Trump does not do diplomacy. He is a gangster. An extortionist. A Mafioso. He is an elephant in a China shop, excuse then pun. He's learned the trade of making deals on Highway Robbery in Casinoland, with a six-shooter on the roulette table and a foot on the brake below. His deals are crap for you and good for him. If you don't submit he will break your legs — or try to.

Macron is a choirboy ringing the little "clochette" on time at the ritualised mass of economic belief. He is not cleverly inventive... 

This is not new. Like his predecessor, Macron appears to have read "Diplomacy for Dummies". No joke.

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Ignorants in power: how politicians lost their mettle

By Étienne Girard

Posted on 23/08/2019 at 13:00

Who would imagine General de Gaulle reading "The History of France for dummies"? In the last few decades, the general political culture seems to have totally deserted [French] leaders' linguistic ventures — in favour of platitudes and managerial jargon.

Imagine a television interview at the end of the 2000s. François Hollande is the guest of Franz-Olivier Giesbert (FOG). A few minutes from the start of the show, at the end of which each guest must present their favourite book, the future head of state approaches the journalist, devastated.

"I forgot to look for a book. What can I present?" Moaned Hollande. 

Franz-Olivier Giesbert, the presenter, looks in his own bag. "I gave him a novel by Jean Giono, from my briefcase. It could have been Hill or A king Alone," Franz-Olivier Giesbert says in Last Carnets [Flammarion], published in 2012. "Hollande flicked through the book, in the makeup room before entering the set, and then during the interview, he spoke with a few chosen words that indicated this was one of his favourite bedside books."

The anecdote tells of the intellectual agility of François Hollande, but also ... about his deficit of literary culture. Because he never read fiction, Hollande had to cram like a high school student. "Francois Hollande never has a book in his hand or in his pocket. No novel nor historical nor religious work. Nothing, if not magazines and newspapers," laughed FOG.

A holiday picture published by the popular press in the mid-2000s, illustrates this gap. We see Hollande, who was then the head of the Socialist Party, lying in a canoe alongside Ségolène Royal, immersed in the reading... of the History of France for dummies. This absence of any cultural breadth, shared by Nicolas Sarkozy, himself contemptuous defender of the Princess of Cleves [a novel that Sarkozy believed was a history book], did not prevent them from being elected President of the Republic...

https://www.marianne.net/politique/les-ignares-au-pouvoir-comment-les-politiques-ont-perdu-leurs-lettres

History of France for Dummies (a real book):

Reconcile yourself with the history of France! Since the foundations, there are two million years, when the first man sets foot on the future French territory, until our days and the last events! You will, among others, frequent Cro-Magnon, Clovis, Louis XIV, Napoleon, de Gaulle and Francois Hollande; lose or win Alésia, Azincourt, Austerlitz, Verdun, fall in love with Diane de Poitiers ... A guarantee: you will not know the boredom! Jean-Joseph Julaud, master of the art of telling the stories of history, will surprise you with the amazing, unusual and thrilling events of the history of France. In this exceptional new edition, find the text of Jean-Joseph Julaud augmented and updated, as well as 40 unpublished illustrations of Emmanuel Chaunu throughout the book.

https://www.amazon.fr/LHistoire-France-Pour-Nuls-édition/dp/2754054324

Translation by Jules Letambour.

One minute Trump knows nothing about , the next he says he knew about it...

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who has recently been sanctioned by Washington, made a somewhat big entrance on Sunday as he unexpectedly arrived in France's Biarritz where the G7 summit was being held. 

US President Donald Trump has refuted reports that he was caught off-guard by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's "surprise" visit to the site of this year's Group of Seven summit - the French town of Biarritz.

Trump said that his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron discussed his willingness to invite Zarif and asked for his approval - and POTUS told him to go ahead with the plan.

While stressing that he respected the fact that Zarif arrived in Biarritz, Trump added that he did not want to meet the Iranian foreign minister because "it was too soon".

"I knew he was coming in and I respected the fact that he was coming in. And we’re looking to make Iran rich again, let them be rich, let them do well, if they want. I'm looking at a really good Iran, really strong, we’re not looking for regime change. You’ve seen how that works over the last 20 years, that hasn't been too good", he told reporters.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/world/201908261076639140-trump-blindsided-by-mac...

French President Emmanuel Macron paved the way at a G7 summit for a diplomatic solution to the standoff between Washington and Tehran over a 2015 nuclear deal, but there was little else to show from a meeting at which allies were sharply divided.

• Iran's President Rouhani willing to meet Mr Trump over crisis
• Mr Trump offers olive branch to China amid escalating trade war
• World leaders reach agreement on helping fight fires in Brazil

Mr Macron, host of the summit of seven of the world's biggest economies that ended on Monday in the French seaside resort of Biarritz, said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had told him he was open to a meeting with US President Donald Trump.

Mr Trump told a news conference before heading home that it was realistic to envisage a meeting with the Iranian head of government in the coming weeks. 

Both leaders are scheduled to attend the United Nations General Assembly next month.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-27/trump-ready-to-meet-irans-preside...

Be prepared for some nasty barney... Read from top.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has condemned what he called “extraordinarily rude” comments made about his wife, Brigitte, by the far-right Brazilian leader, Jair Bolsonaro, escalating their diplomatic clash.

“He has made some extraordinarily rude comments about my wife,” Macron said at a press conference at the G7 summit in Biarritz when asked to react to statements about him by the Brazilian government.

“What can I say? It’s sad. It’s sad for him firstly, and for Brazilians,” he added.

Over the weekend Bolsonaro personally expressed approval online for a Facebook post implying that Brigitte Macron was not as good-looking as his own wife, Michelle Bolsonaro.

A Bolsonaro supporter posted: “Now you understand why Macron is persecuting Bolsonaro?” next to an unflattering picture of Brigitte Macron, 65, who is 28 years older than Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle. Bolsonaro himself replied on Facebook: “Do not humiliate the guy, ha ha.”

Macron said: “I think Brazilian women will probably be ashamed to read that from their president. I think that Brazilians, who are a great people, will probably be ashamed to see this behaviour … And as I feel friendship and respect towards the Brazilian people, I hope that they will very soon have a president who behaves in the right way.”

Since forest fires swept through the Amazon this month, Macron and Bolsonaro have been locked in a war of words seen as the worst diplomatic crisis between France and Brazil in 40 years.

Macron tweeted of the Amazon blazes: “Our house is literally on fire”, calling it a global crisis and criticising Brazil’s management of the Amazon.

France accused Bolsonaro of lying to Macron over his commitment to combating the climate emergency, saying Paris would no longer support the Mercosur deal with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/26/macron-rebukes-bolsonaro-o...

Amateur politics gone down to the gutter... Read from top and see also:

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Communiqué.

It's the French word for an official announcement.

Communiqués are usually polite, highlighting points of agreement after global leaders meet.

So it was the absence of any such statement after the G7 meeting in France that was the biggest statement of all.

"It really is a huge setback," said Adam Triggs from the Australian National University.

"The state of global cooperation is just so low at the moment that they can't even agree on these most basic documents.

"They can't even agree on some of these most high-level principles, like 'trade is good' in particular."

Why does it matter, you might ask?

The Group of Seven advanced economies we are talking about here is made up of the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and the United States (spoiler alert — it was at the centre of this).

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was there, too (as a guest), and these nations are some of Australia's closest security partners.

If traditionally like-minded allies cannot even agree on a form of words about the world, then we have a problem.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-28/when-g7-leaders-cant-agree-on-bas...

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"G7 vanity", or "old world rites" seen by the foreign press

The summit between the leaders of the seven member countries of the club, whose "sense of gravitas" is matched only by their "helplessness", has resulted in only "well-intentioned words", according to the Anglo-Press.

What is the outcome of the G7 summit?

In France, the press greets globally "a success", admiring "activism", "the inexhaustible verb" and the "winning bet" Emmanuel Macron — praised for having managed to create the conditions for a recovery of the dialogue between Washington and Tehran. Foreign newspapers, especially English-speaking newspapers, are more nuanced.

The summit in Biarritz has certainly allowed leaders to "iron out some of their differences," notes the German international broadcasting service Deutsche Welle. It also allowed the French head of state to "shine by his diplomatic talent," said the Süddeutsche Zeitung, but little more.

"All in all, it was a rather nice weekend in Biarritz," the British daily The Guardian jokes, attacking the report from the summit. "Some leaders may have been a bit indifferent, and it's always disconcerting to find someone with a personality disorder that's even bigger than our own government, but overall everyone got along well. "

"Biarritz is the glamor of the old world"

In another analysis titled "Last World Rites of the Ancient World as Trump's Theater Looms Next Year", the British daily highlights "the vanity of the G7", this "circus" or "club or family of nations sharing the same ideas. Even the decor chosen for the occasion exhales, in his eyes, "a perfume of end of time": "Biarritz is the glamor of the old world, overlooking the Bay of Biscay, with soft breezes and a golden light in the evening on its beaches. It evokes a grandeur from another time when Europe was the center of the world."

The daily highlights the point: "The sense of importance [of the leaders participating in the G7], combined with their obvious powerlessness, recalled the ruling dynasties of Europe on the eve of the First World War, completely oblivious to the fact that their world was about to end, "against the backdrop of Brexit, the rise of populism, the weakening of liberal democracies and the environmental crisis."

A "slim" statement

Moreover, "little has been accomplished" after the summit. The absence of a final communiqué was strategic, recalls the Financial Times: it was necessary at all costs to avoid repeating the fiasco of the G7 of 2018 in Canada, when Donald Trump had withdrawn its support for the document.

This year, the French president had "the ability to not publish a final communiqué". However, "if there was no document, there was nothing to refuse to sign". Nothing to refuse to sign, but, at the same time, "no obligation" or commitment to hold either.

The meeting gave rise, notes the Guardian, only to a simple "statement" [...] thinner than the page on which it was printed "," well-intentioned statements about the need to prevent the Iran to acquire nuclear weapons "or the" vow to do something against the Amazon in flames, with a deposit of 20 million euros ", a sum" significantly lower than the cost of the summit, and particularly derisory to look at what was globally considered an existential threat to the planet. The aid was eventually rejected by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Read more:

https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2019/08/27/la-vanite-du-g7-...

Translation by Jules Letambour.

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Communication - the only issue of the G-7 summit in Biarritz

by Thierry Meyssan

The G7, which was originally a meeting-place for the Western leaders to better understand their respective points of view, has now become a communication platform. Far from sharing their opinions in private, the guests have become actors in a media show in which each of them tries to deliver a convincing performance. The worst moment of this G7 was the surprise concocted by Emmanuel Macron for the journalists, and against his US guest.

At the moment of its creation in 1976 by Valery Giscard d’Estaing and Helmut Schmidt, the G-6 was a group for informal discussion. The French President and the German Chancellor wanted to exchange with their counterparts in order to understand their thoughts in the context of the dollar crisis which occurred at the end of the Vietnam war. It was not intended for making decisions, but thinking about the future of the Western economy. The guests were the same as those who had been invited by the US Treasury a little earlier, for the same reason. However, on this occasion, the meeting did not unite the Ministries of Finance, but the heads of State or government, to which Italy was added. The following year, Canada was also invited.

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the division of the world into two camps, the G-7 began to look at political questions, then associated Russia with these informal discussions. But when Moscow rose again and opposed NATO in Syria, and refused the coup d’etat in Ukraine, trust was broken, and the Western powers decided to meet together as before. This episode shut down any desire to admit the participation of China.

The most recent G-7 meetings have produced a quantity of Declarations and Communiqués. This literature has formalised no decision, but has elaborated a common vocabulary which was all the more verbose since US internal policy was dominated by the « politically correct ». As always when one is unsure of having any counter-powers, the separation between reality and this discourse has grown increasingly.

A deviation occurred in 2005 in the United Kingdom, when Prime Minister Tony Blair attracted everyone’s attention by assuring that the G8 which he was presiding intended to cancel the debt of the 18 poorest countries in Africa. In reality, this was an empty promise - the G8 never actualised this decision. Thereafter, 14 countries accepted Great Britain’s selfish conditions, and rapidly regretted it. Four other countries avoided the trap. This theatrical presentation left the false impression that the G7/8 was a sort of world government.

It is essential that the G7 makes no decision – that would amount to the creation of a cartel within the UNO General Assembly, and violate the principle of equality of all states, irrespective of their power. There already exists a privilege, recognised by the main victors of the Second World War, of occupying permanent seats in the Security Council and holding the right to a veto. It is a privilege which is a result of realism – no majority of states can impose its will on such great powers.

In any case, the importance of this informal meeting can be measured by the cumulative power of the guests. First of all, let’s note the fact that the G-7 unites 9 personalities - the Presidents of the European Commission and the European Council were also invited. It happens that for reasons of health, Jean-Claude Junker was unable to attend. Let’s then note that since 2015, the revolving president of the G7 has invited foreign guests. Emmanuel Macron chose eight, of which three were already present last year – two from the BRICS (India and South Africa), Australia (which had been invited, like Canada, as a British dominion, and should, within a few years, become members of NATO, thus constituting an anti-Chinese force with Japan), and certain « clients » (Egypt, Burkina-Faso, Chile, Rwanda and Senegal). These states will participate in certain meetings, but not all.

President Macron noted the possibility of reintroducing Russia into this closed circle in 2020 (mentioned by President Trump, who will then be presiding the club). This would first suppose that Syria will be liberated, and that the adhesion of Crimea to the Russian Federation be recognised. Besides this, for the participation of Moscow to have any meaning, Russia will have start talking the same language as the Western powers. Sergueï Lavrov has already politely replied that he will examine this ludicrous proposition once it has been formalised.

After the fiasco of the G-7 in 2018, where it proved impossible to elaborate a common language, Emmanuel Macron has chosen to seek a wider and more general discourse, a strategy which always pays off and threatens no-one - a societal and above all, not a social subject – the « fight against inequality between women and men ». Cautiously, he warned that this year there will be no final text.

On the economics level, the consequences of the customs war that is being waged by the USA against China are the main source of preoccupation for the members of the G7. Having no intention of being set up as the accused, as he was last year, President Trump has chosen to attack by denouncing French taxes on Google/Apple/Facebook/Amazon. This is indeed his partner’s weak point. France has chosen to attack the GAFA on the fiscal level, but has not reacted to two more important questions – their monopolistic position and their violations of individual freedoms. These should be resolved on the margins of the meeting in Biarritz by the French and US Ministers of Finance.

Emmanuel Macron and his ex-theatre teacher, now his wife Brigitte Trogneux-Macron, had planned a particular production for this summit. No-one can deny its scenic quality and its unexpected developments.

The President began the summit with a short televised address [1] during which he announced several spectacular initiatives and promised to present the results on the evening of 26 August.

On the day preceding the summit, the European medias had massively relayed a propaganda campaign according to which the whole of the Amazon forest was burning. Its destruction would deprive the Earth of oxygen and accelerate global warming. However, it is not the forest that is burning, but deforested areas which are submitted to a technique of clearing by fire - and the Amazon region only furnishes a very small percentage of the oxygen in our atmosphere. In reality, certain members of the G7 are hoping to avoid the ACTO (Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation) in order to be able to exploit the fantastic mineral, pharmaceutical and timber resources of the region. Emmanuel Macron has already authorised the exploitation by a Franco-Canadian consortium of several gold mines in French Guyana, with no care at all for the forest and its inhabitants. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was right to denounce the colonial character of the G7 enterprise. Emmanuel Macron’s lies will be heavy with consequence.

Another subject, and not the least – the President himself claimed to have received a « mandate » from the G7 to negotiate with Iran. This is evidently impossible, not only because the G7 does not hand out mandates, but also because the USA never delegates this power to other countries. After the world Press had relayed this stupidity with eyes wide shut, and President Trump had waxed apoplectic, Emmanuel Macron recognised his error. He immediately invited the Iranian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who arrived instantly in Biarritz, and then met with him. It is impossible to be more spectacular than that, but the buzz was bought at the cost of a public insult to his guest, Donald Trump, and discomfort for his other guests.

The advisors for the Elysée claim that the US President had given his accord, but to what? Mohammad Javad Zarif was not allowed to enter the Hôtel du Palais, where the summit was being held. He was accompanied for three hours by his counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian and the Minister of Finance, Bruno Lemaire, at the Town Hall of Biarritz. Emmanuel Macron abandoned his G7 guests to join his two companions for half an hour. Their meeting took place in the presence of British and German advisors. This impromptu visit will not help the Irano-US conflict, but will set the United States against both Iran and France. This scenario is the first serious international error by a President whose sociopathic leanings have been well known since long before his election. By sociopathy we mean a general tendency towards indifference for social norms and rights, magnified by impulsive behaviour.

Conclusion

President Donald Trump considers « politically correct discourse » as the symptom of the hold of the globalist oligarchy on his country. According to the Washington Post, he would have preferred to avoid wasting his time in Biarritz. Clearly, the arrival in town of a guest he did not want to see transformed his boredom into anger. The Elysée advisors assure that Trump’s face to face meetings with his French counterpart went wonderfully well, but according to Trump’s advisors, they were dreadful - starting with breakfast. According to his advisor, Kelly Ann Shaw, the President would prefer that in the next meeting, in 2020 in the United States, new objectives will be implemented.

The final Declaration from the summit in Biarritz [2] is no more than a brief catalogue of the points on which the participants agree. Everyone may note that, despite President Macron’s self-satisfaction, and the veneration with which a certain Press writes about him, it could have been written well in advance – none of the subjects have evolved.

Thierry Meyssan

Translation 

Pete Kimberley

Read more:

https://www.voltairenet.org/article207457.html

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Read also:

https://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html

...

Yes, but what regret! This talented man does not know history. It's like his great national debate: a perfect technical mastery without any political depth nor results. His Europe, his world is only a verbal and accounting artifice. It's all about fictitious avenues. And the news is that it's only a fiction today and tomorrow it will disappear. Macron's multilateralism is, like his multiculturalism, a convenient process that puts him at the center of everything. Like the master of Soloviev's land, better than God! There is him and the rest. He does not know what an institution is.

The permanence of the natural order shadows him, annoyingly. He ignores family, nation, intermediate statutory bodies, even the state, and even the United Nations. France is only the footrest of his throne, that he wants to be European and global. This could work with a frivolous and abused self-opinion. It's seductive, just for an instant. Beware of the smallest breath of wind that will sweep his castle of cards. There will be misfortune.

Read more: 

https://francais.rt.com/opinions/65913-multilateralisme-monocentrisme

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Macron made a vain attempt to mediate talks between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September. As part of this effort, the French leader wanted to persuade Tehran that “a single meeting with the US president will solve all the problems,”Khamenei told students in Tehran, with the comments later reposted on his Twitter page.

One wonders if he is really so naive, or just an accomplice and working with the US.

Macron’s stance was “100 percent wrong,” the supreme leader said, recalling that North Korea and Cuba never got the desired sanctions relief despite sitting behind the negotiating table with the Americans.

Iran “wouldn’t have gained anything” from the talks with the US either as Washington would just come up with “new demands: don't have missiles with a range of +150km etc.,” he explained.

In May, Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which curbed Tehran’s military nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions. He has since then been pushing for a new broader deal, which will cover not only the nukes, but Iran’s ballistic missile developments as well.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/472539-macron-france-us-iran-khamenei/

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Trump reportedly believes that “that everything the French president, Emmanuel Macron, touches ‘turns to s**t,’” the Guardian newspaper quoted Bolton as saying.

The explosive claim was reported on Friday by British newspaper, which gained a preview of Bolton’s book, which is due to be published next week. The US president earlier said the memoir is full of lies, and that his former adviser was merely seeking payback through slander after being fired.

The Guardian report also touches on US relations with the UK and its Prime Minister Boris Johnson. According to Bolton, Trump ranks Johnson as a close partner, on a par with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/492447-trump-bolton-macron-memoir/

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