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Daniel Bessner, Derek Davison The news, on American Prestige. The post Trump-Putin Summit, India’s Turn From the US to China, and Olivia Arigho-Stiles on the Bolivia Election appeared first on The Nation.

Huh. Turns out Donny’s despot bestie playdate was not a show of historic statesmanship - See the red carpet! Hear the planes roar! - but a debacle, a cringe self-own, an inglorious "hostage video in real time" as a "nuclear orange" felon beamed, clapped, lurched and excitedly greeted a war criminal "like a happy puppy." Still no deal, then or later, "but there's a good chance of getting there." (Where?) Consensus: "He invited a dictator onto U.S. soil just to get his shit rocked.”More than eight bloody months after repeatedly boasting and blustering about ending Russia's war against Ukraine on his first day in office - "Day One. Only me." - Trump's bungled Alaska "summit" was a bloated, feckless photo-op that, while showcasing the power of an internationally shunned war criminal, "produced nothing for Trump and gave Putin most of what he was looking for" in what was labeled "a freak show of power inverted." In the end, nothing changed: "Putin's poodle" quickly abandoned the idea of the ceasefire he and Ukraine had long demanded as a key step to peace - he'd just told reporters on the flight he wanted to see it "today" - and the "severe consequences" he'd threatened without one, folded like a cheap deck of cards, and landed in the same unjust stalemate: If Zelensky gave up large chunks of his country, including the vital Donbas area, Putin won't illegally take any more land and would halt the bloodshed. JoJoFromJerz: "One nation, under Putin, with servitude and shame for all."Before that ignoble coda, the convicted felon tried in his own, ghastly, gaudy way - "like someone ordered totalitarian chic from Amazon" - to woo the indicted war criminal. Putin is wanted by the ICC for kidnapping tens of thousands of Ukrainian children and other war crimes - never mind his political opponents oddly falling out of windows etc - and had U.S sanctions waived to legally land in the U.S. for the first time in 10 years. In his honor, Trump had U.S. soldiers on their hands and knees rolling out an actual red carpet for "the most murderous dictator of the 21st century,” a surreal sight widely deemed "disgusting." At his arrival, U.S. war planes flew overhead, and he got to ride in the presidential "Beast," which may or may not now sport bugs. After waddling out to the tarmac sweating in his rumpled suit and radioactive-orange makeup like "a traffic cone dipped in fryer oil," Trump stood slouching on said carpet; at Putin's approach he grinned and clapped "like a trained seal" as a smiling Putin swaggered towards him.They met briefly. They spoke briefly at a presser - Putin first, longer, in Russian though on U.S. soil, Trump under three minutes - and took no questions. Both were subdued, and left Alaska within an hour. A scheduled lunch - filet mignon, crème brûlée - was cancelled, even though it was "In Honor of His Excellency Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation." Then Trump rushed to spin what was widely deemed "nothing short of a debacle." He sputtered, "There's no deal till there's a deal." He called it "a very successful day in Alaska! Everybody wants to deal with us!" He claimed "it was determined by all" - aka Putin - the best way to end the war is "a Peace Agreement, not a mere Ceasefire," and it's on Zelenskyy to "get it done." He declined to note the whole farce was largely a result of envoy/former slumlord Steve Witkoff, who doesn't speak Russian, badly misinterpreting Putin's stance. He announced he was now "heading back to the United States" - from Alaska, which is in the United States.The reviews were scathing. One headline: "Faceplants in Alaska." "Trump gifts Putin more time to grind down Ukraine," read one lede. Also, "Nothing says standing up to Russian aggression quite like welcoming the aggressor on a red carpet and applauding him," "For those who feared the summit on Ukraine might resemble Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler in 1938, the reality was worse," "Putin meets with high-level asset," "Putin got one hell of a photo op," "Putin got a PR coup, Trump got nothing," "Summits usually have deliverables - this meeting had none," "Seinfeld summit, about nothing," "This is what capitulation looks like. It was grotesque pageantry," "Trump isn’t fighting for peace in Ukraine, he’s managing Russia’s victory." A flood of memes echoed them: Images of the two men with, "Putin and his dog," "Find someone who looks at you like Trump looks at Putin," "They are absolutely sleeping together," "Awaiting those consequences Donnie," "Drumpf meets his boss to get his orders," "God help us."Even Fox seemed worried by reports of U.S. aides looking stressed, anxious, "almost ashen, even shell-shocked." Under the chyron, "President Trump Continues Pursuing Global Peace" (and trying to complete a full sentence), one host cautiously noted, "The way it felt in the room was not good...It did not seem things went well" before adding "that's the picture we have right now" but of course Trump would never "enable something that would make him look weak.” Also, nothing is ever his fault. Thus, The New Republic reported he was "furious the media won't report on the incredible concessions he wrested from Putin - oh wait, there are none." Even as Russian media lauded Putin's glitzy reception signaling "utmost respect" and a "huge diplomatic victory," Trump whined: "If Russia raised their hands and said, 'We give up, we concede, we will GIVE Ukraine (and) America Moscow...the Fake News (would) say this was a (bad) day for Donald J. Trump...These people are sick! Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!”In fact, in one final, sloppy indignity, his flunkies were so not paying attention they left behind in a printer at the business center of an Alaskan hotel eight pages of State Department briefings for the meeting. They included locations and times of summit events, names and phone numbers of U.S. staff and U.S. and Russian leaders, the plan for POTUS to give Putin an “American Bald Eagle Desk Statue," the lunch menu and a helpful phonetic pronunciation for "Mr. POO-tihn." A White House aide dismissed the glitch as not a security breach like all the others, but for many it added to the sense of "the intertwining elements of tragedy and farce" that make up this regime and show, "Trump has no cards." Alaska and its failings, writes Anne Applebaum, are the sorry culmination of a larger dysfunction, from Witkoff's incompetence to DOGE's dismantling of U.S. foreign-policy tools, agencies and the cadre of skilled personnel who knew how to use them. "The U.S. has no cards," she says, "because we’ve been giving them away."Sorrowfully, it must be noted, at the behest of an unfit, rabid, malignant narcissist who spent the time en route to his gazillionth golf trip Sunday feverishly re-posting unhinged memes from MAGA fans proclaiming him, "The Promise Keeper," "The leader we need," "G.O.A.T. The Legend." "We Love You, President Trump," they cooed. "You are such a blessing," "I trust this man more than anyone," "The best part of waking up is Donald Trump is President," and, per QAnon, "Democrats are the party of hate, evil and Satan." Also, "Peace Through Strength," with an AI Trump and lion. "Anyone can make war, but only most courageous (sic) can make peace."( For their part, Russia Today trolled America and the world by posting a video of an armored vehicle driving through Ukraine flying a Russian and a U.S. flag.) Set the next day to host Zelenskyy and seven more European leaders, Trump bragged of his "Big day at the White House"; ever thin-skinned, he also scolded his imaginary critics by insisting, “I know exactly what I’m doing."In an unprecedented move, Zelensky wisely brought along his impressive bodyguards - the leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Finland, NATO and the E.U. - as a sort of intervention against Trump's bullying and idiocy. The fact he could marshal so much firepower in so short a time suggested "something went very wrong in Alaska," and much of Europe was alarmed enough they felt the need to confront "an American president who now wholly represents the interests of Russia against Ukraine, Europe, and arguably his own country." Zelensky wore a black suit, deemed fabulous, to shut up any petty sticklers for protocol; the others likewise carefully chatted, tip-toed, maneuvered around the volatile Mr. Magoo whose dangerous ravings had brought them there, trying to pretend it was normal when he, say, interrupted a photo shoot to show off his dumb ear-nicking portrait - "That was not a great day" - or dragged in Macron and Zelensky, whose country is burning, to admire his fecking collection of Trump 2028 hats.There was much more. He boasted about the fictional six wars he's "ended without a ceasefire" (not and not), including one in "The Republic of Condo." Clearly panicked about facing voters who increasingly oppose everything he does - 38% approve, and the effects of his tariffs and deportations are just kicking in - he heeded his bestie Putin's advice and vowed to get rid of "scam" mail-in ballots "no other country has," except dozens of them, including Russia, because "Democrats cheat at levels never before seen!" This, to European leaders, despite the longstanding fact there is zero evidence of widespread voter fraud here, which is why media outlets have paid out nearly $900 million for publishing lies about the 2020 election he legit lost but nonetheless keeps yammering about. "You go in, they even ask me for my license plate for identify," he raved. "I said, 'I don't know if I have it.' They said, 'Sir, you have to have it.' And nobody has it." Heather Cox Richardson: "This" - and all the rest - "is bonkers across the board."He also bragged about D.C., where "we went from the most unsafe place anywhere to a place that now, people, friends are calling me and they’re saying, ‘Sir, I want to thank you, my wife and I went out to dinner last night for the first time in four years, and Washington is safe, and you did that in four days.'" Also, thanks to armed, masked thugs roaming the streets, another friend's son, "a great golfer, and he came in fourth yesterday in the big tournament" went to dinner in DC where "it's busier than they’ve been in a long time," except for multiple reports the number of diners has plunged over 30%: "The city is dead." Again, he's raving to Europe's leaders there to push back against his Kremlin talking points and advocate for a ceasefire in Ukraine. By late afternoon, he didn't recognize and couldn't find Finland's President Stubb, who was sitting directly across the table from him, and responded to E.U. head Ursula Von Der Leyen's concerns about kidnapped Ukrainian children by crowing about his trade deals. "It's like watching a dog try to do trigonometry equations," wrote one online sage of our depraved Toddler-In-Chief. And it goes on. In the middle of their meeting, Trump left to call Putin; they reportedly talked for 40 minutes. Later, he told Sean Hannity he didn't make the call in front of the others because "I thought that would be disrespectful to President Putin." On Tuesday, with the adults gone, he called into Fox and blasted Ukraine for getting invaded by Russia: "You don’t do that. You don’t take on a nation that’s 10 times your size." He praised Putin - "There's a warmth there, there's a decent feeling" - who just approved the largest Russian attack of the month on the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk. At some point, he upped his peace deals from six to seven. And he happily noted the European leaders came because "they have respect for our country again...Everybody wants to be here. When I made the call, they came." It was Zelenskyy who asked them to come. Of course it was. Try to stay sane-ish. — (@)

