Trump is facing the thing he dreads most

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/29/opinions/trump-facing-thing-dreads-most-dantonio/index.html

 Declaring in 2016 that "I alone can fix it," Donald Trump made the country's fate all about him. He promised so much "winning" we'd get sick of it, and asked "What have you got to lose?" As President he made everything into a fight between Team Trump (good) and everyone else (bad). He bullied those he couldn't persuade and even survived an impeachment trial. But now, confronted with a pandemic, an economic crisis, and a moment of reckoning over racism, the limit of the president's method is obvious, and he seems on the brink of becoming the thing he most dreads: A loser.

With his limited mind, deficient heart and empty soul on full display, Trump is discovering that a man who declares "I alone can fix it" runs the risk of being blamed when everything breaks down. This is why his 2016 campaign aide Sam Nunberg says Trump is risking one of the worst defeats in history and political TV host Joe Scarborough is speculating about Trump quitting. Trump is "acting like he doesn't want to get re-elected," says Scarborough. "He's acting like he really wants to lose badly and take the Republican Party down with him."

Exposed by his own actions, the man who makes everything into a referendum on himself has given Americans another clear choice. He has demonstrated that what we've got to lose are our lives and that the choice really is between him, or us. Now we'll have to decide whether we will all join Team America and deliver to the bully his just deserts.

White House Was Reportedly Aware of Intel on Russian Bounties for U.S. Troops in 2019

https://time.com/5861541/white-house-russia-bounties-2019/

Top officials in the White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously reported, according to U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the intelligence.

The assessment was included in at least one of President Donald Trump’s written daily intelligence briefings at the time, according to the officials. Then-national security adviser John Bolton also told colleagues he briefed Trump on the intelligence assessment in March 2019.

 

Multiple intelligence streams suggest Russians paying bounties for US troops, Trump not briefed: official

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/multiple-intelligence-streams-russian-bounties-for-us-troops-trump-not-briefed

Meanwhile, a White House official acknowledged to Fox News on Monday that Trump has now been briefed on the intelligence behind reports of Russian bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan. It’s unclear exactly when this briefing took place, but the official says it took place sometime “after the NY Times reported on unverified intelligence.” 

This statement is at odds with answers Kayleigh McEnany, White House press secretary gave to members of the White House press corps during Monday’s briefing.  McEnany said - “The president has not been briefed on the matter” – and gave multiple variations of that answer throughout the briefing.  But the White House official said, “Kayleigh meant the President had not been previously briefed on the matter (before the NYT report came out)”

 

Trump Invites Republicans, Bars Democrats from Briefing on Putin's Bounty on US Troops

Trump's press secretary claims he wasn't briefed on Russia bounty intel

Israel coronavirus cases continue to rise, 432 confirmed in 24 hours

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/Y47SFC30Q

The Health Ministry says 3.5% of those tested, found positive for coronavirus with numbers growing in hard-hit Jerusalem and Ashdod; 43 hospitalized in serious condition, 24 on ventilators

 

Coronavirus: Has China or the US tested more?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53221801

Trump's claim

"We have more cases because we do the greatest testing... Other countries, they don't test millions."

The US has carried out almost 31 million coronavirus tests, according to the latest data.

That is more than any other Western country, but significantly less than China's reported total of over 90 million.

Based on these figures, China has carried out about one test for every 15 people, compared with about one in 11 in the US. So that's slightly more per head of population in the US.

This has got to be the worst of Trump's outrages

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/29/opinions/russian-bounties-trump-outrage-opinion-begala/index.html

"Dignified transfer." That's what the military calls the solemn process of returning fallen heroes to the family they loved and the country they served. If you have ever witnessed it, you're never quite the same after. August 13, 1998, was by far the most difficult day I had as a senior White House aide to President Clinton. Al Qaeda terrorists led by Osama bin Laden had bombed our embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, a week earlier. Twelve Americans were killed; some were State Department servants, others were Marines. All were heroes.

 

Yes, like you I thought I had lost my capacity to be shocked by Trump. Trump himself has witnessed a dignified transfer. He has seen the flag-draped coffins unloaded, heard the muffled sobs of the heartbroken, seen the bottomless grief in the eyes of a child who's lost a parent. How can it be that, after reportedly being briefed about Putin targeting American troops for death Trump has offered Putin rewards, like an invitation to rejoin the leading democracies of the G-7 and come to the US for a meeting of the leaders of the free world. An American president who truly loved the troops might perhaps invite Putin to join bin Laden at the gates of hell.

From pandering to Putin to abusing allies and ignoring his own advisers, Trump's phone calls alarm US officials

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/trump-phone-calls-national-security-concerns/index.html

In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America's principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials -- including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff -- that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations.

The calls caused former top Trump deputies -- including national security advisers H.R. McMaster and John Bolton, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and White House chief of staff John Kelly, as well as intelligence officials -- to conclude that the President was often "delusional," as two sources put it, in his dealings with foreign leaders. The sources said there was little evidence that the President became more skillful or competent in his telephone conversations with most heads of state over time. Rather, he continued to believe that he could either charm, jawbone or bully almost any foreign leader into capitulating to his will, and often pursued goals more attuned to his own agenda than what many of his senior advisers considered the national interest.

EU preparing to reopen its borders -- but probably not to Americans

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/29/europe/eu-travel-ban-us-coronavirus/index.html

The European Union is preparing to reopen its external border to 15 countries outside of the bloc as early as Wednesday. However, one country that won't be featured on the proposed list is the United States of America, according to two EU diplomats.

The diplomats, who were not permitted to discuss the matter before the EU's 27 member states had reached an agreement, have confirmed to CNN that EU governments have been given until lunchtime Tuesday to agree on the list of 15 countries allowed entry.

On the proposed list of 15 nations is China, where the virus originated. However, the EU will only offer China entry on the condition of reciprocal arrangements. The other 14 countries are: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay.

As had been widely expected, the US -- where the coronavirus is currently resurging -- will not be on that list.

 

2020 Becomes the Dementia Campaign

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/07/2020-dementia-campaign-123106

The two people most likely to control the U.S nuclear arsenal, and with it the capacity to blow up civilization, through January 2025 are both well into their 70s and facing pervasive public speculation that they are becoming senile.

That is some funny stuff, no?

 

President Donald Trump’s own public blunders—saying that his father was born in Germany when it was really his grandfather or referring to Apple CEO Tim Cook as “Tim Apple”—have prompted commentary throughout his term questioning whether his cognitive faculties are deteriorating.

Hear why Roberts sided with liberals on Supreme Court abortion ruling

What's going on between Russia, US and Afghanistan?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53220163

Ambiguity

This episode also throws a stark light on the current state of US-Russia relations. US policy towards Moscow is suffering from a kind of schizophrenia.

On the one hand, the US is wary of Russian nuclear modernisation and suspicious of its broader plans in the Middle East and elsewhere; but on the other, this administration is strangely accepting of Russian denials, for example concerning its alleged intrusion into the US election campaign.

Much of this ambiguity is down to the person of President Trump himself, whom many see as rather admiring of strong, dictatorial leaders.

And to this extent, the handling of this intelligence report casts another light on the whole foreign policy process within the Trump administration.

It will add weight to those critics from both the Democratic side of politics and more hardline Republicans, like the former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who argue in their different ways that there is no strategic direction, no joined up thinking, and no leadership from the top.

Joe: GOP Senators, Speak Out For Our Troops Today | Morning Joe | MSNBC