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Russian State Media Giddy At Trump's Authoritarian Moves

Expert on Russia Julia Davis writes about how deeply in Putin's pocket dangerous dolt Donald "Tovarich" Trump is after treasonous Senate Republicans acquitted him:

Russian state media have welcomed enthusiastically the recent U.S. Senate acquittal of President Donald J. Trump. Having predicted this outcome for his impeachment trial, Russian experts and state media pundits are anticipating beneficial side effects for the Kremlin as Trump is more Trump—and more Russia’s Trump—than ever.

Dmitry Kiselyov, the host of Russia's most popular Sunday news program Vesti Nedeli, said, “Democrats are openly raging, but while they’re licking their wounds, Trump can now objectively afford to pursue a more positive course of action towards Russia—just as he planned all along while being elected for the first term.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent invitation to Trump to attend Victory Day festivities in Moscow this spring is designed to bring the U.S. president ever deeper into the Kremlin fold. Appearing on Sunday Evening With Vladimir Soloviev, politician Sergey Stankevich asserted, “Donald Trump has to come to Moscow in May, no doubt about it. He is obligated to be here.” [snip]

On another gleeful note, political scientist Dmitry Evstafiev argued that “Trump might start to engage in McCarthyism, which will be the first step in the self-destruction of the American system.” He predicted the disintegration of existing political institutions in the United States, prompted by Trump’s outright rejection of bipartisanship, which will be replaced by the authoritarian system he is striving to create.

These are people who've never known life under a remotely democratic system, who are relishing the thought that their pawn will bring their hated, envied rival down to their grubby level.   We'll see if we can pass that test in November (and that means removing from office as many Republican cult members as we can).

In the meantime, these borscht breaths may want to watch their own backs:

A Russian prankster glued a massive portrait of President Vladimir Putin to the inside of a residential elevator. He then placed a camera in the elevator to record people’s reactions. pic.twitter.com/dahMN83SvX

— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) February 10, 2020

Very Stable Genius Trump Does Putin's Bidding; Will "Wing It" With Kim

Well, this was to be expected from Western Alliance destroyer and unhinged Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump:

President Trump upended two days of global economic diplomacy late Saturday, refusing to sign a joint statement with America’s allies, threatening to escalate his trade war on the country’s neighbors and deriding Canada’s prime minister as “very dishonest and weak.” 

In a remarkable pair of acrimony-laced tweets from aboard Air Force One as he flew away from the Group of 7 summit toward a meeting with North Korea’s leader, Mr. Trump lashed out at Justin Trudeau. He accused the prime minister, who hosted the seven-nation gathering, of making false statements. 

Literally moments after Mr. Trudeau’s government proudly released the joint statement, noting it had been agreed to by all seven countries, Mr. Trump blew apart the veneer of cordiality that had prevailed throughout the two days of meetings in a resort town on the banks of the St. Lawrence River.

“Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!” Mr. Trump wrote. 

Trudeau's office responded with the kind of temperate statement you would have hoped an American President would be capable of:

“We are focused on everything we accomplished here at the summit,” said Cameron Ahmad, a spokesman for Mr. Trudeau. “The prime minister said nothing he hasn’t said before — both in public, and in private conversations with the President.” 

At the same time Rump was helping achieve a long- time Russian goal, he continued to plump for Russia to re-join the Group of 7. Clearly, Putin has all the goods on Rump, and he's leveraging it to our great disadvantage as a nation.

Rump left his G-7 meeting debacle a day early in order to get enough Twitter raging "executive time" in Singapore before his "summit" with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Of course, being the Very Stable Genius he is, Rump knows preparation is for suckers:

President Donald Trump indicated on Thursday that he believes the outcome of his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un depends less on whether he’s done his homework, and more on him having the mindset of a master dealmaker. 

