can brag about.”

But what about all those love letters? What about the historic DMZ visit?

Trump legitimized Kim and Kim wanted nothing more than that, and nukes. He can have both, and Trump gets nothing, precisely because Trump wanted to accomplish something with North Korea (or to appear to be accomplishing something) so much. In the meanwhile, our relationship with South Korea appears to be impaired.

A future administration will be at pains to sort through the damage this administration has caused diplomatically--just to see what can be salvaged.

UPDATE: South Korea has signed a defense agreement with China.

"The Hospitality Business" Huh?

US promised to build beach resort in North Korea during nuclear talks https://t.co/s1gCVlFn5Y pic.twitter.com/mO2zzQvbSc

— New York Post (@nypost) October 19, 2019


The funny thing about what Mick Mulvaney said yesterday about Trump still considering himself to be in the hospitality business is it's probably true. Being president basically seems to be a side hustle he picked up to burnish his brand and create opportunities in exciting new countries.

I wonder if Trump is going to have to broaden his real estate operations in Turkey....

 

UPDATE: He's still going on about that Doral thing, tho':

 

It's about the hospitality!

Trump Has a Favorite Dictator and Other Tales of the Decline

In what will doubtless be a shock to the other dictators, Trump recently (a couple weeks back) voiced the opinion that he did,  in fact, have a favorite dictator (sorry Kim, Putin, etc.!):

Donald Trump once referred to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as his "favourite dictator" as he awaited a meeting with the world leader, according to a new report.

The comment, detailed in a new Wall Street Journal report, was met with stunned silence from American and Egyptian officials, who had gathered inside the Hotel du Palais in Biarritz, France for this year's G7 summit.

"Where's my favourite dictator?" Mr Trump is reported to have said in a loud voice, several people who were in the room told the Journal.

Those witnesses said that they believed his comment was made in jest, but was nonetheless met with muted response. It is not clear if Mr Sisi was in the room, or if he heard the comment.

That's certainly sounding like a case of "the quiet bits out loud" but wow! This isn't really on the order of "things Trump usually says which are merely stupid" and vaults into the level of "things Trump says (like wanting to purchase Greenland, remember that?) which are both weird and can screw up international relations."

He is, though. The international relationships--he's messing them up. Things like firing (if he did) John Bolton, who I once characterized as a "bloodthirsty loon", would seem great if Trump was not likely to put someone in his stead who was as bad, if not worse.

But to be fair, he's messing up national security all around, including domestically. Instead of a wall that Mexico is building, it looks like we have a wall (not yet!) that the US military will build, and instead of a brilliant deal with North Korea for them to stop their nuclear program, we've got a North Korea nuclear program that, well, we're building, inadvertently, because Trump doesn't understand why we need to build up our cyber defense.

But he also doesn't understand our intelligence apparatus at all, either, which is definitely worrisome. He doesn't believe our links with foreign intelligence offices (like the Israeli contact he blew to Lavrov and Kislyak back in 2017), but is weirdly prone to dismissing the possibility of foreign countries trying to scope in on us. (Which you'd think he'd be aware is a real interest, all things considered. I guess it's my distrust of Netanyahu that makes me see "security companies" like Psy Group as possible cut-outs, but I could be wrong.)

He also seems to have abandoned steering our good friend Russia away from weird nuclear ideas. But what the hell? One of Trump's big ideas was pulling us out of the Iran nuclear deal with his Fox News-inspired fantasies about pallets of cash to Iran, and his genius negotiating tool to get Iran back to the table (that we had them at, already, and got a deal with, already!) is--pallets-worth of credit--$15 Billion worth.

So, a similar plan, with less trust, that costs the US more? Wow! Mr. Art of the Deal! That is really....

Something. It's not good. None of this is good. We can't expect good from Trump, I'm just saying.

He called Sisi his "favorite dictator." He thinks the way he talks on Twitter is how he can communicate in life, and it doesn't even work that great on Twitter.  MAGA-hats--this is your king?  He's actually pretty stupid. Shouldn't that bother you more?

Should We Talk About the Weather?

NEW, exclusive: NOAA staff warned in Sept. 1 directive against contradicting Trump: https://t.co/SbABVx8pec

— Capital Weather Gang (@capitalweather) September 8, 2019

Should we talk about the government? Because it looks like NOAA top brass had to tell their people, whose job is the weather, not to talk about it, because if they contradicted the Little Bronze God in the Oval Temple, what would he do? Maybe reduce their funding through some leger des main trop petit pour un gross homme, in much the same way he is raiding other programs for money to fund his border wall. You better believe people snap to when Trump makes demands if a Rear Admiral decides his job description is "one who covers Trump's entire orange peel rear." (That's the Coast Guard, and in addition to taking a hit from Trump's utterly stupid shut-down shenanigans from last year into this year over wall funding, they too are getting raided for wall money. Maybe the man threw himself on a reputation grenade for his department. I can't be too judgmental about that.) It kind of implies that Trump is running the government like some kind of mob boss.

