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Month: July 2018

What’s Putin got on Trump that has him quivering like a frightened rabbit?

Published by digby on July 17, 2018

What’s Putin got on Trump that has him quivering like a frightened rabbit?

by digby

My Salon column this morning:

I wrote yesterday in advance of the big summit in Helsinki that this was going to be the the big finale of his Chaos Tour, with pyrotechnics and explosions and Trump and Putin smashing up their guitars and setting them on fire. And was it ever. It may have been the most astonishing political press conference ever witnessed.

I think everyone expected it to be strange. But this was downright surreal. After meeting privately for two hours the two men faced the press and Trump essentially pledged his fealty to Vladimir Putin. He blamed America for the bad relationship with Russia, relived the glory of his election, attacked Hillary Clinton and Peter Strzok, babbled incoherently about “servers” and Pakistanis and once again he questioned whether Russia was truly involved in the election hacking. He was thrilled that Putin had offered an absurd reciprocal arrangement whereby Mueller’s team could come to Moscow and interview Russian spies in exchange for Russian intelligence agents being read in to American spying capabilities.

When asked if he would denounce Putin for 2016 and warn him to never do it again he ranted unintelligibly about why nobody can find “the server” and then this popped out:

My people came to me, Dan Coates came to me and some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.

It’s hard to believe an American president would say such a thing standing next to the man his entire government knows ordered the interference in the election and say that but he did. He said this too:

Putin meanwhile smiled like a cheshire cat as he denied the charges. And when asked if he had the “kompromat” on Trump that was mentioned in the Steele dossier, he didn’t exactly deny it:

When President Trump was at Moscow back then, I didn’t even know that he was in Moscow. I treat President Trump with utmost respect, but back then when he was a private individual, a businessman, nobody informed me that he was in Moscow.

He could have come right out and admitted that he’d done it, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as convincing. Trump grinned and nodded robotically at Putin’s every word looking for all the world like … a puppet.

The reaction from the press and the political establishment has been explosive.

Even Sen, Mitch McConnell R-KY, was compelled to speak out after thinking about it for a few hours:

The Russians are not our friends. I’ve said that repeatedly, I say it again today. And I have complete confidence in our intelligence community and the findings that they have announced.” 

Democrats all denounced it, needless to say, many coming right out and saying that Putin must have something on Trump. Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer D-NY demanded that the national security team that accompanies Trump to Helsinki testify before congress immediately.

Both Trump and Putin gave interviews to Fox after the Summit. Trump spoke to his most devoted sycophant Sean Hannity:

Putin spoke with the much more formidable Chris Wallace. This will give you a flavor of how it went:

Wallace tried to give Putin a copy of the indictments against the 12 Russian intelligence officers and he wouldn’t take it. I’m sure Trump was terribly embarrassed that his good friend was so ill treated had a word with Hannity about it later.

It’s likely that the Republican establishment will soon fall back into their comfortable posture that Trump is just being Trump and those tax cuts make it all worthwhile but there’s a slim possibility that this event will shift the dynamic simply because nobody’s ever seen any president behave like this before.

Certainly there are things they could do. As James Fallows wrote in the Atlantic:

Those who could do something are the 51 Republican senators and 236 Republican representatives who have the power to hold hearings, issue subpoenas, pass resolutions of censure, guarantee the integrity of Robert Mueller’s investigation, condemn the past Russian election interference, shore up protections against the next assault, and in general defend their country rather than the damaged and defective man who is now its president.

Trump just spent days treating the leaders of the NATO countries as if they’re his personal servants. He couldn’t be bothered to learn the protocol to behave properly around the 92 year old Queen of England. He bullies everyone in his own party and the opposition. He calls the press “the enemy of the people.” But with Vladimir Putin he turns into a bashful schoolboy, fawning and obeisant.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said out loud what most people who watched that spectacle were thinking:

A single, ominous question now hangs over the White House: What could possibly cause President Trump to put the interests of Russia over those of the United States? Millions of Americans will continue to wonder. The only possible explanation for this dangerous behavior is the possibility that President Putin holds damaging information over President Trump.”

In fact, in the Sean Hannity interview he sounded downright frightened:

I thought President Putin was very, very strong. I think we’re doing really well with Russia as of today. I thought we were doing horribly before today. I mean, horribly, dangerously,I think it was great today, but I think it was really bad five hours ago. I think we really had a potential problem.

