Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Trump caved spectacularly to Putin. Here's what might happen next




foxnews


President Trump gave his detractors plenty of ammunition while standing beside Vladimir Putin.
At yesterday's Helsinki press conference, Trump refused to side with the findings of his own intelligence community that Putin's government used illegal hacking to influence the election. Instead, he said, "I don’t see why it would be" Russia, and contrasted that with Putin's "extremely strong and powerful" denial.
He then pivoted to "Hillary Clinton's emails," the server and the fact that he beat her in the election.
In a strange way, Putin seemed to take the indictment of 12 Russian military officers more seriously, saying he'd look into having his country's law enforcement cooperate with the Robert Mueller probe (though I wouldn't hold my breath).


cnn


Objectively, Trump has emerged from the summit a diminished figure.
He looked weak. He was obsequious to the stone-faced Russian leader and came across as unprepared and outmatched. He looked as far as it is possible to be from his own self-image as a bullying tough-as-nails dealmaker, the man who boasted at the Republican National Convention in 2016 that "I alone can fix it."
The myth of Trump as an American strongman may never recover.
It is already clear that the summit is a short-term political disaster for Trump. For a man who jealously guards his image, the mockery will sting and will provoke a backlash.
Top Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan, who normally don't criticize him, put distance between themselves and Trump.
"The President must appreciate that Russia is not our ally, there is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia," Ryan said in a written statement.
Even Newt Gingrich, a Trump supporter, rediscovered his roots as an old Cold Warrior.
"President Trump must clarify his statements in Helsinki on our intelligence system and Putin. It is the most serious mistake of his presidency and must be corrected -- immediately," Gingrich tweeted.
Trump tried to clean up his mess in tweets as he flew home across the Atlantic.
"As I said today and many times before, 'I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people,'" he wrote. "However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past -- as the world's two largest nuclear powers, we must get along!"

35 comments :

  1. Politically, Pres. Trump came out a champ from the summit.

    Many, including myself to some extent, applaud Russia for standing up to much of the moral depravity which is sapping the West of its strength.

    And no, I'm not speaking of Russian suppression of a free press, nor their dabbling in U.S. politics, etc.

    I mean, you don't find public libraries in Russia pushing degeneracy on kids like you do in the U.S.
    http://www.ala.org/rt/glbtrt/glbt-book-month

    And if we reflect on it, the lack of a liberal free is probably a factor why Russia has not succumbed to leftist mumbo-jumbo.

    Is it not ironic that the former communist country is standing up to cultural marxism? Perhaps. Or we can say that they were innoculated by their communist past, and have no illusions where the social downward spiral of the West is headed.

    In that context, some of us have no longlasting qualm about the Russian interference in U.S. elections. They probably did no more or less in the last Presidential election than they've done in the past. They got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. They won't be so sloppy about their interference next time.

    And let's face it. The effect on the election of their interference was about nil.

    Pres. Trump used the press conference to play to his constituency. That's what democracy is about, and Pres. Putin was given a large helping of it. The symbolism of "good sports" was all there. Pres. Trump lauded Pres. Putin as a worthy "competitor". Pres. Putin gave Pres. Trump a soccer ball. The Pres., without missing a beat said the ball was fpr his son, and tossed it to his wife, Melania, who seemed delighted to get a gift for her child.

    That's what matters. Family. That's the message.

    Compare that to the kind of garbage which the press can be found spewing on a regular basis in order to tear down families.

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  2. yes Russia is the model of morality as trump is model of family - got it!

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  3. http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/07/16/russian-professor-says-criticisms-trump-over-putin-russia-summit-are-mob-violence

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  4. who was it who quoted Rav Yaakov, who allegedly said vote for the antisemite who is pro-morality, rathe than the philo-semite who is liberal (regarding sexual morality).


    In any case Trump is a menuval in his private life, america is openly pro-gay rights, whereas in russia it is illegal.


    Some of these rabbis even thought Hitler (amalek) was basically a good man, except for the anti-semitism.

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  5. Some of the criticism was quite justified.

    My only defense of the President is that (1) what he did was something that played well in Peoria -- meaning, I liked it, as I commented above, and, (2) the criticism, justified that it may be, was way over the top. The linked video demonstates this, and so does this article:
    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/07/17/treason-in-helsinki-it-doesnt-hold-up/

    I'm making the same point that I've made other places in the comments section of this blog. This country is moving into a civil war. Even well justified criticism of the President has become ammunition for some people who want to strip Donald Trump of his office.

    So my gut reaction to criticism of the President is to stand by him -- right or wrong. Because the bigger battle is defending my right to pick who I want to be President.

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  6. The issue is not who you voted for, it is who he has become.
    He seems like a naive fool when it comes to dealing with a sophisticated enemy. Putin was a KGB leader, he can kill without blinking an eye. Trump is a fool, married to an eastern European, ex soviet block bimbo. he has not experience in security or politics, he came from a TV show and a hotel empire.
    Reagan was a smart guy who left acting and went into politics, was governor of california, so he had some experience before becoming president.

