[Tubby Isaacs]

I see he's having a go at the homeless in Washington now.

Also, why does he now seem to sign off his digital brainfarts with "thank you for your attention to this matter"?

He thinks it makes him sound clever. He's got Washington DC in his sights because he wants to take over the city government.

[Bones McCoy]

I see he's having a go at the homeless in Washington now.

Also, why does he now seem to sign off his digital brainfarts with "thank you for your attention to this matter"?

He thinks it makes him sound clever. He's got Washington DC in his sights because he wants to take over the city government.

While it makes him sound like one of those recurring letter writers to your local advertiser.

The one who signs off his diatribe on school holidays too long with "Local councillors take note!".

[Abernathy]

Anybody have any sort of optimism in respect of Trump’s conflab with Putin in Alaska tomorrow ?

[Abernathy]

.

[Boiler]

I expect Zelensky will to told to concede the Donbas.

Followed by Trump doing a Muttley impression in front of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.

[Bones McCoy]

[Abernathy]

Props to the employees of the Bull at Charlbury and the good folk of the town for blowing out Shady Vance.

JD Vance was reportedly turned away from a pub in The Cotswolds after staff threatened to strike if he was allowed to visit the venue.
Staff at The Bull in Charlbury, near where the US vice-president is spending his summer holiday, are said to have refused to show up to work if Vance was allowed to book the pub.
Vance has been holidaying in the hamlet of Dean, close to Charlbury, where hundreds of local residents have staged protests and a “not welcome party”. One woman told the Guardian: “That’s not what we’re about. We don’t want anything to do with people like him.”

[Youngian]

Perhaps Mr Vance should stay in Clacton or Skegness next time. He'll probably complain that the Cotswolds is full of radical Marxists.

[Abernathy]

Since the Trump/Putin Alaskan love-in, there has been talk of “security. guarantees” for Ukraine in the context of a possible future peace deal.

I’m a bit puzzled about this. Surely the only “security guarantee” that’s worth a toss to Ukraine and Zelensky is a guarantee that Ukraine will not get attacked by Russia again?

As long as Putin is in the big chair, it’s pretty clear that no such “security guarantee” is ever going to be on offer. And if by some miracle it is, then given Putin’s track record, would it actually be worth anything at all? We know that Vlad cannot be trusted, any more than Trump can be.

In the parlance of da yoot, WTF ?

[Bones McCoy]

What the fuck is explained if.......

If ... there isn't a Pee-pee tape, but there is a Paedo-tape.


Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein,
Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein,
Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Perhaps Mr Vance should stay in Clacton or Skegness next time. He'll probably complain that the Cotswolds is full of radical Marxists.

Or as we'd call them, Lib Dems.

[Boiler]

What the fuck is explained if.......

If ... there isn't a Pee-pee tape, but there is a Paedo-tape.

I think both are fever dreams and they don't exist. Up there with "the moon landings were faked".

BTW, "land swap": isn't that just "give Putin what he's taken and shut up."

[satnav]

I had to laugh yesterday when Trump was climbing the steps to Air Force One. He was leaving from an air force base but it still insisted on waving to the no existent crowds. Sky News even had the clip on a loop for about 20 minutes whilst fawning about what a great deal maker he was.

[Bones McCoy]

What the fuck is explained if.......

If ... there isn't a Pee-pee tape, but there is a Paedo-tape.

I think both are fever dreams and they don't exist. Up there with "the moon landings were faked".

BTW, "land swap": isn't that just "give Putin what he's taken and shut up."

A cookie cutter solution that works for Netanyahu too.

[Andy McDandy]

Long, but worth it. A take on what happened in Alaska:

The Trump-Putin Summit--"Ashen...Even Frightened"--What the Hell Happened?

I promised yesterday I’d report on the whole Trump-Putin summit, and it was full of news, so much news that I’m devoting my entire post to it, but not at all the kind anybody expected. I--and everybody else--were expecting that Trump would give away the store to Putin, maybe to the point of giving him the whole state of Alaska to him, throw Ukraine to the wolves, and then come out crowing at the press conference afterwards, declaring he’d made a brilliant deal whether it was true or not (just like he’s been doing with the tariffs), and demanding the Nobel Peace Prize. That isn’t exactly what happened.

Instead, there was no deal, there was no press conference, they even canceled the luncheon and the other meetings they were supposed to have after the main "summit," and Trump left an hour and a half early and refused to talk to reporters on the entire six-hour plane trip home.

It started out as planned, only worse:
--Trump and Putin’s planes arrived within moments of each other, and then there was a long delay as the two sides fought over who would get off the plane first and who would greet the other.

--A red carpet was LITERALLY laid down for Putin. US soldiers got down on their hands and knees to smooth out the red carpet and were still doing so as Putin descended the stairs, and that is the photo that is all over Russian media ("The US Bows Down to Russia.") People were horrified by the idea of showing so much deference to a war criminal who was guilty of killing millions of people, let alone rolling out the red carpet for him.

--Governor Newsom: "Trump had our BRAVE AMERICAN SOLDIERS ON THEIR KNEES to roll out the RED CARPET for his best friend VLAD!" (Newsom has been mimicking Trump’s Truth Social post style in his tweets lately.)

--Trump deplaned first (VERY BAD PROTOCOL) and wobbled down the length of his red carpet to stand there like an expectant child waiting for their bestest friend. The wobbling is on video and is all over the internet as Trump trod the length of it like a drunk driver swerving all over the road. (Tons of commenters noted that this is a sign of dementia.)

--Trump was all smiles greeting Putin, clapping as Putin approached and then shaking and then patting his hand like old friends greeting each other, and the reporters pointed out the contrast between this greeting and the reception Trump’s given our allies, and, most especially, Zelenskyy.

--Trump was asked on Hannity afterwards what the "vibe" was when they met. Trump: "Well, you know I always had a great relationship with President Putin, and we would have done great things together."

At the meeting of the two, there was a special military flyover to honor Putin.
--There were cars waiting for both of them to take them to the summit meeting place, but at the last minute Trump invited Putin to go with him in "the Beast." Alone. Just the two of them. Without translators, aides, or Secret Service guys. This was a HORRIBLE breach of security, but even worse, it gave Putin a chance to say anything he wanted to Trump without anyone else hearing--like, "I have a bunch of kompromat on you and Epstein and if you don’t do exactly what I say, I’ll release it here today." As they drove away, Putin was seen grinning wildly through the back window of the vehicle.

The summit:
--They met for two and a half hours, and that was a surprise, too, because the original plan was supposed to be just Putin and Trump and their translators. ON THE PLANE ON THE WAY THERE, the plan was suddenly changed to having Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio be in the meeting, too, and two of Putin’s people then joined the meeting as well.

--They were supposed to have expanded meetings after the main summit, followed by a luncheon, but both were canceled without explanation.

--Laura Rosen: "A 3-hour meeting, probably half of it taken up by translation. And then decision to end it, before expanded meeting or working lunch and separate statements made with no questions taken."

--David Reeves: "If it wasn’t for Trump’s makeup, he’d have looked white as a sheet. This was Trump’s ‘Hail Mary" move to win back public opinion. Instead, he’s crashed and burned."

--Mike Murphy: "Trump got nothing. Now he’ll turn on his bullshit cannon and declare victory. But the truth is he looks very weak right now."

--John Harwood: "Looks weak because he is weak. With respect to any formidable adversary, his tough guy pose is fake. He wants Putin to like him because he’s scared of Putin."

The press conference:
--They then came out to do the planned press conference, but instead Putin spoke for nine minutes and then Trump for less than four minutes (a record) and that was it.

--They took no questions at all.

--The photos of the two of them show Putin looking smug and smirky and Trump looking bewildered, and according to some people, "tired and defeated."

--Coconut Heads: "In Putin’s speech he said Ukraine is not a real state and cannot continue to exist, even if it means that when and if he conquers it, he will have to ethnically cleanse tens of millions of Ukrainians and destroy the Ukrainian people once and for all."

--Tim Miller: "Putin vamping about the need to eliminate all the ‘root causes’ of the war of aggression that he started for no reason. Now lecturing about how Ukraine shouldn’t do anything to torpedo the progress."

--Trump did not speak about the summit at all except to say, "There’s no deal until there is a deal."

--At the end, Putin said, "Next time, in Moscow." (Which sounded like that veiled threat in CASABLANCA where the Nazi guy talks about showing up in London or maybe even New York.)
--One journalist said: "A defeated Trump leaves the room quickly."

