One of the biggest nonsense claims of Donald Trump during his unhinged campaign was that under a Bigly administration, America would start “winning” again. It was a branding tool, and it wasn’t subtle – Bigly thought that America looked like a “loser” under President Obama, and that Obama himself was a loser (because he’s black, remember). Bigly kept repeating it, that America needed to “win,” that his supporters were going to be tired of all of the “winning” when he became president. Well, guess what? New data from Pew Research:
Although he has only been in office a few months, Donald Trump’s presidency has had a major impact on how the world sees the United States. Trump and many of his key policies are broadly unpopular around the globe, and ratings for the U.S. have declined steeply in many nations. According to a new Pew Research Center survey spanning 37 nations, a median of just 22% has confidence in Trump to do the right thing when it comes to international affairs. This stands in contrast to the final years of Barack Obama’s presidency, when a median of 64% expressed confidence in Trump’s predecessor to direct America’s role in the world.
The sharp decline in how much global publics trust the U.S. president on the world stage is especially pronounced among some of America’s closest allies in Europe and Asia, as well as neighboring Mexico and Canada. Across the 37 nations polled, Trump gets higher marks than Obama in only two countries: Russia and Israel.
In countries where confidence in the U.S. president fell most, America’s overall image has also tended to suffer more. In the closing years of the Obama presidency, a median of 64% had a positive view of the U.S. Today, just 49% are favorably inclined toward America. Again, some of the steepest declines in U.S. image are found among long-standing allies.
TL; DR version: no one but Russia and Israel is buying Trump’s special brand of unhinged-crazy-winning. All of our allies are frightened and appalled. America, Americans and the American president are all laughingstocks in the world. Deplorables still believe that they’re “winning” though. You know why? Because Trump tells them so.
Another hit for our global image? We, a nation of immigrants, will be watching as parts of Trump’s pathetic Muslim Ban go into effect starting now. The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Muslim Ban could be partially implemented ahead of the case heading to the high court in October. Ugh.
Meanwhile, what is Bigly doing today? Tweeting about the CNN “scandal” where CNN had to retract a story about members of Trump’s transition team meeting with shady Russian bankers. That story – and the story of the retraction – is a complicated mess, but WaPo did a good job of explaining it. Like, I understand why and how CNN got it wrong, but I feel like CNN was on the right track, because for the love of God, Trump transition people (including Precious Jared Kushner) were meeting with shady Russian bankers? But Bigly is declaring victory against fake news. Ugh. Also: why is “Russia” in sarcasm-quotes here?
Wow, CNN had to retract big story on "Russia," with 3 employees forced to resign. What about all the other phony stories they do? FAKE NEWS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2017
Bigly followed that up by retweeting some Fox News story about Hillary Clinton and Loretta Lynch, because he really is that pathetic. Oh, and he’s hyping one of the Deplorables’ books, because this is the president of the United States.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Here’s a handy chart. Oh, look, Russia looooves us now!❣️❣️❣️
http://twitter.com/nickgourevitch/status/879498202969493505
This chart was great.
MAGA, for sure.
That was Putin’s plan. Weaken the competition. And Trump was so vain he thought he was rigged in cos he was viewed as great and people believed in him-
he was rigged in cos hes so stupid and so incapable and so foolish, that we would finally be knocked back, and not just now but by a few generations.
Oh no question. He led us to our own destruction. It’s a great plan and he didn’t have to do much. He let the idiots in congress and the stupidity of Americans execute the plan.
It is so depressing. America was supposed to be better than that.
It is very depressing. I keep apologizing to my kids. We are making the world so much worse for them right now.
Agreed, Nicole. And it was soooooo inexpensive for Russia. Sigh.
Yep. And these survey results are no surprise.
It’s so true. He was the puppet because he is a useful idiot who thinks he’s a genius.
Yes. Putin succeeded by all counts. A great victory for him and the end of American exceptionalism as he wanted. Donald Trump greatly changed how I as an American view the United States of America so I’m sure Russia is rejoicing.
The tourism industry is getting socked in the eye too.
Thanks for the “winning,” Emperor Zero!
Are there numbers to back this?
google is your friend. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/after-trumps-travel-ban-tourism-outfits-say-that-brand-usa-has-taken-a-hit/2017/04/14/d0eebf4e-158e-11e7-833c-503e1f6394c9_story.html
I wouldn’t be surprised, though loving the US and Americans, I don’t want to go atm, though that’s also to do with the £/$ exchange rate.