There's a lot of other indicators, of course. Is the DOJ using a litmus test to decide what local and state governments get grants? Looks like it. That reflects back on Trumpism. Does it look like the same DOJ is being used as a cudgel against the auto industry for siding with California over Trump regarding air pollution? You tell me. Is politicization at the State Department a problem? Check the number of vacancies in that department. Government jobs might not pay the best, but they usually are great at providing a sense of security and focus and usefulness, and now? Not so much. Because everything Trump does undermines professionalism. Everything is corrupt.

The Trump folks are trying to undermine journalism, too, even if the message sometimes gets lost in their incompetence and mendacity. (Eric Trump probably just verified for us that most reporters don't ever assume he's worth asking for the inside dope because, um, well, they assume he's mostly an outside dope. For reasons.) But the games played with Jim Acosta and Brian Karem's press passes, as well as several other journalists', are intended to let them know--you say nice things about the boss, and it'll be all good. Don't make trouble.

He's Not Learning, Is He?

I don't know what is worse about the Tweet screen-capped above --that Trump seems to be talking about a technology we don't apparently (?) use, (he has Tweeted out classified info before) or is conflating something we do have with whatever the Russians blew up, or that his message could seem to be construed as cold-blooded when reports are several Russian scientists died in the accident. It's all pretty awful, really, but just think, it was only during the 2015 GOP primary debates we learned he had no idea what the nuclear triad was.

His answer back in 2015 regarding nukes was that they were powerful, so you shouldn't let madmen have a hold of them. Fair enough. He also is pretty cool right now with North Korea's recent handful of missile tests because Kim Jong-Un has written him very lovely letters, which is proof enough to Trump that Kim is not a madman.  It was also in a 2015 primary debate that Trump admitted one of his weaknesses as being that he trusted people too much. Although, we have also learned, Trump doesn't trust what he thinks of as the "Deep State".  That is to say, or so it seems, he doesn't trust people who know what they are doing.

His Tweet claims "the United States is learning much". With Tweets like this, it is clear Trump is not.

Trump Boxed In, or Bolton Boxed Out?

Not for nothing, but NSA John Bolton was in Mongolia while all this was going down, so it's just possible the entire point was that Bolton not be in the know about everything. Trump foreign policy has a history of one hand not knowing what the other is doing. Also, Trump still calls John Bolton "Mike", so maybe they just aren't that tight.

Anyhow, I just think it's interesting (not amusing, not exactly) to find Bolton sputtering about Trump being boxed-in regarding a diplomatic issue as opposed to being boxed-in over a military one.

In other news, Iran has breached the limit on uranium production, which probably would not have occurred if SOME PEOPLE didn't just tear up the agreement that ensured they wouldn't.

Not a "Liberal" nor a "Democrat", Anyway

Trump and MBS are meeting on a high floor of the Imperial Hotel in Osaka right now. Trump calls the Saudi crown prince “a friend of mine” and says it’s an “honor” to be with him. pic.twitter.com/4EMhkS4Mqj

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 28, 2019

This stupid weekend, Donald Trump met with Putin and joked about getting rid of journalists and meddling in elections, wholeheartedly endorsed Prince MBS by claiming no one "pointed a finger" at him for killing Jamal Khashoggi (well, except for the UN and the CIA), made a pointless photo-op trip to meet Kim in North Korea that highlights how little has been achieved with all his friendly palaver (and, because what is a Trump stunt without a Big Lie, also falsely claimed other presidents begged for such an opportunity), and revealed his ignorance of more or less recent desegregation history and the concept of western liberalism, by considering "busing" as being about transportation choice and liberalism as boiling down to a Bob Hope California "fruits, flakes and nuts" type punchline. WE can at least rest assured that he is not a liberal in the western sense, or even a small "d" democrat, because he doesn't even know what those things are.

And yet he represents the US abroad.

He's unfit in so many, many ways, but they've been normalized. Any part of this shitshow should have been cause for days-long raking over the coals, and yet he will endure the entirety of this bare-ass display without due whipping. But what really astonishes me is the assholes are going to try to make Daddy-Minder and patent-collector Ivanka normal, too:

Ivanka Trump appears to be trying to get involved in a talk among Macron, May, Trudeau and Lagarde (IMF head).
The video is released by French Presidential palace. pic.twitter.com/TJ0LULCzyQ

— Parham Ghobadi (@ParhamGhobadi) June 29, 2019

That not everyone will put up with another generation of ineptitude is....something. But a bit more than side-eye would be nice.

