The Russian Party of America will continue to support Donald J. Trump simply because he is destroying Liberalism at home and abroad. Besides, they like the anti-Liberal Putin because he is extremely White, homophobic, misogynistic, racist, xenophobic and religiously bigoted. He even pretends to be a Russian Orthodox Christian. So to them he is just a regular Red State boy. Not unlike Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. And of course he certainly did return them to power. Oh yes... they are now all in the same White Supremacist boat. And they think that the world is going to be their oyster. So vote Democratic... as if the up-coming election isn't already rigged.
5
You are absolutely right. For various reason I know many hard core Trump supporter and they are all democrat/liberal haters besides being obviously racists (they -like me-are white, Arian?....). Obviously NRA members.
Now one point I want to make, and that often one team or party or whatever often looses because of the adversaries' mistakes and the biggest mistake was for the democratic party to support a weak candidate, with skeletons -true or false does not matter in politics- in and out of the closet. And in fact they were successfully exploited by the adversary.
Furthermore she is the woman who said that she would have annihilated Iran if..., that with the complicity of Sarkozy and others did what they did in Libya, perhaps because she wanted to show toughness in preparations of the elections, like Al Gore did pushing Clinton to bomb Yugoslavia.
1
At a time like this, I miss Texas Democratic congressman Charlie Wilson real bad. I wish he was still among us.
He NEVER would have tolerated this Russian garbage and would have found ways to shaft Putin and his cronies nine ways from Sunday, just like he did to them in Afghanistan.
And he would have had a rollicking good time doing it.
11
Down with the traitors, up with the Stars, the Union forever! Down with Russian control of the USA through Trump!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW4ZwyYJYbQ
1
Instead of 3 days of revisionism while white house staffers attempt to correct what that idiot did in Helsinki, why don't we just get a new president, one that can think straight and act in America's interest? is that too much to ask?
8
Trump likes to say a country without borders is no country? But a country run by another hostile country is no country. So since Russia tries to run America's foreign policies through Donald Trump it is no country as long as he is its (fake) president (fake because installed by the hostile foreign power). This link may be helpful in putting Donald Trump in context:
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_fi.php?ModuleId=10005140&MediaId=223
1
We can argue over the legal definitions of treason. We see some of those arguments gaining steam in the public sphere. Wherever one might land on this continuum, the guy in the White House is treacherous. It is not hard, based on most standard definitions, to assert that he is a traitor.
Now we have another Putin summit coming to Washington DC. Maybe they'll have a four hour closed-door meeting this time. And how will we cope with triple and quadruple negatives?
2
Charles:
I fear that this could all end very badly for America, and by extension, for the rest of the free world. An unease that began in the fall of 2016 has grown into gut-turning fear: I have begun to believe that civil war is a distressingly increasing likelihood given the hardening of denial by Trump's rabid supporters and the free access to weapons of war. It make take only the firing of Mueller to bring on this catastrophe. (His undermining of the FBI in Helsinki is, I believe, a prelude to that fateful step.)
Imagine, a civil war without geographic lines or uniforms; neighbor against neighbor ; no safe zones, no frontline.
An octogenarian who lived through Hitler's Bliztkrieg against my country of birth, I think I'll go out holding a sign saying,
"Will the last person to leave the America I love please turn out the lights.”
4
Trump will stop at NOTHING. The PRESS need to never let up. We need his taxes, an independent medical exam; we never had one, a full and complete mental exam. America's psychiatrists are being held hostage by the Goldwater rule.
There has to one psychiatrist in this country who can declare him insane. Maybe one from another country (not Russia).
Why is this taking so long. The midterm elections are going to be in his favor. There are enough racists in America to keep him in office. He will take this as a mandate and double down on his maniacal behavior.
Help.
3
No matter how appalling, the behavior of this president does not boggle the mind.
Rather, the mind of every thinking, responsible, patriotic American citizen should (and typically does) boggle at Trump's scandalous, dangerous and sadly clownish antics.
"Boggle" long has been (and, it is hoped, long will continue to be) an intransitive verb that takes no object, whether the New York Times employs copyeditors or not.
3
Why wouldn't I support this president?
Oops, what I really meant to say is, why would I?
4
I don't see why it WOULDN'T be considered an act of treason.
7
My goodness, would you just look at Putin's puppet dance at the end of his strings. And see how his own puppets dance along, too, starting with Sanders. Has the country had a sadder spectacle?
3
This whole administration is a double negative—not only with Il Putinesco selling out to his master, but the entire administration...trashing the environment, kidnapping children at the border and then requiring their parent to pay the ransom of transport costs to getting them back, etc., etc. The creatures surrounding Il Putinesco (Pompeo, Bolton, and so on) aren’t much better when you come down to it.
1
If Mr. Blow imagines that we are in danger of losing our democracy owing to the actions of Donald Trump, I have a news flash for him and others who think similarly: We lost our “democracy” LONG AGO.
We now have an “inverted totalitarianism,” also known as a “managed democracy” or “guided democracy:”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
Whether the Democrats or Republicans are in power, each party is ultimately in the thrall to corporations and their dollars, NOT to “the people.”
Why do you think that NOTHING ever really changes irrespective of WHO is in power?
NYT readers—and Charles Blow—who imagine that they will somehow “save” democracy by voting out the Republicans and voting in the Democrats, will be sorely disappointed:
“Say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss,” the “new boss” owned pretty much by the same old money, which is still working quietly in the wings to further its OWN interests rather than those of “the people.”
“Save democracy?” There’s no democracy left to “save.”
3
So now it is treasonous, and sufficient to engender a “crisis,” to question the findings and allegations of US intelligence agencies and prosecutors (the same intelligence agencies that got the US into the Iraq war - which I also recalled engendered a “crisis,” a real one, for the world)!? Where will this perverted mentality end?
2
Our Manchurian candidate is now our Manchurian president. We mustn't fall into the "analysis paralysis" zone. American Democracy is currently poisoned but it is still salvageable. Vote the Russian puppet and his sycophants out.
3
How’s this for a double negative: Why not not be president anymore?
12
It was clear from the outset of Trump's campaign that he would be uncontrollable. What many people didn't expect was that the GOP-controlled Congress would be so complicit and spineless in selling us out.
3
It is a given that government of the people can exist only when the people actually think for themselves. Simply following a strong-man's every whim is not thinking. Simply going along with the party is not thinking.
The nation finds itself captive to the charisma and lies of an autocrat who enjoys unquestioned support of a party. There is no place for thinking people of integrity in the Republican party. Because it stands against democracy and republicanism, and only for Trump, that party must be repudiated at all levels and by all courageous people of integrity.
1
"Trump will remain the hero of white, Republican, racist America."
OK, that statement does not describe me or my political convictions, so I can opine that it is statements like these that are the reason why racism in the US is live and well and will probably never go away.
Because someone else could write with equal justification:
"Obama will remain the hero of black, Democratic, racist America."
And I would consider that equally offensive as your own statement where you lump Trump, white and racist together.
Be honest, racism helps both groups to control the members of their respective tribes. There is nothing like a common enemy. Unfortunately, for you Trump is not enough, you have to use him to attack everyone who is white.
As if skin color would make a difference!
One aspect of Mr. Trump that Mr. Blow did not mention is the question of the legitimacy of his election. We know that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin have been conspiring together for 10 years or more, that Mr. Putin invested many millions of Russian rubles in Mr. Trump, that Mr. Putin and his henchmen interfered with the 2016 presidential election and that interference likely won the election for Mr. Trump. We know that Mr. Trump meets secretly with Mr. Putin when they are in the same place at the same time. We know that Mr. Trump NEVER DISAGREES with Mr. Putin, although Mr. Trump DISAGREES WITH ALMOST EVERYONE ELSE. In theory, Mr. Trump works for the American people; we pay for his house, his transportation, his travel. So how can people approve of Mr. Trump's worship of Mr. Putin as, at the same time, he disregards, the people of the United States?
1
Education and intelligence are over rated, people possessing both are impotent in the face of Trump, the heir to Reagan, the master dog whistler. We can whine and complain and protest all we want, but to what effect? Only the vote will count eventually.
2
"Who are you gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes?"
That is Trump's default position, mostly via the repulsive Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The two of them lie with such facility it boggles the mind that they are at the pinnacle of our government's power.
As has been pointed out by other voices here, voting must wait and the results thereof take time to have effect. What must happen immediately is a mass resignation not only at the White House but all departments of the Federal government. Yes, of course, I realize how difficult that would be for so many people economically and, for most, emotionally. And, yes, the replacements if and when they come might be with far worse people. But something of that magnitude might...might...rouse the Republican cowards in Congress to finally give up and recall their oaths of office.
1
How long will it take for everybody to realize that in the case of Trump, there are no shades of grey, only the darkest darkness. His lies are blatantly out there in the open, his loyalties are not to his country but first and foremost to his own family & business interests, then to his most rabid supporters and finally to some special & foreign interests, his character is so dishonorable that you would not trust him with anything you hold dear. Before he became president, it was easy to dismiss him as a sad clown. Now that he is president, the destructive power that comes with is position is probably one of the most frightening things that this century will witness. I cannot wait to see him removed from this position of power, and for the world to regain some sanity. Whether it will take a massive vote of no confidence, a decision of justice or some divine intervention, he has to go before irreversible harm is done to the world. The easiest way seems through voting. Americans who are still sane of mind, please vote.
1
Opinions (aka:alternative facts) vs. FACTS!...Republican and Trump have turned this weapon into a dark art. The double standard is astonishing and frightening. If the tables were turned and this was a Democratic Administration, Republicans & Democrats alike "would" (not wouldn't) be screaming from the mountain tops for accountability and action. Choosing party over country...shame on most of you Republicans and Trump disciples.
What seems to be overlooked so frequently is that aligning with Russia is not selling out if what you support is an American white ethnostate. Russia is the most powerful "white" country and their leader is "strong" in the way that strongmen are. This is not selling out to the growing portion of the Republican base that wants white strength, rather aligning with Russia is the natural course because they are our most natural ally, if you believe as these people do.
2
Being a friend to, or working for, or having anything to do with Donald Trump is a lousy deal, because he is not loyal to anyone but himself.
On the other hand, the folks at Fox News and elsewhere, they are in no way loyal to Donald Trump. Like Trump himself, they are among the worst friends a person could have.
Since Monday, Fox News and the rest of them, they have probably figured out that Trump is a loose cannon, if he is capable of speaking well of Putin, so they are probably trying to figure out how they can cut themselves loose from a sinking ship.
Yeah....how dare they play back tapes of Trump's own words when what really counts is only what he says he said.....even though he says he never said it.
2
Allow me to parrot a favorite talking point of the Right, and remind Democrats of the Constitutional fact that the Second Amendment isn’t about hunting. Should push come to shove, and the unthinkable happens, one must bear this in mind.
The Left/Dems are hysterical because the incompetent and lazy candidate they anointed to run against President Trump failed miserably, and also predictably.
Everyday there is something new that sets off the hysteria against President Trump. Normal Americans and even normal democrats have become numb to the hysteria. It is the "boy who cried wolf" syndrome. No one is buying the hysteria any longer.
The hysterical Left cannot even honestly look at the improvements in the economy, the defeat of ISIS, and the historically low unemployment rates that President Trump's policies have brought the American people.
The hysterical Left is in a fit of rage and resistance, because Hillary would have solidified Obama's childish vision of a socialist utopia for America, "fundamentally changing America".
So the hysterical state of the Left/Dems is understandable. As they see President Trump's policies bearing positive fruit for the American people, and the possibility that he could name 2 to 4 new Supreme Court justices, during his two terms.
The Obama intelligence holdovers are hysterical because they could be exposed for working to damage a presidential candidate during the campaign.
Regardless, the hysteria of the Left is getting old. Most of us normal people are just going about our business and seeing the positive effects of President Trump's policies. But if you listen to the hysterical MSM, everyday they are just beside themselves.
1
The absurdity and terror of this situation is bewildering and appalling, beyond anything that could be dreamed up by Steven King. Here we have a possibly deranged carnival barker as president backed by 40 percent of our population working actively to sell us out to a dictator and KGB agent who over the decades has sworn to destroy our democracy and way of life, someone who murders his enemies who have escaped to foreign countries and has invaded countries at will. And our Congressional enablers sit back on their hands as if stuck in cement. People yell and tare out their hair in the NYT and pray that we will stop them by winning an election that may be rigged, all we can do. We are little people who must stand together. Is there anyone up there with the power to save us? Reality is indeed more horrifying than fiction and this is not fake news.
2
re: behind closed doors, that's right. And we should all be very deeply concerned about what was said there.
What deals did this man make. What state secrets did he tell. What agreements did he make to obtain yet more influence of this enemy in the 2018 elections and beyond.
Did he compromise this nation's defenses? Did he compromise its technical secrets?
In this case I am told that the translator and note taker were one in the same - inasmuch as is possible, this person needs to be subpoenaed by Congress to testify about what was said - and her notes, which are the property of the People (not, as Trump would undoubtedly say, his private property) should be subpoenaed also.
4
As we have seen before, another excellent article by Charles Blow. But this time, it is also a frightening one.
We all saw it plainly play out on our televisions a few days ago, the cringe-making scene of the US President kowtowing to the Russian leader.
As Charles says, Trump is hostage to Putin and unfortunately, we are hostage to Trump. All this while the Republican Congress cowers in fear of another of the master's tweets.
What has America, once considered a great democracy, come to?
4
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy articulated very clearly a few days ago the real danger - globally - of this summit even taking place. It is quite obvious what Putin's goals are with respect to the EU and NATO. And when the head of state of the US becomes his marionette, that has consequences not just nationally, but beyond, for all our allies who had been counting on our leadership and leverage to deter aggression by the notoriously aggressive Russian government. Since the conclusion of this disastrous summit, and all the walk-backs of (mis)statements issuing forth from Trump and his mouthpieces inside and outside Congress, it is abundantly clear that there is NO attention being paid to the global reach of the President's blatant behavior by the President. Trump and his minions are leaning hard on controlling the 24-hour news cycle, even as they distract us from the long view, and torch all the trust, confidence and good will that we we built with Europe for the last 75 years. I hate to think that November may come too late.
7
My daddy always used to say that in a democracy you get the democracy you deserve. I still believe we live in an independent, democratic country but 'annoyingly' about 40% remain rock solid behind Trump and all the unpleasantness Mr. Blow and others describe.
Let's by all means vote Trump's GOP out, but that only addresses the symptoms; the core issue is that a very significant number of americans who currently support this awfulness will not simply go away.
This is no longer just about differences of opinion on policy.
7
It looks like Putin holds the Trump cards.
9
Trump makes me ashamed to be a White American.
5
@ed: He makes me ashamed to be an American, period.
This has nothing to do with race. He's a disgrace to our entire country. And everyone in it.
1
(Contd) I believe all this controversy is a lead-up to WWIII, but oddly enough Russia will not be our adversary but our ally against China whose economic and imperialist ambitions will clash with ours. The NYT called Trump “Putin’s lackey,” but it will be the other way around. China’s motive is revenge for its humiliation and exploitation by Britain and US during the 19th century. Ironically, it will probably end up as a subjugated state once again with the US and Russia dividing it up just as it did Germany after WWII. History always repeats itself but in unexpected ways.
Trump has told the truth only once: " I can shoot someone on 5th avenue, and they will still vote for me"
He proves this every day. He is incompetent, amoral, ignorant, racist and egotistical, to name a few.
But, no matter, his Republican base supports him. They want us to ignore his words and judge his actions.
Really, ok, how about we ignore his denials of collusion and judge his actions.
I am afraid though, there will be no democratic wave, as the democrats are moving hard left.
5
Read number six in the Offcial Brussels Summit Declaration.
NATO nations are variously cognizant that "the Euro-Atlantic security environment has become less stable and predictable as a result of Russia’s illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea and ongoing destabilization of eastern Ukraine; its military posture and provocative military activities, including near NATO borders,... its significant investments in the modernisation of its strategic forces; its irresponsible and aggressive nuclear rhetoric; its large-scale, no-notice snap exercises; and the growing number of its exercises with a nuclear dimension. This is compounded by Russia’s continued violation, non-implementation, and circumvention of numerous obligations and commitments in the realm of arms control and confidence- and security-building measures. Russia is also challenging Euro-Atlantic security and stability through hybrid actions, including attempted interference in the election processes, and the sovereignty of our nations, as was the case in Montenegro, widespread disinformation campaigns, and malicious cyber activities." And much more.
But do they put their money where their mouths are, as Trump would have them do?
if Trump is more loyal to Russia, our adversary, than to the USA, or if he puts himself and his personal interests above his responsibilities to the country... well, how are we supposed to tell that from treason, from high crimes, from violation of his oath of office? is this something you have to know golf to understand, or is it staring us in the face and daring us to name it treason?
throw the bum out NOW. don't wait! there is much more to come out, but not before much more damage is done.
or are we Americans to conclude Republicans in the House just don't care if their president is Manchurian as long as they get tax cuts and favors to dirty industries and a promise to keep the lower orders down?
6
Another "sort of double negative" is endlessly avoiding the word impeachment in order to dodge and thus deny its imperative salience.
2
Trump himself is a double negative. He is utterly concerned only with himself, and he is uncaring about the actual effect this has on anyone else. He is also ignorant of simple facts and holds the truth in complete disregard ( shall we revise the term to quadruple?). Not all double negatives revert back to being positive.
4
Oh Clarice, you look tired and confused.
Clarice dear, I didn't say what you just heard me say.
Please dear, relax. Go to my inventory of tweets and select a version that comforts you.
Honey, you need rest. Stay home and get strong. Don't listen to the bleating of the lambs.
1
Trumpism isn't a political movement at this point, it's a cult.
That's why they defend him no matter what he says or does.
A not so slow roll toward fascism.
8
I do totally agree with you and love your column. but don't forget the big $$$ behind "the person who occupies the White House" as I prefer to call him. These folks/companies/CEOs/Board members are truly global. The US is of little importance to them compared to tax relief anywhere. They now got it here and everything else they wanted. The rest (and this is in no way meant to minimize the institutionalized racism of the country) really are just pawns puppets, voting consistently against their own self interests and beholden to any politician who promises to better their lot by scapegoating minorities and denying health care and the rights of women (again this falls most heavily on the poor). Good piece in today's paper about white working class folks who are not racist (again not to deny the extensiveness of racism)
Hey Charles — this matter won’t sink Trump.
Maybe it’s time go back with the Stormy Daniels caper.
1
maybe we should all learn Russian
Mr Blow,
I just started reading, It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis unfortunately your article could be its foreword.
We are now living in a U.S. and world that could not be imaged
10 years ago.
I am not a religious man, but God help us...
3
"Trump’s base of supporters has an undying loyalty to him because he has the same for them."
Trump loyal to anyone but himself? No way.
4
Double speak is a reduction from Trump's usual blather.
Trump has tweeted about Putin:
November 2013: “I do have a relationship”
March 2014: “Putin even sent me a present”
(Putin just said in his Helsinki interview with Chris Wallace that he didn't even know Trump was in Moscow).
May 2014: “I spoke … with President Putin” “I was in Russia, I was in Moscow recently. And I spoke indirectly — and directly — with President Putin."
November 2015: “I got to know him very well”
THEN CAME THE OLD TRUMP QUADRUPLE SPEAK:
July 2016: “I don’t know who Putin is”
July 2016: “I have no relationship with him”
October 2016: “I don’t know Putin.”
February 2017: “I don’t know Putin”
C'mon Trump fans, tell us how all of the conflicting Trump statements can be true.
4
Mr. Blow, tell us what you want to do to Russia? (Or other foreign threats.) Go wild. Let it out. Let it all out. Tell us all the things you would not say when Obama was President. Because it can be done, you believe it. If you won’t, then no will believe that you’re anything more than a political hack.
@Ed, additional sanctions, especially against the oligarchs in Putin's inner circle. And enforce the sanctions already in place.
I'm concerned about the all or nothing mentality of many on the right. We can make our boundaries clear without threatening all out war. What Putin fears most is sanctions, because kleptocracy is how he stays in power.
There's nothing more dangerous than allowing Putin to believe he can get away with whatever he wants, from invading one of the Baltic states to attacking U.S. elections.
1
"This is truly an American crisis moment."
Belay the histrionics. I'm neither a Trump voter nor supporter in anyway. But I'm discerning enough to see that the latest Dem/media pile is as contrived as the charge that Trump has committed treason. One need only check the Constitution to dispel Mr. Blow's and his Democrat handlers' crises: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."
Regardless of Putin's meddling in U.S. elections, Russia is no more an "enemy" of the United States than China or Iran, which meddle profusely. Pronouncing any nation not at war with the United States as an enemy is provocative and can lead to war. Blow's effort to paint a"crisis" plays into the hands of war mongers and the military industrial complex (MIC).
If the NYT and its columnists want to dump Trump, go after him for his thugish imposition of tariff taxes on the American people to placate his cronies and large campaign contributors. In order to do that and not come off as preening hypocrites, NYT boys and girls will have to forthrightly embrace the economics of free trade, and condemn interference in the market by government. If you need to learn why free trade is always beneficial to Ameroca, check out the information on free trade at such Austrian economic institutions as The Foundation for Economic Education (https://fee.org/) and the Ludwig von Mises Institute (https://mises.org/).
1
@Ned Netterville, there's nothing histrionic about calling this an American crisis moment, nor is it hyperbole to call Russia an enemy. Russia is engaged in cyber warfare against the U.S., and adhering to or aiding an enemy of the state (Article III, Section 3, U.S. Constitution) is the very definition of treason. There is no requirement that an enemy be engaged in physical war against the U.S. However, if you're arguing that treason is seldom charged, I agree.
If you don't consider the potential allegiance of the president to a hostile foreign power a crisis, what would you call it?
It's petty to continue to use "Democrat" as an adjective, and it undercuts what you say.
2
That Donald Trump is a vile, supremely narcissistic and creepy individual who lies incessantly is not in question. His misogyny and blatant sexism is incontrovertible. That he treats those who disagree with him as mortal enemies is also not disputable. While it is pointless to debate whether Trump truly is a racist and champion of white supremacy since he routinely makes racist and xenophobic remarks while supporting policies that undermine those who are not Caucasian, it's not entirely clear if Trump's racism is driven more by irrational fear and ignorance or political expediency (to manipulate his white working class base which one assumes harbors intense racial bias overall). Trump's pathological need for unwavering loyalty, adulation and validation from others might lead one to believe that if he saw some larger political advantage by embracing people of color while eschewing the white working class, he would position himself as the white savior of civil rights.
The Helsinki submission summit--or "When Bullwinkle Met Fearless Leader" was the biggest affront to American democracy and our allies by an American President in history. Double or quadruple negatives aside, the Trump/Russia smoking gun of collusion seems more warm gun than just smoke now. When a sitting President praises the offer by a murderous despot to assist in the investigation of the crime the despot committed against America, something so incredible & so awful just occurred that it defies belief.
6
Donald Trump is made up of all of the bad qualities you'd find in a population of detestable people. Trump is evil, immoral malevolent, a serial liar, disloyal, treacherous, greedy, lazy, stupid yet arrogant, vain, delusional, a bully, a coward, racist, misogynist, and I'm certain to be missing many more. All of these traits were on display during the campaign of 2016, yet 63% of white men, and 53% of white women, gleefully voted for Trump. These people voted for Trump for his hate mongering, racism, sexism and white supremacy. These white voters swooned with the promise of white supremacy manifested by Trump, and they still support him, in spite of the tragedy that Trump's presidency OBVIOUSLY is. Racism and hate is alluring and always toxic. Read history.
5
And Trump says he will have another meeting with Putin. Oh how I hope so. This would be the nail in the coffin of his presidency, which can't come too soon.
4
The Republicans are risking both the country and the planet. The base is so star truck with this impostor and so prejudiced and fearful of risking their white supremacy that they are jeopardizing our country's and the free world's future. The Republican congress not only puts the country at risk by not upholding the constitution and impeaching Trump they also deny climate change and risk the future of the planet. Shameful.
4
Even as a life-long atheist, I find myself praying everyday for a savior to present him/herself. I still have hope, Mueller and the porn star will come through.
5
So we had to have a years long investigation into the tragic deaths in Benghazi because Clinton did not do enough to prevent the terrorist attacks that killed the ambassador.
But now the US government is considering handing over a former ambassador to an authoritarian lawless regime that kills its opponents because why???
1
Trump now saying he will meet again with Putin, obviously designed to correct his mistakes with phony prepared remarks.
Putin will go along with this charade, as it would further Putin's agenda of influencing our elections. How do you spell C O L L U S I O N?
1
Picture this: Monday he absolves Putin. Tuesday he re-affirms it. Wednesday his minions spend feverish hours crafting a statement to back him away from the mess. They finally come up with a word exchange: "wouldn't" for "would". but they forget to mangle the rest of the original statement to fit the new fantasy. "He just said it's not Russia" would have to become: "Although he just said it's not Russia". That then fits the following re-invented sentence. The clowns have once again stumbled over their own idiocy.
2
Blow joins the march for war. No price too high to ding Trump. We are now at the point where Pat Buchanan is the voice of reason. The "Liberals" have only hate, insult, paranoia, hyperbole, lies, mis-direction, and on and on.
http://buchanan.org/blog/trump-calls-off-cold-war-ii-129662
I encourage readers to open their minds a bit.
https://tomluongo.me/2018/07/18/russia-insanity-treason-wasnt/
@Daphne, the choice isn't between war and being a shameless apologist for Putin. We can be realists (Putin is a brutal dictator with ambitions of undermining Western democracies) and we can impose limits on Putin's behavior short of war.
In fact the most dangerous thing you can do with someone like Putin is make him believe that he can continue his behavior without consequences. That's how you get pulled into a war.
1
@Daphne - You forgot “up is down”, “left is right”, and “We have always been at war with Eastasia.” There, now you have the full list of Republican counterfactual talking points.
2
Let's see how this plays out on the ground.
I predict that this administration will make a very serious effort --even more serious than Obama's efforts, which were multiple, if woefully unsuccessful--to figure out how to protrect our cyber-security.
Here are some of the reasons Obama's efforts failed:
"... it is essentially impossible for government to keep up with the evolution and expansion of the threats. As Rosenzweig put it ...“government moves at 60 miles per hour and Internet innovation moves at 6,000 miles per hour.”
Others say that gap is larger by orders of magnitude.
Aaron Tantleff a partner in the Cybersecurity Practice at Foley & Lardner, added that given, “mass connectivity amongst devices via the Internet of Things, lack of security of all sorts of other devices and the lack of sufficiently trained cybersecurity experts, no wonder there’s vulnerability.”
...It is tough for government to manage the online security of critical infrastructure when much of it is in private hands. Instead of mandates, with significant penalties for failure to comply with them, government mainly issues advisories and recommendations.
...It is tough for government to compete with the private sector for talent.
...For aspiring and experienced IT staff, the private sector is simply a much more lucrative and attractive career option.https://www.csoonline.com/article/3162844/security/obamas-cybersecurity-...
"At least when I misspeak, when I walk it back? I remember to touch home."
~~Yogi Berra re #45
1
Recent data shows a growing warm-heartedness toward Russia by Trump’s GOP followers. In other words, individuals who grew up (correctly) seeing Russia as a threat, now feel OK about Putin, being drawn to his authoritarianism just as they like that of the anti-democratic Donald Trump. They may not know many specifics about Russia’s successful efforts to steal the 2016 election because research data also shows a wide majority of them do not stay informed by reading; nor do many follow or even know about the Mueller investigation. That is the problem: GOP-ers are now the most uninformed amongst us; or, worse, they only keep “current” from Sean Hannity and other fact-challenged Trump acolytes. And due to the vagaries of our outdated electoral system and it’s crown jewel, the electoral college, their political ignorance enjoys an importantly unequal clout in our political system. Therefore, not only is Donald Trump a traitor, so too is our outdated, slave-system-inspired electoral college. In concert with its political kissin’ cousin — the gerrymandered Congressional district—the electoral college provides fertile ground for treason to take root and grow exponentially, thanks to the electoral college-strengthened rural states.
3
Putin owns Trump. In 2005, Trump was bankrupt (financially as well as morally). He could not get a loan anywhere in the U.S. and only one single European bank would do it, albeit at astronomical interest rate. Putin bailed him out with $30 million; it is unlikely that any of it has been repaid, but Putin gave him more money, anyway. Putin bankrolled Trump's run to the presidency. Putin and his men sabotaged Hillary Clinton's run for the presidency by planting innuendos on Facebook. Putin won the election for Trump. Trump now owes Putin in a BIG way. Any questions?
4
“Trump’s base of supporters has an undying loyalty to him because he has the same for them.”
He does NOT have loyalty to them. He has an addiction to their fawning behavior toward him. If that stopped, he’d find another source of adoration, if any other exists outside of these deplorable “base” people. Furthermore, we all know that behind all this daily chaos and drama, he’s cutting and eliminating the very things that support these people’s lives, and they will come to know this because they will find the lack thereof in due time.
“Is he accountable to the American public or to a foreign republic?”