I was also wondering about this, since I know a few people (myself included) who’ve decided not to travel to the US this summer. I’m Arab – born and raised in Canadaland – but I’ve been overseas quite a bit and so maybe have some “bad” stamps in my passport, if you consider Egypt and Lebanon bad. 😛
I figure why push my luck and possibly get denied entry? I remember when some protesters here wanted to go to the Women’s March in January they were turned away at the border with no clear reason given. It sucks because I love going to the US, but with all of the uncertainty and the lower Canadian dollar it’s not worth it right now. I’ll have a nice staycation instead.
Probably a good move. I have stamps in my passport which always see me getting a few questions in America even if nowhere else but my most recent trip in early May was awful. Massive TSA harassment and I’m as white as snow. It wasn’t just one unlucky officer either because it happened at 3 different US airports. I have always loved traveling to and in America and still think the people are generally some of the friendliest I’ve met in two decades of solid travel worldwide but that trip really soured me (particularly the assholes at Bradley). It’s off my personal list for now but unfortunately I’ll probably have to do a work trip or two over the next four years, although I’m trying to convince my boss to send someone else.
Yeah, I can confirm – where previously US was seen as “like us” now it’s am country controlled by scary not-at-all-like-us bizzaros. I was at an event in London recently. Fancy. Americans there were lying about where they come from. Just choosing not to disclose – presumably to side-step the disgust/dismay/confusion of the fairly sophisticated crowd there. It seems like a place where the Emperor Truly has No Clothes, where rule of law is under attack and the sacrosanct role of the media has been hijacked. It’s simply not relatable and conversations I’m hearing are about how the US is an immature democracy whose institutions are still vulnerable.
Separately – my husband is a US citizen, we feel very distanced from the US and wonder if we ever really understood it (living in Europe now after 10 years n DC).
I would never judge Americans abroad (or any other American) because of the situation with Drumpf and his clique.
I met Americans who are very kind, thoughtful, polite, and I met Americans who are very rude, conceited, and dismissive of other nations. But so are many other people from many other countries.
Ugh. So sorry guys.
I can speak for myself, family and friends in saying that we all refuse to visit the US until this horror is over and sanity returns. Generally we feel like the States we used to visit regularly just don’t deserve our money or time and the hassle at the border is not worth the aggravation. No one likes being treated like a criminal when entering another country. I’d rather go to Europe this fall.
Heck, I’m a US citizen living away and find the US customers agents aren’t very nice to us either…almost as if we’re somehow disloyal for not living there. All I want is a “how do you like it there?” and “welcome back.”
Well I can say that it hasn’t *appeared* to affect Boston at all. On a whim, we decided to get a hop on/hop off trolley this weekend to pop around the city and get some history as well and man, the waterfront/Harbor Walk was insane. We couldn’t even get on a boat for a little harbor cruise because the boats were all full to capacity. Trolleys were packed, too.
I guess Boston is still relatively isolated from this Trump nonsense–at least thus far.
If anything it’s benefiting as a relatively sane “blue” city in a blue state and I wonder if it’s getting a lot of internal tourism too. And more and more people want to get out of the heat, which is more intense and widespread every summer.
In my city, people who live inland flock to the water when it gets hot. We have a lot of international/out-of-state tourists too, so the coastline gets packed solid. I’d love to know the ratio of international to out-of-state tourists, and see how that may have changed over the past year.
I always see the most international tourists when I go to the National Parks in my state. Sadly, Trump wants to open Sequoia National Monument up to drilling.
I think overseas student enrollments at univerisities will also take a hit, although it may take a little longer to see the actual numbers.
I’m Australian, from Melbourne, and we took a hit a few years ago when there were a spate of attacks against Indian students in Melbourne. I was in India last year, and was surprised at the number of people who mentioned it to me when I said I was from Melbourne.
Also, I was in Mexico last month and was hanging out at a centre for refugees and migrants in Mexico City. Every migrant I spoke to said they were either staying in Mexico or, in the case of the Africans I met, trying to get to Canada.
I work at a Canadian University, and we’ve already seen an uptick in PhD enrollment due to the issues in the States. I’ve personally processed one application where the student is leaving their current US program to come here, out of fear for their safety and ability to continue their studies. So its not just new entries, but people fleeing.
detritus, that is so profoundly sad.