“I think I’m very well prepared,” Trump said in a joint press conference with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “I don’t think I have to prepare very much. It’s about attitude, it’s about willingness to get things done … So this isn’t a question of preparation, it’s a question of whether or not people want it to happen, and we’ll know that very quickly.” [snip]

What happens if Trump waltzes into Singapore hoping for a meeting of the minds with Kim and finds he’s been played? What if Kim makes him an offer that looks good to him but has hidden downsides? If Kim proves intractable on the denuclearization question, or demands assurances in return that the U.S. can’t easily deliver, what’s his next move? What checks are in place to ensure that the president isn’t cornered into agreeing to something he shouldn’t? Preparing answers to these questions is the purpose of that prep work Trump claims he doesn’t need. 

Reconciliation with North Korea is a deal orders of magnitude more complicated than any Trump has ever done in his private life, with astronomically higher stakes. If the president isn’t convinced that he needs to prepare for this event carefully, he may be in for a rude awakening next Tuesday. 

Just who is going to "convince" this megalomaniac that he needs to prepare? He thinks his magical powers will guide him.

To imagine that an ignoramus like Rump -- with no knowledge of history, no skills as a "master dealmaker" (except getting dirty money from Russian oligarchs when no one else will lend to you), and no interest in learning anything that he doesn't see on "Fox & Friends" -- will pull off a diplomatic coup in Singapore by sheer force of his puerile, easily manipulated, narcissistic personality is just absurd. Which is not to say that every attempt won't be made by Rump's White (Supremacist) House and the state media at Fox "News" and hate radio to make anything that comes out of this a Triumph! for the Dear Leader (ours, not theirs).

We're going to be paying the bill for this malignant doofus for a long, long time. (See Paul Krugman's op/ ed along these lines.)

BONUS:

To our allies: bipartisan majorities of Americans remain pro-free trade, pro-globalization & supportive of alliances based on 70 years of shared values. Americans stand with you, even if our president doesn’t.

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) June 10, 2018

BONUS II:

Whomever did this, really nailed it. pic.twitter.com/xu7QmOpi3E

— Spry Guy (@SpryGuy) June 10, 2018

BONUS III:  Trudeau's former foreign policy advisor nailed it:

"Big tough guy once he’s back on his airplane. Can’t do it in person, and knows it, which makes him feel [weak]. So he projects these feelings onto Trudeau and then lashes out at him. You don’t need to be Freud. He’s a pathetic little man-child," Roland Paris said in a tweet on Saturday. 

(Top Photo:  Rump, with intelligent, mature Western leaders at the G-7; photo by Jesco Denzel.)

McMaster: Putin Thinks He's "Winning"

Outgoing National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster had some choice words for Russia -- and by obvious implication his own boss, Putin loyalist and con man Donald "Rump" Trump -- at last night's Atlantic Council's 100 Years of U.S.-Baltic Partnership. The leaders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were in Washington yesterday and were subjected to embarrassing lectures from an unraveling Rump on everything from Amazon to our NATO partners. Earlier that day, he also lied in front of the Baltic leaders that he was the toughest President on Russia, something they know is a bald faced lie. The salient quotes from McMaster's speech:

“For too long, some nations have looked the other way in the face of these threats. Russia brazenly, and implausibly denies its actions, and we have failed to impose sufficient costs...Mr. Putin may believe that he is winning [ed. -- spoiler alert: he is] in this new form of warfare. He may believe that his aggressive actions in Salisbury, in cyberspace, in the air and on the high seas can undermine our confidence, our institutions and our values. Perhaps he believes that our free nations are weak and will not respond to his provocations. He is wrong.” (emphasis added)

We have two problems with McMaster's late public awakening: first, the timing. Now that he's on a greased rail out of Rump's Romper Room, he feels emboldened to speak, obviously trying to protect whatever reputation he has left after working there. This doesn't have the force of someone inside Rumpworld. Second, as long as Moscow has a frightened ally in the Oval Office, one who is eager to please them even at the costs of our national security, this tough talk will be viewed in Moscow as hot air from a has-been. In some comments several weeks ago, McMaster irritated Rump by saying that Russia's involvement in U.S. election meddling was "incontrovertible." The emotionally unstable Rump later "corrected" him by saying that it didn't influence the election results, something he has no proof of.

We'll have to wait to see if McMaster continues to speak forcefully about Russia's threat publicly in the months ahead.