I think we know the answer. NO one will hold this monster accountable. Only the PEOPLE can hold him accountable by first voting his republican and corporate democrat support out, and then voting him out. I certainly do pray that he will somehow be DRIVEN out before his term is over and save us and the entire world from this nightmare.
3
Trump is just taking the path of Erdogan, another Putin disciple. Read the headline neighboring the one about our president’s latest outrage. Whether intentional or not, it shows that our two strongmen are joined at the hip in their commitment to destroy any semblance of democracy that stands in their way.
2
My parents fled the Soviet empire for the freedom of America. At least they never had to watch their beloved adopted country become a satellite of the Kremlin. But events that transpired beginning in Jan. 2017 bring special pain to me & so many others in similar circumstances.
3
"Let me be clear," said the President. "I don't not disapprove of what I would say or wouldn't say after meeting with strong admirable hero Putin. And by the way it is not true I ate every dog biscuit that Putin handed me during our private meeting. Some went into my pocket for later. Trump Hotel in Moscow? No comment but the kids are working on it."
2
Why should Russia help Trump get elected?A trump victory is certainly in Russian interest,Clinton as president would be worst for Russia,correct.Russia did what the USA does all over the world help governments get elected for U.S.interests and if America cannot change the rulers by elections or covert operations there is always invasions,assassinations or bombing.Remember Diem assassination,American interventions in Dominican Republic,Bay of Pigs,Iraq etc.and the bombing of Libya resulting in Quaffie death.What the Russian alleged done is make public by hacking what the Democratic did improperly help Clinton against Sanders be grateful to the Russians for making it known.
1
@barry napach, this comment is a classic example of whataboutism. We're not talking about Iran in the '50s or Viet Nam or the Bay of Pigs. Here in America we disagree about a lot. That's why we have elections--so that the American people can decide who they want to lead them. And that's why it's a serious felony for members of a foreign country to attack our elections.
It seems that many tropes repeated on our social media originated in St. Petersburg, as you remind us. Every Russian indicted in the Mueller investigation should be extradicted to the U.S. for trial.
Don’t forget for many Americans Obama was committed to Islam, Iran, Kenya, and other Muslim nations over the United States. They were convinced of this. The current President peddled in this bogus conspiracy theory.
Yet these same people refuse to have any belief that Trump has any preference of Russia over the US. Crazy.
3
Great column and insights Mr. Blow.
No doubt, Trump has thrown the Republic into a conundrum. Indeed, are we a democracy or a republic or an oligarchy, or what? This question has been festering for quite some time, however, with a history at least dating back to Reagan and the Republican Powers behind the Power. With the Surpeme Court's decision of "Citizens United", it is a "Fait Accompli".
This is what it is like to experience a bloddless coup, thanks to the mighty Republicans, and their endless supply of money and disregard for the Constitution. Trump is just the current face of the Party, a bit mindless with few morals or principles, a good description of what the Republican Party has become in its endless quest for greed and power, and yet more power.
Former President Carter has already stated his opinion: we are now an oligarchy. Surprised? If nothing is done this November, the ribbons will have been neatly tied on this new package. American citizens, in the end, have no one to blame except for themselves and their lazy attitude towards voting, civic responsibility, and lack of critical thinking skills.
2
What a great spy movie this will make! I only wish I would live long enough to see how it ends. Yet again, maybe I don’t want to know. In my 70+ years on the planet, I have never been more petrified of and embarrassed by what our country has become. Mr. Blow, your columns are what I look to as confirmation that I have not accidentally slipped into an alternate reality or senility. This is it folks. This twisted up-is-down man is having his way with us, and tilting at windmills is not working. What will you do??
5
So, what must we do to rid ourselves of the Republican plague?
2
Win more elections in red states.
Play hardball politics.
Get out the vote.
Be prepared for GOP dirty tricks and ongoing attempts to steal elections.
1
First point is that whoever wins a U.S. president election will protect the U.S. And whoever wins a Russian election will protect Russia. So it doesn’t matter who wins.
Second point is that if expert government computer hackers can get into another country’s computers the most important valuable information to hack is about that country’s defense system. This would be information on type of airplanes, war ships, submarines, weapons, nuclear missile sites, soldiers, tanks, etc.
Which do you think is most important?
After Trump said what he said, “they” (Trump and his crowd) were in bad situation. Even the clowns at Fox News were upset by what he said. And Newt Gingrich too.
So then “they” came up with a scatter brained plan to get out of the bad situation. The plan to say that he “misspoke”.
After that they were where they are now, in an even worse situation.
It is just the nicest story around, because you get to see that they are stupid, and that they are liars.
And indirectly, all this sprays all over Fox News and New Gingrich, and all the other blazing idiots that endorsed him.
A great story. But yet, how unfortunate it is that he is our President, and things got this bad.
6
On the anniversary of our signing of the Declaration of Independence, Republican Congressional leaders were in Moscow, all but signing documents of surrender to a Russian despot. Now, we know what the dustbin of history smells like!
3
.... these Trump supporters are "Christians" and they have "Christian" values...
"Is he accountable to the American public or to a foreign republic?"
Charles, I assume that's a rhetoricl question.
2
The President of the United States is a traitor, and the entire Republican Party are willing accomplices. There is no "kinder, gentler" way to say it, and "civility" be damned.
5
I wish there was a recording of Trump and his acolytes as they discussed how Trump could redeem himself from his comments when speaking on the same stage as Putin. How many other asinine ideas did they come up with and reject to finally settle on the n't defense. I'm sure a sitcom could be created from this discussion.
3
Your column is as clear and penetrating as ever, Mr. Blow. Which therefore makes its conclusions powerful and authoritative. There is no one I look forward to reading every new day more than you. Your nuanced take on our cultural and national crisis is one of the best available. Along with Fareed Zakaria's, your voice is both descriptive and prophetic, twin features of the best analysis.
5
Despite all the current sound and fury, Russia is our natural ally as it was during WII. China is rapidly building up its military capability as it pushes up against American and Russian interests in the South China Sea. Right now for political reasons Russia is anathema, but when push comes to shove our interests in the region lie more with Russia than with China if no other reason than that Russia needs us more than China does. After a period of continued Chinese expansionism there will be a final clashing of interests which will unite Russia and the US in a military solution to the problem. As before, Russia with its huge population will be the workhorse, and America will be the “equestrian” guiding the reins. When that happens, you’d be surprised how quickly the anti-Russian propaganda will turn anti-Chinese. The American public is very manipulable. Just look at the propaganda machine that went into third gear after Pearl Harbor which gave us an excuse to enter the war. As history teaches, there is always a convenient Pearl Harbor to rouse public opinion. We will look back on the current controversy over Russia as a quaint return to the outmoded geopolitics of the Thirties. I realize Trump is taking the heat right now, but I think he knows where all this is going.
1
@Ed I respectfully disagree. An ally does not try to subvert your political system nor control your president. China is a force to be reckoned with, but even in WWII ally is maybe a little strong for what we were with Russia. Soon as the war was over they were an enemy.
3
@Ed, what a strange prediction. Putin is a rightwing dictator determined to reestablish Russian power. He supports neo-fascist and nationalist movements across Europe and America, from Marine Le Pen to Gert Wilders to New Dawn. He's determined to undermine the Atlantic alliance and NATO. There's no way we're going to be allies while Putin is in power.
We're in economic competition with China, and I have no doubt that competition will heat up as more nations turn from the U.S. to China for stable partnerships. However, China is an essential trading partner for us, and vice-versa. I can't see why that would devolve into war.
Obviously Trump has no idea where any of this is going. I suspect he's compromised by Russia, so he's looking out for his own interests. However, the news about Russian election interference is not propaganda. It's journalism.
I blame the election of a populist charlatan like Trump, directly on the Left. The 'average joe' is getting extremely fed up with Identity Politics, Political Correctness, and all that type nonsense. Also, working class people feel the Democrats have abandoned them, which they of course have. Not the Republicans will help them either, but it appears they were willing to spin the roulette wheel at least.
2
@Benson
With Trump at the wheel we are playing Russian Roulette.
You seem to be backing off your "treason" and "traitor" accusations just a little bit. Don't. Stick with them. They are right on, compelling, and the truth -- and they require action. They need to be repeated and reiterated continually until this horror show is finally ended.
4
@Jc Violent words can lead to violent deeds. Perhaps, just perhaps that Dem. Precinct Captain, Sanders supporter, who opened fire on the baseball diamond almost 2 years ago was inspired, motivated by venomous, anti TRUMP editorials he happened to read in a liberal newspaper, or by tirade bya talk show host on MSNBC or CNN. Who knows? Sadly, there is a commentator on MSNBC who publicly declared that Cong. Steve Scalise, who barely survived the fusillade, intimated that he had it coming since he was a strong supporter of gun rights and the Second Amendment. She is still on the air!FN would have sacked anyone for intimating that it was o.k. to shoot a Congressman in a heartbeat because of his views. But MSNBC will tolerate anyone who opposes conservatism! But to return to the causal relationship between the word and the deed, Robert Paxton who wrote about the "epuration" which followed the liberation of France from the Third Reich wrote that it was "men of the word,"propagandists who faced firing squads, journalists like Robert Brasillach and Jean Luchaire who were the primary targets of the Resistance in 1945. 1 must always be careful to choose 1's words carefully.Violent words can and do lead to violent acts! In my published comment, I also noted the vapidity of Mr. Blow's writing, since he never takes on policy, but confines himself to ad hominem insults, seldom factually based.
1
With 500 (and counting) known hate groups in our country, many millions of semi-auto assault weapons and doubts concerning the loyalties of those sworn to protect us, what is keeping Congress from fulfilling it's duty to preserve the republic during these dire circumstances? Instead they sit on their hands, or pray the next news cycle will change the subject and provide them cover. Very soon they will be returning to their homes to shake our hands and raise that all important money for their reelection campaigns. Do not let them off the hook. Resist and revise their thinking. The threat to America grows every day and we must reestablish our nation as a country where no man, or organization is above the law. Look at Turkey for the model Trump wishes to emulate.
3
Mr. Trump's only motivation is to enrich himself, all other ancillary activities around his primal goal are coincidental. Likewise the GOP's primary motivation is to stay in power and serve their largest campaign donors. The DNC will make sure the banks get their cut of the action. The USA is no longer a functioning republic for anyone with less than a multi million net worth. Without campaign finance reform our macabre charade will continue to be played out on TV news. At some point our banks will no longer be a safe haven for money launders.
The scariest thing is that as President, Donald has access to the United States' greatest secrets and we have already seen he has no problem divulging confidential material to Russian - he did that very early in his presidency. The United States now must assume that the Russians already have every secret they ever wanted to know. Thanks Donald.
5
Trump's statement of his correction--changing "would" to "wouldn't"--transforms his original sentence into an extreme statement that he would of course assume Russian interference in our 2016 election.
Here is Trump's own version of his corrected sentence: "I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia." This new sentence clearly means, "I see every reason why it would be Russia." [The "it" refers to the 2016 actions of election interference.] Two negatives make a positive.
Trump has "corrected" his statement into a radical indictment against Russia. How absurd to believe, even for a moment, that this "correction" expresses Trump's own thoughts. No. The Big Lie, once more.
5
At all coming WH press conferences, the first and last question to ask of SHS is, "What does Putin have on Trump?"
Keep asking it.
Be relentless.
Keep asking it until she gives us a clear complete answer:
"What does Putin have on Trump?"
When she obfuscates, tries to change the subject, the response is, "I'll try this again. A very simple and direct question.
What - does - Putin - have - on - Trump?"
3
Webster's definition of insanity is "Definition of insanity
plural insanities
1 dated : a severely disordered state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder
2 law : unsoundness of mind or lack of the ability to understand that prevents one from having the mental capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or that releases one from criminal or civil responsibility
3 a : extreme folly or unreasonableness the insanity of violence His comments were pure insanity.
b : something utterly foolish or unreasonable the insanities of modern life" Perhaps it is time to compel trump to submit to tests to determine if he is legally insane. It seems to me that his behavior has demonstrated many of the characteristics of the insane.
1
This man has been betraying the United States since before he was a candidate, with his birther and other lies. Now in a position of power, he alienates our allies and cozies up to our enemies, making a show of doing something when he's really done very little that is useful.
This is the worse presidency in the history of our country. He needs to go and so do those Republicans who refuse to rein him in and protect our country.
They have all violated their oaths of office.
6
"I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I said I meant"
Alan Greenspan
So you see, Trump was simply quoting a highly regarded economist. Genius.
4
Do we know what happened in the Trump/Putin Summit in Helsinki? No witnesses on the one-on-one meet except for 2 translators. Where's the beef? We need a gritty journalist who will sink his or her teeth into the Russian connection, and just as Deep Throat gave Watergate to the nation through Woodward and Bernstein, will give us the unvarnished truth about Trump's past with the Russians in his businessman decades. President Trump knuckled under to Vladimir Putin on "the new day in American Infamy" -- 16 July 2018 -- in Helsinki. What will today and tomorrow bring?
I often have self-reflection after reading Charles' Op-Eds, sorting through the latest atrocious actions of Mr. Trump, I can't make sense of what it is exactly that prompts POTUS, whether it be, as Charles noted, promoting racial insecurity and hostility, or whether tossing McFaul to Putin without a thought to how Trump's convoluted thinking could topple our democracy. I wonder whether we can make a citizen's arrest on our president, because it is pretty clear the GOP has lost their way.
3
Vote, vote, vote in November. This is the only way to start the way out.
9
Of course we know what he meant in his Monday statement. We heard it. We read it. There was no “mis-speaking.” But it would be fun to know who among his minions came up with the “double negative” defense. My money is on Kellyanne Conway. She seems to be the most creative and outrageous of all his flacks.
17
I don't think it is fair to lump all of Trump's supporters as racist as some of them were said to have voted for President Obama at least once if not twice. The fear of white America, I think, is understandable even if they hand their lives and livelihood to the false "prophet".
On the other hand I don't think it is even a question that if Trump is not an Manchurian president he at least feels threaten by what Putin/Russia may have on him. By that, I don't mean the infamous "dossier" but perhaps money, the only thing valuable in the Trump family book.
2
Trump the Traitor has made his grand strategy clear to all who care to bear witness. Subordinate the national policy of the United States to the will of the Russian Oligarchy.
Trumps businesses were failing business which could not stay afloat without the infusion of at least $425 million in cash plus doing illegal loans and money laundering from Russians. Trump is in it as any god Godfather is, to enhance wealth and influence and support his failing business empire. Thus, He uses his power of mass psychology to distort reality and manipulate the minds of his followers, like any good demigod. It's his business rescue plan.
Hence Putin's great plot to elevate Trump to President, get him to remove sanctions and then pay back his benefactor with a Green light to annex whatever countries he wishes. There is no opposition, the Republican Party as we knew it doesn't exist any longer . It should change its name to the Trumpist Turncoats.
All good Americans need to rise up and impeach our modern version of Benidict Arnold.
2
This is what happens when a “like, really smart” person that hasn’t mastered his native language, is elected president.
8
@Jim Watson
Trump's native language is selfishness and I think he has shown himself to be fluent.
His English skills would surely be better if he had gone to Jamaica High School, the neighborhood public high school) instead of being sent to military reform school upstate. did they even take the Regents?
The position of DJT on the relative importance of ally versus russia is very accurately demonstrated in two photos. The first showed the "gracious" DJT stepping in front of the Queen on the review field. The second photo was taken in Helsinki where the, again, "gracious" DJT backed off and let his idol, Putin, pass through the door in the lead. Compare this action to that of an earlier conference where DJT pushed his way to the front of the group photo through several other attendees. Body language is the most important communicator folks. It is clear that DJT is a Putin acolyte.
4
July 16, 2018, a date which will live in infamy.
7
Trump said on that fateful descent from the escalator that, among other qualifications, that he had 'the best words'. And so few of them!
Now, he just stated twice in succession that Putin had made 'an incredible offer"!!!
Act now, Trump, and he'll throw in a set of Ginsu knives. But wait! That's not all....
2
"Trump will remain the hero of white, Republican, racist America."
This sums it up nicely and it tells you who we're up against.
Because everyone else hates the guy, and thats most of us.
5
Misogynist, misogynist, misogynist! Hasn't worked.
Racist, racist, racist! Hasn't worked.
Tax cheat, tax cheat, tax cheat! Hasn't worked.
Now it treason, treason, treason.
Treason: "the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family"
To quote the administration that weaponized the IRS, attempted to put monitors among news editors, and utterly failed perhaps even deliberately to take countermeasures to Russia meddling, "there's not a smidgeon of evidence" of any act of treason.
There is no "little treason". Calling Trump a traitor is calling for his incarceration, prosecution, and execution. I don't know whether Blow wishes to see this new accusation translate simply to mass voter disapproval or prosecution to it's full punishment. But it's clear in almost every Blow editorial that he has racial hatred that will never heal.
Trump's performance in Helsinki and his follow up back in the White House were abysmal. They clearly and painfully expose political ineptitude that cannot be corrected by walking back select comments. If Trump continues to see everything through the lens of a witch hunt to the point of repeatedly throwing the home team under the bus, Republicans need to find a replacement.
When that happens one thing is certain, Blow will find cause to spew the same venom then as he does now.
@GeorgeB Purdell
Article 3 Section 3, the U.S. Constitution:
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, _or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort._
Russia is an enemy; you can figure out the rest...
@GeorgeB Purdell, I'm confused by your claim that "in almost every Blow editorial (Blow) has racial hatred that will never heal."
What are you talking about? Where in this column did you see any racism from Charles Blow?
So, Blow keeps upping the fuel intake into his political flamethrower. Anyone who is Republican, and anyone who voted for Trump, is a racist and a traitor?
Seems to me, rather dangerous territory to walk your readers into.
Unhinged, at best. Well, thanks NYT, for running this as your LEAD op-ed this morning. I will never read another Blow piece.
4
Except he didn’t say “anyone” who voted for Trump was “racist and a traitor”. He said such people make up a significant portion of the GOP and the “traditional” Republicans are too afraid to stand up to or challenge Trump for fear of alienating that portion of the constituency.
Now you may have issue with that characterization. If so, address that and not what you imagined or wanted him to have said.
7
@EHansk, really, that's all you took away from this op-ed piece? You have no comment on Trump's actions, words, lies? That you're not walking into that territory is what's dangerous, and the real point of Blow's piece.
1
I’m sorry but Mr. Blow speaks the truth. You folks need to own up to it.
2
The ignoramus Trump is (no surprise) ignorant about English grammar and usage. Here's an appropriate double negative that applies to Trump: He doesn't know nothing and he doesn't have no scruples.
8
Times have changed. The most vilified traitor in American history used to be Benedict Arnold.
Now it is Donald John Trump.
10
I will admit Trump uses inartful language and is a bull in a china shop, but the only treasonous activity on display here is by the NYT and Mr. Blow himself.
You've spent nearly the last 2 years going after this guy 24/7 on Russia collusion. You've used the smallest morsels of borscht to malign and disparage him and for no other reason than his political philosophy is 180 degrees different than Barack Obama's.
Get over it. He won. Elections matter.
6
@Erica Smythe
I'm a lifelong conservative, but if you believe in national sovereignty as conservatives are supposed to do, you don't assert sovereignty by making yourself a vassal state of Russia. Everything Putin wants is being handed to him on a silver platter. Specifically and most importantly, the undermining of NATO. These countries came to America's defense after 9/11 in Afghanistan. I wish Mueller would hurry up, but he has two rounds of indictments and the cooperation of Flynn and Cohen, and maybe Manafort. Fortunately, there are no leaks coming from Mueller's team. The media is going by their own evidence. There are documentaries made by respected Dutch and Australian news outlets out there. The Russian mob is not our friends.
9
@Erica Smythe Please note that in "going after this guy" many criminal acts have been un-covered and people have gone to jail. So, who are the traitors? Those that sell out our country. Trump just did it on Live, International TV. The ratings were stupendous. He is maligned and disparaged because he's destroying our country. EVERYBODY KNOWS HE WON THE ELECTION. That doesn't mean he isn't a traitor. It doesn't mean he gets a pass on his actions.
3
Trump in his one-on-one meeting with Putin:"Vlad, I will totally cover for you here while we appear together, but when I get back home I'll need to bash you a little in public to calm down our enemies. You understand, right?" Putin replies:"Of course, Donald, say whatever you need to, it's all good between us. Your secrets are safe with me. I know you and I are working together."
8
Trump is like an infectious disease routing our democracy.
7
Get him out of there - we have no idea what he has promisd Putin. aiding a foreign adversary=treason.
6
I learned the true nature of Trump that he is truly an imcompetent president from his handling of Kim Jung Un. Believe me, for us patriotic Koreans what he did with Kim Jung Un during that Singapore meeting was far more shameful and treachery than his meeting with Putin.
5
We black folks have sort of always known the truest fact about the whites that occupy the "heartland": they rather the country burn to the ground than allow any group of color to truly belong to it. What does Trump's base care if he allows Putin and his ilk to run our country? Putin is white, Russians are white. Where's the problem?
9
He is just lying and he thinks everyone is an idiot
we heard what you said and did
now Smokey Eyes Sanders is telling us that no
does not mean no.
Lying is what they do.
call them on it.
7
It is beyond belief that the President of the United States, who campaigned on making America great again, routinely lies in person and in his tweets, goes to Helsinki and essentially kowtows to the Russian dictator and lauds his “strong and powerful” but obviously false denial. Is Mr. Trump such a simpleton?
Next day, when he returns to the White House, irate demonstrators welcome him with shouts of traitor. To pacify them and the angry nation, Mr. Trump came up with a weird and lame explanation that he meant to use a double negative.
Does a well educated person routinely use double negatives in his language? Does Mr. Trump take the American public to be morons to be persuaded by such a stupid explanationt? Does he take the American public to be a flock of sheep?
3
Sour and dangerous words eructed from the oral orifice of the self-proclaimed most articulate, intelligent, suave, debonair, wealthy, sophisticated president ever ... ERUCTATION. Why are we allowing him and his ilk remain in office? But, know that his lackeys, especially he who could replace him immediately, and the coterie are even more dangerous because they are the "brains" behind what is going on. Silent, and deadly. Just like many eructations from either end.
1
Putin is a thug and trump just proved he is Putin’s toadie.
Probably time for a few more campaign trips to soothe his ruffled ego.
1
Charles, what do you do when seeing the writing on the wall isn't helping? The NYT Editorial Board can write an article about the Republicans needing to grow a spine, but really.....we have been in this same place since..."my crowd size was bigger than yours".
We are WAY past the Republicans needing to grow a spine and you are the columnist who seems to understand this.
You are no fool, sir.
(Greetings from Sydney.)
2
China hacked 22 million US personnel records and Obama met shortly thereafter with Chinese Premier Xi. Where was Blow's outrage and irresponsible and ignorant "treason" blather THEN?
5
@Charles, China didn't hack our elections.
Why are the Russian apologists obsessed with China? Are you claiming that China is conspiring to subvert our democracy?
1
Charles, you are the most analytical, most poignant critic of this manifestation seemingly from Hell. Moreover, you are the Hero fighting white Supremacy. Trump is a double bad (ok, negative) president which doesn't make a good but a horrible one. What to do now?
A Blue Wave must flush the GOP stables in November, and I mean no disrespect to the animals!
2
1. Abominable, worthless president.
2. Serial liar, cheat, and Putin enabler.
Clearly Donald Trump is a double negative.
8
The CEO of a company which had a long discussion with the CEO of its competitor and then could not deny the competitor's assertions that "important verbal agreements" were reached and were actually being put into effect, and then could not tell the Board what the agreements were, would be fired. Does the Board have any control over the CEO or is it in thrall to the CEO? If the latter, is it not in danger of being in thrall to the competitor CEO?
6
I am willing to bet my last dollar, that Hillary was savagely trashed in that secret meeting for a good 20 minutes in the most vulgar way that only two of the most deranged and entitled dinosaurs can. That poor female American translator is probably still retching from the words she had to utter.
7
I can't wait to see all the Republicans who took rubles from the NRA knowing full well where they came from. Lock them all up.
12
Oh please, Mr. Brooks. America has been a corporate oligarchy ever since the electorate handed their government to them after electing Ronald Reagan in 1980. It's been downhill ever since. The difference between Trump and Reagan is one of style rather than substance. Reagan was perfectly happy colluding with the hostage-taking Ayatollahs of Iran for the sake of his campaign, and then selling them weapons by way of payoff after he was elected. Treason is as treason does.
Every President since has been some variation of Reagan-Lite, except Trump. It took less than a month in office for Obama to slap a CitiBank logo on his Administration. He did eschew the bigotry part. At least he never tried to bolster his 'street cred' among southern white rubes by executing a mentally retarded black like Clinton did.
What we have in Trump is someone just as greedy, mean-spirited and bigoted, as much a patsy for the 1%, and as much a fake Christian as Reagan. The difference is that Trump can't or won't read his lines, and he doesn't have the institutional or social restraints that Reagan faced in the 80s. The generations that survived the Great Depression and fought a World War were still alive then, and they cared about democracy and knew intuitively that the American rich are predators. But today we collectively worship at the altar of Mammon and unfortunately, democratic ideals have no cash value.
3
The comments that claim all presidencies are the same are intended to suppress voter turnout.
There are huge differences between Trump and Obama. The differences are not merely semantics and style. Donald Trump is actively trying to undermine NATO and our traditional alliances. He's trying to kill the ACA, defund Medicaid and Medicare, kill the EPA and the Department of Education, and render the State Department an empty shell. He's actively undermining the independence of our Justice Department and intelligence community. He's convinced his followers that real journalism doesn't exist.
There is no president who has been as much a threat to democracy as Donald Trump. It's extremely naïve not to recognize the threat.
The racist vote is now the treason vote.
A third of America putting party before country.
9
The USA is infested with Russian spies.
5
Ok, Mr. Blow - every piece you write you preach to this choir about how you continue to hate Trump. We get it. You hate Trump. But how is that going to improve the increased crime and wretched schools in the inner cities? See Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago. Which, by the way, are run by Democrats.
6
@Mr. Slater - Increased crime of the inner cities? Actually the areas seeing the largest surge in crimes are rural Red areas. West Virginia and Kentucky are awash in drug addicts and collapsing economies. Look up Huntington, WV and its 25% drug addiction rate if you want to see a textbook example of a failing culture with a white face. Oh and you live in Brooklyn, a hugely successful and booming area that is exclusively Democratic. Go ahead Mr. Slater, put your money where your mouth is and move to West Virginia.
2
@Mr. Slater demonstrates the red herring argument.
1
What did the President know?
Russia attacked our democracy by order of Putin.
When did he know it?
January 6, 2017
What did he do about it?
Continued to lie about it right up to the present in order to continue to commit treason.
There is no need to wait for Mueller any more.
IMPEACHMENT NOW!
13
Amen!
4
I don't think that Trump cares about anything really. As long as he has some sort of adulating crowd, and as long as his wealth is in place, he'll have a happy life. It really doesn't matter if this state is being maintained by Republicans, Russians or by employing the fine art of lying. He'll take it with both hands, thank you very much, whatever it takes. Human rights? Democracy? Equality? Of course there're all potential threats to the bubble he carefully built up for himself, and he'll diligently work on eroding them.
9
I have only one small quibble. Mr. Trump has no agenda, no plan, no ideas. He's unable to "fight" for anything, much less white supremacy, white culture and white identity, for protectionism, xenophobia and Christian supremacy. He is not fighting, believing a fight unnecessary. He is representative of the assumption of swaggering, unthinking, undeserved superiority of the poorly educated wealthy, and all Republicans desire that status.
5
Trump's backpedaling did nothing change the meaning of Trump's statement. When using a double negative, each essentially cancels the other out. My mother used to illustrate this with "I ain't got no money." (Pardon the other obvious grammatical oversights.) "Ain't" and "no" cancel each other out and the sentence now means "I do have money." Trump is still saying he has no reason to believe it was Russia. And again, nothing changes
That dig about Montenegro was telling. He's signalling that we may not stand up to Russia. All the Trump supporters who wonder why Mueller is taking so long, maybe there is just so much evidence (much of it hidden behind shell companies and offshore accounts), it's taking this long. There's a logic to Mueller's indictments so far. First indict the conspirators closest to the crime, the Russians, and then tie back the Americans to them. I know there is real economic pain in parts of the country, but as the memory of WWII recedes into memory, with most people who lived through it as adults dead, we forget how good Pax Americana has been. The goal is the breakup of Nato and the European Union.
5
Despite this travesty, Republicans in Congress will do nothing because they are salivating at the near-certitude of getting another ultra-conservative judge on the Supreme Court.
The Economist had a scary article about how election rules are so rigged towards Republicans that even though Democrats have been winning a majority of the total votes, Republicans control almost everything. The United States of America is the only ‘democracy’ that is not truly a democracy. It is, as they wrote, a “tyranny of the minority.”
I fear that voting may not be enough.
8
"Trump has no desire or intention to reach out to the rest of America or try to be the president of all of America. His mission is to lift this hostile minority over the horrified majority."
Mr. Blow sums up the crisis in our country perfectly. How can America continue to be a democracy if the minority in power has absolutely no interest in and no sympathy with the rest of us?
7
I really don't understand. I'm bewildered. I can see that Trump has skillfully engaged an emotional chord in 30% - 40% of Americans so strong that they seem beyond reason. Is it really about white supremacy, white culture and white identity, for protectionism, xenophobia and Christian supremacy? What kind of future does this lead to and how far are we along the way? At a minimum this approach leads to disintegration and chaos. Why don't the remaining 60% - 70% of Americans come to grips?
5
Because those 60-70% have no power. Their votes are weakened by gerrymandered districts (approved by Supreme Court), by outmoded and fundamentally flawed Electoral College, by unlimited money backing the wrong candidates (approved by Supreme Court), and by sometimes being literally denied to them by various suppression schemes (also approved by Supreme Court). Thanks also to dumbed-down education system and erosion of critical thinking (thanks, social media). Wish I had a satisfying solution.
1
If the Republicans are still in bed with Trump, and by extension, the Russians, then the November elections will probably be compromised. Apparently many States have voting machines that are easily hacked, and aren't a lot of these machines made by a very wealthy Republican?
I have strong doubts that there won't be mischief in the upcoming elections. (double negative awareness!)
7
As a Canadian looking at the Helsinki "summit" from outside of the USA, I find it interesting that very little has been written or said in your media about the fact that Putin kept your president waiting for one hour before the starting the meeting. By this one act Putin managed to marginalize the USA in the eyes of the world. Putin has as much as said that this is the new world order. It is also interesting that your president never mentioned Russia's annexation of the Crimea, their role in the slaughter of thousands of Syrians or their blatant use of a nerve agent in the UK.
Although your president thinks our Prime Minister to be weak, Trudeau at least re-iterated Canada's opposition (and disgust) on these serious world issues.
This summit fiasco is not just about race or election meddling, it is about the balance of power in the world. Putin has indicated loud and clear that it is about to change. The USA needs look beyond it borders at the big picture - Russia and China are waiting in the wings.
12
We are clearly hostage to Putin by the simple threat of his willingness, and now proven ability, to use the nerve agent Novichok on anyone who interferes with his agenda for the New World Order.
Putin is clearly a skilled tactician, getting Trump to follow his plans in a willing, actually gleeful, manner. Trashing the U.S. economy with tariffs and destroying NATO are just the foundations of Putin's plan....
Is it not obvious to Trump himself that he too will be poisoned if he doesn't comply with Putin? Trump's life is threatened in the most literal way possible. I don't know why the media doesn't write more about the threat right in front of our noses.
How many more times does Putin have to use Novichok to get his message across?
2
America is not governed by dark subversive forces of authoritarianism, it is governed by stark ineptitude by the least qualified person in its history. The tragedy is that both scenarios have the same effect.
4
Regardless of the Russian connections, America internally has larger issues at hand. Trump's cult-like base, the disillusioned white people still support him unconditionally. He makes them feel good about themselves. The warm fuzzy of MAGA. Trump counters the negative juju Obama inflected upon them for eight years. The Alt-Right, Christian dominionists, and other hate groups have consolidated behind Trump. This fact alone should give all Americans cause for alarm. At the Trump rallies the presence of mob violence is everywhere. If Trump ordered them into the streets with their guns they would obey.
Trump will not just go away. He will use his lawyers until they no longer get results. Once those resources are exhausted he will turn to his followers and call for an uprising. As noted in Roger Cohen's op-ed piece yesterday, this means martial law. Putin knows exactly what he got in Trump. The perfect storm of a narcissistic president running amok, disrupting everything he touches. If Trump disappeared today, think about all of the damage he has already inflicted and how long it will take to rebuild the trust and relationships he destroyed. But Trump is far from gone and the real damage and destruction has not yet begun.
3
Charles, can there really be any serious doubt that Trump is deeply compromised by Putin.
A man who relishes picking fights and ridiculing everyone he meets, friend and foe alike, is desperately , cloyingly flattering to a despot. This is not a bro crush. Putin has him by the throat.
I suspect that it's Russian loans and money-laundering among other things. But the idea he's not compromised is ridiculous.
4
Sadly, Americans had a chance to stop this train wreck before it left the station. Democrats dropped the ball when they elected a flawed candidate for President, crowning Clinton. They subverted the grassroots of their base, by not embracing the political tide sweeping the country, disdain for the status quo. Voters did not pinch their nose and vote for Hillary which was the only viable choice for President given the alternative Trump. Instead they reneged on their right to vote. Meanwhile hostile forces were unleashing their attacks creating caverns out of the cracks in American society, sowing fear and loathing by empowering racists. Greedy for power and rooted in profit media moguls, pundits and infotainment commentators amplified the messages again and again (I long for the days when the news was the news and not a form of entertainment and subject to personal belief and propaganda. Facts should speak for themselves and not be up for discussion. ). You only have to scratch the surface of any civilized society to find opportunists waiting for the moment when chaos sows confusion and creates room for unrelenting power to breathe. grow and seize democracy by the throat. Freedom is a fragile thing.
5
Aren’t double negatives really more emphatic means of stating a positive?
1
Once again, thank you Mr. Blow for the great column.
I would like to comment on the term "Surrender Summit." From what I can tell, it was coined by CNN's John King a couple of days ago. It's pithy: short, alliterative, and reminds everyone about an embarrassing moment in the Trump presidency. It would be perfect as a negative political slogan the Democrats could use in the 2018 and 2020 campaigns.
I hope that the Dems can pick up on this and create other slogans like it. One of the secrets to Trump's political success is his endless repetition of pithy negative slogans like "Crooked Hillary", "Fake News", etc. Democrats should not feel too superior to resort to such tactics. I will be using "Surrender Summit" as much as possible in my conversations, news media comments, etc.
9
Stephen Miller's inspiration "Double Negative" should be the caption under a Trump/Pence campaign photo.
Why is no one asking what Putin meant when he declared to Trump: "The ball is in YOUR court."
Besides Putin's review of Trump's job performance thus far, what did Trump promise Putin in their two hour unrecorded meeting. And what top secret classified information did Trump "inadvertently" spill to his boss?
4
Trump isn't Putin's dupe? Yeeaahh . . . yeeaahh. . . .
If a double negative adds up to an affirmative, sometimes a double affirmative can yield a negative. Trump may play with language all he likes, but his body language and reverential tone in Putin's presence tell the story of his being beholden to the Russian autocrat.
Speaking of dupes: I worry also about Pence's altar-boy face and obsequious tone in Trump's presence. Pence has much to gain from Trump's early departure from the Oval Office in the wake of the expected, well-documented report from Special Counsel Mueller. And women and others have much to lose. It cannot be said too soon--when Trump is forced to resign, Pence must exit with him. We need to take a big broom to this death-of-democracy administration.
6
Why are you still trying to parse this man's words as if they were meaningful? He is a politician after all, a crook and a liar -- surely no better, and frequently much worse, than any other. You seem shocked by all this as if you never witnessed a politician pivot before.
Kudos for calling him out but surely the outrage must be wearing thin. I love you, man.
2
Also he is allowing us to be a country without borders. The borders that matter safeguard our information, and he's not doing that. The intelligence services say the Russians attacked our electric grid in March. That could bring our country to a standstill, which is another step above getting a buffoon into the White House. Or even more chaotic, and crippling, anyway.
3
The man is so ignorant that he doesn't even understand what a double negative is. Nor, it seems, do many of the journalists who are writing about the Helsinki debacle.
Neither "I don't see any reason why it would be" nor "I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be" is an ungrammatical double negative. A double negative in this context would be something like "I don't see nothing to indicate that Russia interfered."
The double negative is grammatically correct in, for example, Spanish, but not English.
But then, Trump's limited command of the language is nothing new.
5
Trump said meeting Putin would be the easiest part of his global assignment. He was right. Putin and his team did all the homework, came up with the ideas and the explanations. All Trump had to do was agree with them. Easy!
5
The biggest "double negative" of all *is* Donald Trump *and* the spineless, morally bankrupt Republican Party.
Beyond a treasonable doubt it *is* time for them to *go*. Preferably, in some cases, right to prison.
The cruel irony for trump's base is that he's already sold most of them out since the lower income tribe members need their health insurance to be affordable, tariffs are hurting smaller manufacturers, coal jobs are never coming back, the tax cut scam benefits the wealthiest *and* corporations *not* most of his base.
On and on it goes. Rights of the unborn trump rights of all life once born. Unless you are white, preferably a male and republican.
Let's clean up America. Start in November by VOTING for DEMOCRATS.
Save our democracy.
On the other hand... there's TrumPutin 2020
6
How is it possible that in the age of prolific hacking and leaks, Trump's tax returns are safe in an unhackable vault?
13
In many ways Trump is a criminal too; always has been.
"Half" of America and a Republican Congress thinks a Criminal-President is OK.
Sad. Very sad.
2
"Trump has no desire or intention to reach out to the rest of America or try to be the president of all of America."
---
While that is certainly true and certainly a problem, it displays a significant lack of self-awareness that the author does not understand that the same sentiment from the prior administration is precisely why Trump won in the first place.
3
Sarah Huckabee Sanders (SHS): "Sir, we really have to come up with something to counter all the negative reaction to your Helsinki press conference."
DJT: "Why? It was the greatest press conference in the history of the world!
SHS: "Of course it was, sir. It's just that some people may have misunderestemated your genius. I think we can soften the edges a bit....you know, a bit of misdirection, if you will. Maybe the 'Dead Parrot' ploy....you know....'He's only sleeping' sort of thing. How about inject some confusion...like a double negative."
DJT: "Yeah. Sounds great! A double negative. You mean like it was all Obama's and Clinton's doing?"
SHS: "No sir. A different double negative than Obama and Clinton. I mean a grammatical double negative. You know, when you put 'don't' and 'wouldn't' into the same phrase, it turns the meaning to a positive. You could say you misspoke and meant to say 'I don't know why they wouldn't (interfere)' instead of 'why they would'.
DJT: Sarah, that's brilliant. If it works, I could say I meant to tell ICE 'We shouldn't separate kids from their parents.' instead of 'We should.....'.
SHS: "Exactly, sir. I'm constantly amazed at how quick a study you are."
11
When I first heard about a tape showing prostitutes peeing on Trump on the bed that the Obama's had slept on, I thought it was totally over the top and strained any possibility of being remotely true.
Now after everything we heard from Stormy spanking Trump and saw with our own eyes on TV: Trump praise Putin and defending the savage dictator of Russia against "fake" accusations that he violated our elections, as the US intelligent agencies keep insisting, ANY OTHER explanation sounds as totally over the top and straining any possibility of being remotely true.
6
"...Trump will remain the hero of white, Republican, racist America." Mr. Blow, that is indeed the crux of our current democratic dilemma.
11
Fully agreed that this is a crisis moment. A crisis moment that if left unchecked may soon evolve into a complete disaster. A disaster like we have never known before in this country. The end of democracy and the beginning of an authoritarian state. Trump and his supporting republican congress to put it simply are not displaying true American values or any respect for the rule of law. They have chosen to forsake democracy in order to abandon our true friends and cozy up to a foreign leader of the absolute worst order. Principals be damned, the people be damned, democracy be damned, they have a party and a president that wants complete and unfettered control of everything. It is looking more and more like our only options to put an end to this threat to democracy is at the voting booth. Providing they don't take that right away from us.
5
"white supremacy, white culture and white identity, for protectionism, xenophobia and Christian[ity]. . . ."
Which one shouldn't belong?
1
“Trump’s supporters love this. Finally, someone is unapologetically fighting for white supremacy, white culture and white identity, for protectionism, xenophobia and Christian supremacy. No matter how much he lies, no matter how much he fumbles, no matter how much he betrays the greater America, Trump will remain the hero of white, Republican, racist America.”
Yes.
That’s how fascism works.
Trump is not Hitler. OK. Got it. He’s an updated fashion statement of what it means to be fascist.
But he is summoning the Volk, true blue (white) citizens, to resist, arrest, haze, and hate those who are not members of their select fraternity. This invitation to join the club excites and delights his followers.
The political instinct to weaponize racism and xenophobia apparently excites little cowardly aspiring pseudo-macho loud empty dictatorial monsters around the world. And has for a long time.
That’s what we’ve got here.
13
well said
3
"Sort of a Double Negative"
- Weapons of Mass Destruction and a 15 year+ conflict in the
Middle East
- NSA spying on Americans with out warrants
- Patriot Act...how very American in name only
- Chuck Schumer: the interpreter should come before the
Congress to answer our questions of this secret meeting
-"Treasonous" John Brennan
- Montenegro & WW III
- He's a Traitor!
- Impeach!
- German intercepted telephone calls
- James Risen
- Whistle blowers protection
- ECT.
- Perhaps a better title for this opinion would be:
"Looking in a Mirror and really seeing America" or
" I could be a communist sympathizer"
Move on America from 2016; mid terms of 2018 are here, and am not seeing the democratic changes in the horizon.
Neither Party is exempt .
Let's all wait and see how the State departments handle the Helsinki Summit with future policy.
1
‘Surrender Summit’, ‘Treason Summit’. Tom-A-to, Tom-a-to
We are living in the Upside-down. Scary days ahead.
3
Shouldn't there be a requirement that the American President is able to speak English in complete sentences?
12
The United States has never been a democracy. The Founding Fathers who like white killer spiders, fearful that the atrocities they committed, namely slavery and genocide would eventually come back to bite them in the you know where had crafted the thin illusory veil of what they call Democracy. The Founding Fathers' declaration of independence and bill of rights were written for themselves and their kind and not for the benefit of slaves and the indigenous people of this continent. What's left of this thin veil is nothing but a gossamer web that was spun by the killer spiders long ago to hide their true intentions. Without slavery and indentured servitude they resorted to creating slums, reservations, drugs, jails and racist laws to render brown people weak and powerless. What you're seeing now is a full throttled assault on African Americans, Latino Americans and other non whites. This country is done! If you want to continue kidding yourselves that it's not, then that's on you but please don't act shocked or ask how this could have happened? This has been going on since the beginning. Seeing what's happening right now, it looks like it's about to end soon.
5
I'm beginning to understand that we have already embarked on a treacherous road that will not end well. The comparisons to Hitler's Germany are all too clear. Chip away, one right at a time, until we wake up one day and realize it's all gone and the future we feared is here. It is astounding to me that the Republican politicians have done nothing, absolutely nothing, to stop this madness. We have a completely unqualified, ignorant and nasty person in the White House, apparently aided and abetted by those whose only who wish is to acquire and expand power. A truly sickening time in American history.
13
Obama sold out the Middle East and the world's security there when he weaponized Iran. Traitorous.
4
Could you explain how getting rid of their ability to build nuclear weapons is weaponizing Iran?
5
The one who weaponized Iran was George W Bush, who invaded Iraq, Iran’s natural enemy. The two countries fought a bloody war in the 1980s. Iraq kept Iran in a box. Absent Iraq Iran is free to make trouble all over the Middle East and beyond. Even in Iraq. With Saddam still in power there would be no ISIS. The Obama haters are ignorant of history.
1
@Bob - LOL. So dismantling Iran’s nuclear weapons program is now “arming Iran” in the propaganda-addled minds of Republicans? That’s rich.
Can we please stop picking apart what this traitor says and just call him what he is. Every day. From every corner. We are constantly distracted by his "antics", but the truth remains; there is a traitor in the White House (several of them) and in the Congress and Senate (almost all with R next to their names). Won't anyone help us? Democrats in government, call him traitor every day. Every chance you get. Republicans who still love America, join in the chorus. We are well beyond who will win the next election. We are at "will there be a next election". Putin won't have it, and will stop it one way or another with his puppet president.
8
Throughout this collective nightmare we have been living through, Mr. Blow you can always be counted on to speak the truth both plainly and eloquently and even though what you say about this bigoted compromised president and his racist supporters is gut-wrenching, it somehow calms me to see what actually is in print.
10
You are not wrong Charles.
3
The question that needs to be asked is not whether America is still or ever was a democracy, but whether its people even want a democracy? Clearly, Trump supporters don’t. They’ve had enough of the capitalist calamity of the American Dream that has proved dreamy for elites. However, they’re voting for disaster if they think Trump is a working class hero.
The prolonged assault against, and final emasculation of, trade unions, based on mealy mouthed diatribes about union membership stemming free speech usefully derived from within union ranks, demonstrates the malignancy within American democracy. Tax reform that was supposed to trickle down to workers in pay raises, and that workers apparently believed would happen, have largely failed to materialise, enriching yet more the corporations that control the Republican Party. It is the rich who have betrayed democracy, not the people. Exhausted, they have simply withdrawn to the solitude of each individual reality, accepting what they must just to exist.
Terrifyingly, it seems what Trump supporters want for America is the same as Putin provides for Russia: an oligarchy that provides enough for Russians to live without dreams, just supplication to the status quo. Democracy is too difficult for them to comprehend and impossible to administer because of the anti-democratic weight of the state bearing down. Rather than resist, they concede what they believe is inevitable.
Democrats are that in name only. Time for a new party.
5
I am tired of and fed up with the chaos, the lies, the grifting, the con, the regression to pre-civil war thinking and acting. I am over 60 and never though I would see the need to refight all the battles over civil rights, women's rights, immigrant rights. It's damned depressing that this joke of a president, elected by the electoral college, in Putin's pocket, is running the government like his businesses. His businesses are based on cheating people and grabbing money. tRump is one of the most repulsive people in the world in my opinion, Putin probably the most dangerous and cunning. Putin likewise is repulsive but so much smarter than tRump. Putin after all has republican senators in his pocket, tRump is in his pocket only deeper.
9
Sorry you don't like the messy way Democracy works, President Trump was elected by the People of the United States. Sorry if you don't like the outcome.
1
Now the family agrees: it’s time to put Grampa in a home where he will have the supervision he now requires. We took away his car keys in January 2017. Now he can’t remember what happened or what he said an hour ago, or even a day ago, and tells a different version every time he recounts a conversation or event. He suspects vast numbers of citizens of plotting against him. He garbles his speech worse now than last year, and he shows a keen interest in starting little (or even big) fires.
It’s time for Amendment 25.
13
You don't have the right muscle to do it.
But Trump does know the difference between the words "Would" and "Wouldn't", does he not?
Can he recall, with his hand raised in an oath, saying the Pledge of Allegiance at his Inauguration ceremony and does he know the meaning of those words?
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all"
6
@josie8
He does seem to know the difference between military readiness so low as to invite aggression and one that will repel it;
the difference between having our country defend all of European NATO nations for decades beyond any reason they cannot spend their pledged amount for their own defense, and sooner than a decade from now, as opposed to having our taxpayers foot their bill;
the difference between punishing American corporations with the world's highest corporate tax rate while expecting them to grow their businesses and create jobs here and helping them compete on the world stage with the same tax burden as their competitors;
the difference between allowing unlimited numbers workers into the country and controlling the labor supply to benefit our own workers;
the difference between standing for wide open borders through which all sorts of criminals and terrorists may enter unimpeded, and insisting upon vetting all entrants;
the difference between "tearing children from their mother's arms" and complying with liberal-produced law that requires that alien migrant minors be placed, within 72 hours, into child-appropriate facilities. See the Flores Settlement of 1997, and the history of Obama's intentional policies to deter illegal immigration in Flores v Lynch 2https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2016/07/06/15-56434.pdf
the difference between debating his opponent on national tv honestly, and accepting the questions in advance, like Hillary
2
Here we go again with the liberal hand wringing. Mr. Blow is correct in his analysis and so was Mr. Friedman in an earlier column. There's no mystery to Trump's adoration from his base and it has less to do with his so called promises, which are largely punitive, and more out of pure hatred of liberals. This is a culture war and the Republican base will not be reasoned with nor do they give a fig about their avatar's venality. The meaner and more vindictive his behavior, the stronger their commitment. Trump has already remarked how he believed that, as in China, President for life sounds like it may be a good idea. As he often does, he's floating the idea to measure the reaction. Patriotic Americans need to channel their angst to voting, organization and activism. Do not pin your hopes on the Mueller investigation. Do you really believe that the Republicans will accept anything short of exoneration? They will obfuscate endlessly while the base regurgitates tired right wing media tropes, expressions and sound bites. Trump is in it only for the power, money and adulation and he will not exit willingly. Don't expect some sort of divine-like intervention or a sudden return to sanity. You did that the last election and we all know how that worked out.
13
Trump is a traitor and the GOP that soft-pedals this is collaborating in treason. It's that simple.
7
Monday in Helsinki was the beginning of the end for the United States as we know it, a turning point from which there is no going back.
July 16, 2018 marks the day the world bore witness to President Trump surrendering and submitting himself to his master, Vladimir Putin. Republicans can pretend that his misspeaking means he didn't mean all those treasonous things he said. "Not!"
It was plain for all to see and hear.
America is in rapid decline. I anticipate we'll be in free fall before the end of the year. Republicans are greedy little cowards without virtue or honor...getting paid off by those who would seek to destroy the United States both foreign and domestic. Spineless sell-outs!
Our elections and infrastructure are under cyber-attack by our enemy, the Russians...the very ones parading our president around like a pampered Pomeranian, plotting the tricks he'll soon perform.
The Master Puppeteer was revealing his prize for all the world to gaze upon and wonder and fear! Let the spectacle begin.
Viva La Resistance!
7
“Sort of a double negative”?
Really, Mr. President? Just double? Are you sure?
You submerged us in “double” negativity when you strode down the escalator in June 2015, calling Mexicans rapists, then added insult to injury by mocking John McCain’s POW experience. Your toxic barbs, historical ignorance, contempt for humanity, and marked displays of disloyalty have only multiplied a thousandfold since then.
So “sort of a double negative”? No sir, I don’t think so. More like negativity ad nauseam, negativity ad infinitum. “Wouldn’t” does not mean “would”; “foe” doesn’t mean “faux”; “weren’t captured” doesn’t mean “was”; “more popular than” doesn’t mean “morally equivalent to”—and “enemy of the people” doesn’t mean “patriotism.” No no no no no. Single negatives, a thousand times over.
Listen: History changed with your election, I’ll grant you that. (Such a pity that you don’t appreciate history enough to see exactly how.). But while you have surely created an unholy mess of negativity for my generation and my kids’ generation to clean up in your wake, I refuse to acknowledge that the world turned upside down with you as my president.
As Tennyson’s “Ulysses” says, “tho’ much is taken, much abides... that which we are, we are.” We must not forget this. We must not drown in a sea of despair.
For Mr. President, “wouldn't” isn’t “would.” And no, Mr. Trump, buttercups don’t chase after bees.
10
I read somewhere that around 2050, whites will be the minority. Black, brown and yellow will run government, banking, tech, medical, industry, etc.
Will the current racism be flipped?
What I have not read about lately is that Putin backed Trump because of his hatred and fear of Hillary, who certainly would have imposed more sanctions and other hardships on Russia because of Ukraine, the downing of the passenger plane and other crimes. He really got lucky with Trump; he could not have asked for a more incompetent, corrupt, incurious and greedy man.
And Trump, eager for a tower in Moscow, laid himself open to blackmail. Sex and money will do it every time.
7
544 days since he came to office.
His every word and deed has been to convey that anyone who questions the 2016 election, is a target who deserves his hatred, and that of his base.
He says that such questioning "may be treasonous," a crime enforced by the death penalty, still.
That he will destroy any Republican who questions him in this.
With hostile and violent speech, he has tried to ruin, the personal and profession reputations of anyone, in politics, entertainment, print or cable journalism, who questions it.
His press secretary, sneering, scowling, at the press.
In tone and gesture, she malevolently disparages the notion of truth, as if it were a lie, and of the press, as if they were scum, or rats.
He conspires hourly with Hannity, who, along with many at Fox, works glibly and energetically to terrify and annihilate anyone who questions his legitimacy.
He hold highly divisive rallies weekly, at huge government cost, to stabilize a base, who will gladly terrify anyone he identifies as an enemy.
He, and those complicit, have twisted meaning itself, with the propaganda of "fake news" destabilizing the basis of our society.
That muffled, unapologetic, incoherent, reconstruction of a word?
What a desperate man, who, in a short political career of unprecedented and incoherent mendacity, has trashed as many customs, treaties, manners, institutions and people as he can, all with one purpose.
To hide himself and the truth about him.
11
Haven't we grown tired of making the excuse that Trumpcan't blame Russia for meddling because it would delegitamize his election? Common sense should tell us that whatever Putin has on Trump is so damning that Trump is willing to look a buffon to the world to keep him quiet.Trump shows the world daily that he is totally out of his element in his role of leader of the free world. Something tells me these days Donald is hating the day he left Trump Tower.Welcome to the Big Leagues Donald.
4
Simply put, Trump makes all of Congress look like honest, righteous, patriotic saints - except they dutifully bow to his eminence, the black scourge of Freedom. Is there a free place on Earth where I can disappear and forget the pain and shame I feel for America?
Would you prefer a war with Russia?
2
We are already at war with Russia. They have already attacked us. And Trump does nothing but facilitate it.
2
This IS war with Russia. A bloodless 21st Century form of war in which not one shot was fired, not one plane scrambled, yet the US government was taken.
There is only one thing more powerful than the Kremlin's shadowy Red Tide, and that is a Blue Wave of dauntless, loyal Americans willing to stand firm and turn back that tide by turning the Kremlin's traitorous puppets out of office.
Trump supporters hate to be called stupid but don't seem to mind being treated as such by Trump himself. If this sorry excuse from this sorry excuse for a president convinces anybody then I have a tower to sell you in Minsk. Trump obsesses over our southern border but leaves our computers, power grids, elections and our government open to bad actors because of a lack of oversight. His supporters, also, don't like being labeled racists or deplorables. I wonder what their reaction will be to Traitors.
20
It is the heights of irony that all the patriotic men and women who sacrificed and worked so hard to win the Cold War now see that all their efforts were in vain. I wonder how they feel. Putin, must be considered one of the greatest KGB agents in the history of the Soviet Union. A former low level operative managed to gain control of his enemies leader. Next week Trump wants to discuss allowing Russian agents to interrogate American citizens. How does anyone feel about that? Oh, I'm sorry did I interrupt your video game? Your selfie shot? Your vacation? Oh well never mind, just go back to watching Fox tv.
13
Where are the tax returns??? (-After Trump insisting, "Where is the birth certificate"?)
13
Dear Mr. Blow. It’s about money and only the money. The white supremacy angle is the strategy that put traitorous Trump in the White House. Traitor Trump has no interest in his base or his country except as fodder to enable his theft of ever greater amounts of money. The one achievement the band of Republican traitors have achieved is giving the uber wealthy more wealth at the expense of all Americans including their base of white supremacists and mass murderers.
8
Orwellian gaslighting.
7
48 hours since Trump committed treason:
The crack in the system is no longer measurable much less defensible, meaning opinion polls are irrelevant at this point.
Climate change matters.
The environment matters.
National Parks matter.
Women’s and minority rights matter.
Immigrant rights and safe passage for families and individuals into our country matters
Accessible abortion matters.
Acknowledging the raping of the country by many of the very wealthy aided and and abetted by the federal government matters.
Pathological lying matters, especially on the national level.
Leading the world towards more unity especially among our allies matters.
62 million folks in our country have collapsed into a kind of self-destructive fascism that is relatively unprecedented unless you look back to Nazi Germany.
Trump is clearly and factually and undeniably a conman and, really, a petty criminal. He is, now also, a traitor.
Times are not normal . These folks you who call themselves “Republicans?” - wake up. Your party is no longer defensible.
As I’ve said before...I’m for a two party system. I really am. The current distortion of the Republican Party must be fully put to rest. A new Republican Party should arise from the right wing of the Democratic Party.
4
In continued amazement, this long retired Christian pastor and Licensed
Psychotherapist laments the Presence of a "President" who has
succeeded in duping a mass of citizens by his public "Showmanship", shielding his active presence as a bonafide Sociopathic Personality
Disorder. Will we, the People, finally listen to available Voices of Balance and Sanity....like Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, Madeline Albright,
James Comey, Barack Obama. Donald Trump does Not know enough to Care....or care enough to Know. He is bordered N/E/S/W, by Himself....
and is Invested, totally, in that Perameter. We, the People, are in a Sick
Situation....our "President" needs Therapy.
5
Why else would Latino food pickers be considered existential threats to America while Trump welcomes our chief geopolitical enemy, a murderous dictator and kleptocrat who has already invaded our country..aided and abetted by the party of Ronald Reagan!?
7
Please excuse me, President Putin and I are going to go collude in private for a while.
5
Hear hear! The trump putin union illustrates that white nationalism is transnational.
1
if one examined trump and melania's body language in addition to trumps words of praise for putin and treasonous choice of putin's word over those of our intelligence agencies one would easily see that trump is deeply afraid of the peacock putin. he has been threatened with poisoning or another end if he does not comply. he has been in bed with putin for decades and the hens have come home to roost. if it was up to me he and pence..this entire administration and many of the republicans in congress would be arrested on probable cause for treason and crimes against humanity at our boarder..laws would be passed that if you are a news organization lies would be prosecuted and fox and enemies would be shut down!!!!we should not tolerate their lies or those of this president .
