Entitled assholes every one

 

He needs to be recalled.  Of course he won't be.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving person

 

Accountability ... in France

 It took a while, but it happened

What else is happening besides the 24/7 coverage of Charlie Kirk's murder?

 

Trump 2.0 - Crash the U.S.

 

Tesla has another sad week

 

The world is serious about pulling away from us. As they should be.

We're respected again, right?

 

Not sure which he's referring to as the dictator and which the traitor.

At any rate, here's one of them...

Fucking insane.

Political chaos around the globe

A ray of hope?

And the Tories didn't riot. 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 07/07/2024:

Just a few days ago, I read a headline saying Macron's play may have backfired and favored the far right.  Jesus, you can't tell anything until it happens, and then you hold your breath.

French model spreads

The United States and Germany have agreed to send additional fighting vehicles to Ukraine, a decision that could pave the way for allies to eventually send Kyiv formidable Western tanks in its fight against Russia.

The deal, which was cemented after President Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke by phone Wednesday, means Washington with send the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and Germany intends to provide Ukraine with Marder Infantry Fighting Vehicles, the White House announced in a Thursday release.

[...]

The Army’s primary infantry fighting vehicle, the Bradley is a powerful armored and tracked vehicle that carries a turret-mounted machine gun. Made by BAE Systems, the vehicle has been called a “tank killer,” capable of destroying any other vehicle on the battlefield with its heavy firepower.

The decision by the United States and Germany follows France’s Wednesday announcement that it will send Ukraine its own light battle tanks, the AMX-10 RC armored fighting vehicle, becoming the first nation to arm the embattled country with the Western-style fighting vehicles.

[...]

The United States and Germany also on Thursday “affirmed their intention to further support Ukraine’s urgent requirement for air defense capabilities” in light of Russia’s ongoing missile and drone attacks against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure.

  The Hill

Get it done.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

France steps up aid to Ukraine

The French Defense Ministry said Thursday it will soon hold talks with its Ukrainian counterpart to arrange for the delivery of armored combat vehicles in what France’s presidency says will be the first time this type of Western-made wheeled tank destroyer will be given to the Ukrainian military.

[...]

It’s primarily designed for reconnaissance missions and has enough armor to protect against light infantry weapons, according to the French defense ministry. They have wheels rather than tracks, allowing it to be more mobile than heavy tanks.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to Twitter to thank France the weapons and for “intensifying work with partners in the same direction.”

[...]

Paris has supplied Ukraine with a substantial chunk of its arsenal of Caesar cannons, as well as anti-tank missiles, Crotale air defense missile batteries and rocket launchers. It is also training some 2,000 Ukrainian troops on French soil.

U.S. President Joe Biden said his administration is considering sending to Ukraine Bradley Fighting Vehicles, a medium armored combat vehicle that can serve as a troop carrier.

  The Hill

Of course, the big winner when the war drags out is the "defense" industry. As always.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Dire straits

So, in your own interest, stop buying Russia's oil, or give Ukraine offensive and more defensive weapons and soldiers.

And maybe think about where Putin goes after he takes Ukraine, if he does.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Oh, great

Now Trump will have MAGAland going all out anti-sustainable wind energy.

The scientific evidence regarding turbine farms:  Do Wind Turbines Cause Health Problems?

People living near airports, take note.  You should have a case.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

In France, no one is above the law

EU snubbed in AUKUS agreement

And France is not taking it kindly.

France has recalled its ambassadors to the US and Australia for consultations sparked by the “exceptional seriousness” of Canberra’s surprise decision to cancel an order for French-built submarines and its security pact with Washington and London.

  The Guardian

That sounds pretty shitty on Australia's part. Are there some mitigating circumstances?

The French are furious at Australia’s decision to cancel a A$90bn (£48bn) contract it signed with the French company Naval Group in 2016 for a fleet of 12 state-of-the-art attack class submarines. That deal became bogged down in cost over-runs, delays and design changes.

Ah.

It is the first time France has recalled a US ambassador; the two countries have been allies since the American war of independence. France also cancelled a gala due to be held on Friday to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Chesapeake Bay, a decisive event in the war, which ended with the French fleet’s victory over the British on 5 September 1781. A White House official told Reuters that the United States regretted the French decision and said Washington had been in close touch with Paris. The official said the United States would be engaged in the coming days to resolve differences between the two countries.