The last time brain drain like this happened was in 1933.
I would like to see how this administration’s policies and actions has affected tourists visiting the US. I have heard of people cancelling plans to visit the country. Has the tourism industry noticed a drop in visits?
Has it dropped? I wonder about anyone from other countries wants to live in the States. I am an Caribbean person and I am sure as hell don’t want to live in United States. I rather go to Canada to live than live in the States.
My family and I won’t be visiting the States for at least 3 1/2 more years. And many of my friends (Canadian) have also cancelled or altered their vacations entirely to avoid the US.
I’m French and I have friends that I wanted to visit very much but sadly it’s just not gonna happen. Something has happened because my best friend is going this Summer (she debated going or not) and airfare has never been this cheap.
I was planning a trip to Las Vegas in April, but cancelled it. Won’t go back to US (unless work-related) for another three years.
I’m sure the Deplorables are thrilled by this news.
They don’t seem to care much for foreigners…
It seems his supporters don’t understand how economy works. Tourism was, in part, what helped American economy improve between 2008-2012.
Wait until the tourism sector is wiped out, and hundreds of thousands no longer have a job. I think by this time next year, the deplorables will be screaming as loud as everyone else. The jobs lost will come from restaurants, motel/hotels, laundry services, catering companies, food industry workers, taxi/limo drivers, tourism centers, museum and other attractions employees just to name a few. This will affect them adversely and hard. Why do so many people not realize they will be out of a job by this time next year. They actually believe Trump is going to make their life better?
@Lady D. They can go get jobs in the mines or at Carrier or Ford. Oh, wait…nevermind, sorry. Those people are scrambling for nonexistent jobs, too.
SusanneToo- the big automobile company/companies about to go under are sure lucky it happened on Obama’s watch. He took a gamble and bailed them out and it was all repaid, and more than a million jobs were saved. Trump, on the other hand, is still puffed up by Carrier promising to save a few hundred jobs s for a $7 million bribe, and those will be gone by next Christmas. Carrier said at the time that it was investing in automation, and you need much fewer engineers to run an automated factory rather than hundreds of non-engineers.
I know from the perspective of my job (I won’t say where I work) yes our international tourism has noticeably dropped.
I used to go to New York every November but this year we are going to Toronto instead.
Welcome. And bring another layer! It can start to snow a bit as early as mid-November.
Welcome to Toronto Mary! You’re gonna find that it’s smaller than New York but a lot
More cozy: food from all over the world, not insane portion sizes like in USA and all
Designed to make you gain weight, cleaner air/water and generally cleaner and a friendlier city. Yea our highway traffic is pretty crazy though and our subway system is going through system wide signal repairs and construction, which does cause delays.
I cancelled plans to visit the US after the travel ban happened.
I’m not from any of the seven countries and not Muslim either, but I am brown and visiting a country with Deplorables as ICE gatekeepers seems more trouble than it’s worth. I’m considering visiting Mexico instead.
I’m from New Zealand, I visited several states in the US a few years ago and loved it and couldn’t wait to go back.
The Trump presidency has 100% put me off from going back for now, and I bet I’m not the only one. I read a few stories of how people have been detained, intimidated and treated so poorly (that’s putting it lightly) trying to come in to the country with the Muslim ban that I’m just disgusted, disappointed, and afraid of going there. I realise that a vast amount of Americans are as disgusted as I am but it doesn’t change anything for me.
My husband and I visited for a month last September. We were going to do so again but then the election happened. No insult intended to the commenters here but we’d rather flush our money down the toilet.
yep. My sister waited with booking her holiday until after the elections. The choices were Canada or the USA. She’s now going to Canada.
I am from a central european country. In the early 2000s, I spent a High School year in the US, and I had made plans for early 2017 to visit my friends from back then in four major cities all across the US. I had worked out my schedule and was getting ready to book the flights, but when T became president and the first viral video reactions I saw was white frat boys intimidating fellow students with darker skin, saying, “guess who’ll be sent back home next week?”, I thought, no way – if this is the general vibe, and if people have to feel scared to live in this country, I’d rather postpone this trip. It’s been on hold ever since. I talked to my friends, and they said they completely understood, and that it’s sh*t times. Some of them were – and are – truly despairing because they are smart and already anticipated some of the consequences. I would’ve loved to see my friends again, but I’ll wait. Then again, maybe I should go in spite of all that’s bad, and bring an extra amount of love and support. I really don’t know.
