We shouldn’t let him! Vote Blue up and down the ballot to save democracy and make sure there’s no chance for the tRumpen fuhrer to further betray America.
Seriously? Donald Trump — who is notorious for refusing to pay bills — lecturing NATO members about honoring financial obligations?
Trump’s comments are irresponsible, dangerous and factually inaccurate, since NATO does not actually collect dues or send bills. There are only target goals for spending on their own military to ensure readiness.
Republicans were once committed to standing up to Russia but have now proven they no longer have any consistent principles. If their Dear Leader tells them to side with Russia over the interests of our allies, once fiercely anti-Russia loyalists now obediently follow their cult leader and chug their Kool Aid, putting the national security of all of us at risk for their own moral cowardice.
In the history of NATO, Article 5 has only been invoked once, when other nations came to the defense of the United States after 9/11 and joined with George W Bush’s “coalition of the willing” to fight in Afghanistan. That included Canada, France, the U.K. and many other NATO members who sent troops. While almost none of those countries joined Bush’s later, unrelated invasion of Iraq, they all came to our defense in Afghanistan after 9/11 and, if the need were to arise, we would be obligated to return the favor.
In any case, I’m sure Putin will enjoy the chocolates from his true love, though I wonder how he will react when he learns that Dirty Donnie has been sending “love letters” to Kim Jong Un on the side.
Mike should have put the chocolates in the shape of European nations. Of course, most of us don’t know the shapes of those nations and he might run out of space labeling them.
Professing that the U.S. would not honor treaty obligations. No wonder traditional U.S. allies have doubts about the stability and political will in this nation.
For all the Trump haters out there, what did you hate most? No wars, middle east peace, strong American economy, no inflation, growing 401k’s, market profits, low gas prices, a secure oil reserve, lower taxes, a strong dollar?
Found this in Mr Google….” Trump has long claimed that various NATO members have failed to pay their “bills,” “dues” or “NATO fees,” that they “owe us a tremendous amount of money” or that they “owe NATO billions of dollars.”
Facts First: All of these Trump claims are false. While a majority of NATO members do not meet the alliance’s target of each member spending a minimum of 2% of gross domestic product on defense, the 2% target is a “guideline” that does not create bills, debts or legal obligations if it is not met. In fact, the guideline doesn’t require payments to NATO or the US at all. Rather, it simply requires each country to spend on their own defense programs.”
Gore Vidal in his book dreaming war has some interesting stuff on NATO. “conservative think tanks( their salaries paid directly or indirectly by interested conglomerates)are issuing miles of boilerplate …”
Talk about attempting to make a silk purse from a pig’s ear…
Trump calls Putin’s comment that he prefers Biden over Trump a ‘great compliment’“But we will work with any U.S. leader whom the American people trust.”
https://abcnews go com/Politics/trump-calls-putins-comment-prefers-biden-trump-great/story?id=107251595
As he did in the Feb. 10 rally, Trump has long mischaracterized what he calls “delinquent” payments from alliance members to NATO. Although NATO countries pay direct costs for NATO’s common fund based on a formula, Trump is referring to the indirect costs countries pay toward their own defense in general. Countries don’t owe money to anyone else if they spend less on defense than other member countries.
In 2006, NATO countries made a commitment to aim to spend 2% of their gross domestic product on their own defense. A NATO spokesman at the time said: “Let me be clear, this is not a hard commitment that they will do it. But it is a commitment to work towards it. And that will be a first within the Alliance.”
It’s also not true that NATO was “busted” until Trump stepped in — even in terms of indirect spending by countries on defense, that was going up before Trump took office. As we have written, after years of decreases, combined defense spending by non-U.S. NATO members has increased every year since 2015 — two years before Trump assumed office. Combined NATO defense spending increased about 11.5% between 2016, the year before Trump took office, and 2020, Trump’s last year in office, according to NATO. The amount paid by NATO members other than the U.S. increased by about 19.8% over the same period.
Trump was also wrong when he claimed former President Barack Obama “didn’t ask for anything.” Obama and his top aides repeatedly pressured NATO countries to increase their military spending, but it wasn’t until Russia in early 2014 invaded and took control of Crimea in Ukraine that the member countries agreed to take action.
After Russia invaded Crimea, Obama gave several speeches urging NATO countries to increase their defense spending, leading up to a September 2014 agreement in which each country agreed to increase their military spending over the next decade toward a 2% goal.
