The NATO Summit Under Trump's Cloud

Leaders of all 32 NATO nations will be convening in Washington, D.C., this week to affirm their commitment to their common defense and to discuss the provision of support to Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion and war crimes. The shadow hanging over the conference will be this year's Presidential election, with the NATO-bashing Malignant Loser's odds gaining steam. From the WaPo: 

"NATO — made up of 32 European and North American allies committed to defending each other from armed attack — will stress strength through solidarity as it celebrates its 75th anniversary during the summit starting Tuesday. Event host Biden, who pulled allies into a global network to help Ukraine fight off Russia's invasion, has called the alliance the most unified it has ever been.

But behind the scenes, a dominant topic will be preparing for possible division, as the power of far-right forces unfriendly to NATO grows in the U.S. and other countries including France, raising concerns about how strong support will stay for the alliance and the military aid that its members send to Ukraine.

At the presidential debate, Biden asked Trump: 'You’re going to stay in NATO or you’re going to pull out of NATO?' Trump tilted his head in a shrug." (our emphasis)

The treasonous Malignant Loser will do what Russian thug and war criminal Vladimir Putin asks him to do, because he's been long compromised by the Kremlin, likely with promises of financial gain if he treats Russia right. The shrug that the Malignant Loser answered Biden's question with speaks volumes about his commitment to democracy here and abroad; it was no doubt noticed by a gleeful Kremlin, which will use its dark web and intelligence services in supporting his election. NATO leaders are fully aware of the danger of another term of the Malignant Loser, and are proposing steps to insulate the alliance:

"Even before the debate, European governments were deep in consultations on what they could do to ensure that NATO, Western support for Ukraine and the security of individual NATO countries will endure should Trump win back the presidency in November and temper U.S. contributions.

Some Americans and Europeans call it 'Trump-proofing' NATO — or 'future-proofing' it when the political advances of other far-right political blocs in Europe are factored in.

This week’s summit, held in the city where the mutual-defense alliance was founded in 1949, was once expected to be a celebration of NATO’s endurance. Now, a European official said, it looks 'gloomy.'” (our emphasis)

While foreign policy / national security policy issues are typically a low priority for many insular, short-sighted voters, the collapse of NATO would be catastrophic to our security and would endanger not only western Europe but democracies across the globe fighting off authoritarian movements. Along with the Malignant Loser's election, it would be a monumental gift to tyrants in Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang, and Tehran. 

(photo: Brookings Institution)

 

Trump Sits At The NATO "Loser's Table"

SNL's cold open last night relegated international embarrassment Donald "Impeachable Me" Trump to the "loser's table" in an imagined high school cafeteria take on the recent NATO meeting, where Trump was mocked by leaders of other countries.  James Corden migrated over from CBS to portray British PM Boris Johnson for the skit. (We have to take issue with some of the portrayals, notably putting the Latvian leader at the "loser's table" with Trump -- that's an unfortunate way to depict a country that's on the front lines of NATO, facing Russian sabotage every day.  A better choice would have been Turkey's autocratic PM Erdogan, who mirrors Trump's tendencies. Also, Chancellor Merkel has more "cool" and cojones than anyone else in that group.)

They're Laughing At You, Donnie!

Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, Princess Anne and one other have a laugh at the expense of our world- class moron Donald "The Dumb Don" Trump at the NATO summit:

Can’t get over this video, both for the fact that POTUS hates the thought of anyone laughing at him and for the fact that he long used “other countries are laughing at us” as an attack against his predecessors. https://t.co/j2zmF27vBK

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 4, 2019

.@realDonaldTrump, you are the laughingstock of the planet. The world thinks you are an incompetent, ignorant, dumb, deranged buffoon—and they are right. And you prove it to them every day. https://t.co/mR0z1xwtaf

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) December 4, 2019

Et tu, Boris Johnson?!

BONUS:  As might be expected, The Dumb Don has a perfectly normal reaction to the video.

BONUS II: Boris Johnson, with elections near and aware that The Dumb Don is extremely unpopular in the UK, avoided appearing with him in public, and didn't meet him at the door of 10 Downing Street when Trump came to call.

BONUS III:  The Dumb Don's fee- fees were hurt by being the summit's laughingstock, so he's cutting his trip short and coming straight home.  Sad!

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

The Democratic presidential field is smaller by two today;  Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and former Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak are out (if you remembered they were in):

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock ended his presidential campaign on Monday, the Democrat announced in a statement to CNN.

The decision comes after the moderate Democrat failed to convince the party's base that the best way to defeat President Donald Trump was by nominating someone who can win in a red state.