--Huffington Post: "At a joint press conference afterward, Putin was smiling and appeared confident, while Trump looked unhappy or even frightened." (Did you get that? "UNHAPPY OR EVEN FRIGHTENED." I have NEVER heard anyone say that about any leader before, and certainly not Trump.)

--Even Fox News seemed undone by the whole thing. Reporter Jacquie Heinrich: "The way it felt in the room was not good. It did not seem like things went well. It seemed like Putin came in and streamrolled, got it into what he wanted to say, got his photo next to the President and then left."

--T.D. Warner: "I’m listening to Fox right now and even they’re stunned."

--marcosantana: "If Fox News are saying Trump fucked up, it must have been bad."

--Meidas Touch: "Trump left that meeting looking like Putin just showed him photos of him from the Epstein files."

And that was it:
--There were supposed to be expanded meetings, followed by a luncheon--filet mignon and crème brulee--but all that was canceled without explanation.

--They got back on the plane and went back to Washington. Trump said, "I’m out of here. And I go back to the United States," not seeming to understand that Alaska IS the United States. (He did it twice, so this wasn’t just misspeaking.

--Putin had a big smile on his face when he left.

--It was so bad the White House didn’t so much as issue a White House press release on the summit.

Last night Trump went on Hannity and still refused to talk about it:
--Hannity: "If you had to grade it on a scale of one to ten?" Trump: "So I think the meeting was a ten in the sense we got along great. And it’s good when, you know, two big powers get along, especially when they’re nuclear powers."

--Trump refused to give any specifics of what they agreed on--or didn’t agree on--but he talked a lot about what Putin had said. Trump: "It was very interesting because we talked about 2020. Vladimir Putin said something--one of the most interesting things, he said, ‘Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting. He said mail-in voting, every election--no country has mail-in voting. It’s important to have no mail-in voting and have honest elections. And he said that to be because we talked about 2020. He said, ‘You won that election by so much and that’s how he got it. He said, ‘and if you would have won, we wouldn’t have had a war.’"

--Jonah Goldberg: "LOL. Vladimir Putin: Election Integrity Expert."

--Trump also claimed Vlad told him, "I’ve never seen anybody do so much so fast. He said, your country is like hot as a pistol, and a year ago he thought it was dead."

--Susan Glasser of the New Yorker on the Hannity interview: "Did you listen to Trump blather on about the rigged election, and Biden, and tariffs, and mail-in ballots? Even he knew he bombed with Putin."

And, as if all that wasn’t enough, there was a security breach:
--I mean, what would anything involving the Trump administration be without a security breach? After everybody left, a bunch of US government summit documents were found in the printer at the hotel many of the staff were staying at.

--They included an itinerary of the summit events, the menu for the lunch that never happened, a list of everybody involved in the summit on both sides, with addresses and phone numbers, and the revelation that Trump had apparently planned to give Putin a ceremonial gift. All of the papers referred to Putin as "His Excellency Vladimir Putin.

--The papers were discovered by an NPR reporter.

The upshot:
--Trump now says it’s all up to Ukraine and good luck. He’s apparently giving up on getting a ceasefire, let alone a deal, altogether.

--Rick Wilson: "No details. No agreement. No defense of American ideals. Just Trump humiliating America before his Russian master. Just Trump fellating a ruthless war criminal." In another tweet, he said tersely, "Trump got rolled."

--Tom Nichols of the Atlantic: "He doesn’t understand anything that basically isn’t a real estate deal. And so the idea that Putin is obsessed with Ukraine for other reasons, Trump just doesn’t understand any of that stuff, and doesn’t understand why he can’t make a deal."

--Kyle Griffin: "Trump is now dropping his demand for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia--a stark reversal that aligns him with Putin."

--The Russian ambassador is now demanding "normalization of direct air communications between our countries and the return of six de facto confiscated objects of Russian diplomatic real estate. (Got that? SIX DE FACTO CONFISCATED OBJECTS OF RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC REAL ESTATE. Not sure what the six are--six parts of Ukraine? Alaska? More European countries?) He said, "So far there are no major breakthroughs, and apparently there cannot be."

