Tell Donald To Shut Up!

As Black Entertainment Television famously tweeted when they saw Madonna disembowel two Prince songs at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards after Prince died . . . regarding Trump's speech to the United Nations . . . yes, I saw that!

Trump gave a speech at the United Nations this past Tuesday that was a slew of braggadocio, personal grievances, and an incoherent lecture to other countries the only way to run a country is the American way - though evidence to the contrary has mounted not just over the past eight months but over the past eight decades.  Had his TelePrompTer not malfunctioned (courtesy of a screwup made by Trump's advance team, through Trump blamed it on anti-American sabotage by UN staffers), his speech most likely would have been merely appalling.  His decision to forge ahead and improvise an address resembled a kid telling a joke that he's making up as he goes.

Trump had a few basic ideas of what he wanted to say in his address - he had a concept of a plan of what he wanted to say - and he ended up spewing more hot words out of his mouth than he would have if he'd been throwing up alphabet soup.  He talked about how wonderful the United States has been doing since he regained power and bitched about what a total loser Joe Biden was. Concentrating on his domestic agenda more than on anything else, Trump appeared to be making a State of the Union address without realizing that he was delivering his remarks to the wrong audience.  Then he insulted the rest of the world by talking about how good he was at restoring greatness to his country while "your countries are going to hell."

And why were these countries going to hell?  Because they were embracing renewable energy.  Trump - famous for pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accord twice - exalted the magic of fossil fuels and needled other countries for putting up and relying on ugly windmills without considering how to produce and generate energy on calm days (actually, they did . . . two words: "battery storage").  He did make one cogent statement - that all nations have to protect and maintain their borders.  Then he reverted to form and chastised other countries for letting in too many people from other cultures, other religions, with their own traditions . . . does that remind you of one country in particular?   He also lamented how each country on the planet was becoming less unique.  Well, of course, seeing as you can't go anywhere in the world without seeing a McDonald's, which is Trump's favorite restaurant to dine at whenever he's abroad.

Trump didn't have to work hard (he never does) to make clear his disdain for the United Nations.  In addition to blaming the UN for the TelePrompTer debacle and also a defective escalator leading to the podium (the malfunctioning of which was caused by a Trump videographer), he talked about how the UN turned down his bid to remodel its headquarters (too bad, he could have given the UN a discount on gold leaf!), and he once again bragged about how he ended seven wars without getting any credit from the UN (the actual number of wars he ended is seven fewer), leading to his hope that, yes, he gets the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Not even if he offers to remodel the Nobel Academy headquarters.

This speech was an embarrassment to the United States and was abominable even by the standards of crazy dictators.  Even Adolf Hitler wouldn't have given a speech as self-absorbed and as incoherent at the League of Nations, though he wouldn't given a speech at the League of Nations, as he withdrew Germany from the League as soon as he got into power (though not as fast as Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accord).  But at least Trump didn't give a speech before the United Nations as bad as the one he gave at Charlie Kirk's memorial event this past Sunday, in which he declared his loathing for his opponents even as he praised Kirk as a bulwark of Christian values.  And turning the other cheek was not what Stephen Miller had in mind when he assailed Trump's political opponents as having done nothing and having been nothing in the American continuum and vowed that opponents of Trump would be punished severely for their sins. 

The fire next time.

And yet, in spite of everything, Trump still holds a great deal of power.  Gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia that were considered easy wins for the Democrats are tightening, and one poll in New Jersey shows that campaign tightening so much there's no daylight between the opposing candidates (and I'll have more to say about that later, if Trump can only stop making news long enough for me to turn my attention to it).  And in Washington, the Democrats are trying to save subsidized health insurance from Republican cuts to avoid a government shutdown next week but don't have any leaders with the intestinal fortitude to stand up to Trump about it.

Trump has successfully dismantled the government to the point where he holds all the cards.  When he talks, people listen.  Even when they have no idea what he's talking about.