Ninety billion differences.

Peter Ricketts, a former permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office and former UK ambassador to France, tweeted: “Don’t underestimate reaction in Paris. It’s not just anger but a real sense of betrayal that UK as well as US and Aus negotiated behind their backs for 6 months. I lived the rupture in 2003 over Iraq. This feels as bad or worse.”

OK, that sounds pretty shitty on all of AUKUS.

The Australian foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, in Washington, said she understood the “disappointment” in Paris and hoped to work with France to ensure it understands “the value we place on the bilateral relationship and the work that we want to continue to do together”.

Fine way to show value, negotiating behind their backs.

[Ricketts added,] "A signal Paris regards Washington and Canberra as ringleaders in plot, with London as accomplice. Expect further French measures targeting interests of all three.”

I don't know what France can do on its own, but nobody trusts the US any more.* 

Perhaps the EU will back France in the matter. And we thought Biden was supposed to be restoring connections with our European allies. 

 *

The chaotic withdrawal and evacuation from Afghanistan, which has already prompted soul-searching among Western partners, is now reviving a decades-old debate within the European Union: Does the 27-nation club need its own military?

[...]

Many experts say the prospect of rolling out a free-standing E.U. military anytime soon is unrealistic. But the clamoring, which subsided somewhat after President Biden’s election, has intensified once more, after Biden rebuffed calls to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan past the Aug. 31 deadline. European leaders say that left them no choice but to cut short their evacuations, leaving thousands of their citizens and Afghan allies behind.

  WaPo

Not good.

E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell asserted that a proposed joint rapid-deployment force of 5,000 troops could have helped to secure the Kabul airport and that a coordinated European security strategy would have allowed the bloc more influence over the “timing and nature of the withdrawal.”

“The only way forward is to combine our forces and strengthen not only our capacity, but also our will to act,” Borrell said after a meeting of E.U. defense ministers in Slovenia on Thursday.

[...]

French President Emmanuel Macron is one of the concept’s biggest boosters and has been calling for a “true European army” since he took office — while at one point criticizing NATO as brain dead.

[...]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who once endorsed Macron’s suggestion for an army, has nonetheless been a staunch supporter of NATO as well as the U.S. military bases in her country. But Armin Laschet, who is vying to succeed her, said recently that Europe must be strengthened “such that we never have to leave it up to Americans.”

[...]

Some critics say European leaders are attempting to distance themselves from the Afghanistan fiasco despite generally supporting the decision to leave. Germany, for instance, declined to send troops back to help stabilize the country last month as the Taliban made sweeping territorial gains.

Things are rarely just black or white, are they?

But the renewed debate among European leaders also reflects a growing frustration with Biden, who told the world that “America is back” but has pursued foreign policies that echo some of his predecessor’s positions.

“What happened in Afghanistan was a defining moment,” said Nathalie Loiseau, who chairs the European Parliament’s subcommittee on security and defense. When the United States decided to pull out of the country, there was scant coordination with allies, she said. Biden dismissed European calls for a “conditions-based withdrawal,” and he refused to extend the deadline for pulling out. [...] “Now, Europeans must stop focusing on what the U.S. does or does not do.”

[...]

“There is not enough oomph behind all this politically to translate it into something practical,” said [Nathalie] Tocci, the director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali, a global affairs think tank. “We are just not prepared to see body bags coming home, and Afghanistan is not going to change that. It’s a political question that Europeans keep on ducking.”

And who can blame them? They still remember WWII.

NATO, now a 30-country alliance, has been the primary military force in Europe since the aftermath of World War II, but the United States has long set its agenda. In the weeks since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, European leaders have called the mission a “failure” and a “debacle,” saying it’s further evidence that the E.U. should be able to act on its own.

[...]

“If you want to go all the way to strategic autonomy, you do have to have a European command — you can’t keep pretending you can follow the NATO command structure,” said Fabrice Pothier, a former NATO policy chief. “That will indeed create some friction with NATO and possibly with the U.S. and the U.K."

[...]

Some steps have already been taken to strengthen cooperation between European militaries. France, Germany and Spain are working together on Europe’s largest defense project, developing a new fighter jet. But four years after the plan’s announcement, the countries have only recently finalized the details.

The E.U. has set lofty targets before. In 1999, member states pledged to build a military force of up to 60,000, but it never materialized. Instead, the bloc has had multinational “battle groups” of about 1,500 troops since 2007, but they’ve never been deployed because of a lack of funding and political will.

