I have heard of people who cannot hold their liquor, but this moron cannot even hold his water.

Such a fucking embarrassment.

White House officials found a meeting between Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel "humiliating."

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

President Donald Trump appeared to know little, if anything, about international trade deals during an exchange with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in March this year. White House officials reportedly characterized the talk as “humiliating.” 

The Republican Trump asked Merkel about creating a new, bilateral trade deal between Germany and the U.S., even though, as a member of the European Union, Germany cannot strike such a deal without the other 27 members of the union, according to The New York Times. 

Merkel was afraid to fully correct Trump since White House aides told German officials the four-term chancellor had been condescending to Trump during one of their first phone calls. 

Instead, Merkel eased into an explanation that an agreement could be reached in concert with the EU. 

“So it could be bilateral?” Trump asked Merkel, who nodded, according to those in the meeting. Trump responded: “That’s great.” 

Trump then turned to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and said: “Wilbur, we’ll negotiate a bilateral trade deal with Europe.” German officials were reportedly relieved that no incident occurred, but White House officials told The Times they saw the exchange as “humiliating.”

Every day. Every single day there is yet another reason to be ashamed of who is running this country. 

Angela Merkel literally had to talk to this idiot as she would a small child, while also hoping that she did not hurt his tiny feelings and cause an international incident.

Americans once again choose Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as the most admired man and woman.

Courtesy of Gallup: 

Americans once again are most likely to name Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as the man and woman living anywhere in the world they admire most, as they have for the past 10 years. The pair retain their titles this year, although by much narrower margins than in the past. Obama edges out Donald Trump, 17% to 14%, while Clinton edges out Michelle Obama, 9% to 7%.

The 2017 survey marks the 16th consecutive year Clinton has been the most admired woman. She has held the title 22 times in total, more than anyone else. Eleanor Roosevelt is second with 13 wins. Obama has now been named the most admired man 10 times, trailing only Dwight Eisenhower, who earned the distinction 12 times. Obama won all eight years he was president, plus 2008 -- the year he was first elected -- and this year, his first as a former president.

I love the fact that Hillary has the first spot on the female side, and is closely followed by Michelle Obama, with Melania Trump showing up eighth on the list well below Elizabeth Warren and Angela Merkel.

Trump showed up at number two, which is troubling, but he did lose a percentage points since last year.

However I seriously doubt that he will spend very long near the top, as the more we learn about him the less the American people like him. 

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. 

Vladimir Putin seems pretty convinced that Trump bought his denials about interference in the 2016 election.

God you have soft hands.

Courtesy of the AP:  

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he thinks U.S. President Donald Trump believed his in-person denials of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential vote. 

Putin spoke Saturday after the Group of 20 summit where he and Trump had their first face to face meeting. 

He said Trump asked him numerous questions about Russia’s alleged interference in the U.S. election during a lengthy discussion on the issue. 

Putin says he thinks his answers satisfied Trump, but added that Trump’s opinion would be better sought from the U.S. president himself. 

He says Moscow and Washington would be able to improve their ties if the two countries keep relating the way he and Trump did.

Sounds like Labrov's version of events was more accurate than Secretary of State Tillerson's.

Of course we would definitely know what was said if they had not kept the two hour meeting so hush hush. Now it is just a case of liar said vs other liar said.

Well at least the new leader of the free world knows how to respond to Putin's bullshit.

Mansplaining, G20 style. Watch Angela Merkel’s eye-roll. pic.twitter.com/PXEI0WxyYH

— SimonNRicketts (@SimonNRicketts) July 7, 2017

Well done, almost as appropriate as our last true leader's steely eyed glare.

Yes my friends, I am old enough to remember when America stood up to the Russians and did not allow them to set our agenda, choose our leaders, or poach our hard earned position as a dominant world power.

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.

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?

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.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had to explain the European Union to Donald Trump 11 times.

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

President Trump did not understand that the US cannot negotiate a trade deal with Germany alone and must deal with the European Union as a bloc, a senior German official told The Times of London. 

"Ten times Trump asked [German chancellor Angela Merkel] if he could negotiate a trade deal with Germany. Every time she replied, 'You can’t do a trade deal with Germany, only the EU,'" the official said. 