C. Sheen could do a better job of “winning” in this job. His tiger blood rants appear almost sane by comparison.
OMG I forgot about him. MEGALOL !!!
The Trump Tales are such a daily cliffhanger that both Charlie Sheen and the Kardashians have suffered from being pushed out of our line of vision. Too hard to trump Trump. Makes it easy on the late night comedians, though.
Ha, coincidence! I was honestly thinking about Charlie Sheen again, too… He has pretty much disappeared, right? But then again, ITA with @jwoolman – Trump’s daily nonsense collection takes up all the space, bigly.
Well it’s true a lot of ordinary people are scared now..war..etc..
I had thought of a holiday to the US but that is off whilst he is in office..I would feel safer in Europe..
I have yet to hear a person from the right or conservative..small c as well a big C..not think of him in very negative terms..which is ironic for one thing..I remember both Reagan and Bush considered warmonger by some here at the time and as Will Ferrell said in his brilliant take off on the Not The White House Correspondents Dinner as’W’..”Bet you miss me now huh?”!!
I still can’t believe there were so many people who didn’t vote.Trump voters I’ll never understand, but to all the people who saw all this coming and didn’t vote for the sane and experienced candidate over the lunatic: WHY?!
NPR interviewed a female Berniebro yesterday. She was so proud of her Stein vote. When asked if she’d rather have Hillary as president, she replied, “A bit.” A BIT, for JFC! She chirped on about third parties, at the national level of course. Forget about building from the ground up. Those sanctimonious fools don’t give a damn about what’s happening to the country and will continue happening for decades because of all the trash put into power. I hate them as much as I hate trump.
I know. Third Party candidates should really think local first. In a national election between Sanity and Trump, people who didn’t vote for the sane alternative (the only other option in our system) were voting ultimately for Trump. That’s true for many things, but I know too many activists stuck in the top to bottom theory. They need to get broad acceptance at the bottom before they have a chance of making real permanent changes at the top. Look at how hard it is to protect even the wildly popular Medicaid and Medicare from the current crop of Republicans out to trash it so they can have their tax cuts for the very rich (including the Trump family and Mitch McConnell). Any good program isn’t safe from changes in the White House and Congress, so pushing through your pet legislation can be reversed in the next Congress. It’s tempting to try that shortcut, but it ultimately just delays real change.
I hope those people learned a valuable lesson from this mess and don’t repeat the same mistake in 2020.
When I saw on CNN this morning that Trump had 22% approval and Putin was at 27%, I was pretty embarrassed. I knew he’d just call it “fake news “, because Trump and Trumpsters say polls are not true if it’s against them
i was in Scotland when he was announced as the nominee, one week before the Brexit vote. As soon as people realized we were american – all they wanted to do was talk politics. it was weird b/c it is avoided in mixed company in the states. but EVERY.SINGLE.PERSON was like “he’s embarrassing” “what a joke” “its time for a woman in office in the US” “just a reality star” etc etc….in cabs, in restaurants, at bars, with museum guides. we had honestly never talked politics so much as we did in those 10 days. a cabbie in glasgow who was openly, uncomfortably racist and pro-brexit was calling him a moron saying it was time for a woman to be in office in the US because they are “more controlled during trying times”. it was all pretty remarkable.
One of my favorite Trump rip fest was Samantha Bee’s segment on how the Scots view Trump. It was absolutely hysterical. He’s so embarrassing. I was at the airport the other day and when the tram stopped at international terminal and a bunch of people from other countries got on I just felt like yelling I didn’t vote for him!
I’ll be in Germany later this year, and I’ve already made a button for my backpack: “Bitte hasse mich nicht, Ich habe fur Hillary gestimmt.” Please don’t hate me, I voted for Hillary.
ha ha we had an American come visit at my company and literally he had to answer about Trump at least 20 times that I saw, every where he went hahaha.
I would have worn a badge saying in the local language: “I know my President is batshit crazy and I didn’t vote for him.”
It is not just Bigly telling them that he is winning though. The media is backing him up in some instances. Not just Faux News.