Trump is a Groveling Shit

Russia says Trump initiated Friday's 1.5-hour call with Putin https://t.co/bMDqZzJhuP

— Bloomberg (@business) May 4, 2019

I really wanted to post something with a better title than "Trump is a groveling shit". The idea that Trump not only had to boast to Lavrov and Kislyak in the Oval office that FBI Director Comey got deep-sixed over the Russia investigation is one thing, and the Helsinki declaration that Trump believed Putin regarding his strenuous denials that there ever was any interference (over the intelligence provided by our own people) is another. And now this little phone call, initiated by Trump, to declare to his good buddy Putin that the Mueller investigation seems to have cleared him?

A 1.5 hour call that made Daddy Vladi smile. How fucking nice. Maybe they talked a little about Venezuela and maybe they talked about the price of cheese in Milwaukee--my impression is that Trump is a groveling little shit. He wants to tell us he thinks it is very good that he has a nice relationship with Russia and a nice relationship with China and it's all about trade and you know what?

They scare the shit out of him because he doesn't know what he's doing, and that's exactly what makes him a groveling little shit. This isn't strategy, unless the strategy is constant retreat. Appeasement much?

Take North Korea--please! We all know the Trump crew's pretending that these talks where Trump has so graciously let Kim Jong-Un voice his concerns are making all this progress, but the truth of the matter is:

Trump is getting owned. Let's face it, he's not getting anything more from the little pie-faced dictator that he would have if he just ignored him. The nuclear talks are stalled, it is revealed that the one diplomatic supposedly good thing, getting back the ravaged body of Otto Warmbier, came with a price, and the best line his spokespeople can come up with regarding it is that he never intended to pay? As if saying the word of the US government is good for this: we could pay for hostages, but also our word might be good for nothing.

Genius. Just genius. And when North Korea in a fit of not being talked about for a minute decides to launch projectiles--Trump will say he is with Kim Jong-Un. I'm sure South Korea and Japan are so glad to hear this.

And like I've been saying, Iran's government is appalling, totally, but Trump gives them the opportunity to look like they have the high road. And all the while, Trump's government is still okay with what happened to Jamal Khashoggi. And he vetoed the decision to end our support of KSA's genocide of Yemen, which, because the GOP is also full of groveling shits, the veto was not overcome.

Trump and the fetid, feckless, useless people who surround him are fucking up foreign policy so much. Bolton and Pompeo are worthless. If I could wish these ass-first sniveling hot messes into a cornfield to never deal with our reputation abroad ever again, you know I would.

A Terrible Lack of Trust

JUST IN: Mattis ignored orders from Trump, White House on North Korea, Iran: report https://t.co/bPah2j4ocH pic.twitter.com/kK2gBcuVka

— The Hill (@thehill) April 29, 2019

One is reminded of Trump's very recent claim that "nobody disobeys my orders" when it has become clear that several people have ignored his instructions, and also have, in fact felt really relieved and like we all dodged a bullet because they did decide to ignore the crazy old man who watches too much Fox News. General Mattis apparently felt the impulse to try to inhibit Trump's "talking out loud" fumbling regarding foreign policy because he distrusted Trump's ability to assess the information he was given and thought he might be swayed by whoever the last person he talked to was.

Here's what bothers me about this--a Commander in Chief and top executive should actually be able to give directions that can be obeyed because they are clear and make sense, are timely and neither violate the letter of the law nor "burn" personnel by hanging them out to dry because their chain of command refuses to take responsibility. Trump doesn't seem to take in daily briefings to the extent that people who know him feel comfortable with his assessment of what is going on. He also has to be trusted as a person who appreciated historical alliances and recognizes the value of previous negotiations without trying to tear everything up and start from scratch--he has shown he can not be trusted in this way, because tearing everything up is exactly his plan. Also he lacks good planning about how to achieve deals, but that's another thing.

One recent episode to look at is the recent information that North Korea requested $2 million for the hospital bills of Otto Warmbier.

Trump administration agreed to pay $2 million ransom to North Korea for release of Otto Warmbier, but did not actually pay, says Bolton. @Kate_OKeeffe https://t.co/o7EKcufYUh

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) April 29, 2019

An agreement was signed to pay this, and we received the all but deceased body of a once-vibrant young man. And the best that Trump officials can do now about what this implies is to blithely admit that there was no intention to pay, because Trump stiffs people all the time.