What the analysts are saying about it:
--Meidas Touch: "This is not normal diplomacy. It’s subservience. I just watched Donald Trump roll out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin on American soil while acting like an excited little kid meeting his favorite celebrity. Putin literally laughed in Trump’s face as they rode together in the Presidential vehicle, the Beast. And while Trump was clapping and grinning like a fool, air raid sirens were screaming in Kyiv, signaling incoming Russian missiles and drones. Russian state TV is openly mocking us, bragging about Putin’s joyride through Alaska and Trump getting off Air Force One first, a symbolic act of deference in diplomatic protocol."

--Anders Aslund: "Trump appears to have achieved nothing from his bizarre and unprepared invitation of war criminal Putin. 1) Most important was that Trump received Putin subserviently. That says more about Trump than Putin. 2) Trump recognized Russia as the superpower it no longer is."

--AsTheWorldFallsAround: "Why the marked disappointment post-meeting? Even Fox is reporting it like NBC is...what went wrong? What were they expecting and what happened?"

--Jeffrey Bazooka: "WTF is going on here? We’ve seen nothing to explain not just Trump’s dejected face and defeated attitude, but to also explain that of everyone around him. For them all to react in this manner, it has to be something of great importance."

--Peter Alexander: "What struck me was the looks on the faces of a lot of the American delegation here. Karoline Leavitt, Steve Witkoff, who came into the room, then left quickly. Leavitt appeared to be a bit stressed out, anxious. Their eyes were wide--almost ashen at times."

--Some people are speculating that Putin showed the people in the summit the pee tape or other kompromat he has on Trump, hence the ashen faces.

--Others think that Trump’s dementia might have been so bad he had no idea what was discussed during the summit, which is why he couldn’t talk and/or take questions from reporters.

--Far West Gal: "Trump couldn’t remember what was said in the summit."

--Still others are speculating that Trump might have had some sort of dementia episode during the summit that they couldn’t cover up, and there is no question that in the official photo of the two of them shaking hands afterwards (and the one that was, amazingly, on the front page of my very conservative newspaper) Putin is almost laughing and Trump is looking bewildered and not quite all there.

Best headline of the day; "Even Fox News Can’t Spin It."

Best comment of the day, from MuellerSheWrote: "Remember when Kamala said Putin would eat Trump for lunch? I was thinking about that today for no particular reason."

Other best comment of the day: --Lincoln Project: "What a flop. Anyway, release the Epstein files."

[Youngian]

Well worth a read from Arthur Snell who produces a highly recommended IR podcast 'Behind the lines.'

These ‘referendums’ were conducted by Kremlin, literally at the point of a gun. When he made these unfounded assertions, Witkoff couldn’t even name the territories in question. It is profoundly depressing to see a two-bit dodgy construction spiv with Russian mob ties who clearly knows nothing about his portfolio, guiding another two-bit dodgy construction spiv with Russian mob ties (the President of the United States) into this Kremlin-inspired trap. https://arthursnell.substack.com/p/vict ... red%20trap

[Boiler]

Where's that from, Andy?

I thought about the ambush of Zelensky compared to Putin's literal red carpet treatment as well.

I still don't believe the "compromising material" that so many want to believe exists on Trump actually does: it's conspiracy nonsense.

[Abernathy]

no country has mail-in voting

Postal votes are widely available, or have been, in at least 23 democracies worldwide, including of course, the UK. I've used a postal vote for about ten years now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_voting

The speculation on Trump's dementia seems to be right on the money.

[Boiler]

--Trump deplaned first (VERY BAD PROTOCOL) and wobbled down the length of his red carpet to stand there like an expectant child waiting for their bestest friend. The wobbling is on video and is all over the internet as Trump trod the length of it like a drunk driver swerving all over the road. (Tons of commenters noted that this is a sign of dementia.)

Bollocks. I certainly don't walk in a ruler-straight line, especially in a hurry. My mother-in-law (who does have dementia) doesn't walk so badly either. Maybe it's his bone spurs or just his fucking age.

Again, wishful/conspiratorial thinking by Trump's detractors hoping for a 'gotcha' and NO, I am not defending the bastard, just pointing out the BS.

[Killer Whale]

I still don't believe the "compromising material" that so many want to believe exists on Trump actually does: it's conspiracy nonsense.

There was a Channel 4 doc about this on YouTube. Tons of speculation and zero actual evidence.