The Illegitimate "President" Is Doing A Lot Of Harm-- Who Is Complicit?

   

Señor imbecile, illegitimate fake "president" Trumpanzee is, as the Washington Post noted yesterday, "remaking the global trade order without significant political resistance or penalty, unchecked by a largely compliant Congress and bolstered by the loyalty of his supporters-- even those [pathetic, self-destructive morons] likely to be hurt by his burgeoning global trade war. The rubber stamp enablers in Congress-- i.e., the entire Republican Party-- is so passive in the face of Trump’s escalating trade conflict that they cannot be anything but complicit and that complicity is one of several factors that have made it easier for the illegitimate fake "president" to push on. I don't mean to sound rude, but any voter who pulls the lever or check the box for a Republican, is also complicit. Señor T can't remake our country on his own. By confirming his nominees, the Senate takes on collective guilt.

Those congressmembers and voters are also complicit for letting Trump get away with destroying, for example, NATO. The Post also noted yesterday that he's "upended the NATO summit here Thursday by calling an emergency meeting of leaders and threatening that if all member countries do not immediately increase their defense spending commitments, the United States would go it alone. It was not clear whether Trump was threatening a U.S. withdrawal from NATO, but some diplomats perceived his comments that way... Trump told NATO leaders that if they did not meet their defense spending targets of 2 percent of gross domestic product by January, the United States would go it alone… The officials said Trump threatened to 'do his own thing.'"

The NY Times, which was complicit in urging Americans to accept his latest nominee/criminal to the Supreme Court, had a different interpretation yesterday, claimng that Trumpanzee "strongly recommitted American support for NATO," saying that he "had won great concessions from allies on military spending, though he did not offer any details." Señor T, AKA-- the American whiny bitch:

"The United States was not being treated fairly, but now we are. I told people that I’d be very unhappy if they did not up their commitments very substantially."

German TV-- all day Friday

American members of Congress better remember that when they vote to confirm any Trump nomination, they are voting to confirm Trump and everything his regime does. The rest of the world has figured out what he is, why haven't senators in Washington, DC? History will not judge them kindly. This is nit game. Meanwhile, late Thursay afternoon, the AP reported that Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte insisted that "Italy hasn’t agreed to any additional financial commitments to NATO amid pressure from" the illegitimate, clownish American "president."

“Italy has inherited spending commitments that we haven’t changed. So there is no additional spending,” Conte told a news conference. However, he said the issue over a better distribution of contribution to the military alliance is legitimate... “We must consider that NATO has evolved over time. It was born 70 years ago. Its vocation, features, organizational structure and operative strategy have changed. And rightly so, the United States says NATO is more focused on European defense and interests and it doesn’t seem proportionate to maintain this form of contribution.”

Conte added that he hadn’t heard any threat by Trump to withdraw the United States from the alliance, as was reported by some media.

“My ears didn’t hear Trump threaten to leave NATO. So I can’t confirm this news. If he said something on the side I don’t know,” Conte said.

...French President Emmanuel Macron has denied President Donald Trump’s claim that NATO allies have agreed to boost defense spending beyond 2 percent of gross domestic product.

Macron said: There is a communique that was published yesterday. It’s very detailed.”

He added: “It confirms the goal of 2 percent by 2024. That’s all.”

The summit statement affirms a commitment made in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea that NATO allies would halt defense spending cuts, start spending more as their economies grow, with the aim of moving toward 2 percent of GDP within a decade.

Trump, probably at Putin's insistence, has called NATO "obsolete" and falsely claimed that the U.S. pays 90% of NATO expenses. On Wednesday, PolitiFact looked at Trump's absurd claims about NATO and decided to not rate them "partly false" or "mostly false," but just FALSE. "Trump’s statement," they wrote, "shows a misunderstanding of the way NATO spending works. Other member countries do not owe the United States or NATO any money.

"It most certainly is not true, as the president has suggested repeatedly, that other NATO countries owe us money," said Christopher Preble, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. "The 2 percent figure refers to what each country spends on its defense, as a share of that country’s GDP. It does not imply owing the U.S. anything."

NATO countries do not pay money to a broad NATO defense budget. NATO defense spending is "not money that is going to be put in some kitty at NATO," Benjamin said.

In reality, each country determines its own level of military spending, said Ivo Daalder, president of the Chicago Council for Global Affairs and the former U.S. ambassador to NATO under former President Barack Obama.

"No one owes us any money," Daalder said. "Nor is the U.S. spending more because allies are spending less ... our defense spending is a national decision and is determined by our national security and defense needs."

"Countries falling short means not that they owe anyone money, but that countries have weaker militaries than we would like," added Stephen Saideman, a professor at Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. "NATO is not a country club."

...The United States does pay for approximately 22 percent of a small, commonly-funded budget that concerns civilian and some military expenses, Daalder noted. That budget, which is less than $5 billion, is funded by all NATO members based on a cost-sharing formula that considers gross national income and other factors.

But Daalder said "no one is in arrears or delinquent on any payments" for that budget, either.

A note for people who voted for and still support Trump and bought his MAGA hats: 22% is much smaller than 90%. That was your math lesson of the day. Now go take a civics class and then come back and apologize to the rest of us-- and the rest of humanity-- for what you did.