It’s possible that Trump is trying to pass this off as another example of him “solving” a crisis that doesn’t exist. But when you think about it, it sounds for all the world as if Putin threatened Trump in that 2 hour private meeting and Trump did exactly what he was told to do in that press conference. If Putin does have something on him it’s got him scared to death.

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American Betrayal by @BloggersRUs

Published by Tom Sullivan on July 17, 2018

American Betrayal
by Tom Sullivan

A sitting U.S. president threw his own intelligence services under the bus and sided instead with Russian president Vladimir Putin, the former KGB agent they concluded had attacked the American democratic process. It was an unprecedented betrayal before the entire world by a man formally sworn with defending this country. For those not in Donald Trump’s cult of personality, it was a punch to the gut. The transcript of the Helsinki press conference on Monday cannot do it justice. Watch it here.

Donald Trump had already (and repeatedly) undermined U.S. relations with its European trading partners and NATO allies in meetings last week. Before the press conference began Monday, former U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation Michael McFaul described Trump’s trip to MSNBC as a “Blame America first” tour. Germany had already declared Europe could no longer rely on a White House that considered the E.U. a “foe.”

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos told viewers, “All of you who were watching today will be able to tell your friends, family, your children, your grandchildren you were watching a moment of history. It may not be for the right reasons.” The U.S. president winked coyly at the accused murderer of reporters and former Russian spies and behaved like a white cat in the lap of the leader of SPECTRE.

Twice when reporters directed questions to Putin, Trump jumped in to run interference for him, once on extraditing indicted Russian intelligence agents and once in regard to Russia’s role in propping up Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

It is long rumored Putin has kompromat on Trump that has rendered the grandiose narcissist “an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.” That kind of skeleton “would have been discovered during any serviceman’s background investigation,” tweeted retired Major General Paul Eaton Monday night. It is the only explanation for Trump’s behavior, Eaton wrote, rendering him “unfit to command our troops.”

National security experts warned it would be a colossal error to allow the undisciplined, amateur public servant to spend hours in a room, alone with a trained KGB officer. The press conference the two held after they emerged from their meeting was the sum of all their fears, a spectacle too improbable for a Tom Clancy novel.

A Reuters reporter asked, given the Mueller probe into Russian interference in his election, did Trump hold Russia accountable for “anything in particular,” and if so what? Trump said the United States had been foolish, “we’ve all been foolish,” for not having the dialogue earlier. “There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it,” Trump interjected before attacking Democrats for losing the election to him.

Through a translator, Putin called collusion stories “utter nonsense.”

But every U.S. intelligence agency concluded Russia engaged in election interference, a reporter asked later, inviting Trump to denounce what had occurred and warn Putin publicly never to do it again. Trump launched into an unintelligible disquisition on a DNC email server. He asked why his FBI had not examined it. He spoke of missing emails and questioned the conclusion of national security adviser Dan Coats:

My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia.

I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.

Thus, the supposed U.S. commander-in-chief questioned his entire intelligence community before the world. Jaws across the planet fell onto chests.

The president had spent the weekend “growling” over the Justice Department’s Friday indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officials. A White House official said Trump believed it would hurt him politically. But no, he took care of that himself.

“One of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory,” Sen. John McCain said in a formal statement. “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.”

John Brennan, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency responded in a tweet:

“The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said in a tepid statement. “The Russians are not our friends,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters. “And I entirely believe the assessment of our intelligence community.” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN), reports The Hill, pronounced himself “disappointed” and “saddened.”

Congressional Republicans will issue more obligatory statements of concern — maybe even “grave” concern — and do nothing in the face of their president’s capitulation. They will cozy up closer to the National Rifle Association that Sunday had a Russian ally arrested as a spy by the Department of Justice. They will hurry back to confirming the president’s judicial nominees to lifetime appointments, including his latest nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. In March 2016, they insisted on waiting for the American people to decide in November who picked the next justice. Now, with the Mueller investigation incomplete, they won’t wait to find out if judicial nominees before them came from a traitor.

“Do you know which team you play for?” Hillary Clinton trolled Trump ahead of the Helsinki summit. “Well, now we know,” Clinton replied Monday afternoon.

