i still believe that MAGA is a cult of personality. But in another 1.5 years, the current lieutenants in the MAGA movement will be cemented their control of all power centers in our government. Then it will not matter so much what MAGA is as those who have been on this ride to gain power and those who are authoritarian idealist will have total control over what they need.
Hi Philip. Sorry to be slow in responding. Yes, Fiona Hill gives interesting stories about the Trump negotiations. (She has been blacklisted by Trump 2.0 for her efforts.) It would all be a bit of a joke were the consequences not so serious...
I looked for what Fiona Hill has said about interpreters and interpretation and found the following in her recent interview with “Foreign Affairs”.’ As a Russian speaker she can follow the Russian and the interpretation given by the Russian (and not the American) interpreters working into English and not doing a very good job of conveying Putin’s irony and sarcasm, according to this extract from the interview.
“The very first time I was in one of the phone calls with Putin, I was listening very carefully to the Russian, because the interpreters don’t always capture everything. They don’t capture the nuances. And particularly when it’s the Russian interpreter, who’s translating into a language that’s also not their native language, all kinds of things are missing. And Trump said, “What a great conversation.” I thought, actually, not really. There was all kinds of menace in what Putin had said. He chooses words very carefully.
Many times when Putin and Trump are interacting, Putin’s actually making fun of him. It’s just completely lost in the translation. I can give lots of episodes of this. Or he’s goading him and urging him onto something because he’s trying to see how he will react. And the translation smooths over all of that. That context is absolutely missing. And he doesn’t do a readout afterwards. And we heard, for example, that Witkoff spent several hours one-on-one with Putin. Was anyone translating? Was Witkoff making notes in real time? Or was he trying to remember what was said afterwards? All of this is amateur hour because it means that you’re not really fully cognizant of what it is that the Russians have said beyond what you’ve taken on board from their talking points”
Some very perceptive comments from someone who knows both Putin and Trump, and showing just how international diplomacy can depend on fully understanding or not, what the other person is saying. It is clear from this that neither Trump nor his acolytes have a full idea of what Putin says, and one wonders how meaningful negotiations can be carried out at all in these conditions.
and I know you are riding on the latest scoop, how could you not, but as I kept reading it, you started putting into words some of my exact thoughts and my worse fears.
Ever since the first sentences and staged scenes of Trump 2.0 show I have this super bad feeling in my gut. And I am so totally not paranoid, I am not into doom and gloom nor conspiracy and it is really hard to shock, scare or surprise me after everything I worked on in the past...
But I am restless now, and very very worried of what (who) is happening 'to America' and like it or not, as a result - where is the world going?
What about us who want to live in the countries and the world where the minorities and vulnerable are respected, supported and protected, where people who share are the happiest, where price tag is not important when it comes to investing in common good and development for all not only for privileged, when you are pleased when your neighbour is doing well and you are proud of fellow countrymen's language and culture because that is actually your global heritage too...
For the good, strong and progressive world we do need bold and democratic America and Americans not 'Technate'...
I am not an American, for a reason I decided to be a Kiwi not an American, but let's be realistic, USA was in most of the modern history an engine to the world, home and safe haven to progress, a beacon...or a lighthouse...
What you write, you are echoing and deepening my fears, which means it is happening.
This is so big, so totally beyond Trump, he is such a temp here, or should I say an 'apprentice'? We are amused and side-tracked by his personal idiotic every-day show but actually we are watching sophisticated special war unfolding here, the combo and scale unseen before.
Yes it does have all the familiar historical technocratic and fascist elements in it, but there is so much more new dark in it, due to concentrated power among the few, new technology, complete lack of empathy and human aspect, even lack of manners if you want...
add all of 'us' as 'civilization' of low energy spineless social media scrollers to the mix... not good.
Say revolution or resistance, we need to 'look it up'!!?!!
If we lose America to 'this' I am afraid we will lose the world.
Hi Alex! The way I see it all is not lost. For one, Trump is facing some serious pushback in America, even if the Republican Party is, so far, completely supine. Some are upset by his anti-democratic moves (against judges and so on), some by the stark incompetence of his administration (Signalgate) but I think even more are worried about the economy and the stock market dive. The Democrats may be being pretty useless but some of the institutions are doing remarkably well. And, so far, the American media is, I think, doing a great job of holding Trump to task. On the European front things are more complicated. But Europe does have the money and resources to face down Russia. It is not about defeating Moscow but just disincentivizing its aggressive behaviour. Appeasement won't work so we have to come up with a systems of sticks and carrots. Complicated I agree.
Interesting comment about “American translators regularly missing key details”. As a former conference interpreter (but not with Russian) I have some experience of how State Department interpreters work. Usually the American interpreters work from their native language, English, into their acquired language, in this case, Russian, whereas the Russian interpreters usually work into, in my experience, pretty impeccable English.
So what details are the American interpreters missing? If it is the details of what their own delegation is saying, it’s a pretty poor show. If by chance they are interpreting the Russian into English and missing details, it reflects poorly on their knowledge of Russian, and their mistakes or omissions would normally be corrected by the Russian interpreters.
Would be interesting to know exactly what the problem is.
i still believe that MAGA is a cult of personality. But in another 1.5 years, the current lieutenants in the MAGA movement will be cemented their control of all power centers in our government. Then it will not matter so much what MAGA is as those who have been on this ride to gain power and those who are authoritarian idealist will have total control over what they need.
