Theresa Hanafin writes a feature each morning in the Boston Globe called “Fast Forward.” It summarizes the latest news and weather. She often starts with a story from the Old Farmers’ Almanac. Today’s anecdote: an editor of the San Francisco Examiner wrote a young Rudyard Kipling in 1889 to tell him that he didn’t know how to use the English language.
And here’s another joke:
While you were sleeping: Trump sarcastically joked about Russia’s attempts to undermine our democracy just before he and Putin were set to meet privately at the G-20 summit in Osaka. At a press conference before the meeting, a reporter asked Trump if he was going to warn Putin not to meddle in American elections again. “Yes, of course I will,” he replied. He then turned toward Putin with a smirk on his face and said, “Don’t meddle in the election, president. Don’t meddle in the election.” Putin smiled.
Why must our president be do obsequious to Putin?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
MAGA: Moscow’s Agent Governing America
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Bob, perfect….”Moscow Agent Governing America” … so true.
Here’s another MAGA: Make the A**h*** Go Away.
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I like yours better, Yvonne. My prayer daily.
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I liked the Uncle Remus version about the briar patch better.
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What a disgrace to our country.
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Yes. He shames us before the world. Oh let me count the ways. . . .
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A quick poll: If the election were held tomorrow, and the choice were between Donald Trump and the pile of dog doo on my lawn, for which would you vote? I admit that I would favor the second option.
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Dog DOO!
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Dog DOO! Or possibly a stack of dead cockroaches mixed with tarantulas.
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I think you know the answer to that.
Of course how do you convince the American people is another story. On that account the Democrats are a hopeless group, that do not know how to use language. As such the Republicans win the debate, able to take an issue and run with it, regardless of the facts. They lead their base appealing on identity politics issues; while delivering to their donor class.
Democrats on the other hand are afraid to lead. The spectacle of Pelosi being afraid to impeach is a ready display. “The people aren’t there yet ” or something to that affect.
The people will never get there unless you take them there .
So Democrats will run on M4all having no intention of delivering much on that or any substantive issue. The fact is if they wanted to deliver and that is not certain that they do on any issue. Between the Senate and the courts they would have blow through firewalls to do so, eliminating the filibusterer and flooding the Courts for starters.
While Republicans will flood the airways convincing Americans that you will spend six months in the emergency room waiting for a diagnostic test. Or telling them that we have never had an economy like this before. And by the numbers the economy was looking pretty good. (lets hope ‘was’ is the operative word). The fact that it is merely a continuation of a World wide 10 year expansion, does not fit well into a sound bite. The fact that Great Britain and Germany have lower unemployment rates with socialized medicine in one and free college in the other, is way over the heads of the average voter.
All Republicans did in 16 was feed the hate in their base while screaming lock her up. Thanks to Comey with a little help from Russia keeping Emails in the news cycle for months, it worked.
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The people will never get there unless you take them there.
Exactly. Things will not change until the Democrats start putting real money into educating people on specific issues. How many Americans understand that they are ALREADY paying exorbitant costs for healthcare and that Medicare for All would be LESS, not MORE expensive? (Our costs are double, per capita, the OECD average, while our outcomes are worse.) Well, almost none. And, on top of that, a majority of Americans support Medicare for All. But they fall for the Repugnican “they want to raise your taxes” line. We saw this in the torpedo-like wording of the question when it was put to Sanders in the debate. I have long believed that the Dems would start winning again only when they put real money into issue education via short, fact-based commercials. So, why don’t they do this? Well, significant numbers of Democratic politicians are themselves owned by the oligarchs and, while they like having the sound bites to run on, they don’t actually want change x, change y to occur.
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In the debate Bernie was squeezed into saying that most people would pay more tax for Medicare for All, but they will be spending a lot less on healthcare.
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Bob Shepherd
Exactly, they don’t want change to occur.
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“On Wednesday, in comments made outside the White House, he refused to disclose what he was planning to discuss with the Russian leader. “What I say to him is none of your business,” he told reporters, bluntly.” From the BBC article
Is it not? Whose business is it? In the rest of the article, Putin praised the death of liberalism and the rise of populism in the world. Trump praised Putin. Are they trying to make the world safe for autocracy? Together? Can a populist become a dictator? Does Putin, like Trump, always say the opposite of what he intends to do?
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Trump and Putin….birds of a feather.
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The ignorant clown never shuts up. He is a disgrace to this country.
