I see that the Germans understand Donald Trump's relationship with Russia quite clearly.

Carnival in Germany!!

I think Trump is even more hated in Europe then in USA!!#MAGA #Trump #FoxAndFriends #FoxNews #BlueWave2018 #Resist #TheResistance #Germany #Austria #Europe #UK #France #Berlin #Paris #London pic.twitter.com/iZYKBYFEGt

— Maggie Resists Trump (@Stop_Trump20) February 12, 2018

Here it is from another angle.

Seems accurate to me.

The European response to Michael Wolff's book has been outright shock.

Tomorrow's front page: Trump’s mental health questioned by top aide #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/mE0d6NkM0S

— The Times of London (@thetimes) January 4, 2018

Courtesy of WaPo: 

European commentary on President Trump is rarely flattering, but the cascading revelations alleged in Michael Wolff’s tell-all book “Fire and Fury,” drew an especially fierce response from a horrified continent. 

“Is Trump still sane?” asked the Friday lead headline on the site of Germany’s most respected conservative paper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The piece was published under the topic “mental health.” 

Meanwhile, British readers woke up to the Times of London's main front page headline that also wondered about the president’s stability: “Trump’s mental health questioned by top aide.” 

“Donald Trump’s right-hand man openly questioned his fitness to serve and predicted that he would resign to avoid being removed by his own cabinet, according to a book that the US president tried to block yesterday,” wrote the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Times of London.

For its part, France’s paper of record, Le Monde, just described the book as “haunting.” 

Trump has never been too popular in Western Europe, with approval ratings in many countries hovering in the single or lower double digits. But even though disagreement with Trump has almost become the norm here, some of Friday’s public responses to Wolff’s book still appeared unprecedented.

Let's face it, Donald Trump was NEVER going to gain any real credibility in Europe.

Those people have first hand knowledge of dealing with thin skinned megalomaniacs.

But I think that this book by Michael Wolff is going to make even those who have seemed more open to negotiating with Trump, like Britain's Theresa May, think twice about dealing with a man deemed stupid or even mentally ill by his closest subordinates.

In other words the world likely no longer sees America as having a functional leader, and there is no way that is good for our country.

The Alt-Right are using NATO and British Intelligence psychological warfare techniques to spread white nationalism. Well isn't that special.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

Far right groups under the banner of the so-called 'alt right' are using psychological warfare techniques learnt from leaked NATO and British intelligence documents to spread white supremacism across the world, according to a new report. 

In a study by the the Institute of Strategic Dialogue—titled 'The Fringe Insurgency'—Julia Ebner and Jacob Davey argue that activists are "weaponising internet culture" to spread their ideology online and subvert democracies. 

After spending several weeks undercover on online alt-right forums, the authors identified the tactics that users adopted to radicalize people online and mobilize support for the far-right groups, targeting anxieties over immigration, terrorism, and race.

They used “crowd-funding platforms, custom-made social media platforms and even the use of leaked military and intelligence resources from [U.K. intelligence agency] GCHQ and NATO to run campaigns against their own governments,” the report said. 

The study identified these tactics as originating in America and then being transported to European counties to disrupt their democratic elections and incite hatred and even violence.

The article did not mention it but I would be interested in how this relates to the Russian government's attempts to undermine western democracy or if in fact they are working hand in glove. 

The Germans are really doing their best to warn us.

German press WARN: "Trump has transformed the United States into a laughing stock and he is a danger to the world."https://t.co/IylLtoze5x

— Duty To Warn (@duty2warn) September 23, 2017

Somebody on Twitter also added this. Just in case this article is too subtle.

The Germans, above all others, can see the pattern and danger in Trumpism. During his trial, Hermann Göring explained how fascism works. pic.twitter.com/AmpuNHKZ1f

— Matt Simon (@emT3i) September 23, 2017

Every high school government teacher in the country, currently teaching about the rise of the Third Reich, should be showing tapes of Trump rallies, and posting his tweets which attack the press, and telling their students "That, boys and girls, that is how it happened."

The good news is that the Russians do not seem to be doing much to alter the outcome of the German election. The bad news is that the American Right Wing seems to be taking up the slack.

Courtesy of USA Today:

An alliance of mostly anonymous online trolls and extremist agitators are meddling in Germany's election, but researchers say Russians aren’t to blame. 

Instead, they say, right-wing groups in the United States are behind materials popping up on YouTube, messaging board sites like 4chan and reddit and texting service Gab.ai. 

The evidence comes less than a week before Sunday's vote that is likely to hand German Chancellor Angela Merkel a fourth term. 

"So far we have not been able to track down any specific Russian activity," said Simon Hegelich," a professor of political science data at the Technical University of Munich who has advised the German government about the threat of hacking and false information. 

