WTF - Das ist ja der Gipfel !

Submitted by mimi on Thu, 07/06/2017 - 12:52pm

Das ist ja der Gipfel ! Like the WTF Resistance.

Just post anything you want about the G20 summit here. So far I have only "What the Fucks" and "What the Hells" (WTFs and WTHs.)

Yeah, "das ist ja der Gipfel" (="that beats everything" and ahem "Gipfel" means "summit" too) here in my hometown of Hamburg.

WTF have the Walking Dead to do in my city? Who is occupying my city? Hamburg's Lives Matter!

Who are all those strange people killing all life out of my hometown? Kids can't go to school, adults can't go to work, reporters can't stop "What the Fuck" speak. Saw my work colleagues, the non-serious ones, on German TeeVee. One is espcially cute. He reports from Mowscow and the Ukraine. During my serf-working times with them in DC, he was the only one who produced a civil, but critical bio on Obama. heh, he is in the "know".

Watch live: G20 host Hamburg braces for 'Welcome to Hell' protest

Welcome to Hell? My hometown is no hell. My hometown is a beautiful city.

'Zombies' descend on Hamburg for G20 protest
What? Walking Dead in my hometown. Get outta here.

170706114209-g20-protest-zombies-03-0705-exlarge-169.jpg

Zombies - Walking Dead - Never saw them in real life, never watched them on TV, now they follow me and stalk me into my own hometurf? Das ist ja der absolute Gipfel !!!.

President Trump arrives in Germany for G-20 summit - 2 Hours Ago

Manno, I saw the same szenes at German TV, it wasn't that noisy. ... The coverage of the G20 summit is just WTF BS so far. But they try ... I luv those guys for doing it, be still my beating heart.

[video:https://youtu.be/Ng4P6FWVdcE]

Donald Trump 'has trouble finding hotel room at G20 summit' - There is no Trump hotel in the city

Welcome to Hell, Mr. President. Our finest and bestest and oldest Hotel "Vier Jahreszeiten" (Four Seasons") is occupied by the Saudi King. Na ja, das ist ja nun wirklich der Gipfel.

The local newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt reported that the Four Seasons had to turn him away as they were full.

In an ironic twist for the hotel chain owner, every luxury hotel in town seemed to be booked up. There do not appear to be any Trump-owned properties in the northern German city.

Buzzfeed did some digging and found that King Salman of Saudi Arabia and his massive entourage are staying at the Four Seasons as well two other high-end hotels.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is staying at the Park Hyatt and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will make camp at the Atlantic Kempinski with India and Canada.

Oh, radio trottoir has it that the greatest nation's President "trumps" everything. He can bring his own Trump hotel with him. Das ist nun wirklich der Gipfel ... in idiotic coverage.

Everybody waits for the "Kaaboom"? Really?
Live Stream of Welcome to Hell demonstration (German)
English live streams:
here

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G20 Summit - Das ist ja der Gipfel

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Comments

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/06/2017 - 1:04pm

I'm not following this very closely

Who are the demonstrators? And what are they demonstrating for/against?

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by mimi on Thu, 07/06/2017 - 1:17pm

they demonstrate against the spectacle of the G20 summit

@Anja Geitz @Anja Geitz
at which nothing will be really discussed. See more about it here.
G20 summit
It was to be expected that the coverage of the "black bloc" will dominate the images.

Submitted by mimi on Thu, 07/06/2017 - 1:05pm

so the kaboom started

escalations at what the hell demo
live stream ... oh well

Submitted by Big Al on Thu, 07/06/2017 - 2:22pm

Hey mimi, could you tell those protesters to get in touch

the protesters here and in Britain, Russia and France so we can start a global movement against the world's plutocracy?
Thanks. One country just isn't enough anymore. They went global, we have to go global also.

Submitted by mimi on Thu, 07/06/2017 - 4:06pm

I think there are several thousands of them

@Big Al
how do I talk to them all ? And there are different demos and I am not marching, at least not yet.
You crack me up, Big Al. I heard that the demonstrators come from all over Europe. I don't follow that every moment. The press here is talking in their print papers since days and days. I don't read them all. I can't read the same thing ten times.

