This red carpet handshake shows he's free to continue the war

An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos reported on the meeting between the nasty guy and Putin, held in Alaska yesterday. The two met for 2½ hours and reached an “understanding” on Ukraine but offered very few details on what was discussed. The nasty guy said he would speak with Zelenskyy and European leaders soon. This morning Scott Simon of NPR spoke to reporters Charles Maynes in Moscow and Greg Myre in Kyiv to talk about how the meeting was seen in their host cities. Myre noted the press session afterward lasted all of 3½ minutes and the nasty guy didn’t take questions. Myre said the nasty guy called Zelenskyy while on the plane to invite him to Washington. Maynes explained why, though nothing of substance came from the meeting, Putin won.

For Russians, I think the moment that really mattered was this red carpet handshake, watching Putin and Trump meet, all smiles, and then sharing this ride together in Trump's presidential car, also known as The Beast. You know, those scenes are on loop on state television because it tells Russians Western efforts to isolate them have failed. You know, Putin went from an ostracized leader who Trump was threatening with massive sanctions if he didn't end the war to being given a presidential welcome on U.S. soil in the course of just one week. Nationalist voices here in Moscow are praising Putin's performance in the sense that he got the summit with Trump but seemingly gave nothing in return. You know, in essence, Putin got his photo op, Trump's revised threats of sanctions against Russia evaporated and Moscow's free to continue the war. ... You know, Putin, like many world leaders, has learned that when it comes to Trump, flattery doesn't hurt. We've heard Putin not only talking about shared history yesterday in culture, in Alaska but also calling Trump his dear neighbor. He also went out of his way to embrace Trump's gripes about the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden, and in effect, blaming Biden for forcing Putin's decision to invade Ukraine.

Myre said Ukraine is relieved that there is no deal that they would be pressured to accept. And Zelenskyy is to come to Washington on Monday where the fear is the nasty guy will side with Putin. On Wednesday (yeah, I’m behind in my news reading) Oliver Willis of Kos reported that the federal officers ordered into DC by the nasty guy don’t seem to have much to do. A video shows them walking around Georgetown where streets and sidewalks are mostly empty. When there is need for police way too many officers show up. Willis wrote:

The Washington incursion has no justification, and the visuals are now reinforcing that reality—so the administration is pivoting to conspiracy, as always.

The conspiracy is the stats that show a decline in crime, that show it is the lowest in 30 years, are fake. Of course, no credible evidence of the fakery is produced. Also on Wednesday Walter Einenkel of Kos reported the nasty guy said crime in American cities is an emergency (it isn’t) and because of that he doesn’t need Congress to act, to continue efforts in DC beyond 30 days (not true) or to go into other cities. Along the way he said, “Democrats will not do anything to stop crime” (also not true). Einenkel concluded:

This isn’t about safety, it’s about power, and if Congress cannot stop it, D.C. may just be one of the first stops on the Trump administration’s “Make America A Police State” tour.

In today’s pundit roundup Greg Dworkin of Kos had a quote about the Alaska meeting and that there was no deal, then had a comment of his own:

Of course there wasn’t. The whole thing was a sham. But the press ate up the “pageantry”. I will say that on air live, they tried to make something of a nothingburger, but some of them were honest enough to tell their live audiences they had no idea what actually happened. That’s because you can never take Trump at his word on anything. Ever. He’s a congenital fabulist and this time it didn’t work for him like North Korea did the first term (also, you know, pageantry.)

Greg Sargent of The New Republic:

President Trump’s vaunted dispatching of troops into Washington, D.C., has managed to be both buffoonish and authoritarian. Thus far it has involved little more than handfuls of National Guard members standing around and taking selfies. And yet Trump has accompanied it with genuinely alarming threats: This week he openly described the deployment as a dry run for more cities, and on Wednesday, he made things even worse, suggesting that he has the authority to take control of the D.C. police indefinitely without Congress’s assent. (He doesn’t.)

A tweet from Martina Navratilova:

If Trump didn’t show in the Epstein files in a really bad way (rapes, pedophilia), he would have released them long ago, no matter who else goes down. He only cares and will ever care about himself. But because it’s clear what he’s done, we won’t see them if Trump can help it.

How long has he been dangling the Epstein files, saying it would damage Democrats? Since sometime in his first term, I’m sure. Navratilova is saying that if the files implicated Democrats and not himself he had every reason to release them back then. In the comments are a lot of cartoons about the hoagy hurler, the guy who threw a sandwich at a federal officer in DC. John Buss drew one saying “The Subway Slinger is being charged with baloneyious assault.” Willus posted an image of a sandwich with the words:

Behold the latest inanimate object that strikes fear into the snowflake alpha-males of the MAGA movement. Apparently it’s a felony to throw one of these but not to molest children.

A meme posted by exlrrp shows the front page of “Weekly World News” that has a photo of a sandwich in front of microphones. The caption says, “Sandwich thrown at ICE agent holds press conference, ‘I’m the victim here!’” Below that is another meme with a soldier about to be hit by a sandwich and the caption, “Don’t bread on me.” New inflation numbers came out. They were higher than expected and higher they had been over the last few months. Kos of Kos discussed the new Republican response that has the flavor of Orwell’s 1984.

It started a few days ago, when Trump ally Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina went on Fox News and insisted that rising costs were “for the good of the country.” This, from the same party whose leader promised to lower prices “on Day One”—a pledge that convinced many voters that Trump, despite his fascism, bigotry, and criminality, would improve their bottom line. ... Norman gave it his best shot: “Yes, [prices are] higher. Steel prices are up, but it’s for the good of the country.” He added, “Should we expect high prices for a short time? Yes … The cancer in this country was letting other countries rule the day and tax our products, and why should we run a deficit every month? … And that’s why this president is doing such a good job.” Got that? The “cancer” was lower prices, and the cure is making everything more expensive. Meanwhile, Norman voted lockstep with Trump to add another $3 trillion to the national debt, so spare us the fiscal-hawk routine.

A strategist said lowering prices may not be desirable because falling prices are usually tied to recession. While true, this isn’t an economics seminar and the nasty guy promised the opposite. They’re trying to explain “why voters should be grateful for the pain.” Good luck with that. I enjoy watching the Kennedy Center Honors. Every fall The Center would name five people or groups from across the performing arts that had done outstanding work in their art and had also contributed to mentoring the next generation or strengthened the human community. The award would be given in early December and a grand gala presentation would be broadcast a bit before or after Christmas. They would tell an honoree’s life story and then their colleagues would perform a tribute. I won’t need to watch for a few years. Emily Singer of Kos reported that the nasty guy was very involved in choosing this year’s honorees (to make sure no one “woke” got an award) and that he will be the show’s host. Sure, why not, he used to host *The Apprentice*. This years honorees are Sylvester Stallone, the band Kiss (frontman Gene Simmons is a Trumper), George Strait, Gloria Gaynor, and Michael Crawford. I won’t be missing much.