"A lot of the stuff we are seeing in Germany can be linked to, or is at least inspired by, the 'alt-right' movement in the U.S.," Hegelich said, referring to a loosely defined group whose far-right ideology includes racism and white nationalism. 

Many denigrate both leading candidates — Merkel and her conservative Christian Democratic Union party, and her chief rival, Martin Schulz of the left-of-center Social Democratic Party — with the hashtags #Merkel and #Schulz. 

And many of those posts originate in the U.S., adding to the impression that right-wing social media users in both countries may be trying to sway German public opinion. It's possible that some of this alt-right messaging coming out of the U.S. may be connected to Russian interference; that, too, is difficult to determine, Hegelich said. 

Really the take away from this is that it is now almost impossible to differentiate between Russian and Right Wing trolls.

I think that explains why despite the investigations into Russian collusion, Donald Trump is not losing much support from this particular demographic. 

I think Germany might have the very best Donald Trump magazine covers.

German news magazine @sternde features Trump. Text = "His fight" a play title of Hilter's book 'mein kampf'. V. strong stuff in Europe. pic.twitter.com/swvg4UURou

— Andrew Beatty (@AndrewBeatty) August 23, 2017

Courtesy of The Hill: 

“Neo-nazis, Ku Klux Klan, Racism: As Donald Trump stirs the hate in America,” a translation of the cover reads.

Great, the whole world now knows that we have a Nazi sympathizer in the White House. 

All they knew before was that we had a pussy grabbing, moronic, Russian puppet in there.

Totally not the same, except exactly.

If you ever wondered how Germany allowed the rise of the Nazis, well wonder no more.

This picture pretty much sums up Trump's visit to the G20 Summit.

Courtesy of CNN: 

World leaders at the G20 summit in Germany went into their final day of talks Saturday scratching their heads over what to do about a increasingly isolationist United States. 

Leaders appeared to be at an impasse over trade and climate change, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel making clear that the US' stance on the key issues were threatening to derail progress and that talks had been difficult. 

US President Donald Trump won the 2016 election on an "America First" platform that would pull the United States out of several multilateral trade deals and negotiations, as well as the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change.

Merkel illustrated an everyone-versus-the-US scenario late Friday, and said leaders were considering how they could now present these markedly different stances in one communique.

Isolated, alone, hated by the majority of the American people, and even more of the Europeans. 

If it were not for his bestie Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump would seem a tragic figure.

But then you just have to remember that this is something that he is doing to himself, as well as to our country, and any feelings of sympathy simply die on the vine.

Angela Merkel finally got that handshake photo with Trump. Not sure it was worth it.

AWKWARD!

So this is the photo making the rounds from Trump's meeting with Merkel today.

I am not sure why they both appear surprised. (Maybe Trump thought he was grabbing something else.)

You can see in this video that Merkel had to work several moments to get Trump to take her hand.

As it turns out this is a meeting that almost did not happen due to a completely dysfunction White House.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed: 

White House officials apparently waited too long to book accommodations for President Trump, leaving him without a hotel in Hamburg, Germany, as world leaders converge for the G20 summit. 

Organizers announced the scheduled summit in February 2016, which requires 9,000 hotel rooms to accommodate world leaders, their sizable staffs, and security details. 

The Hamburger Abendblatt, a local news outlet, reported that the US government wanted to accommodate Trump in the Four Seasons, but it was already booked. In fact, it turns out that every luxury hotel in Hamburg was reportedly booked by the time the Americans called, leaving Trump, who is associated with an empire of hotel properties, scrambling for a place to stay. 

Several weeks ago there were even rumors Trump might have to sleep in Berlin and have to fly to Hamburg via helicopter.

Apparently Trump will be bunking over at the US Consulate General in Hamburg.

Tomorrow Trump will be kissing Putin's ass, so he needs to be well rested.

Germany and China to join forces and take on the role traditionally filled by the United States, now that there is a lunatic in charge of that country.

It's up to us now.

Courtesy of Bloomberg: 

The U.S. traditionally takes point in the search for common approaches to the big global issues of the day at G-20 summits. Not this time. 

When world leaders meet in Hamburg on Friday, China and Germany will move in to usurp the U.S.’s role.

The two industrial powerhouses of Asia and Europe are being nudged into an informal alliance to pick up the leadership baton that the U.S. is accused of having dropped since President Donald Trump’s inauguration earlier this year, according to diplomats and officials from several Group of 20 members. 

The situation has crystallized ahead of this year’s annual G-20 meeting, which will be held in Germany’s busiest commercial port. That’s in part because, for the first time since the group’s founding, the U.S. will be represented by a president who embraces protectionism, abandoning decades of American cheer-leading for free trade.

Boy color me confused.

What part of Make America Great Again is played by having German and China usurp America's role as the leader of the free world?

And while this is going on Trump will be backstage playing footsies with Putin and getting instructions on how best to damage America next.

Germany does not want to be our friend anymore. Thanks Trump!

Oh yeah, we're not going to be friends.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

In their campaign program for the German election, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have dropped the term “friend” in describing the relationship with the United States. 

Four years ago, the joint program of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), referred to the United States as Germany’s “most important friend” outside of Europe. 

The 2013 program also described the “friendship” with Washington as a “cornerstone” of Germany’s international relations and talked about strengthening transatlantic economic ties through the removal of trade barriers. 

But the words “friend” and “friendship” are missing from the latest election program - entitled “For a Germany in which we live well and happily” - which Merkel and CSU leader Horst Seehofer presented on Monday ahead of a Sept. 24 election. 

Instead, the United States is described as Germany’s “most important partner” outside of Europe. CDU officials were not immediately available to comment on the change in wording.

You know one the themes of Trump's campaign was that President Obama was not garnering trust among our allies around the world.

Just another example of projection on his part apparently. 

Currently our allies around the world are wondering if Americans have lost their damn minds, and whether to trust the new president with anymore classified information.

Those were certainly not their concerns a year ago at this time.

Germany passes new legislation to fine social media outlets who do not remove fake news.

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

Facebook, YouTube, and other social media firms will be fined up to €50 million (£43.9 million) by Germany if they fail to remove hate speech and other criminal content within 24 hours, BBC News reports. 

The new legislation, which applies to platforms with more than 2 million users, will come into effect in October after German MPs voted in favour of the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (NetzDG) law. 

"Our experience has shown that unfortunately, social media companies do not improve their procedures without political pressure," said Justice Minister Heiko Mass, who oversaw the legislation, according to BBC News. 

The law comes after several high-profile incidents of fake news and terrorist content spread on Facebook and YouTube in Germany.

Seems reasonable.

And German needs to be very vigilant in order to keep the same thing that happened here, with the election of Donald Trump, from happening there. 

Donald Trump very excited for his first meeting with his Russian puppet master in Germany, his handlers much less so.

Courtesy of TPM: 

President Donald Trump is eager to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin with full diplomatic bells and whistles when the two are in Germany for a multinational summit next month. But the idea is exposing deep divisions within the administration on the best way to approach Moscow in the midst of an ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. elections. 

Many administration officials believe the U.S. needs to maintain its distance from Russia at such a sensitive time — and interact only with great caution. 

But Trump and some others within his administration have been pressing for a full bilateral meeting. He’s calling for media access and all the typical protocol associated with such sessions, even as officials within the State Department and National Security Council urge more restraint, according to a current and a former administration official.

You know one would expect that a person under investigation for possibly colluding with the Russians to hijack an election, would avoid the leader of Russia like the plague, if for no other reason than simply the optics of such a meeting.

But Donald Trump's arrogance and ego simply will not allow him to recognize that this could backfire on him and only add fuel to the ongoing investigations.

Or...it could simply be that Trump is being summoned by his master who wants to demonstrate his dominance over the president of the United States, and Trump is simply too weak and compromised to resist.

After Trump visit Chancellor Angela Merkel laments the loss of America as a reliable ally.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

In the aftermath of a contentious Group of 7 meeting in Taormina, Sicily, where leaders failed to persuade President Trump to back the Paris climate accord, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said on Sunday that tried and tested global alliances were no longer as reliable as they once were, citing her experience “in recent days.” 

Ms. Merkel, who is campaigning for a fourth term in the September elections, did not name the country or leader she had in mind. 

It seemed clear, however, that she was referring mainly to the United States and Mr. Trump, who refused to commit to the goals of the 195-nation climate agreement hammered out in 2015. He has said it would be bad for the United States economy.

“The times in which we could rely fully on others, they are somewhat over,” she said, according to German news media. “This is what I experienced in the last few days.”

And just like that decades of friendship between the United States and Germany come to a close.

I guess this what the White House meant by a "successful" trip.

Here was an observation by former Bush speechwriter David Frum:

Since 1945, the supreme strategic goal in Europe of the USSR and then Russia was the severing of the US-German alliance. Trump delivered.

— David Frum (@davidfrum) May 28, 2017

This presidency is now officially an international crisis.

How much longer can it be before even the Republicans in Washington realize that everything that America has fought and stood for is now hanging in the balance?

German magazine Der Spiegel tells the unvarnished truth about Donald Trump. Update!

Courtesy of Der Spiegel: 

Donald Trump is not fit to be president of the United States. He does not possess the requisite intellect and does not understand the significance of the office he holds nor the tasks associated with it. He doesn't read. He doesn't bother to peruse important files and intelligence reports and knows little about the issues that he has identified as his priorities. His decisions are capricious and they are delivered in the form of tyrannical decrees.

He is a man free of morals. As has been demonstrated hundreds of times, he is a liar, a racist and a cheat. I feel ashamed to use these words, as sharp and loud as they are. But if they apply to anyone, they apply to Trump. And one of the media's tasks is to continue telling things as they are: Trump has to be removed from the White House. Quickly. He is a danger to the world.

I read all the way to the bottom of the article and I could not find a single point that I disagreed with.

Yes, Donald Trump has to go.

Now if we can only convince the Republicans of that simple fact.

Update: The front page of German newspaper.

The front page of Germany's Die Welt national newspaper this morning, titled: “Heaven and Hell”. pic.twitter.com/sUiAGUZJ1o

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 26, 2017

Heaven and Hell, I think that is fairly accurate.

Barack Obama to join Angela Merkel in Germany to help launch worldwide program to inspire young people.

Courtesy of CNN: 

Former President Barack Obama will sit side-by-side with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Thursday in the first event of what will eventually become his worldwide program to inspire young people to create change. 

Obama will join Merkel at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to highlight his foundation's new global effort to inspire and support young people active in narrowing inequality, combating climate change, working on public health, empowering women and girls and boosting young entrepreneurs. 

"He and Mrs. Obama have been pretty clear that the foundation will have a global reach. They want to be really involved in programing throughout the world," an Obama Foundation official said.

Just a reminder that while Trump is overseas right now embarrassing our country, that former President Obama is still working to make the world a better place and to inspire future generations. 

I swear that every day Trump is in office my admiration and respect for President Obama just grows that much more.

The man was an amazing President, and history is going to be very kind to him indeed.

Donald Trump actually handed Chancellor Angela Merkel a 300 billion dollar bill that he claimed Germany owed NATO.

Courtesy of The Sunday Times:  

Donald Trump handed the German chancellor Angela Merkel a bill — thought to be for more than £300bn — for money her country “owed” Nato for defending it when they met last weekend, German government sources have revealed. 

The bill — handed over during private talks in Washington — was described as “outrageous” by one German minister. 

“The concept behind putting out such demands is to intimidate the other side, but the chancellor took it calmly and will not respond to such provocations,” the minister said.

So I guess Trump was full of shit yet again when he tweeted this:

Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS, I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Nevertheless, Germany owes.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2017

This guy is a national embarrassment now.

Good job Trump voters!

Not simply content to embarrass the US in front of the German Chancellor then Trump attempts to extort money from her as well.

I swear just looking at this picture makes me ashamed for my country.

And if that was not enough, then Trump tweeted this just today.

Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS, I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Nevertheless, Germany owes.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2017

...vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2017

Yeah the meeting was so great that Trump then felt it necessary to shake the Chancellor down like some Mafia goon for protection money.

Perhaps somebody should inform Orange Hitler that this deal with Germany is part of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty (NATO for short) that we signed to ensure that they knew we had their back as a preventive measure to tamp down the kind of desperation that would allow a fascist to rise to power in that country again.

Too bad there was nothing in place to prevent it from happening here in this country.

Oh wait, there was. It is called the Constitution.

New survey finds that United States is no longer one of the top five best countries in the world.

Courtesy of US News:  

Switzerland is viewed as the No. 1 overall country, according to a survey of more than 21,000 people from 36 countries in all regions of the world. People regard the European country highly for its citizenship, being open for business, an environment that encourages entrepreneurship, the quality of life it provides its citizens and for its cultural influence. 

Switzerland is one of 20 new countries evaluated this year, as the total number of nations assessed in the survey grew to 80. 

Canada finished No. 2 overall and the United Kingdom No. 3, as both did last year. Germany fell from its top spot in 2016 to No. 4 this year, while Japan moved up two positions to No. 5 overall.

The United States fell as many positions as Germany in the rankings, dropping to No. 7 overall, behind Sweden. The U.S. is still seen as the world's most powerful country, but the gap between it and second-place Russia, which American intelligence officials say interfered with the presidential election in an effort to help Trump, has narrowed to a near-negligible difference in that area.

"Narrowed to a near-negligible difference." Oh that's just dandy.

Other findings from the survey were the following:  

• Nearly 75 percent of respondents said they had lost respect for the U.S. in some degree because of the toxic tone of the 2016 presidential campaign. 
• Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, would have won the global popular election, but Trump would have won in Russia (83 percent of survey respondents viewed him favorably) and China (54 percent). He also polled fairly well in Israel (46 percent), Nigeria (42 percent) and Turkey (37 percent).

Is this what Trump means by MAGA?

Because I really don't see it.

New cover of Der Spiegel.

The Germans certainly understand what's going on with Donald Trump.

And of course this is not the first time that Der Spiegel has gone after Donald Trump. 

National laughingstock.