Putin is a callous dictator, so let’s make nice with him. Trump believes all he has to so is show his warm personality and the dictators will admire him. He is a fool.
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Exactly what does anyone expect to say to Putin about election meddling? And how do you think Putin would respond? My guess, as soon as he manages to stop laughing and pick himself up off the floor, he might just say something about, um, Yeltsin?
Let’s fix the log in our own eye first.
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What does “let’s fix the log in our own eye first” mean?
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I thought it was pretty obvious. The U.S. is the world’s biggest election meddler. We elected Yeltsin – look it up. For that matter, check out Iraq, Chile, Argentina, Afghanistan, Libya, Ghana, Indonesia, and at least a dozen more. We have a really nasty habit of meddling in elections at the point of a gun. Well, lots of guns. And tanks. And helicopters. And, and, and….
Let’s stop being hypocritical and getting our panties in a bunch when some foreign agents manage to give us a tiny, non-lethal dose of our own very lethal, toxic medicine.
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Say what??
That kind of thinking leads to fascism.
No matter what crime Trump commits, you can always excuse it by explaining that America did terrible things to other countries in the past so how dare anyone question Trump’s illegal actions.
As Trump said, he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and have his followers say it was okay. I’m sure some of them would explain that America has bombed innocent civilians in the past, so why get our panties in a bunch because of one little crime by Trump.
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I think the Matt 7 quote is pretty appropriate. A CIA manipulation in Italy after the communists almost came to power there during the Cold War caused what one author called hundreds of election interventions. Before that, imperialism in Latin America was through the support of various caudillos as well as outright military invasion.
I would not, however, agree that this merits our ignoring of fascist Russian attempts to manipulate our elections. We are wrong to do things that support our fascist tendencies, and so are they. We should speak out against any attempt to distort truth for the purpose of creating money or power.
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Agreed, Roy.
This claim that we are as bad as Putin is both wrong and immorally relativistic. To accept it is to concede to the death of democracy and any attempt at decent behavior or ethics.
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We are and have been as bad as Putin. The list of countries that we have done far worse than a little meddling in is extensive. If it were just an effort to fight the cold war, some could justify it. All too often it has been in support of corporate domination and greed. It can be a very unhealthy experience to be a foriegn Government or indigenous leader who stands in the way of American ‘Multi National ” profits.
That said, those Americans who assisted Putin in this effort are guilty of treason. If political power was their objective it would have been better than what their goal was, greed !
At least the Rosenberg’s if they were guilty did so for ideology not a Tower in Moscow or access to dirty Russian money.
Question: did anyone see any mention of Trump financial ties to Russia in the report? I did not. I wonder why!
However I think I will go rob a bank now. We have a new standard out of the justice department. You have to be able to reliably determine what my motive is.
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I am not a big fan of Sen. Gillibrand and she is way down the list for my choice as President.
That being said, she was one of the few candidates who mentioned what we all agree is most important — making sure every American has the right to vote. Making sure there is no illegal outside interference that is welcomed by one party.
Richard Nixon’s crime was obstructing justice to cover up the illegal and improper interference in an election that was done to help him.
Certainly there are those who believe in normalizing Trump’s actions and I assume they do not understand why Nixon resigned.
Nixon’s crime was obstructing justice to cover up the illegal and improper interference in the Presidential election that was done to help him.
The fact that Nixon won 49 states and one of the largest popular vote majorities ever did not cause any American except right wing Nixon acolytes to say that the REAL problem in America isn’t Nixon but the corrupt Democrats who are investigating him.
Progressives can’t win if elections are corrupted by illegal actions.
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Watergate didn’t even come close to being Nixon’s worst crime. That distinction belongs to the the Crennault Affair .
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Excuse my spelling. I meant the Chennault Affair.
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Thank you. Interesting reading. There was, of course, the Reagan contact with Iran both pre-election and in the exchange for arms for the contras.
What we are missing is that we need the burden of proof to be on the leader. If your knights kill Thomas a Becket, you are guilty.
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Wow, Nephew!!! That’s quite a story!!! Nixon also made the trip to Iran to negotiate with them to hold the American hostages until after the election, then to release them in exchange for arms, on behalf of then candidate Ronald Reagan. Treason after treason.
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If I had a dime for every time I have heard that Nixon did not do anything that any politician does, that he was the victim of partisan politics, I would be in Diane’sbillionaire boys club. The most powerful motivation for the conservative reaction to Watergate was the belief that politics is a dirty business. This narrative fir with the narrative that government was bad and the “natural” free market as inherently good. Roger Ailes sensed this and produced a network to move the nation imperceptibly to the right. He was so successful that we now call somebody a socialist if they think government should do anything besides keeping weird people away from us.
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I see you have read. Lofgren. When your goal is to shrink the Government to the head of pin. Shrink its ability to tax and regulate then any failure of Government is a victory. Failure de-legitimizes Government working for the common good. So yes Government failure might smear the the Republicans but failure is their goal. The people only see the failure and seldom correctly assess blame. It can be years between the passage of policy and its affects.
Failure is a win, the lower the Congressional approval rating the better. After all “both parties are the same”. Now lets run on immigration and abortion and Guns.
Thanks: Mike Lofgren
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Joel: I am not familiar with this Lofgren, at least not consciously. What you said is quite true, and is one of the problems of any governmental activity. If government is in charge, then they must take the blame, whether they deserve it or not. Thus those who are against the legitimate exercise of power or think that the power is focused on harming them have every reason to look at the government in power is the perpetrator of the wrong they feel is afoot.
It is, therefore, a matter of legitimacy for a government to explain itself. If the leaders cannot justify the behavior of the agencies thereof, history suggests that he failure of the government. Knowing is reality, it seems to me that modern conservatives have decided to exploit them for the good of the few at the expense of the many.
This is why I am considered a liberal, even though there was never a time when I deserved such a mantle. AIies and his like have so moved the body politic to the right that you are prone to being called a liberal if you believe that there is any legitimate role of government.
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Amen to that last sentence, NYCPSP.
Next comment, as promised, I’m sending the link to the “ask” of the Progressives running.
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Even Jimmy Carter knows that that America is suffering through Trump and the right wing Supreme Court Justices he chooses because of Russian interference in our election. Look at what he said today.
Can anyone imagine if Joe Biden decides to meet with Russians who agree to hack into the personal records and e-mails of Bernie Sanders and his wife in order to smear him?
Of course if Biden did that he would be committing a crime. I can’t imagine what kind of Biden supporter would say that Biden should be allowed to commit that crime because America didn’t always act properly in the past.
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Trump again is proposing foreign policy by Tweet. How cute. He wants to say, “Hello” to his buddy Kim Jong Un and ‘shake his hand”. Trump still believes that all he has to do to ‘win over’ Kim is to be his buddy. Trump is an ignorant fool. I long for the days when meetings were worked out by intelligent people in the State Department.
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Donald J. Trump
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@realDonaldTrump
After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon). While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!
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5:51 PM – Jun 28, 2019
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The bizarre missive suggests that Trump is leaving the planning of such a high stakes meeting to the whims of chance, and that the only agenda would be to shake hands and say “Hello(?)!”
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2 billion dollars from the Russians via Deutsche bank sure goes a long way. The lot of them are traitorous vermin out to destroy democracy around the world and line their own pockets.
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I wonder why the Democratic leadership doesn’t want to open this box? I’ve been wondering that for some time now.
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This is why the country is having problems. Do they really believe what they say or are they just loving the money they get?
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Fox News Hosts Freak Out Over Debates; Hannity Declares Trump Winner
Laura Ingraham, meanwhile, criticized the Democratic candidates for adopting what she called “a slash and burn strategy toward every American tradition and common sense understanding of economics and governance.”
She also accused them of “Democrat looney-ness.”
Article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fox-news-democratic-debates-2020_n_5d15bbfde4b082e5536716a3
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Ingraham and Hannity have sold their souls to the highest bidder. Oh wait, they don’t have souls, integrity or shame. The word “Democratic” does not exist in extreme right wing world. It’s Democrat party or Democrat campaign platform to these right wing demons; they would rather die than to use the word Democratic.
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Laura Ingraham decries affirmative action as racist; then she says that “Western civilization is in the balance” because of we’re letting in immigrants and because of “the changing demographic in this country.” She doesn’t even try to hide her White Supremacist ideology. That’s Fox for you. She says,
“It’s political. It’s 2020. They think they can flip states with a massive immigration surge — illegal, legal — into the United States. They’ve done it with California, in part, and they think they are going to do it with other states.”
Too bad, so sad, Ms. Ingrown. The country IS changing, and there is NOTHING you can do about it. You and your racist ilk are the ugly before picture. Despise you. Despise your whole crew.
