Thursday, July 6, 2017

An busy day for the "international community"

Of course, there's DJT's current Europe visit. It's started off well. His Poland speech resolutely affirmed the value of the entire West, touching on threats to it, reassuring all that the US will abide by Article 5 of the NATO agreement, but most importantly putting the West's spiritual foundation front and center among the reasons for its essentiality to humankind. It was a refreshing and surprising departure from the "America first" rhetoric into which he so facilely lapses. It would be interesting to know who the chief speechwriter was.

Now it's on to Hamburg, and, to no one's surprise, the anticapitalist riots are already underway. The big question is whether Trump's economic message will be protectionist or more inclined toward a free-market view. If it's the former, it takes a bit of wind out of the rioters' sails, given that their bogeyman is "globalism", just as it is for the populists who comprise DJT's slavishly devoted base.

There's also sure to be a demonstration of consternation on the part of several G20 leaders about the US pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords. Too bad. They'd be wise to pull out as well, and throw off the economic burden it imposes.

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Modi has been in Israel. During his visit, the two countries signed agreements to deepen ties in such areas as defense, science, technology and agriculture. The Palestinian Authority feels snubbed, but given that Modi is clearly seeking economic partners dedicated to actual advancement, what do the Palis have to offer?

But back to Europe, all eyes are on the face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin. For once, this might make for a useful application of DJT's squirm-inducing bluntness, given what Russia just did at the UN:


Russia on Thursday blocked a U.N. Security Council Resolution drafted by the U.S. that called for “significant measures” in response to North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The U.S. circulated the statement among the 15-member council after announcing plans for a new sanctions resolution against the nuclear-armed regime in North Korea. But an objection by Russia killed the statement, said a U.N. diplomat.
Russian officials argued that the missile launch Tuesday had not been verified as an intercontinental missile.
North Korea claimed it was an ICBM. The U.S. and U.N. also determined that Hwasong-14 missile launched by North Korea was of intercontinental range.
Mr. Trump and his administration have stepped up with tough rhetoric against the regime of dictator Kim Jong-un since the missile launch, which was North Korea’s first successful test of an ICBM.
Everybody understands the urgency of this situation - even Russia, despite its lone "assessment" that the missile was only intermediate-range, which goes to show just how cold the motives driving Russia's foreign policy are.

It's not like the Security Council was going to make a "heavy move," to empty a bit of Squirrel-Hair parlance, anyway. There would have been a new round of sanctions, but it would have had zero effect in terms of deterrence.

It seems that the grinning, chubby despot of a small parcel of northeast Asia, who never gets invited anywhere, has frozen the world's heavy hitters in their tracks.

Prediction: Events unfolding from those discussed above are going to be even more interesting.








24 comments:

  1. Stephen Miller, the 31 yr old Jewish kid fro Santa Monica borrowed from the Sessioms staff who recently tangled with Tillerson at State wrote those slirily delivered words delivered from the mouth of the Chief Fraud of America, though they sounded so sweet to you, Prager and others of your exceptional ilk.

    ReplyDelete
  2. They were great words. It was so exhilarating to see a US president in a key Western nation speak forthrightly about the West standing strong and retaining its identity.

    ReplyDelete
  3. They were great words. It was so exhilarating to see a US president in a key Western nation speak forthrightly about the West standing strong and retaining its identity.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sucker! Great words, fine. From the putrid mouth of a man who's proven his narcissism and nihilism for decades.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You might want to examine whether you're not falling prey to that mindset expressed along the lines of, "I hate Trump so much, there is nothing - no speech, no policy proposal, no gesture - that I will regard with anything other than contempt and utter rejection."

    You yourself say they were great words. They were delivered at a historic time, in a historic place. They sent clear signals to all the players on the world stage. Are we to say they were nothing just because of the mouth they came out of?

