Reporting on G-7: Europe understands a very important distinction

[DFW]

The headline reads: "G-7 Summit: Trump against everybody"
NOT "America against everybody," but "TRUMP against everybody"
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It gives me hope that they understand the difference.

[Cha]

1. As it should be! That social deviant MF doesn't

speak for

Mahalo, DFW

[DFW]

3. The wider implications need to be considered as well

This extends beyond Trump, himself. It must be clear that it also goes for his "advisers" and appointees. His nut case ambassador to Germany, who told the European press he is here to "empower" right wing movements here, speaks not for our country. The majority of Americans are NOT interested in "empowering" right wing movements on a continent where right wing movements led to a world war less than 80 years ago.

[Cha]

6. Yes, Absolutely!

[KY_EnviroGuy]

8. DFW, we also hope Europe takes a firm stand on other issues as well.

Weakened environmental protections here will affect the entire planet, as will increased risk of military conflicts and potential loss of trade with Iran to name a few.

Rather than using his Presidency as a constructive bully pulpit, he's using it as a bullying pulpit. We all would very much like to see Europe's leaders go nose-to-nose with this Dotard's administration.

[DFW]

11. Europe will seldom take a fully united stand on anything.

The fact is that the European "union" is mostly that in name only.

It is still a collection of small to smaller nations who have finally (after 2000 years) realized that their geographical proximity makes war among them REALLY impractical. On environmental or foreign policy issues, however, they remain a loose confederation of sovereign states with different languages, cultures, and economies. Those economies are all in very different states of health and development, depending on how much common sense (or lack of it) has prevailed in their respective governments since the war.

Corruption in the East and South (e.g. Romania, Bulgaria, Greece) has rendered some economies to such basket cases that they are basically there to offer archaeological digs and vacation tourism.

The EU bureaucracy is overbearing, and practically handed the ill-thought-out Brexit movement its talking points on a silver platter. There is a good reason Norway and Switzerland still choose not to join.

Belgium and Italy have governments in name only. France and Spain can't decide if they want to move forward or stagnate. Austria has just fallen to the siren song of the far right. Germany, Holland and Scandinavia are doing OK, but they can't force their way of life on countries that have taken a different path. For that matter, look at Germany 80 years ago. They didn't get to where they are today without being practically destroyed and rebuilt from the ground up.

The EU, if it survives as such, is still very much a work in progress, and cannot be expected to act as one with one voice for many decades to come. You can't undo 2000 years of history with a couple of treaties and a mountain of paperwork.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

15. Thanks for that thoughtful summary.

I think we sometimes get the impression there's more unity than in reality, as you say. Sometimes I feel the GOP and their billionaire minders would love for the USA to be exactly like that - a division of red and blue states and a highly divided populace (as you know we're at least partially there!).

Regardless, strong voices from Europe might have some impact to counter some of Trump's lies, intransigence and wrong-headedness with policy. I think that gets the attention of some Americans, and certainly many in the business community.

It's a rotten shame our MSM fears the GOP as they do, compared to some European MSM I read such as Guardian UK and Spiegel Online that are willing to call out his bullshit.

[DFW]

19. The self-censorship of the US media is scary

This is typical of the press is dictatorial repressive regimes. I would have thought they would wear Trump's disdain as a badge of honor, and instead they cower in fear of being called "fake news" by the biggest fake of them all.

The British press has been known for its irreverence for ages. A free German press is relatively new, and in the "really existing socialism," as East Germany used to call itself, they literally confiscated western newspapers from all visiting westerners. The West German government tried to pressure Der Spiegel once when it was revealing uncomfortable things about the Bavarian premier, Franz-Josef Strauss. They won, he lost. He had to settle for being a failed candidate for Chancellor later, and getting an inconvenient airport named after him when he died.

Spiegel and the Guardian take different approaches to their reporting. Both are decidedly progressive in their slant, but the Guardian allows a little more of their ideology slip into their articles, whereas Spiegel tries to remain more neutral in their reporting, saving their ammunition for commentary. I prefer the Spiegel approach, and I say this as someone who was approached by the Guardian to do a project for them several years ago (which I was honored to do, and turned down their offer to pay me for it). Der Spiegel, of course, has never heard of me.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. K&R. Thank you for this, gives me hope, too.

I had to change the channel - MSNBC, CBS, everyone is reporting live on Trump's activities and I just couldn't take it anymore, made me cringe. And of course I cringe when I think of what the rest of the world must be thinking, too.

[DFW]

4. I think the headline sums it up rather well

And this was from a German paper with a slightly conservative bent.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. Thanks! That's even better!

Just having Trump loose in the world is embarrassing enough, but these latest unforgivable and ridiculous attacks on our closest allies really sends me over the edge! Makes me wish he was playing golf instead...

[Exotica]

18. Another great German cover, from 10 months ago

[DFW]

20. I remember that

Trump, of course, wouldn't have had the slightest idea they were dissing him.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

7. DFW, a nice perspective from Canada...

How Trudeau should navigate trade in the Trump tirade era
By Simon Palamar - Opinion
Mon., June 11, 2018
Link: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2018/06/11/how-trudeau-should-navigate-trade-in-the-trump-tirade-era.html
(snip)

A resounding defeat for House Republicans in November could well yield an activist Congress that is spoiling for a fight with the president. But until then, the president is unrestrained on trade policy, and he has now surrounded himself with a cadre of advisors who either share his obsession with trade deficits or are content to keep quiet if they don’t.

For the next two-to-six years, a mercurial and mercantilist American trade policy will be the rule, rather than the exception. Rather than try to change the White House’s preferences, it’s time to work around them.

Thanks for your post and kind thoughts!.......

[DFW]

9. I can't imagine Canada seeing any other alternative

Talking to right wing Republicans is like talking to the marble wall on the outside of an investment bank. You're always talking to a stone wall, no one inside can hear you, and nor will they come outside to listen, because if you are not inside already, you are not worth their time

[brer cat]

13. well put, DFW. nt

[duforsure]

10. Has Japan's leader

Learned from Pence and mimicking trumps posture for trump?

[DFW]

12. Hard to say

My sister-in-law is from Japan, and they have a very sly sense of humor, and conceal almost everything they are thinking.

[GoCubsGo]

14. They are all smart enough to understand what is going on in this country.

They realize they are dealing with an illegitimately-installed puppet of Vladimir Putin, and that the vast majority of our country wants him gone. I just hope we can get rid of that miserable fuckstick before they lose patience with us.

[Mc Mike]

16. Yep. The whole world is united in hatred of dRump.

Including 2/3 of the US population.

He's a uniter.

[syringis]

17. I kept saying it !

The America we know, we love, which is our ally, on which we can rely and which can rely on us is on one side, and Trump is on the other !



J'ai bon espoir maintenant que nos dirigeants expriment à voix haute, ce qu'ils pensent tout bas depuis le début.

[Amaryllis]

21. THat is comforting. I keep thinking I hope they know how distressing this is for

so many Americans. Thank you for posting this and pointing it out.

[DFW]

22. They know only too well.

Especially here in Germany, where they are used to foreigners "informing" them that their whole population was a solid block of enthusiastic Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s, they understand only too well that the USA today is anything BUT a solid bloc of Trump fans.

A friend of mine in Switzerland always ribs me when I go down there, and greets me with "America First!" when I land in Zürich. He knows me well enough to know that that my sentiments lie 180° in the other direction, and only means it as a joke. He is originally from Gdańsk, so he knows what a glass house he is throwing his stone from.