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Former Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak on Sunday ended his long-shot 2020 presidential bid after failing to gain traction in the race for the Democratic Party's nomination. [snip]

Sestak, who mounted unsuccessful bids for US Senate in 2010 and 2016, entered an already-crowded Democratic primary field in June hoping to leverage his career in the US Navy into a successful campaign, but did not qualify for any of the major Democratic presidential debates. 

For now, unfortunately, Bullock is declining to run in a race he has a chance to win -- for the U.S. Senate seat held by Trumper Steve Daines.

Ezra Klein explores the besieged mindset of the American Taliban, offering this topsy- turvy, through- the- looking- glass view of the world from one right- wing "Christian":

The political commentator Rod Dreher blogs for the American Conservative, where he offers a running catalog of moral affronts and liberal provocations. He doesn’t simply see a society that has become secular and sexualized, but a progressive regime that insists Christians accept and even participate in the degeneracy or fall afoul of nondiscrimination laws and anti-bigotry norms. [snip]

In 2017 Dreher published The Benedict Option, arguing that Christians should retreat into monastic communities where they can live their faith in peace and wait for a decadent culture to consume itself. “We in the modern West are living under barbarism, though we do not recognize it,” he writes. “Our scientists, our judges, our princes, our scholars, and our scribes—they are at work demolishing the faith, the family, gender, even what it means to be human. Our barbarians have exchanged the animal pelts and spears of the past for designer suits and smartphones.”  (our emphasis)

When scientists, judges, scholars, etc., are defined as the "barbarians" and the hypocritical, reactionary, intolerant, violent American Taliban are defined as the defenders of civilization, you have encapsulated right there the reason why we occupy a different, never- to- be- reconciled universe. It goes a long  way in explaining why they see similarly besieged Donald "Beelzebub" Trump as their "Chosen One," their "last, best hope" to save their power and privilege.

What are these American Taliban -- the ones protecting civilization against scientists and other "barbarians", you know -- doing in states where they run the show?

A bill to ban abortion introduced in the Ohio state legislature requires doctors to “reimplant an ectopic pregnancy” into a woman’s uterus – a procedure that does not exist in medical science – or face charges of “abortion murder”.

This is the second time practising obstetricians and gynecologists have tried to tell the Ohio legislators that the idea is currently medically impossible.

The move comes amid a wave of increasingly severe anti-abortion bills introduced across much of the country as conservative Republican politicians seek to ban abortion and force a legal showdown on abortion with the supreme court.

Ohio’s move on ectopic pregnancies – where an embryo implants on the mother’s fallopian tube rather than her uterus rendering the pregnancy unviable – is one of the most extreme bills to date.  (our emphasis)

State and local elections, people.

The WaPo editorial board calls out the Trump regime in light of the UN's latest report on the global climate change disaster we're facing:

THE U.N. Environment Program released its latest report last week on where we are and where we need to be on addressing climate change. The word the authors chose to describe humanity’s future: “bleak.”

“Countries collectively failed to stop the growth in global [greenhouse gas] emissions, meaning that deeper and faster cuts are now required,” the report found. The hope that global emissions of heat-trapping gases might level out with the increasing use of natural gas in the United States and energy intensity improvements in China turned out to be too optimistic. After temporarily leveling out, emissions continued their rise. That includes in the United States, where Republicans’ various excuses for inaction — such as that the natural gas boom showed that government policy was unnecessary to cut emissions — ring more hollow than ever.

Meanwhile, the impeachment inquiry moves ahead this week, while Trump bumbles off to London for the NATO meeting, where everyone will be trying to avoid him:

As leaders of NATO member states prepare for yet another summit in London next week, a familiar theme is emerging: how to keep President Donald Trump from disrupting proceedings.

Trump has succeeded in alienating virtually every traditional ally of the US as president, and much of this is linked to his obsession with NATO funding and defense spending more generally. But it's also because of his willingness to insert himself into the domestic politics of other countries and say whatever is on his mind. 

Our national disgrace on a world stage again.  With NATO, as with everything else Trumpian, all roads lead to Putin.

We close by recommending you take some time to visit Infidel 753's link round- up for the best collection of links to interesting posts on the internet.  The Klein piece above (via bobfelton.com) is one example of the links you'll be able to go to over there. You should have his blog bookmarked, too!

START Stopped & Obama in Portugal

-- The Russians are mystified why the START treaty has apparently been stalled by the likes of Sen. Jon Kyl (Rethug-crAZy). What they need to know is that it's not about the treaty, it's about giving Obama anything that could be construed as a victory.

-- Meanwhile, Obama is attending the NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal, where it's expected the alliance will set a goal of ending its combat role in Afghanistan by 2014 or sooner. A partial NATO troop drawdown will begin in July 2011.

Was It Time For His Nappie?

News item: Bush abruptly leaves NATO meeting early, without participating in the group photo.