Let's see what tomorrow brings. Sorry, I don't have a better answer. I don't mock you, but the whole post was a little bit of a word play with the word "Gipfel" that's all. I didn't even see the late evening news...my sister did and just said Trump is an idiot. I asked why and she couldn't find words to explain why.

Little people here, you know...

Submitted by Azazello on Thu, 07/06/2017 - 2:51pm

What ?

Trump can't get a hotel room ? I hope he can at least get a hamburger.

—

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Submitted by mimi on Thu, 07/06/2017 - 4:33pm

oh, the media speculates since days where Trump sleeps,

@Azazello
but it's true that they wrote that some hotel didn't want to host him and his entourage. I don't think I know right now for sure if that is true or where he sleeps.
Here some recent links in English.
G20 in Hamburg: Police and protesters clash
and and the Vox coverage of the "hotel booking mishappenings".
Trump is meeting key world leaders at the G20 summit. He forgot to book a hotel.
hmm, no German paper wrote that "he forgot to book a hotel". That is funny.
Trump’s dumb ass forgot to book a hotel room for the G20 summit
Well, I think that sounds like a smart thing to spread out. Nobody should know where Trump resides. Telling that "his staff forgot to book a hotel" is a polite way of saying that the NSA, CIA, FBI are smart guys...
Angela Merkel and overcoming division
BUILDING BRIDGES German Chancellor Angela Merkel has seen her country overcome deep skepticism to become unified and integrated into Europe. The next step, as she sees it, is for Germany to become a more unifying force globally.
Ok, I sincerely wish that Mr. Trumpf finds a nice place to spend his time in Hamburg.
sweet Dreams.

Submitted by mimi on Thu, 07/06/2017 - 5:29pm

Trump sleeps in the guest house of the Hamburg Senate

@mimi
Merkel and Trump met in Hotel Atlantic. As she did with Erdogan. Putin has landed a couple of minutes ago.

So, behave. I mean the leaders, not the little people. Trump has a delegation of 800 people with him. Not too bad.

Putin and Trump will talk for the first time directly. Hamburgers are mad and leave the city behind.
For Big Al:
Global citizens had a concert: G20: Hamburg feiert "Global Citizen Festival"
Big spectacle for a good cause, Trudeau speaks there. Watch the video. Oh well, it always seems to be the same thing. Protests, Black block, Presse Mitteilungen, Music Concert to benefit something that needs funds.

One gets cynical or tired. There are no news.

Submitted by mimi on Fri, 07/07/2017 - 3:15am

Who resigns? The Ethics Director?

the ~~guy~~ man. who has no enforcement power over the federal ethics rules, Walter Shaub?
Ethics director who clashed with Trump resigns - BY MEGAN R. WILSON - 07/06/17 01:11 PM EDT"

Walter Shaub, the leader of the federal government’s ethics office who previously criticized President Trump over the president's business interests, submitted his resignation on Thursday.
He will leave office nearly six months before the end of his term.

Shaub will officially step down from the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) on July 19 ...

But, but, but ....

Shaub told CBS News on Thursday evening that he doesn't know whether Trump is profiting from his businesses, but that's not the point.

"I can’t know what their intention is. I know that the effect is that there’s an appearance that the businesses are profiting from his occupying the presidency,"he told CBS News correspondent Julianna Goldman during the first televised interview following his resignation.

"And appearance matters as much as reality, so even aside from whether or not that’s actually happening, we need to send a message to the world that the United States is going to have the gold standard for an ethics program in government, which is what we’ve always had," he continued.

"America should have the right to know what the motivations of its leaders are, and they need to know that financial interests—personal financial interests—aren’t among them," Shaub told CBS News.

Gold too isn't what it once used to be ...and standards? They still exist? May be diamonds forever are better?