2
Thank you, Charles Blow for ripping off the scab of those suffering from the ill effects of White Extinction Anxiety Syndrome and finally saying what is. Donald Trump worships at the alter of Christian supremacy. Especially, the Evangelicals!
4
Here's a quadruple negative: is this not the not most horrible, worst everen't president never in America?
That makes about as much sense as what we are experiencing at the hands of a complicit Republican "leadership" and a complete dolt of a president* who is crashing the post-war world order, winking at a murderous dictator, and laughing all the way to the bank. ENOUGH Ryan and McConnell. Do your jobs or resign.
4
Trump IS a double negative.
2
Trump is a pathological liar and knows it. He has boasted that’s how he succeeds. Yet astoundingly he accepts the word of a murderer who is also a proven pathological liar, who has denied his “little green men” invaded Ukraine and Crimea, denied his troops shot down a civilian airliner mudering everyone on board, denied poisoning Alexandre Litivenko when the incontrevertable trail led to 2 identified FSB agents, lied that his agents poisoned an ex GRU agent, and has denied murdering political opponents and journalists in Russia and at least 6 others in England. No, it’s not believable Trump believes Putin. It’s more believable Putin has the goods on Trump and that a deal was made before the election. When Trump announced “Russia if you are listening....” it’s my hunch that he was agreeing and launching the deal. It was code for “let’s go”. And the same day the e mails were released. What does Trump have to do in order for America to impeach him? Maybe shoot someone on 5th Avenue?
4
Fortunately, the Editorial usually makes a lot of sense on Putin.
Articles written by reporters who need to keep their contacts with the White House can’t be expected to use words like lies or treason. This goes for the NYTimes too.
Most columnists are seeing what is happening.
The calls to interview the translator of the private meeting are as stunning as everything else because, apparently, no one trusts Trump to (a) tell the truth or (b) understand what actually transpired.
5
What a burden on the translator! He/she should not leave a secure location , not drive a car and be very careful about food and drink. Certainly can’t trust the Russians and, forbid the thought, ......nah, I can’t even.
BTW, if and when 45 runs out of walkbacks and denials, I offer this -
“It wasn’t really me behind the podium, it was a Russian bot. They locked me in a closet but I was able to escape just in time to hop on Air Force One. Wheeeew, that was close”
There you have it Donald. You’re welcome.
There's plenty of evidence that democracy's under threat in the States, most of it predating the loathsome Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election, chief among them being both major parties's deference to the donor classes and corresponding indifference to the well being of most U.S. citizens. It's hard to believe that the Russian interference in the 2016 elections will turn out to have played anywhere near as significant role in the death of democracy here, should it come to that, than our own corruption.
This is not to say that we shouldn't support the Mueller investigations or take Trump to task for his Helsinki performance and waffling in the aftermath, but we would be well advised to maintain a sense of proportion about the significance both of Russian attempts to influence our politics (including the extent that this is business as usual both for the Russians and for us) and the reasons why Donald Trump is now our president.
4
More false equivalency.
Democrats, while far from perfect, are vastly more reliable than republicans in putting Country *over* Party.
A stolen SCOTUS seat by republicans (with a right wing justice) plus another right wing conservative on deck provides republicans with even more of an unlevel political playing field. Citizens United and now not having to disclose funders further proves the point.
1
But don't you see, it is all the same thing. Take a step back and look at the big picture. The funders of Breitbart and Cambridge Analytica are American oligarchs. The Koch brothers are American oligarchs. And they all swim in the big global sea of oligarchs and plutocrats and kleptocrats vying for control of global resources. They may compete with each other, but their common strategic objective across the globe is to turn all mass populations into subservient peasants that they can crushed under their heels and exploit at will.
So far, the plan is working brilliantly. The question is, are there enough freethinking, loyal Americans left in this country to stand up to them? I believe there are, and I for one intend to do so.
@Howard Beale I don't think it is false equivalence, Howard. My primary point is not that Democrats are equally bad as Republicans, although in regard to economic policy many of them often come close, but that our current almost hysterical focus on Russia as a threat to democracy here in the States is, to say the least, unbalanced. Period.
Yes, Trump is undermining our democracy, as are the some 40% of Americans who support him and the Republicans in Congress who quietly shuffle to protect their own hides, but Charles left out one very important factor: Fox News.
As a recent NPR/Ipsos Poll has shown, the strongest indicator of anti-immigrant sentiment (and by extension, support of Trump) is what TV one watches. Not surprisingly, people who watch Fox are the most anti-immigrant. It's even stronger factor than being a Republican! For all the talk about the problems with Facebook and other social media platforms, it's still TV that reaches almost everyone in the country, and Fox News has become the propaganda platform for Trump.
So let's be clear, Fox News is as much part of the ecosystem of grievance, fear, anger, and blame as are Trump, his supporters, and complicit Republicans in Congress. In fact, Fox News might even be the critical nexus. A slick marketer can tell you that appealing to sex, fear and craving will get you much further than appealing to evidence and reason. Fox News has figured out that grievance, fear, anger, and blame are very profitable, indeed.
8
The work of the political forum depends on rational discourse. Trump and his enablers are cynically subverting this discourse. This is a path to dystopia where double negatives are the currency of a new double speak.
4
The answers to the questions in your last paragraph, Charles, are No, No, and No/Yes.
republicans have not believed in democracy for several decades now. Remember their disdain for the duly elected Democrats in 1992 and 2008; they didn't feel like holding up their end of the bargain in governing by compromising with the party in power.
So they brought the Nation to a stop and blamed Democrats. A Press, not wanting to offend anyone, shirked its job of speaking truth to power and the voters bought the propaganda from Gingrich and McConnell and sent the republicans to Congress. Sad.
The party has cultivated its poisonous crop of bigotry and hatred for 50 years, but they have done it with codes, and winks, and nods to propriety. Now the mask is off and We the People can see the rot and You the Press can see the rot and maybe this November we can really start to drain the swamp. And it is pretty evident that the swamp is primarily inhabited by republicans and their very base base.
3
It is clear, impeachment will/would do nothing to alter the current destruction of America: Replacing Trump with Pence would merely garner a quieter version of the Donald Trump-Aggrieved-White-America mindset; no policies would change.
We would still have Jeff Sessions' self-righteous- merciless biblical interpretation of Justice. We would still have Homeland Security, the EPA, the FDA, the Department of Education... all carrying out the same destructive policies.
We would still have some version of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, Devin Nunes, Louie Gohmert.
Contrary to the lyrics of Gill Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"- it has- and we've sat transfixed day-by-day, watching without noticing. Now what?
3
This! A massive, overwhelming DEMOCRATIC voter *turnout* let's US gain control of both the House *and* Senate.
Frankly, *that* IS the *only* viable solution in the near future.
It will take years and years to undue the right wing packing of Supreme Court and lower courts is but one example.
1
Would or wouldn't is only one excerpt from the debacle Monday. Slamming the Democrats for obstruction and blaming them for a divide in this country is discrediting, by a narrow margin, half of Congress and the majority who voted in the 2016 election.
Praising Putin for his great idea of allowing Russian involvement in the Muellar investigation, in turn giving Russia free reign to question Americans was jaw dropping.
He violated his Oath of Office repeatedly during the hideous exchange. Putin was visually delighted by his position in the cat bird seat.
Trump's interview with Hannity confirmed Trump wallowed in his performance with Hannity encouraging the despicable behavior.
No terrorist is a bigger threat to this country than the President. He refuses to distingquish the difference between an ally and a foe.
Trump has been self serving throughout his business career, unpaid bills, lawsuits, bankrupting contractors. He possesses no morals or ethics.
The most important question is not why he does things but when he will be removed from office due to being unfit for the position, manipulating supporters through lies, lack of loyalty and betraying the United States globally and nationally.
He is the ultimate American menace.
5
Suppose Trump had said "wouldn't". So what ? The entire performance all week was so bizarre that attributing purpose and intention is absurd. If this were your daft uncle at a family picnic we would all say it is just Leo being Leo. The rambling, the dissembling, the persistent disconnect, the discounting of advice and even reality all lead me to see mental "imprecision", let's say the impairment that comes to many with age. Senescence is a polite word and a real fact of life.
5
"Sort of a double negative"
Is this a description of what he said or who he is?
6
"Sort of a Double Negative"
This brilliant title will live on.
Donald Trump, Sort of a Double Negative.
Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Wonder what it would
be like to be one of his offspring.
Wonder what it would be like to be D.T. sees in the mirror
above the bathroom sink every morning, razor in hand.
Does he avert his gaze? Focus on the spot in front of the razor? Does he shave with his eyes closed? Does he say
"I look teriffic"? or "Vlad thinks I'm teriffic"?
Just wondering.
3
it's obvious by his actions that he is accountable to the foreign republic that is Putin's Russia, the only thing we don't know is what Putin has on him. what I don't understand is why the media, for the most part, and the republicans in Congress keep giving him the benefit of the doubt. it seems they keep expecting him to act in a presidential manner, that is to work in the interests of the American people. he stopped doing that when he fired Comey and told the Russians classified info in the Oval Office - if he was ever acting in the American people's interest at all.
3
On Congressional Republicans my question is, how deep are Putin's claws into them? How far and how deep does this scandal run? Who else is compromised, who else is a puppet? All the apologists, all the defenders of Trump, need to be turned out of office. Our country depends on it.
1
The Democrats are looking forward to retaking the house in November of 2018. However, the Russians interfered in the 2016 election and have continued probing for weaknesses in our computerized voting system. If we are going to have a secure election this fall, it is necessary to have a paper ballot trail. Call or e-mail your representative and apply the necessary pressure to ensure that we have a free and fair election by using paper. Otherwise, we may be faced with a rigged election.
3
More than ever we need to see trumps tax returns.
5
Trump's goal, which he is channelling well, is to be an Autocrat. Putin is his role model. He goes even further with dynastic ambitions. It could be we have passed the point of no return. One more chance at the ballot. Right now it looks like Democracy is the loser. The Autocrats rule.
1
Dear Mr. Blow,
For many years I have wanted to thank you for your editorials at the NYT. I truly appreciate your dedication to the truth and to the values our country should share. In light of what happened in Maryland, I am trying to make an effort to write to every reporter whose work helps me understand the world and the situation we find ourselves in. Your writing has helped channel my anger and clarify it.
Thank you for all you do...it can't be easy to sit in front of your laptop and try to sift through the never-ending spew coming from the WH and try to make sense of it...but you do.
Sincerely,
Carol Wayne
7
In Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland the Mad Hatter says:
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”
And the Cheshire Cat grins:
“I'm not crazy, my reality is just different than yours…We're all mad here.”
That is what it is beginning to feel like: Trump is the Mad Hatter and he does have a world of his own – what used to be our world. We have all been pulled down the rabbit hole with him. Up is down and down is up, and democracy, in a White Rabbit” reference, “has fallen sloppy dead.”
2
To answer your questions (rhetorical though they may be): 1. A Trump-led America is no longer a democracy in any sense of the concept; for that matter, a Republican-led America, given its commitment to disenfranchisement and gerrymandering, is not a democracy. 2. America is not an independent country when its policies are fashioned by the whims of a narcissist ignoramus serving only himself and is supported by a Congress subservient to a plutocracy immune to the wishes of the people and the facts of the natural world and supported by racists, sexists, and homophobes. Unless this changes soon, America will no longer be a viable country; perhaps it already is a zombie. 3. 45 is not being held accountable to the American public, but is instead accountable only to himself; this reflects more on the baseness of the party that supports him than the person.
3
Right you are.
Let's not forget who else enables the republican take over of democracy: PACs funded by Koch Bros, Mercer, Adelson, et al plus their direct financial support to like minded pliable candidates. In two words, Citizens United.
2
"I won't not use no double negatives." - Bart Simpson
6
Please Mr. Mueller, please, put this "president" out of our collective misery!
5
Make America Great Again - impeach Trump.
13
Right on...
Bbbbut won't it be out of the lying pan and into the fire (and religious right brimstone) with trump toady #1 Mike Pence.
Here's an artful deal offer: let's impeach both Trump and Pence.
Then have a special election. Since trump loves golf, we'll call it a National Mulligan.
And, Vlad you've been warned. Keep out of U.S. politics *especially* all elections. We've got some dirt on your financial assets among other things. Those could be up on Facebook too. Not to mention actual viable press outlets (excepting Fox, of course).
1
I have to admit, being an expat from the US feels really relaxing at the moment. No TV, mostly local and regional news and selective reading and viewing via internet. Totally not inundated by the political train wreck currently taking place in the US. From what I do gather from trump news, it appears trump's 40 million cult members endorse his love for putin and Russia and are now fans of that country. Hopefully that love will encourage them to seek residency or citizenship there. Doing so would perhaps improve the financial viability of the US. If they are the uneducated trump loves, then probably a majority of the are on some type of public assistance. Would be nice to have that money available for more needed use.
7
The United States was never a democracy. It's a federal republic with an electoral system that could have been designed by Rube Goldberg. It should have been obvious when Rutherford B. Hayes won the electoral vote, but not the popular vote, that the electoral system had problems. Those problems have only worsened since, to the point that a wannabe dictator seized power after losing by 2,860,000 votes. Until a Democrat does that, the Republican Party is perfectly happy with this system.
8
@Robert B.
Your choice of language, including "wannabe dictator" and "seized power" is indescribably outrageous.
1
@Robert B. Hey! This Rube Goldbergian system of ours was state of the art! Albeit in the 18th Century...
Oh, my I do feel your pain. Wait, no I don't. I'm still feeling the pain of the deliberate campaign in 2016 by the mainstream media and the Democratic Party to promote Trump's candidacy and subvert Bernie Sanders' campaign. None, absolutely NONE of our current multiple crises needed to happen. But the elites had to have their way and so Bernie Sanders, who truly drew the biggest crowds and who truly is for the average American and not the 1% was systematically cheated out of a win. Upset about the state of our "democracy"? HEH. What's left of it maybe.
11
@Lifelong New Yorker
Bernie was cheated by HIllary, and yet we are subjected to posts like that by Robert B, above, claiming that "a dictator seized power" and that "Until a Democrat does that, the Republican Party is perfectly happy with this system." I note that he was apparently happy with this system until a Democrat lost--a Democrat who really did seize power from Bernie, really did destroy evidence against herself that was under Congressional subpoena (a felony); really did suffer no consequences (like impeachment) because FBI agents altered Comey's draft conclusion (before even needing to interview 16 witnesses or Hillary herself) that she had been "grossly negligent" in her handling of our national secrets. Comey knew that even before all those interviews; and he recounted why in his July speech. Speaking of elites having their way, Hillary got away with cheating Bernie out of his chance, got away with avoiding impeachment through the collusion of the FBI, Lynch, Obama, Strzok, and, ultimately, Comey.
1
In some respects you are insulated from the reality of being a black man in America, one such being as an intellectual in the employ of the renowned NY Times.
I said "man" deliberately as I'm well aware that black women face a different kind of racist thinking, so while they see, hear, and feel it 24/7/365, they don't fear, as mortally, as black men do.
You tell it like it is, you open your mouth and let it out, for instance, the absolute truth of your statement -
"Trump’s supporters love this. Finally, someone is unapologetically fighting for white supremacy, white culture and white identity, for protectionism, xenophobia and Christian supremacy. No matter how much he lies, no matter how much he fumbles, no matter how much he betrays the greater America, Trump will remain the hero of white, Republican, racist America."
I'll add the fact that there are so many additional millions of white Americans, every bit fitting the description you give, most hiding in plain sight, pretending to be accepting that all we humans are relatives of each other.
Much as I loathe these in-your-face loons, I loathe these pretenders even more, because as they live their awfulness, they enable this very sick society.
Jeez Charles, read it again, not from your perspective, but through the eyes of everyday black Americans, and if you can get into it, through the hatred of white Americans; the glaring blinding truth of it has never really been said before, quite like you necessarily put it.
5
The Republicans will follow Trump anywhere. He is their Messiah, dividing the sea blocking their path to who knows where. The joy of unquestioning discipledom!!
But where is Trump going?? He has no idea. He can’t focus, can’t plan, can’t count. He is a marionette if a very few bonkers billionaires who own the GOP Congress and about half the State Legislatures. They’re leading Trump. To a government by and for these few wealthy wackos.
6
@John Brews ..✅
"dividing the sea blocking their path to who knows where."
Republicans know very well where; we are not blinded by relentless anti-Trumpisms. It is not that HE does not know where, but rather that the Left would prefer not to look there.
Meanwhile. back on the job, we have an actual hard-working man doing his best to save the country from its ruinous path to joblessness, stagnation, and military vulnerability.
If folks were working for our enemies they could not consistently fight harder against American success at home and abroad.
Could be Charles. Maybe even worse than Obama assuring Medvedev caught on an open mike that he'd be more accommodating of Putin after the 2012 election (though I can't recall the same level of outrage from you and the Dems then). And maybe even worse than Obama's "apology" speech in Cairo trying for a reset with the Muslim World by apologizing for US sins real and imagined, not to mention justifying Israel's existence due to the Holocaust but totally wimping out by avoiding mention of 4000 years of Jewish history there long before the Arabs and Islam Come to think of it though, no matter how embarrassing Trump was in Helsinki, he's calling for Germany to buy US natural gas rather than the deal Merkel made with the very same Russia and Putin to buy theirs and thus strike a blow at the Russian economy (of course criticizing Germany was also a hot topic among Trump-haters). And last time I looked, Trump has not released $150 billion in cash that will be used to finance terrorism as Obama did in his anxious effort to reset with the Iranian theocrats who still organize weekly "Death to America" rallies even now. I can't recall any "Death to America" rallies in Moscow. Do you?
4
I'm always curious how Trumpsters defend their traitor in chief by citing bad or questionable actions by democrats. For example Hillary's emails. If Hillary broke the law, then try her, convict her and lock her up, but don't use her behavior to admonish your guy. What does one thing have to do with the other? Trump had specific concrete knowledge of Russian cyber attacks on our country in 2016! He has spent the entirety of his presidency trying to cover it up. If any "democrats" helped him then they should be tried as traitors also. But mutual bad acts don't cancel each other.....like a double negative.
Double negative?
Trump is a bad bad man.
10
One of the worst betrayal of two prominent Americans that came out of cozy 2 plus hours of tete-a-tete Putin-Trump meeting is not even mentioned here.
According to Sarah Sanders, Mr. Trump has told his BFF Putin that his intelligence would be allowed to "interview" the former ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul and the American-born financier Bill Bowder.
The latter was successful lobbying the US government in 2012 to impose new sanctions on Moscow with the Magnitsky Act - named after his former lawyer murdered in a Russian prison.
These two gentlemen better not have tea with anyone that they are not closely related to.
7
Start wearing gloves to touch & handle everything.
Thank you, Mr. Blow. You have nailed it, again.
4
@Kathleen Reilly, agree completely!
Puppet
Parrot
Poodle
Traitor.
Siding with Putin, throwing the U.S. intelligence community, democracy and his sworn presidential oath under the wheels.
Our complicit GOP Congress enables Trump, issuing lukewarm rebukes, unwilling to do their patriotic duty and remove him from office. Perhaps they've taken donations from the Kremlin too (via NRA)? Mitch? Paul? Anyone?
8
@Brunella
One can only marvel at the imaginative new derogatory descriptions the Left has come up with, and thank goodness, too, as "orange" was really boring.
There is little doubt that DT is compromised and under Putin's thumb.
8
@P. Panza
Only among Democrats who hated and resisted his presidency from the moment he won--and not from those who still have little doubt that Obama and Hillary were compromised.
1
If you believe Trump's stories, he's got some great swampland in Florida to sell you. Oh wait! He already sold $200 million in Florida property to Russian government, military and oligarchy for laundering already!
7
Okay so, disregard for a moment an otherwise well-documented outbound Hudson River trash barge of clinically disqualifying psychological aberrants displayed by this person.
Then, after this week (which really stretches back to two weeks before his assumption of office), consider anew his performance in Helsinki.
Conclusion: past refuse notwithstanding, Americans, we MUST embrace the absolute reality that in trump we have a
1.Traitor.
2.Demented.
3.Incoherent.
4.Insanely, and ( in the 3:00AM variety of cognizant), knowing full well of his BETRAYAL.
But the man does not give a whit: all that matters is his twisted dementia-ridden ego. Imagine the legacy he leaves his son??
Of thus we can even speak of an American president??
YES we can and YES we must remove this cancer from our body politic.
10
@Mark Lueders
I would posit that "all that matters" is our security, both economic, and military. Despite the persistent harangue, and the shameful inability to connect the dots of the Trump presidency, it is apparent to the non-brainwashed that this President is dedicated to making us stronger and more secure. His economic attack on uncompetitive corporate taxes increased jobs, which lowered unemployment among blacks, hispanics and women--traditionally "sure-thing Democrat voters--to record lows. For women, not since 1953 have unemployment rates been this low; for blacks, not since 1973. The desire to limit outside competition for jobs on Trump's part is reflected in his "limit illegal immigration" policy, because as labor supplies increase beyond demand this keeps wages down. The other dots to connect during Trump's attempt to grow the economy to produce more jobs include his attempts to negotiate better trade deals for our businesses, to reduce business - stifling regulations, to reduce harmful tariffs against our products. All these dots connect to help grow the economy. Monday we will see a new initiative to open a national data base for job availability with a description of required skills and the locations of training centers where these skills can be acquired. He has also increased our military spending to prevent attacks. It is a shame that someone working so hard on behalf of so many people in this country should be subjected to such intentional blindness.
2
So, uuhh, Trump voters are going to dessert, because CB and the NYT says DJT is not doing the right thing? Not me. I can't speak for anyone else, but, not me.
So, I was listening to Rush the other day. DJT can't say anything right, by MSM standards. If there is Russian hokey pokey, it's DJT's fault. If there isn't Russian involvement, it's his fault. Go figure.
Except, this whole Russian story started during Obama's watch. Obama told them to stop. They didn't. Aaaannnnddd, Obama did nothing. Red line in the sand.
It's all DJT's fault.
Is it just me, or does the MSM seem a couple steps behind DJT?
5
Thanks again Mr. B. Whenever I see a new one from you I go there first. I hope your employers know how grateful old (liberal) white boys like me who live in the sticks are for your columns. Please forward my 5 star review to them.
10
The intelligence services can do no wrong. To question them is to commit treason.
3
In many/most cases. However, I am happy to accept their analyses these days for two reasons: 1. we are at war and 2. During wartime, we need them.
But having worked in foreign policy analysis and creation of international policies, I became quite aware of the fact that folks in intelligence are human, with biases and sometimes, have logic breakdowns based on their own personal feelings. That is when they can become truly unreliable. But pray that because we are at war, they will remain professional.
You would not expect a middle schooler to use the “sort of a double negative” excuse let alone the POTUS.
The scholars of this country must be having a very difficult time thinking about this president.
6
It would be good for all Americans to read the 1935 chilling book by Sinclair Lewis "It Can't Happen Here". Similar, but far earlier to Phillip Roth's "Plot against America".
Lewis's book shows that America could easily be fascist as evidenced by its racist, anti-Jewish leanings among many 'nice', patriotic, down-to-earth folks. It seems like today and it's frightening.
Vote in November as if our lives depended on it. And they do.
8
Campaign slogans for 2020:
TRUMP, President for 35% of America.
A vote for Trump is a vote for Putin
Vote for the Puppet.
3
'America could rightly question the loyalties of its own president...Trump’s “Surrender Summit” with President Vladimir Putin of Russia was such a disloyal, traitorous display that it boggles the mind.'
What truly boggles the mind is Mr Blow's overblown assertions. Where in God's name is the nuance? He is right to say this is truly an American crisis moment. I would submit it is the leftist media who are fermenting it. By way of example Mr Blow's pre Helisinki headline read 'Trump Treasonous Traitor', in shy making alliteration. So the anti-Trump dye of bias was already cast. Just as the protest placards displayed xxx, we don't care who it is protest to Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination, we are against you; talk about blind rage.
In the US between left and right verbal barricaded battle lines are drawn hard and fast, there is a tacit civil war in America and incendiary name calling and blind rage just fan the divisive flames.
2
A Focus on Solution:
Voter suppression is the most dangerous enemy that we have and it has been going on for far too long. Voter registration, making actual voting more accessable and the reverse of gerimandered districts must be one of our highest priorities.
13
@Richard
"Voter registration, making actual voting more accessible and the reverse of gerrymandered districts must be one of our highest priorities."
- Yes, but higher still is the security of the vote counting process. We need block-chain technology to insure the integrity of democracy. Paper votes open to inspection (which we do not have) is a first step.
That the 80 year-oldster, technology disabled, Democrat, so-called leaders are not on this is proof we need to replace every one of them.
Votes are easily hacked - it happens in every election - and there are many organized and state-funded groups around the world attacking our elections and our votes.
The American democracy is "where the money is" - there is no greater prize. Our elections attract hackers like flies to honey.
1
The Dems will retake BOTH houses of congress if only they get a decent turnout for the election. Possibly all they need is a turnout percentage EQUAL to the republicans - but outrage SHOULD create a much greater turnout, which would guarantee victory.
If they don't get that turnout, then democracy has failed, and justifiably so. People who don't vote don't deserve democracy.
9
Everyone continues to focus on whether or not Trump acknowledges that the Russians meddled in the 2016 election instead of asking the real question, "Why does Trump refuse to admit that the Russians interfered in our election and that they are still doing so?" The Russians may or may not be blackmailing Trump, but the obvious answer is that he doesn't acknowledge Russian interference because it got him elected and he may need them again in 2016. He doesn't admit to their present interference in the 2018 congressional elections because they are helping him keep the Republican majority in the house and senate. That's what we should be upset about.
The Russians didn't have to collude with Trump to know what would help him; they could and can figure that out on their own - and he encouraged them during the election to keep doing it. It's not just history; it's happening now - and Trump continues, for obvious reasons, to defend and encourage them. See: RevolutionOfReason.com
2
"Sort of a double negative". Either the revised version of "would vs. wouldn't" is or it isn't. And as we English teachers point out: a double negative equals a positive!
6
In matters of state, we cannot think without words, we cannot reason without word, and we cannot communicate properly without words. Part of the problem with dealing with someone like Donald Trump is that he refuses to use clear, plain, and precise language.
Trump deliberately uses vague and misleading language in order to avoid taking responsibility for its meaning. When, for example, he (through Huckabee-Sanders) claims that a "No" answer to an important question (answered twice) really meant that it was an answer to another issue, this underscores his use of presidential power to refuse to answer questions. A question about national security should never get a yes-or-no answer, or blown off.
In the absence of good faith on Trump's part, what is really needed is to back him against the wall and ask him in exaggerated detail to answer the question completely, repeat his answer clearly, and answer specific questions relating to the understanding of each point, and then to ask him to repeat the meaning. In other words, it would be like scolding to a naughty child.
But what is really required is for the majority of voters to see through this time-wasting and destructive nonsense and to vote Trump and his political supporters out of any and all office. An honest society has no place for the corruption of language, and reason, and meaning, not to mention Truth.
2
"Trump likes to say that a country without borders is no longer a country." Well, a President without boundaries is no longer a patriot. And in time, the borders become irrelevant, just the outlines of an empty mess.
5
This column... All true. All scary!
3
What would Mr. Blow do about Russia if he had the power? Invade them? Nuke them? Would the vaporization of millions of people in a nuclear exchange satisfy? He doesn't incorporate in his hatred of Trump, that no sanctions were imposed on Russia concerning election meddling until Trump became president. Obama knew about this problem in 2016 but only gave Putin a call telling him not to do that. It also was in his power tho stop our government from using Kaspersky. After Trump became president, within three months the ban was put into space. But then President Obama and Mr. Blow were absolutely sure the Hillary would crush Trump with electoral votes and carry both houses with her. So why bother? But now, trying to justify their defeat, they turn to Putin. What are the goals of these sanctions? There is no end result. They just stay there. The only way they end is someone says enough is enough. Putin was described in another NYT article as the most dangerous man on the planet. He has 6000 nuclear tipped missiles. During Obama's presidency, Russian military and ministers were talking about the nuclear option. Two Russian nuclear bombers flew within 40 miles of the California Since Trump became president, Putin says a nuclear exchange would be the end of civilization. We have to reduce tension and that is what Trump is trying to do now and as he tried to do with Kim Jong-Un.
2
Your FOX is showing.
Actually the Obama administration swiftly imposed sanctions in response to Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea. The Russia investigation was ongoing as Obama left office, and the incoming administration was fully briefed. They could have drafted sanctions and had them ready for the day after the inauguration, but for some odd reason chose not to.
Trump has consistently dismissed the unanimous findings of all seventeen of America's intelligence agencies in favor of buddy Putin's "very strong and powerful" denials. That is a curious fact, and no amount of hyperventilating Obama/Clinton blaming will make it go away.
