Thursday, December 08, 2016

He's Wrong. He Has to Be Wrong. Tell Me He's Got It Wrong.


The interval since the US election on November 8th has brought us multiple examples of the buffoonery of America's president-elect. From the angry tweets about SNL to how he may or may not structure his business affairs to his phone call to the Taiwanese president that has China in an uproar, the Trumpster has come across as clumsy, immature, even reckless - a guy who hasn't a clue what it means to be the president of the United States.

You wish.

The Guardian's Richard Wolffe casts these blunders in a more sinister light. He contends that Trump knows exactly what he's doing and we should take that as a warning.

Too many of Trump’s troubling tweets aren’t actually gaffes. He is intentionally blowing up global stability for the sake of an extremist agenda concocted by hawkish aides who make Dick Cheney look like Kofi Annan. That’s why the strange case of the Taiwan telephone call is worth examining because it is surely a sign of things to come.

At first, Team Trump dismissed the call with the Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen as an innocent congratulatory message. Mike Pence, the vice-president elect, suggested it was no big deal, telling ABC it was “nothing more than taking a courtesy call”. 

These excuses seemed weak after foreign policy experts predicted the Taiwan call would lead to a major breach with US policy, which has been in place since 1979. Then, they fell apart after the New York Times reported that the call was the result of a long-planned and well-funded lobbying effort by the Taiwanese themselves. According to the New York Times, it was all orchestrated by its paid foreign agent, Bob Dole, the former Republican presidential nominee and Senate leader.

“It’s fair to say that we had some influence,” Dole said. “When you represent a client, and they make requests, you’re supposed to respond.” That influence included special attention at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July, attended by a Taiwanese delegation, where the party platform was changed for the first time to include several commitments to Taiwan’s security.

Another president-elect might consider such money-making from national security dangerous, disloyal or worse. But Taiwan newspapers have reported that the Trump Organization itself is interested in a possible hotel project close to Taiwan’s international airport.

A president gone rogue even before his inauguration? Let's hope not. Hope.


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is coming from neocons who are heartbroken the Cold War Revival with Russia is DOA because the Wicked Witch of the West bit the dust.

The Mound of Sound said...

Really, Anonymouse. Got anything - anything credible - to back that up?

Dana said...

Never has never will. Complete and utter noob. Just another sucker.

Anonymous said...

I suspect Trump's gone rogue already. Masha Gessen had an interesting article in the New York Review of Books recently on rules for surviving under autocrats. They went as follows:
Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says.
Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality.
Rule #3: Institutions will not save you.
Rule #4: Be outraged.
Rule #5: Don’t make compromises.
Rule #6: Remember the future. Nothing lasts forever.

It will be interesting to see if and when other countries start treating the US as a rogue nation.

Cap

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
The Mound of Sound said...

Look, Anonymouse, when I challenge you to present some credible authority for your radical statements and you respond by calling others idiots or worse then it's time for you to take your comments somewhere else.

Anonymous said...

So saying Hillary Clinton was attempting to revive the cold war with Russia as a campaign strategy to target suburban neocons and deflect from WikiLeaks is a radical statement?

You are a pathetic joke. A liar and a coward!

You think it's okay look the other way on flagrant bribe-taking corruption considering it recently brought down the global economy putting civilization on the brink of collapse into fascist revolutions and world war??

Being a fucking coward is one thing. A forgivable offense, in my books. (Some people got to be fucking cowards.) But manipulating other people into accepting your cowardly fears is most certainly not.

How pathetic that a pussy-whipped craven little cuck like you would consider anyone else a fucking mouse. If you ever saw mouse you would probably kill yourself running headlong into a wall in terror away from it! Worthless. Fucking. Coward.

Anonymous said...

LOL @ the cheerleader. Never seen this thing express an actual opinion. It couldn't string together a couple sentences to save its life, is my guess.

(I use the gender neutral bc I don't know the gender identity of said thing. Could be a potted plant for all I know: you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink; you can lead a hor-ti-culture, but you cannot make it think.)

Unknown said...

Trudeau has completely tied Canadian foreign policy to US imperial foreign policy. His government has just put forward a second set of sanctions against Russia. They did this very quietly I might add.

With Trump as President and Canada having already destroyed it's autonomy in Canadian foreign policy where will Trump take us? Will we go along if Trump decides to bomb Iran? Will our troops in Latvia engage in combat? If Israel decides to obliterate Palestine for good,and I think they will, will we continue to support Israel? Being a vassal of the US particularly with Trump as President can be very dangerous.

The US already drives Canada's domestic and global neoliberal policies. Trudeau is a coward and Trump is a bully. What fresh hell will be wrought on Canadians because Trump is in charge and Trudeau can't stand up to him.

Anonymous said...

The funniest thing I have ever heard...: "Republicans don't believe in the KKK. Don't you know it was people who lost the Civil War from the South who began the KKK". With people like that it isn't difficult to figure out where Trump will land us.