I've taken down yesterday's post about Melania Trump and replaced it with this one

 I have seen a number of takes on what was said, and most conclude that it was dirty pool for Stephanie Winston Wolkoff to secretly tape a conversation with the First Lady while pretending to be on friendly terms with her. 

The most compelling articulation of that viewpoint that I've come across comes from the reliably humane and thoughtful Rod Dreher at The American Conservative:

What Melania Trump said about Christmas decorating was rude and shallow — and boy, I’m really shocked that a former supermodel is rude and shallow — and what she said about the migrants was not really about the migrant kids at all, but about media hypocrisy in covering the story. But sure, if you want to spite Melania Trump for that, go ahead.

But what Stephanie Winston Wolkoff has done is truly monstrous. If you know her, or are her friend, you are now on alert as to the kind of person she is. Once more, that CNN rewards a wretched betrayal like this is a sign of degraded standards — and sign that they are helping to bring about a world in which selling out a friend by exposing intimate private conversations, for the sake of advancing a political cause, is our new norm. Seriously, folks: think about the kind of social order that we are bringing into being with stunts like this. 

When I've thought the better of a previous position, I'm willing to publicly say so.

There's enough going on in this world that needs reporting and discussing that we don't have to rabidly search for gotcha moments. It does nothing to elevate the tone of our societal discourse.  

 

The Saudi stop on DJT's first trip abroad as prez

There was the whopping sale of very fancy military equipment:

The United States sealed a multi-billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia, the White House announced on Saturday, a move that solidifies its decades-long alliance with the world's largest energy producer just as President Donald Trump begins his maiden trip abroad as leader of the free world.

The agreement, which is worth $350 billion over 10 years and $110 billion that will take effect immediately, was hailed by the White House as "a significant expansion of…[the] security relationship" between the two countries.

There is the fact that Melania got rave reviews in the Saudi media, even as her head went uncovered.

There are the deepening business ties:

U.S. and Saudi Arabian companies signed business deals worth tens of billions of dollars on Saturday during a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump, as Riyadh seeks help to develop its economy beyond oil. 

National oil firm Saudi Aramco said it signed $50 billion of agreements with U.S. firms. Energy minister Khalid al-Falih said deals involving all companies totaled over $200 billion, many of them designed to produce things in Saudi Arabia that had previously been imported.

Business leaders on both sides were keen to demonstrate their talks had been a success, so there was an element of showmanship in the huge numbers. Some deals had been announced previously; others were memorandums of understanding that would require further negotiations to materialize.

Nevertheless, the deals illustrated Saudi Arabia's hunger for foreign capital and technology as it tries to reduce its dependence on oil exports. Low oil prices in the past couple of years have slowed the economy to a crawl and saddled the government with a big budget deficit.

"We want foreign companies to look at Saudi Arabia as a platform for exports to other markets," Falih told a conference attended by dozens of U.S. executives.

But perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the visit was his speech:

“Religious leaders must make this absolutely clear: Barbarism will deliver you no glory – piety to evil will bring you no dignity.  If you choose the path of terror, your life will be empty, your life will be brief, and your soul will be condemned,” the speech says.

He will also emphasize that Muslim countries must “honestly confronting the crisis of Islamist extremism and the Islamist terror groups it inspires. And it means standing together against the murder of innocent Muslims, the oppression of women, the persecution of Jews, and the slaughter of Christians.” 

In case anyone missed the implications of the whole tone of his visit, he rather explicitly drove them home:

One of his high points came near the end where he reminded his audience of the three Abrahamic religions and called for a new era of tolerance between them. But after all of his complimentary comments about other Muslim nations, Trump took a decidedly critical tone when he called out Iran in particular and Syria to a lesser extent. Invoking “murderous attacks” and a humanitarian crisis, Trump talked about the people of Iran enduring “hardship and despair” under a brutal authoritarian regime. This was another risky move, because he seems to be looking to further isolate Iran even among their own neighbors. 

Then there were his concluding words:

“God bless the United States of America.”

The case can be made, of course, that this wasn't the most diplomatic way to wind up his remarks, that he ought to have signed off with a nod toward his host country. Then again, considering the wet-noodle kumbaya-ism with which the Most Equal Comrade used to conclude speeches in Muslim countries, it is refreshing in its own way.

Yes, it's important to remember that the wahhabist school of Islam has its home in Saudi Arabia, that most of the 9 / 11 hijackers came from there, that Saudi Arabia has funded some unsavory militias in the Syrian mess. On the other hand, broad gestures can signal new eras of strategic alliances. We live in a world in which an Iran-Syria-Russia axis is a reality. That gives certain other countries a set of common interests. It's noteworthy, for instance, that the entourage will take a direct flight from Riyadh to Ben Gurion International Airport.

On balance, given what I've learned so far, looks like a productive first stop.

Memo to the president: Now, let's not sully it with a bragfest on Twitter, or dumb moves on other stops that counteract what you've put in place.

Monday roundup

Maybe you saw the Chris Wallace interview with Hillionaire on FNC's "Fox News Sunday" yesterday (available at link). If not, you owe it to yourself. Wallace masterfully held her Alinskyite tootsies to the flame of truth. He showed footage of Trey Gowdy questioning James Comey about the very things he (Wallace) was grilling Hillionaire about, as well as some other video that had Herself squirming and thinking to herself, must be gracious here even if I want to cuss this guy out at the top of my lungs. Her credibility was in tatters, though; within an hour, WaPo had given her four Pinocchios.