All I read online yesterday was that what happend yesterday was a win or partial win for Anus Mouth. When in reality, it wasn’t. Yes, they are holding up certain parts of the ban instead of throwing it back in his ugly face, but they only upheld parts of the order. People from those countries are still allowed to come into the country. So no, he did not win at all reqlly since he wants those people from those specific countriess to not enter the country under any circumstances. Trump is more than likely going to be sued for that bona fide relationship language in the ban because it can be interpreted in such a wide manner. And more than likely this ban will fail in the fall too.
Unfortunately, there’s no room for nuance in the discourse. I can’t stand to watch the news, so I read this, but the people who follow SCOTUS think they’re giving the administration the chance to “prove” the ban isn’t about race (by giving them a few months to screen people, and then we’ll have stats on who is and isn’t getting in), but of course it is racist, so the assumption is the “grace period” will just prove this out and the court will strike the whole thing down.
Some people have also said the court is afraid to be too aggressive at this time, because 45 rants about activist judges and people are riled up, they’re afraid of violence. So we might see more of these “hedge your bets” rulings where the court tries to let policy play out before making a final decision.
I doubt that the SCOTUS is afraid. Judges have been needing extra security for years, they have become prime targets. There have even been shooters in the courtroom. Trump makes it worse with his vile tweets trying to paint another target on their backs, but judges are tough about such things and don’t scare easily.
But they are understandably cautious and this isn’t really carte blanche for Trump although he’s too simple-minded to realize it. They want time to decide what is really going on.
Feel free to tweet your little heart out about Muslims and bad dudes and bans, President Tweeter. Keep adding to the evidence pile. Hope somebody is all set to instantly capture his tweets before the lawyers delete it.
Yes if you read the order carefully (all 9 were unanimous in lifting parts of the injunction), they are only letting people in that actually have a tangible reason to be here (relatives, job etc). They are only blocking the randoms who come in with no ties to anyone in US.
After the initial shock of the injunction getting overturned, I actually started reading about the SCOTUS reasons. It’s not a “win” per se for orange hole. It is a reasonable order from SCOTUS. What happens when they review it will be interesting.
but his followers do not care cause it is all about America. So what do they care about tourists or how other countries like them, they are America!!
This was my thought, too. It’s what hooked their ignorant brains during the campaign and they’re not going to let go of that now, no matter how much of a global laughingstock we are.
What’s hilarious is that tourism is one of our biggest industries, and if you truly want America to be great, then we need a thriving tourism industry. It makes me happy, in a perverse way, that everything the right hates, like tourists and Hollywood, are among out biggest and most reliable industries.
People who don’t live in big cities probably do not see many if any tourists. They wouldn’t even think of tourism as a big part of the economy. City dwellers or people living near real tourist attractions are the ones who would be aware of this.
Many of Trump’s voters were probably not in places where foreign tourists are common.
Well, duh…
Eh, the Supreme Court’s decision is hardly a win for Emperor Cheeto Mussolini. The practical effect is that virtually no one will be banned from the U.S. The vast majority of visa applicants/bearers from the six affected countries already have significant ties to the U.S. through family, business, or refugee resettlement. There may be more litigation to hash out what the Supremes meant, but this will allow other judges to just issue new injunctions and orders, which the Supremes will not be able to remotely consider until October.
Personally, I think it was a genius stroke by the Court. Make it look like a “win” for Tinyhands but write the order in such a way as to essentially be meaningless. It is for this reason Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch dissented in part.
I agree. After reading about the details, I realized there are far bigger things to be fired up about. Namely McConnellcare/Wealthcare, whatever you want to call this sh^itburger travesty of a bill.
I’m normally rather green/left/socialst here in Germany but this is the first time ever that I hope the CDU aka Merkel win the next election. Some sort of counterbalance is urgently needed.
I am very dissapointed by Muttis reaction to Trump so far. “We cannot rely on our allies anymore” does not sufficiently reflect the public’s disgust with this poor man’s version of Adolf.
I am officially in love with Emmanuel Macron now – he humiliated Trump on camera TWICE and criticized Putin to his botoxed face in Versailles. My new hero – move over Trudeau (and take those socks with you)!
We may have to re-gift France’s Statue of Liberty to Canada.
No sh*t.
