Wednesday, July 18, 2018

George Will: "This Sad, Embarrassing Wreck of a Man"



George Will takes his journalistic skinning knife to Donald Trump. It ain't pretty.
What, precisely, did President Trump say about the diametrically opposed statements by U.S. intelligence agencies (and the Senate Intelligence Committee) and by Putin concerning Russia and the 2016 U.S. elections? Precision is not part of Trump’s repertoire: He speaks English as though it is a second language that he learned from someone who learned English last week. So, it is usually difficult to sift meanings from Trump’s word salads. But in Helsinki he was, for him, crystal clear about feeling no allegiance to the intelligence institutions that work at his direction and under leaders he chose. 
...Like the purloined letter in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story with that title, collusion with Russia is hiding in plain sight. We shall learn from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation whether in 2016 there was collusion with Russia by members of the Trump campaign. 
The world, however, saw in Helsinki something more grave — ongoing collusion between Trump, now in power, and Russia. The collusion is in what Trump says (refusing to back the United States’ intelligence agencies) and in what evidently went unsaid (such as: You ought to stop disrupting Ukraine, downing civilian airliners, attempting to assassinate people abroad using poisons, and so on, and on). 
Americans elected a president who — this is a safe surmise — knew that he had more to fear from making his tax returns public than from keeping them secret. The most innocent inference is that for decades he has depended on an American weakness, susceptibility to the tacky charisma of wealth, which would evaporate when his tax returns revealed that he has always lied about his wealth, too. A more ominous explanation might be that his redundantly demonstrated incompetence as a businessman tumbled him into unsavory financial dependencies on Russians. A still more sinister explanation might be that the Russians have something else, something worse, to keep him compliant. 
The explanation is in doubt; what needs to be explained — his compliance — is not. Granted, Trump has a weak man’s banal fascination with strong men whose disdain for him is evidently unimaginable to him. And, yes, he only perfunctorily pretends to have priorities beyond personal aggrandizement. But just as astronomers inferred, from anomalies in the orbits of the planet Uranus, the existence of Neptune before actually seeing it, Mueller might infer, and then find, still-hidden sources of the behavior of this sad, embarrassing wreck of a man.

Update:

Trump took to Twitter this morning to defend his terrific performance in Helsinki. 
“So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki.”

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Indeed! The best part of his European trip was his meeting with Putin says it all. Anyong

Lorne said...

The signs are all there, Mound, but Americans, either due to innate stupidity of massive disaffection, refuse to heed them. I don't see any of this ending well.

Lulymay said...

With the majority of Canadians apparently living within 100 miles of the northern US border, we too have to be aware and careful. The Americans are so used to be assured that they are the best, brightest, strongest and most glorious country in the world, they seem to believe they are immune from the disaster that is travelling at mach speed down the road towards them all. How long will it be when we have hoards of them storming our borders seeking asylum?

It doesn't look like it will end well at all. I can just see the orange one trying to commandeer Airforce One, demanding to be taken to his imagined sanctuary in Russia in the firm belief that Vlad will protect him. Stupid is as stupid does!

Anonymous said...

"downing civilian airliners"
Are you alluding to Iran Air flight 655? In case you do not: shooting down of MH 17 was just a plain mistake as it was in the case of Iran Air 655. The responsibility for the MH 17 tragedy rests solely(!) with the Ukrainian government who used civilian aircrafts as shields in an active war theater. (Ukrainian Su-25s were bombing targets below 10 km while airliners were allowed to fly in the same(!) area above 10 km)

The Mound of Sound said...


Hey, Kremlin troll. Nice one. Complete bollocks but nice try. By the way, learn to spell. You wrote "plain mistake" but I'm sure you meant plane mistake. And what's with the exclamation mark in brackets? Is that like a super-duper exclamation mark or is it something that only Russkies recognize?

Jay Farquharson said...

Will is shocked, shocked I say, that the project he has been working towards his whole career, has come to fruition.

Anonymous said...

Everyone who disagrees with you is either troll, idiot or, God forbid, both. That attitude does not bode well...

Jay Farquharson said...

мы все из траханий, чтобы дать, когда русские тролли, совки и Игнарати рвет кремлевскую пропаганду в Интернете, asswipe.

Jay Farquharson said...

We should make sure that Canada is loaded up to carrying capacity with the current global surplus of refugees, before the 'Murkins head north. We'll need the allies.

the salamander said...

.. I don't care how much $$ President BloatFace 'has' - I live in Canada of course - but I am interested to know who holds debt markers on his liquid cash or assets. My concern is his assault on the Environment, which ignores political borders. Just like Stephen Harper did, this thug is shredding any and all existing protective legislation regarding resource extractions. Inland waters and coastal waters mean jack to the thug and his grotesque cohort in the GOP, huge donors and family. Hell, his eldest sons are trophy hunters. Dumping mine waste? All good, just like Harper decided. Pay attention to live or dead wellheads emitting methane, CO2, Boron, Radon, toxic waste water and other effluents who's actual contents are a complete mystery" Slicone sand for fracking (toxic to hu,ans etc) is being redistributed wherever fracking takes place.. and those same frack wells just take water as needed, give it back toxic. Oh.. coal, lets not forget that, or fly ash from vsrious refining or coking etc. Where does the Alberta Dilbit residue go after coking ? So Environment, Habitat, Species including humans can pound salt says the fraudulent thug & daily serial liar. Now that's just re Environment.. !

On what is a broader scope and important to most folks is the behaviour of a lunatic. I hope Robert Mueller pins the scumbag to the wall, by his ears of course. Perjury, Conspiracy, Obstruction of Justice, Money Laundering, Mispending Charitable Donations, probably illegal campaign funds too..

Meanwhile the pus sack and his scummy cohort have entrenched dirtbag electoral practice.. and at this point its four years, unless Mueller brings the thunder and/or The Dems can make big inroads with upcoming mid term elections. John Kellly needs to get a grip. The thug has gone full lunatic mode, Huckabee Sander gone full serpent. The White House, the 'administration', the country club trips, the billing and bilking of American taxpayers for multiple Secret Service locations.. Trumph, Melania, his adult sons, Javenka (Senior Advisors?) All require a seperte detail, 24/7.

The guy is such a grifter, he charges taxpayers for Secret Service using golf carts at his country clubs ! Its just an endless barrage of 'croooked' or 'rigged' or 'fake' or 'unfair' wailing via ol Bone Spurs Stable Genius & Smartest Guy On The Planet.. ever. Putin just smiles and keeps turning up the heat, China can hardly contain their laughter.. as the noise & nonsense from Hannity, Alex Jones, Breitbart, and particularly Fox TV etc indicate a crazed train wreck careening along the tracks.

And look at the cranks and abject losers that have emerged.. Open Carry lunatics, school shootings, concealed carry freaks, natzis, white power advocates, an adoring 'base' and phony evangelicals like VP Mike Pence.. so holy and pure I want to barf just looking at him. 'partisan' as a term does not do most of them credit.. they are extreme rapture seekers, the greedy in the trough or absolute nihalists looking for trouble and they have serious weaponry.. Dark Times

The Dems better find their saviour.. or with all the further Russian meddling, the gerrymandering, the deletion of black voter rolls, the scumbaggery ie Supreme Court appointments etc.. it means a further 4 years.. likely of Pence while Donald loafs at country clubs

Jay Farquharson said...

Tell us how you really feel. Don't hold back.