Peter Wehner, conservative writer and veteran of the Reagan and Bush 41 administrations, tweeted, “I reminded a friend just now what he and I have said since the dawn of the Trump era: With him, there is no bottom. If you think what he did with Putin is the low point, just wait. It’ll get worse.”

It’s already worse. The quickest way to stanch the bleeding and preserve what is left of America’s reputation is for American leaders to force Trump to resign. Yesterday, if possible.

* * * * * * * * *

For The Win 2018 is ready for download. Request a copy of my county-level election mechanics primer at tom.bluecentury at gmail.

Trump’s Russian gun nut

Published by digby on July 17, 2018

Trump’s Russian gun nut

by digby

So, the FBI arrested Russian NRA enthusiast Maria Butina. It is apparently not part of the Mueller probe which is interesting.

Back in January, I wrote about Trump and the NRA for Salon:

By December of 2015 it was obvious that presidential candidate Donald Trump, whom most people still considered just an entertaining gadfly, had a very friendly attitude toward Russian president Vladimir Putin. Trump complimented Putin for his strength and his leadership, which he often contrasted with Barack Obama’s. He denied reports that Putin had critical journalists killed, defending his admiration for the man by simply saying “I think that my words represent toughness and strength.”

I wrote about it for Salon at the time, pointing out that while Trump seemed out of step with what most of us thought was the standard GOP position on the Russian leader, Putin-philia was a phenomenon among a certain sub-set of right wingers. Marie Cogan of the National Journal had chronicled the “Secret American Subculture of Putin-Worshippers” back in 2013, profiling conservatives who saw the Russian president much as Trump did: a manly contrast to the feminine, weak (and black) American president. When the shirtless Putin was pictured allegedly catching a 46-pound pike, posters on Free Republic swooned with envy:

“I wonder what photoup [sic] of his vacation will the Usurp­er show us? Maybe clip­ping his fin­ger­nails I sup­pose or maybe hanging some cur­tains. Yep manly.”

As it turns out it wasn’t just those who hated Obama for being a “metrosexual.” Other factions of the conservative movement had taken a liking to the Russian government and its right wing policies. Ed Kilgore at New York magazine noted back in 2016 that some Christian conservatives liked Putin, naming Franklin Graham, National Organization for Marriage leader Brian Brown, and American Family Association spokesperson Bryan Fischer among the leaders who appreciate Putin’s Islamophobia and hostility to gay rights.

White supremacists have been connecting with like minded white nationalists in Russia for some time. All the top American neo-Nazis from Matthew Heimbach to Richard Spencer have spent time in Russia and extol the virtues of its white homogeneity. None other than former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke has spent considerable time there. Duke has said that Russia is the “key to white survival.”

Since so much of the hardcore right that supports Donald Trump is also very friendly toward Putin it should come as no surprise that gun rights zealots are equally enamored of the macho, white nationalist Russian leader. He is their kind of guy. And they are Russia’s kind of guys too.

The Washington Post reported last spring about the remarkable outreach to American right-wing activists by a man named Alexander Torshin, a Russian banker and purportedly close Putin ally who is suspected of international money laundering by the Spanish government. One of the Americans with whom he connected was a Nashville lawyer named G. Kline Preston IV, who had longtime business interests in Russia.

Preston introduced Torshin to David Keane, former head of the NRA and president of the American Conservative Union. With a partner named Maria Butina, they began a Russian gun owners organization which sponsored events and competitions, to which prominent American gun activists were invited.

Last July Richard Engel, NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent, and NBC’s Kelly Cobiella broadcast a program called Guns, God and Russia in which they interviewed Preston and he made a revealing comment about why he and the far right are so enamored with Russia:

We’re very similar people. In fact, you could take many Russians and put ’em in a room with people who are from Nashville, Tennessee and everybody kind of looks the same.

The white people anyway.

It was a bit surprising when the NRA enthusiastically endorsed Trump earlier than usual in the process. He wasn’t a member, didn’t hunt and hadn’t been in the military. He did talk tough on the campaign trail about gun rights and he spoke out both in favor of “law and order” and vigilantism, which isn’t something you see every day. The gun lobby backed Trump early and strong, and when he won they took credit, especially for the ad buys in the states that made the difference in the Electoral College win. The NRA massively outspent their previous election record, using a division that is not required to disclose its donors.