With Putin now dominating space.. it’s a good thing for trump to be best of buds with Putin. Sly fox and smooth talker that he is.. bet trump could exchange some secret stuff and perhaps get an idea of what Putin has up there. An excellent opportunity for the CIA to turn a simple idiot into a useful idiot.
Trump is dependent upon Putin but is Putin dependent upon Trump?
US election 2024: Putin says he prefers Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the White House
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he would rather a Joe Biden presidency over Donald Trump ahead of the US election this November.
Mr Biden was the more experienced, predictable person, he said in remarks sure to raise eyebrows.
Mr Biden has been a fierce critic of Mr Putin for years, calling him a “killer” before the invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian president also remarked on his recent interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson, saying he had found it disappointing because the questions had not been sharp enough.
He dismissed questions about Mr Biden’s age and mental health, and said when they had last met in 2021, he had not noticed anything peculiar.“Even then [three years ago] people were saying that he was incompetent, but I did not see anything of this sort,” he said.“Yes, he kept looking at his papers, but to be honest I kept doing the same. So there was nothing peculiar.”
The first time Putin and Trump met was in Germany. President Trump took his interpreter’s notes afterward and ordered him not to disclose what he heard to anyone. Later that night, at a dinner, Mr. Trump pulled up a seat next to President Vladimir V. Putin to talk without any American witnesses at all.Their third encounter was in Vietnam when Mr. Trump seemed to take Mr. Putin’s word that he had not interfered in American elections. A formal summit meeting followed in Helsinki, Finland, where the two leaders kicked out everyone but the interpreters. Most recently, they chatted in Buenos Aires after Mr. Trump said they would not meet because of Russian aggression.Mr. Trump has adamantly insisted there was “no collusion” with Russia during his 2016 presidential campaign. But each of the five times he has met with Mr. Putin since taking office, he has fueled suspicions about their relationship. The unusually secretive way he has handled these meetings has left many in his own administration guessing what happened and piqued the interest of investigators.“What’s disconcerting is the desire to hide information from your own team,” said Andrew S. Weiss, who was a Russia adviser to President Bill Clinton. “The fact that Trump didn’t want the State Department or members of the White House team to know what he was talking with Putin about suggests it was not about advancing our country’s national interest but something more problematic.”
Nikki Haley has campaign ads showing valentines purporting to be from Traitor Trump to his favorite dictators and war criminals, among them Putin, of course. Very little difference between satire and reality when it comes to Traitor Trump.
After everything posted by DD Wiz, Scarlet Pumpernickle and Charliekane; none of it will matter to trump’s minions. That is, if any of them read it, or read anything except Twitter (ooops! “X”)! Facts are just the fake news that the trump has always spewed over them. They do not, they cannot think for themselves as they have dedicated themselves to the trump body & soul. I know this from most of my coworkers. I keep my mouth shut and just listen. They think I’m a communist because I was caught reading a book by Robert Reich in the lunchroom! (I’m surprised a few of them even knew who he was!)
(DDWiz): "Donald Trump 2024: ‘I would encourage [the Russians] to do whatever the hell they want [to our NATO allies].’ "
Donald Trump is in the habit of making threats and “promises” of what he “will do”, without any mention of how it would be done. I get the impression that he doesn’t even understand the concept of “how”. If anything ever did get done under his “watch”, it was by someone else (wall? Mexico? oh, well!), and Trump had no idea what actions resulted in what consequences, much less what additional unannounced consequences may have also occurred.
His proposal of inviting Putin to attack NATO provides a prime example. The way he has invoked the 2% figure makes clear that 1) he is lying about his intent, and 2) that he has no idea how NATO actually works. Then 3) there is the fact of all the American troops currently stationed in other NATO countries, which Trump has not only failed to address publicly, but probably hasn’t even thought is relevant.
1) It suggests that he is inviting Putin to attack only those members of NATO that have not spent at least 2% of their GDP on their military. His previous statements regarding NATO have made it clear that he would not use US forces to defend any NATO member (possibly including the US_?).
2) He seems to believe that even within NATO, each individual nation will be left to defend itself alone by the other nations… not just by the US. This is exactly the opposite of both the Treaty itself and the actual security — both common and individual — of the member nations.