Hi Philip. Sorry to be slow in responding. Yes, Fiona Hill gives interesting stories about the Trump negotiations. (She has been blacklisted by Trump 2.0 for her efforts.) It would all be a bit of a joke were the consequences not so serious...
I looked for what Fiona Hill has said about interpreters and interpretation and found the following in her recent interview with “Foreign Affairs”.’ As a Russian speaker she can follow the Russian and the interpretation given by the Russian (and not the American) interpreters working into English and not doing a very good job of conveying Putin’s irony and sarcasm, according to this extract from the interview.
“The very first time I was in one of the phone calls with Putin, I was listening very carefully to the Russian, because the interpreters don’t always capture everything. They don’t capture the nuances. And particularly when it’s the Russian interpreter, who’s translating into a language that’s also not their native language, all kinds of things are missing. And Trump said, “What a great conversation.” I thought, actually, not really. There was all kinds of menace in what Putin had said. He chooses words very carefully.
Many times when Putin and Trump are interacting, Putin’s actually making fun of him. It’s just completely lost in the translation. I can give lots of episodes of this. Or he’s goading him and urging him onto something because he’s trying to see how he will react. And the translation smooths over all of that. That context is absolutely missing. And he doesn’t do a readout afterwards. And we heard, for example, that Witkoff spent several hours one-on-one with Putin. Was anyone translating? Was Witkoff making notes in real time? Or was he trying to remember what was said afterwards? All of this is amateur hour because it means that you’re not really fully cognizant of what it is that the Russians have said beyond what you’ve taken on board from their talking points”
Some very perceptive comments from someone who knows both Putin and Trump, and showing just how international diplomacy can depend on fully understanding or not, what the other person is saying. It is clear from this that neither Trump nor his acolytes have a full idea of what Putin says, and one wonders how meaningful negotiations can be carried out at all in these conditions.
Thank you for writing this, really...
and I know you are riding on the latest scoop, how could you not, but as I kept reading it, you started putting into words some of my exact thoughts and my worse fears.
Ever since the first sentences and staged scenes of Trump 2.0 show I have this super bad feeling in my gut. And I am so totally not paranoid, I am not into doom and gloom nor conspiracy and it is really hard to shock, scare or surprise me after everything I worked on in the past...
But I am restless now, and very very worried of what (who) is happening 'to America' and like it or not, as a result - where is the world going?
What about us who want to live in the countries and the world where the minorities and vulnerable are respected, supported and protected, where people who share are the happiest, where price tag is not important when it comes to investing in common good and development for all not only for privileged, when you are pleased when your neighbour is doing well and you are proud of fellow countrymen's language and culture because that is actually your global heritage too...
For the good, strong and progressive world we do need bold and democratic America and Americans not 'Technate'...
I am not an American, for a reason I decided to be a Kiwi not an American, but let's be realistic, USA was in most of the modern history an engine to the world, home and safe haven to progress, a beacon...or a lighthouse...
What you write, you are echoing and deepening my fears, which means it is happening.
This is so big, so totally beyond Trump, he is such a temp here, or should I say an 'apprentice'? We are amused and side-tracked by his personal idiotic every-day show but actually we are watching sophisticated special war unfolding here, the combo and scale unseen before.
Yes it does have all the familiar historical technocratic and fascist elements in it, but there is so much more new dark in it, due to concentrated power among the few, new technology, complete lack of empathy and human aspect, even lack of manners if you want...
add all of 'us' as 'civilization' of low energy spineless social media scrollers to the mix... not good.
Say revolution or resistance, we need to 'look it up'!!?!!
If we lose America to 'this' I am afraid we will lose the world.
Now, the question is - what do we do?
Hi Alex! The way I see it all is not lost. For one, Trump is facing some serious pushback in America, even if the Republican Party is, so far, completely supine. Some are upset by his anti-democratic moves (against judges and so on), some by the stark incompetence of his administration (Signalgate) but I think even more are worried about the economy and the stock market dive. The Democrats may be being pretty useless but some of the institutions are doing remarkably well. And, so far, the American media is, I think, doing a great job of holding Trump to task. On the European front things are more complicated. But Europe does have the money and resources to face down Russia. It is not about defeating Moscow but just disincentivizing its aggressive behaviour. Appeasement won't work so we have to come up with a systems of sticks and carrots. Complicated I agree.
More sinister. They don’t trust their own government. They view both it and the American people as enemies.
Interesting comment about “American translators regularly missing key details”. As a former conference interpreter (but not with Russian) I have some experience of how State Department interpreters work. Usually the American interpreters work from their native language, English, into their acquired language, in this case, Russian, whereas the Russian interpreters usually work into, in my experience, pretty impeccable English.
So what details are the American interpreters missing? If it is the details of what their own delegation is saying, it’s a pretty poor show. If by chance they are interpreting the Russian into English and missing details, it reflects poorly on their knowledge of Russian, and their mistakes or omissions would normally be corrected by the Russian interpreters.
Would be interesting to know exactly what the problem is.
I hope others are listening and realising ... how scary this is for the Western World ...
as China's predominance edges ever closer. ... Jude x