 They continued: "On the eleventh refusal, Trump finally got the message, 'Oh, we’ll do a deal with Europe then.'"

Merkel reportedly told her cabinet members that Trump had "very basic misunderstandings" on the "fundamentals" of the EU and trade. 

 The exchange occurred when Merkel met with Trump last month and reportedly convinced him to negotiate with the EU as a bloc after attempts by his administration to deal with individual countries were declined. 

If it is possible to die of shame the death rate in this country is about to spike considerably. 

I literally never thought I would be more embarrassed about the person occupying the White House than I was during the Bush years.

God, was I wrong.

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!

That moment when you realize that the guy standing next to you is a blithering moron.

This moment will go down in history as the moment that Europe realized the president of the United States is completely off his rocker.

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.

Donald Trump bizarrely triples down on his claim of being wiretapped by the past administration before then blaming any inaccuracies on Fox News.

President Trump repeats wiretapping claim while standing beside Angela Merkel https://t.co/c3KlcjT5rI pic.twitter.com/3wVi15dANM

— TIME (@TIME) March 17, 2017

Wait, so he claims that both he and Angela Merkel were wiretapped by President Obama, right before he throws Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano under the bus as the source who suggested that the Brits did it?

The man is clearly insane!

Well at least at the end of this press conference he deigned to shake Chancellor Merkel's hand after refusing to do so earlier in the day. I wonder if Obamacare covers almost dying from embarrassment.

Better find out before it gets repealed. 

Breitbart loses German advertisers as the site makes plans to impact the elections in that country.

Courtesy of the LA Times: 

After recent decisions by companies such as the Kellogg Co. and Allstate to pull their ads, a number of German companies have followed suit, including BMW, Deutsche Telekom and the restaurant chain Vapiano. 

Deutsche Telekom is the parent company of wireless carrier T-Mobile. 

A spokesman for BMW of North America said that the carmaker doesn’t advertise on Breitbart directly and only individuals who specifically expressed an interest in the brand and then visited the Breitbart site would have received an ad from BMW. 

“We continuously review sites where individually targeted ads are available and Breitbart is no longer among them,” the company said in a statement. 

Deutsche Telekom said in a separate statement that “we have had our advertising removed from [Breitbart] and have block listed them, to ensure that no further Deutsche Telekom ads appear there. Deutsche Telekom stands for values such as tolerance and openness and we do not condone any discriminatory acts or comments.”

Breitbart has recently suggested that they will be expanding into Germany, and have already written multiple posts critical of Chancellor Merkel.

However good this news might seem, I recently learned that Breitbart is actually supported by some wealthy right wing donors, and does not rely solely on advertising dollars:  

Breitbart refuses to release revenue figures, although pundits suspect that its advertising streams are not big enough to sustain its current operations in America and Britain. It is financed by private backers, notably Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund billionaire and a big donor to Mr Trump’s campaign, who reportedly invested $10m in the site a few years ago. Yet compared with traditional media, its overheads are small: a few opinionated journalists, some interns and readers who fill up the comments page at no extra cost. 

Breitbart’s ad revenues, such as they are, could prove volatile. Its content is frequently toxic: its comment section is a platform for members of far-right hate groups to rail against immigration and Jews.

This means that Breitbart is not hampered by any potential financial concerns as they spread hate, racism, and Islamophobia at will.

So long as they please their wealthy benefactors there is no down side to attacking liberals in this country or others, and despite their new ties to the president elect there are no signs that they intend to change their tactics one little bit.

In fact there is every indication that they plan to become even more aggressive in attacking politicians like Angela Merkel, and promoting politicians more in line with their world view.

Is anybody else having flashes from "The Boys From Brazil?"

Donald Trump calls for the "extreme vetting" of immigrants.

Courtesy of Time:

Trump called for an ideological test for immigrants in a new policy speech, saying he would institute “extreme vetting” for visa applicants. 

“We should only admit into this country those who share our values and respect our people,” Trump said at Youngstown State University in Ohio Monday. “In the Cold War we had an ideological screening test. The time is overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today. I call it extreme vetting. I call it extreme, extreme vetting,” he continued. “Our country has enough problems, we don’t need more.”