According to the Center for Public Integrity just before the election:

In October [2016] alone, about one of every 20 TV ads in Pennsylvania has been sponsored by the NRA … and in Ohio, the organization is responsible for about one of every eight TV ads that have aired so far in October.

They also financed a sophisticated and expensive ground operation in the states Trump won with a razor-thin margin. NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre had good reason to take credit for Trump’s upset.

Evidently, there have been suspicionsamong the Washington press for over a year that the NRA had received a bundle of Russian cash and on Thursday, Peter Stone and Greg Gordon of McClatchy reported that the FBI is investigating whether the aforementioned Alexander Torshin may have funneled Russian government funds to his friends in the NRA to help elect Trump.

The House and Senate investigations have also been on the trail of the Torshin-Butina-NRA connections. They have also followed up on clues in the Russia probe that touch on Russophile Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., Trump foreign policy aides J.D. Gordon and Sam Clovis, and conservative activist Paul Erickson, who reportedly tried to set up meetings among the various players, including Trump. In fact, Erickson and Butina are partners in a shadowy business whose purposes and activities are unclear.

It’s unclear where all this may lead, but if it is true that Russian money was used to help finance the NRA’s ad campaign, somebody’s got some explaining to do. All these right-wingers may love Vladimir Putin’s policies against gays and Muslims, appreciate his manly physique and endorsement of gun violence and mayhem. Perhaps they look forward to a friendly white nationalist alliance to keep all the “shithole countries” in their places. But that desire wouldn’t excuse election interference or accepting foreign money to help finance an election campaign. If the Mueller investigation has the NRA in its crosshairs, that fate could not have found a more deserving target.

By December of 2015 it was obvious that presidential candidate Donald Trump, whom most people still considered just an entertaining gadfly, had a very friendly attitude toward Russian president Vladimir Putin. Trump complimented Putin for his strength and his leadership, which he often contrasted with Barack Obama’s. He denied reports that Putin had critical journalists killed, defending his admiration for the man by simply saying “I think that my words represent toughness and strength.”

I wrote about it for Salon at the time, pointing out that while Trump seemed out of step with what most of us thought was the standard GOP position on the Russian leader, Putin-philia was a phenomenon among a certain sub-set of right wingers. Marie Cogan of the National Journal had chronicled the “Secret American Subculture of Putin-Worshippers” back in 2013, profiling conservatives who saw the Russian president much as Trump did: a manly contrast to the feminine, weak (and black) American president. When the shirtless Putin was pictured allegedly catching a 46-pound pike, posters on Free Republic swooned with envy:

“I wonder what photoup [sic] of his vacation will the Usurp­er show us? Maybe clip­ping his fin­ger­nails I sup­pose or maybe hanging some cur­tains. Yep manly.”

As it turns out it wasn’t just those who hated Obama for being a “metrosexual.” Other factions of the conservative movement had taken a liking to the Russian government and its right wing policies. Ed Kilgore at New York magazine noted back in 2016 that some Christian conservatives liked Putin, naming Franklin Graham, National Organization for Marriage leader Brian Brown, and American Family Association spokesperson Bryan Fischer among the leaders who appreciate Putin’s Islamophobia and hostility to gay rights.

White supremacists have been connecting with like minded white nationalists in Russia for some time. All the top American neo-Nazis from Matthew Heimbach to Richard Spencer have spent time in Russia and extol the virtues of its white homogeneity. None other than former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke has spent considerable time there. Duke has said that Russia is the “key to white survival.”

Since so much of the hardcore right that supports Donald Trump is also very friendly toward Putin it should come as no surprise that gun rights zealots are equally enamored of the macho, white nationalist Russian leader. He is their kind of guy. And they are Russia’s kind of guys too.

The Washington Post reported last spring about the remarkable outreach to American right-wing activists by a man named Alexander Torshin, a Russian banker and purportedly close Putin ally who is suspected of international money laundering by the Spanish government. One of the Americans with whom he connected was a Nashville lawyer named G. Kline Preston IV, who had longtime business interests in Russia.

Preston introduced Torshin to David Keane, former head of the NRA and president of the American Conservative Union. With a partner named Maria Butina, they began a Russian gun owners organization which sponsored events and competitions, to which prominent American gun activists were invited.

