July 7, 2017


News and Views


I’M GLAD TO SEE THAT SOME IMPORTANT THINGS WERE DISCUSSED AT THIS PUTIN/TRUMP MEETING, THOUGH ALMOST ALL OF THE PARTICULARS, EVEN NAMES, ARE NOT BEING REVEALED. “A SPECIAL WORKING GROUP” AND “A SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE” WILL DEAL WITH RUSSIA ON UKRAINE AND CYBERSECURITY. IF TRUMP HAS APPOINTED MANAFORT TO DEAL WITH UKRAINE IN AN OFFICIAL CAPACITY, AFTER WHAT APPEARS TO ME TO BE HIS TREACHERY, THERE WILL BE AN OUTCRY. MANY OF US, INCLUDING MYSELF, CONSIDER PEOPLE WHO CROSS CERTAIN LINES TO BE DISHONEST AND EVEN DANGEROUS.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tillerson-says-trump-putin-had-very-robust-exchange-on-election-interference/
By KATHRYN WATSON CBS NEWS July 7, 2017, 2:39 PM
Trump-Putin discussion on election hacking yields clashing accounts

Russian President Vladimir Putin denied any role in hacking the 2016 election when President Trump broached the subject at the beginning of their first meeting since Mr. Trump took office at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, and the two moved on despite the "intractable" differences between the two countries, according to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

"He pressed him, and then felt like at this point, let's talk about how do we go forward," Tillerson said as he briefed reporters after the more than two-hour meeting.

That isn't the account Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave reporters at a separate news conference. According to Lavrov, Mr. Trump accepted Putin's assertion that Russians did not meddle in the election. Lavrov claimed Mr. Trump said, "some circles continue to pump up the topic of Russian interference in the American elections though they can't prove it."

But it may be difficult to decipher what exactly happened between Mr. Trump and Putin in Hamburg. Amid Mr. Trump's fears of leaks, only a handful of people were slated to be present -- Mr. Trump, Tillerson, Putin, Lavrov and their respective translators.

According to Lavrov, a special working group of the Russian Federation and the United States will deal with cybersecurity issues.

The world leaders' meeting comes one day after Mr. Trump -- despite two major reports from U.S. intelligence agencies concluding Russia interfered in the 2016 election -- said Russia "could have" been responsible for hacking.

President Trump and President Putin meet for over two hours
Play VIDEO
President Trump and President Putin meet for over two hours

The U.S. and Russia, along with Jordan, have agreed to back a ceasefire in Syria that will go into effect Sunday. On Syria and the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Trump administration's stance hasn't changed, Tillerson said.

"Our position continues to be that we see no long term role for the Assad family or the Assad regime," Tillerson said.

Mr. Trump and Putin also discussed North Korea -- and have differing opinions on that looming threat, according to Tillerson -- as well as issues in Ukraine.

According to Lavrov, Mr. Trump and Tillerson said the U.S. has appointed a special representative for the settlement of the crisis in Ukraine, and Russia expects that person to arrive in Moscow soon.

Tillerson said the relationship between the U.S. and Russia is a "complicated" one, but the two had a "positive chemistry," and, "there was not a lot of re-litigating of the past."

There are no further meetings scheduled between Mr. Trump and Putin at this point, Tillerson said.



WHEN THE EUROPEAN UNION WAS FIRST CREATED, I DID WONDER HOW WELL IT WOULD WORK. IT SEEMS THAT THERE REALLY IS A GREAT DEAL OF OPPOSITION TO IT. I HOPE THAT A REALLY DANGEROUS INSTABILITY ISN’T GOING TO DOMINATE, AND UNDO THE INTERNATIONAL UNIONS THAT WE LONG HAD IN PLACE. TRUMP’S TALKING ABOUT DISBANDING NATO IS A FRIGHTENING IDEA TO ME. WE HAVE NATURAL CULTURAL TIES AND A LONG HISTORY OF COOPERATION, AND ALLOWING THOSE VALUES TO DIE WOULD CAUSE US TO BE ALONE AGAINST MANY NATIONAL ENEMIES.

