President Trump’s decision to go before the U.N. and unmask himself as a belligerent interventionist dashed any remaining hopes that he would choose a substantively different course from his predecessors, says Gilbert Doctorow.
By Gilbert Doctorow
My political positions have very frequently been countercurrent. When American liberals were calling for Donald Trump’s head at the outset of his presidency, when Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi were preaching all-out obstructionism to thwart his policies, I was urging progressives to lay down their pitchforks and try to deal constructively with the new administration for the good of the nation.
President Donald Trump speaking to the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 19, 2017. (Screenshot from Whitehouse.gov)
Now, in the past several weeks, in a belated show of bipartisanship, Democratic Party leaders have finally found a negotiating partner in Donald Trump, starting with a government funding bill and agreement to raise the national debt and extending to promises to protect the “Dreamers” in the sphere of immigration policy. More deals are said to be underway. In theory, that is all to the good.
However, in the meantime, this President demonstrated fulsomely in his speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations that it is high time for him to go. And that is not because of his widely discussed volatility, impulsiveness and narcissism. It is because of his irremediable stupidity, primitivism and thuggery that are leading this country on a path to commit unspeakable horrors abroad.
To be sure, Trump’s shocking debut at the U.N. comes as the culmination of a lengthy decline in civilized behavior by our national leaders over the past two decades. The swagger and bloated self-importance of George W. Bush were a preview although performed with less self-assuredness than Trump’s bluster.
President George W. Bush announcing the start of his invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003.
After 9/11 in 2001 but before the fateful invasion of Iraq in 2003, Bush would make one or another outrageous, lying statement about international affairs, such as the “weapons of mass destruction” he alleged were retained by Saddam Hussein. Then he would pause and look into the camera with hesitation, as if wondering whether his whoppers would be swallowed by the public. Satisfied that he had gotten away with it, he would resume his rant.
That hint of self-doubt or fear of discovery disappeared over the years even as adversity on the battlefield underscored his fateful errors and even after the mismanaged economy spun apart in 2008. Bush limped to the end of his second term none the wiser.
The Insouciant Obama
Our far more intellectual President Barack Obama, with his term on the Harvard Law Review as seeming proof of mental and cultural distinction, never did learn to behave in a truly statesmanlike manner although he generally framed his actions in more refined rhetoric.
From start to finish, Obama conducted himself with insouciance. His well-meaning arm over the shoulder of Queen Elizabeth, which the Brits saw as disrespect for court decorum, and his chewing gum while standing before the public eye were noted by mainstream commentators. But they never noted when he slipped beyond the occasional faux pas to openly insulting behavior towards leaders of important nations.
One such case occurred when Obama stood by the side of Chinese President Xi in the White House Rose Garden for a press briefing, and said that he would be watching closely to see that the Chinese implemented the actions that had been agreed upon.
U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 28, 2015. (Photo credit: United Nations.)
Then there was Obama likening Putin to a misbehaving schoolboy, skulking at the back of the classroom. Or Obama’s description of the whole country, Russia, as a fading regional power that produced nothing that anyone wanted. This was gratuitously insulting and degrading behavior by the leader of the world’s mightiest country.
But all of these verbal misdeeds of the recent past were nothing compared to what Donald Trump delivered on Tuesday during the 42-minute speech marking his debut before the U.N. General Assembly. Trump’s vicious remarks directed at Iran and Venezuela may have been in line with the “Axis of Evil” speeches of George W. Bush. But Trump’s threat to “totally destroy” North Korea, a country of 25 million people, if it so much as “threatened” the United States and its allies went beyond incivility.
The name Adolf Hitler is often tossed about carelessly in American political discourse. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton applied the Hitler comparison to Russian President Vladimir Putin when she sought to vilify him in a way that U.S. presidents avoided even in the darkest days of the Cold War in describing Soviet leaders. (In Russia, which suffered the brunt of Hitler’s aggression in World War II, the Hitler insult is taken even more seriously than it is in the United States.)
However, by threatening to annihilate an entire nation from the podium of the world’s greatest forum for peace-making, Trump cast himself as a modern-day Hitler.
Those of us who once saw hope in Donald Trump’s promises of normalized relations with the world’s other nuclear superpower were initially confused and disappointed when he appointed U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who adopted run-of-the-mill neoconservative talking points, and also brought onboard military advisers with histories of supporting neocon policies, such as Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.
But now there is no room left for confusion or indulgence. No one can blame Mattis or Haley or McMaster. This time it was Trump himself who spoke outrageously, who delivered what some media outlets properly called a “tirade” and others, more timidly, spoke of as “bellicose.”
Thought-Through Nonsense
What marked this speech from the long series of uncontrolled, self-indulgent tweets on foreign and domestic affairs from this President was that it was a scripted speech in which every word had been weighed beforehand for its likely interpretation and public impact.
It was the speech of a thug, the words of an aggressor.
German dictator Adolf Hitler
On the day of the speech, major U.S. media contented themselves with quoting Trump’s more remarkable statements, starting with his threat to annihilate North Korea and his schoolyard taunt calling Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man.” On day two, the editorial boards made more subtle observations.
The New York Times, for example, allowed itself to point to the contradiction between Trump’s celebration of sovereign nation states — with their own traditions and practices — and his call for regime change with respect to the three states singled out as “rogues” supposedly threatening the world order
In other words, Trump’s speech hinged on the notion that there should be “sovereignty” for countries that the United States favors and not for countries that the U.S. disfavors. The same fundamental contradiction was inherent in all U.S. foreign policy over the past 25 years, a case of some farm animals being more equal than other farm animals, as George Orwell observed in Animal Farm.
However, with Trump’s predecessors, this ugly reality was masked by a stress on universal values, such as democracy promotion or protection of human rights. Trump opted for a self-contradictory definition of “sovereignty,” i.e., that it means the United States has the sovereign right to overthrow any government of its choosing and even to wipe out an entire population. Whether Trump knew it or not, he was attacking the very foundation of the United Nations which was formed in the ashes of World War II to prevent future wars of aggression, to move the world’s population away from the law of the jungle.
Perhaps one could argue that at least Trump was being somewhat honest about the arrogance of U.S. power. He was pulling away the fig leaf of those nice-sounding phrases that had concealed Washington’s raw use of military power in support of the view that the U.S. should be the world’s judge, jury and executioner.
But Trump also showed that he had deceived his followers who heard – and took heart from – his criticism of both Bush and Obama for their foreign interventionism and endless wars. In contrast to those promises, Trump’s U.N. speech revealed an even more aggressive interventionism combined with a crude and boastful bluster.