If Putin attacks any of the member nations — either with or without Trump’s invitation — it will be interpreted and responded to as an attack on each and every one individually. And even if one or two European members (Hungary? Turkey?) hold back, they will not significantly reduce the unified response.
3) If Putin does attack one or more NATO members in which American troops are stationed, what does Trump intend to do with our troops.? 3.1) Suddenly post them elsewhere (with or without their weapons?), or 3.2) order them to assist Putin, or 3.3) something (what?) else?
I’m sure that if their existence has even occurred to him, he has not even considered having a plan for what to do, though if such a situation suddenly occurred, I might expect him to prefer 3.2. (I also doubt that a majority of the troops so ordered would consider it a legal order.)
Joe1962 Premium Member 3 months ago
Good 1 Mike.
crgigoux 3 months ago
We shouldn’t let him! Vote Blue up and down the ballot to save democracy and make sure there’s no chance for the tRumpen fuhrer to further betray America.
DD Wiz Premium Member 3 months ago
Seriously? Donald Trump — who is notorious for refusing to pay bills — lecturing NATO members about honoring financial obligations?
Trump’s comments are irresponsible, dangerous and factually inaccurate, since NATO does not actually collect dues or send bills. There are only target goals for spending on their own military to ensure readiness.
Republicans were once committed to standing up to Russia but have now proven they no longer have any consistent principles. If their Dear Leader tells them to side with Russia over the interests of our allies, once fiercely anti-Russia loyalists now obediently follow their cult leader and chug their Kool Aid, putting the national security of all of us at risk for their own moral cowardice.
In the history of NATO, Article 5 has only been invoked once, when other nations came to the defense of the United States after 9/11 and joined with George W Bush’s “coalition of the willing” to fight in Afghanistan. That included Canada, France, the U.K. and many other NATO members who sent troops. While almost none of those countries joined Bush’s later, unrelated invasion of Iraq, they all came to our defense in Afghanistan after 9/11 and, if the need were to arise, we would be obligated to return the favor.
In any case, I’m sure Putin will enjoy the chocolates from his true love, though I wonder how he will react when he learns that Dirty Donnie has been sending “love letters” to Kim Jong Un on the side.
Hello Everyone 3 months ago
Mike should have put the chocolates in the shape of European nations. Of course, most of us don’t know the shapes of those nations and he might run out of space labeling them.
knutdl 3 months ago
WTH! No swedish chocolate.
brwydave Premium Member 3 months ago
Donald might consider squeezing each candy so he can tell Putin which one is the softest. Or he can just take intelligence summaries to the tryst.
braindead Premium Member 3 months ago
The Disciples will not understand the cartoon.
Concretionist 3 months ago
Yes. He should not have… but of course, “should” has no connection to him at all.
Radish the wordsmith 3 months ago
The Trump Putin party means no good for the USA.
Radish the wordsmith 3 months ago
Remember when republican hypocrites would rather be ‘dead than red’?
These days the Magas love the reds.
Republicans give aid and comfort to the enemies of the USA.
FreyjaRN Premium Member 3 months ago
He would serve us all up on a platter if he could.
moosemin 3 months ago
This has all the flavor of another “Munich”.
smithsilverstrea 3 months ago
“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going going to get”, Forest Gump, or is it Forest tRump?
mourdac Premium Member 3 months ago
Professing that the U.S. would not honor treaty obligations. No wonder traditional U.S. allies have doubts about the stability and political will in this nation.
A# 466 3 months ago
No. Instead, “Just what you should have.”
FJB Premium Member 3 months ago
For all the Trump haters out there, what did you hate most? No wars, middle east peace, strong American economy, no inflation, growing 401k’s, market profits, low gas prices, a secure oil reserve, lower taxes, a strong dollar?
Jack7528 3 months ago
Putin had said, Biden is the better choice for Russia. And I am sure it is, I love when people say Trump is in Putin’s pocket.
cnn.Com/2024/02/14/europe/putin-biden-better-for-russia-than-trump-intl/
As for making NATO pay its debt. POOHOO.
happyinvenice23 3 months ago
Yes, this SOB IS unbelievably STUPID!
scarlett.pumpernickel Premium Member 3 months ago
Found this in Mr Google….” Trump has long claimed that various NATO members have failed to pay their “bills,” “dues” or “NATO fees,” that they “owe us a tremendous amount of money” or that they “owe NATO billions of dollars.”