I HOPE THIS PROBLEM WILL BE SOLVED SOON, AND A NEW INTERNATIONAL ACCORD FORMS. WE CAN DO THAT WITHOUT DISMANTLING OUR NATIONAL BORDERS, SURELY. THE IDEA OF THE EU WAS PARTLY TO INCREASE CONCORD; BUT SOME PEOPLE JUST WANT, AND VERY STRONGLY, FOR THEIR SMALLER GROUP TO REMAIN SEPARATE AND SOVEREIGN; OTHER LANGUAGES, OTHER CULTURAL HABITS, AND OTHER SOCIALLY HELD VIEWPOINTS ARE ALL ANATHEMA TO THE NATIONALISTIC TURN OF MIND. PERSONALLY, I HAVE ALWAYS ENJOYED THE VARIETY AND THE DISCOURSE OF OPEN SOCIETIES. I WANT LIFE INTERESTING RATHER THAN TOTALLY UNEVENTFUL.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/g20-summit-2017-protests-prompt-police-reinforcements/
CBS/AP July 7, 2017, 11:18 AM
G-20 summit 2017 protests prompt police to call in reinforcements

HAMBURG, Germany -- Anti-globalization activists clashed violently with police across the German port city of Hamburg all day Friday, setting cars ablaze and trying to enter the convention center where Group of 20 leaders tackled topics like international terrorism, climate change and trade issues.

Responding to a second day of protests, police ordered in more than 900 additional officers from across the country to get the clashes under control. Over 160 police officers were injured, dozens of activists had to be taken to the hospital and more than 70 protesters were detained.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the violent protests as "unacceptable."

"I have every understanding for peaceful demonstrations," Merkel said. "But violent demonstrations endanger human lives, they endanger people themselves, they put police officers and security forces in danger, put residents in danger, and so that is unacceptable."

Mayhem as German police battle protesters outside G20 summit
Play VIDEO
Mayhem as German police battle protesters outside G20 summit

German-American activist Emily Lickurr, who helped organize the protests, and her fellow left-wing activists hold G-20 leaders responsible for a host of problems including climate change, the migration crisis and economic inequality, CBS News White House and senior foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan reports.

"These protests are against the violence of the G-20," Lickurr told Brennan. "We believe that there is no hope coming from the G-20. We want the American people to know that Donald Trump has no friends here and that when Donald Trump comes to Germany for his first visit to Germany there will be a massive opposition."

Merkel thanked security forces for their work as the Group of 20 met behind a heavy police presence in a no-go zone that was off-limits to most.

Thousands of officers in full riot gear patrolled as many as 30 different protest marches. Most of the demonstrations were peaceful and creative, but some rioters threw gasoline bombs, iron rods and cobblestones through the city.

Cars are seen on fire during anti-G-20 protests in Hamburg, Germany, July 7, 2017, in this picture obtained from social media.
Cars are seen on fire during anti-G-20 protests in Hamburg, Germany, July 7, 2017, in this picture obtained from social media. YOUTUBE/FASTTORWA VIA REUTERS

More than 20,000 officers were on hand to guard the city's streets, skies and waterways.

Police trucks blasted protesters back with water cannons, and officers physically dragged away a group holding a sit-in at the entrance to the summit grounds after they jeered and yelled at a convoy heading inside.

Anti-globalization protesters also kept U.S. first lady Melania Trump from joining the spouses of the other world leaders at the summit.

Violence seemed to be escalating on Friday evening as anti-globalization activists forced their way into a closed train station by bending open the iron gates. Police responded by deploying a water cannon outside the Landungsbruecke station.

Demonstrators descend on Hamburg ahead of G-20
Play VIDEO
Demonstrators descend on Hamburg ahead of G-20

Protesters repeatedly tried pushing into the no-go zone - among them a group of 22 swimmers from Greenpeace who tried accessing the area from the Elbe River but didn't succeed, police said.

Later on Friday, activists also attempted to get near Hamburg's highly protected philharmonic hall, where international leaders were set to listen to a concert and have dinner together. Greenpeace boats blasted music toward the performance hall to disrupt the leaders' meeting there.

Police condemned the "shocking criminal energy and high potential of violence" on display and tweeted a photograph of an officer with a bloody wound they said was caused by slingshot catapults.

While most of the at least 160 injured officers were hurt only slightly, some had to be taken to the hospital, including an officer whose eye was injured when a firework went off in front of him.