Last July Richard Engel, NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent, and NBC’s Kelly Cobiella broadcast a program called Guns, God and Russia in which they interviewed Preston and he made a revealing comment about why he and the far right are so enamored with Russia:

We’re very similar people. In fact, you could take many Russians and put ’em in a room with people who are from Nashville, Tennessee and everybody kind of looks the same.

The white people anyway.

It was a bit surprising when the NRA enthusiastically endorsed Trump earlier than usual in the process. He wasn’t a member, didn’t hunt and hadn’t been in the military. He did talk tough on the campaign trail about gun rights and he spoke out both in favor of “law and order” and vigilantism, which isn’t something you see every day. The gun lobby backed Trump early and strong, and when he won they took credit, especially for the ad buys in the states that made the difference in the Electoral College win. The NRA massively outspent their previous election record, using a division that is not required to disclose its donors.

According to the Center for Public Integrity just before the election:

In October [2016] alone, about one of every 20 TV ads in Pennsylvania has been sponsored by the NRA … and in Ohio, the organization is responsible for about one of every eight TV ads that have aired so far in October.

They also financed a sophisticated and expensive ground operation in the states Trump won with a razor-thin margin. NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre had good reason to take credit for Trump’s upset.

Evidently, there have been suspicionsamong the Washington press for over a year that the NRA had received a bundle of Russian cash and on Thursday, Peter Stone and Greg Gordon of McClatchy reported that the FBI is investigating whether the aforementioned Alexander Torshin may have funneled Russian government funds to his friends in the NRA to help elect Trump.

The House and Senate investigations have also been on the trail of the Torshin-Butina-NRA connections. They have also followed up on clues in the Russia probe that touch on Russophile Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., Trump foreign policy aides J.D. Gordon and Sam Clovis, and conservative activist Paul Erickson, who reportedly tried to set up meetings among the various players, including Trump. In fact, Erickson and Butina are partners in a shadowy business whose purposes and activities are unclear.

It’s unclear where all this may lead, but if it is true that Russian money was used to help finance the NRA’s ad campaign, somebody’s got some explaining to do. All these right-wingers may love Vladimir Putin’s policies against gays and Muslims, appreciate his manly physique and endorsement of gun violence and mayhem. Perhaps they look forward to a friendly white nationalist alliance to keep all the “shithole countries” in their places. But that desire wouldn’t excuse election interference or accepting foreign money to help finance an election campaign. If the Mueller investigation has the NRA in its crosshairs, that fate could not have found a more deserving target.

Last March Mark Follman at Mother Jones noted this:

While researching the strange story of two Russian gun aficionados who cultivated Donald Trump’s presidential campaign via the National Rifle Association, we came across a little-noticed but noteworthy episode concerning Trump and US sanctions against Russia. Sanctions have been a source of extraordinary conflictbetween the president and Congress and a matter of clear significance to special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation.

Just a month after Trump announced his campaign for the White House, he spoke directly to Maria Butina, the protégé of the powerful Russian banking official and Putin ally Alexander Torshin. During a public question and answer session at FreedomFest, a libertarian convention in Las Vegas in July 2015, Butina asked Trump what he would do as president about “damaging” US sanctions. Trump suggested he would get rid of them.

“I am visiting from Russia,” Butina said into the mic.

“Ahhhhh, Putin!” Trump interjected, prompting laughter from the audience as he added a mocking riff about the current president: “Good friend of Obama, Putin. He likes Obama a lot. Go ahead.”

“My question will be about foreign politics,” Butina continued. “If you will be elected as president, what will be your foreign politics especially in the relationships with my country? And do you want to continue the politics of sanctions that are damaging of both economy [sic]? Or you have any other ideas?”

After going off on Obama and digressing into trade policy, Trump responded: “I know Putin, and I’ll tell you what, we get along with Putin… I believe I would get along very nicely with Putin, OK? And I mean, where we have the strength. I don’t think you’d need the sanctions. I think we would get along very, very well.”

I have often thought it was such an incredible coincidence (and it may very well be!) that the NRA spent vastly more to help Trump win and they did it so strategically in the states Trump eked out an electoral college victory.

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Just watch it

Published by digby on July 16, 2018

Just watch it

by digby

For those who missed it, here is the entire press conference. It’s really worth watching all the way through if you haven’t seen it. It is simply stunning.

I know that we’ve been here before. When Trump was shown on tape saying “grab ’em by the pussy” or supporting the Nazis who marched in Charlottesville or a dozen other “moments” we all assumed the tide would turn against him from his own people. It didn’t and I don’t know if it will this time. But it should. This is truly a new level of perfidy.