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cx: descries
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But in Democracy in Chains, Nancy McLean lays out the conservative plan to rule the country with a fragile minority. This is very southern. C. Vannatta Woodward wrote about the southern populist, Tom Watson, who was on his way to an alliance between poor whites and Blacks that would have revolutionized southern politics and through this, American politics. Poor whites were lured away from Watson by appeals to their baser nature, which included a racism that lay like embers, glowing at the base of the southern society, ready to,burst into flame with some political wind.
Ingrham is doing the same thing with immigration. Sitting in the Oval Office of Roger Ailes, she is appealing to the fears of a nation in the midst of change. By doing is, she is attempting, as McLean pointed out, carrying out the plan of some to rule with a minority long after the country has moved on. Control the Supreme Court, gerrymander voting districts (last week the Supreme Court ruled that the constitution allowed for this), and suppress the right of a majority to vote with propaganda and subterfuge.
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These are desperation measures. They can’t hold this back. The only thing they could do is actually appeal to MAJORITIES of non-white voters, and they will never do what they need to do to accomplish that. So, it’s just a matter of time. These guys are on the wrong side of history. Thus their intensity. They know it.
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Aggggh!
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The Orange Buffoon is living up to his name by continuing to insult our allies while looking forward to shaking hands with Kim Jong Un.
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Trump’s Ignorant Comments About Japan Were Bad Even for Him
His needlessly provocative remarks should take everyone’s breath away.
By Gary J. Bass
Dr. Bass is a professor of politics and international affairs.
…Before arriving in Japan, Mr. Trump had reportedly been musing about withdrawing the United States from the security treaty with Japan signed in 1951 and revised in 1960 — the cornerstone of the alliance between the United States and Japan and a pillar of American foreign policy. On Wednesday, asked about the treaty on Fox News, Mr. Trump sneered, “If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War III.” Then he added: “But if we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all. They can watch it on a Sony television.”
Mr. Trump’s comment demonstrates a strategic cluelessness and historical ignorance that would disqualify a person from even a modest desk job at the State Department.
Though Mr. Trump implied that the security treaty favors Japan, it was largely dictated by the United States. After Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allies in August 1945, ending World War II, the country was placed under an American-led occupation overseen by the domineering Gen. Douglas MacArthur. When that occupation ended in April 1952, Japan had turned away from militarism to embrace ideals of pacifism and democracy. Under Article 9 of a new Constitution that was originally drafted in English at MacArthur’s headquarters, Japan renounced war and pledged never to maintain land, sea or air forces.
In the 1951 security treaty that Mr. Trump apparently disparages, the United States, from a position of extraordinary dominance over Japan, got pretty much what it wanted. Japan granted the United States the exclusive right to post land, air and sea forces in and around Japan, which the United States could use to defend Japan against armed attack or against Soviet-instigated riots. In a revised 1960 treaty, it was made clear that if Japan was attacked, the United States would defend it. For much of the Cold War, a democratic Japan became the core of American alliances in Asia, a bulwark against Communism in the Soviet Union and China.
Furthermore, Mr. Trump insults his Japanese hosts by overlooking how Japan actually responded when the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. The Japanese public grieved for their American allies after the terrorist attacks, which also killed some Japanese citizens. Japan’s conservative and pro-American prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, took the massacre as an opportunity to reconsider Article 9 and urge his country to shoulder more international responsibilities. His government rammed through an antiterrorism law which enabled Japan’s Self-Defense Force to provide support for the American campaign in Afghanistan, although — because of the country’s official pacifism — without fighting or directly supporting combat operations…
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The hatred and ignorance of the whole Trump family is beyond comprehension.
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Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, shared another person’s tweet with his millions of followers during the Democratic debate on Thursday that falsely claimed Senator Kamala Harris was not black enough to be discussing the plight of black Americans.
“Kamala Harris is implying she is descended from American Black Slaves,” Ali Alexander, a member of a right-wing constellation of media personalities, wrote on Twitter. “She’s not. She comes from Jamaican Slave Owners. That’s fine. She’s not an American Black. Period.”
Mr. Trump posted the tweet of unverified information, then asked his more than three million followers: “Is this true? Wow.”
On Thursday evening, Ms. Harris was more forceful in relaying her experiences with racism. “Growing up, my sister and I had to deal with the neighbor who told us her parents couldn’t play with us because she — because we were black,” Ms. Harris said.