Putin must be smiling. 

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Why Haiti can't get ahead

Get used to it

People telling tales on Trump's outrages is going to be a daily thing at least for the next couple of months.

I know this is beside the point, but do they look a bit Satanic?

Anyway, the rest of the story...

The incident was met with a mixture of amusement and astonishment at the time, but caused headaches for White House and State Department staffers, according to several people familiar with the episode who asked not to be identified due to its sensitivity.

[...]

While in Paris with other world leaders to commemorate the centennial of the end of World War I, Trump stayed at the official residence of U.S. Ambassador Jamie McCourt, the palatial Hôtel de Pontalba. The mansion, in Paris’s chic 8th arrondissement, dates to 1842. It has served as a flagship of the State Department’s “Art in Embassies” cultural diplomacy program, and is open to tours.

  Bloomberg

Avoiding the visit to Belleau Wood left Trump with "about six hours of free time in the ambassador’s residence."

The next day, Trump pointed out a Benjamin Franklin bust, a Franklin portrait and a set of figurines of Greek mythical characters, and insisted the pieces come back with him to Washington.

McCourt, the ambassador, was startled, but didn’t object, according to people briefed on the incident.

How could he?! He's a diplomat. This is the president.

Trump later quipped that the envoy would get the art back “in six years,” when his potential second term in office would be winding down.

The art, worth about $750,000 according to one of the people familiar with the episode, was loaded aboard Air Force One while Trump visited another cemetery before the flight back to Washington.

[...]

Trump’s move prompted some hair-pulling and a furious exchange of emails back home between the State Department’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations and White House officials who organized the art transfer. Ultimately, because the art is U.S. government property, the move was deemed legal.

[...]

“The President brought these beautiful, historical pieces, which belong to the American people, back to the United States to be prominently displayed in the People’s House,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in response to questions from Bloomberg News.

[...]

The French art-collection episode comes with a curious footnote. After White House art curators examined the pieces Trump brought home, the president was told that the Franklin bust was a replica. He joked that he liked the fake better than the original, two people familiar with the episode said.

Because he can never make an error!

The asshole has never even seen the original or he wouldn't have wanted the replica.

The Franklin portrait snagged from Paris was also a copy.

[...]

The figurines that caught Trump’s eye found a new home on the fireplace mantel in the Oval Office. Depicting Greek gods, they date to the early 20th century and were made by Neapolitan artist Luigi Avolio, who was trying to pass them off as sculptures from the 16th or 17th centuries, according to London-based art dealer Patricia Wengraf.

Perfect!

Belleau Wood

This is the story of the battle that resulted in the American WWI cemetery in France that Trump refused to visit, opting instead to sit in his hotel room and watch TV while General Kelly went in his place.

The cemetery there was the expected site of a Trump visit on Nov. 10, 2018, to mark the 100th anniversary of the armistice to end World War I, which also coincided with the 243rd birthday of the Marine Corps.

Inclement weather grounded Trump’s helicopter, the White House said, preempting his visit. Other U.S. officials did attend.

A century and a few months before then, Belleau Wood was a living nightmare of muddy and rocky terrain, bristling with lurking enemies.U.S. Marines under [1st Sgt. Daniel] Daly were pinned down under fire and running short on ammunition. German soldiers in June 1918 had seized the initiative in a summer blitz toward Paris, and in the ledger of what can be counted, the enemy had it in spades: the guns and the numbers.

Daly, already a two-time recipient of the Medal of Honor in other wars, ground his boot heels into the French-countryside mud and ordered his men to attack.

“Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?” he walloped, instantly inscribing the words into Marine Corps legend.

[...]

U.S. commanders moved up two Army divisions to counterattack, including the 2nd Division — which had an unusual element of an attached brigade of U.S. Marines.

The soldiers and Marines settled along the wood and braced for the onslaught of several German divisions heading straight toward their line. Friendly troops evacuated, confusing the Marines, who were told by a French commander that they should retreat.

“Retreat, hell! We just got here!” said Capt. Lloyd W. Williams, according to some accounts, also becoming lore among Marines.

The battle began June 6, and a swirling mass of rifle butts, bayonets and artillery rounds churned through the wood for weeks as the Americans repulsed waves of German soldiers clawing for any foothold.

