Ever since General John Kelly took over as Donald Trump's chief of Staff, or Babysitter-in-Chief, he has been able to restrain him better than most.
Marred only by the occasional temper tantrum or soiled diaper.
But yesterday as we all know, Trump was able to escape Kelly's clutches for a couple of hours.
And shock the whole world.
With the worst speech ever delivered by an American president at the United Nations.
President Trump brought the same confrontational style of leadership he has used at home to the world’s most prominent stage on Tuesday as he vowed to “totally destroy North Korea” if it threatened the United States and denounced the nuclear agreement with Iran as “an embarrassment” that he may abandon.
A speech so bad it reminded some people of the one Robert de Niro as Al Capone gave in the movie The Untouchables...
Before he started swinging that baseball bat.
And the look on General Kelly's face just about said it all...
And who can blame him?
For while some diplomats interpreted Trump's deranged speech as just another attempt to try to scare Kim Jong-un into thinking he's so crazy he might do ANYTHING.
As another General David Petraeus has pointed out, that strategy might be effective, until it becomes disastrous.
Petraeus cautioned while "madman" posturing may be useful, it can prove disastrous in a crisis if the other side views you as "irrational."
"You do not want the other side thinking that you might be sufficiently irrational to conduct a first strike or to do something, you know, so-called unthinkable," Petraeus said.
And somebody as paranoid as Kim Jong-un starts thinking he has nothing to lose...
But of course, the real scary part is that Trump wasn't really addressing Kim or the United Nations.
He was addressing his rabid base, in the hope of winning back some who have been threatening to abandon him.
That's why he used the words Rocket Man or these words:
And judging by the reaction of some Breitbart readers, his speech seems to have been a big success.
And then this morning Trump retweeted this from the religious bigot Franklin Graham...
And I for one have seen enough.
Will somebody please pray that General Kelly can find the strength to control Trump?
Until that maniac can be removed from office.
By whatever means necessary.
Before he kills us all...
The worst speech ever delivered by an American president?! Sez who?
ReplyDeleteIsraeli PM Netanyahu, for example, was hugely impressed. “In over 30 years in my experience with the UN, I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech,” he said. And Netanyahu would know from UN speeches. Remember that one where he held up a picture of a bomb straight out of the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon?
If Netanyahu thinks anything is great, then you know it stinks. It must have quite a sight to see him clapping loudly in a quiet room. I'm actually surprised to see him in New York, considering that police are investigating him and his wife for corruption. I guess jailbirds of a feather flock together.
DeleteI have partial Jewish ancestry and let me tell you, Netanyahu is a disgrace to his own people. He has abused the memory of the Holocaust as an excuse to Lebensraum all over the Palestinians, and now his own son has been tweeting hooknose and "international banker" memes all over the place about liberal boogeyman George Soros. You know civilization is circling the drain when you find out that Bibi Jr. has actually become a "hero" to the Daily Stormer and its ideological cohorts just like the former president's clearly not-right-in-the-head brother, Malik Obama!
DeleteSo no wonder Bibi Sr. showed up to be part of Donnie's cheering squad. He is practically Kushner's surrogate uncle and a very close friend of the elder Kushner, a crook and convicted felon who's as much of a "real estate speculator" and gentrifier as Bibi and his rabid Likud ilk. If Bibi had his way, Trump would build hotels all over the desert and put the Palestinians to work as slave laborers. The GOP would lap it up because they only like Saudi Muslims who are sitting on mounds of oil. The Palestinians, like the Rohingya, are poor Muslims and therefore "terrorists." The GOP, Trump, and our few remaining "allies" are execrable.
That the only "friends" the U.S. has anymore are thug human rights violators like Israel, Russia, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia is sickening. Let alone that Germany and France are now the good guys shows you we've finally gone full circle from WW2. Our grandfathers died fighting Nazis only to end up with them in the White House. If Anne Frank could see what's being done in her name she would weep.
Trump is Nazi scum and BDS should be the law of the land.
hi anon...yes, I saw that story about Netanyahu's son, and I couldn't believe what I was reading. Nazi scum are marching all over the place, and the son of an Israeli Prime Minister is helping them spread anti-Semitic garbage? But then as they say, an apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and as you say Netanyahu is practically a member of the Trump crime family. Hopefully the day of justice will finally arrive and they'll all go down together...
DeleteI'd say that this speech has convinced the world's leaders that Trump is insane, madly dangerous, and totally untrustworthy.
ReplyDeleteWhoever wrote that speech for him is probably just your run-of-the-mill alt-right Nazi who does not understand that a bombastic campaign speech full of stupid memes/tropes, or whatever about how great "America" is designed to appeal to the "base" in the US rust belt is not likely to impress a UN audience.
Trump is capable of understanding the amount of damage he has done to US diplomacy and its international prestige. I was impressed that his handlers/keepers managed to keep him on text even if it was a truely horrible text.
Trump's actions against Cuba and the threatened action against Iran has proclaimed to the world that the USA cannot be trusted to adhere to international agreements. And the various leaders who worked to help broker these agreements, especially for Iran, must love the insults.
His threats against Venezuela imply that the USA is willing to wage an illegal war against any country whose government it does not like. Well, this is nothing new but its reiteration cannot be a lot of comfort to Latin American and Caribbean countries.
I remember video clips of Angela Merkel the first time she met Trump. The looks of disbelief clearly showed that any descriptions of Trump that she had had fallen far short of reality. I wonder how many heads of state who were in New York for that speech are returning home with that same look?
