[guest post by Dana]

Before a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump tweeted this:

During the joint press conference held in Helsinki, President Trump was asked whether he holds Russia responsible for the strained relationship between the two countries. Evidencing a questionable commitment to America, the American people and his own government, President Trump claimed while standing next to President Putin, that “we’re all to blame” for the strained relationship with Russia. Unbelievable:

Reporter: Do you hold Russia accountable for anything?

Trump: We’re all to blame pic.twitter.com/nFoSS7UVCK

— POLITICO (@politico) July 16, 2018

Here’s a transcript:

REPORTER: Do you hold Russia accountable for anything?

TRUMP: We’re all to blame. Yes I do [hold Russia responsible]. I hold both countries responsible.

I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we’ve all been foolish. We should’ve had this dialogue a long time ago; a long time, frankly, before I got to office.

And I think we’re all to blame. I think that the United States now has stepped forward along with Russia, and we’re getting together and we have a chance to do some great things, whether it’s nuclear proliferation in terms of stopping — you have to do it, ultimately that’s probably the most important thing that we could be working on.

But I do feel that we have both made some mistakes. I think that the — the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it’s kept us apart, it’s kept us separated.

There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it. And people are being brought out to the fore (ph). So far that I know, virtually none of it related to the campaign. And they’re going to have to try really hard to find somebody that did relate to the campaign.

That was a clean campaign. I beat Hillary Clinton easily. And, frankly, we beat her — and I’m not even saying from the standpoint — we won that race. And it’s a shame that there could even be a little bit of a cloud over it. People know that, people understand it. But the main thing — and we discussed this also — zero collusion.

And so forth…

Apparently, what defines an “enemy” is up for grabs in this season of Trump. And that unfortunately makes the United States rather vulnerable to Putin and his thugs:

Watch the entire press conference here, or read the transcript here. There were a number of interesting – and dismaying – exchanges. This for example:

–Dana

[guest post by JVW]

How old is Senator Dianne Feinstein? She was appointed to the California Woman’s Parole Board by Governor Brown — um, Governor Pat Brown, Moonbeam Jerry’s dad. She’s held elective office for nearly a half-century, ever since being elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors back in 1969, and she’s held elective office longer than at least ten of her Senate colleagues have been alive.

This past Saturday, as she is in the midst of preparing to run for fifth full term which would take her into her ninety-second year, Senator Feinstein suffered the indignity of having her party fully endorse her opponent, State Senator Kevin de León, who is running on a platform of making California’s Congressional delegation even further left-wing than it has been. Feinstein secured the endorsements of the key labor unions and business interests that are friendly to Democrats, and even received outside endorsements from the likes of Barack Obama. But it wasn’t enough to overcome de León’s popularity among young leftists, who are increasingly taking over the state party. In the end, 65% of the voting delegates favored the Los Angeles man, surpassing the 60% threshold needed to secure the party endorsement. Sensing that she was headed towards defeat, Feinstein made a last-ditch effort to encourage party delegates to withhold an endorsement by abstaining from the vote, but she could not muster the numbers to stop de León’s momentum.

Well, she had a good run anyway. Once upon a time Dianne Feinstein was allegedly the most popular politician in all of California, with worshipful scribes like the annoying Tom Elias continually singing her praises as the moderate Democrat perfectly in tune with the mores of the state. Here is what I wrote last year, when the first stirrings of dissent were percolating among activists Dems:

Feinstein, a super-wealthy San Franciscan whose husband made a financial killing on defense and other government contracts while she served in the Senate, is what passes for a moderate in California these days. She has in the past voted for tax cuts and tax increases both, depending upon which way the political winds are blowing, and she is happy to support defense spending when it benefits the Golden State. Yet at the same time, Senator Feinstein has parked herself safely on the Barbara Boxer/Nancy Pelosi left on every social issue under the sun, with her particular fondness being a unstinting cheerleader for abortion. This has made her a favorite of the wealthy progressive set in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and a particular favorite of the dopey columnist Tom Elias, who regularly sings praises to her as the ideal politician for the Golden State.

But California Democrats are now moving at warp speed to the Social Democrat model. De León favors single-payer health care; Feinstein is leery of it. De León wants to abolish ICE; Feinstein isn’t sure that’s such a great idea. De León believes that impeachment hearings should begin in the House immediately; Feinstein doesn’t yet believe that an adequate case has been made. De León’s supporters view this endorsement as the changing of the guard, when a new generation of party activists seize the reins of power long held by older white Democrats like Feinstein, Jerry Brown, Nancy Pelosi, and Barbara Boxer. Feinstein’s supporters see this endorsement as party insiders attempting to dictate the party’s direction irrespective of what the voters desire (Feinstein beat de León in the open primary last month, 44% to 12%), and ironically compare this to Hillary Clinton using superdelegates to lock Bernard Sanders out of the nomination (both Feinstein and de León endorsed Clinton over Sanders in 2016; for his part, Sanders has not yet endorsed either candidate in this election).

Feinstein is still the odds-on favorite, having bested de León in every single county during the primary, even beating him in his own district. But the party endorsement has the potential to be a game changer, as Democrat money will now be directly used in support of de León (Feinstein has a huge fund-raising advantage) and the party’s organizational apparatus will be at his disposal. The June primary typically brings out an older, whiter, and wealthier electorate which clearly favored Feinstein. Who knows: perhaps if California Democrats channel their Trump anger and turn-out the diverse young budding socialists, Feinstein might find herself back in San Francisco permanently.

– JVW