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  7. SINCE he is your man he can destroy America?!!!

    remember the JONESTOWN?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown


    or to translate MY GADOL RIGHT OR WRONG

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  8. Pres. Trump is not destroying America. He is making America great again.

    The only ones committing mass suicide are the Democrats by embracing far out positions that are alienating much of the electorate.

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  9. No one gets away talking about the First Lady like that. Take it back or I'll be blocking you for awhile.

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  10. I cant show her "modelling" pictures here,
    anyway, you will say Rahav did teshuva and married Yehoshua

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  11. I can't show pictures of what you do in your inner chambers, but it could be there's stuff you're not proud of. And if I had the pictures, so what?

    What does a private relationship between two people have to do with you? Why is it your business to talk about anyone's wife, and to offer up your characterization of her?

    Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky asked good when he asked me if it's my business to get involved in Tamar Epstein's life and in Rabbi Kamenetsky's involvement in trying to help her. It's not my business. It became my business when Rabbi Kamenetsky inserted himself into the divorce process of Tamar and Aharon Friedman.

    At that point I had an obligation to rebalance things.

    So instead of digging yourself in further, simply admit that speaking about other men's wives is not your business unless it serves some Halachically compelling reason.

    And how much more so when speaking disparagingly about a woman who is married to the President of the United States, of whom we have a Mitzvah of "Al Ah'or Nasi."

    It's not my place to rebuke you. But I can block you if you don't shape up.

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  12. She did this publicly, I haven't done anything publicly (since I gave up my movie career).but some people mistake me for Rav ralbag.
    Anyway, the point is Mr Trump has negios to eastern Europe and USSR. But he is a friend of Israel and the Jews to his zchut.

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  13. How is he destroying America?

    How do you define America?

    Do you believe that the way America was founded the constitution etc was just or unjust?

    You are not willing to have rational and logical conversations about this topic. You engage in hyperbole and just want to say "President Trump is terrible and illegitimate."

    Who is more interested in reforming and changing America - the liberals or President Trump?

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  14. "President Trump is terrible and illegitimate."
    Is he a mamzer?
    Is a mamzer Jewish? Can a mamzer be non Jewish?

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  15. "Many, including myself to some extent, applaud Russia for standing up to
    much of the moral depravity which is sapping the West of its strength."
    But when I point out that Melania had a career as a naked model, and that Trump is a menuval, you seem to et offended!

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  16. Impressive. You're really able to talk yourself into anything.

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  17. "[A]nything"?

    That's a stretch, I think.

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  18. Hey maybe you've always been far out; don't follow you so am not one to know. But this line of, um, "thinking" is really sumptin'!

    DT & Eddie got your number on this.

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  19. Well, Eddie's pretty much beat me to it.

    Besides, if you truly believe (1) that Trump "came out a champ from the summit", (2) that the First Lady is a priori sacredly above reproach, and (3) that it's somehow halakhically out-of-bounds to point out that someone chose publicly to publish nude photographs of themselves for money -- nay, even more, as a means to build a career along those lines -- then you're def. too far gone for it to be productive. Two of those are extreme, and the other (the first) laughably ridiculous.

    Would it make sense to talk cuisine with someone who happily asserted that the best way to eat a fine steak was to cook it well done and dowse it in ketchup? Nothing to talk about. "Al taam vereiach...", as the saying goes. So one moves on....

    But as a point of housekeeping, I must wonder: Were you so zealously protective of our nation's First Lady's kavod when it was Michelle Obama occupying that station? or Hilary Clinton?
    It's an honest question. At least, if it can be that when I suspect I low the answer...

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  20. In any case, Trump has already apologized, realizing how strong the backlash was. He mis-spoke.

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  21. apologized??????!!!!!!! no he didnt

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  22. Are you kidding? If you think he really mis-spoke and meant to say "wouldn't," you are far more gullible than I could imagine.

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  23. LOL!!!!!! "He mis-spoke."

    You realize you're talking about a man who dared lie about the weather(!) at an event televised internationally and attended by something on the order of half a million people?

    Trump has made it clear more times than any of us can keep count that his own words mean diddly.

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  24. sorry, I mis-spoke :)

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  25. http://thehill.com/homenews/house/397448-house-conservatives-criticize-media-not-trump-for-putin-furor

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  26. As if Hillary was pro morality?

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  27. Halachically irrelevant.
    A non Jewish mamzer can marry any Israel or Levi after giyur. Though she only gets a ketubah of 25 + 25 zuz

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  28. Oh, so Trump didn't come from the swamp? Holding that against him?

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  29. in what sense is trump mot from the swamp?

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  30. A {non Jewish} [mamzer]


    A mamzer isn't allowed to enter the nation of Israel.
    But someone born a mamzer from Jewish parents, is no longer Jewish, they have been demoted to a mamzer.


    Halacha is not everything, there is the process that leads to it, without which, there would not be any halacha.

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  31. being againt hillary is not the source of morality so no trump doesn't have justification to do immoral and stupid things

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