The OGE has no enforcement power of any federal ethics rules; that’s left to ethics officials within each agency and the White House.

Yeah, that explains it. The guys WITH enforcement powers would never resign.

Taub looks like a decent man, doesn't he? At least from far away, where everything is hard to see clearly.

Submitted by mimi on Fri, 07/07/2017 - 4:08am

The Morning After - at Deutsche Welle -

Trump and Putin take center stage as Hamburg's G20 begins

The summits within the summit
As summit chair, Angela Merkel has tried in recent days to speak to almost all important G20 participants, to make them aware of the parameters of the meeting. But the upcoming G20 conference, the tenth of its kind, is overshadowed by a number of international crises in a world which Merkel describes as "in turmoil.”

According to the US, the most important issues lie outside the G20 meeting agenda, which include financial policy, the economic structure of the world's digitalization, investment programs in Africa and more rights for women.

Instead, Trump plans to focus his energies on meetings with both the Russian and Chinese presidents. The US president criticized both men sharply ahead of his trip to Hamburg.

Russia was playing a "destabilizing role,” Trump said during a speech Thursday in Poland, although it was unclear whether he was talking about the country's dealings with Ukraine or its hacking attacks on the 2016 US presidential election.

Domestically, Trump is under pressure, due to official investigations into possible connections between his campaign team and Russian officials and the promised improvement in relations to Russia have not yet appeared.

Last week national security adviser H.R. McMaster said that Trump had prepared no specific agenda for the meeting with Putin. "It's whatever the president wants to talk about,” McMaster told reporters.

heh, whatever the president wants to talk about...

Thankfully, Donald Trump has said that he is determined make the 300-million-euro ($342-million) summit a success. Around 20,000 police are also on hand to make sure demonstrations take place without a glitch and that there are no other security issues.

It all bodes for a fascinating few days, even if the G20 doesn't have an official remit to decide on worldwide issues and is more of a working group.

Over the last few days, Hamburg's world famous harbor has been home to a large banner hung on the side of a shipyard, with a surprising protest message. It reads, "Keep global trade open!” - an unfamiliar catchcry of G20 protesters.
Trump, with his "America First" motto, may have something to say about that motto too.

Keep Global Trade Open. Someone explain that to me ... mimi's mini brain doesn't get it, but apparently contrary to trade my mind is open. Fill me in.

Submitted by irishking on Fri, 07/07/2017 - 7:12am

" my mind is open - fill me in." (++)

@mimi

Trump and Putin take center stage as Hamburg's G20 begins

The summits within the summit
As summit chair, Angela Merkel has tried in recent days to speak to almost all important G20 participants, to make them aware of the parameters of the meeting. But the upcoming G20 conference, the tenth of its kind, is overshadowed by a number of international crises in a world which Merkel describes as "in turmoil.”

According to the US, the most important issues lie outside the G20 meeting agenda, which include financial policy, the economic structure of the world's digitalization, investment programs in Africa and more rights for women.

Instead, Trump plans to focus his energies on meetings with both the Russian and Chinese presidents. The US president criticized both men sharply ahead of his trip to Hamburg.

Russia was playing a "destabilizing role,” Trump said during a speech Thursday in Poland, although it was unclear whether he was talking about the country's dealings with Ukraine or its hacking attacks on the 2016 US presidential election.

Domestically, Trump is under pressure, due to official investigations into possible connections between his campaign team and Russian officials and the promised improvement in relations to Russia have not yet appeared.

Last week national security adviser H.R. McMaster said that Trump had prepared no specific agenda for the meeting with Putin. "It's whatever the president wants to talk about,” McMaster told reporters.

heh, whatever the president wants to talk about...

Thankfully, Donald Trump has said that he is determined make the 300-million-euro ($342-million) summit a success. Around 20,000 police are also on hand to make sure demonstrations take place without a glitch and that there are no other security issues.

It all bodes for a fascinating few days, even if the G20 doesn't have an official remit to decide on worldwide issues and is more of a working group.

Over the last few days, Hamburg's world famous harbor has been home to a large banner hung on the side of a shipyard, with a surprising protest message. It reads, "Keep global trade open!” - an unfamiliar catchcry of G20 protesters.
Trump, with his "America First" motto, may have something to say about that motto too.

Keep Global Trade Open. Someone explain that to me ... mimi's mini brain doesn't get it, but apparently contrary to trade my mind is open. Fill me in.

Submitted by Ellen North on Fri, 07/07/2017 - 11:36pm

@mimi

@mimi

I'm guessing they'd prefer actual trade between people of every country, rather than having tightly controlled 'trade' only between specific corporations and corporate-serving governments in specific ~~countries~~ geographic markets as permitted under corporate law on the global CEO-run factory floor, with various countries no longer permitted to produce various foods, (such as dairy products in Canada, within a decade of the deadly, illegal and unconstitutional TPP offshoring domestic law and which is still being pushed,) and other goods themselves; I've also read of restaurants permitted to show only certain condiment labels on their tables in some Nordic??? country.

We can survive just fine without massive monopolistic international or other corporations micro-managing our public policies, countries and lives into profitable-for-them disasters, which we literally cannot survive.

Trump and Putin take center stage as Hamburg's G20 begins

The summits within the summit
As summit chair, Angela Merkel has tried in recent days to speak to almost all important G20 participants, to make them aware of the parameters of the meeting. But the upcoming G20 conference, the tenth of its kind, is overshadowed by a number of international crises in a world which Merkel describes as "in turmoil.”

According to the US, the most important issues lie outside the G20 meeting agenda, which include financial policy, the economic structure of the world's digitalization, investment programs in Africa and more rights for women.

Instead, Trump plans to focus his energies on meetings with both the Russian and Chinese presidents. The US president criticized both men sharply ahead of his trip to Hamburg.

Russia was playing a "destabilizing role,” Trump said during a speech Thursday in Poland, although it was unclear whether he was talking about the country's dealings with Ukraine or its hacking attacks on the 2016 US presidential election.

Domestically, Trump is under pressure, due to official investigations into possible connections between his campaign team and Russian officials and the promised improvement in relations to Russia have not yet appeared.

Last week national security adviser H.R. McMaster said that Trump had prepared no specific agenda for the meeting with Putin. "It's whatever the president wants to talk about,” McMaster told reporters.

heh, whatever the president wants to talk about...

Thankfully, Donald Trump has said that he is determined make the 300-million-euro ($342-million) summit a success. Around 20,000 police are also on hand to make sure demonstrations take place without a glitch and that there are no other security issues.

It all bodes for a fascinating few days, even if the G20 doesn't have an official remit to decide on worldwide issues and is more of a working group.

Over the last few days, Hamburg's world famous harbor has been home to a large banner hung on the side of a shipyard, with a surprising protest message. It reads, "Keep global trade open!” - an unfamiliar catchcry of G20 protesters.
Trump, with his "America First" motto, may have something to say about that motto too.

Keep Global Trade Open. Someone explain that to me ... mimi's mini brain doesn't get it, but apparently contrary to trade my mind is open. Fill me in.

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 07/08/2017 - 3:39am

@ Ellen North - @ EB friends - I know nothing much ...

@Ellen North
As far as I heard it's Trump, who wants to impose punitive tarriffs on steel the Germans export to the US. (Have no idea if I understood that correctly either). Our conservative Minister of Finance, Mr. Schaeuble said, if that will happen the Germans will react swiftly and immediately and with determination. Then I think that Schaeuble and Laguarde hope for an 'exit from the brexit'. It seems that the EU member nations unite more strongly than probably many on the progressive leftist spectrum had expected. They unite against those, who hoped that countries from the European South would find relief through brexit, exiting the EU and thusly getting rid of the EU's regulatory impositions on them. That's the opposite apparently from what leftists had hoped for. I don't know if I have understood that correctly either.

We can survive just fine without massive monopolistic international or other corporations micro-managing our public policies, countries and lives into profitable-for-them disasters, which we literally cannot survive.