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Trump is casting about for the opportunity to do to Harris what he did to Warren with his racist “Pocahontas” nonsense. Unfortunately, people are so ignorant that this works for a lot of them.
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Trump’s joking response demonstrates once again his transparent bully/coward nature. Socially he’s like the 1st-grader who grabs a perceived weakling’s cap off his head & cows others into tossing it around—but starts bawling when someone does it to him. He knows Putin’s not afraid of grabbing his cap. But at another level, the two of them joking around in response to this question can be read as, T: “Yeah, all I have to do is tell you to stop, right?” P: “Yeah right and same back atcha.”
As Dienne says, it’s not like we haven’t been guilty of the same thing many times over. However, past meddling has been sub rosa via intelligence ops (or direct string-pulling à la Chennault)– hard to verify, & guaranteed decades of plausible deniability. This time it’s out there on the internet for all to see in real time. Our elected representatives are duty-bound to call it out and take action.
We can thank the arrogance of a Putin, a Trump—and a DeVos. They flout their contempt for accepted norms/ laws, which exposes hidden govtl machinations against the public interest.
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Let’s remember this day when the time comes for Trump to beg for mercy when he and/or his kids are brought to justice.
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Trump loves his dictator buddy MbS much more than facts brought by the CIA on Khashoggi’s murder. Trump is good at ‘heaping praise’ on dictators. Too bad he isn’t getting love letters from Putin. Well, maybe he is. Soon, he might be able to hold hands with Kim Jong Un.
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Trump praises Saudi crown prince, ignores questions on Khashoggi killing
OSAKA, Japan — President Donald Trump enjoyed breakfast here Friday with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, heaping praise on the Saudi ruler while ignoring evidence of his role in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The crown prince had faced some isolation at last year’s G20 summit in Buenos Aires after being implicated in the grisly murder of the Washington Post columnist and legal resident of the U.S., who disappeared after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October.
At a news conference on Saturday, Trump said he did raise the killing privately with the crown prince, who told him about 13 people who had been prosecuted for the crime.
“He’s very angry about it,” he said. “He’s very unhappy about it.”
But Trump did not indicate that he confronted the crown prince over his own complicity. And when pressed about the CIA’s conclusion at the news conference, Trump responded, “I can’t comment on the intelligence community. I guess I’m allowed to declassify … but the truth is I don’t want to talk about intelligence.”…
“It’s an honor to be with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, a friend of mine, a man who has really done things in the last five years in terms of opening up Saudi Arabia,” Trump said. “And I think especially what you’ve done for women. I’m seeing what’s happening; it’s like a revolution in a very positive way.”
Trump continued, “I want to just thank you on behalf of a lot of people, and I want to congratulate you. You’ve done, really, a spectacular job.”..
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/29/trump-mbs-khashoggi-g20-1390412
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Trump believes that his WARM personality will entice Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear power. Kim is a ruthless dictator who fears the West and believes that the threat of nuclear power is the only way to keep aggressors out of destroying his country. Trump is a fool who is putting Kim on the international stage by inviting him to the WH. Trump is determined to have the world recognize his ‘great negotiating skills’. He wants a Nobel Peace prize because Obama got one.
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Trump Steps Into North Korea and Agrees With Kim Jong-un to Resume Talks
American and North Korean leaders shook hands at the line separating the peninsula for a camera-friendly demonstration of friendship intended to revitalize nuclear talks.
“It is good to see you again,” a seemingly exuberant Mr. Kim told the president through an interpreter. “I never expected to meet you in this place.”
“Big moment, big moment,” Mr. Trump told him….
Mr. Trump gambled that the show of amity could crack the logjam, underscoring his faith in the power of his own personal diplomacy to achieve what has eluded presidents in the past. More than halfway through his term, Mr. Trump is eager for a resolution to the longstanding nuclear dispute, seeing it as a signature element of the legacy he hopes to forge.
Mr. Kim accepted Mr. Trump’s unorthodox invitation, posted on Twitter just a day earlier, and both sides scrambled over the past 24 hours to manage the logistics and security required for such a get-together. Mr. Trump was already scheduled to make an unannounced visit to the DMZ during his trip to South Korea, and while he portrayed the idea of meeting with Mr. Kim while there as a spontaneous one, he had actually been musing out loud about it for days in advance…
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