The Trump Presidency

[Obviousman]

Yes, I really do hope the Democrats realise what a disaster to the US he is, and actually do something about it!

More on the Australian perspective:

But Trump is unpicking America's position in Asia. And there's not much that Mattis or the remaining "adults in the room" can do about it. So far this year the President has imposed punitive tariffs on Asian allies and partners, legitimised Kim Jong-un's despotic regime without securing any denuclearisation goals, failed to consult allies before cancelling joint military exercises in north-east Asia, and started a trade war that will harm the entire region.

This assault on America's leadership role in the Indo-Pacific couldn't come at a worse time for Australia and its regional partners. As power is shifting from the US to China, Canberra's preferred mode for regional order – the maintenance of an American "security umbrella" – is no longer realistic.

Middle powers like Australia and Japan are thus struggling to advance an Indo-Pacific strategy in which like-minded nations take on greater responsibilities for helping the US maintain a "balance of power" vis-a-vis China. But while America's national security establishment is on board with this strategy, Trump's wrecking ball approach to the region is making an Indo-Pacific balance harder to achieve.

https://afr.com/news/policy/foreign-affairs/trumps-pacific-wrecking-ball-20180712-h12ktp

[twik]

OK. We now have the spectacle of the most powerful man in the world saying "Oops! In my official press conference, when I said I DIDN'T think there was a chance Russia meddled in the election, I meant to say I DID. Just a pesky typo. My bad."

Also EXTREMELY interesting that in the shot of his notes, he'd crossed out by hand the bit about bringing those responsible to justice.

[smartcooky]

Is America really facing the nightmare scenario, a president beholden to a foreign power, and acting in the best interests of that foreign power?

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/maddow-time-for-americans-to-face-worst-case-scenario-on-trump-1278891587866

Could Putin really have some dirt on Trump, sufficient to to effectively make Trump his bitch!

Now, I am aware that Rachel Maddow is biased and very Liberal leaning news presenter. However, I am also aware that she was delivering EXACTLY what is in that indictment, quoted word for word. I know this because I have read the entire thing. You can read all 29 pages of the indictment here.

https://www.vox.com/2018/7/13/17568806/mueller-russia-intelligence-indictment-full-text

or download it from here...

https://www.justice.gov/file/1080281/download

There is no other word for it but staggering. In these circumstances, I doesn't matter what the presenter's bias is, the wording of the indictment doesn't change and is there for all to see. The degree of detail is astonishing.

[jfb]

Is America really facing the nightmare scenario, a president who beholden to a foreign power, and is acting in the best interests of that foreign power?

Not just the President.  Based on their behavior, a good chunk of GOP Congressmen and Senators are on the take as well. 

Things are getting scary.  Apparently Putin has asked Trump to provide former diplomats Michael McFaul and Bill Browder for "questioning".  The right answer to that is "not NO but HELL NO and piss off for even asking the question", but apparently Trump's answer was, "we'll think about it and get back to you." 

At Helsinki, Trump, the big, strong, manly daddy figure of the big hands and large dingus to the white trash in America's heartland, rolled over like a puppy for Putin to scratch his belly.  I've been reluctant to use the "T" word before now out of fear of sounding hyperbolic.  No more.

This President and his inner circle personally benefited from a years-long psyop campaign waged by a long-time geopolitical adversary, and is now returning the favor by undoing decades of American leadership and foreign policy, at the expense of longtime allies and American citizens alike.  This President is apparently willing (or, not immediately discounting the request as ridiculous) to turn American citizens over to this same longtime adversary because they asked nicely. 

Honest-to-God spies have wormed their way in to the personal and professional lives of policy makers and lobbyists.  This is Joe McCarthy's nightmare scenario writ large, and the Republicans are up to their goddamned eyeballs in it.  The reason congressional Republicans have been reluctant to protect Mueller?  They know that if this investigation goes on long enough, they'll start appearing in the indictments themselves. 

GEORGE FREAKING WILL is telling everyone to vote Democrat in November.  Even if that Democrat is the most horrible person you can imagine.  The House and Senate must be turned over completely. 

