Tuesday 7 January 2020
Setting the oil on troubled waters alight
I know that the Iranian general was a nasty and dangerous man, but does anyone actually think that to assassinate him with a drone in Iraq was a good idea? Half of America will think it was, but half of America are stuck in the past and worried about the future. Whatever Trump does, they are right behind him. He is their man. You have to hand it to him, he has been very lucky up until now. I wonder what he is going to do next. I am worried. Very worried.
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Couldn't agree more Tom
ReplyDeleteAmen. From Texas.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt he was dangerous, but there are a lot of nasty and dangerous leaders in the world, and for one country to pop them off is being a war criminal in my view
ReplyDeleteDangerous and pointless. They appointed a successor almost immediately.
ReplyDeleteYou know I agree, Tom.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do have one minor quibble with what you posted here. Quite a bit more than half of our country despise and fear Trump. The problem is the gerrymandering in some states and the ridiculous outdated electoral college which gives WAY too much power to mostly empty Midwestern states where the populations are overwhelmingly white and old (and becoming more sparse by the year). And we've allowed a coup (the Trump movement) to take over our government and getting them back in check is going to be difficult.
I'm appalled at Trump doing this, especially without any notice and no bipartisan support. These are frightening times.
Couldn't agree more, Jennifer. The man is a lunatic and his cronies no better. He's promoting war and other crimes against humanity. The world is at stake. I put a lot of blame on the Trumpist Senate - abdicating their oversight.
DeleteHe's even courting the Amish for more votes!!!!!
DeleteWell more than half the electorate find Trump a terrifying leader, a worse indictment than ignorant or stupid.
ReplyDeleteWell tit for tat has happened, and is the crashing of the Ukraine plane a by-product of it all. Apparently Trump had several options to consider and he went for the most dangerous. For f**** sake who puts world decisions to such an idiot?
ReplyDeleteGranted the Iranian general was nasty and dangerous, but Trump's missile also took out everyone in all three cars, regardless.
ReplyDeleteHis action seems more reprehensible than Putin's agents poisoning the defected Russian general and his daughter in the UK last year.
Our president is also a nasty and dangerous man, too stupid to understand the basic concept of cause and effect. You have every reason to be frightened.
ReplyDeleteWhat would the UK do if Donald threatened to attack them? That's what goes through my mind Tom.
ReplyDeleteThe UK (in the form of Boris Johnson) would follow him on the road to nowhere, providing support in the form of aircraft carriers and troops, because he has already made a pre-Brexit pact with the bastard to take all the worst types of American exports when nobody in Europe will deal with us unless the trade deals are in their favour. We are fucked no matter what happens. When we first joined the Common Market, the French offloaded all their worst wines on us because we had a bunch of ill-educated twats for a government. Now we have sold-off any serious industry; are designing systems which are so underfunded that the US just pays the inventors to take them off our hands; takes over our transport and marketing infrastructure (along with every other bloody country); and just when we finally make better cheese than the French, we vote to leave the EU. It is all so bloody stupid and pointless. Do I feel better about Brexit now? No I fucking don't. We are a nation of arse-licking idiots, run by a load of back-stabbing politicians who are under the thrall of global equity investors.
DeleteIt was only a matter of time before the idiot squared up to someone and pulled the big trigger. Very worrying. God help us if his pet Boris gets us dragged into it.
ReplyDeleteIf this U.S. President walked across the Potomac barefoot there'd be angry shouts of "he can't swim!" I'm not a fan. I'm just sick of 24/7 Trump... ALL news... ALL the time. Aren't you? Everyone has forgotten the previous President's passion for drone strikes in the middle east. Ah, well. Now this one is impeached. Or is he?
ReplyDeleteYes I am and I don't know about the last question. Drones are really useful, but useful foreign policy requires measured decisions to employ them. Trump has no idea what he is going to do next.
ReplyDeleteTom, none have any idea what they're doing or what the costs will ultimately be. From the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Obama oversaw more drone strikes in his 1st year than George W. did in 2 terms. Under Obama, there were 563 strikes, targeting Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia, with between 384 and 807 civilian casualties. Those death stats vary. We tell ourselves someone else would be better equipped, because it's what we need to do to sleep better at night. Reality is difficult to face. And another difficult reality is with 24/7 Trump coverage, he'll be reelected. It's no cost, unlimited, laser focused attention. Just like 2016.
ReplyDeleteAs example, Tom, American news stations (CNN and MSNBC) have compared Soleimani to Princess Diana, Elvis and Martin Luther King in the past few days. They don't realize they are, in effect, campaigning FOR Trump, not against him. That's the real trouble. Hatred can be blinding.
ReplyDeleteEM is another tRump loon. Blinding hate for the former black man that was an outstanding president, something tRump will never be. Hence the rage of tRump and his cult.
DeleteI watch both CNN and MSNBC and have only seen condemnation of Soleimani and his acts. EM try to stay away from Fox Noise.
No, Carolyn, I think the current President is a bombastic ass. And I had no strong feelings one way or another about the last one. Reality is... it doesn't matter what I think. Or what you think. What matters is what enough voters, especially the electorates think. And the U.K.'s December election rushes to mind.
ReplyDeleteI too believe that Trump will be reelected. World politics has been changed forever.
DeleteThe world has changed. It isn't just politics. It's all of us. When civil discourse is no longer possible, and people are assumed to be an "enemy" worthy of attack over a slightly different view, why expect any better from leadership? We (ourselves) keep setting troubled waters alight.
ReplyDeleteIt's early days in this new era. We elected those leaders so we shouldn't be too surprised if they reflect the majority of our views/frustrations/grievances. The trouble is that our elected representatives cannot keep up with the not so subtle changes taking place on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis, and most of them do not have any interest in doing so. All they want is to be elected, then service to the nation gets forgotten about, or outside influences take over. These people do not stay in power through the sheer force of their own personalities.
DeleteIt IS terrifying.
ReplyDeleteBut no, he is “not our man.”
Not all of us.
There are plenty of purposely ignorant, hateful fools jumping out of the weeds everywhere. Beyond the current administration, the really scary part is that friends and neighbors and family...people that one had trusted and loved and leaned on...ARE these people, these terrified haters, motivated and twisted by the propaganda they ingest and regurgitate.
Racism and hatred and meanness are rampant. Education is scoffed at...then the funds dry up. Science is belittled, “erased”... then the funds dry up. Medical costs are bankrupting millions who can’t afford to live, evidently.
Times are tough.
But rest assured, not all of us are following the Emperor with No Clothes. (AKA With No foresight, with no humanity, etc)
The accidental shooting-down of the airliner has taken some of the rhetoric out of Iran. It's an ill wind.
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