After much stellar trolling of "THE LOWEST POLLING PRESIDENT IN RECENT HISTORY" with "NEW, MORE BEAUTIFUL MAPS" that will end his reign - "YOU WON’T LIKE IT!!" - Gavin Newson, "AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR!!" urged California voters to support vital redistricting at a presser promptly crashed - bullies gonna bully - by armed, masked ICE thugs sent by the presiding "WEAK LITTLE MAN!!!” Still, Newsom declared, "We will not be complicit." The thugs, "making L.A. safer," arrested one worker. SAD.Newsom's appearance at L.A.'s Japanese American National Museum, in the city's Little Tokyo neighborhood, was to unveil a new initiative asking California voters to approve early Congressional redistricting in a November special election aimed at offsetting a sleazy ploy by Texas Republicans to eliminate five Democratic seats in next year's elections Trump feels "entitled" to. Directly warning Trump, "You have poked the bear, and we will punch back," Newsom said his Election Rigging Response Act would in turn target five House GOP seats in his state if Texas goes ahead with its morally dubious, possibly illegal move; his ingenious "flipping the script" on the GOP would allow Californians to temporarily redraw their Congressional map before ultimately returning that authority to the independent commission it's long used for the task.Leading up to his own theatrical, unprecedented, expedient proposal, Newsom - or his brilliant media team led by Camille Zapata - undertook a savage campaign mocking the dark bluster and lowbrow idiocy of the mad king himself in his many gonzo diatribes. "DONALD TRUMP, IF YOU DO NOT STAND DOWN, WE WILL BE FORCED TO LEAD AN EFFORT TO REDRAW THE MAPS IN CA TO OFFSET THE RIGGING OF MAPS IN RED STATES," his office screeched online. "THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!" Then, praise for "CALIFORNIA’S BEAUTIFUL MAPS. PEOPLE ARE SAYING THEY ARE THE GREATEST MAPS EVER CREATED — EVEN BETTER THAN CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS...THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.”Then, “DONALD TRUMP, THE LOWEST POLLING PRESIDENT IN RECENT HISTORY, THIS IS YOUR SECOND-TO-LAST WARNING!!!" followed by the helpful clarifier for history's dumbest president, "(THE NEXT ONE IS THE LAST ONE!).” Then, "DONALD 'TACO' TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, 'MISSED' THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE 'BEAUTIFUL MAPS,' (that will end his PRESIDENCY when DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!!) YOU WILL NOT LIKE IT! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!" And, "PRESS CONFERENCE COMING — HOSTED BY AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR, GAVIN NEWSOM. HISTORY WILL BE MADE. Newsom even stole Trump's, and Ice Barbie's, favorite, outlandish name, calling it, "LIBERATION DAY FOR AMERICA."In his speech, Newsom skipped the comedy to gravely address the "serious moment" facing America. "We're here with the clarity of our purpose and conviction, to recognize that we need to reconcile the world we’re living in," he said. "We do have agency. We can shape the future, and that’s what we intend to do." Citing Trump's Jan. 6th attempt to "light Democracy on fire," he noted, "Here he is again, trying to rig the system" by demanding a Texas governor ‘find me five seats'...He doesn't play by a different set of rules - he doesn’t believe in the rules. As a consequence, we need to disabuse ourselves of the way things have been done, (and) meet fire with fire." At this key juncture, he declared, "We will not be complicit." In other words, many cheered, the governor of the country's most populous state and the world's fourth largest economy in the world "brought a gun to a gunfight." It remains unclear how successful his bold, rare redistricting move will be: Polls suggest less than 40% of voters support returning that authority to state lawmakers, and a majority is needed to pass a statewide ballot initiative. But at least one member of the commission urged voters to "set aside the good work of California" as a "one-time occurrence" to address the current crisis. And at the launch, Newson was flanked by Dem allies who likewise urged action, including Sen. Alex Padilla, who in June was assaulted and handcuffed for trying to ask a question at another presser held by ICE.Barbie. Given the repressive times, he again pointedly asked voters, "Are we ready to stand up for our democracy?"The event might have been largely dismissed as a symbolic launch if its fragile, thin-skinned schoolyard bully of a target hadn't again overplayed his hand and, demonstrating his usual lack of strategy or subtlety, sent in a beefy battalion of masked, armed, camoed, rifle-and-zip-tie-toting