Police, protesters clash in Hamburg ahead of G-20 summit
Play VIDEO
Police, protesters clash in Hamburg ahead of G-20 summit

The city's fire department said 11 activists were severely injured and taken to the hospital after falling off a 13-foot-tall wall after fleeing from a confrontation with riot police.

Police could not say how many activists were injured in the clashes, but the fire department said that as of Friday morning they had taken 60 protesters to hospitals across the city.

Kathleen Mueller, a 56-year-old protester from Potsdam near Berlin, criticized police for what she said were "brutal responses" to overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations.

Mueller said she'd come to Hamburg to stop rampant consumerism and to tell leaders that "we need to ... rethink our economic systems." She said she saw riot police wrenching apart a peaceful human chain and dragging people off.

Protesters clash with police near G20 summit
Play VIDEO
Protesters clash with police near G20 summit

"They didn't have to do that, there was no resistance, it was just to cause pain and it shouldn't happen," said Mueller, who was participating in a protest of some 300 people in a park near the summit grounds.

Hamburg resident Kursat Bayazit, 42, expressed frustrations with both the summit and the demonstrations keeping him from getting to his work as a landscaper.

"Yesterday, there were big problems," Bayazit said while taking a stroll with his 2-year-old daughter in the St. Pauli neighborhood that had seen heavy clashes Thursday night.

He pointed across the street to a large, burned-out garbage can with an empty fire extinguisher lying nearby and the pungent smell of smoke still in the air.

Police use pepper spray, water cannons on G20 protesters
Play VIDEO
Police use pepper spray, water cannons on G20 protesters

"They burned that garbage can and in other places cars, it really scared my daughter," Bayazit said.

However, not all St. Pauli residents seemed to share Bayazit's frustration regarding the chaos overtaking Hamburg during the G-20 summit.

Few had their stores and homes boarded up and some residents seemed to welcome the protesters. Three young men wearing anti-summit T-shirts listened to reggae music on their balcony.

A few buildings away, bannners [sic] hung from a window saying, "Granny and grandpa are against G-20" and "G-20 - go get beer." Some bars had put up signs saying, "protesters welcome."

Sex workers on the city's famous Reeperbahn amusement strip could be seen dancing to the music of the activists on Thursday night and giving a thumbs-up to those passing by.



“... THE GOVERNMENT BEGAN APPOINTING WHITE GUARDIANS TO "HELP" THEM SPEND IT.”

IN AN ARTICLE I READ SOME 20 YEARS AGO, A PSYCHIATRIST WHO WORKED WITH MURDERERS AND RAPISTS WAS DESCRIBING HOW PSYCHOPATHS RATIONALIZE THEIR EVIL – THEY “OBJECTIFY” THEIR VICTIMS. THE FIRST STEP TOWARD THAT OBJECTIFICATION IS TO DENY THOSE PEOPLE THEIR FULL HUMAN STATUS, WHICH MAKES THEM DISPENSABLE. THAT’S WHAT RACISM DOES, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT INFECTS A MAJORITY OF THE SOCIETY. THE NEXT STEP FROM THERE IS TO ABUSE, AND FROM THERE TO KILL. THE EXCERPT ABOVE FROM THE ARTICLE SHOWS HOW “THE GOVERNMENT” VIEWED AMERICAN INDIANS, AND THEN HOW IT APPROACHED THE MURDER OF THESE INDIANS. IT LOOKED THE OTHER WAY. MODERN DAY LAW ENFORCEMENT STILL RETAINS THAT ATTITUDE TO A DEGREE THAT IS DAMAGING, WHICH THEY TEND TO DENY, OF COURSE. WE CALL IT RACISM, THEY CALL IT A FIGMENT OF THE PUBLIC IMAGINATION. WE’VE GOT A LONG WAY TO GO TO BREAK OUR BONDS WITH BARBARIC THINKING.

IN PEOPLE WHOSE MORAL STRUCTURE -- AND OFTEN THEIR EDUCATION -- ARE WEAK TO BEGIN WITH, THE RESULT IS A SOCIETAL PERMISSION TO DO EVIL WITH IMPUNITY. I PERSONALLY DO NOT BELIEVE THAT TRULY MENTALLY HEALTHY AND INTELLIGENT PEOPLE WILL “GO ALONG TO GET ALONG” IN THIS KIND OF SITUATION. THEY WILL SHOW SOME COURAGE AND TRY TO INTERVENE, WHICH IS WHAT MAKES THEM HEROES. HEROES CAN OFTEN LOSE THEIR LIVES IN THE PURSUIT OF GOOD.

IN THIS CASE, THE HEROES WERE THE FBI UNDER J. EDGAR HOOVER, “A FRONTIER LAWMAN,” AND “AN AMERICAN INDIAN AGENT,” BOTH OF WHOM WENT UNDER COVER TO SEEK CLUES TO THE MYSTERY. TOO BAD THIS ARTICLE DOESN’T NAME EITHER OF THOSE INFILTRATORS, BECAUSE THEY DID THE DANGEROUS WORK. THAT MAY HAVE BEEN BECAUSE EVEN AT THIS TIME A HUNDRED YEARS LATER, THERE COULD BE FAMILY MEMBERS WHO MIGHT KILL OR OTHERWISE HARM MODERN DAY CITIZENS THERE. VENGEANCE IS A DEADLY THING. WHATEVER THE TRUTH ON THAT, IT’S STILL A POWERFUL STORY, THOUGH, OF GREED AND RACISM. IT REMINDS ME OF “MACBETH.”

http://www.npr.org/2017/04/17/523964584/in-the-1920s-a-community-conspired-to-kill-native-americans-for-their-oil-money
In The 1920s, A Community Conspired To Kill Native Americans For Their Oil Money
April 17, 20174:44 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
STEVE INSKEEP
Listen· 7:19

BOOK --
Killers of the Flower Moon
The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
by David Grann
Hardcover, 338 pages purchase

Photograph -- Ernest and Mollie Burkhart married in 1917. Unbeknownst to Mollie, a member of the Osage tribe, the marriage was part of a larger plot to steal her family's oil wealth. Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoman Collection/Courtesy of Doubleday

Generations ago, the American Indian Osage tribe was compelled to move. Not for the first time, white settlers pushed them off their land in the 1800s. They made their new home in a rocky, infertile area in northeast Oklahoma in hopes that settlers would finally leave them alone.

As it turned out, the land they had chosen was rich in oil, and in the early 20th century, members of the tribe became spectacularly wealthy. They bought cars and built mansions; they made so much oil money that the government began appointing white guardians to "help" them spend it.

And then Osage members started turning up dead.

In his new book, Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann describes how white people in the area conspired to kill Osage members in order steal their oil wealth, which could only be passed on through inheritance. "This was a culture of complicity," he says, "and it was allowed to go on for so long because so many people were part of the plot. You had lawmen, you had prosecutors, you had the reporters who wouldn't cover it. You had oilmen who wouldn't speak out. You had morticians who would cover up the murders when they buried the body. You had doctors who helped give poison to people."

On how the conspiracy worked

What makes these crimes so sinister is that it involved marrying into families. It involved a level of calculation and a level of betraying the very people you pretended to love. And the way these murders would take place is that people would marry into the families and then begin to kill each member of the family. ... That's exactly what happened to [Osage woman Mollie Burkhart]. She had married a white man, and his uncle was the most powerful settler in the area. He was known as the King of the Osage Hills ... and he had orchestrated a very sinister plot played out over years where he directed his nephew, who had married Mollie Burkhart, to marry her so that he could then begin to kill the family members one by one and siphon off all the wealth.

On how Mollie Burkhart's family was killed

One day in 1921, her older sister disappeared and Mollie looked everywhere for her and couldn't find her. And about a week later, her body was found essentially in a ravine, decomposed. She'd been shot in the back of the head.

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Then just a few weeks later, Mollie's mother began to grow increasingly sick. She seemed to be almost disappearing, withering in front of her. And within two months she, too, had died. And evidence later suggested that she had been secretly poisoned.

Not long after that, Mollie was sleeping in her bed in her house with her white husband; they had a couple children. And she heard a loud explosion. She got up in panic and terror. ... She had another sister who lived not far away, and in the area where her sister's house was she could see almost this orange fire ball rising into the sky. It almost looked as if the sun had burst into the night. And her sister's house had been blown up killing that sister as well as her sister's husband and a servant who lived in that house.