... says you.

Apparently many EU member states have less fears of the EU's monopolistic management than the US' massive monopolistic nationalistic management. At least they fear uncontrollabe chaos more than a managed one. Well, I have not managed to even understand the basics.

It's like war on the streets of Hamburg. You can move through the images and videos yourself. Why would you think people fear the EU more than uncontrollable financial and digital chaos?

Most people and the police are pretty calm considering the damage that has been done

Here is what I wanted to post in Friday's EB post. Fall asleep over it. Now I post it here.

My former boss quoted Merkel today in the evening news as saying preparing for the G20 "is like herding a sack of fleas".

DIE ZEIT: Frau Bundeskanzlerin, Sie haben gesagt, die Vorbereitung des G20-Gipfels komme Ihnen vor, als müssten Sie einen Sack Flöhe hüten.
(Madame Chancellor, you have said, that the preparation of the G20 summit feels as one has to herd a sack of fleas)
Angela Merkel: Habe ich das gesagt? (Did I say that?)
ZEIT: Ja, Anfang Mai bei einer Konferenz von Wirtschaftsvertretern in Berlin. Jetzt, kurz vor Beginn, würden Sie sagen, es ist besser geworden? Haben Sie den Flöhen Unrecht getan?
(Yes, in the beginning of May at a convference of representatives from the economic sector. Now, ... would you say it has become better or did you do injustice to the fleas?
Merkel: Jetzt ist es die Quadratur des Kreises (lacht).
(no, now it's the quadrature of the circle - (she laughs))

At least a little smile.
Putin (the poker face) and Trump "he makes it with a little peace in Syria" said one other correspondent. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/us-russia-agreement-calls-fo...)

It's official now, US-Russia agreement calls for cease-fire in southwest Syria.

They way it was formulated in the German TV evening news it sounded slightly sarcastic "Putin und Trump machten es heute in ein wenig Frieden fuer Syria" and the listener could hear through it (yeah, yeah, peace starts on Sunday and ends a couple of days later). For German public TV that was quite some sarcastic language, I would say rather seldom voiced.

With regards to Hamburg's police being terribly and awfully oppressive, I would like to say that the police first real actions yesterday (Thursday) happened when the black block appeared hooded, masked and mummed. That was not allowed and known in advance it was not allowed. The police requested the demonstrators to remove their masks and they refused. After that the police started to disperse them and tried to separate that specific group from the other demonstrators - using water cannons etc.

That was Thursday evening local German time. Meanwhile anarchists, who apparently love to set cars on fire and smash windows with stone, spread through some of Hamburgs housing areas on Friday during the day. It's not over and it got worse and people are tense of what happens during the night hours.

So, you have the black block folks, then you have the pinky flowery dancing folks and you have the music folks. All stage themselves. All get funded from somewhere. The most effective way of "changing" any sort of social justice issues. (ahem, yeah)

During the night of Friday to Saturday, parts of Hamburg resembled a war zone. Complete chaos. I am sure it helped to erase poverty on earth./s

So much for that. Waiting for the final "Kommuniqué" today. It's Saturday morning over here at Hamburg, I had a good night sleep and didn't watch the news. There were none.

Oh, no, there is one:
EU-Vertreter meldet Durchbruch bei G20
"Wir haben eine Erklärung - mit allen 20": Laut einem EU-Repräsentanten wird es ein gemeinsames Abschlussdokument der G20-Staaten geben, inklusive USA. Nur eine Frage sei noch offen. Die Live-News.

They are united !!! Hallelujah !!! With Drumpy!!! /s

So, "dann ist ja alles in Butter". But one other Chancellor knew better a long time ago: "„Meine Damen und Herren! Daß in der internationalen Lage nicht alles in Butter ist, wissen Sie und muß auch das deutsche Volk wissen.“ (Konrad Adenauer, 1950)".

We know, Konrad. Don't worry.

Just saying.