Here’s a transcript if you want to read the words. But you really need to see it and hear it to understand how surreal it was. Note particularly Putin smirking throughout.

You couldn’t make it up.

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The bffs

Published by digby on July 16, 2018

The bffs

by digby

“I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I have no reason why it would be” — Donald Trump, 7/16/18

“Yes I did, I wanted him to win.” — Putin, 7/16/18

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Lovin’ the strongman

Published by digby on July 16, 2018

Lovin’ the strongman

by digby

It’s not just Putin:

“Trump was very frustrated; he wasn’t getting commitments from other leaders to spend more. Many of them said, ‘Well, we have to ask our parliaments. We have a process; we can’t just tell you we’re going to spend more, we have a legal process.’ Trump turns around to the Turkish president, Recep Erdogan, and says, ‘Except for Erdogan over here. He does things the right way,’ and then actually fist-bumps the Turkish president.”

This is what he likes:

That was Erdogan’s bodyguards beating up protesters — in Washington DC.

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QOTD: Rand Paul

Published by digby on July 16, 2018

QOTD: Rand Paul

by digby





About the election interference:

“We all do it. What we need to do is make sure our electoral process is protected. They’re not going to admit it in the same way we’re not going to admit we were involved in the Ukrainian elections or the Russian elections.”

We all install narcissistic imbeciles to lead powerful nuclear armed countries, amirite? Totally normal. No biggie.  Or is he suggesting that we installed Vladimir Putin, which would be a real twist.

Basically, he’s saying that the US has no right to be upset that Russia helped Donald Freakshow  Trump become president — and that democracy is pretty much a joke all over the world so fuck it, just stay home and watch TV and let the rich white guys run things like they’re supposed to.

He’s a real Republican isn’t he?

Look, the USA has interfered in elections in the past. It has helped to depose leaders. It has run guerilla wars. It has invaded countries. We had slaves. We killed all the native Americans. We have never lived up to our ideals. I get it.  We suck. So do other countries, including Russia and the Europeans. History is full of nations, kingdoms, empires, doing terrible things to other nations, kingdoms, empires. Let’s call it the history of humanity.

That’s bad. I’m against it. But that does not mean that we Americans must light ourselves on fire in an act of self-abnegation. Vladimir Putin is a right-wing authoritarian kleptocrat whose goal seems to be to use Donald Trump as a tool to destroy America. I’m sorry, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’d rather he not do that. I live here.

Rand Paul is always looking for an angle to make himself seem as if he has some greater principles than everybody else. But if he did, he wouldn’t be supporting Donald Trump.

It’s a show. A horror show.

Published by digby on July 16, 2018

It’s a show. A horror show

by digby

My Salon column this morning, written before the summit:

By the time you are reading this, the much anticipated (dreaded?) summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will have begun. In an interview with CBS news anchor Jeff Glor on Sunday Trump was asked about his goal for the meeting and he replied, “I’ll let you know after the meeting,” which certainly does offer him plenty of room to declare it a success. Trump did say that “nothing bad” would happen so we can all rest easy on that count.

The indictments of twelve Russian military intelligence officers on Friday on criminal hacking charges put this entire spectacle in a different light than it was in when Trump set off for the NATO meeting last week.  According to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Trump was aware of the coming indictments which means that trash talking the investigation as a “witch hunt” during his trip and attacking the NATO alliance and Teresa May were all done knowing that the noose is tightening. What seemed to be an aggressive play for dominance now looks like someone acting out under tremendous stress and anxiety.

His reckless interview with the UK tabloid The Sun in which he insulted the prime minister for no good reason bears out that impression. The reporter claimed that he rudely shooed away his aides who were trying to protect him from himself as he rambled on with a self-destructive rant that sounded as if he were trying to convince himself that he was in control.

In his joint press conference the next day he apologized to May, which was unusual but naturally he also lied and said that the newspaper hadn’t quoted him in full claiming that he had a recording and could prove it, all they had to do was ask the press secretary. Of course the paper had already released the audio of the interview. And requests for the White House’s version have gone unanswered.

He was agitated and belligerent, confused at times,picking fights with the press, acting churlish at having to address the Russian interference in the election. He said he would ask Putin about it but he didn’t expect Putin to confess, there would be no “Perry Mason” moment, there’s nothing he could do.

