Beren wrote:He's just upbraiding her at every opportunity because they're neither "partners" nor has she bribed him, and she's usually straightforward, decisive, and not even kind to him that much. Trump also has personal (family) issues with Germany, so anytime he makes a case-by-case decision Germany, Merkel, and the EU are always treated by him accordingly. I also believe Trump is full of hate rather than Merkel, although Merkel obviously doesn't prefer people like him and favoured Hillary.
Trump's M.O. uses, almost exclusively, monologues. This fits his character as, essentially, a bully and he has had much practice with it as a N.Y.C. con artist. He will engage in a dialogue only when it is obvious, even to him, that he is backed into a corner or if the dialogue serves to praise him. I observed an interesting antidote a couple of weeks ago. As Merkel was leaving the White House after a meeting with Donald she was asked by reporters how did it go, She said simply, "Ask him."
Please excuse my pettiness but I seriously doubt that Merkel serves Donald's sex fantasies well
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Trump’s swipes at Berlin are further straining ties between the Trump administration and Europe — to the certain delight of Moscow, which has long sought to divide the United States and Europe. Berlin is realizing that we have to think about how Germany gets on with its future without the United States as a strong partner for the remainder of the Trump presidency. Trump is being isolated by European leaders like the cancer that he is, as was apparent by the optics of the NATO Summit. Seems to me that what was accomplished was an avoidance of the ultimate failure of NATO. Europeans are obviously slow learners but they are starting to get the drift that Trump's America is utterly undependable and that they must carry on with a strictly adversarial relationship.
blackjack21 wrote: What makes you think that people will be upset with Trump when they can't even produce any evidence worthy of consideration in a US court of law?
I haven't noticed where a U.S. court of law has any bearing on the court of world opinion regarding Donald's blundering about the globe. His simple minded shit that plays well with his so called "base" isn't of much use in cultures that do not operate in tune with the etiquette that prevails in the N.Y.C. real estate market.
Our government has turned into a right-wing corporatocracy. But on international matters, despite most of Western Europe embracing neoliberalism, ideology is not enough.
blackjack21 wrote: Xi Jinping is a dictator and makes no bones about it.
I suspect that dreams of adding a 120 story Trump Tower Beijing monstrosity to the collection of Trump Family Jewels would radically alter the chemistry.
Enough of this for now. I must go jogging next to the North Atlantic.
"Society in those days was a perfectly competent, perfectly complacent, ruthless machine." Virginia Woolf 1897