To believe that all of those intelligence professionals are part of some "deep state" conspiracy is beyond outlandish, but then again pretty much par for the course in Republican Fantasyland.
If Trump's ignominious Helsinki outing wasn't confirmation enough, and if the preponderance of Russian meddling evidence so far isn't enough, then we've truly reached a scary place as a country.
1
The Crimea sanctions have nothing to do with messing with the election. What did Obama think would happen? Putin would say, "Oh gee, I didn't know you felt that way. I give it right back," Crimea was part of the Russian Federation until 1954. When the Ukrainian government was thrown out by Obama encouraged rebels in 2014, Crimea voted overwhelmingly to go with Russia rather than the new Ukrainian government. The sanctions accomplished nothing except raise tensions between our two countries and Putin isn't going to give it back. None of this has anything to do with the election when his response was a phone call.
Trump's methods sow chaos. There is a large portion of his base that is enthralled by this chaos: the evangelical Christians. They abide Trump's abhorrent behaviors not because they will get a SCOTUS majority that might undo decades of LBGTQ progress or overturn Roe. They abide Trump precisely because he sows chaos. Every. Single. Day. In their twisted worldview, this chaos is a precursor to an end-times prophecy that they wantonly seek to happen now. If Trump leads the nation and or the world into some horrific conflagration, so much the better: their fantasy-land, magic show , cult-like beliefs will have come true. To the detriment of all humanity. This is why a new legislative wall between church and state must be erected. I would even help pay for it.
13
Thank you for your strong, clear column today: "Finally, someone is unapologetically fighting for white supremacy, white culture and white identity, for protectionism, xenophobia and Christian supremacy. No matter how much he lies, no matter how much he fumbles, no matter how much he betrays the greater America, Trump will remain the hero of white, Republican, racist America." However, I do have a little problem; Trump is also unapologetically fighting for misogyny. I mean Trump is fighting to worsen misogyny. He is not fighting against misogyny. He wishes to re-establish misogyny in its worst forms.
Why was misogyny not at least listed in your article? After all, we women constitute 51 percent of the citizens of the United States and we have some heavy problems as I think you know.
10
Donald doesn't know what the meaning of what is, is. It's different than "is not"
2
The United States has been meddling in the internal affairs of other countries for decades. Now it is getting a taste of its own medicine. American imperialism is collapsing and there is nothing that Trump or anyone else can do to reverse the trend. As a Christian homosexual pacifist I would like to remind evangelical homophobes that one can refuse to invade other countries but that it is impossible to choose one’s sexual orientation.
3
I know that this is not an intelligent response, but I decided to share my reaction to this and other pieces by Charles Blow: "I love Charles Blow!" He may be among the first arrested after the fascists take complete control, but he is doing great, great work, and I am grateful to him every day.
5
I know reading the N.Y. Times and Charles Blow is called by some the "liberal bubble," but it feels more like a camp fire on a dark cold night.
How else might one find the comforts of sanity, rational understanding, informed interpretation, and cherished human values? Indeed, civilization is a sweet spot in the jungle.
11
Trump and three of his children may be bar from serving in leadership positions at any nonprofit operating in New York following an inquiry on the Trump Fondation...and those people are running your country! Wake up Congress
2
Hurry up Mr Mueller, we can’t wait much longer.
9
It is a sign of the present health of this great Republic that Charles has been able to continue to spew his ridiculous and largely nonsensical rants about the President. If anything speaks to the vitality of the current political situation in America it is the fact that Blow can pump out this stuff to his echo chamber and have so much fun doing it without anyone looking over his or their shoulder. Charles's insight is as usual desperately wanting but his right to indulge himself is not mitigated in the slightest. He should stop every so often and be thankful that this is a country that continues to be free and continues to be a beacon of sanity and freedom in a world that is anything but.
4
White people love this dude. I've read many explanations of that love, but I still don't really understand it. White people, please explain your Trump love to us. What's the ugly truth here?
6
@E Please do not make the mistake that white racists make in believing that all "white people " are the same. "white people" do not love Trump. Racists love Trump.
7
Charles is right-it’s only the racists who like Trump. There are many caring white people who are appalled by Trump and who are working to help bring positive change for all Americans. They don’t seek the spotlight, and their stories often go unnoticed. Also, people in media feel racists make better video.
1
How can Trump supporters, in the Senate, the House and across America, and who call themselves “patriots”, not see the American flags they wave slowly morphing into Russian flags?
Where are today’s Patriots with a capital P? Who will stand up and defend this country? Certainly not our President, and many of the gutless wonders currently “serving” in the House and Senate. What a joke, but a tragic one.
3
Who would thought that a republican president would look weak on the world stage next to Vladimir Putin. This from same guy who spews venom at everyone and their mama ranging from; NFL players, Rosie O'Donnell, celebrities, members of his own party. When it comes to Putin we can't even get a whimper out of him. Then after deafening outrage from both political parties he tries to clean it up with a well scripted denial that goes off the rails with an ad lib at the end. Then he sends out Sara Sanders whom we haven't seen in about a month to gaslight the press and American public with more lies and non answers. Finally, one would think that it was Trump who seems to be a KGB plant, spy, or simply an useful idiot for Putin.
9
Charles, I agree with everything you say however I also believe this Russia meeting is getting blown out of content. Yes, Russia got trump elected along with James Comey. I believe there was collusion however I believe Muller will settle that question. That said trump can't just give America away to Russia, in fact all of his dancing back and forth really makes him look like a bigger fool than he already is. Its true he is only out for white, Republican, racist America however I believe this had woke up the rest of America and it will start to be fixed in November. Pray I am right!!
1
Trump is a double negative President.
3
Congratulations Charles! Thank you for screaming out the word treason. The word treason must constantly be said because that is what we are fighting against. I demonstrated against the Vietnam war in my youth, and have never been a blind flag waiver, but Trump's treason must be eliminated.
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
Trump is finished but because he is so greedy and shameless this process of him leaving office will be dragged out. Trump will milk the goodwill of the presidential office as long as he can...dragging it through the cesspool he created. We are still waiting for the details of Mueller's report but an educated guess and basic reason suggests that a filthy den of corruption will be found. Already we know that Trump is a bald-faced liar and looks after himself before the country...profiting from the office all the while. Trump will not finish his first term if there is any justice.
3
Mr. Blow, you forgot the "male" in "white male supremacy." While it's certainly true that "racial insecurity and hostility" are a root concern of Trump's supporters, so is "sex role insecurity and hostility" towards women as a class. Do women support Trump? Absolutely. The same women who support traditional roles for the sexes as taught in church doctrine, i.e. male supremacy. The speakers at the Charlottesville white male supremacists' rally, for example, were predominantly male and spoke openly that day about the evils of "feminism."
3
Everyone continues to focus on whether or not Trump acknowledges that the Russians meddled in the 2016 election instead of asking the real question, "Why does Trump refuse to admit that the Russians interfered in our election and that they are still doing so?" The Russians may or may not be blackmailing Trump, but the obvious answer is that he doesn't acknowledge Russian interference because it got him elected and he may need them again in 2016. He doesn't admit to their present interference in the 2018 congressional elections because they are helping him keep the Republican majority in the house and senate. That's what we should be upset about.
The Russians didn't have to collude with Trump to know what would help him; they could and can figure that out on their own - and he encouraged them during the election to keep doing it. It's not just history; it's happening now - and Trump continues, for obvious reasons, to defend and encourage them. See: RevolutionOfReason.com
2
Perhaps Nato needs to save us?
7
All of this supposition about Trump's motives in my personal opinion is foolish. For whatever reason he has chosen Russia over the United States in every situation he has done it. To use an old cliche, "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is a duck." If you remove Russia from the equation there is ample reason for him to not be president. He is a very deeply disturbed man, racist, xenophobic, incapable of processing information past soundbites (that is not presidential material), who will always put his own self-interest before that of the country. I'm so tired of the new evidence, new outrage, new garbage approach. The man is committing treason and he is a horrible leader. Analyzing everything he says is a waste of good editorial space. He needs to go. Period.
2
I can't believe the US President offered to turn over American diplomats, who have been accused of NO crimes, let alone indicted for them, to the likes of Putin. Republicans held years of bogus hearings on Benghazi, a political witch hunt, by sanctifying an American diplomat and using his murder to go after Hillary Clinton. Now they support a president who has said he would turn diplomats over to a man who has ordered political adversaries be murdered overseas, never mind his attack on our country??
What this entire sick episode makes glaringly clear is that the Republicans Party has more animosity and hatred for American Democrats and liberals than they do even Putin, Kim, et al. They have put enormous energy and funds into investigating and harassing Democrats, esp. the Clintons (with ZERO coming from it. Oh, excuse me. They did get a fib over a private, consensual affair, and impeached over that!) while they lie prostrate before Trump and Putin and Kim, their claws retracted and tails between their legs. How utterly pathetic that this is the party in power right now. How sick.
4
The entire Trump family reminds me of the white family in the photo circulating on twitter. This family were happy after ambushing an elephant who had been eating. Don Jr redux.
But, to topic: Putin was obviously in control during the Helsinki press debacle. Trump is somehow seriously beholden to the man for something. Trump trying to bail himself out since has just tripped over his stupid tongue with each effort. A double negative the least of his problems.
The beginning of the end may be underway though. As people in the hinterland begin (have begun) to lose jobs because of Trump's inalienable right to do really dumb things they may be joining the marches and demonstrations. I see evidence of that already.
1
Let's not despair, at least not totally.
Many people who speak out or post on social media in favor of Trump couldn't find Russia on a world map in ten minutes of searching. Geopolitics is not a concern of theirs. Having assigned Trump the role of the "us against them" hero, the default mindset is to approve and defend anything and everything he does.
Some portion of the public will never awaken to Trump's perfidy. The more he is criticized, the more his words are called treasonous, the more the harder their support becomes. You cannot speak nor reason with the hardest of the hard core.
A good subset of Trump voters were Obama voters in previous elections. These swing voters are gradually peeling away from the idea that he is any kind of savior and, with tariffs kicking in, they are coming to realize he might be a destroyer. Everyone understands he can't deliver on all of his wild promises, but many still enjoy his act, whether comedy or otherwise.
Trump sold out our country in his news conference in Helsinki. He's still thinking as a businessperson who believes he will likely live to 108 and be doing business in Russia after the presidency. This is one of the huge dangers of having someone with international business ties trying to pretend he is president of the U.S. That this could even be conceived as possible shows the massive ignorance of many voters and an even greater failure of our election processes. We have embraced an insane level of contradiction.
2
Whether he is accountable to the American public or to a foreign despot doesn't really seem to matter because no one appears to be holding him to account. He is unaccountable. One supposes that he can now go shoot someone in Times Square and get away with it.
2
So we have a president who was helped to election by a hostile foreign power, who was elected with a three-million vote shortfall in the popular vote, and who is so stupid, or contemptuous of his people that he thinks they will be convinced by a walk-back so simple-minded it would be embarrassing from an eight-year-old. He is working to the benefit of a far-right cabal of white supremacists and oligarchs--including a foreign dictator--and has nominated a Supreme Court justice who will radically transform the country.
Why, exactly, are we tolerating this? What is it, again, that the Declaration of Independence says about tyranny and duty?
5
Anti-American.
Disloyalty and traitorous display by Trump as he stood next to Putin - this was surrendering America's global dominance and influence to Putin and Russia's age old obsession with the destruction of America.
Putin hates America for destroying the Soviet Union in 1990/1991 when he was a KGB agent/spy in East Germany,
there is this deep rooted hatred with everything American,
and see the way how Putin treated Trump at the press conference - it was with total dominance and contempt,
because Putin knows that Trump lies as part of his instincts,
and this is an advantage for Russia, as Trump continues to deny the hacking of the election in Trump's favor.
Putin is laughing at Trump's stupidity and ignorance about
international diplomacy, and is manipulating Trump psychologically and emotionally, and making Trump look like an agent of Russia.
American National Security is at Risk.
Anti-patriotic.
6
We only need three sentences to respond to Trump.
Sure, you are!
Sure, you did!
Why, sure, you're right Mr. President.
Said with skepticism, sarcasm, and an eye roll -- that's all we need.
I'm not in favor of calling anyone out for being a joke, but Trump is special. He lies, he backpedals, and he befuddles. Trump is a joke.
3
You say he is fighting for white supremacy. Well, yes BUT they are not the majority.
Trump is in power not because of his support by white supremacy, but because people stayed home and chose not to exercise their democratic right to vote.
As well, the Bernie people hated Hilary so much that they voted for "dummy" candidate Jill Stein, who got 50,000 votes in Michigan and Hillary lost by 10,000 and DT got the electoral college.
The moral here is if Americans do not exercise their democratic right to vote, then the white supremacists and fascists will end up governing America.
4
You got one thing wrong Charles. You state:"so we have no idea what they discussed, confessed, agreed to or even conspired." You forgot to add "What Putin ORDERED Trump to do and/or say" which is the most likely scenario given Putin is the one blackmailing Trump. Im happy the world is finally coming around to this idea. I came to that conclusion after I read the entire Steele intelligence/dossier which is proving to be the only viable answer to Trumps submission to Putin: Because Putin has "kompramat" on Trump. It is that simple folks.
1
Trump thinks Americans are too stupid to see through his lies and narcissism. His voters and the Republicans in the Congress and Senate repeatedly show him that he's right.
4
Pretty much the clearest general statement I've seen of where we now stand as a country. Well done, Mr. Blow.
2
James Clapper gave the only advice that will work for the rest of us who aren't Trump and Republican Party addicts who have every crazy intention to turn America into a Trump one party ruled Undemocratic nation: vote this November.
4
The next shoe to drop (probably from Putin's advice) is to fire Rosenstein, then go after Mueller. Trump just got away with open treason, what's to convince him to reign in his dictatorial ambition?
The worst enemy the United States has ever had is the current president. An enemy from within and extraordinarily powerful. It is going to get worse. The republicans are complicit. Maybe, eventually, even they may get enough. Then they will say, "But, but, but." There are no "buts." If you voted for him, you share his evil. It was obvious from the very beginning--real-estate racial discrimination, cheating multitudes of subcontractors, birtherism. Incapable of accomplishing anything positive, he only knows sucking up to other dictators and destruction--Canada, Britain, EU.
The election was stolen. Is there any legal way to address that? trump should be made to pay all expenses of his occupancy, and all his appointments should be voided.
3
For his consistent courage, clarity and devotion to the truth, Mr. Blow deserves a Pulitzer.
7
What will happen in 2020 when Trump decides not to have an election? The Republicans, evangelicals, and white supremacists would certainly back him up and support, in Trumps words, " a temporary suspension of our very special democratic process."
Yes Charles, you know and you say it; Tom Friedman also knows it and says it. But there it seems to end. Nothing from Rachel Maddow or anyone else at MSNBC; nothing from The Times editorial board; and nothing, absolutely nothing from anyone in Congress except our mortally ill patriot, Sen. John McCain. All we hear is feeble spin, failed "walk backs" of repeated traitorous remarks, and stop-gap legislative fixes. This the most major Constitutional crisis since Watergate, and all there is only cringe-worthy fear by Republicans, the usual weak-kneed Democratic calls to interview the U.S. translator (something that Robert Mueller should do), or impractical legislative calls for money for cyber-security. It's beyond astonishing; it's a major betrayal not just by Donald Trump, but by Congress--Democrats and Republicans--to hold him accountable for betraying the nation and the Constitution. There is a Constitutional remedy; it's called impeachment. That or resignation or the invocation of the Sec. 4 of the 25th amendment. This is the cure for the "cancer on the nation" that we face. It's time for someone in the political class to speak out and face the truth that many know, but fear to say. We must ask where is our Cicero when the fate of our republic is in the hands of an American Caesar indebted to a foreign power?
Trump is an ignorant man who shows no interest in learning about the intricacies of foreign policy. He has an unfounded belief in his ability to understand any issue without the need for study or consultation.
Given these limitations, what could he have possibly spent TWO HOURS talking about with Putin? Soccer?!?
Nothing scares me more than to think about what Trump agreed to while alone with Putin. What did he give away? What orders did he receive? God help us all!!
2
That man, having grown terrifyingly comfortable in his preferred role as the "king of America", who likes to surprise our allies with ambush tweets, now displays the utterly repulsive conviction that we will swallow or get used to any of his lies pouring down on us, as long as they are big enough and he repeats them often enough. How stupid does Trump think we are? The disrespect is breathtaking!
1
Accurate and true, the only problem is that, as with all opinions in liberal media, it's just the pulpit preaching to the choir. It makes imperceptible, if any progress with swaying those from the other side. It's sad, yes, but that's the way it is. The GOP gives the shaft to so many of the dummies who stand behind it you just have to wonder. Unfortunately a lot of it is because of the things Charles Blow has outlined here. You couldn't say it's the blind leading the blind, it's more like the power monger manipulators leading the blind.
Donald speaks in double negative blather.
Changes his tune daily, what does it matter?
Putin sends out new orders.
Trump winks to supporters.
A downward spiral of lies and deceitful chatter.
3
The "would" to "wouldn't" fix only works on paper. Trump's actual delivery would have been incoherent as discourse, if he had said "wouldn't".
The idiom "reduce a language to writing" is no mere figure of speech. Punctuation and skillful writing can preserve some features of emphasis and discourse organization ("what goes with what"), but tempo, intonation, and tone of voice, e.g., are all lost, and these details are important for a hearer to understand correctly what the speaker "means" by an utterance. And the speech act in question made it crystal clear that Trump was underscoring his skepticism about Russian interference, by way of accepting Putin's denial. Rewriting the "script" produces words that don't jibe with the actual real-time performance. Indeed, intonation aside, the "I will say this" lead in, even without the tell-tale intonation used, would make nonsense of a clause that ended with "wouldn't".
8
I do not believe that the leader of any country, especially the US, should hold any private undocumented meetings with leaders of other countries. Things get said & misinterpreted. Who knows if the translators are actually translating what is said or what they have been told to repeat as said. When meeting with a "hostile" government, a leader should want full documentation of the conversations. It should not come down to a case of "I said, He said". Do we know what trump may have promised putin in this meeting? What did putin remind trump he has on him? Did trump promise putin a key to the White House or the Capitol Bldg.? If a war is begun, what did trump say would be the US response? Yes, the translator should be debriefed by the Intelligence Agencies, first, then by the Intelligence (?) committees in Congress if need be. But the only other adult in the room should be asked many, many questions about the conversations.
5
@Nostradamus Said So - oh, please! Haven't we enough reality TV as it is?
No, we do not need to have detailed transcripts or recordings of our elected leaders' meetings available for immediate streaming or download.
Regular access to this info following the existing FOIA is sufficient.
@Margo
but there is nothing to get from trump's meetings through the FOIA.!
In this presidency, it’s easy to become distracted by all of the lies, by all of the nonsense.
However, Mr. Blow, once again puts his finger on some of the core issues...
This guy Trump is essentially a racist.
This guy Trump has no interest in reaching out to and satisfying any constituency other than conservatives who are also racist.
This guy Trump understands that his base is largely racist and interested only in a return to the policies and the America of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
7
It appears that Trump was the beneficiary of an emolument of the highest order: The office of the presidency. I suspect he also is financially indebted to Russia. A foreign power has leverage over the President, in violation of the Constitution. Without consideration of Russia's dossier on Trump, the American people have solid grounds to remove Trump from office. This cannot stand. And I cannot wait for Mueller to take action.
9
this article scares me very much because it is all true and happening. holding true to form president bam bam speaks for all the disaffected white americans. the poor downtrodden immigrants from yesterday.
they have worked diligently to hide a few bucks from the I R S. they think that being able to avoid Jury Duty is an accomplishment. yes proud white people across this great land have shown the world their intent and true colors.
worrying ones way through life makes life a bit more difficult. in their cult is a leader of nonsense and many followers. i feel such shame as i am white. sorry world for people that share my skin color.
2
MAGRA: Make America a Great Russian Asset. All this so he could wear the crown from the 2016 pageant.
6
I dont know why media writers are giving the "President", "Mr T" such a pass. If a person elected to the ioffice which allows him to order up the "football" demand that the codes be produced and then is allowed because we have given him special permission, trusting his judgment above all others-to shoot thousands of thermo-nuclear rockets, torpedoes and drones at whomever he decides is the enemy du jour, and thus leave the earth a smoking, burning ruin, upon which those left alive will envy the dead-if this man cannot read plain english, cannot tell one word from another and thinks it a minor error, the entire government should demand his instant resignation-if it isn't forthcoming, he ought to be carted away to the local looney bin and left there to read his newspapers upside down or backwards-whichever way he seems to prefer.
No man or other has ever used the "dog ate my homework" as an excuse for a major, public foreign or domestic policy gaffe . Only Donald Trump. So self absorbed and so in love with his idea of of himself as the American leader of substance, that mere spelling , reading or errors of logic and understanding mean nothing to him. To all government free riders: this is your man-we thought he was just going blind -presbyopia-and a refusal to wear reading glasses. Clearly,(pun intended),his problems are far more severe and related to his relationship with the Russians. He would never make such an error in favor of Western Europe, Canada or Japan. . .
3
Where are the Democrats? Why aren't they standing on the floor of Congress with claxons and flashing lights demanding hearings and investigations? We are in Code Red territory here with a President and Administration seemingly determined to sell our national security to Russia. The Republicans remain cowardly roadblocks to confronting this danger -- Democrats may not have the majority they need to compel action, but they should not let anyone forget what's at stake here. Raise the alarms. Every. Single. Day.
11
@LEJ I no longer look to the current bunch of Democrats in Washington D.C. to act positively on any issue. Too many years of neoliberal corruption has rendered the Party of FDR inept, impotent and irrelevant.
1
@LEJ
"Where are the Democrats? Why aren't they standing on the floor of Congress with claxons and flashing lights demanding hearings and investigations?"
You expect too much from the 80 year-oldsters. They're taking their entitled naps.
"Trump conducted himself as if he was hostage to Putin..."
A case of 'Stockholm syndrome' in Helsinki?
1
"The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media..."
The real enemy of the people (in a democracy) is a person who describes news media (let's ignore FOX for the moment) as an enemy of the people. It is repulsive to witness a significant minority of the "citizenry" cheer this on. And, to answer the question posed in this essay, for them it is clearly not democracy they are interested in.
6
@True Believer
"The real enemy of the people (in a democracy) is a person who describes news media (let's ignore FOX for the moment) as an enemy of the people."
The Republicans and the Trumpsters share this trait of considering the mainstream media enemies of their ideology. (Note that on the other hand, they love their "tell me another lie" alt-media)
The Republicans do this with malice, as a conscious strategy, whereas the Trumpsters are just dupes of their low education and their lazy emotional thinking.
Both are guilty of false equivalence and intellectual dishonesty.
As always they point to a small truth and elevate it far above a more important truth to make their false point - which does not work in the real world.
The small truth is that the biased mainstream media is linked to the establishment and did, in fact, support the DNC efforts to step on Bernie and rig the system. We know that.
But it's false equivalence to put this small truth against the much larger truth that Trump and the Republicans are destroying this country for their personal gain and are allowing our adversaries an upper hand.
1
63 million Americans decided who to vote for and what they want to believe. Democracy isn't based on facts in evidence. If they don't like the laws, the people change them. If they don't like the facts, they choose what they want to believe. A monarch can be removed from power but the people, even a nation of sociopaths, in a democracy cannot. I share your passion, Mr. Blow, but being ruled by one crazy man, like Trump isn't the issue. We're being ruled by 63 million of them and they don't care a hoot about facts.
5
I think there may be another explanation for Trump's recent double-talk or at least another contributing factor. He's mentally unstable and the job as president is beyond his capacity to handle. His judgement is severely impaired.
There is abundant evidence to show that he is a malignant Narcissist, ie. a combination of Narcissism, Sociopathy, Paranoia and Sadism. His remarks and tweets give much support for this assessment. He is dyslexic which accounts for his lack of reading and not being even superficially aware of recent or more remote history. And then his Narcissism prevents him from taking the advice of the experts around him.
Put this all together and you have a man that is ill-prepared to handle one of the most difficult jobs in the world. So, I think that much of what we see isn't from a well-thought-out-mind but from a confused mind that is trying to bumble through.
Republicans better do something about it before he severely damages our country.
3
"No matter how much he lies, no matter how much he fumbles, no matter how much he betrays the greater America ..." Trump is still a Celebrity with whom we are obsessed -- blind to the harm this addiction is having on our culture.
1
Trump had proof of Putin's direct involvement, indeed orders, for the hacking of our election before he was inaugurated. Because it helped him, however, he cannot--cannot--bring himself to condemn it. He was probably terrified that if the rest of the country knew it before he was sworn in, they might redo the election and he might lose. What a guy.
And could the press please tell us just how much taxpayer money goes into Trump labelled properties when he takes his whole entourage to visit one? Did Ronald Reagan charge the government rent for Secret Service agents when he was chopping wood at his California ranch? And did George W charge them rent when he was at his Texas ranch? And are we buying dinner for and putting up his buddies from Fox News when they visit him at one of his courses? Such a low rent grifter.
6
Mary, I disagree with only one of your statements: "Apparently Trump thinks".
6
Let me clarify. Trump did not say nothing treasonous. He would not say Putin did not interfere in no way in US elections. No rational listener would not believe Trump's double negative reversing the meaning of what he actually said. Is this not perfectly clear, is it not?
3
America, in practical terms, has ceased being a real democracy, it is an acting pluto-kleptocracy instead, mismanaged by a cadre of millionaire misfits involved in a self-serving business. When did you see, in this capitalistic society, a larger inequality than now? What used to be the societal fringe of bitter individuals felt 'left behind' by a globalized, diversified, and multicultural economy, has now become the standard bearer of the republic, which explains Trump's systematic destruction of an established order where allies came together in self-defense and seeking more justice and peace on this suffering planet. That republican's silence is so 'loud' may be because, deep down, they agree with Trump's discriminatory practice and xenophobia, and where even the republican religious groups have sold their souls to a deeply immoral thug...who follows Machiavelli's dictum perfectly (the end, self-enrichment and the screwing of everybody else, justifies the means). Sad as it seems, unless we gather the will to really oppose this brutus ignoramus and oust him, and his minions, from power. Trump is a "Fifth Columnist"; and as such, a highly dangerous individual for the security of this country. Have we become so complacent as be willing to lose our values...before we can appreciate them?
2
I do not understand why sitting Republican politicians do not understand that it is not only the U.S. that is threatened by Trump's disloyal actions, but themselves and their party. Republicans who have chosen not to run again should consider that once out of office the level of their influence and ability to shape events will plummet. Both they and Republicans who plan to stay in office need to act now or see the last vestiges of their ( not Trump's ) Republican Party disappear before their eyes .
1
The problem with this outstanding analysis, in my view, is that it ignores the influence Trump's base of supporters are under from Russia, even now. Not only that, but the article also ignores the influence the democrats are under. Even now, rattling under ever instagram, facebook or youtube post that is remotely pro-democrat, Russian attack bots are hurling confusion and insult in the comment sections at the authors and supporters of those positions. The battle is raging right now.
For example, yesterday, Kathy Griffin (the anti-trump comedian on trump no-fly lists), posted a photograph of Hillary Clinton on Instagram, saying that things could have been so much better. Lots of likes, lots of support, but in the comments sections, "Hillary's a crook", "Hillary's a murderer", "Hillary bombed hospitals". Most of these are followed up with a bow and ribbon and a "I'm a democrat and a Bernie supporter, by the way". A quick look at these accounts, which have no photographs, and you can see, they follow thousands of folks but have virtually no one following them. In other words, these accounts are clearly ghosts, bots, likely automated by Russian's to stir discontent - to remove unity.
The easiest way to end this war is to REGULATE the platforms that the President himself is beholden to. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube - all of these platforms are compromised; and the Presidency is compromised as a DIRECT result.
4
Let's connect the dots. At the root of American support for Trump is white racism. Trump also has strong support from some extremely wealthy Americans, who also happen to be white. Another root of support for Trump, unmentioned by Blow, is authoritarianism. Trump is clearly backed by Putin and his regime, the other white-led nuclear superpower. Could it be that Trump and his rich and non-rich supporters have an affinity for Putin at least partly on the basis of race and power? Could there also be an affinity on the basis of authoritarianism and contempt for true democracy, which Republicans have shown in the past? Putin could very well have kompromat on Trump and other Republicans, but what if they are sympathetic to Putin anyway? What if there is a quiet movement, spearheaded by the likes of Bannon, to form a white, authoritarian alliance between the declining superpowers, Russia and the United States, against the rising superpower, China?
1
Obama recently lamented the rise of populist movements that are being funded “by right-wing billionaires intent on reducing governmental constraints on their business interests.” Could the NYT and my favorite columnist Mr Blow start writing more about this vast right-wing conspiracy that is riding into power on the back of this cruel and ignorant minority? The racism is a real horror, but I am afraid it is just the tip of the iceberg. The Libertarian vision of our country needs to be examined and defeated.
6
"Trump conducted himself as if he was hostage to Putin; Republican lawmakers conduct themselves as if they are hostage to Trump."