But he knew that the Special Prosecutor’s office was about to hand down an indictment that told the story in great detail. He knew that the scandal was about to shift into a higher gear.

His performance was extremely odd, even by his standards:

After the press conference mercilessly came to an end he and the first lady met Queen Elizabeth and it could not have been more awkward. On one side of the screen was Rod Rosenstein handing down indictments that detailed foreign intervention on behalf of Donald Trump in 2016 and on the other side the president was making it obvious that he was clueless about how to behave around a 92 year old woman, much less one accustomed to formal protocol. The whole world held its breath as he zigged and zagged in front of her terrified that he was going to somehow knock her to the ground.  It wasn’t the worst moment of the English leg of the trip but it was certainly the weirdest.

He was obviously relieved to get out of there and head to his usual week-end gig doing personal appearances at his commercial properties. The Turnberry Golf Course is an interesting choice since it’s garnered a lot of press attention because nobody can figure out where Trump got the massive amount of cash he paid for what is an ever growing money pit.

He golfed and he tweeted. He blamed the Obama administration for the hacking.  In his interview with CBS he said:

I heard that they were trying, or people were trying, to hack into the RNC too. The Republican National Committee. But we had much better defenses. I’ve been told that by a number of people. We had much better defenses, so they couldn’t. I think the DNC should be ashamed of themselves for allowing themselves to be hacked. They had bad defenses and they were able to be hacked. But I heard they were trying to hack the Republicans too. But — and this may be wrong — but they had much stronger defenses.

The Intelligence Community, the Senate Select Intelligence Committee and the indictments handed down last Friday all make clear that the Russian agents were helping Trump. Let’s just say it’s unlikely they would have felt the need to try too hard to break into the RNC for that purpose.

As for what’s going to happen now, nobody has a clue, not even his national security adviser John Bolton who seems a little bit dazed and confused which is not something we’ve ever seen before.

The single biggest unanswered question of this whole strange odyssey is why are they having this summit? Trump’s meeting with Putin alone is obviously suspicious. Considering all the evidence of some sort of collusion that is already in the public domain, it seems reasonable that he has nefarious motives. He certainly behaves like someone with something to hide.

But he also desperately whirling from one spectacle to another — summits, reality show supreme court nominations, meetings with world leaders, rallies for the faithful, more spectacle. Whatever he did with the Russians to get elected, it’s obvious that he has no idea how to do the job of president so he’s just putting on a show. This is how he’s gotten through his whole life, bluffing his way through, teetering on the edge of disaster, always on the brink of having everything blow up in his face. He’s dancing as fast as he can but you can see that he’s starting to flag.

So the question isn’t what does Donald Trump want out of this summit. He will tell us afterwards that it is a great success because as long as he’s on TV meeting with Vladimir Putin, it’s “yuge.” The question is what Vladimir Putin wants out of this summit. He’s giving Trump his extravaganza and he’ll certainly expect something in return.

Update: It was far, far worse than anything we expected. Even right wingers seem freaked out by it:

Jesus H. Christ. Even I didn’t expect it to be this bad.

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A country traumatized by @BloggersRUs

Published by Tom Sullivan on July 16, 2018

A country traumatized
by Tom Sullivan

A federal judge in Connecticut on Friday issued a preliminary ruling that children separated from their parents at the hands of U.S. border officials have suffered “irreparable injury” and “trauma as a result of their unconstitutional separation from their parents.” The court ordered the government to present a plan for treating the children’s post-traumatic stress:

Judge Bolden’s decision is the first ruling in the country to find that the government’s cruel and illegal family separation scheme violates the constitutional rights of children, and not just parents. The ruling was issued in the cases of two children detained in Connecticut who filed suit in federal court on July 2nd to challenge their forced separation under the Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance policy.”

Holding that the separation violated the children’s due process rights, and finding that the children are suffering from acute post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the government’s conduct, the court ordered the government to act immediately to address the trauma it has caused the children. Specifically, the court ordered the government to produce the children’s parents in Bridgeport at a July 18 status conference; provide daily video-conferencing between the children and their parents; and propose a treatment plan to begin healing the wounds inflicted by the government’s actions.

