The Worst of Politics, w/o July 16, 2018

Monday

Never worse, but not for the reasons you think

Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018

By way of review:

After the Soviet tried to annex West Berlin by siege, the US and allies airlifted in food and medicine.

In the past, sharing classified information with the USSR could get you executed for treason.

Tsar Bomba, designed just for us. The mushroom cloud was 40 miles high. Its shockwaves circled the Earth three times.

The Berlin Wall went up in the early 1960s to prevent residents of the east from fleeing to the west. Those who weren’t quick enough were shot and killed.

Khrushchev vows to nuke us. This is the famous shoe-pounding scene during his speech at the UN.

Soviet Premier Khrushchev vowed “we will bury you.” Not so much a threat, his meaning was that capitalism, and by extension the United States, would die off on its own.

The Cuban Missile Crisis, our closest brush with World War III. The Soviets installed nuclear missiles with live warheads on the island.

Prague Spring. One of many Soviet incursions (Czechoslovakia, Poland) into Warsaw Pact nations that were attempting to liberalize.

Our response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 was a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. In response, they boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

After calling the USSR the “evil empire,” and an unprecedented peacetime military buildup, President Reagan challenged them to tear down the Berlin Wall.

We used to have intermediate-range nuclear missiles pointed at each other across eastern and western Europe.

The Chernobyl reactor disaster sent a plume of radiation across much of Europe.

Sigh.

President Obama thought that Crooked Hillary was going to win the election, so when he was informed by the FBI about Russian Meddling, he said it couldn’t happen, was no big deal, & did NOTHING about it. When I won it became a big deal and the Rigged Witch Hunt headed by Strzok!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018

More than a half-dozen Republican Senators have criticized Trump’s presser with Vladimir Putin today. Meanwhile Trump has nominated someone to be the deciding vote in the Supreme Court on Trump’s legal accountability. Will a single one of them have the guts to say no?

Tuesday

Putin’s … puppet? poodle? pet? parrot?

Why decide?

On the way home last night I was flipping stations on the radio, listening to the different coverage of Trump’s press conference with Putin. I took a chance and switched to Fox News, and Hannity was on. Oooh, how is he handling this?

He had on the noted Doctor Sebastian Gorka, doing his best Strangelovian thing, talking about how important it was that Trump spoke about … Hillary’s missing emails.

Seriously. Can you imagine if a world leader was doing a joint press conference here in the U.S. and started blabbering about some domestic-politics conspiracy theory the way Trump went on about emails and witch hunts?

Undignified, embarrassing, destructive.

Wednesday

Jabberwocky

I didn’t say what you think I meant to say but actually ~~didn’t~~ said. Also, NO COLUSION [sic].

But just in case:
https://twitter.com/tommcgee/status/1019578282751266816

Flipfloppery

President Trump said on Wednesday that Russia was no longer targeting the United States, contradicting his own intelligence chief and just a day after promising that his administration was working to prevent Kremlin interference in the upcoming midterm elections.

“Is Russia still targeting the U.S.?” a reporter asked Trump in the Cabinet Room Wednesday.

“No,” the President replied.

Trump: There's no reason why it would be Russia
Trumpsters: Yeah! MAGA!! MAGA!!
Trump: I meant there's no reason why it *wouldn't* be Russia
Trumpsters: Yeah! MAGA!! MAGA!!
— God (@thegoodgodabove) July 17, 2018

Thursday

Covering the bases

Now that she’s indicted, we have to hide the evidence.

The United States government is making it easier for “dark money” donors to keep their contributions, well, in the dark. The Treasury Department on Monday said it planned to end requirements that certain tax-exempt organizations identify their financial contributors on their tax returns.
The decision means groups such as the National Rifle Association, Planned Parenthood, and the AARP will no longer have to tell the IRS who’s giving them money.
The decision landed the same day as the Justice Department announced the arrest of Maria Butina, a Russian national with NRA ties who is accused of trying to influence US politics. Ethics experts say Treasury’s maneuver will make identifying activities like those Butina has been accused of even harder to track.

Why are we normalizing any of these people? It’s kind of horrifying that a serial liar has a book deal in the first place; but a major network giving him airtime to promote it?

Friday

It’s like a Ponzi scheme

All this talk of “doubling down.” What do you do when you double-down on something that’s already been doubled-down? Quadruple it?

16? 32? 64? 128?

So then if you’re taking a week’s worth of brutal pressure because of the way you screwed up the summit in Helsinki, double down! Invite Putin to Washington! Replay your greatest hits! The clip below is, um, special. This is the current Director of National Intelligence. Watch his reaction.

DNI Dan Coats did not know that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak would visit the Oval Office. #AspenSecurity pic.twitter.com/rWZWXlDVIA
— Aspen Security Forum (@AspenSecurity) July 19, 2018

It will be especially special to see how this plays out right before the November election. Here’s Gary Kasparov:

Like any good real-estate dealer, Trump wants to give Putin a personal tour of the house he bought online. https://t.co/1tkILhch7N
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 19, 2018