Unfortunately, in this New World Order of his loyal fans, this is a good thing because they hate us because we’re so great. They’re just jealous. It’s easier to forget that the US lags behind every other country on the planet in just about every important respect, and the difference between 45 and Obama was that other nations felt that there was a chance to change some of those numbers with an intelligent, mature adult in the White House.
Among the few things this country had going for it was freedom of movement and expression, including a free press and now the regime is doing its best to destroy those, and to these people, that is a good thing because they’re too foolish that realize that it will effect them too.
Or maybe they do and they just don’t care. Maybe we’ve finally reached the stage in this country where freedom and democracy, however imperfect, is just too much work for people and they’d rather trade in order to not have to think about it or work for it.
Yep exactly. So many Americans don’t give a sh*t about people visiting our country or not. They don’t like immigrants/foreigners/anybody who wasn’t born here so they’re fine with it, sadly.
This is why I’m contemplating moving with my partner to Amsterdam. He has family there, we’re really concerned with the state of the U.S., and I just don’t know if I want to keep my baby here. Idk y’all. I’m just venting online.
Good luck, it’s a major decision. Sounds like you have a lot of considerations, including the age of your child upon moving, and where it is easier to operate/have rights respected as non-married parents. It also depends on where you live in the USA, though I’m of the opinion that there are really very few “safe” places given how the Supreme Court affects the law of the land.
Most of all you’d have to like Amsterdam and you and your partner would have to like those relatives there!
I work in the film industry and have just started a 6 month contract in Australia (first time here) My plan for the next 3.5 years is to accept as many jobs outside the US as possible. On a sadder note, my parents are investigating German visas (Grandparents were German Jewish immigrants during WWII) and possibly going back to Germany :’-(
But I take heart from your story: if the children of German Jews fleeing Hitler (arguably even worse than Trump) are willing to move back to Germany, then America will likely survive FascistTrump. I just hope it doesn’t take us 50+ years to recover from this assault on democracy and decency.
I live in Latin America and people are definitely more skeptic about visiting/moving to the U.S.
I was landing in Amsterdam when I saw the final electoral numbers. I cried all the way to customs and then held myself together to go through. The customs agent ask me the standard questions and as he was letting me through asked how I felt about it. I told him flat out I did not vote for him and this is an embarrassment. I met an expat before going on my trip and we made small talk and he told me that he was planning to return to the US once Clinton was elected, like he was excited to head home and then said that it is not in the cards anymore. Then the boat captain that asked for my ticket knew that I was American and just said, ‘ I’m Sorry’ and I just started bawling and he said, ‘ I know’. And the press was not kind to him their either for which I was happy about because they were throwing down on him and not the citizens that did not vote for him.
Then as I was heading home, every US customs agent pulled me to the side for some BS reason and I finally asked why and he said you did not answer the questions correctly and then I said, ‘Funny, when I was in Europe I was asked the same questions and had not one issue, and I was a foreigner visiting.’ He did not have anything to say after that.
Customs officers are not supposed to ask how we feel about politics, are they?
I had already passed customs when he asked.
My bf is dutch but his parents are turkish, so of course, he has a turkish name. When he has to go back to the netherlands usually took a delta or aa flight..because they were cheaper. So the flight was Santiago de Chile – somewhere in the states – Amsterdam. Well, he never had any problems tbh but we are not tempting our luck again, so for the next time we already booked KLM. Better safe than sorry
Are many of our allies frightened and appalled? Yes. But I think their biggest fear is US financial “aid” and support getting pulled. That’s what they fear the most of all IMO. I’m no Trump apologist but I’m also completely clear on how much money we send out, and the proposed cuts (>30%) does nothing for his favor ability ratings overseas, And in this matter, I don’t care too much. Buying foreign friendships is expensive,
You think it’s the money that has us appalled? The money? OMG
War is much more expensive than peace. Trump has already destabilised the world order and worse is likely to come, and not before long. Foreign aid is a wonderful way to keep a stable world order and reduce the kinds of poverty and disease (in part from over-population due to the repression of women) that are not only devastating but also spread from underdeveloped to developed nations with ease via contagion and mass migration. The US allies understand all of this. They’re not as simplistic and greedy as you suggest. The US is – or at least has been – a wealthy nation and can afford its generosity.
In the words of an elderly relative, “You can never have too many friends.”
American diplomats are saying the same thing. Aid that helps people out of poverty and disease anywhere is a much better tool against terrorism than any military actions.
