Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Nightmare At The U.N.


Donald Trump addressed the U.N. yesterday and he had them rolling in the aisles. After all, absurdity can be down right funny. Dana Milbank writes:

The world is now laughing at us — specifically, at our president.
“In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country,” Trump boasted, in typical fashion, to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. “So true,” he added, as if addressing a campaign rally.

But the rest of his speech wasn't funny at all:

It felt as though Triumph the Insult Comic Dog had been unleashed in the General Assembly.
Not only did Trump criticize the usual suspects — Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and particularly Iran — but he also attacked China, the 15-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the 164-nation World Trade Organization, the U.N. Human Rights Council, Germany, the International Criminal Court, socialist countries (what did the Scandinavians ever do to him?), and the United Nations’ two-month-old Global Compact on Migration. He threatened recipients of U.S. foreign aid — almost all of South America, Africa, Eastern Europe and South Asia — and reiterated his vow to cut payments for peacekeeping.
By the end of the barrage, he had taunted nations that are home to perhaps 90 percent of the world’s population. Billions of people dissed in half an hour? Even for Trump that’s huge.

Trump's ignorance was on full display. The man who avoided service in Vietnam doesn't know what so many other soldiers died for in World War II:

Each time he used the word “global,” it was as an epithet, disparaging the very principle on which the world body was founded amid the ashes of World War II. America rejects “global governance, control and domination,” he said, and “we will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable global bureaucracy,” and “we reject the ideology of globalism and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.”

Trump confirmed Samuel Johnson's observation that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. And he confirmed that the Ugly American is back -- and on steroids. The laughter quickly died and the delegates shook their heads. How else should they have responded to Freddie Kruger at the U.N?

Image: Looper

8 comments:

the salamander said...

.. sounds like Trump spewed from notes and/or flawed teleprompt load via Stephen Miller, Bannon et al. Hell to pay for the 'accomplishments' line so foolishly included.. Of course its partly true as Trump, GOP, mysterious enablers & sundry donors race through repeal of everything Obama accomplished in 8 yesrs, while flailing & failing at their own misguided legislation in 2 years. So aint 'accomplishment' great again ? And 'winning' ?

Attacking Environment, Habitat, Species has been a trophy target of Trump et al to poach at, as if its ivory or restorative bear gonads & anal parts to grind up, then snort to alleviate his lifelong womanizing & cheating shriveldick syndrome. Thus also, 'coal is back & its great again!' And so is Black Lung and asbestos Mesotheliomia.. where they radiate the esophagus & then remove a lung (or two) before you're toast. If Trump could get at the great whales he'd kill them all off from sheer ignorance, spite or hate.. or just to upstage Japanese 'scientists' with bigger harpoons than his puny wonder.. That's his scene, plus fracking Yellowstone Park & using The Great Lakes as a mine waste dumping ground.. Hey ! Its his very own Love Canal in the dim recesses of his diseased shrivelbrain !

The laughter at the UN was welcome.. but better if the delegates also just filed out. Left the slug muttering & nannering at the podium. That's the consequence he deserves.. and his range of loser enablers, defenders, Congress & Senate.. well, they need to wear it too

Owen Gray said...

I agree, sal. The best response to Trump is to give him no audience at all.

Jay Farquharson said...

On Monday, President Macron of France advised the WTO that nobody should sign trade deals with countries that arn't members of the Paris Accord.

On Tuesday, the EU, Russia, China and Iran announced a deal on a Financial System, immune to US Sanctions.

Fun times.

Owen Gray said...

Trump calls in "America First", Jay. The rest of the world sees it as National Navel Gazing. The man equates the country with himself.

Jay Farquharson said...

The Insane Clown POSus doesn't equate himself with America.

After all Miller, ( Globalism), Pence, ( Creepy Evangelical Patriotism) and Boulton ( Iran bits) wrote the speech.

The Insane Clown POSus only belief is "if you are President, they let you do it!".

The Trumpist Agenda is all the product of the venal people he's surrounded himself with.

Owen Gray said...

Point well taken, Jay. Trump isn't very bright. But he surrounds himself with people who are drowning in bad ideas.

e.a.f. said...

Watched his U.N. speech and as some one else wrote, it was like a Saturday Night comedy special, except Trump actually meant what he said or thinks the U.N. would believe it. Like really, couldn't they have kept the idiot on script? No one believes him, he's a joke and every one had a good laugh.

his America first part of the speech, if fine, but he needs to understand that all the other countries are then going to put themselves first. that means the U.S.A. will not have any place in their determinations of anything. Trump doesn't want globalization yet he wants other countries to take a bad deal so the U.S.A. can have a better deal. Doesn't work that way in "our country first". Globalization usually means every one gives up a bit and every one wins a bit but when it all irons out as a group they can go forward. if Trump doesn't want to play, he may find out, fine, neither will the other countries.

What was quite noticeable was while he was vilifying many countries he didn't say anything about Saudi Arabia. think what you may of the other countries and their records, which may not be great but no one is into extermination of another group as much as Saudi Arabia is. there are about 18 Million people in Yemen that Saudi Arabia is trying to starve to death. I'd say that was about the worst thing going on in the world right now. If Trump thinks Iran exports terrorism he might want to have a good look at Saudi Arabia. he might want to remember it were Saudi's who bombed on 911, not the Iranians, not the Canadians, not the Cubans, etc. The real terrorists right now are the Saudi's plan and simple. of course they're purchasing their weapons from the U.S.A. so that makes the U.S.A. a contributor to the extermination of the people of Yemen.

Why the U.N. even paid any attention to him is beyond me. If he ever show up again to make a speech they all ought to get up and walk out.

No Deal is better than a Bad Deal.

Owen Gray said...

I have quoted Mark Twain in this space more than once, e.a.f. "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it an remove all doubt." Trump, once again, made Twain's point incarnate.