Trump would declare war on Germany just because he doesn't like being upstaged by an intelligent woman. To him, Merkel is a clone of Hillary -- and of course, he hates Hillary. He only likes Stepford plastic mannequins who don't challenge him, don't "resist" his unwanted advances, and generally don't have a mind of their own -- or a mind at all.
DeleteHe's already said he wants to have a parade of tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue on July 4th to "show how strong and powerful our military is" -- similar to the dictatorships he admires like Russia and, well, Russia (and even North Korea, which he evidently does not). Yet he claims France as his inspiration, because he was so "impressed" upon his visit there. The idiot doesn't even realize that the parade was for Bastille Day -- and didn't involve tanks -- and wasn't a welcome party for him. If Macron wakes him up to this reality, it's au revoir France. Looks like Bogart was wrong: we won't always have Paris.
Already there is talk in Mexico of the U.S. engaging in possible "military solutions" to the drug problems down there, and of course the immigration "crisis" that is caused, in large part, by what our drug war is doing to their homeland. Jeff Sessions is a rabid nutcase who, like Trump, thinks the genocidal madman Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has the perfect "final solution" to the drug problem: kill 'em all and let God sort it out. What's he and Trump going to do in 2018 when Canada legalizes pot? Send the Internet-born Johnny Rebs into Ottawa to burn down Rideau with tiki torches? Lean on Vladimir Poutine to put polonium in Justin's Timbits?
The man is an absolute menace to anything and everything with a pulse. You should see what else the Breitbart trolls (not "readers," Simon; they don't know how to, and don't like to, read) are egging him on to do. They actually want Kim to nuke California, just to get rid of "illegals," "Hollywood liberals," and 55 extra electoral votes that Trump wouldn't have to worry about in 2020. I have been ashamed to call myself American since November 9th of last year. For all intents and purposes, I'm a stateless nomad behind the Orange Curtain, and in spirit, Canadian-by-heart. To paraphrase Walt Kelly, cartoonist of "Pogo": We have seen the enemy, and it is U.S.
hi jrk...I believe the speech was written by Stephen Miller, a creepy looking member of the House of Bannon. And as I said in my post, it wasn't written for his UN audience, it was written to shore up his sagging base. Trump doesn't seem to care what the rest of the world thinks about him. He is a man with no manners or class. And he seems to be threatening to set the world on fire. It is an absolute nightmare and I live for the day it's over...
Deletehi anon 6:58 pm...yes, I read that rumination about holding a giant military parade on July 4th, and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I wonder if Trump will have a Pattonesque military uniform made for him, with lots of (real) gold braid, so he can take the salute like Benito Mussolini himself. One day, when Trump is either exiled or jail someone will write a really good opera about this dark time. In the meantime derailleur neighbour don't lose hope, we will win in the end. And hands across the Orange Curtain...
DeleteThe idea of Trump threatening to attack not one but three countries, to please the Breitbart crowd is beyond belief, and in a normal world should be enough to have him impeached. As you say Simon, the man is a political pervert. God help us all.
ReplyDeletehi anon...yes, I must say I will claim some credit, or pat myself on the back, for having declared him to be a political pervert from the moment he reared his ugly racist head above ground. But his threat to attack those countries will only help unite the world against him, and he will be defeated...
DeleteIt's going to take a generation for the United States to be respected again after the damage Trump has done to its reputation. Every time I see and hear him I feel like vomiting.
ReplyDeletehi anon 6:29 pm...It will take a while for the U.S. to recover from this nightmare. But I don't believe it will take a generation. In my mind at least the country will be on the road to recovery about 30 seconds after the swearing in of a new and progressive president. But yes, in the meantime, everybody should keep their barf bags handy...
DeleteA normal Confidence man baits the hook and then creates/uses information to manipulate others for his benefit and to their detriment. The thing about Trump is that he is also a narcissist so cant help but weave a "look at me, I am great" into the story line. The irony is that he is so transparent that he is totally open to bring manipulated by other Cons to their own benefit. The UN speech had some of the I will show Alex Jones and the Breitbart crowd that he is not a drugged flaccid president as well as catering to the moneyed gang that he believes will help finance the Trump dynasty in the new awe inspired America he is creating.
ReplyDeleteSo who won this round of the continuing Con game? Clearly the foreign moneyed gang followed by the Breitbart crowd who once again proved they could influence the rantings of a president. Trump potentially lost some ground by further complicating his story line and painted himself and Kim into a corner either through incompetent bumbling or is setting the stage for the "all in hurrah part of the con" sometime towards year end. Generally everyone else this Con the Con game touched lost something ( some more than others) except the resolve to stop the madness.
RT
hi RT...yes you're right, one must never forget that Trump is an extreme narcissist, and that it colours everything he does. I read somewhere that Trump was feeling really good that so many other leaders decided not to address the UN this year, because in his mind that made him the "star" of the show. It would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic and dangerous....
ReplyDeleteTrump's speech was disgusting. So was his speech in Alabama in support of Luther Strange. There is nothing which can be done to shut Trump up so lets just treat him like the joke he is. The idiot even stopped to await applause which didn't come.
ReplyDeleteTrump is starting to make Kim 3 look good and Iran's president looks like a real statesperson.
Donald Trump vs Kim Jong-un: We Won't Back Down
ReplyDeletehttps://facebook.com/Aeon999/photos/a.163268977156717.38176.163265400490408/919729644843976/