    ReplyDelete
  6. You may have some difficulty finding someone to accord you the assessment that your premise is seasoned and well thought out.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Just flowery words almost slurred. Talk is cheap. His talk especially. I wouldn't believe Eddie Haskell mouthing the Gettysburg Address either. Only words Trump himself is incapable of writing. Ask a Millennial if they smell the thick rot of phoniness.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anyhow, greatness speaks for itself. Humility speaks even louder.

    ReplyDelete
  9. A much more accurate measure of both Trump's intelligence and his lethal pride is not the words of a 31 year old twit, but his inane and outrageous tweets.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "However the Trump Presidency turns out—whether it veers toward autocracy, devolves into kleptocracy, or takes some unheard-of new form—America has, for the time being, abdicated the role of the world’s moral leader, to the extent that it ever played that part convincingly. “Make America Great Again” is one of Trump’s many linguistic contortions: in fact, one of his core messages is that America should no longer bother with being great, that it should retreat from international commitments, that it should make itself small and mean."

    http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-frankfurt-school-knew-trump-was-coming?mbid=social_facebook

    ReplyDelete
  11. That was written in December 2016, before the new administration was in place and great moves such as freeing up America's treasure trove of energy resources, moving federal courts away from an activist stance, emphasizing choice in education, speaking candidly about the UN, reasserting the primacy of the special relationship with Israel, and, of course, the great speech in Poland clarifying the indispensable nature of the West.

    And mind you, I still hold the same basic view of Trump that I expressed in any given post in, say, early 2016. But I have seen the fantastic people he has enlisted for various jobs and the great results it's producing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Plus, the Frankfurt School - a bunch of Marxists - was emblematic of everything that went wrong in the West in the 20th century.

    ReplyDelete
  13. https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Pleasure-Palace-Critical-Subversion/dp/159403768X

    ReplyDelete
  14. The Frankfurt School was comprised of mostly Jews killed or banished by the Nazis. Yes, they were largely of the Marxist bent in explaining demagoguery which critics agree they were quite good at.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Care to enumerate the great results we're getting? I see our standing falling amongst the people of the other nations in the world, guns trumping butter and the brink of all out war on multiple fronts.

    ReplyDelete
  16. And if West is Best because of Trump the enunciater I want absolutely no part of it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Let's not be disingenuous, okay? Nobody is saying the West's virtues are "because of Trump."

    ReplyDelete
  18. "Results"? I'm not following you. What kind of "results" with regard to the subject at hand are you looking for?

    ReplyDelete
  19. You asserted that we are getting g great results from Trump's many fantastic people.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Since Western Civilization is older than Jesus (who was not impressed) how did you possibly infer I was saying it was best because of Trump? He's merely another "I am the Greatest kind of clown our history has had to contend with. He is not hard to hate? Why? Because the love he gets is essentially equal to the love he makes.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Oh, those results. Well, there are many. With the US freeing up its immense energy storehouse, it is in a position to signal to Europe, as the Poland speech did, that the US will be a major exporter of oil and natural gas so that Europe will not be held hostage regarding energy by Russia. At the UN, the US refusing to participate in reflexive Israel-hatred paves the way for the interesting alliance shaping up between Israel and Arab gulf states to counter Iran. In education, notice has been served to the teachers' unions that their bluff has been called.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Mind you, none of this should be taken to mean I've turned into a Trump enthusiast. I tend to agree with Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard that Putin played DJT for an easy mark at their one-on-one meeting at the G20 summit. And this Ivanka character has a way outsized role for someone with no official position in the administration. And, of course, there is DJT's basic repulsiveness.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Your first 2 results mainly have to do with the selfishness and greed of human materialism but, admittedly that is what the Great White West has pretty much turned the globe into, to dastardly and disastrous result. The result (?) in education is not a result yet. Bravo for teachers unions at least for improving the financial (often quite materialistic) outlook for the retirees, if not garnering any more respect from those corners who detest public education and denigrate public educators. May the brutest force prevail!

    ReplyDelete