You may be surprised to hear this but I support the idea of "extreme vetting."

However rather than focus on immigrants coming to this country I would like to focus on Donald Trump.

First I would like to see those tax returns that he refuses to provide.

Then I want him to reveal ALL of this financial and personal ties to Vladimir Putin and Russia.

And thirdly I would like to see a current physical provided by a competent doctor, as well as an "extreme" drug screening, because let's face it Trump is clearly on something.

Don't believe me?

Take a look at these recent tweets.

"CLINTON REFUGEE PLAN COULD BRING IN 620,000 REFUGEES IN FIRST TERM AT LIFETIME COST OF OVER $400 BILLION." https://t.co/COZQNt6KVs

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 15, 2016

#AmericasMerkel pic.twitter.com/QFRs4bEUC1

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 15, 2016

That first tweet is the result of some strange Right Wing math applied to Clinton's stated desire to bring in 65,000 refugees, and the second tweet apparently means we are all supposed to think that a comparison of Hillary Clinton to Angela Merkel is an insult, even though Trump called her "probably the greatest leader in the world today" just last year.

Yeah I think instead of the regular pee test they should draw blood and really find out what chemicals are behind Trump's verbosity, mood swings, and orange skin color.

Bing celebrates the Women of 2013.

I don't know how I missed this earlier, but I did.

As a man I am humbled to my core after viewing these amazing women.

So much courage, perseverance, and joy that it should send message to all of us never to give up and to continue to strive to overcome every obstacle that life throws out way.

You can read more about the woman included in that advertisement here.

Revelations about internet spying has just put the chill on President Obama's upcoming visit to Germany.

"You got some splainin to do buddy!"

Courtesy of Reuters:  

German outrage over a U.S. Internet spying program has broken out ahead of a visit by Barack Obama, with ministers demanding the president provide a full explanation when he lands in Berlin next week and one official likening the tactics to those of the East German Stasi. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman has said she will raise the issue with Obama in talks next Wednesday, potentially casting a cloud over a visit that was designed to celebrate U.S.-German ties on the 50th anniversary John F. Kennedy's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. 

Government surveillance is an extremely sensitive topic in Germany, where memories of the dreaded Stasi secret police and its extensive network of informants are still fresh in the minds of many citizens. 

In a guest editorial for Spiegel Online on Tuesday, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said reports that the United States could access and track virtually all forms of Internet communication were "deeply disconcerting" and potentially dangerous. 

"The more a society monitors, controls and observes its citizens, the less free it is," she said.

 Remember even if WE are cool with being spied on by our government, we do not exist in a vacuum and there are others who have seen how badly this can go once the government stops respecting the rights of its citizens.

Gee the next thing you know Germany will put the wall back up, this time in cyberspace and not to keep the Communists at bay but instead the Americans.

So this happened in Germany the other day.

Courtesy of Newsmax: 

Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted he "liked" the topless protesters he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel encountered while touring an industrial fair in Hanover Monday. 

The women, who appeared to be representing the feminist Ukrainian group Femen, were stripped to the waist and painted with the slogan "f*** dictator." 

"As for the protest, I liked it," Putin said at a press conference after the fair. The event's organizers should "say thank you to the Ukrainian girls, they helped you promote the trade fair," he said. 

On its Facebook page, Femen said the protest was an "anti-dictatorial attack on Putin." The group criticized the Kremlin, Russia's Federal Security Service, and the Russian Orthodox Church, saying that Femen was against "dictatorship, homophobia, and theocracy." 

So I guess evil dictators don't mind being protested against just so long as you are topless.

By the way the woman were incredibly aggressive and essentially launched themselves in Putin's direction resulting in some not very delicate handling by his security staff.

As you can see for yourself in this video of the interaction.

(I kind of feel badly for Merkel here as she looks completely freaked out by the painted breasts being thrust in her direction.)

Somehow considering just how Putin deals with his detractors ("What another political enemy died in his sleep? What a bizarre coincidence!"), I guess acting like a misogynist pig is probably hardly worth a mention.