[Zakalwe]

There is no other word for it but staggering. In these circumstances, I doesn't matter what the presenter's bias is, the wording of the indictment doesn't change and is there for all to see. The degree of detail is astonishing.

Indeed. Mueller seems to be a worthy adversary with an eye for the detail. His investigation so far appears to be incredibly thorough.
At this stage I cannot see how there can be any confusion over Russian interference. Couple that to Trump publicly calling for them to hack the DNC and it being hacked within 24 hours, along with Guccifer2.0 being in active discussions with Trump's advisers then the case for collusion becomes stronger.

Roger Stone...You're next to be indicted.

This is worth a read. If even half of it is true then there's suspicion to believe that Trump may have been under Russian influence for decades. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/trump-putin-russia-collusion.html
Regardless of where you stand on Putin, I think that it's fair to say that he is playing an absolute blinder. He has absolute control over his country. He can invade other countries with impunity. Through a many-years long campaign he has massively de-stabilised the Western world, driven a wedge into the EU by influencing Brexit and the far right in former USSR countries. All he's missing is a lair under a volcano and a white cat.

[smartcooky]

All he's missing is a lair under a volcano and a white cat.

[twik]

I personally don't think there's any question (and before Trump I would have considered myself the "don't ascribe to malice what can be accounted for by stupidity" type of non-conspiracist).

But Trump was apparently officially told about the Russian attacks two weeks before the inauguration. Since then, he has repeatedly attacked investigations into them as "witch hunts." I do not believe any person who loves their country would behave in this manner.

If I wanted to get into more speculative territory, it appears that after Trump was informed of incontrovertible evidence, including e-mails and texts from high government sources, Putin purged a number of high officials who might have been in a position to leak such things to the US. If connected, that could mean that Trump informed Putin of US assets, possibly leading to their arrest and/or execution. That, to my mind, would be undeniable treason.

Furthermore, his behaviour with regards to Helsinki seems to indicate that he has no regard for even the appearance of impropriety. His consideration of turning Browder and especially McFaul over for Russian interrogation should have been enough to have him impeached immediately in normal times.

As it is, his supporters have started to shift from "there's not evidence of collusion" to "well, if Russia affected the election, hey, they were just helping Make America Great Again, so yay Russia!"

I suspect that if one of the Trump children is indicted, things will explode. How, I'm not sure, but Trump is already showing signs of not coping with the stress.

[gillianren]

I genuinely don't believe he loves his country.  I don't believe he loves anything other than himself.  He thinks he can use his country, and if the Russians helped him with that, what's wrong with that?  They were helping him, which means they're less important than he is.  As is everyone.  He still thinks he's gotten the best of the deal, and he doesn't believe in a deal where both people win.  He certainly doesn't see how much he's lost in this one.

[smartcooky]

On top of all those things, there are a great number of indicators that trump is quite simply, way out of his depth in this job. Among those are

- He was told by Attorney General Sally Yates that his National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn was a security risk because he had been compromised by Russia and had been having secret talks with them. Instead of firing him immediately (or at least suspending him), Trump waited two and a half weeks (during which time Flynn still had access to top security information) before he did anything about him. For a man who had previously acted decisively with regard to executive orders and knee-jerk tweeting, he sure dropped the ball on this one, big time.

- He then fired said Attorney General, presumably because he didn't like the advice she gave him and didn't like being forced to fire his appointee. He actually has routinely fired anyone who doesn't tell him what he wants to hear.

- He makes policy on the hoof. Yesterday, he announced that his new buddy, Vlad, is going to visit The White House in the fall. The first that the US Chief of Intelligence, Dan Coats, knew about it was when he was told during a live interview at a security conference. I mean what the actual f**k!!? Coats should have been the FIRST person to know about that, not the last!

- He has called the news media "enemies of the people". This is a very bad mistake. Its the sort of thing that brutal dictators have done; Stalin, Khrushchev, Mao Zedong. Here's CNN's Chris Cuomo's take, which pretty much aligns with my own.

https://youtu.be/srV2IHAZg5I

- He has crapped all over his allies, while cuddling up to his new best buddy, a criminal & brutal dictator

Trump is a liability to the US, and IMO, a danger to everyone on the planet, both within and outwith the USA

[smartcooky]

Have a read of this list....