Though Trump may have thought he was just tossing some more red meat to his “base,” he also disqualified himself in the eyes of many people who had hoped against hope that he might have meant what he said about respecting the sovereignty of other nations and would pull back U.S. military forces around the world.
Trump’s shocking performance before the United Nations also has added fuel to the political engine seeking his removal from office, even if the suspicions about “collusion” with Russia during the 2016 election turn out to be bogus. Many thoughtful Americans will now say that the ends will justify almost any means.
If that day comes, I wish Donald Trump a comfortable retirement on a bar stool at a Trump Tower lounge where he and his bombastic remarks belong.
Gilbert Doctorow is an independent political analyst based in Brussels. His latest book Does Russia Have a Future? was published in August 2015. His forthcoming book Does the United States Have a Future? will be published in October 2017.
The “…path to commit unspeakable horrors abroad.” was paved long before Trump was appeared, and the US has already spent much of the last 45 years destroying other states with varying degrees of thoroughness. Trump’s putting it in vulgar and non-stately language doesn’t change anything except some people’s comfort level with the truth.
If Trump himself introduces anything to worry about, it might be the suspicion that he could be exceptionally easy to influence by the defense and foreign policy hawks in terms of doing whatever they think is necessary for “winning” in whatever scenario and the knowledge that a part of his base will always rally around any action which could be packaged to them as “America kicking some ass” thought it would hardly be the first time conflict was used for purely domestic political reasons.
None of this has to do with Trumps own ideas or policies. It’s only that his tendency toward bluster and confrontational rhetoric provides a useful banner under which hawks can pursue an forceful agenda and effectively “blame it on Trump” if it goes badly or is poorly received politically.
As opposed to what, an exhilarating interventionist?
“Assad Must Go!”
– Dear Leader Obama
“Who would have thought it? I’m really good at killing people.”
– Obama on ‘Terror Tuesday’
Why compare? Trump is what he is regardless of who came before him. You’re either an interventionist or you’re not. Trump is.
Why the shock. Trump said he was the most militaristic candidate during the primaries. He wanted to bomb the shit out of ISIS, torture and kill their family members. He said the Iran nuke deal was terrible. His attack on Bush for the Iraq invasion came after he told Howard Stern that we should have done it right the first time and said “I guess so” if he thought we should have indeed invaded Iraq. He seemed more concerned about us being compensated for our adventures abroad than actually being against them. That and the fact that he’s been a bombastic asshole his entire adult life made it abundantly clear that he was hardly presidential material. Only the blind couldn’t have seen through this piece of shit.
Odd that our perceptive news journalists have not noticed these outrages. Maybe Trump is the president that truly represents the majority of Americans today. History has demonstrated that pride leads inevitably to fall, and we certainly are consumed with pride. Al of Doctorows observations are glaringly true.
If ANY good can come out of this maybe it will be that the craven vassals in Europe finally walk away from their overlords in Washington. They must see that the tunnel only gets darker up ahead if they maintain their current path of blind obedience. What world leader, aside from Putin, has the courage to tell the maniacs in Washington that the horror show is over?
Germany is the key for how Europe will go.
I agree that Trumps UN speech was a little too heartfelt for me to believe that he is not just another war monger. However, that also does not dispel the notion that he is being manipulated into a certain set of preordained choices. The deep state has put a brick wall behind every door he tried to open in regards to diplomacy so that the only door that he can open is one of war. This is why Trump, Obama, and Bush, despite being vastly different people in terms of their character, temperament and values always wind up in the same place.
Poor little Donald, they made him do it. And he was such a nice little fascist oligarch.
My point is that all our presidents end their term as war criminals, focusing on the individual, as if it is an aberration, and lamenting that the other person should have been elected, does not seem to be getting anyone anywhere.
In spite of the Deep State and all the history and cultural factors, it still matters who is President of the US, and their character for good or ill has a large impact on national affairs.
After the Vietnam USA million killings, only Jimmy Carter was chosen.purposely as a soft handed president. . America wanted to appear saintly . It did not take long. Jimmy got the boot after one term because he wanted peace with the Palestinians. Reagan/Bush killings reappeared 12 years and killing cycle never stopped.
This nicely sums up Trump and those who supported him.
Trump, We Hardly Knew Ye
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/09/donald-jeffries/trump-we-hardly-knew-ye/
Congrats, Mr. Parry. Your readership seems to be made of well-misinformed LaRouchites. No wonder you’re always struggling for funds. You don’t attract serious readers. I doubt you yourself are duped by such things, but you’re purist instincts do tend to isolate you, which can be a good thing when it comes to research and reporting of course, but sometimes it isolates you from the most realistic interpretations and you end up boxing yourself into a corner that holds little credence except a bottom line of ‘don’t trust anybody I couldn’t trust 30 years ago’.
If only those “serious readers” with lots of moola would come on board……sigh…. Maybe if Robert would just suck up to them, he could join the paid for media club of the ruling class.
It is clearly time to kiss the corpse good-bye…. https://canadianviews-ymo.ca/natothe-decomposing-corpse/
Despite all the alleged Trump negatives that you cite, Trump is far superior, far more independent than the slimeballs that preceded him….LBJ, Nixon, Bush1, Bush 2,Obama…war criminals that never missed an opportunity to sell out their country….for their own personal gain… and Hillary Clinton would have followed (did follow) that same pattern
George Meredith MD
Virginia Beach
Your somebody was worse argument in support of Trump is nonsense.
You’re right. and for the M.D. from Virginia Beach to believe Trump isn’t already raking in millions upon millions of dollars from his presidency, with much bigger payoffs to come after he’s out of office, is the naivest thing, even most oblivious thing, I may have ever heard.
Calling Trump independent is strange. Even he has little idea of his policies, but he has been very easy to switch to the neo-con, bipartisan warmongering/invading/destroying continuation of the policies of previous decades.
So how would getting rid of Trump change anything?
George Meredith MD—please stick with medicine not politics. I wouldn’t want you assessing any patient having mental problems. Donald Trump is a dangerous psychopath (an unstable and aggressive person.)
Once again, the comments on Trump’s speech are more interesting than the speech itself! As regular readers of his articles know, Mr Doctorow’s view of the “good of the nation” seems to involve the US capitulating to Putin in Ukraine and very little else. In Trump’s speech, which runs to nine pages, Russia gets one mention and Putin none. Mr Doctorow gives Russia four mentions and Putin two and that in a much shorter document. The rest of the article is just the usual “Trump broke his promise” lament.
Ukraine was not mentioned once in this piece, you, not Dr. Doctorow seem obsessed with the topic. That said, Ukraine was relevant to the campaign and a basis for voting for or against Trump. Apparently, you do not think that governing policy need be consistent with campaign rhetoric. I take it you’re more of a “bait and switch” kind of guy, or else a member of the extended Poroshenko family.
Drogon — “Nobody twisted his arm and forced him to adopt these positions. Not James Mattis or Nikki Haley or Benjamin Netanyahu. This was Trump all the way.”
You are so right, Drogon!
Interview excerpts from yesterday’s http://www.democracynow.org
AMY GOODMAN: So, you were there at the time that President Trump gave his first U.N. address before the General Assembly. Start with North Korea and take it from there.
JEFFREY SACHS: Horrifying. Of course, there was a shudder in the room. No president of the United States has declared from the podium of the United Nations General Assembly that the U.S. is ready to totally destroy a country. It was absolutely shocking. And the whole speech was grotesque, in my view.
AMY GOODMAN: Why?
JEFFREY SACHS: Because it was militaristic. It was filled with grievance, with bias, with ignorance. Trump is a very dangerous man. There’s no question about it. He individually a very dangerous man, and the United States right now is a very dangerous country.
I’ve been reminded often in these days of a statement by President John F. Kennedy, when he said in 1963 that in the nuclear age, to put an adversary at the choice of a nuclear war or a humiliating retreat, it would show the bankruptcy of our policy or a collective death wish for the world. President Kennedy was a great man. We have right now an administration which is endangering America and the world.
First, we have to avoid a nuclear war. And a nuclear war is a real threat. It’s not some idle imagination right now. You have two leaders—both seem unstable—yelling at each other. Both have nuclear arms. Seoul, South Korea, is a few minutes—moments away from the North Korean arms. I’ve heard people say, “Well, South Korea, that would be collateral damage.” It’s unbelievable the way people are talking right now and how close we are to disaster and how complacent we are, because it’s unimaginable. Now, I’m not saying it’s inevitable, but I am saying it is absolutely being pushed right now recklessly. And, of course, what first needs to happen is to tamp down this kind of absolutely dangerous, provocative rhetoric.
The North Koreans made a statement a few days ago that was not well covered, which said, “We are looking for a military equilibrium to avoid a military option,” meaning “We don’t want to be overthrown by the United States.”
The U.S., of course, is a serial regime changer. In fact, our foreign policy is based on covert and overt wars of overthrow of other countries: Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Bashar al-Assad—a disaster that has created absolute chaos, indeed all three of them. North Korea basically said a few days ago, “We don’t want to be overthrown.” Well, that is absolutely correct. We should have diplomacy politics, not a nuclear exchange.
AMY GOODMAN: And China’s role in this, what they can do?
JEFFREY SACHS: Well, China also doesn’t want chaos. China is calling every day for a diplomatic response. And we know that a diplomatic response is possible. Indeed, when the challenge was Iran, you had all five members—permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany, making a historic agreement with Iran, precisely the one that Trump is attacking right now vis-à-vis Iran. So, we’re just pushing for war. It’s incredible.
AMY GOODMAN: Are you concerned that the whole investigation of Trump around Russian issues is—as the prosecutor is breathing down his neck, that he will do something rash internationally to distract attention?
JEFFREY SACHS: I don’t know if it’s to distract attention or whether he is just psychologically profoundly unstable—and he is—or just ignorant, which he is, or vicious and biased and stereotyping and without historical knowledge, which he is all of those things. So I don’t know what it will be. But I do know that the United States has a war tendency, and it is restrained only at the top, actually. And here you have a president who is egging on, provoking, himself unstable, without attention span. It’s extraordinarily dangerous.
And where is the Congress? Not one word by our Congress. It’s a disgrace, because under our Constitution, Congress has the only authority to declare war, and our Congress is useless, as we know, in this, because they’ve just ceded the authority to an imperial presidency. And now we have a president completely unfit and absolutely provocative every day.
So Sachs is shocked that Trump would publicly state a willingness to destroy another country. Gee, you’d think bellicose statements by U.S. military or Administration officials were a rarity.
Where is the shock, where is the outrage when other countries ARE ACTUALLY destroyed, or when terrorism is employed as a proxy tool of destabilization and destruction?
Sachs wrings his hands over Trump v. North Korea (the nuclear danger) and refers to the “war tendency” as being “restrained only at the top”. While it is true that military confrontation with North Korea is a bad idea to be avoided…presenting complications and dangers…it is the general thrust of foreign policy, the desire to dominate resources and curtail the “competition” (notably China and Russia) that is at the root of the situation.
The “war tendency” is restrained from “the top”? In theory or practice? I guess I have to come up with a new understanding of “restraint”.
Trump is evidently failing to be part of the solution to grave problems and dangers…but he certainly presents nothing new in terms of foreign policy prerogatives and bellicosity. Meanwhile, actual killing and insidious maneuvering continues apace. Let’s not really change Mr. Sachs, let’s put the onus on Trump and look the other way when it comes to fundamentals.
I do not agree that Lavrov praised trump’s speech-video link is posted above by Garrett connelly.
This is a link which contains a summary of rebuttal:
https://www.sott.net/article/362587-Sergey-Lavrov-offers-Russias-point-by-point-rebuttal-of-Trumps-inflammatory-UN-speech-full-video
I lost my place but did listen to Foreign Minister Lavrov of Russia at the UN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTEtwVKIRgg
Thanks for the link. Excellent comprehensive speech with telling references in his usual polite diplomatic way!!
Thank you, Gilbert Doctorow
I appreciate your writings and am relieved you are facing corporatism as an actual existing something driven by insatiable want and cannibalism in the race to be the final owner of everything.
When the final owner is found to be an immortal corporation; Nobody owns everything.
Russia and China face creeping corporatism as well. The totalitarian state attempts to manage faster and faster growth on an already polluted planet for many reasons. It attempts to tell cosmic powered biology how to do that.
This bullshit about “Trump’s a good guy, he wants to do good things, but the deep state makes him do bad things – It’s not really his fault.” The same phony excuses that were made, and are still made for Obama. I would like to ask these people, if the Mafia told you to kill a family and their five children, or something bad would happen to you – would you do it? Donald Trump has the same opportunity to do the right thing as any of us. If he doesn’t live up to higher moral standards, nobody is to blame but himself, period. He took on a man’s job, let him be a man and do it according to his highest intentions. The fact is that he has been a coward and a bully, a cheat and a liar his whole life, and he is not about to change now. Enough with the alibis for this failure of a human being!
Yes. The deep-state is not coercing him. His hostility towards Iran and North Korea were evident early in the campaign as was his partiality toward Israel and Saudi Arabia. The only area where he diverges from deep-state desires seems to be Russia and that is probably because he hopes to augment his personal bottom line somehow through improved relations. I’m not saying there is anything to Russia-gate on the part of Putin or the Russian government, but Trump probably thinks he can coopt them somehow. He has a very inflated opinion of his ability to manipulate people. The deep-state no doubt wishes he would be more circumspect and not call so much attention to himself and his schemes, but they can’t really object to his policies.
Thanks for calling out the Trump apologists who are constantly making these bizarre, unconvincing excuses. The “deep state” didn’t coerce or corrupt Trump, this is exactly who he’s been his entire life and he was fairly upfront about it when running for office. During the campaign, then-candidate Trump repeatedly criticized the Iran nuclear deal for being insufficiently tough and threatened to walk away from the agreement if elected. The same goes for North Korea. Here’s a direct quote from Trump way back in January of 2016 on North Korea’s nuclear program: “We got to close it down, because he’s getting too close to doing something…Right now, he’s probably got the weapons, but he doesn’t have the transportation system. Once he has the transportation system, he’s sick enough to use it. So we better get involved.”
Nobody twisted his arm and forced him to adopt these positions. Not James Mattis or Nikki Haley or Benjamin Netanyahu. This was Trump all the way.
Correct, and Obama had every chance and the two chambers plus the world on his side when he was elected in 2008, so it was obvious his plans were not to do anything good and different, but to follow his corporate donors and help the rich. The wikileaks emails to Podesta included those telling Obama who to appoint to his cabinet, which he did (Wall Street stooges).
rosemerry: You are right about Obama.
Trump is not the only problem there. In fact he is the least of the problem. He is an outsider and absolutely has no support in Washington. It is not right to make judgement on him with this speech at U.N. or elsewhere. He is not going to start any War any where. Most of the power has been taken out of his hands. The bigger problem is Washington Establishment itself. At least Trump in these speeches utters some Truth what this country has been doing for a long time now. That is what rankles the Ruling Establishment – his showing the true colors of U.S. Foreign policy, what it has been all along. Most likely he will be ousted by the end of the Year.
Hillary Clinton in 2008 made a similar speech threatening to “obliterate Iran” (80 million people) if they dared attack Israel. She also made a disgustingly craven promise last year to elevate the US relationship with Israel to new heights. With her hatred of Russia and behavior towards the overthrow of Honduras’s leader in 2009, she probably has the anti-Venezuela obsession too, so the language of Trump and his actions are probably no different from the “Democratic Party’s foreign policy had she been elected.
If Trumpenstein was a good guy, if he had moral standards, he wouldn’t be there in the first place.
Don’t get hung up on the difference between Whammo and Whizzo soap powder.
You’re just wasting time and energy.
Blame the system, not the 3rd rate excuses for human beings it throws up.
Someone at the Guardian (quoting someone else unnamed) said that Trump sounded like what a frightened weak man would imagine a strong man to sound like … his incoherence was repeatedly cited, specifically the first half of his speech (in defense and praise of sovereignty) contradicted by the second half (American right to intervene/interfere with any and all other countries) …
Globalization has demanded (see Nafta) the subjugation of sovereignty to trade agreements/bizness interests (neoliberalism)… so the first half was Trump ringing the nationalist anti-globalization bell … This is something that the BRICS and current day non-aligned nations might also applaud … until they imagine themselves in our gun-sights, the demand that they trade their sovereignty for safety from American sanctions/belligerence …
With George Bush, I used to wonder just how stupid he and Cheney thought the American people were … (boy, they sure taught me) …. , Trump seems to be intent on riding that “stupidity” to the bank … and laughing all the way … just try to stop me, he cried as he headed over the cliff. A lot of people (on all sides) seem to think the Obama era was a disaster (in so many oddly divergent, even contradictory, ways). Now is the winter of our discontent. Indeed.
Clinton’s self-serving “pity me” book is oddly appropriate testimony to her (and our) lack of leadership and inspiration … let’s lick our wounds and seethe for another decade …
A positive effect of The US rethoric on NK, Iran, Venezuela and others is that the realities of US foreign policy become increasingly obvious to people around the world, not least in Europe, and the disgust at it palpably increases month by month.
The comparison with Hitler’s rethoric is reasonable, regarding NK. Sadly.
I’m not sure why anyone that he would be any different. He is just the gate keeper for the ones behind the curtain.
https://www.activistpost.com/2017/09/high-ranking-cia-whistleblower-deep-state-shadow-government.html
We rolled the dice with Trump because we did not want a war mongering psycho bitch in the oval office. Now that Trump has proven himself to be just another political stooge, he is no worse than the alternative. To quote George Carlin “Garbage in. Garbage out”.
WC – those are words. Trump bombed an airstrip in Syria, after giving everyone there hours of advance notice to vacate the premises, and apparently the airstrip wasn’t even destroyed because they were flying planes out the very next day. Now, what type of tyrant gives a heads up to his enemy?
He blew up the “mother of all bombs” in Afghanistan. It was out in the boondocks.
Talk about throwing lobs! He huffs and puffs and reads from a script. So far I think he’s contained the neocons. If all he does is bluster, then I say let him bluster! If this keeps the neocons thinking they have the upper hand and keeps them from acting, then bluster on.
At least he hasn’t taken out a sovereign leader, and no one has been sodomized or hung from the neck on his shift, not yet.
I suppose the real question boils down to, does Trump have any real decision making power or is he just another stooge for the central bankers and the multinationals that make up the deep state? From my perspective, and to my complete disappointment, looks like he’s been fitted with a nose ring and leash.
I hope you are right that all he does is huff and puff and bluster. Taking on NK is an entirely different kettle of fish than knocking off Lybia, etc. 30 seconds after the first US bomb is dropped, NK artillery will open up on Seoul and its 10 million inhabitants. And that’s before they retaliate with nukes against US bases and naval presence. Russia and China, who both share borders with NK, might have something to say about such a situation materializing.
So I hope Trump shuts the hell up on this NK huffing and puffing and starts employing The Art of the Deal. I’m still saying better him than her in the oval office but the gap has narrowed considerably.
WC – yeah, who knows. I certainly don’t, but from watching what Trump has done so far (under tremendous pressure to do more, I’m sure) he’s just thrown around a few bombs that did very little damage. I shudder to think what Hillary would have done to Syria. I think she would have bombed the crap out of them.
I’d much rather Trump yell his head off and warn the North Korean leader. I think he’s trying to tell the guy, “Look, don’t mess around with these neocons. They’re looking for any reason to take you out. Listen to what I’m saying to you.”
Let’s keep our fingers crossed, WC. Thank you.
Could not have said this better! A crapshoot! And the whole world lost!
Adolf Hitler, Reichstag, Berlin, 30 January 1939:
“Today again I want to be a prophet. If the international Finance-Jewry inside and outside of Europe should succeed in plunging the peoples of the earth once again into a world war, the result will be not the Bolshevization of earth and therefore a Jewish victory, but the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe.”
Donald Trump, UN headquarters, New York, 19 September 2017:
“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”
Sorry Donald, but I’ve got a bit of a problem with threats to destroy an entire population of people.
Brendan – yes, Trump was warning North Korea not to bomb South Korea or Japan, not to act first, or his country will be annihilated. Of course, North Korea is not going to act first as the leader knows this would be suicide for himself and his people.
What Trump said is no different than what Winston Churchill warned Hitler about. Cease and desist.
Speaking of World War II, what I really want to see are the papers of Rudolph Hess (which are still not released to the public). Some historians say that Hitler tried several times to end the war, but Churchill would have none of it. Churchill bombed Germany four times (I believe it was) in order to incite Hitler, but Hitler did not retaliate until he finally could take no more. Churchill “wanted” Hitler to bomb London. He needed that in order to draw the U.S. into the war. Without war, Churchill was nothing.
In 1941, Rudolph Hess (a top Nazi official) flew in the dead of night, using only a compass and landmarks to guide him, to Scotland. He was a pilot, but certainly not an expert pilot. He has a plane outfitted with extra fuel tanks, etc., and flew off over the Atlantic, flying in a holding pattern until it got dark enough to fly over Scotland. He had a letter for the King of England. Why would he be trying to give a letter to the King of England? Could it be because he thought, since Churchill was not listening to reason, that maybe the King would? The Germans probably did not know that the King of England had little power, or maybe they thought, since the King hated Churchill, that he would speak up.
Eventually it’s dark and he flies over Edinburgh and over to the west coast of Scotland, turns around and then drops his plane down to 1,000 feet, turns the plane upside down, and parachutes out. He lands 12 miles from where he wanted to end up, some castle. He says he has a letter for the King of England.
The person who received the letter from Hess did end up meeting with the King two days later, but nothing was done except that Hess was arrested and never saw the light of day again. He was imprisoned for the rest of his life, and he died a very old man. Many others were released, but not Hess. Why?
Let’s see those Hess papers. So much of history is just a pile of bull. It was going on back then, just as it’s going on now.
You can also get some new insights from the EIR search box (“Synarchy: NAZI/Communist”), and Webster g Tarpley has valuable history to add to the picture. The original lineup was supposed to be Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, Netherlands vs USA, USSR, ROC (the three great Republics who stood in the way of a global Empire run by traditional imperialists in new fascist clothing…obviously not all members were completely on board, France only halfway so, Britain retired a King who was embarrassingly on board with NAZIism, Spain said no thanks to more war, Hitler struck West after Poland, suspecting a “back stab” and that the “phony war” would turn real and treacherous (just like him), Japan said so be it, and took over British, French, Dutch, and American(from Spanish-American War) colonies for their own Empire.
backwardsevolution and Brad Owen, Greg Maybury has an important new essay on WWI and WWII beginnings, that is pertinent to this discussion. His new take is interesting because as an ex-history teacher, he has had a total change in perspective. I hope we can concentrate more on this subject on a newer thread.
http://poxamerikana.com/2017/09/19/from-great-wars-come-great-consequences/
Why??? America’s been doing it for years – Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, why not a few more???
I am not happy with the language and tone of Trump’s UN speech. What was a bit alarming, was that Tuesday evening I listened to C-Span caller in citizens say, ‘how proud they were to be an American after listening to Trump give it to them at the UN’. The next day, on a short drive, a local radio talk show host and his callers were jumping out of their skin for joy, that finally we Americans were not (like Obama had been doing) leading from behind. Now, I don’t know what majority or minority those caller in types are, but after I read Trump’s speech, and was able to absorb what all Trump had said, and thinking of these deranged talk show callers in people I didn’t get my hopes up to far as for us all having a better future to look forward too. Without a responsible media we are all traveling on a solo path, and this is another stick in the gear to keep us all divided.
Joe – yes, I too am alarmed at some I have heard say, “Yay, Trump really gave it to them!” What? But I comfort myself that these types of people would be in the minority.
But on blogs and radio talk shows, you’ve always got to be careful about who you read and listen to, at least be suspect, because there are people who are being hired by various vested interest groups in order to get their point across, maybe even scare people into thinking there really are loonies out there in the millions. You know, people phoning in or responding on blogs in, for instance, an anti-semitic way or a warlike manner, or hateful towards others, all under the guise of trying to make them look more hated than what they are. This has been done over and over again. And these groups are often the very people who stack the phone lines or are the first ones to respond on blogs.
Keep using that great mind, Joe, and question everything.
Tune in on Sundays, or Stream on your computer, KDKA 1020 Radio Chris Moore, between 5 to 9 pm. You will not be disappointed. Chris has on guest like Robert Parry, and Paul Craig Roberts. Chris also gives the caller in plenty of time when they get on the air, and you don’t have to be liberal, or anything in order for Mr Moore to give you a timely platform to make your point. His number is 866-391-1020 if you call.
Those warmonger types have always been amongst us, it’s just too bad they get so loud as to influence so many to believe we Americans are all that way.
As far as the Deep State and the MSM were concerned, Trumpenstein was the greatest statesman of all time as soon as he started bombing Syria.
Saker on Trump’s outrageous first UN speech
“It is really sad and scary to see how much the US resembles the Soviet Union of the 1980’s.”
http://www.unz.com/tsaker/listening-to-the-donald-at-the-un/
Good article by Saker.
Very likely if Hillary Clinton had been making the address it would have been substantially the same content with different, possibly less awkward and offensive rhetoric. That is, as we’re seeing in the shifting sands of the middle east and Netanyahu’s hysteria to get the US involved more effectively again against Assad, new machinations must be initiated to interrupt restoration of the region, and so to the Iran bluster in companion to the North Korea bluster. However, throwing out “the red meat” to beget followers, as the narrative shifts from the crumbling Russia story to new stories for new ploys, may not go well, even at home, where citizens are weary of all the bullshit. Response internationally also has to be calculated in order to direct Donald into his next remarks. What we are also seeing, additional to the shock of this man’s naïve and deluded sense of how to bully the world, is increasing dismissal, accompanied by movement toward new alliances. I suggest his speech was a disaster, with its naked might-makes-right gesturing. The fools on the hill are losing their marbles.
Probably that’s the only possible way to defend Trump’s speech. Another way to “spin” it is that Trump hasn’t actually destroyed a nation yet. That can’t be said for either Bush the Dumber or Obama.
But as backwardsrevolution has just pointed out the rant in question was not Trump’s speech, he was simply reading a script prepared by the anonymous, shadowy members of the deep state. That is where the real problem lies, the ciphers come and go, the shadow government is permanent, and this is where policy is formulated and operationalized.
Right on the money. Personalities are just a distraction. An irrelevance.
STOP! Making excuses for the Habitual lying president. Law abiding Americans have bee conned.
Just look at the folks he appointed to do his dirty work. Not one sense able or any thing supporting his promises to Americans. We been suckered. Politicians are not elected but selected. Wake up Americans.
Meanwhile, Lavrov praises Trump’s U.N. speech, over on Executive Intelligence Review’s ( EIR) “Hot News” column on the right side of their web page. It’s good to get different coverage.
Also, form EIR “Press Release” on the left side of their web page, Thomas Pickering confirms informal back channel talks going on with N.K.; a Sept 19th press release. In general, we’re being told many different things. I like EIR’s track record…not a single missed forecast of what is to come.
Brad Owen – “It’s good to get different coverage.” Yes, it sure is. Lavrov probably realizes that Trump can do no differently. He’s surrounded himself with the military (probably for protection), so he tries to appease them with bluster. Of course, he didn’t write the script. He’s only reading it. Watch what people do, not what they say.
I didn’t even listen to Trump’s speech, and I’m sure it was as bad as everybody says it was. I don’t blame the North Korean leader at all for wanting to have nuclear weapons (look what happened to Gaddafi!), and I’m sure Trump doesn’t blame them either, but he can’t say that. If he gets up there and yells at North Korea and threatens them on using their nuclear weapons, well, duh – what else is he supposed to say? He’s letting them know in no uncertain terms that they are not to make one move towards using them. Now, if he wants North Korea to give up their nuclear weapons altogether, then that’s another story. The U.S. and Trump have no right to expect that from North Korea.
And God-damned Israel is sitting there, all smug, wrapped in their nuclear weapons, but Iran is the threat? If Iran is held to one standard, then Israel should be held to the same standard.
And Venezuela? What the hell? Leave them alone.
What these three countries have in common is they’re wanting to stay independent, they don’t want to play ball and cow tow to the U.S. and its minions.
Gilbert Doctorow: “Perhaps one could argue that at least Trump was being somewhat honest about the arrogance of U.S. power. He was pulling away the fig leaf of those nice-sounding phrases that had concealed Washington’s raw use of military power in support of the view that the U.S. should be the world’s judge, jury and executioner.”
Yes. So far Trump has exposed a lot of rot, and I hope he continues to keep exposing it. I am quite sure that what Trump said at the U.N. was not what he believed. He’s a puppet, a reader of scripts, just like Obama and Bush and Clinton before him.
So Trump is hounded by the ridiculous, mindless Left (who want utopia and want to erase history) and they – all of them – want him gone, even though they were quite happy when “their guy” was doing the same things, or at least we didn’t really hear from them. Not a peep. On the other side, Trump is being told what to do by the people who really control things, and who knows, maybe they are setting him up so that they can get people angry enough to impeach him. For someone to get up there and spout off war-like words, when they don’t really believe it, shows how powerless the U.S. President really is.
But let’s blame the “messenger”, shall we? Let’s not write articles about the shadow government. Let’s not investigate who these people really are! I mean, that might point in a direction we don’t really want to go. That might get ugly.
Do you think it possible that a country who has threatened, bribed, couped and destroyed other countries isn’t maybe doing the same thing to Trump? Maybe a juicy piece of sexual blackmail? Who knows.
Write some articles on who is really controlling things. Get to the bottom of it. Start naming names.
And Hitler? Why go to Hitler when you’ve got people at the ready who are just as ugly? Why not go to “Bush” or “Clinton”? Why not say, “Gee, that reminds us of Obama”?
Yes Trump IS being couped by the same forces that couped Ukraine. THAT is from EIR, and the “British Empire” (what they call the Trans-Atlantic community of London/Wall Street) is behind it all, who desperately wish to retain Cold War divisions, even Hot War,which are melting away before China’s OBOR initiatives (AGAIN an EIR/Schiller Institute Grand strategic plan adopted by China). We are in the same choir. Mueller was head of the “Get LaRouche” task force when he proved to be too much for The Empire, so they rail-roaded him into prison. He’s going after Trump now,on similarly false charges.
I read a lot of the transcript of the speech (it is quite long), and he is “talking out of both sides of his mouth”, probably HAVING TO, to placate the Imperial war criminals (EIR calls them BLIMPS= British Liberal Imperialists). He said some really great things that Lavrov really liked, which, via his talk with Tillerson, shows Trump’s true colors. The FDR grand strategic plan for cooperation between U.S. Russia and China is still on track, which will spell THE END for Empire (of British and European Oligarchs and Wall Street wannabes), and the true beginning of a family of Sovereign Nations united in working to solve world problems and meeting those needs & goals that are shared in common, by all of humanity. For some background from EIR, go to their search box, type in: “fight fascism the way FDR did”, “Synarchy against America”, “John F. Kennedy vs. the Empire”, “Return of the Monarchs”, “Permindex”, “Inter-Alpha Group”, “BAE Al Yamamah”, “American System of political economy”.
Brad – thanks for the info.
The belligerence toward Iran in particular was always a disturbing aspect of Trump’s campaign (including others around him) – and not only this – but for every alarming position Trump takes, one sees the actions of the deep state critters and the media doing everything they can to force Trump’s hand or foster increasing tensions and hysterias. They are still the main enemy in my book, and I think the Larouche organization is commendable for consistently refusing to be distracted by the superficial (though I haven’t explored their EIR, I’ve been following their output on Youtube). Another source of “different coverage” which I would recommend is Newsbud – Peter Lee in particular makes an argument that the Korea bluster isn’t all as it appears, and may even be directed as much or more toward establishing “cred” with PaCom (Pacific Command) as it is to frighten Kim into capitulating. Philip Kovacevic, on the contrary, has a more ominous take on Trump’s threats toward North Korea (relating this to the closure of the Russian consulate in San Francisco, for example).
Of course, Doctorow’s take is also an important one. The situation really is terrifying, in many respects. One quibble with what he says above, it’s not just intellectuals who heard the pro-peace elements of what Trump said during the campaign. It was his “base”, too. The “red meat” was for folks like PaCom, the US Congress with its usurpations increasing sanctions on some of the same countries targeted for destruction of sovereignty in Trump’s speech, the Israel-centric war bigots, etc. And more significantly, I still think (as do the LaRouche folks) it is important to resist giving in to the get-Trump-out-by-any-means mentality. The policy advocated by John V. Walsh of supporting or opposing Trump on specific issues still makes sense, but keeping the major focus on the broader forces for Empire.
Great comments. The creeps Mueller, Clapper, Comey, Susan Rice, HRC, and many others need to be put under oath.
To Backwardsevolution, Thoughtful and well written comments. You are right on and I agree with you!
backwardsevolution: Your comments : “And Hitler? Why go to Hitler when you’ve got people at the ready who are just as ugly? Why not go to “Bush” or “Clinton”? Why not say, “Gee, that reminds us of Obama”? ”
Yes, you are right.
And your comments: “Get to the bottom of it. Start naming names.”
Sure, it is time to do it.
Yes.
I am sick and tired of pseudo leftists getting all hysterical and disgusted at Trump for saying the exact same thing as every U.S. leader has said for the last 72 years, just saying it in his 7th grade school yard manner instead of their Ivy League sophisticate manner.
The real battle right now is being done those who want to remove Trump because he’s not bellicose enough, despite his blunt way of talking, or at least to tame him into their NeoCon ways. It is sad to see people supporting that because for the first time they actually are hearing what the U.S. policy is because Trump says “completely destroy” instead of “effectively retaliate.”
Meanwhile Sanders gives a speech that is filled with progressive rhetoric and yet it basically says the same thing- calls for removing authoritarian regimes and replace them with democracies (the U.S. gets to decide which is which I guess), vilifies Putin and Assad, and attacks North Korea. Yet all the Sanders fans can only think those of us who point out that Sanders is promoting American Imperialism must be Trump trolls.
Most folk in the U.S. seems totally oblivious to the reality of American Imperialism and the bloodshed of American policy. They are like fish in the ocean totally oblivious to the reality that they live in water. “Water? What’s that?”
“Imperialism? What’s that?”
This is as true for the Sanders progressives as it is for the Clinton apparatchiks as it is for the GOP flag wavers.
Yes. I look forward to the day when we see ourselves once again as a Continental Republic whose natural sphere of interest is the North American Continent down to Panama and the Caribbean Island Nations, and that our “neighborhood” is doing well and thriving. No thousand overseas military bases, no involvement in the geopolitics of the Old World, where we HAVE NO GENUINE interests in “who’s on top; who’s on the outs” and all of that rubbish. We should JOIN with China in their One Belt/One Road (OBOR: a 21st century version of The Marshall Plan) initiatives to promote the General Welfare of the entire World. Some sort of WPA/CCC/TVA labor force should have the manpower we typically think of the military as having, and THEY are the ones who should be partnering up with China, traveling the World, and developing the World. The Military should be reduced to a National Guard of Sea Service, Air Service, Land Service, and Space Service, with just one base of operations: USA. Period.
You said it Brad. Great comment. However I think it will take a major grass roots revolution to bring about the kind of change you envision. I became extremely disappointed in Sanders when he sold out to the Clinton machine, and never did care for his foreign policy positions that were way too timid about going up against the imperial globalists. I was hoping Tulsi Gabbard might be someone worthy, but it seems she’s caved as well. I think our standard bearer is going to have to be someone from outside of politics who can somehow manage to grab the MSM spotlight. Tall order, to say the least. But our collective future depends on it.
Miranda Keefe – Your brief comments sum it all. This is exactly the state of political discourse in this country. And same is true of the public discourse in their homes – if there is any – and else where.
I came here to Graduate School fifty two years ago. I have largely lived among Americans who grew up here – many during the times of McCarthy era, including my wife. I don’t think they ever had a real political discussion at their family table when growing up or afterwards, and they were thoroughly indoctrinated with the Red/ Russia Scare at the time, and it has been going on ever since. Just about most of them – including in my own home – believe everything what is fed to them through the Media.
I attended marriage celebration party of a cousin’s grandson in Michigan recently. It was a mixed crowd at the party – some of the people were from the group – I am using politically correct word – who had been here for some generations. They were educated people in responsible positions. Here is the sampling of opinions of the people from that group I talked to:
1. A sales manager – in his sixties – of a big parts company, who visits China too occasionally on business, believed in these Hillary email leaks told me that we have to improve our intelligence more as if a Trillion dollars spent is not enough.
2. A doctor, in his fifties, who worked at a prominent hospital in Detroit, and the suburbs was also kind of believed that Russians are manipulating our political system.
3. And an elderly person in his seventies, who was from the real Hippie Era, was kind of concerned about the direction country was going but was not sure about what is wrong.
I asked these gentlemen, don’t they look at the condition Detroit – which was just twenty miles away – is in, and try to figure out what happened. Why don’t they worry about Detroit instead about those bad Russians, who have done nothing to us in their entire History.
It hurts me whenever I visit Detroit to look at that ruined city – we live on the West Coast. It is painful to look at Detroit now, and it’s people – in those wrecked neighborhoods, and deserted roads with magnificent old buildings. Many other cities are in the similar condition.
And these people at the party were worried about Russia! And some of them think Hillary would have an ideal Woman President. It is true in this home too.
Now with this new brainwashing going on perpetrated by the Ruling Establishment – about Russia being the problem to be solved – will have it’s own consequences.
Exactly right. Trumpenstein’s speech was virtually a carbon copy of Dubya’s Axis of Evil garbage. It differed very little from Barack Obongo’s speech when he was collecting his Nobel Peace Prize just before he bombed a few more countries and placed orders for another $1 trillion of WMD. The Left just obsesses about Trumpenstein, bathrooms for transvestites and pulling down statues. Meanwhile the Deep State carries on robbing everybody blind, starting more wars, and looking for a new trained monkey to read the autocue.
To: backwardsevolution
You forget Donald Trump is a habitual liar. I suggest you go back and re fresh up on, his political speeches. A con man. You Tube video of importance ” Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani in drag”
Lavrov did not praise Trumps speech
That’s is a total misrepresentation of what Lavrov said
Listen to his speech at the UN and see how he counters all the nonsense Trump spouted.
Read the article.
Forget whatever ‘article’ you are talking about. Read every word of Lavrov’s speech and make up your own mind. I know it’s a quaint notion today, but give it a try.
As if spin is never involved. I’ve never seen EIR miss a beat, calling it right EVERY time they’ve weighed in on a topic. I’ll stick with THEM as Navigator. You go whatever way suits you best. We’ll see in the end who is pointing the right way.
Over in the left-hand column of the EIR web site, one will find “LaRouchePAC”. Click on it. One will find two articles: “The question Posed”, and underneath it, ‘the Trump UN speech—what you missed’ as the corrective to the lying, twisting spin of the Trans-Atlantic MSM coverage of these events. This is for the eyes of those who entertain the possibility that things are not as they seem, as reported by the MSM. I care not for the opinions of those with minds already made up, and refuse to look in other directions. I’m satisfied with what I’ve found over the years, on EIR and LaRouchePAC, and Webster G. Tarpley too, for the most part. CN tallies a great deal with them too. There are major video presentations on EIR and LaRouchePAC with the VIPS representatives, who apparently KNOW WHO to take their case to.
I think you should read the complete text of Lavrov’s speech. Praising?
I’m speaking of a discussion Lavrov had with Tillerson on the sidelines, which was reassuring.
“Many thoughtful Americans will now say that the ends will justify almost any means.”
Now that Trump is a clear and present danger and a direct threat to my life, our lives and all life on Earth, this sentence is accurate: “.. whatever means …” means “Whatever means” in my book. We are facing a predator who is trying to kill all of us. Take cover. Arm yourself and train. Prepare to fight for your life. The best defense is a good offense, never forget it.
You’re charging up a blind alley as well. It’s the system, not personalities. Trumpenstein is just the current trained monkey reading the autocue.
The President of the US has a lot of power, especially power to make military decisions, given the congress’s abdication of their powers in this regard. To say that the President is simply a powerless figurehead is incorrect. It matters a lot who is in that position. There are only a few persons on Earth who have the power to initiate a nuclear conflict; Donald Trump is one of those individuals. According to our laws in place, the President of the US has the sole and undisputed power to order a nuclear attack at any time of his or her choosing.
The only power Trumpenstein has is to shoot his mouth off and make a fool of himself and a laughing stock of the US. Trumpenstein has no power whatsoever over foreign or military policy. Those powers have been usurped by Congress and the generals. You could put a tailor’s dummy in his place for all the difference it makes.
“The only power Trumpenstein has is to shoot his mouth off and make a fool of himself and a laughing stock of the US. Trumpenstein has no power whatsoever over foreign or military policy.”
Nonsense. As president, Trump has complete control over the U.S. military and almost complete control over foreign policy in general. If anything, Congress and the Judiciary have ceded their constitutional authority to the executive branch, not the other way around.
That’s a misleading statement. The “system” itself is but a collection of evil personalities in positions of power. If the “president” didn’t matter, they wouldn’t have had to murder JFK, right?
The ignorant fascist bully reveals himself before a world longing for peace. People opposing Trump’s removal sure have to go through some tortured thought processes to justify keeping him in office. Those of us who can see who he really is, and the danger he represents to our world, know that our first priority is to get this psychopathic thug out of the Oval Office. World peace demands that we get this done.
Be wary of what you wish for… Pence is a Bush acolyte who is a warmonger… Ryan is bought and paid for by Clinton Foundation and if Clinton had won Iran and Syria and No. Korea would already have been bombed.
True
So true. Where do you turn for people honestly interested in peace? My two Democratic Senators from NH just voted in favor of a $700B ‘Defence’ budget. And, Shaheen is one of the leading proponents of the Russia-gate garbage. So when we push the Russians to the breaking point in Syria, and they kill a few Americans (amidst whatever group of jihadis are with them) we are all primed for WWIII.
The true military budget is $1,200 billion. Plus another $100 billion for “Intelligence.”
Wrong. Ryan is bought and paid for by the Koch brothers. I know I live in Wisconsin. Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, Reince Priebus. Have you ever heard of Foxconn? Get yourself educated.
Hello Tina…………..”get yourself educated” . You reveal yourself to be in need of an education yourself with a remark like this. Are you Trump’s sister?
Quote: ” Iran and Syria and No. Korea would already have been bombed”. That i known as fantasy-history. Your fantasy.
Trump already attacked the sovereign nation of Syria by launching Tomahawks at their air base after an alleged chemical attack that wasn’t. Remember that? And the base was operational again later that day, or the next. Heckuva job, Donnie!
And do you seriously think that HRC would have attacked NK with all the potential SK casualties, along with the tens of thousands of troops stationed right on the DMZ? But I forgot, she’s a strawman hobgoblin psychotic mass murderer to right wingers who are too lazy to do any actual critical thinking. She represents everything that’s wrong in DC today, including heavy-handed interventionism, but she’s not foaming at the mouth to directly slaughter millions (despite that disgusting “we came, we saw, he died.”)
Whereas Trump seems to have a very loose grip on reality, enjoys childishly taunting foreign leaders, and making grandiose threats of death and destruction. And to boot, he’s a wild card. Unpredictable. He could indeed launch a first strike nuclear attack on NK. No one would forget his name then, which seems to be the point of almost everything he does, to get people talking about HIM. He has bigger fish to fry, but he’s attacking the NFL, he’s tweeting about this minutia and that. Who cares? Do your effing job! He’s like a child with ADD, he needs a chief of staff with a pair of brass ones to grab him by the lapels and make him work.
I think you’re wrong in focussing on personalities, not the system. You may not like Trumpenstein, but if he was shot dead tomorrow near some grassy knoll, do you seriously think anything would change??? Dubya/ Obongo/ Trumpenstein, what’s the difference, really??? Would things be any different if Hitlery had won??? Some minor differences in tone and style at most. Hitlery giggled hysterically when Gaddafi was sodomised with a knife. Barack “Nobel Peace Prize” Obongo bombed 7 countries and authorised a $1 trillion programme for more WMD. Cardboard Cut Out A, B, or C, what does it matter??? Whizzo Soap Powder or Whammo Soap Powder. What difference does it make which trained monkey the Deep State gets to sign off on its wars and read the autocue??? Really?
Unfortunately, Trump is only the very tip of the iceberg.I think he himself half believed what he was telling the American people, and the world, during his election campaign.However, following the win,the rest of the iceberg took him to one side and told him the way it was going to be.Trump isn’t the problem,he’s the mouth piece (big mouth piece) that the war mongering neocons operating him put in front of the world. You won’t get to them unless you get to the press. unfortunately they too are paid up members of the propaganda club, they too are very frightened of the forces operating behind the scenes in America. But in the grand scheme of things, they will be the easiest to attack.It maybe too late.