Nah. When 45 said he was putting that Reagan-era rule in place about not funding health NGOs that even mention abortion, let alone perform the procedure, the rest of the world had an emergency summit and very quickly figured out how to make up the funding, and in the process discovered it wasn’t even that much of a stretch to do without us. When he backed out of the Paris Agreement, another summit was convened and the rest of the world discovered they can make up the difference of the US not participating. They’ll save the world without us.
And Indian diplomat said the greatest stride toward world peace in the 20th century was the creation of the UN, and the greatest in the 21st century will probably be the rest of the world figuring out America is redundant.
The US has only a tiny percentage of the world’ population and we elect Presidents based on domestic concerns, not really foreign policy. We routinely elect Presidents like Reagan and Trump who don’t know where all the rest of you are on the map and certainly know nothing about your culture or history or problems and quite definitely haven’t a clue about how to solve your problems because they are even baffled by our problems.
So it’s pretty arrogant to consider the US President as unelected “leader of the free world”. The US is Just Another Country and everybody elsewhere and here has to get used to that.
OK, we’re a rogue nation with enough nuclear and other firepower in the control of one person to destroy the world… That should worry everybody a lot more than it has until Trump. But the rest of you have to clearly see that and treat us accordingly, try to find ways to make us behave better and get rid of our ridiculous stockpiles of WMDs rather than going along with every damn fool war a POTUS wants to wage to get the polls up and have an excuse to buy more WMDs to replace the ones used up.
You think we give tons of money to our allies? Perhaps Israel, but I doubt he’s going to touch those funds considering his relationship with Netanyahu.
He’s threatened to start war with North Korea and Syria. I think our allies are far more concerned with world war than with our aid spending.
Nah, we don’t like him because he’s a simple minded arrogant, narcissistic bully who encites hatred in people, cares about nothing and nobody except for his enormous precious ego, behaves like a disgusting pig toward women in private, and is a big stupid liar that has no business being President in the first place.
You must be completely blind or just lacking in decent moral principles.
“The fact is that Trump has a higher global approval rating than Obama ever did.”
-actual words a human being said to me last week
Humanoid perhaps. Certainly not human. Doesn’t a human require a brain?
I firmly believe you need a good laugh at least once a week. Did you thank them for it?
I did, in fact!
And hatred continues in trumpland. Emmett Till’s historical marker has been vandalized. I’ll faint if trump says anything about it.
http://www.apnews.com/9aabf60f4c3b461781478268af8e09cf
Americans have come to believe that the United States is the best at everything, when you point out that the United State’s infant mortality rate is absurdly high for the richest country on the planet, it doesn’t compute. If you’re a liberal, you get angry and become activist. How could we have screwed up so badly as to not be the best at keeping babies alive? If you’re a conservative, you dismiss the data as biased (a liberal conspiracy to justify taking your tax money to treat babies… probably foreign illegal brown crack babies at that!) or accurate but irrelevant (it’s more important to have the best nuclear weapons than the healthiest babies).
But whether liberal or conservative, “best” is the norm for Americans, and they don’t quite know how to handle anything else.
The shame, of course, is that we have the capacity and resources to be so much better, and we don’t do it. I think one problem is that many refuse to admit that the government can and should act to help people. However, the curse Of “rugged individualism” combined with hatred of the government [mostly by those ignorant of how government programs benefit them] helps to produce abominations like the current healthcare bill. I am reading Sen. Franken’s funny and informative GIANT OF THE SENATE. He says he learned from the late great Paul Wellstone that the only aim of politics is “improving peoples’ lives.”
Kind of like these Einsteins. Bet they all voted for trump, ryan, mcconnell, paul, etc., etc., and so forth.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/get-your-goddamn-governme_b_252326.html
Improving people’s lives…that sounds like Hillary Clinton’s platform, too.
I’ve been a fan of Al’s since his Franken and Davis days. I loved when he started writing books like Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Lies and the Lyin’ Liars Who Tell Them. He nails them in a fall out of your chair savagely funny way. I was overjoyed when he made the next, logical step to enter politics. Wish we had people like him representing every state.
“I think one problem is that many refuse to admit that the government can and should act to help people. However, the curse Of “rugged individualism” combined with hatred of the government [mostly by those ignorant of how government programs benefit them]”
I just finished Timothy Snyder’s Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning. And one sentence in the conclusion stood out to me (going on memory) The US has a mythology that freedom is a lack of authority, especially government authority. But that can end up going down a very bad path.