Submitted by Ellen North on Sat, 07/08/2017 - 4:51pm

@mimi

@mimi

Hi, mimi!

Just going to clear up a little confusion here before I forget after reading the rest of your post.

What you'd quoted from my post actually referred to corporations, in which I do include international banksters, rather than the notion of a union of countries:

We can survive just fine without massive monopolistic international or other corporations micro-managing our public policies, countries and lives into profitable-for-them disasters, which we literally cannot survive.

I do, however, personally object to any powerful self-interests taking away what I regard as a right to responsive and locally accessible/accountable self-government for the people of any country, so...

I suppose that I just happen to prefer the ideal of democracies and of countries belonging to their citizens to having people's countries turned into corporate trading blocks existing for the enrichment of a relative and exploitative few at the expense of their publics and ecologies.

Think I actually need a snooze before I can wake up enough to comment, lol....

#6.2
As far as I heard it's Trump, who wants to impose punitive tarriffs on steel the Germans export to the US. (Have no idea if I understood that correctly either). Our conservative Minister of Finance, Mr. Schaeuble said, if that will happen the Germans will react swiftly and immediately and with determination. Then I think that Schaeuble and Laguarde hope for an 'exit from the brexit'. It seems that the EU member nations unite more strongly than probably many on the progressive leftist spectrum had expected. They unite against those, who hoped that countries from the European South would find relief through brexit, exiting the EU and thusly getting rid of the EU's regulatory impositions on them. That's the opposite apparently from what leftists had hoped for. I don't know if I have understood that correctly either.

We can survive just fine without massive monopolistic international or other corporations micro-managing our public policies, countries and lives into profitable-for-them disasters, which we literally cannot survive.

... says you.

Apparently many EU member states have less fears of the EU's monopolistic management than the US' massive monopolistic nationalistic management. At least they fear uncontrollabe chaos more than a managed one. Well, I have not managed to even understand the basics.

It's like war on the streets of Hamburg. You can move through the images and videos yourself. Why would you think people fear the EU more than uncontrollable financial and digital chaos?

Most people and the police are pretty calm considering the damage that has been done

Here is what I wanted to post in Friday's EB post. Fall asleep over it. Now I post it here.

My former boss quoted Merkel today in the evening news as saying preparing for the G20 "is like herding a sack of fleas".

DIE ZEIT: Frau Bundeskanzlerin, Sie haben gesagt, die Vorbereitung des G20-Gipfels komme Ihnen vor, als müssten Sie einen Sack Flöhe hüten.
(Madame Chancellor, you have said, that the preparation of the G20 summit feels as one has to herd a sack of fleas)
Angela Merkel: Habe ich das gesagt? (Did I say that?)
ZEIT: Ja, Anfang Mai bei einer Konferenz von Wirtschaftsvertretern in Berlin. Jetzt, kurz vor Beginn, würden Sie sagen, es ist besser geworden? Haben Sie den Flöhen Unrecht getan?
(Yes, in the beginning of May at a convference of representatives from the economic sector. Now, ... would you say it has become better or did you do injustice to the fleas?
Merkel: Jetzt ist es die Quadratur des Kreises (lacht).
(no, now it's the quadrature of the circle - (she laughs))

At least a little smile.
Putin (the poker face) and Trump "he makes it with a little peace in Syria" said one other correspondent. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/us-russia-agreement-calls-fo...)

It's official now, US-Russia agreement calls for cease-fire in southwest Syria.

They way it was formulated in the German TV evening news it sounded slightly sarcastic "Putin und Trump machten es heute in ein wenig Frieden fuer Syria" and the listener could hear through it (yeah, yeah, peace starts on Sunday and ends a couple of days later). For German public TV that was quite some sarcastic language, I would say rather seldom voiced.

With regards to Hamburg's police being terribly and awfully oppressive, I would like to say that the police first real actions yesterday (Thursday) happened when the black block appeared hooded, masked and mummed. That was not allowed and known in advance it was not allowed. The police requested the demonstrators to remove their masks and they refused. After that the police started to disperse them and tried to separate that specific group from the other demonstrators - using water cannons etc.