The complexities of why Trump acts as he does towards Putin and why Republican voters support him are extremely important topics, but one thing is very clear and simple; Republican politicians are spineless cowards for failing to act against Trump. The Trump presidency will likely be one of the most studied periods in American history, assuming a future where academic study exists is in the cards. History will be exceedingly unkind to Republican politicians who betrayed their country by refusing to take a stand against the comprehensively un-American Donald Trump. A more complete surrender could scarcely be imagined.
3
Is Trump under the control of Russians? Does he want to grow his fortunes by partnering with Russians?
It kind of boils down to this; when no legitimate bank would sink more money into Trump’s loser casino, or his ill conceived real estate ventures, the Russian Mafia was there. They laundered bushels of money through the Casino. They laundered millions in Trump Tower and Florida mega-mansions.
This relationship blossomed as the torrent of money laundering grew from Russians in New York, running state tax scams that generated multi billion dollar profits, to the oligarchs (aka crime bosses) in Russia who also wanted in on the action. Virtually all the oligarchs have ties to Russian intelligence agencies and to Putin. It’s simply a crime family.
Trump is now a partner that must continue to supply not only economic support, but political support as well. Trump may delude himself into believing that he can control the situation and that he will one day get his TRUMP Moscow tower.
It’s conceivable, based on Helsinki, that what we witnessed is the start of his biggest of all deals, the selling out of a Democratic America where he and his oligarch crime family will reign supreme.
Well, everyone has a right to dream.
4
@RVN ‘69
"This relationship blossomed as the torrent of money laundering grew from Russians in New York, running state tax scams that generated multi billion dollar profits, to the oligarchs (aka crime bosses) in Russia who also wanted in on the action. Virtually all the oligarchs have ties to Russian intelligence agencies and to Putin. It’s simply a crime family."
You, sir, are connected. You've just released Mueller's final report verbatim.
@Fourteen — You sir, have made my day :-)
Here is what I have seen in my 73 laps around the sun as a white male from Los Angeles: Thanks, in part, to 50 years of support from the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, the Jim Crow South has successfully terrorized Capitol Hill and the nation with white nationalists, racists and mostly illiterate bunch of (s)elected politicians. They have fought against voting rights for all (after all, they come from Deep South states that made fortunes for plantation owners on the backs of free labor — slaves), knowing their power could be throttled back if the ancestors of slaves finally had the right to vote.
Trump has become their savior. "The south will rise again" has been a rallying cry in the Jim Crow south since the end of the Civil War. White supremacists conducted the lynchings of thousands of black Americans into the middle of the last century.
But Trump's supporters are scattered around the country. We saw a one-man cross-section view of the typical Trump supporter in the addled and aging rock star, Ted Nugent, at the 2016 Republican National Convention. He was at his most vile (and we saw much of that in his 60 Minutes interview), promoting violence, demanding the death of Hillary Clinton. This venomous tsumami of ugly Americans is seen at every Trump rally.
Thank you, Charles, for your incisive editorials on the dangers of Trump and Trumpism. We are in big trouble and circling the drain.
8
Charles Blow opines that the current situation--Trump hostage to Russian interests, America hostage to Trump's interests and his racist supporters--might change when "more Democrats are elected to Congress" or "Trump is no longer President." But as a member of that despised and much-maligned cohort, the Baby Boomers, I despair of better days in what's left of my lifetime.
Before and when Trump was first elected, well-informed talking heads said Trump was unfit to be president. There you have it.
4
Mr. Blow's column coupled with Mr. Edsall's today I am afraid leads to a great historical question: should Abraham Lincoln just have let the South secede?
It is more than 150 years later and the states that made up the old Confederacy, along with those of the lower Midwest which have always had a Southern tinge, places like Indiana and Ohio along the Ohio River boundary, and the Western states that received much of the post-Civil War white Southern diaspora--remain unreconstructed.
Mr. Blow so perfectly sums it up with this observation about the reasons Republicans support Trump despite his extraordinary incompetence and mendacity, "...at their root are about racial insecurity and hostility, no matter how they try to dress it up."
It is hard to admit our greatest president may have been wrong, a man who Leo Tolstoy called the brightest of all lights. But how to explain such racial animus so many, many years later?
What if we just gave these refractory states the option of leaving?Of going it on their own? They wanted to leave once. Fought a terrible war over it. Let's give them another chance. After all, their economies and culture are light years behind New England and the Northeast, the Pacific coast states, some of the Upper Midwest and more enlightened Rocky Mountain states.
Would they take the option? Goodbye Alabama and Mississippi, Oklahoma, Indiana, Kentucky...and who else may want to join you.
The world is moving on.
11
This says it all and says it well.
2
Thank God he didn’t apologize, then we’d be in real trouble.
1
@ubique Or did he?
1
@TrumpLiesMatter Touché, sir.
Here's the double negative. Trump was born. Trump was elected president.
3
Putin got Trump elected. Why would Trump take him to task on that? I don't understand some of the media's fixation on Trump confronting Putin on election hacking. They're partners. Its like expecting Bonnie to lecture Clyde on bank robbing.
7
Double negatives cancel themselves out. President Trump is one huge single negative made up of an odd number of mini and micro negatives, wingtip to wingtip, top to toe.
But I'm glad that he talked tough to that other mountain of negation with whom the president stood shoulder to shoulder in Helsinki, Vladimir Putin.
2
Great questions, Charles. The seminal moment of Trump's Russia-love most certainly happened years ago, maybe though bailing him out of financial woes or perhaps in the course of satisfying some of his other loves, or both. And the Republicans in Congress are either scared to anger him or are enjoying the turmoil while they pass their agenda and line their pockets, or both. In either case, they are complicit as our greatest adversary since WWII is so obviously the president's love interest. They are sitting by as this president runs the country basically on his own, ignoring his few competent advisors, surrounding himself with apologists and fellow liars, and making "deals" that no one else in the government is aware of.
My worry is that the turmoil devolves into chaos. Will we have a fair and open mid-term election; will Trump allow the Mueller investigation to continue and, if so, will we ever know the results; will he somehow encourage his heavily armed posse to violently confront more protests; will he start another war as a grand distraction; are we headed for a national train wreck?
Charles, I read your columns intently and believe you are one of there Times' best contributors. My question for you: What's next?
Actually there is an earlier point in which the American people should have questioned the loyalty of an American President. It was when President Obama was caught on an open mic telling Medvedev to "tell Putin that I will have more flexibility after the election." In other words: don't make trouble for me during the 2012 election season, and I'll deal better with you on a range of issues after I win. Sure sounds like disloyalty to me. But the outrageous statement was ignored by the media.
And speaking of embarrassing moments: how about President Obama giving aid and support to the terrible Castro brothers, and going to a baseball game instead of going back to the US when terrorists struck in California.
1
@Uysses :Points well made, well expressed. O benefitted from p.c. correctness, and we are judging him by a different standard than Trump.Can't get over Keith Ellison, head of DNC wearing tee shirt announcing in SPANISH that he is for open borders. Is this our future?
1
Winston Churchill stated: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
Trump--and his Republican enablers-- are making it harder to see how the other forms of government are worse.
2
In addition to Trump’s “double negative,” his verbal Potomac two-step from would to wouldn’t was noteworthy for his Freudian slip. Just prior to saying, “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia,” he mistakenly(?) began to say, “I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t be Russia.” All the more chilling in light of this week’s cover of TIME magazine, depicting Trump morphing into Putin.
As a political science professor of mine remarked to the class once, there are "old fogies" and "young fogies!"Mr. Blow, fairly young chronologically, would qualify as the latter, "mon avis!"Regardless of anything else, he is fixated on Trump and his supporters, dismissing us as xenophobes--many of us did not even know what the word meant--white supremacists,disloyal, traitorous, unworthy of even casting a ballot--that's the next step--because we voted for someone whom we regarded and continue to regard as our tribune. Defy anyone to cite an article of his discussing Trump's policies rather than offering ad hominem arguments. How can any perceptive reader not judge author's tirades as something in the nature of a "faux fuyant," a red herring, designed to distract us from his reluctance to do constructive,creative,investigative journalism, to tell us something we didn't know before ! Am curious to understand his relationship with Deray Mckesson, former head of BLM, and why he disappeared from view after the assassinations of those 5 police officers in Dallas,and did DM know the shooter, Micah Johnson, since according to "oui dires,"MJ was a member of BLM?These r questions which need to be answered!
Trump and, I seriously suspect, "Many" republicans, owe their positions to sneaky voter manipulations by Putin.
How long has this been going on ???
This suspicion, if true, suddenly answers many questions about how our country became so divided, due to sly propaganda, hidden in plain sight, parroted endlessly, by certain news media and right wing radio dupes.
It is possible that military action will be needed. Generally when we get into a war we tend to support America First. So, if you were troubled by concerns that we the people have become weaker in the support of our leader, then we need a cause to gather 'round the flag and renew our support to the leader. Watch it carefully. You younger folks may want to search for Pogo's comic strip: We have met the enemy and he is us!
It is funny too how the right wing press created a story for their followers about Obama that had complex and honest statements about our foreign relations, made in meeting with leaders of foreign lands, into an "apology tour." This was always nonsense but was taken as truth by the same sad sacks who still think that lowering taxes will bring prosperity to workers.
What do they have to say now?
Thank you for telling the truth. We must all get out and vote so this kind of person can never have power again.
Judged by traditional standards of presidential conduct, Trump is an abominable disgrace to America, confirmed by his Helsinki performance, as if any more confirmation were needed. But judged by the pragmatic standard of a ruthlessly ambitious megalomaniac and his devoted enablers he is sailing nicely toward a second term, enamored by voters rooting for him to escape Houdini-like for tough situations, finding one more reason to condemn the media for their vendetta against the greatest leader of all time in any country. With every new Trump outrage, conservatives find one more excuse to despise the media and the liberals who control it.
So, how shall we categorize this state of affairs - this power couple at work?
I suggest we call it "The Trutin Administration".
2
In yet another display of abysmal ignorance, Trump - the Ignoramus in Chief - said that "'I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia. Sort of a double negative'". No, Trump. It's not a double negative to say "I don't see why it wouldn't be..." A double negative is something like "I don't see nothing." How long must we suffer this fool, who slept or tossed spitballs through grammar AND government AND civics AND history? He's already made sure that his lickspittle Cabinet hasn't the guts to stand up against a Palmetto bug, much less invoke the 25th Amendment, and has inherited a spineless GOP Congress that places party and power against country? How long?
For Putin, the press conference presented no challenge. He really just phoned it in. His attitude towards Trump was that of a cat with a mouse.
It seemed that Putin didn't even consider Trump worthy of contempt. Trump was like a puppy doing his best to please his master. He requires no leash or harness, he knows his place.
2
This president has no problem with an open-borders cyber pact with Russia, yet he deems Latinos, Muslims and immigrants from certain countries to be threats to American security concerns. He wants a border wall on our country’s southern borders, yet refuses to acknowledge a the need for a firewall against Russia’s cyber attacks against our democracy.
It was surreal to listen to this president, of all people, give an English grammar tutorial on the topic of double negatives. It wasn’t a double negative at all but an admission to a double-cross at the expense of his own country.
3
While I find the Trump presidency disgusting, I don't find any of this surprising. Trump does not, in my opinion, have an undying loyalty to his base, though he shares many of their beliefs. He is not loyal to the USA or his white, racist supporters (though he is certainly racist, sexist, and xenophobic). He is loyal only to himself and his incredibly delicate ego. Nothing more. He wants to hear the roar of the crowd; he wants to hear the chants. Crowds don't roar for complex policy and governing decisions. They cheer for “Lock her up” and “a country without borders is no longer a country”.
4
Trump is not a great student of history, but he is a great student of thuggery. He instinctively knows how to appeal to thugs, how to incite thugs, and how to imitate thugs. He would be admired in prison. If there is any decency left in America, he should be put there.
Charles Blow for President!! Thank you for another moment of brilliance in a very dark time.
1
As a Canadian, an angry Canadian, I cannot understand how this big mouthed ignoramous has been able in a year and a half to destroy the western world as we know it. There is something seriously wrong with the design of your system of government that this is even possible. If your country and the planet survives this horrible monster you desperately need a constitutional redo. From the outsider's vantage point....do away with the Electoral College..one person, one vote. As it seems increasingly your population will be concentrated along the coasts this will be necessary to avoid a violent revoltion. In Canada when you file your taxes you can put yourself on the Voter's list....totally colour and religion blind. We have paper ballots. Personally I have scrutineered in every Federal election since the early 1980's and I used to do provincial elections and I have done the last 3 municipal.elections. Often in the Federal Elections I was the only scrutineer from any party. Scrutineers do not get paid...do not count the ballots...but observe and then sign off that everything is honest. There is an automatic process to adjust the number of seats with the population change. BC is having it's 3rd referendum on proportional representation.....controversial to be sure and many are not happy with the process but built into it is an automatic second look referendum. We have had constitutional crises and 2 Quebec referendums on separation PEACEFULLY. I am sure you Americans were not aware.
5
Putin clearly has something on Trump, perhaps financial, perhaps sex-tapes. Americans should now demand that Trump release his tax returns. Trump is running scared. We need to know why.
1
@Jack Noon
We must also remember this is not the first off-the-record meeting trump has had with putin. Why is there no records of any of these conversations? Because they were saying things that trump doens't want the people of the US to know. He knows he is not legitimately president & once in a while has to have putin tell him it's okay he is president. I may be in error here, but at one point in an interview, putin said he & trump talk often. Did I misunderstand that comment?
Heck. Had Oswald not been shot by Ruby, maybe HE'D'VE made "an incredible offer" to help the Warren Commission[?].
Incredible offers notwithstanding, would "WOULD" still be a presumption of guilt if "WOULDN'T" wouldn't be innocent anyway?
1
For me, this defines why supporters of the “Soon To Be Ex-President” (STBXP) are not members of our democratic republic.
“Finally, someone is unapologetically fighting for white supremacy, white culture and white identity, for protectionism, xenophobia and Christian supremacy.”
They may have been born here, but I question their right to continue to live and vote in our constitutional democracy, when their political objectives clearly violate our Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution.
I can tolerate living among bigots, as long as the bigotry is not government policy or the law.
1
Related to this crisis is the story of the female Russian spy working through the National Rifle Association, the National Prayer Breakfast, and your Republican Party. Quite hilariously for the so-called Party of Morality she gained power by having sex with Republicans. One did her assignments so she could get a Masters Degree....in what? International Sex Relations? This is indeed super ironic given that Republicans do not believe in sex education. I raise to a toast and not the buttered variety a name change for the National Rifle Association. New Name: the National Russian Association...Honorary President Donald J. Trump. This could be a script for Saturday Night Live or as a tribute to trump's recent UK fiasco...Monty Python.
3
Mr Blow, one statement you made was incorrect. At least since Truman the crazy right has challenged the loyalty of every President they didn't like and most intensely Pres Obama. The Koch Brothers daddy attacked Dwight Eisenhower as a communist, or at the very least a Fellow Traveler. But these charges were all made on evidence known only to people with tinfoil hats. The current evidence comes from our most important security agencies.
Mr. Blow you said the truth without meanness but with laser clarity. Paraphrasing your words with some addition:
If you scratch the surface of an unwavering Trump-supporter (about 30% of us) you'll find the drivers to be:
racism, tribalism, authoritarianism, victimism, xenophobia defined by skin/religion, homophobia, christo-fascism/religious fundamentalism, self-defined elitism, plain-old grumpy selfish meanness, and/or "confederate" soldier mentality.
I add that another 10% will vote for him and GOP not exactly for the above but because they are a necessary means to their very narrow self-serving ends.
The rabid anti-choicers, the people that think they'll save a few bucks under GOP, the willfully ignorant (e.g. the anti-evolutionists, climate change deniers) because the GOP gives them a platform, the Plutocrats, and/or demagogues and their followers.
Add about another 2% for the traditional GOP voters who always has voted so in rote fashion without much real thought.
I don't blame the above - they are driven by their psychological substrate to vote as they vote. The GOP plays them well; Trump does superbly well. They are powerless to vote otherwise.
Whom I do blame for the regressive reactionary track we now follow are those in the 58% who fail to vote or throw away a vote in "protest". Rational Conservatives and Progressives that should know better but because of apathy or cynicism are allowing that 42% to ruin our Nation. Shame!
1
The real reveal is how far gone down the rabbit hole many Republican voters are, as radical and treasonous as any Confederate of old. The GOP has taken a 180 degree turn in almost all its policies and has still been able to retain its base. Why? White supremacy.
This has not been lost on the wider world, which has been put on serious notice that among Americans, enemies of the world lurk unchecked, seeking to do as much harm as they possibly can, including pumping as much carbon into the air as their pick-ups, Hummers and ridiculous boat-sized cars can handle.
Europe is even more racist and reactionary, but may finally be waking up to its dark side by contemplating the horrors on the other side of the Atlantic, including children in cages.
Good-bye, American century. That was an awesome suicide, dude.
2
Very insightful column, and thank you, Mr. Blow. I've often puzzled about the blind loyalty of #45's base, but this explains it in credible detail. We Dems are not considered Americans to him-- or to them. Putin must be gloating over his great victory over democracy via #45.
"Trump's ... fighting ... for Christian supremacy." Really?
Trump's words and actions are the most contrary to Christian values of any President in history.
Let us reflect on just a few of many of Christ's own words:
"Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me." (MT:25 NIV)
Trump is fighting for Trump first and foremost. Any one or any group that benefits from him are unfortunately of the same mold.
45 is simply unfit to be President of the United States.
3
Charles, I sense your outrage has worn out. You are not sharing the normal passion and logical grit we usually get, and it’s completely understandable. It’s a burnout of exhaustive repetition, the psychopaths are winning. Don’t give up, we need you know more than ever.
Please stay aggressive with your reasoned arguments; it’s a burnout but it’s what you chose to do and get paid for. Pick up the fight, don’t stop.
You are really important in this struggle. Don’t tell us what we already know, dig!
With respect.
So ironic that we are hearing a "double negative" defense from a man who has proven repeatedly that he has a poor grasp on basic tenets of English grammar and constructing simple coherent sentences.
2
Trump is lying constantly and running scared. He might be a Russian agent or he might be a useful idiot who is as good as a Russian agent. At this point, no sane government should trust the US to maintain any secrets because there is no reason to believe Trump would not share those secrets with Putin. The damage is done.
The reason for Trump's behavior may be extraordinarily complex. Some part of it surely is due to his psychological problems. Whether Putin has something on Trump is the big question. I happen to think that the Deutche Bank loans to Trump are key.
However, it is important to look at Trump's nonverbal communication. Watch the video of Trump as he and Putin enter upon the stage after their meeting for the now infamous press conference. Trump looks like he is entirely ill at ease. There is fear in his eyes. He looks like someone who has been taken to the woodshed. It is not unreasonable to believe that it was Putin who insisted on a private meeting. Trump may have received marching orders and a brutal dressing down by Putin.
Trump is in full panic mode, which explains his wholly inarticulate explanations. If one cannot speak clearly, it is probable that one cannot think clearly. If Trump were President of a public corporation, its board of directors would have removed him months ago. That the GOP will not act against Trump is a moral failure that history will long remember.
2
“Sort of a double negative” is to make him sound educated to his base. His true double negative is “I didn’t say nothing about russian interference.” Our freedoms & rights are in the hands of a foreign government & all we can do is comment. Why are there not public protests being held where campaigns are going on? Why are people not questioning the candidates about why nothing is being done? Not just republicans but democrats & all those other parties hoping to get a say in. Don’t just say you’re going to vote, get out & ask questions, get informed, use your brain & voice.
1
He has stated what he believes. Period. He is siding with Russia against America. I believe him. Any attempts by Republicans in his orbit to change that narrative or to force him to backtrack on what he has said only furthers the chaos he revels in. Authoritarians love chaos.
1
Thanks Mr Blow: another clear-eyed assessment. The question now is: how do we turn this Titanic around? Midterms in November. OK. But will the ship of state last that long? Will we have martial law by then? Could Trump & Co. declare election results null and void? Clear-eyed, what do we do?
Here's Trump's MO: deliberately obfuscate everything in order to confuse rational sensible people and open a wide window to powerfully dog whistle to his base 24/7. He's got it down pat. His tactics craftily slow up a strong active response from rational people because their thinking "legs" are tripped up in their default quest for whys and wherefores. But this is not an intellectual exercise; it's a hostile takeover.
I've yet to see the Dems powerfully step up to lead the majority of the confused, either. Instead, they slap the wrists of folks like Maxine Waters, who is at least doing her best to call it and do something.
Our country is being taken away from us from under our noses, piece by piece. The colonisers did it to the Native Americans and now Trump & Co. are doing it to us on the same soil. There's no time left to discuss the illogical and nonsensical. When someone is throwing a punch at you, I guarantee: repartee ain't gonna save you. Instead of slapping wrists, we must all unite and work together like our lives depend on it and save our country. Elections are in 3 1/2 months, but anything can happen by then. The tripped-up Sensibles need to organize: now.
1
"Is [Trump] accountable to the American public or to a foreign republic?"
Surely Mr. Blow you meant to ask, "Is Trump accountable to a foreign tyrant?" Russia is a mockery of a republic. And it appears, a mockery of a republic is the path America is on.
One other point, Trump is not loyal to "his base." He is master of a mob. Trump keeps the mob happy by creating daily, hourly chaos and discord, which the mob prefers to good governance. They are so mindless that if Trump told them to do so, they would pluck out their eyes to avoid seeing truth and reality. They love their master, but Trump would turn on them in an instant if/when it profits/pleases him.
Trump is a traitor to America. The Republican Party is a traitorous organization; probably, like Trump compromised by Russia. The only other plausible explanation is Republicans are a band of mini-Trump-like swindlers selling America down the river for personal profit.
The destruction of our democratic republic, now taking place, is driven by the Trump mob. They are the ones who elect Republicans, who have paved the way for Trump and who enable and defend him.
The Trump supporters are the worst outcome of a democracy - mob rule.
Republicans are the worst outcome of a republic - conniving cowards and traitors.
Trump is the worst outcome of a mob ruled, coward and traitor manipulated republic - a strongman mobster, a tyrant. Especially bad, Trump is a tyrant who is beholding to or under the thumb of a foreign tyrant.
5
"the day" of disloyalty came well before trump...it came when obama chided romney for his view of russia as "a threat" (instantly echoed by h(r)c and john kerry), it came with his sweet conspiratorial-if-not-collaborative something, whispered into the russian ears of dimitri medvedev, prime minister and former president, promising favors once the election was past, (not to mention that the russian election hacking, happened on obama's watch).
anyone still stuck on hillary may want to recall her jovial presentation of a "reset" button, to russian foreign minister lavrov, "wiping the slate clean," including moves toward soviet redux in the region and the meek "return to sender" of the ten russian implant spies (who should have been indicted as the trump administration has done with the latest catch, ms butina).
while it's possible to sympathize with your disappointment mr blow (no trump vote here either) your consistent fulminations are an embarrassment to at least one progressive hoping rather to make things better, (to offer better alternatives to the electorate) than simply get even for an election loss that was the fault of those who hijacked the party, once the voice of working men and women, dumping them in baskets on the way to wall street.
that they were picked up by the guy in the clown car while you and yours sat smugly on your elite backsides is what "boggles the mind."
1
Trump has denigrated the US to a pathetic state. All we can hope is for the congress to flip and Trump is impeached. Incompetent beyond words. It will take years to analyze how Trump was ever elected. We have no where to go but up.
As to your last questions, no, we are no longer a sovereign nation. That ended July 16.
As to the racial animus, that is a feature not a bug. I recall Reagan starting his campaign in Philadelphia Miss., and his dog whistles about welfare queens and young bucks; then there was Lee Atwater and his Willy Horton campaign in 1988, which G.W. Bush was only too happy to embrace. This was followed by W. spreading rumors about McCain having a black child out of wedlock in 2001 (and don't even get me going on Katrina). Forty years of this vile nonsense led us to Trump, who literally opened his campaign by discarding the dog whistle and running as a racist. That, along with behavior that borders on treason, should have been enough to disqualify him - and to get the GOP labeled as not so much a political party as a white supremacist hate group.
Thank you for being on point again and again.
Those who believe and encourage this man in office will Never win.
I've had the honor of meeting so many wonderful people through my travels across America.
When you go beyond skin come together as human beings with similiar needs it's beautiful.
Hate will Never win because the majority of Americans Do Not Hate.
I've also came across racist individuals. Has this dimmed my view No.
This man played on the ignorance racist views who brought his lies. Their the ones who will suffer along with us. Told you so will not solve this tragedy. Hatred put Donald in love will vote him out!!
IGNORANCE IS THE REJECTION OF KNOWLEDGE.
I have faith in the Power of the Vote.
America we must Get Out And Vote!!!
Coming from a mixed family Italian African American German American. Indian (Cherokee) Caribbean Islands we truly can say my family represent the good in America.
We have served this Great country generations in the Military. Some have
died. Don't let their death be in vain!!
Vote for Unity Peace Acceptance Justice Fairness. Vote for the Love of this country.
This may not get printed, I've released it.
1
Up here in NY 19, Rep Faso is using the Trump playbook: “. . . unapologetically fighting for white supremacy, white culture and white identity, for protectionism, xenophobia and Christian supremacy.” In this weirdly formed district (take a look at it on a map, as it skirts around Albany and Schenectady), it is mostly white, and so Faso is using race to bait his white base against our very qualified Democratic candidate, Antonio Delgado. It is horrifying to see this. But you are absolutely correct, Mr. Blow. The Republican Party is using race to guide its base.
I won’t go into Faso’s ugliness. Instead Delgado’s own words published here in the Times: "[Faso] thinks it’s accurate to suggest that if you’re black or if you’re of a certain race, you can’t be of this community. But I believe the community of people who are grounded in love and unity far outweigh the community of people he’s speaking to."
I choose Delgado. I hope we are all paying attention to our local elections because the Republicans are working hard to Trumpify the entire country. It seems to have already happened but PLEASE, let’s stop it in its tracks! If you own a home here in 19, vote up here for Democracy!!
4
birds of the same feather flock together. That is the bottom line. you feel more comfortable with people who look like you. America has become a mixed vegetable soup. Before it was like cream of mushroom soup.
The President of the United States is a traitor; it is simple, documented and undeniable. First time in our history; never before suggested or thought possible for even the weakest to hold the Office. Yet, shameful and appalling as this is, we have no one to blame but ourselves. We allow these crimes. It is us.
1
The treasonous traitors (CB's last headline, I'm not redundant) among us are those on the left who have refused to accept that Trump is the legitimate president of the US, who use every opportunity to spew venom against the president and those who voted for him, and have no concern for our democracy. How do I know this? Because they will do anything to disenfranchise the votes of those who voted for Trump.
Trump is no Russian puppet and he didn't collude with them. There is no evidence for that. But the left has conflated the possibility of Russian hacking with collusion -- and continually repeat the unsupported narrative that they did whatever they did to elect Trump. No evidence for that either.
Those screaming that Trump is a traitor are disgusting. He has not committed treason -- meeting with a head of state is not treason.
He may have not handled the "gotcha" question well at the press conference, but that wasn't a legitimate question. And all the people screaming in support of our intel agencies need to remember all the mistakes they have made -- with absolute certainty. WMD's for example. And there are many many others.
So why doesn't the left just grow up, accept the fact that Trump is president and quit making things up.
1
Throughout Trump’s recent atrocities and meltdowns I keep thinking why isn’t anyone talking about his health, mental or otherwise, especially given his recent answer about whether he will run again. Ronny Jackson, who opined that Trump was in excellent health, is gone. I don’t recall hearing anything from whomever is the current WH doctor. Why? It seems to me there is something mentally wrong with him - something that goes beyond his longstanding lack of character, criminality, habitual lying, and stupidity. Shouldn’t we know whether he is mentally or physically ill? And know before things really start hitting the fan?
2
Yes, but...those who now call Trump "traitor" but say it's ok to burn the American flag - or kneel - are not really sincere.
1
I remember well the appearance of Richard Nixon on television telling us that he was not a crook.
Well, we know how that turned out. Perhaps the same fate will greet Trump, his poodle Pence and the rest of the swamp dwellers in this failed administration so we, the non-Trump nativists and white supremacists, can really make America great again, not "grate" again.
Trump just doesn't just like Putin... he worships him. Hero worship to be exact. Putin is his role model. Vlad has been practicing the systematic looting of Russia's wealth for a long time. Trump is getting his instructions so he can catch up. Putin's the teacher. Trump's the acolyte... somebody stop him.
1
Tonight, I found out what was suspected all along: two weeks before the inauguration in January 2017, President-elect Donald Trump had a security briefing with all the major heads of the Intelligence Community including then CIA Director Brennan that hackers working under orders of Vladimir Putin cyber-attacked the United States.
It was already known that Trump was a liar, but now it is an inconvertable fact that the President lied over and over to the American people to obstruct justice. I take no joy in any of this, nor do I believe should anyone, but when the public entrusts its future to a leader who purposefully misleads them for his own personal gain, then that leader needs to be held accountable. Apparently the Presidents own party is compromised to such a degree, that many of them have obstructed justice, too.
I can't help but imagine the gentle brown face of Jesus of Nazareth as He lowers His eyes.
1
“The room where it happened.” What did it take to sell the USA down the river?
Every day Trump shows us his incompetence, insanity, and fixation on his own enrichment. His disloyalty is now beyond question. I shudder to imagine what abomination ensures his subservience to Putin, and wait, with ebbing patience to find out.
The mesmerized congress will never impeach this wicked
president. The cabinet "thanks God" for the chance to serve him,
making a 25th amendment rescue similarly unlikely.
Only Robert Mueller (should anyone listen) can save America. But with every column, Charles Blow is trying!
1
trump's entire presidency is a "Double Negative".
He intentionally harms America, at the behest of his Master Putin.
3
"Sort of a double negative"
It stuck with me, too. It stuck with me because there is no way on earth those were DTJ's true words. His true, honest account is what he gave us in front of the cameras.
He isn't our real issue, though. Our real issue is the horrible, complicit congress we have in office which has demonstrated repeatedly that it is willing to let our democracy die in order to gain wealth and re-enforce the white order.
6
When President Obama was elected, the sister of a friend of mine, a diehard Trump supporter now, hoped that Mr. Obama would not make race relations worse, meaning that she worried that the President would be the president of black Americans, thus diminishing her innate superior standing. President Obama assured the country that he was the president of the United States of America, not the President of the United States of Black America. Trump doesn't even pretend to be the president of America. His rallies, his words, his actions are crafted to continue the flow of red meat to his base. When resisters declare that Trump is not their president, they are making an accurate statement. Trump is not and never will be the president of the United States. More than likely, that is true because he is not only racist to his core, but he is unqualified to be the leader of anything but his own ego.
10
In 2006, Russian businessman and former Trump associate Felix Sater arranged a private tour of the Kremlin for Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. When they came to Putin’s empty office Ivanka asked for and was granted permission to sit in his private chair behind his desk. She apparently spun around on the chair and they left.
It may have taken a few years, but clearly after Helsinki, Donald Trump is finally paying back that favor by “inviting” Vladimir Putin to metaphorically “sit behind his desk” in the Oval Office, and Putin doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon.
4
"Finally, someone is unapologetically fighting for white supremacy, white culture and white identity, for protectionism, xenophobia and Christian supremacy. No matter how much he lies, no matter how much he fumbles, no matter how much he betrays the greater America, Trump will remain the hero of white, Republican, racist America.
This is so sad, but I fear it is a necessary step in the evolution of American society, and could have been easily predicted 40 years ago, when it was first realized that the ethnic demographics of America were shifting away from the white protestant, while women were also finally discovering that they don't need to live as subhuman utilities for men.
So, for a while, you are going to have a shrinking minority with power and the sense of privilege that comes with centuries of comfort in that power. And while they have power, they are going to lash out.
The questions are, will they be reasonable as the tide turns, or tear the country apart as they thrash about? And will everyone else temper the contest, and recognize the dangers inherent in this transition of power, or will we all react with such anger and animosity that we help the shrinking minority to push our entire society over the edge?
I'm hope and believe that we will manage this well, but it will never be easy, or pleasant, or fast. This is, in fact, the second civil rights movement; the one that finishes the job and at least comes close to actually ending a war waged within a society.
2
“Is a Trump-led America still a democracy as we understand it?”
It is
it isn’t
It’s both
Sort of
America is a double negative X Trump squared
'We're all mad here,” said the Cheshire Cat.
5
Trump in UK claimed polls show he's more popular than Lincoln.
Who said you can fool some (92% GOP) of the people all of the time?
2
What would Mr. Blow do about Russia if he had the power? Invade them? Nuke them? Would the vaporization of millions of people in a nuclear exchange satisfy? He doesn't incorporate in his hatred of Trump, that no sanctions were imposed on Russia concerning election meddling until Trump became president. Obama knew about this problem in 2016 but only gave Putin a call telling him not to do that. It also was in his power tho stop our government from using Kaspersky. After Trump became president, within three months the ban was put into space. But then President Obama and Mr. Blow were absolutely sure the Hillary would crush Trump with electoral votes and carry both houses with her. So why bother? But now, trying to justify their defeat, they turn to Putin. What are the goals of these sanctions? There is no end result. They just stay there. The only way they end is someone says enough is enough. Putin was described in another NYT article as the most dangerous man on the planet. He has 6000 nuclear tipped missiles. During Obama's presidency, Russian military and ministers were talking about the nuclear option. Two Russian nuclear bombers flew within 40 miles of the California Since Trump became president, Putin says a nuclear exchange would be the end of civilization. We have to reduce tension and that is what Trump is trying to do now and as he tried to do with Kim Jong-Un.
1
Mr. Blow, this is one of the most tragically accurate columns you've written, which is really saying something, and the reader comments are also excellent. Together they buttress my tentative grasp on sanity and faint hope for the future in these increasingly dark days. The obvious and inescapable fact is that the profound philosophical and indeed ethical divide in this country is now irreconcilable. And it pains me greatly here in my 67th year to write that. This is our second civil war, make no mistake about that. The complicating factor this time is that whereas the nation was divided essentially along geographic lines in the last, now we must deal with progressive coasts and large cities versus a large and relatively sparsely populated land area of retrograde, racist, hyper-nationalist intent. That presents a serious, perhaps unsolvable problem. Reading Roger Cohen's equally excellent column of yesterday in which he posits the prospect of martial law, I was struck by the realization that the reason the GOP has so adamantly supported insane gun laws is because it long ago realized that its radical and undemocratic agenda would likely ultimately lead to violence, and that an armed "militia" may be required. (Forget the well-regulated part.) It always puzzled me how anyone could thing guns would be of use against the US military, but now I see - they are for use against unarmed fellow citizens. Chilling doesn't come close.
5
@Michael: your comment is chillingly apocalyptic. I have been wondering, particularly these dark days, how all those guns in the USA will be used, and it does clarify the purpose of the the GOP/NRA/USSR holy trilogy.
"I have great confidence in my intelligence people ..."
They are not yours, Mister Trump. They are, whatever they are worth, working for the American people and the Republic.
6
Thank you Mr. Blow, for again calling a spade a spade.
"This is truly an American crisis moment." Indeed it is. And what frightens me most is that there are so many crises happening at the same time:
Trump's "considering" serving up Ambassador McFaul to Putin on a silver (more probably gold) platter
No director of counter-terrorist cyber expertise
Continually ignoring the threat to 2018 elections being compromised (might he be taking pointers from the playbooks of Putin, Erdoğan, Duterte, Xi?)
I truly hope that Mueller is looking under every rock for the most solid facts. Every indication is that there is real solid evidence that will clean our palate of the bad taste of Trump. Unfortunately, we will then be subject to Pence.
2
Donald Trump continues the charade of being the President of the United States. In fact, he is the president of the Putinistas, the base who reveres every word he utters, no matter how distasteful or egregious, and the members of the former Republican Party in both chambers , who have acquiesced to all of his negative behavior.
Time and again, when Trump denounces our allies, starts a trade war that is hurting many of the Putinistas who voted for him, fervently embraces dictators like Putin, Kim Jong Un, the Former members of the Republican Party turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to his destructive and anti- democratic pursuits. At this point, the public is all that stands between democracy and an autocratic oligarchy represented by Trump/ Putin.
2
Charles asks the big question: Are we still a democracy? It seems to me, a white minority living in some of the least populated parts of the country actually controls the dominant political narrative through a corrupt political party, a faux news network, and a narcissistic, deranged, xenophobe. (He’s a guy they should hate given his coastal, urban lifestyle but he gives voice to their angry delusions.) If they don’t care about his moment-to-moment contradictions, rationalizations, and lies, it’s largely because their own lives are filled with them. He speaks their language.
Obama energized this country and offered hope as his theme, but his very presence in the WH signaled the exact opposite to those who believe they must at all cost support Trump. They are afraid. The Republicans stoked their fear and Trump ignited it by offering them white winning, which includes wiping out all traces of Obama’s presidency. The GOP has delivered minority to America.
The Republicans by their actions and inaction have chosen fear and hate and racism. Every politician that continues to identify as Republican deserves defeat. Every single one. For democracy’s sake, vote them out.
7
63million (insert any word applicable) mis-voted. The Electoral College mis-decided. DJT was mis-elected. And now a mis-president, mis-spoke. Seems the USA is mis-taken. Who's winning? No mystery - it's mis-Putin.
According to an Axios poll this morning: "A whopping 79% of Republicans approved of Trump’s handling of Vladimir Putin at the post-summit press conference."
1
The sweet, soft tonal change in Trump's voice in that last sentence, "I don’t see any reason why it would be" almost made my eardrums explode. Sounding so innocent. Self-deception or self-denial or both. What a sorry state in his mind.
1
A double negative in mathematics results in a positive. A double negative in grammar results in a negative. A double negative in politics results in an even bigger negative. A double negative in Trumpland results in nothing. For how long can this paradoxical phenomenon continue?
1
President Trump and the Republican party. A double negative if I ever heard of.
6
Surrender Summit.
Trump is our Neville Chamberlain and history will remember him as such, but worse. He is the mean-spirited but cowardly king. Who will be our savior?
It is incredibly important that the Democratic Party find a person who can standup to the petty bully and project strength versus Trump's weakness.
6
In history fascism has mainly established itself through votes, not from the barrel of a gun.
It seems that the US political system is not very resilient after all. All it takes to dismantle it is a reality TV personality becoming President.
So sad.
6
Trump loyalist admire his strength. 63% of voters say he is a strong person. I wonder if his weak, unpatriotic, and unpresidential behavior at the Putin press conference will change that? His adolescent attempt to justify that behavior was even further proof that he is an unprincipled coward. We can only hope that enough people are waking up to the fact he is a craven liar. We can only hope that, combined with the reality that working class wages are not rising much, taxes are not falling much, and healthcare is disappearing, people will begin to question their loyalty.
5
"Trump thinks the criminal’s denial of the crime was “powerful” and thinks its an “incredible offer” that the criminal wants to help investigate the crime he committed."
Well, this is Trump's basic legal strategy for Mueller's investigation...
2
Many of us started out demanding to see his taxes. Now we have something else we want to see. We must know what they talked about in private. If we don't find out, then we surely no longer have a democracy.
Also, I believe his admiration for brutal leaders stems from his love/hate relationship with his father. When he is in their presence, he is a total wimp.
Only a blue tidal wave in November will prevent him from being a dictator.
4
This editorial attack is oversimplified.
Sure, Trump is a disgrace to the office and no doubt an ignorant extremist.
But he has also broken almost all of the promises he made to his base, to get himself elected.
What with the tax-cut and the gutting of regulatory organizations, the real winners have been the top 10% and the Corporate owners of America.
Our democracy has been dysfunctional for quite a while.
That's nothing new.
Trump can't take the credit for rampant Republican gerrymandering, the dumping of voting rights, Citizens United, etc.
It is much more than simple white supremacy.
It's a conspiracy working within this chaos.
It is the real "dark state" of corporate plutocratic manipulation working to fragment and suffocate any true American middle-class majority control.
The fear is that a strong majority of middle-class Americans- regardless of their race, color or origin- will see through all the smoke and vote in their own interests.
Which are clearly antithetical to those of the greedy rich,
and the corporate CEO's.
2
Two thoughts: First, Putin is to believed because he strongly asserted that Russian didn't interfere with our elections BUT women who complain about sexual harassment are not to be believed if the male in question said he didn't do it? What about evidence?
Two, Trump apparently thinks it would be a great idea to give the former Ambassador to Russia during Obama's presidency, Michael McFaul, over to the Russians for questioning. Putin dislikes McFaul because he worked for Obama and was critical of Putin. What then? Should McFaul face trial in Russia and be sent to a gulag? American diplomacy would end entirely if diplomats could be ordered to face dictators in whose country they were posted after leaving office. Talk about a new world order!
2
I'm going to respectfully disagree with Mr. Blow about Trump being loyal to his supporters. Trump is busy poisoning their air and water, eliminating their health care and safety net and endangering their jobs. While they worship at his feet he his grinding them under his shoe.
9
There is absolutely no doubt that trump is unfit for office. The main reason is medical. He is delusional. I’m not a doctor and he has not been examined. But daily observations confirm that he creates pure tailored fiction from reality. This fiction becomes his reality. His deep denial of facts is part of being delusional. That is being delusional. A sickness for which people get institutionalized and that is destroying our great country and dismantling, brick by precious brick, the world order constructed since WW II.
The fact that he is a habitual pathological liar is really secondary. The fact he is a narcissist is secondary. The fact that he abused women is secondary. The fact that he doesn’t read important documents is secondary.
The single most important factor that requires he be removed from office is that he is delusional. Not fit to serve.
Look this word up and his name should appear as an example. Very sad. Very dangerous. A delusional president of The United States of America. Be afraid; very afraid.
2
Trump is just too unhinged to pull off the coup d’état that so many people are now placing very high among their worst fears. Anything radical that he attempts after the Treason in Helsinki will only speed his downfall.
The ancient Greeks explained how success becomes failure in a number of classics that have come down to us from antiquity.
What follows is, I think, a reasonable summary of this psychological process:
Success leads to confidence. Continuing success leads to over-confidence, to arrogance. Arrogance leads to self-delusion. Self-delusion leads to failure.
People who are NOT narcissists generally don’t get as far as failure, because their friends and associates warn them when their over-confidence is leading them into narrow straits. So they pull back.
What does this ancient formula predict about narcissists like Trump?
Narrow straits obviously, because the only advice that Trump completely trusts is that which wells up from his own subconscious. (He’s a self-proclaimed genius, remember.) And when his followers cheer madly at his rally ravings, they are only reinforcing his arrogance and self-delusion, thereby helping to seal his fate.
I have always believed that Trump’s path to the White House would become his path to self-ruin. After Helsinki, I’m more convinced than ever that such is his destiny. Just wait for the sequel. It’s hopeful!
4
Trump truly is a man who believes in borders. Borders at the south to keep brown people out. Borders around himself to keep us out. Yes, what Trump says and does is none of our business. How he got to be president is none of our business. The deals he makes are none of our business. "America. Your land is my land."
4
So, it’s the old “double negative” defense. I CAN’T hardly believe it....or is it I CAN hardly believe it. I couldn’t care less....or could I care less. Anyhow, that Trump fella, he don’t know nothing....and that’s tragic and a travesty for America and the world.
2
I used to wonder about any personality traits held in common by criminals and finally decided that they were dumb and lazy. It occurs to me that Trump shares these traits with the added complication of an enormous ego. Trump is reluctant to admit that the Russians meddled in the 2016 election because that would be an admission that his election was not fully legitimate. We are dealing here with a simpleminded man and need to look for simpleminded reasons for his treasonous actions.
6
Much as I hate our present president I still hesitate to view him as a Manchurian Candidate. Rather, I think he is a delusional paper tiger - folding and then crumbling when a real tiger comes at him.
He bullyied the NATO members and declared victory over them, who, in fact, are our allies and friends, while also misunderstanding the fundamentals of NATO. And then he gets to the "easy part of his trip" and turns into a docile small doggie, friendly, eager to please and agreeable to The Man, regardless of that man's disregard of him.
And coming home, steamed clean and ironed, he looks at himself in the mirror and likes what he sees, until reality hits him. But he still hasn't learned anything. You don't teach an old dog...
1
Here's the undeniable fact:
The United States of America was attacked by the Russian military. Not hackers in someone's basement -- military officers under the direction of Vladimir Putin. It was an is an act of war.
Cyber attacks are significantly more dangerous than more conventional forms of war. What is to stop Russian from hacking our power grid? Our air traffic control systems? Our financial institutions? Nothing.
Benedict Trump is a coward and a traitor, but he is not alone. Ryan, McConnell, members of Fox News and all who do not stop this insanity are committing treason.
GOP leaders don't deserve big salaries, great medical benefits and massive pensions. They deserve to be incarcerated for selling our country to the most nefarious of bidders.
8
A writer here mentioned "Trump derangement syndrome" and looking it up you will find that some voice on the Right has come up with a way to mock loyal Americans for being emotionally devastated by Trump's actions and words and the fear of the future that he evokes. To the Right our anguished cries are a pathetic form of hysteria, we're mentally disabled--but no need to wonder what has disabled us. For Trump, the Republicans, and their base our suffering at the destruction of America, our values, our place in the world, is meaningless as long as they can win. And when we get our chance to vote them out of office we will be up against their gerrymandering, their voter suppression, their ability to flip and destroy our votes and then have their judges deny us a recount. In 2020 we will be up against their Electoral College that originated as a codification of slavery as part of the foundations of democracy, a snake in the bosom of Liberty that only made sense to slave owners empowering themselves. The Republicans may yet have the means to disenfranchise and enslave us all, but don't let that bother you.
3
God, no-one can put a knot in my stomach faster than you Mr. Blow. Once again, you have brought the naked truth to light and it's unsettling at best, and terrifying at worst.
Before his ‘would should have been wouldn’t’ excuse yesterday, I imagined Trump calling Putin first. “I may have to say a few negative things Vlad, but we’re still good, right?” “ Don't worry, these people will buy anything, I own the party and my base loves me, so it's all good”.
As long as the white majority stays firmly ensconced, they can be convinced that Putin is just a misunderstood “competitor” who wants to help Trump make America Great Again. Next up, the rally to sell Helsinki (and Putin) to his base. After all, what's wrong with being friends with a hostile power, it's a good thing, right? Oh, and if you're not friends with Russia they will be declaring war on the US in the next five minutes.
With each new day it's harder to see a way out of this, there is a way out though right? Not voting is not an option, how's that for my attempt at a double negative!
1
I have stopped making any sense of Trump’s bizarre behavior. He is clearly mentally ill and should get help in a mental institution as a private citizen, post application of the 25th amendment to remove him from office. Sooner the better, for each day with him in office brings danger and despair.
3
Yes, it was a double negative, since both Trump and Putin were involved in this charade.
2
Has anyone noticed the president’s “tell”? Go back and watch his debate performances and each time he talk to the press or speaks with one of those prepared statements they make him read. Each time he delivers a serious lie, he makes this sniff to punctuate it. That’s his tell.
3
"But a democracy in which the public ceases to have confidence that its elected leader is acting in the interest of his own country and not another is no longer a democracy."
Wrong! Trump does not define America, the American people do. This is STILL a democracy, even if we have elected a Manchurian Candidate traitor to be our president.
We will not lose our democracy unless and until we allow this traitor and his enablers to take away our freedoms, destroy fair elections, and obsolete our Constitutional rules of law.
Trump and the Republican quislings are attempting to do all of the above, but they have not destroyed our democracy, YET. We stand as a people to correct this terrible mistake we have made, and protect our democracy, or we don't.
If we don't, can't or won't...... THEN we will have lost our democracy.
1
America is a combination of plutocracy and idiocracy, the result of a process that began in 1980, and which was completed in 2016. I have no doubt that it can and will sink lower, thanks to a stupid electorate, a venal GOP, a right-wing activist Supreme Court, and the minority rule dictated by House gerrymandering, the Electoral College, and two Senators per state despite much greater population differences than existed when the country was founded. It is no longer anything resembling a democracy.
4
18 U.S. Code § 2381 - Treason
US Code
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
4
It sounds to me that Trump maybe suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome. Just like Patty Hearst pleaded as her defense, several years ago. Or he is an agent of Putin. Either way Trump is an extreme danger to our country.
The Republicans in Congress could stop all of this horrid mess if they invoked Article 25. I do realize this action would give us Mike Pence, who is every bit as creepy as Trump in my opinion. Anyone who serves as Vice President and sneaks around raising money for his own dreams of becoming the Candidate in 2020 is not someone to be trusted. Besides I do believe he knew about Flynn's meetings, and lied about it. Time will tell.
I honestly do not believe that everyone who voted for Trump is a racist. Some just voted the Republican ticket, like they always do, some liked Trump's hateful rhetoric and some felt that he was the lesser of two evils. Trump has proven in a very short amount of time that he is not the lesser of two evils.
Just as not every Democrat who voted for Hilary are not centrist, lefties or righties. We all vote for our own reasons. Some just check the box at the top of the ballot, a mindless way of voting.
And others zero in on one issue and disregard others that maybe more important.
In any event, there is a way to stop the madness, Article 25. If only the Republicans in Congress would grow a spine and remember their oath to the Constitution and the people of this Country. I just won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen
3
“Congress is going to start tinkering with the Ten Commandments just as soon as they can find someone in Washington, DC who has read them.” ~ Will Rogers 1879-1935
2
Why won’t the GOP take steps to protect us from Donald Trump?
3
@Leslie Logan: this question continues to pop up - but I believe it's pretty obvious - the GOP's allegiance is no longer to the USA. It is complicit in the coup; I think this march has been going on for a few decades now - and Dump is the puppet on a string that is making it all happen for these scheisters. Our enemies are right here on our own turf. Big questions is: what are we going to do about it and will it be enough?
1
@Leslie Logan they are complicit.
Watching the world tries to make sense of Donald Trump's words and actions is a little troubling to me. This man is demonstrably unintelligent. He is demonstrably bigoted. He has a demonstrable lack of language abilities, a demonstrable lack of understanding of geopolitics and the economy, and he has a demonstrable disinterest in improving any of those character flaws because he is a demonstrable egotist.
If we had elected a paranoid schizophrenic to the office (not unthinkable now), would we be sitting around trying to decipher the "motive" behind his executive order requiring all white house staff to wear tinfoil hats during all public appearances? If we had elected a 5 year old child to the office (not constitutional, but still not completely out of the question these days, and not unlike what we actually elected), would we be blathering about the "dignity of the office" and trying to understand the implications of his refusal to meet with NATO allies during nap time?
Say it like it is. This "president" is a child-like liar who can't even grasp the English language. His statements should be viewed with exactly the same respect we would give to any other child-like liar who can't grasp the English language. This one just happens to be a temporary figurehead. God help us all.
6
If you heave a Super Ball into a room, it will hit every wall. Trump is Super Balling his way through a national disaster. He's taken his failure to Europe and is leaving carnage in his wake.
His hat should read, "Make America Quake."
2
Look at the reactions from Bush and FDR after 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. FDR says the date December 7, 141 will be a date that lives in infamy. And Bush after 9/11 Bush says about terrorism that we will ”stop it, eliminate it, destroy it where it grows.” What does Trump do? He glad-hands the attacker, accepts a soccer ball from him, meets with him privately, and sheepishly retracts his "would" to "wouldn't". This corrupt, compromised president needs to be Article 25ed posthaste. He is enabling an attacker, aiding an enemy, and undercutting American intelligence. That is treason. Time to get our country back.
5
I can’t say anything better than this from Ron Fein July 18. Ron Fein is the legal director of Free Speech For People and a co-author of the forthcoming book "The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump.
" We don’t yet know precisely why Trump is so submissive to Putin. Perhaps the Russian intelligence services have compromising information — if not the “pee tape,” then evidence of criminal activity at Trump’s businesses or in the 2016 campaign. Perhaps Trump’s admiration for the “extremely strong and powerful” Putin masks deeper insecurities. Or perhaps he is simply dependent on Russian money for his personal finances. In any event, the fact that Trump is seemingly incapable of criticizing or responding to Russian aggression indicates that Russia has some sort of hold on Trump. In the wake of Helsinki, even Republican Sen. Ben Sasse dodged a question from a radio host as to whether Putin has kompromat or compromising information on Trump, instead of ruling it out.”
1
It is a mystery not addressed in Mr. Blow's column. Which President, in the face of Russian interference in the 2016 election, gave the order to his security agencies to "stand down"? Would it have been the President who was in office prior to President Trump? What was his name again?
Does the President in office between 2008 and 2016 bear responsibility for the situation - since it all happened on his watch? What was his name again?
Does the President who announced in October 2016 that no one believed that interference was even possible (in effect boldly lying to the American public) have any responsibility for the cover-up? What was his name again?
Mr. Blow should do some investigative reporting - to find out the name of the President who held office in 2016. Mr. Blow's suppressing of the name of the President in office in 2016 is disappointing - he does have a name.
1
@Maurice Gatien OK, OK, Take it easy there Maurice. We all know his name, but it appears that you are unaware of Mitch McConnell. When a bi-partisan statement was prepared on this very issue in 2016, said 'Mitch' would not agree and threatened to label it 'partisan' just to stymie 'what's-his-name'...again. Read up when you have a moment!
1
The only thought that keeps me calm right now is that eventually this whole charade will implode.It is implausible that it can continue even with all the liars and enablers in Congress backing him.At some point the jig will be up.
It may take a few more years but the corruption, the ineptness, the racism will all blow up and not just bring him down but his entire coterie of enablers in the GOP.
The most likely scenario is that his financial backers in Moscow turn him in and spill the evidence they have against him. How fitting!
1
The "Basket of deplorables" control all three branches of the United States government and run the country. The GOP coup d'état has succeeded.
4
Mr. Blow: I agree, again and again, with what you say. You are preaching and I am the choir. Please get outside your comfort zone, address the people in America who are not your choir and try doing something constructive.
1
Hear, hear!
So, Trump claims one sentence from his speech in front of the international press was intended to be a double negative. What about the rest of his conciliatory statements in that speech? How is all that explained as a double negative?
1
The Rolling Stones just admitted to misleading us with a double negative, for all these years. What they meant to say was, "I CAN get satisfaction".
1
From outside America the answer is very obvious. Donald Trump went to Finland to meet his Russian handler.
Hidden in plain view.
There is no other plausible explanation for the one-on-one meeting with no other observers.
1
I truly wish that all the living presidents, and vice presidents, would come out and jointly make an appearance, a statement about what is happening in our country. Perhaps a round table discussion. I know that they are supposed to remain nonpolitical after their terms, but these are not normal times!!!!
3
"Is he accountable to the American public or to a foreign republic?"
The November mid-term elections will answer this question. If this election doesn't motovate Americans to vote blue then were are finished as an independant country.
2
The GOP has made its decision: it's all in with Trump. There is no daylight between them. Vote.
2
Trump carries his fair share of blame, but we cannot absolve the GOP as they were complicit.
It is highly unlikely that the senior GOP leadership were unaware of what was going on. They were briefed and still chose to betray their country. The GOP could have stopped Trump, but they chose party and tax cuts over country. Even now they offer platitudes but vote in lockstep. For all of McCain's posturing, he voted to confirm Bestey DeVos, Scott Pruitt et al. Same with Jeff Flake. Same with entire GOP as they stole the Garland seat and are to confirm Brett K, who can't manage his baseball debt.
Anyone who rewards this party of treason with their vote in the midterms has just joined the ranks of traitors.
4
Get ready for more disloyalty as our president considers the "incredible offer!" to hand over American citizens for questioning by the former KGB agent. Will the republican congress join him in his betrayal of America when that happens? All indicators are yes!
3
Since Paul Manafort was found to have gotten 7 or so million dollars from Russia to help the Ukraine puppet president, it was clear that the Russian connection was real, dangerous, and pervasive.
The sand our heads have been stuck in should now be used to abrade away our weakness as we will need our underlying strength to get through these times.
2
And to think he is running again in 2020. The nightmare just keeps on giving.
1
Trump's body language and inflection were totally inconsistent with his reconstructed response, blaming Putin.
1
Try watching any video of him with the sound turned off. Then read his body language. Very revealing. Anyway, I never could stand the sound of his voice so watching with the sound off is a natural for me.
1
As many have pointed out, if a Democratic president had said and done what Trump has, that person would be facing impeachment proceedings and/or, no hyperbole, already have been assassinated. Instead, we get the collective "Meh" of Congress, weird what-aboutism, and doubling-down of the most desperate kind. To me, the real test will be the first time Trump gives an order that someone reporting to him cannot follow. Tackling him as he reaches for the nuclear football is the scenario that most often comes to mind. I want to turn off the news, but I can't. I hate that I can't. And I hold Trump and his enablers accountable for that.
4
Trump kowtows to Putin because he is his ticket to a second term, and even, possibly, a third and beyond.
With his continuing consolidation of numerous power bases; Wall Street, fossil fuel interests, religious fundamentalists, right-wing media syndicates, racial exclusionists, etc., etc., and with his gaslighting of the profession media, (including this publication,) he is well on his way to tearing up all Constitutional restraints on presidential powers.
It may be a quixotic quest, but can the American people sue the President for malpractice, or something much darker such as treason?
3
Bill Clinton may have quibbled over what "is" is, but Trump hasn't a clue what "not"'s not.
3
Mr. Blow is correct in pointing out the support for Mr. Trump is anti minority and against anyone who is liberal (except support for Medicare and Social Security). The mistake Democrats make is not shutting up and giving the Trump supporters the rope to hang themselves.
Great article on the " Surrender Summit".After all the angst and hand wringing we must finally come to one of two conclusions.Either Mr.Trump is knowingly cooperating with the Russians and forgiving their every transgression OR he is not mentally competent and cannot understand the duties of an American president.The 325 million people in the United States cannot continue to be held hostage to this traitor/madman.The time to start impeachment is now.