Have you read American Amnesia: How War On Government Made Us Forget What Made America Prosper by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson? I
None of this is surprising in the least. I keep saying when we come out on the other side of this mess it’s gonna make a heck of a book…then movie…maybe limited TV series.
El Diablo Naranja is so insufferable I don’t know how any reasonable human being can tolerate him. He’s what happens when privileged brats nobody bothered to raise right get old and senile. Intellectually and emotionally, he’s around 12 years old. I’m weary and we haven’t hit the 6 month mark yet.
It’s embarrassing to be American right now.
Husband and I have also vowed not to visit the US as long as 45 is president.
We’re from there and doing the bare minimum, though the hubby has to travel for work. From the outside it just looks so damn tense.
This is trump’s America in a nutshell. Or an opportune photo.
http://twitter.com/perlmutations/status/879152519867359232
LOL! I hope this makes the major networks tonight. Maybe he’ll blow up Twitter again denying it’s him.
It may be photoshop, not sure, but it perfectly illustrates how he’s sh1tting on America.💩💩💩
Look at that bigly beautiful butt! Making America Shit Again.
How can Trump keep calling CNN fake news when he was tweeting just yesterday that Obama colluded with the Russians; that Susan Rice committed a crime by unmasking Trump officials; that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower; Comey was a nutjob; that he had the highest electoral votes than any other president and then he changed it to any other Republican after Peter Alexander called him out on his lie; that he had more people at his inauguration than Obama; that he inherited a mess; and that Sally Yates was a traitor? Trump is the king of Fake News. If the media want Trump to stop calling them fake news, all they have to do is start referring him to as the fake president. The media keeps whining about how Trump keeps calling them fake news, but they keep showing up to his briefings. The best way to show Trump that they are not fake news is to stop showing up to the WH for the briefings or to Trump’s speeches.
CNN isn’t wrong. Trump’s people were meeting with the Russians. I read that it was a Breibrat news outlet who first stated that the CNN story was false. So they want us to believe that Briebrat, the same press outlet that promoted lies about Obama, is more credible than CNN? It seems like Trump is trying to turn CNN into Fox News. It all started when they fired someone for calling Trump a name after Trump tweeted those awful things to the mayor of London.
Finally, one of the reporters went off on Sarah Huckabee. Sarah Hucakbee is also a bigly liar, yet just like Trump she stands at the podium and tells the reporters that they are fake news. The reporters are failing us. Instead of whining about all the restrictions that were being placed on Spicer’s briefings, what they should have done is oppose the lies that Spicer and Sarah tell by refusing to show up to the briefings.
CNN made it pretty clear that the problem wasn’t that the story wasn’t true, just that it needed more of their routine vetting before being published. They have no reason yet to doubt its accuracy.
They probably had to do something with the guy who accurately but vulgarily described the Trumpster, though. I would have suggested just a suspension. It’s not like the guy makes a habit of it. Like Anderson Cooper’s uncharacteristic but quite understandable eye roll…
Just because President Tweeter twists everything to fit his delusions doesn’t mean CNN is at fault.
Check it:
https://thinkprogress.org/tmz-quietly-became-americas-most-potent-pro-trump-media-outlet-bf703c24a68e
Looks like possible payola, or at least f*ckery, at TMZ re dt. Small-d democratic gossip sites unite to call out and drag TMZ for this sh*t?
TMZ actually used to be a coherent and interesting source back when I started reading it during Paris Hilton’s first legal adventures. Then the TMZ tv show started up and the owner (a lawyer) decided he was a tv star and apparently left the site in the hands of clueless interns who could barely write and never studied logic. The stories went downhill and so did the discussions. Then it became so top-heavy with active ads wreaking havoc with my phone and computer, I stopped reading it after a brief attempt to stabilize it with ad blockers. Not worth it.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Russia is a hoax, but keep in mind there is documented evidence(Trump’s tweet and speech) of Trump asking the Russians to hack Hiliary. Every time that Trump, Spicer, or Sarah call Russia a hoax the media needs to post or recite those statements made by Trump.
I’ll say. I can’t see how America is going to end up anywhere else but as a fascist dictatorship now, you’re already well on your way and I’m grieving and terrified for you.