That was Thursday evening local German time. Meanwhile anarchists, who apparently love to set cars on fire and smash windows with stone, spread through some of Hamburgs housing areas on Friday during the day. It's not over and it got worse and people are tense of what happens during the night hours.

So, you have the black block folks, then you have the pinky flowery dancing folks and you have the music folks. All stage themselves. All get funded from somewhere. The most effective way of "changing" any sort of social justice issues. (ahem, yeah)

During the night of Friday to Saturday, parts of Hamburg resembled a war zone. Complete chaos. I am sure it helped to erase poverty on earth./s

So much for that. Waiting for the final "Kommuniqué" today. It's Saturday morning over here at Hamburg, I had a good night sleep and didn't watch the news. There were none.

Oh, no, there is one:
EU-Vertreter meldet Durchbruch bei G20
"Wir haben eine Erklärung - mit allen 20": Laut einem EU-Repräsentanten wird es ein gemeinsames Abschlussdokument der G20-Staaten geben, inklusive USA. Nur eine Frage sei noch offen. Die Live-News.

They are united !!! Hallelujah !!! With Drumpy!!! /s

So, "dann ist ja alles in Butter". But one other Chancellor knew better a long time ago: "„Meine Damen und Herren! Daß in der internationalen Lage nicht alles in Butter ist, wissen Sie und muß auch das deutsche Volk wissen.“ (Konrad Adenauer, 1950)".

We know, Konrad. Don't worry.

Just saying.

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by mimi on Fri, 07/07/2017 - 4:44am

Russian Dachas off limits to Ruskies ...sez AP in the WP

As Trump meets Putin, fate of Russian dachas still in limbo

WASHINGTON — As Donald Trump meets for the first time with Vladimir Putin, resolving a dispute over a pair of Russian diplomatic compounds seized by the United States last year could be a first step in repairing a relationship wracked by Syria’s civil war, Ukraine’s separatist violence and Moscow’s meddling in the U.S. presidential election. ... (me: Dachas are useful, who would have thought?

After Trump’s surprising election victory, the outgoing Obama administration expelled 35 Russian officials from the U.S. and ordered the shutdown of the two Cold War-era recreational estates that Russian diplomats had used for decades. President Barack Obama said they also were being used for spy operations. ...(me: of course Obama was intelligent.)

A former senior U.S. intelligence official said the FBI and intelligence agencies for decades wanted the two compounds closed because they were suspected of being used for surveillance work. (Damn, I drove by there every day, did they catch me?) Obama’s decision to close the two compounds was a “pretty big deal for us because it was something that we’d been asking to do for a long, long time,” said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue. ...(me: when intelligence gets intelligent intelligence goes silent)

A 1989 report published by Australian National University’s Desmond Ball said the Maryland facility, known as Pioneer Point, was geographically situated for collecting signals intelligence. The report, provided by The National Security Archive at George Washington University, quoted from interviews with Arkady Shevchenko, a Soviet defector, and U.S. Navy sources.

“The Eastern Shore property happens to be in the main microwave transmission corridor between Norfolk, Virginia, hub of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet operations, and the Air Force’s major base at Langley Field and Washington,” the report said. ...

Top U.S. and Russian officials have described the impasse over the estates as an “irritant” that if resolved could provide a basis for progress on weightier disputes....

Russia is standing firm. On Monday, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said if the U.S. doesn’t soon give back the compounds, Moscow will have no choice but to retaliate. ...

“Since the Reagan administration, U.S. officials have believed that these facilities were also being used for intelligence-related purposes,” said Pascrell, who is from New Jersey.

ok, let's hope that with some intelligence those intelligence people will resolve the conflict of interest between the two according to future intelligence-related purposes. I am sure both, Americans and Russians, could aggree on that. It would be ... like the common sense would win over intelligence.

(I always wondered what this smiley was supposed to mean. I think it's an intelligence thingy again).