Facts First: All of these Trump claims are false. While a majority of NATO members do not meet the alliance’s target of each member spending a minimum of 2% of gross domestic product on defense, the 2% target is a “guideline” that does not create bills, debts or legal obligations if it is not met. In fact, the guideline doesn’t require payments to NATO or the US at all. Rather, it simply requires each country to spend on their own defense programs.”
codak 3 months ago
Gore Vidal in his book dreaming war has some interesting stuff on NATO. “conservative think tanks( their salaries paid directly or indirectly by interested conglomerates)are issuing miles of boilerplate …”
Richard S Russell Premium Member 3 months ago
NATO has a cool flag.
librarylady59 3 months ago
Talk about attempting to make a silk purse from a pig’s ear…
Trump calls Putin’s comment that he prefers Biden over Trump a ‘great compliment’“But we will work with any U.S. leader whom the American people trust.”
https://abcnews go com/Politics/trump-calls-putins-comment-prefers-biden-trump-great/story?id=107251595
T Smith 3 months ago
Rapist Trump — as faithful to our allies as he is to his wives, the rule of law and his oath of office.
charliekane 3 months ago
From FactCheck.org:
As he did in the Feb. 10 rally, Trump has long mischaracterized what he calls “delinquent” payments from alliance members to NATO. Although NATO countries pay direct costs for NATO’s common fund based on a formula, Trump is referring to the indirect costs countries pay toward their own defense in general. Countries don’t owe money to anyone else if they spend less on defense than other member countries.
In 2006, NATO countries made a commitment to aim to spend 2% of their gross domestic product on their own defense. A NATO spokesman at the time said: “Let me be clear, this is not a hard commitment that they will do it. But it is a commitment to work towards it. And that will be a first within the Alliance.”
It’s also not true that NATO was “busted” until Trump stepped in — even in terms of indirect spending by countries on defense, that was going up before Trump took office. As we have written, after years of decreases, combined defense spending by non-U.S. NATO members has increased every year since 2015 — two years before Trump assumed office. Combined NATO defense spending increased about 11.5% between 2016, the year before Trump took office, and 2020, Trump’s last year in office, according to NATO. The amount paid by NATO members other than the U.S. increased by about 19.8% over the same period.
Trump was also wrong when he claimed former President Barack Obama “didn’t ask for anything.” Obama and his top aides repeatedly pressured NATO countries to increase their military spending, but it wasn’t until Russia in early 2014 invaded and took control of Crimea in Ukraine that the member countries agreed to take action.
After Russia invaded Crimea, Obama gave several speeches urging NATO countries to increase their defense spending, leading up to a September 2014 agreement in which each country agreed to increase their military spending over the next decade toward a 2% goal.
Alberta Oil Premium Member 3 months ago
With Putin now dominating space.. it’s a good thing for trump to be best of buds with Putin. Sly fox and smooth talker that he is.. bet trump could exchange some secret stuff and perhaps get an idea of what Putin has up there. An excellent opportunity for the CIA to turn a simple idiot into a useful idiot.
Radish the wordsmith 3 months ago
Trump is dependent upon Putin but is Putin dependent upon Trump?
US election 2024: Putin says he prefers Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the White House
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he would rather a Joe Biden presidency over Donald Trump ahead of the US election this November.
Mr Biden was the more experienced, predictable person, he said in remarks sure to raise eyebrows.
Mr Biden has been a fierce critic of Mr Putin for years, calling him a “killer” before the invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian president also remarked on his recent interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson, saying he had found it disappointing because the questions had not been sharp enough.
He dismissed questions about Mr Biden’s age and mental health, and said when they had last met in 2021, he had not noticed anything peculiar.“Even then [three years ago] people were saying that he was incompetent, but I did not see anything of this sort,” he said.“Yes, he kept looking at his papers, but to be honest I kept doing the same. So there was nothing peculiar.”
Packratjohn Premium Member 3 months ago
Get a room, you two…
Radish the wordsmith 3 months ago
There’s just something kinda funny about a guy with 6 bankruptcies yelling “You gotta pay your bills”.
