Trump is bizarre. He attacks our allies and befriends dictators.
Dana Milbank had a great piece in the Washington Post today titled “Finally, a President with the Guts to Stand up to Canada.”
“Trump bravely punished Canada by withdrawing the United States from the communique of the weekend’s Group of Seven meeting, which was hosted by Trudeau. The communique Trump rejected is loaded with objectionable provisions such as “a clean environment,” “a healthy, prosperous, sustainable and fair future for all,” “quality work environments,” “a more peaceful and secure world” and “ending violence against girls and women.” In other words, it was like all the other bad, terrible, crazily made, one-sided, miserable deals that make us the laughingstock of the world — such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, NATO, the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal. ..
“The communique was particularly hostile to Trump in its call for “Russia to cease its destabilizing behavior to undermine democratic systems,” condemnation of Russia’s “illegal annexation of Crimea” and commitment to “a strong stance against human rights abuse.” Such language targets the very countries Trump has been courting. In a further insult, the other G-7 leaders had no enthusiasm for Trump’s call for readmitting Russia, which was kicked out of the club for invading Ukraine. The G-7 leaders instead scowled at Trump, called his actions a “disappointment” and criticized his “fits of anger.”
“Inexplicably, these foreigners are not putting America First. That’s why Trump needs to quit the group and make his own G-8 — the Great Eight — with more sympathetic world leaders:
“ Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, who enjoys “a great relationship” with Trump as he deploys extralegal killing squads.
“North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, who is “very open” and “very honorable” in running the most repressive regime on Earth.
“Egyptian dictator Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, who established himself as a “fantastic guy” with his bloody crackdown on dissidents.
“The Saudi regime, which has been “tremendous” as it purges business leaders and critics. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is “getting very high marks” as he jails opponents.
“ China’s premier, Xi Jinping, who did something “great” in making himself president for life.
“And, of course, Russian President Vladimir Putin, “getting an A” for his leadership and receiving a congratulatory call from Trump after his “election.”
“ There is no room in this G-8 for Britain, France, Germany, Italy or Japan — and certainly not Canada. Canadians say “Sorry” for everything. But Trudeau not only failed to apologize to Trump, he won praise from his political opponents for defying Trump. This is a clear and present danger to the United States. Given Canadians’ well-known instability — their currency is called the “loonie” — there can be only one solution: We are going to build a wall from Maine to Alaska — and Ottawa is going to pay.”
When Trump met with Kim, he showed him a video about how to make North Korea rich. All that excellent waterfront property just ripe for condos!
Our new best friend, the repressive Kim!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Remember when Mel Brooks was humor and not required reading/viewing to plan and interpret international relations? Neither can our Dear Leaders.
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Bizarre? Definitely.
check out Tuesday night’s Rachel Maddow.
She lists incident after incident where North Korea bombed, killed, and threatened for now 3 generations – all for the purpose of ending U.S. / South Korea exercises.
This president just ended those military exercises – gave it away with NO – NOOOO checks and balances. No advisors. No congressional oversight or responsibility.
And, gave Kim the one and only thing he wanted – to be recognized as a world leader.
Will one – just one GOP congresswhiteman have the guts to speak up.
What did we get. Nothing. And a loss of allies.
And she points out that WHO would benefit / desire the ending of the South Korea?
Wait for it… Russia.
What does Putin know that we don’t that this president bows down to his every whim and wish? Sure hope Russia doesn’t have millions invested in charter schools, fracking, NRA…
And – then after this world changing event, what does this world leader do? He tweets about Diniro.
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Yep, he knows how to make a deal – water front properties.
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I’ve been saying this for some time now, we have in the Oval Office a Russian plant. Essentially, a Russian agent. Agent Orange. And Sean Hannity and Fox and right-wingers – and the GOP – applaud this moron.
Meanwhile, in Virginia, radical Republicans nominated Corey Stewart to run for the Senate. Stewart is a white nationalist and Confederate sympathizer who made Confederate statues a central element of his run for the Republican nomination to be governor of Virginia last year, and who said that Democrats “forged” Obama’s birth certificate.
Anyone think we ought to be concerned?
Anyone think we ought to focus public schooling on educating for democratic citizenship?
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America has been cozying up to brutal dictators and tyrants for decades, if not centuries. In fact, usually we’re the ones who install such dictators and tyrants. There is nothing bizarre about Trump doing this.
As for the video, it’s standard American exceptionalism/neoliberal/”innovative” fare. Profiting by turning coastal properties into luxury high-rises is something we’ve been doing since at least the 2004 tsunami. Take a look at what’s been happening in Puerto Rico.
The only thing “bizarre” about Trump is how brazen he is about admitting it and letting it all hang out, which is what the bipartisan war party doesn’t like about him. It’s so much nicer when we talk about our brutality in civilized ways!
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One of those shots is of Peru’s Machu Picchu. 🤷🏻♀️
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I wondered how London and Machu Picchu ended up in that video. According to some journalists, they thought at first that the video was propaganda BY the North Koreans.
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