goons to hulk outside in clumsy bunches looking alternately scary, dumbfounded, overdressed and comic-book-villainous. The San Francisco Chronicle proclaimed they'd "crashed" the event led by Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, famously last seen pointlessly sweeping MacArthur Park for imaginary bad guys. "We’re here making Los Angeles a safer place," he snarled. "Since we don’t have politicians who will do that, we do it ourselves.”Bovino claimed he had no idea the governor was in the building behind him, insisting the action was part of "routine roving patrols" - which have, in fact, already been struck down as unconstitutional "racial profiling" by multiple courts and may now go to SCOTUS. But meh, who needs the law: One MAGA moron freaked out at the audacity of the wholly aimless venture with, "HOLY SHT Bovino just EXPOSED Gavin Newscum right outside his venue: ABSOLUTE MIC DROP." Newsom was less impressed, calling the move "sick and pathetic." Who sends thugs, he asked: "Someone who is weak, who's broken," whose weakness is masquerading as authoritarian strength. "You think it's coincidental?” Newsom asked. "Wake up, America.”Meanwhile, his team kept trolling: "BORDER PATROL HAS SHOWED UP AT OUR BIG BEAUTIFUL PRESS CONFERENCE! WE WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED!" Mayor Bass charged a regime that's "run amok" and is "the source of the disorder" came to "thumb their nose in front of the governor’s face.” Kristi Noem, simultaneously live on Fox, defended the "in your face" move, blathering ICE operations are "built on information, on investigative work. Remember, we're focusing on the worst of the worst. So I don’t know specific to what information that they had for that operation but it was based on the investigative work that all law enforcement officers do for every single operation they conduct" - to uncover, lest we forget, "the worst of the worst."Ultimately, Bovino said, "We did make an apprehension of one person." Video shows a short brown guy in jeans and t-shirt, hands cuffed behind him, being hauled away by several thugs as Bovino slaps the back of one and says, "Well done, brother." Around them, fellow residents of the city Bovino says he's keeping "safer" loudly express their gratitude. People in cars are furiously honking and yelling "Fuck you!"; people on the sidewalk are filming and screaming, "They are arresting our people!", "What the fuck is wrong with you?", "Where is your warrant?", "Go arrest criminals!", "These are working people!", "Fucking cowards!" and "Fucking fascists go home!" Their victim: "Angel was just doing his normal delivery," said his friend Carlos. “It’s pretty sad, because I’ve got to go to work tomorrow and Angel isn’t going to be there.” They were selling strawberries. Later, amidst widespread outrage and mockery of Trump's "stupid" authoritarian moves, Newsom's account was still churning. "DONALD IS FINISHED...FIRST THE HANDS (SO TINY) AND NOW ME — GAVIN C. NEWSOM — HAVE TAKEN AWAY HIS 'STEP.' MANY ARE SAYING HE CAN’T EVEN DO THE “BIG STAIRS” ON AIR FORCE ONE ANYMORE — USES THE LITTLE BABY STAIRS NOW. SAD!...YOU’RE WELCOME FOR LIBERATION DAY, AMERICA!" On Friday, a new tack. "MANY PEOPLE ARE SAYING — AND I AGREE — THAT I, GAVIN C. NEWSOM (AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR) DESERVE THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE. WHY? BECAUSE OF THE “MOST INCREDIBLE MAPS IN THE HISTORY OF MAPPING” (EVEN COLUMBUS)...PEACE THROUGH MAPS — NO ONE HAS EVER THOUGHT OF THIS BEFORE..THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!""The devil, the prowde spirit...cannot endure to be mocked." - Thomas More

Daniel Bessner, Derek Davison The news, from American Prestige. The post Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Deal, Israel Seeks Country to Expel Palestinians, Upcoming Russia-Ukraine Summit appeared first on The Nation.

Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Daniel Bessner A special edition of American Prestige. The post “Of This World”: Politics in the Era of Rage, With Carlo Invernizzi Accetti appeared first on The Nation.

Daniel Bessner, Derek Davison On American Prestige: the week's news. The post Lebanon Moves to Disarm Hezbollah, Netanyahu Announces His Gaza Occupation, and It’s the 80th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing in Hiroshima appeared first on The Nation.

The Trump administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files and videos is done not only to protect Trump, but the ruling class. They all belong to the same club.

Despite a strong desire from the public to get to the bottom of the Epstein case, the cabal associated with Epstein continues its conspiracy to suppress the ugly truth of the ruling class.