Diane Lee Premium Member 3 months ago
The first time Putin and Trump met was in Germany. President Trump took his interpreter’s notes afterward and ordered him not to disclose what he heard to anyone. Later that night, at a dinner, Mr. Trump pulled up a seat next to President Vladimir V. Putin to talk without any American witnesses at all.Their third encounter was in Vietnam when Mr. Trump seemed to take Mr. Putin’s word that he had not interfered in American elections. A formal summit meeting followed in Helsinki, Finland, where the two leaders kicked out everyone but the interpreters. Most recently, they chatted in Buenos Aires after Mr. Trump said they would not meet because of Russian aggression.Mr. Trump has adamantly insisted there was “no collusion” with Russia during his 2016 presidential campaign. But each of the five times he has met with Mr. Putin since taking office, he has fueled suspicions about their relationship. The unusually secretive way he has handled these meetings has left many in his own administration guessing what happened and piqued the interest of investigators.“What’s disconcerting is the desire to hide information from your own team,” said Andrew S. Weiss, who was a Russia adviser to President Bill Clinton. “The fact that Trump didn’t want the State Department or members of the White House team to know what he was talking with Putin about suggests it was not about advancing our country’s national interest but something more problematic.”
Godfreydaniel 3 months ago
Nikki Haley has campaign ads showing valentines purporting to be from Traitor Trump to his favorite dictators and war criminals, among them Putin, of course. Very little difference between satire and reality when it comes to Traitor Trump.
willie_mctell 3 months ago
Europe is like a box of chocolates.
moosemin 3 months ago
After everything posted by DD Wiz, Scarlet Pumpernickle and Charliekane; none of it will matter to trump’s minions. That is, if any of them read it, or read anything except Twitter (ooops! “X”)! Facts are just the fake news that the trump has always spewed over them. They do not, they cannot think for themselves as they have dedicated themselves to the trump body & soul. I know this from most of my coworkers. I keep my mouth shut and just listen. They think I’m a communist because I was caught reading a book by Robert Reich in the lunchroom! (I’m surprised a few of them even knew who he was!)
ragsarooni Premium Member 3 months ago
Said it before: LOVE the orange one’s teeny,tiny hannies‼️
banjoAhhh! 3 months ago
He is not “Dear Leader”. He is Fearless Leader."
AtomicForce91 Premium Member 3 months ago
Yet Putin prefers Biden as a President in America. Trump has no authority if not the President.
gammaguy 3 months ago
(DDWiz): "Donald Trump 2024: ‘I would encourage [the Russians] to do whatever the hell they want [to our NATO allies].’ "
Donald Trump is in the habit of making threats and “promises” of what he “will do”, without any mention of how it would be done. I get the impression that he doesn’t even understand the concept of “how”. If anything ever did get done under his “watch”, it was by someone else (wall? Mexico? oh, well!), and Trump had no idea what actions resulted in what consequences, much less what additional unannounced consequences may have also occurred.
His proposal of inviting Putin to attack NATO provides a prime example. The way he has invoked the 2% figure makes clear that 1) he is lying about his intent, and 2) that he has no idea how NATO actually works. Then 3) there is the fact of all the American troops currently stationed in other NATO countries, which Trump has not only failed to address publicly, but probably hasn’t even thought is relevant.
1) It suggests that he is inviting Putin to attack only those members of NATO that have not spent at least 2% of their GDP on their military. His previous statements regarding NATO have made it clear that he would not use US forces to defend any NATO member (possibly including the US_?).
2) He seems to believe that even within NATO, each individual nation will be left to defend itself alone by the other nations… not just by the US. This is exactly the opposite of both the Treaty itself and the actual security — both common and individual — of the member nations.
If Putin attacks any of the member nations — either with or without Trump’s invitation — it will be interpreted and responded to as an attack on each and every one individually. And even if one or two European members (Hungary? Turkey?) hold back, they will not significantly reduce the unified response.
[to be continued]
gammaguy 3 months ago
[continued]
3) If Putin does attack one or more NATO members in which American troops are stationed, what does Trump intend to do with our troops.? 3.1) Suddenly post them elsewhere (with or without their weapons?), or 3.2) order them to assist Putin, or 3.3) something (what?) else?
I’m sure that if their existence has even occurred to him, he has not even considered having a plan for what to do, though if such a situation suddenly occurred, I might expect him to prefer 3.2. (I also doubt that a majority of the troops so ordered would consider it a legal order.)