2
I would submit that it is no longer possible to argue against Trump's liabilities to Russia in a rational manner.
From my observations, Trump is a simple man: His primary motivators are greed and ego.
Untold billions of dollars have been extracted from and migrated out of the criminal enterprise that is Putin's Russia. A significant portion of those proceeds seem to have found their way into Trump money-losing golf courses and real estate via Deutsche Bank at a point that Trump could no longer secure traditional financing. You really have to strain not to connect those dots. There's the greed angle.
Add to that the efforts (known and, possibly, unknown) of the Russian state on Trump's behalf in the 2016 election, and you have the ego angle.
The Trump circus will run its course. Then America will need to deal with the fact that his supporters viewed all the screamingly obvious evidence and rejected it.
What did Keith Schiller remove from Trump Tower, with the help of Donald, on Trump's first visit back to NYC, just after Manafort was searched?
Wasn't it curious that Donald suddenly felt compelled to meet in New York with officials who could have just as easily come to Washington, or Bedminster?
But, for some reason, in the days directly after the FBI and special counsel burst into Manafort's home with a search warrant, Donald hustled back to New York, to his private suite to remove what? What was so sensitive that Donald had to remove these items himself, from his own quarters?
These and other "mysteries" will come to light, when this all shakes out.
Only the most deranged Trump supporters will stick around, after the truth is revealled.
Stay tuned. Pop some popcorn.
2
Try this on so we can finally stop analyzing Le Orange: He can't build any more hotels in Europe; it's full up. He CAN build hotels in Russia and North Korea. He wants, very badly, to build a tower in Moscow and everything in his DNA says he must make money and lie about how much he has. So, this is all about hotels. If you remember, when he met with Kim, he talked about the beautiful coast line in North Korea and how it would be a great place to have hotels.
It's as simple as that: he's thinking about the time he's out of office and wants to make money. It's the only thing he thinks about. Incidentally, his weekend in Scotland cost us $70,000. He is a greedy, self centered, evil man, and it's time the Republicans finally wake up to that fact; it's as plain as the conspiracy before us all and it's all about money.
1
Trump is currently cornered and fearful. Perhaps we should steel ourselves against a possibility voiced by Norm Ornstein and cited on these pages by Roger Cohen:
“The president is not done.
“Soon, there may be indictments from Robert Mueller, the special counsel, of high officials or members of Trump’s family. What then? Ornstein’s nightmare scenario: Trump fires Mueller, pardons himself and everyone else, sends his followers into the street, and, after the inevitable bloodshed, declares martial law.”
Should the above be viewed as the rational (in the economic sense of serving self-interest) course of action pursued by an irrational man?
The cornered Emperors Nero, Caligula and Commodus were all, like Trump, paranoid and delusional. The Roman Empire and Republic were long ago consigned to the dustbin of history.
Will Trump soon be consuming Big Macs while D.C. burns?
But, of course, America is exceptional: The American Republic and the imperial hegemony of American corporations (backed by US military might) could never be eclipsed by internal disorder, by fruitless military adventures and by the rise of barbarian counter forces. We are certain of that, right guys?
Guys? Guys . . .?
We are under military attack from Vladimir Putin and Russia. In December of 1941, Japan led a surprise military attack that resulted in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. During the 2016 Presidential Campaign and continuing to this day, Russia is directing a military attack on the United States. They are not using physical bombs, they are using cyber warfare. Just as in 1941, our intelligence forces were warning the government that an attack was imminent, in 2015 & 2016 our intelligence leaders were clearly warning our government that we were being attacked by the
Russians. They were talking about a lot more serious actions than stealing Hillary Clinton's emails. Take the time to read Mueller's first indictments. Russia's cyber military actions are a direct and dangerous threat to our nation. President Roosevelt did not refer to Yamamoto and Rear Admiral Ryūnosuke Kusaka's actions at Pearl Harbor as "highly productive". President Trump's behavior is bizarre, dangerous and threatens the stability of this nation. WAKE UP AMERICA!
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"Sort of a double negative." George Orwell's double think: "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength." Everything is opposite.
Donald Trump's double think: "Would is wouldn't. I'm a stable genius."
Meanwhile, a Twitter Audit report not along ago found 48% of Trump's followers are bots, more than half are from outside the United States. At the time, the audit found 202,709,460 fake accounts on his twitter feed.
Reading from his script about accepting intel community findings, Trump IMMEDIATELY went off-script and said "it could have been other people." 3 times he tells reporters--"no, Russia isn't still targeting the U.S."
A spokesperson later says, no-- he didn't say that. The tape says otherwise. 2 days straight the white house says he didn't say things we all heard him say: Orwellian.
FBI Director Wray says Russia continues to engage in malign influence efforts to this day. Blinking red, says Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence. Sources say intelligence community leaders might be withholding info to him for fear of “compromising sources and methods."
Orwellian.
1
We need to vote in droves in November. I fear, however, that a combination of gerrymandering, exclusion of many people on voter rolls, bot-trolling and more messing around with our election systems can do a lot of damage. We're in trouble.
2
Trump is currently cornered by both Putin and Mueller, and is exceedingly fearful. Perhaps we should steel ourselves against a possibility voiced by Norm Ornstein and cited on these pages by Roger Cohen:
“The president is not done.
“Soon, there may be indictments from Robert Mueller, the special counsel, of high officials or members of Trump’s family. What then? Ornstein’s nightmare scenario: Trump fires Mueller, pardons himself and everyone else, sends his followers into the street, and, after the inevitable bloodshed, declares martial law.”
Should the above be viewed as the rational (in the economic sense of serving self-interest) course of action pursued by an irrational man?
The cornered Emperors Nero, Caligula and Commodus were all, like Trump, paranoid and delusional. The Roman Empire and Republic were long ago consigned to the dustbin of history.
Will Trump soon be consuming Big Macs while D.C. burns?
But, of course, America is exceptional: The American Republic and the imperial hegemony of American corporations (backed by US military might) could never be eclipsed by internal disorder, by fruitless military adventures and by the rise of barbarian counter forces. We are certain of that, right guys?
Guys? Guys . . .?
Every action undertaken by this Republican regime is reflective of a strategy that is intended to disrupt and destroy, with disruption and destruction themselves as the only intended goals - which increases the impact, as intended. Coming up on two years of absolute chaos, and trying to carry on as if anything has been business as usual has proved monstrous, at best.
You can't reason with a psychopath. Flattery doesn’t work, because Trump’s narcissism is as bottomless as his pathological lying. The Republican Party will never discipline him–they exist to do his bidding, not offer advice or expertise. The entire Party is incompetent, erratic, unreliable, untrustworthy, divisive, and cruel. This is an America that Americans–and the world–doesn’t want or need. The only saving grace has been the profound incompetence of Trump and every single person in his administration.
JFK said, “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” It’s time to negotiate Trump’s immediate resignation and pass bipartisan legal protection for the Mueller inquiry. The president and his henchmen don’t care about us or our country. This isn’t about anyone’s electoral future. It’s about the future of our country and our world.
I’m just trying to imagine what R’s would say if a D President has said and done such things
The mistake was in responding to a no win, gotcha question from an hostile media. The real traitors are those who are turning this country into an international home for the third world all in the hope of obtaining cheap votes and labor.
You have nailed it, our country is being held hostage by Trump and the GOP and the majority of Americans are being totally ignored as if we don't exist, and don't have a voice or a vote.
What was said behind the 2 hour closed session needs to be told. Trump does not speak for the majority of Americans and he already sold out his country to Russia, we just want to know if the deal included the return of Alaska or perhaps all of America is now a Russian territory under Putin. Not a totally far-fetched thought.
He has our Homeland Secretary busily separating toddlers and small children from refugee moms and not doing a thing to safeguard our U.S. elections in November. Given the circumstances and Trump's total disinterest except for self-interest I believe we need to go to paper ballots and secure our own elections state by state.
After all, Putin hackers breached state systems totaling I believe 21 of them. Not to mention his hackers breached our electric power systems as well and Russian, NK, and Iran are waging digital war against us all day every day but as long as Trump can tweet out a lie or a nasty he doesn't feel the impact.
The majority have been saying this all along and now it needs to become a done deed, impeach and remove Trump as the greatest danger to our national security and the most corrupt, cruel, inept caricature of an American president ever to get into our WH by almost totally foul means.
1
Trump colludes with Russia by obstructing justice into the investigation, Republicans collude and support Trump = his last two Supreme Court picks should be null and void.
1
The U.S. is no longer a democracy. We are ruled by an oligarchy backed by a racist, misogynistic minority who have stacked the deck against the majority with hostile judges/justices, gerrymandering, voter suppression, antagonism toward unions, and propaganda. The voices of the majority are disregarded as their rights are systematically trampled and the oligarchy consolidates its power.
It seems that Trump is getting his bread buttered by Putin. We don't know how. Otherwise, the American people are being taken for a ride by a person with sociopathic needs - someone that is conditioned to cause others pain. The yo-yo talk is part of this behavior. It is impossible to deal with someone who is not sincere and changes daily or hourly. Who is to blame? We are - for treating this as normal behavior and continually trying to put up with it.
Our treatment of Trump has a name - co-dependency. Time to assess our situation and save our country.
A critical question is Where are the so-called patriots in the government who might do something? We can write off the Republicans because they are a bunch of toadies who are only interested in being able to continue to feed at the public trough. We can write off much of the democratic party because with a few exceptions they behave the same, talking a good game but doing nothing concrete. The democrats are so disorganized that they couldn't organize a beer blast in a brewery.
We looked to a few like General Mathis, and similar honorable individuals but they seem to be MIA. Much of the public doesn't mind looking like fools to the world. One would like to think the mid-term elections would have an impact but aside from a few people running in circles and waving their arms, nothing will change.
Trump is a product of the Media.
I do not have an answer, but having fought for this country, I am angry.
2
How different history might have been had Bill Clinton said "It depends on what the meaning of is isn't."
Yes, everything about this "incident" was negative.
It is like watching your husband emerge from a meeting with a woman with lipstick all over his collar and he says, "nothing happened."
The signs of his betrayal are clear for everyone to see. He does not bother to spend much thought even covering his tracks.
Many of Trump's "wingman" and enablers have already been indicted.
How much longer will we have to tolerate the obvious collusion and probably treason going on here?
Trump is cheating our country, our allies, betraying his oath, and endangering us all.
3
With his double negative, Trump shows that no insult to the intelligence of the American public can be too low.
That's called playing to the base.
The "crisis" moment came in Russia's meddling came in 2016 came when President Obama was made aware of Ivan's invasive treachery and chose to minimize it and do nothing other than issue a "stand-down order".
Americans have to start putting some hard work into ending the polarization in their country. It’s not fair to demonize Trump supporters who are just fed up with a system that has systematically and wantonly left them behind for decades. But it’s not entirely unfair either to criticize them when his character doesn’t seem bother them in the slightest - his lies, his racism, and his petty vindictiveness. Not to mention that he is quite clearly in Putin’s pocket.
By the same token, liberals have to stop obsessing about Russian interference in the 2016 election. You get practically nothing else on CNN and MSNBC 24/7. Both political parties have to look for a candidate who will unite the country. Unfortunately, a name doesn’t immediately spring to mind on either side of the aisle. Any suggestions?
2
The only way to neutralize Trump is to get to his base. Thoughts and prayer don't work, nor truth, nor quiet reason. Children are starving in Trump's camps. Water is so foul that the children won't drink it. I'm just waiting to hear that the next massacre we learn of is dead children--again--this time, by executive order of our president. How many? Will the base be moved by a few, a dozen little kids dead, maybe, 30, hundreds? What are there--3000 children in such conditions? Will death of young children by the decree of their champion change the mind of the base? Of course, I'm assuming that when the base--all of them white--think children, the image flickering in their minds is white children, only. In such a theater of the mind there is no small other-color child, so no acknowledgement at all of Other who is mutually human, just Other, off-message. Over here, just trying to find some way to think of this.--.
We became an oligarchy years ago. Now we are in a kleptocracy moving toward a dictatorship.
Answers first: no, no and no. I am half way thru the 3rd or 4th book I have read on Jonestown and Jim Jones. I know, I know, one has to be a nut to keep digging into an event like that. But taking a step back, Trump is Jim Jones without the positive things Jones did. Jim Jones, through his organization, helped lots of poor people. He lead a color blind organization in three major cities that helped provide social services for the downtrodden. Of course he was consumed by the cult of personality. But along the way, before the tragic end, he attempted to better society. Trump, not so. In fact, he is the duality of what Jones did, an insane cult leader who has made it worse for poor people and undone racial harmony.
I see every reason why trump would be pledging fealty to putin.
He is the infinite negative for the United States.
Readers of fact-based reporting should occasionally check Fox, Breitbart, talk radio and other pro-Trump outlets to learn how they are covering events. These outlets are creating a hermetically-sealed bubble in which the biggest threat to the U.S. remains Hillary's email and pinkos in the FBI invented a Russian conspiracy to tarnish Trump. The persons who live in this bubble would find it next to impossible to reject counter arguments and evidence, even if they were exposed to them, which they are not.
6
But how do rational patriot people break into the bubble?
Russia laundered monies for Trump's golf courses. His tax returns will reveal it all. He is a traitor and must be removed from office immediately. Collusion is a definite fact. He has a 30 plus year Russian relationship and many live in his branded properties. He is despised and feared by many leaders and his own party. Really, what will it take to rid this evil from our minds. We must do what we do best; remain a country of freedom and a republic of democracy...
Mr. Blow does a good job of describing the relationship between Trump and his supporters. That relationship could accurately be described as cult like. This relationship is why Republican lawmakers are so cowardly silent about doing anything or saying anything about Trump. They are terrified of a Trump supporting primary challenger. The only way to stop (or limit his damage) is to vote for Democrats. Even long time Republican conservatives are encouraging this action.
1
Mr. Blow seems to be painting most Trump supporters as racist xenophobes. This conclusion works against the hard work it is taking to bring us together and face our futures objectively.
It's a very hard task to get people to step back and look at how much more serious our polarization is becoming. Supporting the efforts of the "Better Angels of Our Nature" movement to bring together people who share the same stories--that is one way to do it. No matter how much many of us may think that Trump's base are really deplorables, most probably aren't.
You're being unfair in reducing Republican voters' concerns to racism. Let's not forget the intense homophobia, sexism, and anti intellectualism at work here too.
If you would like to read a sober and thoughtful assessment of the current crisis, please read Obama's recent talk in South Africa honoring Nelson Mandela (https://www.npr.org/2018/07/17/629862434/transcript-obamas-speech-at-the.... The contrast between these humane and intelligent men (Mandela and Obama) and our current president could not have been more stark.
2
"Moscow did it to help get Trump elected." The question that must be answered is, WHY? It was not just because Putin could or because of the old-style Soviet antagonism toward the US. Putin has seen a way to destabilize the west, to introduce massive chaos (through the stress caused by immigration) into the great democracies, and wait his turn.
Putin is playing at leadership in the Middle East only insofar as they can foment mayhem and send an army of refugees into Europe. While destructive to the EU (which Putin hates more than even the Magnitsky Act and Hillary Clinton), immigration into Europe only tangentially harmed the US. There he found a convenient village idiot in Donald Trump, his vehicle for sowing mayhem in the US - using social media to promulgate a tale conveniently being told world wide.
The perfect storm, Trump here, Refugees there and Putin's Russia, like the hopeless Americans that voted for and continue to support Trump, dreams that once the chaos clears they will end up on top.
I love the phraseology of "The Surrender Summit" and fear that it is too accurate and prescient; the democratic future of the world is approaching its tipping point.
1
It didn't take the Congressional Republicans long to get back into lock step with this pathetic man in the Oval Office. Mueller's findings with even more indictments likely is the light at the end of the tunnel. The big question then is what will happen if Trump explores the possibilities of suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus, authorizing the military to "protect" Americans and act as though there is a national emergency? This might be allowed under the Constitution. Frightening.
I welcome a discussion of this from law school professors and even Judge Kavanaugh.
Blow asks, “Is he [Trump] accountable to the American public or to a foreign republic?”
Fair enough, but was the same question asked when Obama reneged on a deal the US was making with Poland and the Czech Republic for missile defense on their borders when Putin demanded we end it? No, Obama cravenly threw our two allies under the bus and, as it happened, withdrew from the plan on the seventieth anniversary of the Soviet invasion. [Marc Thiessen, WP 7/18/2018.]?How was that helping our national security and not dancing to Putin’s tune?
But Blow goes so far as to suggest that we shouldvget rid of Trump by resorting to some unspecified measure which suggests overthrowing our system through non-Constitutional means: “Maybe, barring calamity, this situation could exist for a while, until more Democrats are elected to Congress or until Trump is no longer president. But there is no safeguard against such a calamity. There is no way to fully judge our exposure and the danger we face because Trump has a thing for or with the Russians.”
What then is the “way” we should go? The Democratic Party has already suggested “resistance.” I’d like to know how all this is not already only helping Putin and hurting America.
@Ed
Actually, Obama dropped the Poland-and-Czech missile defense program in favor of one that could defend Europe against Iranian short and medium range missiles. It was a reasonable decision for the defense of our allies based upon the information available to him at the time.
But when we last encountered you, you were touting Russia's advantages vis-a-vis Western Europe as an American trading partner. Why the change of heart regarding the Rooskies? I thought you had warm feelings toward them.
1
Haiku
"Benedict Donald--"
Though I did not coin the phrase,
Feel need to share it.
4
Considering how the talented Mr. Trump convincingly played the role of a competent politician and leader during the primaries I am amazed at how poorly he plays the role of the "tough on Russia President."
I now, beyond the shadow of a doubt,
am sure that Trump is one of the active weapons in Putin's arsenal;
a weapon which Putin selected to put into the presidency of the USA;
that Putin, using cyber war, did this by destroying Hillary's image and her campaign;
and, as well, by effecting a large split between Hillary supporters and Bernie supporters.
Trump in office is in service of Putin's agenda of destroying America's political system.
Trump being forced out of office now would create a constitutional crisis and political crisis which would affect another kind of destructiveness.
Thus, one way or the other, Putin has been and is using this weapon, Trump.
I hope, for the sake of the well-being of the nation, that the Republican Party Establishment stops trying to save itself by keeping Trump in office;
and rather joins in getting Trump out of office now;
and once done, joins with the Democrats to put another person in the presidency,
but definitely not Pence,
someone with such stature to heal the nation;
a republican of the stature of Mc Cain, (who cannot serve since he is passing on)
and someone of the stature of Biden, if not Biden himself,
this arrangement with the Republican as President and the Democrat as Vice President.
4
Could it be we have reached the point where it is now accurate to label this for what it really is? When the people who support this should be called out for who they really are? And in both cases it is.....deplorable.
3
I can see it all as part of an old film noir movie where the detective asks the villain, "Did ya do it Rosco?" and Rosco answers "Never". and the cop says, "Well Rosco, that's good enough for me!". Run the credits.
1
We need to step back even further for a more holistic view. This whole event is one more purposeful enactment of a bizarre ongoing theater performance. To an uncomprehending audience of rational thinkers, the Trump operatives set up a "summit" where no one else was to be present. Think about it. Why would you do this? Because it pulls everyone into a game of "what's really going on? What did they say?" I say don't be duped into one more event meant to confuse and confound. The possibility that Trump is being blackmailed is quickly fading. It
could still be true but at this point what is he being blackmailed with? Putin looks like a caged lion uncomfortably playing along for a more important prize. Mueller may have info to contradict this, but he now appears to be impervious to anything that doesn't fit his agenda. He feeds on opposition. His agenda is that he won "bigly," he will win again and will keep winning, and will then do what he and his cohorts want to do to "remake" our country
He is clearly dangerous and becoming more dangerous because of the playbook that we, the majority of citizens who either didn't vote for him or are being shamelessly exploited, are not privy to.
1
trump, courtesy of putin, is maneuvering us into a very difficult position. He is cutting ties with allies in Europe, fighting with everyone in the western hemisphere, and disengaging from the pacific leaving America completely isolated and friendless, just where putin wants us. Not a good place to be.
3
Judging from what Trump said in the Glor interview, he has already sold Montenegro to Russia and hopes to sell him other parts of Eastern Europe and thus become Putin's partner and be rewarded. Much of the above was agreed upon at the Putin summit.
But there will be no reward for Trump. That part of the deal won't happen.Trump has been duped and gravely damaged our country in this trade off. The man has committed treason.
1
It is time we demand answers to whether this President has been compromised.
President Trump at best is incompetent, given his lack of historical perspective and worse is abdicating his role as leader of the free world.
More striking is the lack of outrage from leaders from within his party and his base.
It is time to demand that this President turn over his tax returns and it is time for him to oblige.
We can no longer place any trust in this man that is clearly not telling the truth.
He was elected and sworn into office to preserve protect and defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic.
Where is the outrage from Congress? We are being attacked at the very core of our Republic, the right to vote and to insure the vote is legitimate.
Me. President FYI, The Cuban Missle Crisis was the low point in our relations with Russia.
2
Charles, add in the Brett Stephens column today and the spectrum of political, social diversity comes to the same conclusion: Trump has to go. Whether impeachment( we'll have to wait for Mueller and even then unlikely) or we vote him out.
However, astonishingly, the Levins, lil Tuckers, Hannity and the rest of phony,baloney, spam media blast the trumpets for Trump daily. Still every now and then we hear Republicans voters ( not enough yet) say they will not vote for any Republican, period. If the House becomes Democratic, the Trump will be checked until 2020. VOTE
3
I meandered on over to Fox News for the past two days to see how they covered Trump's strange and incoherent press conference with Putin. Of course, the entire focus of Tucker, Laura, Sean, Devin, Newt, and all the gang was on impeaching "treasonous" Rod Rosenstein. There was also a strong suggestion that anyone critical of President Trump's "performance" in Helsinki were calling for a coup d'etat. Okay, I can understand this point of view if they believe that Trump was duly elected president, and if they believe Trump had no knowledge of Russian interference in the election. I get it, even though it is highly uncertain whether either of those two things are true. But what I don't get is how the Fox News gang can support someone who is so pathologically narcissistic, so hopelessly paranoid, so utterly ill-informed, and so horrifyingly incoherent that he is a dangerous to all of us, including them. How can the Fox News gang not see that? Yes, the wealthiest 1% of the country, they all got their tax cuts. Yes, they got their vengeance on their eternal nemesis H. Clinton. But big deal. They didn't really need either of those things, as Clinton likely would have given them a tax cut even if she were elected. But look at this mess that is Trump: Why would sane person want someone this incoherent and unable to see outside of his own skin making decisions that affect their lives, no matter what their ideology?
4
I know why --- $$$$
Another commentary questioning Donald Trump for trespassing in forbidden territory: Russia is a minefield with 17 US intelligence transfixed in search of Russian interference in the US political system. Apparently that is a forgone conclusion. From over here in old Europe the US media no longer take Donald Trump seriously; in fact quite the opposite. Admittedly he does stray off course more often than not. Russia would prefer a better relationship with the US but that is now impossible after Trump failed so badly. For Europe the Russians seem harmless enough if one accepts Crimea now part of the Russian Federation. We never get any news of the civil war in Ukraine with US and Russian military facing each other in a war with no end in sight despite negotiators from Germany and France offering Minsk 2 rejected by Kiev. How much more pleasant that President Macron visited Moscow for the World Cup final and discussed matters with Putin in a calm atmosphere with no question of his loyalty to Europe; unlike Donald Trump on trial every day? US trade war with China now takes second billing but is actually more important to the world.
It should be abundantly clear to anyone who has followed this situation over the last 18 months or so that this president is in Putin’s pocket and, therefore, unable to act in the best interest of our country. Just like nothing changes after mass shootings, nothing is going to change in this situation either because of congress’s cowardice. At least, not until, hopefully, there is a change in congress this November. Until then, all we can do is hold our breaths and hope for the best. This presidency is in itself a crisis.
1
While I agree with Mr. Blow on his assessment of Trump's stunningly gushing display towards Putin at the Helsinki joint press conference, I think the media should continue to report Trump's lies, his back-breaking parsing of "this is what I MEANT to say" and his daily Tweet storms, but relegate the reporting to a brief "The president was caught in another lie again today" and move on to other news.
The public is getting worn down from the daily barrage of talking heads and op-eds detailing his lies, and explanations of why he does it and how he gets away with it, etc., are beginning to be like spitting into the wind.
5
No double negative.
But a double headed spy?
More and more media hubs are beginning to question Trump's honesty and if he is an agent of Russia who is controlled by Putin, because of some compromising evidence of unacceptable behavior.
Former CIA Director, John Brennen, has said that Trump's actions are treasonous and a national security risk
to America.
Trump was told by all the Directors and heads of the
Intelligence Community that Putin had ordered the hacking of the election in 2016, and an attack upon American democracy.
Yet Trump has constantly lied and denied that Russia hacked the election in his favor, and the Intelligence Community
has known the facts and the truth all this time.
Everything that Trump has said and done must be measured
against the truth that Trump knew on the 6th January 2017
that Putin ordered the hacking personally.
Collusion is plain sight.
6
When Trump mouthed the words “strong and powerful” in association with Putin, I was focused mostly on Putin’s face. I couldn’t help thinking that he had bet his Kremlin cronies that he could get Trump to call him strong and powerful on international TV. That self-satisfied smile said it all. If there was ever any doubt as to Trump being Putin’s puppet, I guess Trump made it perfectly clear that he is.
4
WIth each passing day, it becomes apparent that Donald Trump is president ONLY to the people who voted for him (which is a minority of the general population). He only cares what his base thinks, and holds rallies that sound more like a WWF match. He alienates anyone who disagrees with him, blames Dems and everyone else who shows even the slightest hint of disloyalty. This is the most divisive president we’ve ever had. Trump doesn’t care. His followers are demonstrating a cultlike admiration for this man, and no matter what evidence they are presented with, even bordering on treason, it’s not enough to sway their allegiance to Trump. This is the definition of cognitive dissonance.
2
Trump may well be compromised, a Manchurian candidate, but the real threat to our democracy is from his GOP enablers who refuse to act as the check and balance our founders envisaged.
14
Any decision, legislation, or appointments the Trump administration makes have to be seen as suspect.
1
Is a Trump-led America still a democracy as we understand it? Is it still an independent country? Is he accountable to the American public or to a foreign republic?
Trump stating that "he didn't do nothin" makes this a clear case.
He is just what one always suspected, a street thug on top of a country that, not just since he was sworn into office, has lost most of the values it always wanted to stand for.
The US may see itself as a republic, which it is.
The US may see itself as a democracy, which it is not as money can win you the election and a majority in voters does not necessarily win the election.
The US may see itself as an independent country, which it certainly still is.
But as for accountability of a Manchurian Candidate?
You have got to be kidding, gov!
Trump didn't do nothin, so why should be accountable for nothin.
1
I think the final chapter will be so explosive that every person in this country will be awestruck and speechless. There will be no cries of dissent from "the base." There will be no chest thumping from Trey Gowdy and Jim Jordan. There will be no more false assertions from Sarah. No head-spinning deflection from Rudy. Emails and servers? How quaint.
A quiet will descend upon the land. And all will be good again.
4
So, if America is unable to have a "fair" election without Russian interference, is it still a Democracy?
3
Trump and the complicit Congress have indeed been bought and sold. Trump to the Russians. Congress to big money donors. And that's the reason neither will ever "do the right thing." They can't. Even if they wanted to. They are all captives, doing the bidding of their overlords. It's a giant protection racket, and no one wants the thugs to come back and burn down their fruit stand.
Listen, Trump is a disgusting scab of a human, a ridiculous haircut where a man should exist, but the lack of oversight and outrage on the part of the GOP is the most appalling part of this.
16
Like others in the commentariat, Mr. Blow, you wonder why Mr. Trump's base or the Republicans do not abandon him. It is not just because he supports white nationalist, Christian and racist policies which they support at heart.
They support him in just the same way an abused spouse (AS) supports the abuser husband (AH) who beats her. The AS has married her husband and pledged fealty to him. After an attack, the AH begs for forgiveness and pledges to change and in most cases the AS recants because of the psychological investment made in the relationship.
Mr. Trump (DT) tells his base they will be "tired of winning" after seeking to cut SNAP and Medicare/Medicaid benefiting them. DT strives to kill the ACA and says "better and cheaper" health care will come any day now. DT temporarily cuts their taxes while permanently cutting taxes on the rich.
An AS who is pregnant or, God forbid, seeks to leave the AH is at singular risk of injury and even death. A DT base member or elected official who strays will be pilloried.
The Lautenberg Amendment denies a gun to the convicted AH; DT in contrast gets nuclear weapons to brandish. The AH tells his friends his AS's two black eyes are "a good start"; DT tells the world he sides with Putin.
Women's shelters offer protection to the AS; we have no protection from DT unless his enablers stop, turn on him in favor of democracy.
This will not end well for the AS or the country, I fear.
3