Photograph -- Mollie Burkhart (second from right) lost all three of her sisters under suspicious circumstances. Rita Smith (left) died in an explosion, Anna Brown (second from left) was shot in the head and Minnie Smith (right) died of what doctors referred to as a "peculiar wasting illness." The Osage National Museum/Courtesy of Doubleday

On how far the conspirators went to cover up their crimes

Almost anyone who tried to investigate the killings — or at least stop them in the area — they, too, were killed. One attorney tried to gather evidence and one day he was thrown off a speeding train and all the evidence that he had gathered had disappeared. Another time, an oilman had traveled to Washington, D.C., to try to get help. ... He checked into a boarding house in Washington, D.C. ... He was then found the next day stripped naked. He had been stabbed more than 20 times; his head had been beaten in. The Washington Post at the time said what everyone at that point knew, which was there was a conspiracy to kill rich Indians.

On how authorities reacted to the deaths

It's really important to understand back then that there was so much lawlessness. That was one of the things that shocked me when I began researching the story, that even in the 1920s much of America remained a country that was not fully rooted in its laws. Its legal institutions were very fragile; there was enormous corruption, particularly in this era and in this area. And the conspirators were able to pay off lawmen, they were able to pay off prosecutors. There was so much prejudice that these crimes were neglected.

Mollie Burkhart beseeched the authorities to try to investigate, to get help, but because of prejudice they often ignored the crimes. And she issued money for a reward, she hired private investigators, but the crimes for years remained unsolved, and the body count continued to increase. By 1924 there were at least 24 murders alone. ...

Finally, the Osage, in desperation, they issued a resolution, a tribal resolution, beseeching the federal authorities to help. And finally a then-very obscure branch of the Justice Department intervened. It was known as the Bureau of Investigation and it was what ... would later be renamed the FBI.

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On the FBI's investigation

J. Edgar Hoover ... was the new director, and it became one of the FBI's first major homicide cases that it ever dealt with. ... The bureau initially badly bungled the case. ... [Hoover] turned the case over to a frontier lawman at the time who finally put together an undercover team that included ... probably the only American Indian agent in the bureau at the time. They went undercover. ... They were able, through some dogged investigation and at great danger, to eventually capture some of the ringleaders. And those ringleaders included not only Mollie Burkhart's husband, it also included [his] uncle, a man who was seen as this great protector of the community.

On what the FBI missed in their investigation

The bureau was so anxious to wrap up the case that they ignored many, many other unsolved crimes and many, many other killers. ... When you begin to look at the documents and you begin to collect the evidence from the Osage, it becomes abundantly apparent. ...

I pulled some of the guardian papers* and there was this little booklet that came out. It had a little fabric cover. All it was was essentially identifying the name of a guardian and which Osage they were in charge of. And when I opened up the book, I could see the name of the guardian and when I began to look at the names of the Osage under them I could see written next to many of them simply the word "Dead. Dead. Dead." It was almost like a ledger; it was like this forensic, bureaucratic accounting.

But when you're looking at it, you're beginning to realize you're looking at hints of a systematic murder campaign, because there's no way all these people died in a span of just a couple years. It defied any natural death rate. The Osage were wealthy, they had good doctors. ... And then when you begin to look into each of those individual cases, you start to find trails of evidence suggesting poisonings, a murder. You start to try to trace the money ... and where the wealth went. And what you begin to discover is something even more horrifying than the bureau ever exposed.

Radio producer Taylor Haney, radio editor Shannon Rhoades and digital producer Nicole Cohen contributed to this story.

*THE USE OF THE TERM “GUARDIAN PAPERS” ABOVE REFERS TO THE FACT THAT THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT PLACED ALL OF THOSE NATIVE AMERICANS UNDER A “GUARDIANSHIP,” WHICH NORMALLY IS ONLY DONE WHEN A PERSON IS INCOMPETENT; I.E., ALL NATIVE AMERICANS ARE INCOMPETENT – USELESS, ESSENTIALLY STUPID, AND EXPENDABLE. THE AIM WAS TO BE ABLE TO TAKE ALL OF THEIR OIL-BEARING LANDS, PERSON BY PERSON, AND IN THAT WORLDVIEW, KILLING THEM IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE THE GOAL WAS NOT CONSIDERED EVIL – IT WAS “WHITE MAN’S BURDEN.”



IS THE VA UNDER ATTACK? THESE FIRINGS ARE BEING DONE FOR VIOLATIONS RATHER THAN FOR PURELY POLITICAL REASONS, ACCORDING TO THE ARTICLE, BUT STILL I BELIEVE THAT WHEN A POSITION IS CREATED, IT IS USUALLY BECAUSE THERE IS A JOB TO BE DONE. TRUMP SOMETIMES SEEMS TO BE UNAWARE OF A NEED TO PRESERVE FUNCTIONALITY IN GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS. HE ISN’T THE ONLY “SMALL GOVERNMENT THINKER, OF COURSE; BUT, IT’S POSSIBLE TO “IMPROVE” ANYTHING TO THE POINT THAT IT IS RUINED INSTEAD. IN REGARD TO PEOPLE, I WOULD LIKE TO BE SURE THAT OUR MANY SOCIETAL BIASES AREN’T, IN ANY WAY, BEHIND FIRINGS, FOR INSTANCE, RACE, CREED, ETC. I HOPE THAT OUR PROGRESSIVE WATCH DOG GROUPS WILL BE ON THE ALERT FOR THAT. THERE ARE MANY, MANY VETERANS, AND THEY NEED A FULL RANGE OF SERVICES. LET’S NOT IGNORE THAT WHILE WE’RE TRIMMING FAT, WE DON’T KNICK THE MUSCLE AND BONE ALSO.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hundreds-of-va-officials-fired-since-trumps-inauguration/
By BO ERICKSON AND ELLEE WATSON CBS NEWS July 7, 2017, 2:12 PM
Hundreds of VA officials fired since Trump's inauguration

Photograph -- A sign marks the entrance to the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital on May 30, 2014 in the Chicago suburb of Hines, Illinois. The hospital was linked to allegations that administrators kept secret waiting lists at VA hospitals so executives could collect bonuses linked to meeting standards for rapid treatment. SCOTT OLSON, GETTY

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced today that more than 500 officials have been fired for misconduct since President Trump took office earlier this year, according to data posted online.

In an effort for more transparency and accountability within the VA, Secretary of Veterans Affairs David J. Shulkin announced that a public list of employee "accountability actions" will be posted online and updated weekly.

The list outlines a total of 747 disciplinary actions including 526 employees who were fired since January 20. The actions affected a myriad of positons [sic] ranging from a tractor operator to VA attorneys. The list does not include employee names due to privacy reasons but does note the employee's position and VA region.

"Veterans and taxpayers have a right to know what we're doing to hold our employees accountable and make our personnel actions transparent," Secretary Shulkin said in a statement.

This announcement comes less than a month after President Trump signed the Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act which strengthened the ability of Secretary Shulkin to discipline VA officials. President Trump said that previous laws "…kept the government from holding those who failed our veterans accountable."

In addition to publishing the list of accountability actions, Shulkin said in a press release that he is requiring approval by a senior official of any monetary settlement with an employee over the amount of $5,000.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars praised this new VA decision and said the organization is "…very, very hopeful that the Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act will continue to heal the VA, which will definitely help restore the faith of veterans in their VA."



FLATTERY WILL GET YOU WHEREVER YOU WANT TO GO, PERHAPS?

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-putin-meeting-g20-summit-relationship-us-presidents/
CBS NEWS July 7, 2017, 8:08 AM
Did former KGB officer Putin get upper hand on deal-making Trump?

VIDEO – The Putin Meeting

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attended the meeting between President Trump and President Vladimir Putin, along with translators for each side. Tillerson has the most experience dealing with Putin of any member of the Trump administration. That may have helped the president navigate the meeting.

The meeting between the two had been scheduled for 35 minutes. Instead, it went on for over two hours.

At times, candidate Trump appeared taken by Putin's flattery, reports CBS News correspondent Major Garrett.

"Well, I have no relationship with him other than he called me a genius," Mr. Trump said last February in South Carolina.

"Maybe we'll have a good relationship. Maybe we'll have a horrible relationship," Mr. Trump said last October in Nevada.

As president, he must now keep his guard up.

"Putin, as a trained KGB officer… he is never caught off guard and he's never short of words," said Angela Stent, who has written extensively on Putin's relationship with American presidents and has met with him a dozen times.

"He has spent most of his adult life understanding the strengths and weaknesses of his partners and opponents and how to maximize those for his own benefit," Stent said.

Putin has charmed other American presidents, most memorably George W. Bush.

"I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy," Mr. Bush said in 2001, adding, "I was able to get a sense of his soul."

Mr. Bush thought Putin was a true ally – especially after 9/11. He hosted Putin on his Texas ranch and on a fishing trip in Maine. Putin shattered that optimism with his 2008 invasion of neighboring Georgia, the first sign of Putin's nationalist and expansionist foreign policy.

Relations with President Obama further soured when Putin seized Crimea, housed renegade national security leaker Edward Snowden and backed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Their body language at the 2013 G8 Summit in Ireland illustrated the rift, something Mr. Obama later described.

"He's got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom," Mr. Obama said in 2013.

Stent said Putin was insulted and wants to regain prestige with Mr. Trump.

"He needs to come out of this looking stronger and looking as if the relationship he had with President Obama, that that's over, and that President Trump is going to respect him," Stent said.

Putin and his team always look for the advantage. That means there are risks for the new American president.

"One of the dangers is that you could get President Trump to agree to something which he might then have to roll back," Stent said.

Mr. Trump has maintained all Obama-era sanctions imposed for election meddling. In February, the president said relations with Russia were too toxic for progress.

"Putin probably assumes that he can't make a deal with me anymore because politically it would be unpopular for a politician to make a deal," Mr. Trump said in February.

Putin has a history of intimidation in private meetings with world leaders. The Russian president brought along a large black labrador to a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after he found out she was afraid of dogs.

White House aides have kept Mr. Trump's preparations for this meeting simple and straight forward, reminding him to seek short-term U.S. objectives without seeking any big breakthroughs.



TRANSPARENCY ENDS WHERE THE PUBLIC ARE NOT INVITED TO PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS, AND “NO FOLLOWUP” IS ALLOWED FROM REPORTERS. TRUMP IS SHOWING THE REPUBLICANS THE WAY TO A MORE “CONSERVATIVE” SOCIETY, ALRIGHT – PUNISH OPENNESS. HE HAS LONG HAD WHITE HOUSE PRESS BRIEFINGS RESTRICTED ON HOW AND HOW FAR THEY CAN QUESTION HIM. FOR SHAME!

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/paul-ryan-tries-to-quell-town-hall-controversy-but-residents-still-want-to-talk-to-him/
By DEAN REYNOLDS CBS NEWS July 7, 2017, 6:52 PM
Paul Ryan tries to quell town hall controversy, but voters still want to talk

MADISON, Wis. -- It was only 6 years ago that Rep. Paul Ryan's town halls were packed and overflow crowds were the norm.

But the now-House-speaker's events these days are more like the two employee town halls he held Thursday, where the questions were easy, the general public was barred and there was no followup from reporters.

Asked on Thursday when he would take questions from reporters, Ryan said, "I gotta go."

But on Friday, he held a press conference in Madison.

Questions linger even after Paul Ryan holds town hall meeting

CBS News asked him when he might schedule an open town hall for his constituents.

"Let me respond. Aside from the obvious security concerns, what we find is that there are people who are trying to come in from out of the district to disrupt town hall meetings," Ryan said. "I don't want to have a situation where we have a screaming fest, a shouting fest where people are being bused in from out of the district to get on TV."

Paul Ryan holds employee town hall
Play VIDEO
Paul Ryan holds employee town hall

Republican rallies this year have been rowdy, with members of Congress struggling to talk over protesters. That may be why we found only a handful of Republican lawmakers holding open-to-the-public town halls this week.

In Wisconsin, Ann Jamison would love to talk about health care with Ryan. She's been trying to reach his office by phone since January.

She said she has been "not successful at all" in reaching him.

Even though she lives outside his district, she says Ryan is the Speaker of the House -- a national figure -- and not merely the congressman from Janesville.

reynolds-ryan-town-hall-2017-7-7.jpg, Paul Ryan took questions from reporters on July 7, 2017. CBS NEWS

"The voicemail ends with saying that the voice box is full and you are not able to leave a message," Jamison said.

The message she says she would leave is that Paul Ryan and all the members of Congress work for the people and are supposed to listen to them.