Connecticut Legal Services provides additional background:

J.S.R. and V.F.B. are two of the more than 2,000 children taken forcibly from their parents at the southern border in the past months. They’re the only two of those children held here in Connecticut.

J.S.R., age 9, fled Honduras with his father after his grandparents were murdered and a body was left in his family’s backyard. When J.S.R. arrived in the United States to seek asylum in June of this year, he and his father were locked in what J.S.R. describes as a “hielera” – an icebox – in a detention facility in South Texas. While J.S.R. was asleep, immigration agents took his father away and lied to the child about his father’s whereabouts. He has been detained in Connecticut since June 16. Since he got here, he has been allowed to speak with his father only once.

V.F.B., age 14, came to the United States with her mother seeking refugee from persecution in El Salvador, after her step-father was murdered outside the church where V.F.B. was praying. While V.F.B. and her mother were detained at a Texas facility, immigration officials sent the child to shower. When she returned, her mother was gone, and immigration authorities pretended not to know where she was. V.F.B. has been in Connecticut since May 16, and has been allowed to speak with her mother only once.

The forcible separation of children from their parents is a betrayal of U.S. law and Connecticut values. The Constitution State believes in family, freedom, and fairness. CLS went to court to hold our government accountable to our values, and to win release and reunification for two children who – like every one of our children – deserve Connecticut’s love and support.

CNN reports this morning:

In the letter dated July 15, the 54 detainees at the Port Isabel Service Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas, write in Spanish that their children don’t recognize their voices anymore, and feel “abandoned” and “without love.”

The parents say they are not criminals and came to the United Sates in order to save their lives and those of their children.

“We were not prepared for the nightmare that we faced here. The United States government kidnapped our children with tricks and didn’t give us the opportunity to say goodbye,” they write.

The parents say they have heard little about their children in the more than a month that they’ve been separated. Their kids, they say, are living amidst strangers and they have been told that some are living with new families.

“Each day is more painful that the last. Many of us have only had the chance to speak to our children once (this is very difficult because the social workers never answer). The children cry, they don’t recognize our voices and they feel abandoned and unloved. This makes us feel like we are dead.

“With all this trauma; the nightmares, anxiety and pain that this government has caused us and our children, we still have to fight for our asylum cases,” the letter continues.

Yes, there are some smiles. But in some of the reunion videos, the children display a flat affect and express little emotion to being reunited. In one I saw over the weekend, a small boy showed no reaction and barely stopped sipping from a drink pouch as his mother wept and hugged him. Others of the smallest children no longer recognize their mothers.

Not to be flip about the damage these children have suffered at our hands, but more people are traumatized than the two plaintiffs in the Connecticut case. A lot of us no longer recognize this country:

An Ohio woman was arrested on Friday for spray painting a racial slur, “Hail Trump” and a swastika on the front of her neighbor’s home.

Patricia Edelen was caught on another neighbor’s surveillance cameras Friday night spray painting the offensive words on the Ogden Ave. home in Toledo, ABC 13 reported.

Toledo Police Sgt. Paul Davis said Edelen had multiple warrants and tried to run away from officers during the arrest.

The house is for sale by an African-American Realtor. Her picture is on the yard sign which was also vandalized. Edelen is charged with “criminal mischief, ethnic intimidation, and criminally damaging property.”

It feels as if the entire country has been vandalized.

Update:

Cruelty is Job 1.

* * * * * * * * *

For The Win 2018 is ready for download. Request a copy of my county-level election mechanics primer at tom.bluecentury at gmail.

Zappa’s Singing About Someone We Know by tristero

Published by digby on July 16, 2018

Zappa’s Singng About Someone We Know

by tristero

I am gross and perverted
I’m obsessed ‘n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little has changed
I’m the tool of the Government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you

I may be vile and pernicious
But you can’t look away
I make you think I’m delicious
With the stuff that I say
I’m the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I’m the slime oozin’ out
From your TV set

You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don’t need you
Don’t go for help . . . no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold

That’s right, folks . . .
Don’t touch that dial

Well, I am the slime from your video
Oozin’ along on your livin’ room floor

I am the slime from your video
Can’t stop the slime, people, lookit me go

I am the slime from your video
Oozin’ along on your livin’ room floor

I am the slime from your video
Can’t stop the slime, people, lookit me go

****

This is from 1973, people, and it couldn’t be more relevant. Rare’s the day I don’t miss that guy.