trump is serious!!!!!

[Scooter]

He was a city councillor for the same term that his brother was mayor. He nominally heads the family business that his father built and that all the trust fund babies inherited. He is a complete douche bag who intentionally enabled his brother in denying his addictions to drugs and alcohol to further his own political ambitions.

Rob, well-intentioned in his own demented way, was a guy with many faults exacerbated by addiction. Doug is pure evil incarnate.

[Burning Petard]

So POTUS is showing the world his leadership to Make America Great Again by slapping import tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada, European Union, and of cours China, but the tariffs on China are smaller.

I just heard on an NPR news cast that Mexico is responding with very carefully, with counter-tarrifs. You might even say 'surgical strikes'.

They are targeting specific products manufactured in the home districts of congress-critters that have supported POTUS in this effort.

I love it.

Snailgate

[rubato]

China, Canada, and the EU are doing the same.

[Sue U]

Seen somewhere else, probs on the twatter:

Shitting on our allies for no good reason is the kind of US foreign policy that Putin would like.

[Econoline]

[Econoline]

[Crackpot]

Anyone else remember when Giuliani used to command a certain level of respect? I mean he still had some post his 9-11 run 9-11 for 9-11 president 9-11. But now he seems to have completely lost the plot.

[Big RR]

I don't think he's changed as much as the circumstances have. He likes to be the center of attention and will do and say whatever he has to in order to stay there. Remember when he wanted to cancel the mayoral election post 9/11 because the city needed him?

[RayThom]

Anyone else remember when Giuliani used to command a certain level of respect? I mean he still had some post his 9-11 run 9-11 for 9-11 president 9-11. But now he seems to have completely lost the plot.

He's a curmudgeonly old man now. Some old people just don't age well.

He and his boss are quite similar. They say one thing at a conference or interview and, hours later, say almost the exact opposite. Then, unabashedly, they feign disdain and frustration when the opposition doesn't get it. All the while, they are high-fiving each other knowing they worked their magic... again.

If moral progress comes not in comfortable and complacent times, but out of trial and confusions, this administration is destined for sainthood.

[Scooter]

He was always an insufferable, self-aggrandizing blowhard with a casual relationship with the truth. He clearly redeemed his reputation after 9/11 for doing precisely what a mayor should be doing in those circumstances - reassuring the public that there was someone in charge who had the situation under control, even as he greatly exaggerated his actual contributions the response. Before 9/11 his approval rating as mayor had long since tanked, and he had bowed out of a senate run after a very messy affair and separation from his wife painted a very ugly picture of him (he announced the impending breakup of his marriage to the press before telling his wife, and his mistress became almost his de facto first lady, at his side at official functions while he and his wife were still living together. If he had been eligible to run again for mayor, if 9/11 hadn't happened it was unlikely he could have won. With a post-9/11 approval rating approaching 80%, he appeared to have managed to wipe the slate clean.

He entered the 2008 presidential race with by far the highest recognition and popularity of any candidate, but there was a bad odor around his law practice, including a partner he was touting for AG who was indicted for tax fraud and some questionable foreign clients. The 9/11 report somewhat tarnished the halo bestowed on him by those events, and he got caught in lies when attempting to polish it. Even leaving aside his decision not to campaign in the early primaries, his single digit showings in all of them, followed by a very distant third in Florida, showed that whatever respect he had commanded was lost by then.

It is hardly surprising that Giuliani would now use and deceive the American people as he used and deceived his wife, because now he has a new mistress living in the White House who commands his loyalty.

[Econoline]

[Crackpot]

Is that a real Time cover?

[Econoline]

Yup.

http://time.com/5303844/donald-trump-king-cover/

[Crackpot]

I thought I saw that one at mar-a-largo

[Scooter]

[Lord Jim]

This probably belongs in The Muscovite Candidate thread:

Trump calls for Russia to be reinstated to G-7, threatens allies on trade

CHARLEVOIX, Quebec — President Trump called for Russia to be readmitted to the Group of Seven industrial nations Friday, reaching out to an adversary as he further scrambled an international summit that has showcased a rift between the United States and its closest allies.

Russia was expelled four years ago after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region, and it has since angered U.S. lawmakers and foreign powers over interference in the U.S. presidential election, among other actions. But Trump broke with most other G-7 leaders during the first day of their annual summit with his call to bring back Russia.

“Russia should be in this meeting,” Trump said Friday in Washington before leaving for the two-day summit here. “Whether you like it or not, and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run. . . . They should let Russia come back in.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... e4a10493a9

It's certainly understandable why Trump would want his handler Vlad at this meeting...

It must be lonely for Trump being the only authoritarian thug at the picnic...

I certainly wouldn't expect Il Boobce to know this, (since he, well, doesn't know much of anything) but this group is supposed to be comprised of the world's "Leading industrial democracies"...

Russia doesn't qualify on either score...

With a GDP smaller than California's (despite having more than 3 times the population) Russia certainly doesn't qualify as a "leading industrial" country, and as for "democracy"...

No need to even go into that...

(If you really wanted to expand The Group, a far stronger case could be made for India...)

The original decision to admit Russia was an aspirational one. It was a well meaning gesture intended to encourage the further development of democratic institutions that Russia was experiencing under Boris Yeltsin in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and to also try to bring Russia in as a country that would adhere to the norms of international law.

Of course under Putin , all of the internal reforms have been reversed (freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, an independent judiciary, etc.) and it has reverted to being a complete outlaw state internationally.

By the time it finally came, Russia's expulsion from the "Group Of" was long over due. At the latest, it should have happened years earlier when Putin invaded and occupied half of Georgia.

But the what the heck, they're behavior is obviously much improved, so maybe they should be let back in...

Afterall, it's been weeks since they meddled in a foreign election or assassinated a regime opponent on foreign soil...

[Bicycle Bill]

Overheard at the G7 conference:

"Il est tellement orange.  Mueller, oui?""
"Aussi stupide, très stupide.  Collusion."
"Je ne crois pas qu'il sache lire.  Mueller, eh?"
"Je doute qu'il ait autant d'argent qu'il l'a dit."
"Il sera au moment où il est mis en accusation.  Mueller, Ha Ha!"

-"BB"-

[RayThom]

And then Drumpf said, "Bon aims, pas a'vous de take-o bowl en 'amburgers la cheez. Danke!"

[Joe Guy]

Trump doesn't need a script. He can think on his feet...

[Econoline]