David Rothkopf/Haaretz:
Mideast 'Friends' Beware: With North Korea, Trump Just Proved How Easily He’ll Sell Out America’s Allies
Long-standing alliances? Disposable. The entire international security order? Expendable. The lesson for Netanyahu and U.S. allies in the Gulf is that the only Trump foreign policy doctrine is: "What’s in it for me?"
Trump used US credibility and South Korean fear for a photo op. Meanwhile, DoD and our allies are scrambling to figure out what Trump just did (to them).
PS There is no truth to the rumor that Trump's signature on the agreement with Kim Jong-Un is "David Dennison" or that Kim signed it “Peggy Peterson”.
You know that Trump is going to arrive home, realize people are questioning what he actually accomplished, and have a meltdown.
Matt Yglesias/Vox:
There’s actually lots of evidence of Trump-Russia collusion
The untenability of the “no collusion” talking point.
Republicans from Donald Trump on down have made “no collusion” a mantra. The term itself is ill-defined in this context; you won’t find it in the US code. But roughly speaking, the question is whether the campaign got involved with Russian agents who committed computer crimes to help Trump win the 2016 presidential election.
The verdict on this is unclear. But there is certainly plenty of evidence pointing toward collusion; what you would call “probable cause” in a legal context, or what a journalist might simply consider reason to continue investigating the story. And the investigating thus far, both by special counsel Mueller and by journalists working on the story, has been fruitful. The efforts have continued to turn up contacts between Trumpworld and Putinland, cover-ups, and dishonesty.
Even as recently as Friday afternoon, we got new indictments charging Trump’s former campaign chair and his former GRU operative business partner with witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
David Frum/Atlantic:
Trump Goes to War Against the Democracies
“He’s like Heath Ledger’s Joker—but without the operational excellence.” That was the grim after-action assessment of one senior G7 official with whom I spoke in the shocked aftermath of President Donald Trump’s savage post-summit tweets.
Paul Krugman/NY Times:
Debacle in Quebec
Occasionally, however, such meetings do have real consequences, good or bad. The 2009 G20 summit, at which nations agreed to provide economic stimulus and loans to troubled countries in the face of the financial crisis, played at least some role in helping the world avoid a full replay of the 1930s. The 2010 summit, by contrast, effectively endorsed a turn to austerity that significantly delayed recovery and, arguably, partially set the stage for the rise of political extremism.
Still, there has never been a disaster like the G7 meeting that just took place. It could herald the beginning of a trade war, maybe even the collapse of the Western alliance. At the very least it will damage America’s reputation as a reliable ally for decades to come; even if Trump eventually departs the scene in disgrace, the fact that someone like him could come to power in the first place will always be in the back of everyone’s mind.
What went down in Quebec? I’m already seeing headlines to the effect that Trump took a belligerent “America first” position, demanding big concessions from our allies, which would have been bad. But the reality was much worse.
BBC:
How Tippi Hedren made Vietnamese refugees into nail salon magnates
When actress Tippi Hedren visited a Vietnamese refugee camp in California 40 years ago, the Hollywood star's long, polished fingernails dazzled the women there.
Hedren flew in her personal manicurist to teach a group of 20 refugees the art of manicures. Those 20 women - mainly the wives of high-ranking military officers and at least one woman who worked in military intelligence - went on to transform the industry, which is now worth about $8bn (£5.2bn) and is dominated by Vietnamese Americans.
"We were trying to find vocations for them," says Hedren, who is perhaps best known for starring in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and for running a wildcat sanctuary at her home in Southern California.
"I brought in seamstresses and typists - any way for them to learn something. And they loved my fingernails."
Vox:
Democrats have a plan to prevent another Puerto Rico hurricane death-toll fiasco
Studies show that the official death toll from Hurricane Maria is way off. A new bill hopes to avoid future miscounts.
It’s been nine months since Hurricane Maria destroyed Puerto Rico and we still don’t really know how many people died from the storm. The official death toll is 64, but new research suggests it’s 70 times higher.
The controversy over Puerto Rico’s real death toll stems largely from this fact: State and local governments can calculate disaster deaths however they want.
Democrats in the House and Senate want to change that. They want a standard federal process for states to calculate deaths from major natural disasters.
Anna Deveare Smith/NYRB:
Wakanda Forever!
The megahit film Black Panther, released fifty years after the cultural rebellions of the 1960s, has elicited much praise. The loudest praise concerns the bottom line. It is among the ten highest-grossing films ever made. Many of its black fans praise the fact that the director, Ryan Coogler, is black and that the cast and creative team are almost entirely black. It has been difficult to get such a movie made. Coogler did it. It is only right that these fine artists were able to grab an opportunity and succeed glowingly. The movie’s financial success is a kind of claim on power. Will “No Justice—No Peace” be replaced by “Wakanda Forever”?
Okay this one is just...weird. Rudy Giuliani, who has plenty to say about other people’s morals and everything else under the sun, is getting involved in Louisiana politics:
Rudy Giuliani, seen socially recently with political consultant Jennifer LeBlanc of Lafayette, will headline a fundraiser for her 3rd Congressional District candidate Josh Guillory at the Petroleum Club, Guillory's campaign said.
Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who rose to national prominence following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, is among President Donald Trump's highest profile surrogates.
Guillory, a Lafayette Republican and attorney, is challenging incumbent Republican Congressman Clay Higgins.
Ironically, Higgins has been a consistent ally of President Trump on the campaign trail and in Congress.
LeBlanc has denied in multiple media outlets she and Giuliani are dating, although they were pictured recently holding hands at the White House and were together again publicly at the Washington Shakespeare Theatre.
Clay Higgins is a pro-Trumper, so why Rudy is campaigning for his opponent is a head scratcher. Meanwhile Daily Mail has this:
Rudy Giuliani's estranged wife claims he DID have an affair after he denies sleeping with a married woman weeks before she filed for divorce
- Giuliani is alleged to have spent the night with Dr. Maria Ryan at a hotel in Whitefield, New Hampshire, in March
- Earlier that day, he was filmed touring her hospital for the purposes of learning about its cyber security practices
- Ryan is the mother of Giuliani's assistant Vanessa who he defended in court in May
- His rendezvous with her mother was a week before his wife Judith Nathan filed for divorce
- Giuliani denied having an affair and said there was 'no proof' he and Ryan spent the night together
- He described her as a 'fine woman' and said there was 'no proof' they had sex
For a guy spending 100% of his time dealing with Mueller he sure is busy with other things.
And speaking of Mueller, Vanity Fair suggests there’s quite a lot to break, and soon:
Within the next month, Mueller is reportedly planning to deliver his findings in the obstruction of justice investigation to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. “Donald is very worried,” said a Republican close to Trump. The difference is that Trump is now more unshackled than at any point in his presidency, meaning that firing Mueller or Rosenstein remains a possibility. “We’ve entered the era of primal Trump,” one outside adviser told me.
Trump allies view the legal cloud hanging over Trump’s former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, as at least as ominous as the obstruction investigation. According to a source close to Cohen, Cohen has told friends that he expects to be arrested any day now. (Reached for comment, Cohen wrote in a text message, “Your alleged source is wrong!”) The specter of Cohen flipping has Trump advisers on edge. “Trump should be super worried about Michael Cohen,” a former White House official said. “If anyone can blow up Trump, it’s him.”
Maybe Rudy should zip his pants up and get to work.
And a few primary morsels, so tasty, so good:
Narrator: He will do a lot of damage.
As for Maine: