On a whiplash - Luke Broadwater and Farnaz Fassihi in NYT:

‘President Trump spent the better part of an hour on Tuesday scolding the United Nations General Assembly, saying the U.N. was useless and that other countries were “going to hell.” But in a post-speech meeting with António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, Mr. Trump struck a radically different, even conciliatory, tone.
“Our country is behind the United Nations 100 percent,” Mr. Trump said. “And I think the potential of the United Nations is incredible, really incredible.” One could be forgiven for feeling a sense of whiplash.’

(…)

‘Foreign leaders have embraced the art of flattery with Mr. Trump, aware that he responds well to compliments and open displays of respect. Just as easily, Mr. Trump is known to lash out when he feels disrespected or cheated.
“Leaders were obviously nervous about what Trump was going to say,” Richard Gowan, the U.N. director for the International Crisis Group, said of the meeting this week. “There was a conspiracy among leaders to make as nice as possible with Trump because of the fear of what would happen if he got annoyed.” Mr. Gowan added that from U.N. officials to world leaders, “everyone was so nervous about Trump’s volatility” that those who had previously been confrontational with him believed the best strategy was to keep their heads down even as he told them their countries were going to hell.’

(…)

‘Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, betrayed not a hint of pique after Mr. Trump mocked European countries for purchasing Russian oil and natural gas.
“Think of it, they’re funding the war against themselves. Who the hell ever heard of that one?” Mr. Trump said, adding: “It’s embarrassing to them, and it was very embarrassing to them when I found out about it. I can tell you that.” In her meeting with Mr. Trump later that day, Ms. von der Leyen had a simple response.
“Trump is absolutely right,” she said. “We’re on it.”’

(…)

‘“You’ve done a great job, you really have,” Mr. Trump told her. “My only problem is it makes it very hard for me to be angry at you. It’s like, what am I going to do? How do I say bad things about you now?” Ms. Harris wrote in her book that she did not fall for his magnanimity. “He’s a con man. He’s really good at it,” she wrote. “I’d readied myself for a phone conversation with Mr. Hyde, but Dr. Jekyll had picked up the call.” Perhaps no example of the two sides of Mr. Trump was as stark Tuesday as his dealings with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil. The White House had dedicated a portion of Mr. Trump’s speech to confronting Brazil’s government, accusing it of “unprecedented efforts to interfere in the rights and freedoms of our American citizens and others with censorship, repression, weaponization, judicial corruption and targeting of political critics in the United States.” But Mr. Trump and Mr. Lula bumped into each other backstage and embraced.
“We had a good talk, and we agreed to meet next week,” Mr. Trump said, adding: “He seemed like a very nice man, actually. He liked me, I liked him. And I only do business with people I like. When I don’t like them, I don’t like them. But we had, at least for about 39 seconds, we had excellent chemistry. It’s a good sign.”’

Read the article here.

If somebody is telling you, ‘you go to hell’, just smile and cover the preacher with compliments and praise.

Europe is financing, at least partly, the enemy. Nothing new. During the war in Yugoslavia combatants sold weapons to the enemy (for money and drugs) with which they later were killed.

In Afghanistan NATO paid the enemy, sometimes out of necessity, bribes et cetera.

If you look at each other for 39 seconds, you are either going to make to love or you'll start a fight.

A con man?

All desire is the desire to be conned. If people get this we could enter a less boring and repetitive discourse.