Part of the strategy, Lt. Clifton B. Cates, 24, would later write his mother, was to dislodge U.S. positions with chemical weapons.

“We were shelled all night with shrapnel and gas shells,” wrote Cates, a future Marine Corps commandant. “It was mustard gas and a lot of the men were burned.”

[...]

One Marine, Gunnery Sgt. Fred W. Stockham, was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for giving his gas mask to a wounded comrade whose mask had been shot off. Stockham died of gas poisoning.

[The battle began June 6.] All Germans had been driven from Belleau Wood by June 26. Four days later, the 6th French Army issued an order renaming Belleau Wood “Bois de la Brigade de Marine.”

  WaPo

Meaning Marine Brigade Woods, of course.

The U.S. forces and Germans both had about 10,000 casualties, mostly wounded, but including 1,811 American dead. And it transformed the Marine Corps into a force that stepped into grander battles after fighting smaller skirmishes for years.

[...]

The force “must be considered a very good one and may even be reckoned as storm troops,” one German commander said.

[...]

[US Marine] units that trace their lineage back to the fight still wear a fourragère, a braided green cord on their dress uniform that was originally bestowed by the French military.

Corroboration of Trump's anti-military stance

Whenever a new report with an inside account of President Trump’s immorality or ignorance appears in the press, it includes a paragraph for official White House spokespeople to issue an indignant denial calling the media and its dozen or two sources liars. Jeffrey Goldberg’s blockbuster revelation in The Atlantic followed the ritual in form, though not in degree. The scope and intensity of the pushback was nuclear: Virtually every White House press official, past and present, denounced the story. Additional support for Trump poured in from several unofficial White House spokespeople in conservative media.

[...]

Trump seemed to believe, correctly or otherwise, that the contempt for military service described in this report would be particularly damaging, given the emphasis he has placed on his standing as friend and protector of the troops.

[...]

[T]raditional journalistic practice grants more credence to on-the-record sources than anonymous ones, because sources who put their name behind a claim are risking reputational embarrassment if it is falsified. That method would lend more credence to the named sources denying Goldberg’s account than to the unnamed ones endorsing it.

However, that principle obviously does not apply to this administration. Lying is not only common in the Trump administration, it is the cultural glue that holds the president’s coalition together.

[...]

This does not prove Trump’s supporters are lying in this instance: Sometimes liars tell the truth. But are they telling the truth in this instance?

While it’s impossible to directly prove any of these allegations, there is an impressive amount of corroborating evidence. Almost all of it supports Goldberg’s reporting.

[...]

The Associated Press, New York Times and Washington Post quickly confirmed Goldberg’s reporting. The Post added several related details, in addition to Trump describing fallen soldiers as “losers.” “In one account, the president told senior advisers that he didn’t understand why the U.S. government placed such value on finding soldiers missing in action because they had performed poorly and gotten caught and deserved what they got, according to a person familiar with the discussion.”

[...]

Michael Cohen testified in 2018 that Trump admitted faking bone spurs to avoid serving in Vietnam and told him, “You think I’m stupid? I wasn’t going to Vietnam.” Mary Trump, in a previously recorded interview, said Trump threatened to disown one of her sons if he enlisted in the military. (It’s significant that she offered this account before Goldberg’s story, and thus could not have crafted it to fit a narrative created by Goldberg.)

Trump’s denial itself contains provable falsehoods:

Trump did call McCain a “loser.” It’s on video. Trump even tweeted the video of himself saying it.

[...]

Second, while Trump claims he lowered the White House flag to half-mast to honor McCain’s death “without hesitation or complaint,” four sources told the Times in 2018 that Trump stubbornly refused until finally and belatedly submitting. Former Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor confirmed the account today, on the record.

And finally there is the obvious fact that Trump, in 2015, disparaged John McCain for being captured. That is to say, the private comments Trump is fervently denying are merely grosser versions of his publicly explicated view.

[...]

This is the most remarkable fact about the defenses of Trump pouring in from the right. Trump is obviously a massive liar. He has already made clear that he does not respect military service. They are throwing what’s left of their reputations on the line to deny nothing more than an incrementally worse version of a reality that Trump has already revealed.

  Intelligencer

They have no integrity whatsoever. They're proving that every day by their support and backing of this despicable, unworthy POS in the oval office.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

To think!

Who could imagine he'd say such a thing?  Everybody who heard him denigrate John McCain is all.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: