President Trump Has Invited Brutal Thugs To The White House
[guest post by Dana]
I hated it when President Obama flew to Cuba to make nice with brutal dictator Raul Castro, under the guise of “normalizing relations” with the country. It was a shameful moment for the U.S., and an insult to Cuban-American lovers of freedom who risked life and limb to make it safely to our shores. It was also an insult to the memory of any who perished while trying to flee the repressive regime. And as I recall, most of you hated the president’s actions too.
Likewise, I find it equally repugnant that the our current president is making nice with another brutal thuggish leader, and admitted murderer, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Unlike Obama, President Trump isn’t flying to the southeast Asian country to meet with Duterte. Instead, he has invited the dictator to the White House:
President Trump has invited Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to the White House, according to a readout of Trump’s call with the leader on Saturday.
“President Trump enjoyed the conversation and said that he is looking forward to visiting the Philippines in November,” the readout said, adding that Trump invited Duterte to the White House “to discuss the importance of the United States-Philippines alliance.”
As a reminder, more than 7,000 people have reportedly been murdered as a result of of President Duterte’s controversial war on drugs. Meanwhile, in the face of criticism, President Trump is defending President Duterte’s efforts:
“The Philippines is very important to me strategically and militarily,” Trump said Monday in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News, two days after he invited the Philippine leader to Washington. “I look forward to meeting him. If he comes to the White House that’s fine.”
…
“He’s been very, very tough on that drug problem, but he has a massive drug problem,” Trump said in the interview.
On top of the president extending an invitation to President Rodrigo Duterte, Trump has also invited Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House:
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will meet his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, at the White House in an upcoming visit in mid-May, Turkish Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Monday.
The invitation came from Trump, Kalin said, adding the two would discuss Syria, Iraq and the potential extradition of the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating a failed coup last year.
This the same President Erdogan who is intent on silencing journalists in his country, as well as seizing and taking control of Christian houses of worship.
I know people are going to defend President Trump’s “outreach” to a couple of brutal thugs by saying it’s part of a larger, necessary strategy concerning our relations with various countries in the region. And maybe that’s true. And maybe President Trump will take advantage of his captive audience and push the freedoms, democracy and liberties we value here in the United States. I really have no idea. I just know that I like to be consistent, and if it was repugnant for President Obama to cozy up to a thuggish leader and habitual abuser of human rights, so too is it for President Trump. Convince me otherwise.
P.S. Can we resist doing the standard drive-by anti-Trump hysteria nonsense? I’m interested in substantive discussion.
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana
Okay then.
Dana (023079) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:02 pmWell there is the chairmanship on Asean, but what does that matter.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:05 pmShould Reagan not have done this,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=42069
With the hindsight that the left would mount a kangaroo trial thirty
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:08 pmCastro had innocents killed who desired freedom for Cubans
Duterte has vicious criminals killed who are poisoning the innocents with dangerous drugs.
These two are not the same.
jack burton (18e2fe) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:10 pmSo it was in Chile and brazil
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-11-24/castro-helped-the-devil-in-argentina
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:13 pmErdogan’s is much more troublesome, for his support of Al queda ( the ibrahim sen affair) and then Islamic state.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:15 pmWords have meaning. Duterte is not a dictator. I strongly disagree with some of the things Duterte is doing, like executing drug dealers and drug abusers willy-nilly. But to accuse him of being a dictator is to cheapen the word.
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:20 pmRio’s montts admittedly scorched earth techniques were popular among American evangelicals and not a few of his countrymen
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:21 pmYes he’s more of warlord, trianna one of his chief opponents, a fmr ? Mutineer against a previous gov, is even more tied to china.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:24 pmputin lurvs him some duterte
failmerica should stand aside and let russia forge close close ties with the phillipines
cause that would be super smart
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:27 pmFilipinos very much liked the fact that Duterte cleaned up Davao, where he was mayor before becoming President. The cleaning up of Davao is what catapulted Duterte into the Presidency. My fiancee voted for Duterte and praises him very much. My fiancee’s sister is hesitatingly favorable toward Duterte, the hesitance coming from his handling of drug dealers and drug abusers.
But, no, Duterte is NOT a dictator. If you want even-handed discussion, don’t start out by throwing out that flaming invective.
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:29 pmquick question
how many people you think have been murdered in failmerica’s sleazy unending and wholly unsuccessful “war on drugs”
lol
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:31 pmFilipinos love, love, love Americans. The people do. Don’t crap all over the Filipinos.
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:32 pmI read a book a while back about a coup in Mexico aimed at rounding up the drug lords and the corrupt people in government and the military who support them. Who are then taken out and shot. “Trial by Fire” by Harold Coyle.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:32 pmI don’t have an answer, regimes like duterte often fall to corruption, but general hafter is another fellow I Might not invite to dinner.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:34 pmand don’t forget george w bush had an unholy crapload of blood on his hands
oh my goodness
and lots of heads of state still met with his depraved evil ass
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:36 pmA number of our SE Asian allies execute people found in possession of drugs. The Chinese cure for addiction is death. No one whines when they come to the WH, at least not for that reason.
Yes, Duarte skips the trial bit, but Philippine law is pretty harsh, too. One assumes they catch them red handed before hey shoot them rather than relying on anonymous denunciations.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:37 pmA foreign leader being seen with the POTUS — in the international press, via snapping electronic shutters and strobes, video cameras — always has significance of one sort or another.
But it is something that, to a foreign leader (some more than others, but any), usually means something different back home than it does to Americans observing here.
To the leaders you mentioned — as well as to Kim Jong Un, whom Trump today said he’d be “honored” to meet, hypothetically — they get to command their countrymen’s full attention while on a platform implying parity, of sorts, with the United States and its POTUS.
From Trump’s point of view — I’m not defending, I’m merely positing — facilitating these PR appearances might seem to be something which those other leaders value highly, but ultimately it’s fluff, window-dressing and pomp, the spreading of which “costs us nothing.” It’s not like a photo of Trump shaking hands with a tin-pot dictator commits Trump or the U.S. to anything specific or valuable. Trump may view this as letting them share in the sizzle before putting any steak on the table, but it gets them to come sit at the table.
It’s an old tactic, actually. Churchill’s favorable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons wouldn’t have actually committed U.K. policy to re-align itself with the Devil. I’ve never, then, had reason to doubt Churchill’s sincerity when, in defending himself against charges of being too chummy with Uncle Joe Stalin, he insisted that if Hitler were to invade Hell (as he had, in fact, invaded the Soviet Union, while ignoring Britain — he would make exactly such a remark in exactly that location.
My advice to one and all for the Trump Era remains: Ignore what he says, pay attention to what he does, and doesn’t.
This is the necessary corollary to the best observation I’ve read about Trump, which is that his fans always take him seriously but never take him literally, while his enemies always take him always literally but never take him seriously.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:38 pmCorruption at all levels has been a way of life in the Philippines. At all levels. Cleaning up the corruption was one of the planks in the Duterte For President platform. I don’t know if it has gotten any better at the local level, but there are vigilante squads in nearly every town that handle some of the cleaning business. You don’t get any results from the police? Talk to the vigilante captain. He’ll go talk to the culprit and try to straighten it out with talk. If that doesn’t work, they’ll straighten it out using “other methods.”
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:38 pmIt does sound a sour note:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/447230/new-york-times-communist-whitewash-vivian-gornick
W had to deal with the taliban, and the ones who enforced saddams looting
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:40 pmBeldar,
To me, the question comes down to whether one trusts Trump’s ability to deftly use the situation to the U.S. and its allies advantage, and have you seen evidence of such skill in the president? Also, do you believe that the president sees these as window-dressing opportunities to get them in the door, or do you believe that he is actually enamored by strongmen?
I didn’t mention it in the post because I forgot, but apparently Trump’s invitation to Duterte caught both the State Dept. and the president’s aides off guard. They had no clue he was going to do that. It may be just a new president unfamiliar with politics and procedure, or it may be an impulsive, thoughtless move on his part as well. This is something he’s done, what his motivation is, is unclear to me.
Dana (023079) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:45 pmWell duterte is a significant cog in our east Asian operations, and you’re probably right that swamp clearing over there requires a sharper scythe
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:45 pmThe Philippines and Turkey are important to us strategically. If brownnosing thugs and dictators is necessary to keep them on our side, we need to brownnose them.
kishnevi (f2c02a) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:54 pmWhen the left and even the mushy center, get on their high horses against. Batista, (re fontova) the shah (that book by Andrew Scott) et al, they never are held to account.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:58 pmWatch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNcWnYNrHK4
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/1/2017 @ 7:58 pmWhen some people say they’re going to fight a drug war, they are serious. This man is a serious man.
In my personal experience, I have yet to meet or work with a person of Filipino ancestry who I’ve had a chance to get to know that I haven’t liked.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:00 pmI would refer the heck of the job re quaddafi, mubarak and bin Ali because that’s just water under the bridge.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:00 pmThe rest of the thugs can take a ride on this… https://youtu.be/6B80dkQ8IjU
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:01 pmIf you overlay a map of the Philippines over a map of the US, the Philippines would extend from South Dakota to Texas without going outside the longitude lines of South Dakota. And the Philippines has 100 million people. And they deal with Mohammedan rebel groups on basically a daily basis.
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:03 pmThe Philipines are CRUCIAL when it comes to pushing back against Chinese efforts to establish hegemony over the South China Sea.
shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:03 pmHaiku, having been to the Philippines 5 or 6 times in the last 3 years, I can say Filipinos are some of the happiest, friendliest people I’ve ever met… as long as they’re not driving. Then they’re crazy, but without road rage as we know it.
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:04 pmwe can trust President Trump
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:06 pmAnd if foggy bottom couldnt read the tea leaves it makes me wonder what we pay them for:
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:08 pmhttps://mobile.twitter.com/omriceren?p=s
I see Dana has responded to one person in this thread, but still insists on falsely calling President Duterte a dictator in her article.
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:09 pmWhereas appeasing the Castro bros was both gratuitous, and perfectly in lin
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:14 pmLine with everyone in Obama’s social circle.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:16 pmThe previous link is about whitewashing the Rhodes road show
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:24 pmHi John Hitchcock,
I’m sorry, I didn’t see your comment upthread. I like the accurate “brutal thuggish leader, and admitted murderer” description of Duterte. Dictator? Hm. Does the usage depend on whether he starts attacking the Catholic Church and it’s members for aggressively pushing back against his violent and murderous tactics? Or is it dependent on whether or not he starts to go after the press and stifle them?
Dana (023079) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:31 pmDana, let me explain:
Dictator Duterte
Dictator Trump
Dictator Duterte
Dictator Trump
Dictator Duterte
Dictator Trump
Trump has attacked many people vociferously, yet he does not fit the definition of a dictator. Because “dictator” has an actual definition. Thus, neither does Duterte fit the definition of a dictator. And I already knew some crap Duterte said about the Catholic Church. It offended me very much, and I’ll never, ever be Catholic. But that does not, in any way, change the definition of a dictator.
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:36 pmHe’s an illiberal democrat in the vein of fujimori, or putin or general Al Siri.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:37 pmObama corruptly abused the power of government, going after his political adversaries, Christians, the press, etc, etc. Obama was not a dictator. Duterte is not a dictator.
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:42 pmOne of my favorite West Wing episodes was when a Sinn Fein (Irish terrorists) leader demanded to meet with president Bartlett, who was quite sympathetic to their cause. The British ambassador, Lord Marbury (loooooved that character) went on a personal jihad to stop it. “He must not be allowed to the White House.” Over and over, Marbury was super insistent that this not happen. There was the potential for a very great chasm in the GB/USA (most special) relationship.
The stoopid West Wing staff and the State Department could not figure out that the remark was literal. Marbury fully well understood that the dude was going to be received with some warmth by Bartlett’s administration. His government’s deal was simply that there could be no meeting at the White House itself. The terrorist leader must not be extended the honor of being in the White House. The perception in the UK of such a sight would have been deeply painful.
Fast forward to DJT and his cowboy diplomacy. I’m with Dana – the chances that this was a nuanced invitation, granted after several rounds of multi-dimensional considerations and thinking, are about nil.
DJT already expended almost $100 million in missiles simply and only because he saw video of maimed children. Never mind that we are growing short of aerial ordnance now. Forget how stridently non-interventionist he swore he was and would remain.
I am genuinely concerned about all the saber rattling, seemingly out of nowhere (WTF has really changed?) regarding Korea.
Ed from SFV (3400a5) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:43 pmI assume the White House invite is an effort to stifle the Philippines shift to China. The Philippines is a strategic location in Asia. US – Philippines relation went south under Obama and Trump wants to smooth things out.
Mattsky (484b56) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:43 pmMattsky makes a very important point.
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:48 pmYet arafat wore out the tread on the white house rug, and lets not peak of Mcdonnell or Adams
narciso (d1f714) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:49 pmhttp://www.weeklystandard.com/what-should-trump-do-with-his-next-scotus-pick/article/2007848#.WQd-dclT55Y.twitter
Remember, the Philippines is part of Asia, with Asian culture, and being slighted is a major offense. And that’s exactly what Obama did to the Philippines and a great many other countries.
The Philippines are Asian.
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/1/2017 @ 8:51 pmjust as we go to war with the military we got rather than the one we wish we had,
we must also conduct diplomacy with the foreign leaders we got rather than the ones we wish we had
uncle joe stalin wasn’t mother teresa
he was a mother f***er and a devil
but we had to put aside our puritanical principles by making an alliance with him so we could defeat the nazis
i second mr hitchcock’s suggestion to stop calling duterte a “dictator”
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 5/1/2017 @ 9:00 pmbarack insulted our international friends and allies
yet bowed down to REAL dictators and terrorists
even domestically, barack sympathized with the trayvon martins and michael browns of the world
yet threw the book at the little sisters of the poor
as dennis prager often says
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 5/1/2017 @ 9:05 pmthose who are kind to the cruel will be cruel to the kind
It is striking how the rizzotto tray press, fails to connect the dots
https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/04/26/more-visible-dots-the-media-ignore-in-trumps-strategy-against-north-korea/amp/
narciso (0054e2) — 5/1/2017 @ 9:08 pmSounds like the Philippines has a lack of government rather than an over weaned, selectively enforced, one.
Mix that with Duarte liking to project the image that the sun rises and sets at his direction.
A visit to Trump Tower knocking Duarte off his perch a little might be just what the situation needs.
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/1/2017 @ 10:04 pmThe cartels have bought up practically official, it is more interesting who duterte is using, because they will likely still be around.
narciso (0054e2) — 5/1/2017 @ 10:12 pmpractically every official>\?
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/1/2017 @ 10:19 pmWell remember the untouchables, and they couldn’t trust the chicago police except for malone?
narciso (0054e2) — 5/1/2017 @ 10:26 pmThe brutal thugs [republicans] are the only ones that will endanger our lives.
mg (31009b) — 5/1/2017 @ 10:27 pmNothing says traitor more than the word republican.
more thuggish behavior
mg (31009b) — 5/1/2017 @ 10:30 pmhttp://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/05/democrats-fundraising-celebration-paul-ryans-budget/
more republican crap
mg (31009b) — 5/1/2017 @ 10:33 pmhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/after-their-spending-bill-win-democrats-confident-they-can-block-trumps-agenda/2017/05/01/5be2915e-2e97-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?utm_term=.b300e1fa8566
Maybe Obama will teach him how to bow.
AZ Bob (f7a491) — 5/1/2017 @ 10:47 pmFDR met with Stalin in Yalta and the two had a remarkably cordial relationship. Most of us are old enough to remember Nixon’s productive visit to China. Then there were Reagan’s serial meetings with Gorbachev. Detente with each of these thugs proved highly beneficial to the United States. Along the same line, I think President Trump’s recent meeting with the thug Xi Jinping worked out well and may lead to a much needed change in leadership in North Korea. As this brief history demonstrates, we want our Presidents to meet with thugs if it portends a beneficial outcome for our country. Based on the outcome of the Xi meeting, I’d say the more time Trump spends with thugs the better.
I wasn’t particularly surprised by the reversal in China’s position. For months now, there have been reports in the media about Trump meeting with Kissinger. Donald Trump is a quick study and Kissinger is THE China authority. If Trump succeeds with changing the regime in North Korea with the assistance of China, it will be an accomplishment on a par with Nixon’s, a man who is regarded as one of the great foreign policy presidents in our country’s history. Donald Trump is well on his way to joining that group.
Ps. When I first read your headline, I thought you meant there were going to be rapper artists visiting the White House.
ThOR (c9324e) — 5/1/2017 @ 11:18 pm@ Dana (#21), who wrote:
I haven’t changed any of my opinions about Trump. I have no trust in him to be deft, and have seen no evidence yet of him being particularly skillful in his diplomacy. When I pay attention to what he says — about anything, anytime — it’s cringe-worthy, but it’s mostly hot air and a distraction from what he’s actually doing (or not doing).
I don’t think him agreeing to meet with leaders from Turkey or Indonesia mean that he’s necessarily enamored of strongmen. The U.S. shares a great many strategic interests with both. My guess is that he sees a need to engage them, and he’s trying, in a fairly amateurish and ad hoc fashion, to “make nice” (that’s probably about how he’d put it) without making commitments or deals.
Am I optimistic that this will work brilliantly, or at all? Nope. Do I think he’s made real friends with Chinese Pres. Xi, for example? Of course not; whether Trump understands it or not, I’m quite sure the Chinese understand Lord Palmerston’s dictum that countries have no permanent friends, but they do have permanent interests.
If he makes commitments and deals — if these photo-ops turn into anything substantive — then we’ll all have to look at that to see whether it’s good or bad.
And for all my cringing, Trump’s methods and manner are very different from Obama’s, and that’s no small virtue all by itself.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/1/2017 @ 11:54 pmDana,
When the Chinese leader came to the US, why didn’t you denounce him for his 10s of thousands of executions per year, often of drug addicts, and without anything either one of us would mistake for a trial?
Or the leaders of countries like Singapore or Malaysia which similarly kill drug dealers when caught with as little as 10g of product. Indonesia is now doing the same thing.
Yes, Duterte is bypassing his corrupt legal system, but he was ELECTED saying that was what he was going to do. People were fed up with the corruption and when there is no law, this is what happens.
China’s leader cannot point to a vote.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/2/2017 @ 12:01 amThe President of the Philippines serves a 6 year term, after which he is term-limited out. That’s how all dictatorships work. Either that, or HE IS NOT A DICTATOR.
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/2/2017 @ 12:10 am“DJT already expended almost $100 million in missiles simply and only because he saw video of maimed children.”
He didn’t tell anyone he was going to do it? He did not confer with anyone at all? Did he shoot the missles with a button in the Oval Office? Is that how it’s done on The West Wing?
harkin (a76a32) — 5/2/2017 @ 12:16 am“I don’t stand by anything”
Donald Trump
Daryl Herbert (7be116) — 5/2/2017 @ 12:55 amPresident of the United States
May 1, 2017
https://pjmedia.com/video/trump-loses-it-on-reporter-for-asking-about-his-obama-wiretapping-claims/
A lawfully-elected leader who seizes unlawful powers can be called a dictator.
A lawfully-elected leader who implements a program of unlawful, government-directed murders of thousands of non-combatants can appropriately be called a dictator because he has assumed dictatorial powers.
Democracy is dead in the Philippines. How can you have a democratic election to replace Duterte when the government can have anyone murdered for any reason?
Daryl Herbert (7be116) — 5/2/2017 @ 1:11 ampaul ryan is just a dick.
mg (31009b) — 5/2/2017 @ 1:15 amSorry, you’ve lost me. As much as I love you, Dana. Look at a chart. The first island chain is critical to our whole strategy in Asia and the Philippines is a crucial linchpin. And the Philippines have never produced our most honest and commendable allies.
But we’ve always put up with it.
My issue with Barack Insane wasn’t so much he that he would host sadistic dictators at the WH. It was that he would give so much away to them for nothing in return, as a present for hating America. If he had given something to Duterte to keep him in the American fold I’d have commended him for it.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/2/2017 @ 2:27 amBill Clinton made it easier for polar bear hunters to bring trophies back into the US. Believe it or not, I actually do look for reasons to praise Ds who unfortunately get elected President. However skimpy the evidence is. But if it’s there, I’ll give it to them.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/2/2017 @ 2:32 amNone will be wearing gps ankle bracelets.
gbear (c97ba2) — 5/2/2017 @ 3:21 amNobody kicks the can down the road like republicans, and i’m afraid Trump is in on it.
mg (31009b) — 5/2/2017 @ 3:23 amThis country really does need to be blown up.
harvardtrash ted and his grimacing sacky would’ve only invited super-sweet people like kentucky pig-bigot Kim Davis to the white house and yes yes yes it would’ve been very edifying for common failmericans to be presented with a stellar example of how one must be very selective about whom one chooses to associate oneself
but alas
it was not to be
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/2/2017 @ 4:37 amI pointed out the ones in our own hemisphere, Reagan supported Marcos against the npa maoists for a time, yes manafort was involved there so was ed rollins
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 4:52 ammaybe this is will cheer you up, mg.
Dropping anchor to the red shot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=358&v=Lg3wwhhJ1aM
As opposed to losing anchor and chain entirely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=b7pRfix_sNg
Shots of chain are, I believe, measured in 90 fathoms. Lowing this much is considered, I believe, a bad day.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/2/2017 @ 4:56 amReagan also went after qadaffi in the 80s, for sponsoring terrorists, like balder, fatah and the Ira.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 4:56 ampaul ryan is just a dick.
a startlingly incompetent dick
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:07 amNo he’s a water carrier for the combine, like winthorpe was
https://spectator.org/pope-franciss-communist-mentor/
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:09 amDuh!! I had to go look it up. There are 15 fathoms to a shot of chain.
I am quite the d***.
But still, the Tarawa had a bad day.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:10 amAt duke and duke’s, now there are concerns why hasn’t there been more progress against Cuba and Iran, one wonders if that has more to do with jared’s influence or rex’s
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:12 amI am genuinely concerned about all the saber rattling, seemingly out of nowhere (WTF has really changed?) regarding Korea.
failmerica has 30,000 troops prancing around south korea at any given time waiting for a nuclear missile to fall top they head
this is an interesting strategic choice failmerica is making
not only is it abysmally stupid
it’s super-expensive
if Mr. President Trump can get the Chinesers and the woefully cowardly and useless South Koreans and maybe the Japanesers to work with us to extricate ourselves from our own foolishness then
it’s certainly something worth exploring
and it’s highly unlikely to end up any worse than any of george w. bush’s disastrous fiascoes
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:15 amThe Korean Peninsula has lost its geopolitical significance, South Korea its helplessness, and America’s Korea commitment its purpose. While there is much to criticize in the approach of Donald Trump’s administration to the rest of the world, the president correctly sees the need for a foreign policy that more effectively protects America’s interests. A good place to start shifting course is the region home to the world’s newest and least responsible nuclear power.
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:19 amBack in the day, when Reagan was inviting videlA, third link he was supporting the Nicaraguan resistance, Dickeys daft son wrote book rant at the time focusing on one crazy character named suicidal.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:23 amWhen a nuke takes it out Seattle or an emp fries the west coast electric grid we shall reevaluate.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:27 amDickeyq, now at the basilisk, now ponders how. Acts of terrorism like the. recent one, in Paris might make one over react.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:32 am://www.newsbusters.org/journalists/christopher-dickey
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:37 amBack in the early 80s, Richard Allen who lasted a little while longer than general fLynn, interceded with the junta that ran south Korea on behalf of future presidential candidate Kim dae jung
And news of out south Africa, re zuma, remind us that Reagan supported the apartheid regime against the soviet backed unkhonto do sezwe wing of the anc
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:49 amThis puts some perspective ÷on the matter I trust.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:50 amRoger Kimball’s take on #NeverTrump…
“So here we are, 100 days into the Trump presidency and what do we have? Normality. Trump is moving as quickly as possible to—gasp!—keep his promises. He has assembled the most impressive cabinet I can remember. He has nominated and had confirmed a brilliant and non-ideological Supreme Court Justice in Neil Gorsuch. Illegal border crossings are down by some 70 percent. He has moved decisively to cut onerous and counterproductive regulations. He has unveiled a plan to cut taxes decisively. On trade, he has demonstrated that he meant what he said about “putting America first.” Canada subsidizes its timber industry, therefore Trump has just imposed a tariff on Canadian lumber imports. This is not “protectionist.” It is fair trade. It is, in a word that Trump likes, “reciprocal”: free trade not as an abstraction but as a process that takes the behavior of all parties into account. There is no free trade without fair trade.
On the international front, he has met most of the world’s most important leaders. He has sent a decisive message to Syria (and its puppet masters, Iran and Russia) by attacking a Syrian air force base and destroying 20 percent of its air capability after Assad launched a sarin gas attack. He has also put the pudgy North Korean bad joke of a dictator on notice, surrounding him with immense American firepower while at the same time leveraging his new-found relationship the China’s President Xi to put pressure on Kim to abandon its nuclear program. If Trump succeeds in that gambit, it will be a diplomatic triumph of world-historical importance.”
https://amgreatness.com/2017/05/01/trump-critics-exude-desperate-political-nihilism/
Colonel Haiku (a7e08c) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:59 amSo the popular move then would hAve been to support the sandinistas doc brown and deblasio ( dubbed him mayor bane) lurch carried their water in the senate,Ron dellums (who apparently was hired by the same kgb officialbehibd the dodge dossier) did the same against south africa
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:05 amI know the rest of the Navy has a hard job to do. I don’t want to make fun.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:10 amSpeaking of White House rugs, did Clinton give Arafat a cigar?
JP (f1742c) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:21 amPalabras fallan (because words fail is inadequate to the task)
http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/obamacare-architect-compares-high-risk-pools-internment-camps
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:27 aman oval office what for eight long years hosted the architect of israel’s nuclear genocide can host just about any kind of filth you can imagine
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:30 amThe national security is much mire complex, we were focusing on. Direct soviet
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:32 amProxies then, but the left was still at eleven,
national security begins with fiscal solvency
our spendy spendy pig military doesn’t understand this
Meghan’s loathsomely cowardly p.o.s. daddy does not understand this
perverted sodomite Mitt Romney’s shiny-slick boy toy Paul Ryan does not understand this
but we few we happy few
we understand
and we look upon failmerica’s antics of late with bemusement
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:38 amBTW Dana the cross-posting seems to link back to here, not The Jury Talks Back.
Or am I internets wrong again.
JP (f1742c) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:42 amNational defense is among the most explicitly enumerated responsibilities of the got, to wait until this soviets were on our shores or pure border would have been folly.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:44 amThe point is probably moot:
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:48 amhttps://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2017/05/02/the-little-man-from-the-draft-board/
Leaving aside the fact that Duterte was elected, and that many (most?) of the people of the Philippines favor his rule, bloody as it is, the Philippines is a strategic asset. We need friendly and cooperative security arrangements with the Philippines because such relations might avert, or change the tide of, a war with China, a country of irredentist appetites that is building fortified islands in the open sea and is likely to invade Taiwan when it believes itself strong enough to do so successfully. Do we think that friendly relations with the dictators of Cuba will help us fend off a Venezuelan invasion of some ally? Even if they would, Venezuela is no China.
David Pittelli (c51465) — 5/2/2017 @ 7:36 amWhat a disappointment. Dana still insists on calling a non-dictator a dictator. And that prevented me from finding out where exactly Dana thought Duterte admitted to murder. The guy who pulled the lever in Nuremberg to make the floor drop could admit to executing someone. I guess that could allow “honest” people to call him a self-admitted murderer, too. I mean, you call it murder. He calls it execution. He admits to executing people. You declare (falsely) that he admitted to murdering people.
Why not? Lie about multiple things in an article and hold onto that lie, even after being called out on it.
This is the first time in my recollection that I’ve called you out on something, Dana. I expect it will be the last. I have never made an effort to call out Nina Totenberg on anything, after all.
John Hitchcock (4eaa02) — 5/2/2017 @ 7:39 amThere is no reason to leave aside the fact that President Duterte was duly elected upon the basis of his promises to address and eliminate the drug cartels ravaging the country. A justice system operating in daily fear of death or deeply corrupted by bribery is rather obviously incapable of performing its intended function. Colombia has regained a semblance of a justice system through extrajudicial targeted executions while Mexico continues its descent into lawlessness. The summary executions in the Phillipines have a much broader scope than those performed in Colombia but the Phillipine people in general seem to recognize the necessity of very strong measures to remove the cancerous drug cartels from the body politic.
Rick Ballard (313992) — 5/2/2017 @ 8:31 amChina executes around 20,000 (that we know of) people a year, for offenses that here would be punished by prison, a fine or not at all, in order to harvest their organs for transplant into aged Party members, and Trump gave Xi Jinping chocolate cake at Mar-a-Lago. The Philippines and Turkey are not major powers like China, so maybe Duterte and Erdogan should not get chocolate cake?
nk (dbc370) — 5/2/2017 @ 8:46 amThey still have a fondness for joe stalin;
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:01 amhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/29/opinion/sunday/when-communism-inspired-americans.html?_r=0
xi’s a silly name anyways unless you’re that stranger things chick
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:02 amThey execute around 20,000 people? Well, sat least they officially recognize Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism. They can’t be all bad.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:03 amWell, sat least they officially recognize Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism. They can’t be all bad.
You think that’s why Xi got chocolate cake? Possibly.
nk (dbc370) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:07 amnk,
So maybe the point is the obvious hypocrisy of our usual suspects’ interminable whining about Obama meeting with Castro or bowing to the Saudis. Dana, at least, is maintaining consistency. And I know you’ve said that consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, but I still think it’s an admirable quality.
Leviticus (efada1) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:09 amHe financed the Munich hit,
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/266577/what-trump-needs-say-abbas-gideon-israel
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:12 amJeez, John Hitchcock, cut me some slack. I’m currently moving in with me an aged parent trying to recover from cancer surgery, working full time and trying to fill in for our host while he is in trial. I responded to your comment above and wanted some time to think about the matter of dictators and strongmen and where this leader fits in. That I didn’t make the change you want doesn’t mean I don’t agree. It just means I am still thinking about it, while being pressed on all sides of life, okay?
Dana (a90dd9) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:25 amI mean it’s like we kick the little bully and we suck up to the big bully. Gimme a break.
nk (dbc370) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:27 amyou’re doing so good don’t let the poopers get you down
these are the times what trouble try men’s souls
and it’s almost summer!
i do my best soldiering in summer 🙂
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:29 amoops yeah i went for “trouble” then i remembered it was “try”
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:30 amDuterte is a murderer and his “vigilantes” are death squads, but I agree that the Senate of Rome did not give him supreme authority and 24 lictors so he’s not really a dictator.
nk (dbc370) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:35 amDuterte = Castro?
Seriously?
harkin (a76a32) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:46 amBTW, Leviticus, it’s “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” and I didn’t coin it, Ralph Waldo Emerson did.
nk (dbc370) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:47 amHow many people have died in our war on drugs? Several hundred or thousand annually.
How many lives were lost in the pursuit of political progress for female chauvinists’ abortion rites? Around one million annually in America alone.
n.n (e39397) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:55 amSorry to hear that, Dana, about 13 years ago, my grandmother was in he hospital complications from a hip infection, my mother visited her at odd hours tie monitor the hospital staff.
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 10:14 amScroll up and look. Had Obama given away something to this dictator, I’d have commended him. I’ve said so. Scroll up and see. Do a search on my name and see. What I vilified Obama for was his passion for paying attention to all the wrong dictators. And for giving the wrong dictators a tongue bath. For giving the store away to America-hating dictators for nothing of benefit to the country. The less the benefit, the better, was the Obama doctrine.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/philippine-leader-duterte-ditches-u-s-china-says-america-has-n670066
I don’t know if it’s advisable or possible to reconstruct the criticisms I made of Obama and his administration’s pathetic and disastrous “pivot” to Asia. Which basically demonstrated to our erstwhile Asian allies, “You’re on your own.” Duterte got the Obama/Clinton message loud and clear. Since it resulted in the President of the Philippines cozying up the China, you can probably glean I am not a fan.
I think this is as close to the children’s version of our naval strategy in the Pacific as I can get.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2014-04/defend-first-island-chain
Obama couldn’t have done more to screw it up. And he had to be trying.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/2/2017 @ 10:16 amobama went to the mullahs in iran and helped them recover from the sanctions and get a plan together to do nuclear genocide on israel
whereas duterte just wants to do regular genocide on drug cartels
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/2/2017 @ 10:21 amNote the people references in my first links, Rios montt was charged with genocide, the story was not so simple
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 10:25 amVisual aids might be appropriate.
http://www.politicienii.ro/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/united_states_of_america_department_of_defense/2011-report-to-congress_img_4.jpg
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/2/2017 @ 10:37 amYikes. Godspeed, Dana.
JP (f1742c) — 5/2/2017 @ 10:45 amI’m not disagreeing with your point, nk. I see your point.
Leviticus (efada1) — 5/2/2017 @ 10:55 amDuterte has indicated he’s not in a rush to visit Washington.
What he’s done is very cntrary to the rule of law – and he’s not merely arresting people. In any such situation innocent people are going to get killed by mistake and on purpose.
Sammy Finkelman (37a793) — 5/2/2017 @ 11:39 amI thought this might be Marie Harf at first glance, but…
urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 5/2/2017 @ 11:53 amhttp://abc7chicago.com/news/fbi-translator-goes-rogue-marries-isis-terrorist/1945026/
Memo
To: The Donald
Subject: Jobs: Make America Grate Again
Called to renew the sub to our local newspaper. Asked in passing what the weather was like-believing the subscription service was based in Arizona– no, the call was routed to the Philippines. It wasn’t raining in Manila either.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/2/2017 @ 12:35 pm@107. Hang in there, Dana. I’m dealing with an 86 year old diagnosed w/dementia and early Alz around the clock– growing old ain’t for sissies.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/2/2017 @ 12:39 pmI recall the peace-and-wonderfulness folks saying, “We have to TALK, at least, to China.”
Richard Aubrey (a09608) — 5/2/2017 @ 1:08 pmIt all depends and that’s about the most obvious factor of the century so far.
I would not be surprised if the invitations were going to lead to a bunch of dictators sitting at a small table in the White House dining room, a large safe with “ACME” written on the side landing on them, and Trump walking in afterwards to tape a commercial for “Making diplomacy great again” with multiple still-twitching dictator arms in the background. The world definitely seems–for better or worse–to be increasingly becoming an environment that Wil E. Coyote would find quite familiar.
M Scott Eiland (1edade) — 5/2/2017 @ 2:18 pmif there’s one person we can trust to look out for us it’s President Trump that’s for sure
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/2/2017 @ 2:30 pmThat territory was covered better in the opening scene of Naked Gun.
urbanleftbehind (c57fa5) — 5/2/2017 @ 3:05 pmOnce in a while I come here to watch the cucking of the cucks.
g6loq (fc61d6) — 5/2/2017 @ 3:33 pmCucks gotta cuck. Nature!
Why don’t you just save your mouth as a cock-holster for Trump, g6lok. We’re not interested in your spew.
nk (dbc370) — 5/2/2017 @ 3:35 pmI wouldn’t wish what you or the elderly person you are caring for are going through on my worst enemy.
I come from a long line long lived folk. All four of my grandparents died at least in their 90s. One, my maternal grandmother, died at one hundred years and one day. She was a tough old bird. Every time I’d visit her on leave from the Navy she’d advise me, “Don’t ever grow old, Steve.”
I don’t know if it’s harder on old folk if their minds remain clear or if they develop diseases like Alzheimer’s. My dad, the sainted senior chief, had Alzheimer’s. After he’d get done literally kicking the crap out of me simply because he was angry and frustrated and I happened to be close by there’d be a look that crossed his face. He knew who I was, what he had tried to do to me, and he was sorry. I never held it against me. My grandmother knew exactly what was going on the entire time, and it sucked.
Maybe my Uncle had the right approach. After his wife died in the 90s, and his mother my grandmother died in 2003, his attitude was basically, “F*** it, I do what I want.” Despite having emphysema he kept smoking despite being on oxygen. The last couple of times I went duck hunting with him I could smell the whiskey in his thermos. Shotguns and alcohol don’t mix, and if it were anyone else I would have said something. But this was my Uncle, I just couldn’t. When I was a kid he used to carry me across the marsh to the duck blind, once we had brought the john boat as close as it could get. Had he done anything unsafe I would have said something, but he just achieved mellow.
He died of a massive heart attack at 73, smoking a cig, waiting for friends to give him a lift to the casino.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:48 pm*I never held it against
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/2/2017 @ 5:55 pmmeHIM.https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/what-trump-gets-rightand-progressives-get-wrongabout-andrew-jackson/525015/?utm_source=feed
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:03 pmThis is interesting.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TWJWFw8zueQ/WQfOZgmqlHI/AAAAAAABI70/MoFM1Ksr6_4sVbYqhxUFyn2StC27GKv2gCLcB/s640/1ninetymiles2d4gK1rhavdko1_500.png
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:44 pmI’m reading you guys at the blog while I try and get a flight “acceptable” to a young Korean doctor coming in from Honolulu. She thinks she should be able to fly direct the 5,200 mile and doesn’t believe I can’t get a direct. Talk about your spoiled brats.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:48 pmDoes tHis help
narciso (d1f714) — 5/2/2017 @ 6:55 pmhttps://www.kayak.com/flight-routes/Seoul-SEL/Honolulu-HNL
#14
“I read a book a while back about a coup in Mexico aimed at rounding up the drug lords and the corrupt people in government and the military who support them. Who are then taken out and shot. “Trial by Fire” by Harold Coyle.”
First you’d have to import 15M rounds into Mexico. I realize somewhere in Florida that a guy has this much in his garage, but still.
steveg (b66960) — 5/2/2017 @ 7:23 pmThen you’d have to shoot people at a rate that far exceeds replacement.
I think it would be cheaper and more expeditious to corral them 200,000 a day out in the desert and MOAB them
Thanks for the effort narciso, but she lives in Honolulu and is coming here for a book signing. She’s a big deal doctor in the Korean community and so happens an old chum of June’s “from the old country” as I-talians used to say. Besides, these girls absolutely refuse to fly less than first class. I can get an economy from Hawaii for $575 but they insisted on a $1400 business class since first class isn’t offered, (I don’t know why). Korean women believe in the conspicuous consumption of money.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 5/2/2017 @ 7:42 pmNow you know why I keep going back to White women. It’s not racism. They appreciate pork and beans and the kind of casserole I can whip up if I only have condensed milk, tuna fish, and creamed corn, and a few other odds and ends.
I just don’t mix well with women who have to, at a minimum, fly business class.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/2/2017 @ 8:58 pmSomeday I hope to own a trailer park. Because unless you own trailers for rental purposes, which won’t rule out as it has much to recommend it, you don’t really own anything the tornado can wipe out.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/2/2017 @ 9:12 pmStecve57, you sound like you’ll be around in 12 years, if you end up buying a trailer park, sign me up for a double wide. I’m doing “Slums of Beverly Hills” apartment hopping until my daughter’s out of high school and I’m 55+. You should try and develop something along the lines of Bonita Hills Estates in Spring Valley CA. Phoenix is also a market where trailer/prefab living is not looked as down upon.
urbanleftbehind (7cc29a) — 5/3/2017 @ 5:51 amIf I’ve calibrated you correctly and I’m in the ballpark highway 94 due east of downtown San Diego. I used to live out there.
I can fix you up with something. I won’t leave you hanging, bro. May not be the double wide of your dreams, though.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/3/2017 @ 6:04 amnarciso @114. Should that be “ to monitor the hospital staff” ? Was that caused by some form of autocorrect?
Sammy Finkelman (2b1acb) — 5/3/2017 @ 11:21 amI am sick of the pundit griping and complaining about Trump. You foreign policy geniuses got us where we are today which is one BIG MESS. At least he is not trying the same thing harder.
sdharms (7d2955) — 5/3/2017 @ 1:40 pm” our current president is making nice with another brutal thuggish leader, and admitted murderer, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte”
I know, huh. If Duterte was a moral leader, like we have here in the U.S., he would declare war on the drugs, not the drug dealers.
He would content himself with confiscating drug users property while setting up needle exchanges for them.
He would open the borders to drug cartels and militarized the local police forces to combat the flow of drugs.
He would wash the country in prescription opioid drugs to give the unlicenced drug dealers a stiff competition, and allow a quarter of the population to become addicted to the political lobbyist pharmaceutical conglomerates wares.
He would raise billions promising to combat drug use to the people while doing nothing to kill the cash cow for lawyers, law enforcement, prison systems and their unions.
He would throw up his hands in defeat and allow marijuana to become legal for recreational use.
Yeah, Durante, in his zeal to actually end the crisis of drug use is the immoral murderer. We here in the land of the moral and home of the drug warriors are the pure.
Let’s revisit this in ten years and see which population is better off.
Leon (3287d7) — 5/3/2017 @ 8:44 pmI pointed how there is a whole history of us presidents supporting unsavory or at least not to diligent leaders, now is duterte reliable enough as an investment?
narciso (904ff0) — 5/3/2017 @ 8:51 pm@131. Yeah– it’s a hellish disease.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/4/2017 @ 11:23 amFranchement vous êtes formidable d’avoir fait un site pareil
vrai voyance gratuite par mail (3779bc) — 5/8/2017 @ 8:48 am