1. Superiority and entitlement. Tells everyone how good they are. Be the best, the most right, and the most competent; do everything their way; own everything; and control everyone.

2. Exaggerated need for attention and validation. Has to be at the centre of everything that is going one

3. Need to control. A sense of entitlement makes it seem logical to them that they should be in control....  of everything.

4. Lack of responsibility, blaming others and deflecting criticism. Never accept responsibility for the results of their action. Generalising blame; all police, all bosses, all teachers, all Democrats etc.

5. Lack of boundaries. Like 2-year-olds, believe that everything belongs to them and that no-one can refuse their demands.

6. Lack of empathy. Inability to empathise with the suffering of others. Selfish and self-involved and are usually unable to understand what other people are feeling.

7. Highly attuned to perceived threats and anger from others. Nearly blind to the feelings of the people around them. May even misperceive comments as an attack. Likely to misinterpret sarcasm as actual agreement, and misinterpret joking from others as personal criticism.

8. Emotional reasoning. Make most of their decisions based on how they feel about something. Always expecting everyone to go along with their “solutions,” and react with irritation and resentment if they don’t.

9. No shame Feels no guilt because they think they are always right.

10. An inability to communicate effectively or work as part of a team. Dismissive of the opinions of others who don't agree with him. If in a position to do so, will get rid of these people and draw in people who will.

Any of this look at all familiar. Well, they are good fit for Trump's behaviour.... they are also some of the key symptoms of NPD - Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

(PS: I'm sorry if these observations offends those who don't like us discussing mental health here, but I'm simply reporting what I have observed)

[Jason Thompson]

It's always all about him. Not America, not world relations, just him. Even if he has to bullshit everyone around to make himself look more important. His recent UK visit is just a great example. He claims the Queen inspected the honour guard just for him, for the first time in 70 years. So blatantly untrue it's hard to know where to begin, but lets just mention that a) she hasn't been Queen for 70 years (although she is our longest-reigning monarch ever), and b) she inspects the guard several times a year and it's often part of the deal when other heads of state visit. And let's not even go into the way he walked in front of her. Royal protocol aside (one does not walk ahead of the monarch when accompanying her, even her husband is always a few paces behind her), he's on a visit with a 92-year-old lady and he just strides in front and makes it all about him. And of course he whined about the baby balloon protest, thus reinforcing the reason it was put up in the first place.

He's elbowed other people out of the way to be in front (despite being taller than all of them so therefore easily visible wherever he stands), constantly overstated his importance, and generally just acted like a bully on the world stage. He's been criticised for failing to obtain any agreements from Kim Jong-Un during the summit meeting, but that assumes he was actually interested in doing anything but making history as the first US President to meet the head of the North Korean state.

The most frustrating part of this whole deal is that he is actually making good on a lot of his election promises. It's just a shame that a lot of what he promised to do is such a bad idea from so many perspectives.

[nweber]

Yesterday, he announced that his new buddy, Vlad, is going to visit The White House in the fall.

"Vlad" is short for "Vladislav".

[Zakalwe]

He's elbowed other people out of the way to be in front (despite being taller than all of them so therefore easily visible wherever he stands),

Witness this picture. Trump, with his usual shit-eating grin, has been positioned in front of the Queen with his wife even further back. No doubt this was to make him appear physically larger.
His narcissistic ego is soooooo frail.

[Zakalwe]

I loved these little details, which are waaaay too subtle for Trumplethinskin to work out.
https://www.vox.com/2018/7/19/17586942/queen-elizabeth-brooch-warfare-trump-obama-code

[raven]

I loved these little details, which are waaaay too subtle for Trumplethinskin to work out.
https://www.vox.com/2018/7/19/17586942/queen-elizabeth-brooch-warfare-trump-obama-code

Sometimes a broach is just a broach, to paraphrase, but, on the other hand, I would not put it past her.
She's a smart old biddy.