If you know some backstory on Dallas police chief David Brown - particularly the circumstances of his son's death - it will deepen your understanding of his depth as a human being and law-enforcement professional.

I'm no prude, and I understand the realities of post-America, but  there is a dignity that is supposed to surround First Ladies, and I'm confident that these new girl-on-girl, completely nekkid photos of Melania from 1996 would have been too much were this still the United States of America.

And here's the VFW's official statement on Squirrel-Hair's boneheaded blurting about the Khans:

VFW SUPPORTS GOLD STAR FAMILIES

TO RIDICULE A GOLD STAR MOTHER IS OUT-OF-BOUNDS

August 01, 2016

WASHINGTON — Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump has a history of lashing out after being attacked, but to ridicule a Gold Star Mother is out-of-bounds, said the new national commander of the near 1.7 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States and its Auxiliary.

“Election year or not, the VFW will not tolerate anyone berating a Gold Star family member for exercising his or her right of speech or expression,” said Brian Duffy, of Louisville, Ky., who was elected July 27 to lead the nation’s oldest and largest major war veterans organization.

“There are certain sacrosanct subjects that no amount of wordsmithing can repair once crossed,” he said. “Giving one’s life to nation is the greatest sacrifice, followed closely by all Gold Star families, who have a right to make their voices heard.”

But that's not the latest Squirrel-Hair cluster-you-know-what. That would be this:   He tells George Stephanopolous that Russia "is not going into the Ukraine." Um, Crimea much? So then "GOP consultant" Boris Epshteyn goes on CNN and doubles down, saying "Russia did not seize Crimea." And then:

Now Trump comes back after all of this and tries to say, "That's what I was saying all along! He's in Ukraine and he's going to push to get more of it!" Which is, of course, the exact opposite of what he just said.

 It gets worse:

Ukraine's ambassador to the United States said Monday he's worried Donald Trump "doesn't have all the facts" about Russia's activities and intentions in Ukraine.

In an interview on CNN, Valeriy Chaly said he met with the Trump campaign in Cleveland during the GOP convention, and was assured the Republicans did not accept Russia's claim to Crimea.

But now, in light of an interview Trump gave to ABC's "This Week" he says he's not sure of Trump's position.

"I met with Mr. Trump's team and everybody told me, 'everything's okay, we keep this position we reject any annexation of your territory in Crimea from Russian side,' But now I am certainly concerned by the change of this position by the candidate," Chaly told CNN.

And the UN omitted these statistics. Why? That's a rhetorical question. The answer is obvious: The UN is an anti-Western cesspool that hates Israel and thinks there is a moral justification for terrorism:

At least 42 Palestinian child terrorists have attempted 36 attacks from the second half of 2015 until May 2016, according to a new report obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon that criticizes the United Nations for omitting these statistics from its official records on the use of child soldiers.

The U.N. is slated to discuss its annual report on Children and Armed Conflict this week. Its section on Palestinian children states, “Limited information is available about the recruitment or use of children.”

However, a counter-report issued by a leading human rights organization calls this finding into question by detailing at least 36 instances in which Palestinian children have attempted to carry out terrorist attacks.

Insiders apprised of the findings say the U.N.’s omission of these statistics calls into question the integrity of its report and provides further evidence of a deep anti-Israel bias at the organization.

“The preferred method of murder and attempted murder by Palestinian child terrorists are stabbings or knifings, the modus operandi in 34 of the 36 attacks,” according to the report, authored by Human Rights Voices, an anti-discrimination group that monitors the U.N.

Male and female children ages 11 to 17 have perpetrated terrorist attacks over the past year, according to the report.

Boys carried out at least 14 of the attacks while girls committed 11, according to the report. The terrorist’s gender was not identified in 17 cases.

Anne Bayefsky, a lawyer who heads Human Rights Voices and directs the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, said the U.N. is covering up Palestinian crimes and skewing official records on child terrorists.

“Obviously, information on these incidents is readily accessible,” Bayefsky wrote in the report. “And the Palestinian U.N. Ambassador publicly supported child terrorism at the U.N. itself. Moreover, videos, photographs, television programs, and social media outlets—from Palestinian and Israeli sources—provide a multitude of evidence both of Palestinian children engaged in armed conflict and Palestinian adults (from the political sphere to the education system to the family unit) promoting such behavior.”

“Shockingly, however, the U.N. Secretary-General’s most recent annual report on Children and Armed Conflict, released in May 2016, contains the following statement specifically about Palestinian children: ‘Limited information is available about the recruitment or use of children,’” she added, noting that “the Secretary-General’s claim is manifestly untrue.”

The omission of these statistics raises questions about the U.N.’s integrity and ability to objectively record the number of Palestinian child terrorists, according to Bayefsky.

Shades of Mao and Stalin: the Venezuelan government is ordering public and private companies to send employees into fields to help with the harvest.

And this is a great read. Farmer Blake Hurst, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, writing at NRO, has a piece on how, in spite of post-American society's increasing enthusiasm for organic food, and its goofy disparagement of high-fructose corn syrup and GMOs, most agriculture in the nation is of the normal-people type, churning out ample amounts of delicious, healthful grains, veggies, fruits and meats.