Trump's comments at both the United Nations and the Kirk memorial have convinced me even more that its' time for the U.S. to break up into separate countries.  There is no need for foreign nations to take America seriously anymore, and there's no reason for Americans to expect anything serious from their own government.  Because Trump is the government.  Democratic officeholders in Washington simply haven't noticed that yet.  When they do, I hope the cries for secession among Democratic states will get louder.

Haley the Comet

Nikki Haley is leaving her post as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.  People are praising her for her service to Donald Trump, showing her independence while remaining loyal to the administration and demonstrating her diplomatic skills in standing up for American interests while earning international respect (!) for this country.   

Yeah?  How do you justify standing up for principles as eschewing concern for human rights and the climate?  How do gain respect for odious policies designed to push the rest of the world aside?  How do you explain support for Israel, whose egregious policies toward the Palestinians has made the Israelis global pariahs almost as great as we are?  How can anyone respect what this country does?  Haley has been defended for upholding traditional, pre-Trump Republican foreign-policy values at the United Nations, but it's worth remembering, considering the GOP's history of all of the overthrown Latin American governments, unnecessary Middle Eastern wars, and hostility toward international treaties governing everything from the rights of the disabled to maritime interests, that traditional Republican foreign policy was odious long before Trump.  Not that traditional Democratic foreign policy has been all that much better.           

And pundits are talking about Haley as a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate.

Her biggest accomplishment was leaving her job with a lot of goodwill, unlike other Trump appointees who left prematurely.  She wasn't shown the door; she found it herself.  Some would say she's leaving at the right moment, what with Trump having had his best week yet.  Or, maybe she's leaving because she knows that things won't get any better than now.

American foreign policy today is the pits as far as I'm concerned.  (Paris Agreement, anyone?)  I find it quite nauseating.

Speaking of nausea, the Clintons are going on a pop-concert-style speaking tour starting next month.

Stormy

Nothing to do with Stephanie Clifford.

Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court is in greater jeopardy after a second woman, one Debbie Ramirez, claims to have been sexually harassed by Kavanaugh while they were both at Yale, at a dorm.  He apparently flashed her.  Kavanaugh may only have two allegations against him as opposed to dozens (I wonder if you all know who I'm talking about?), but two allegations may indeed be two too many when you're talking about a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land.  (I'm not referring to the Lake County Courthouse in Leadville, Colorado, perched at an altitude of 10,145 feet above sea level.)  This could blow up big time.

Rod Rosenstein went to the White House after allegations were made  that he suggested involving the 25th Amendment too remove Donald Trump from office for being an idiot.  Rosenstein, who's no idiot himself, denies the charges and said he was being sarcastic in talking to then-acting FBI director Andrew McCabe.  Apparently Trump and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly didn't think he was being very funny, because he got a dressing-down at the White House yesterday and has been told to return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue when Trump returns from the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday.  A big-time blow-up, given the precarious state of the Russia investigation that Rosenstein oversees as Deputy Attorney General, is inevitable.

And if you think that's explosive, wait until Trump addresses the United Nations General Assembly today.  We could be in a war with Iran before long. :-O

Meanwhile, a strong cold front running into warm, humid air across the Northeast tomorrow could produce storms so severe, I could once again lose my electricity for I don't know how long . . . and end up with a tree in my living room.

Thursday's weather is supposed to be much better. :-p

Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a (very) bumpy ride!         

Trump's United Nations Speech

Why would a President who's against globalism and diplomacy even be invited to the United Nations to speak? 

Donald Trump's problems with the United Nations have mostly been explained away as issues with corruption and bureaucratic ineptitude, but he revealed to his speech to the United Nations that he has no interest in its goal of providing a more peaceful, verdant or secure world.  He encouraged other countries to follow his administration's example of looking out for themselves first and the rest of the planet rarely.  He tried to deflect from his misogynistic domestic policies by promoting programs that help women in other parts of the world - programs that could be cut if the United States cuts its U.N. dues.  He complained how the U.S. is one of 193 U.N. member nations but pays for 22 percent of his budget, as if, say, Surinam or Equatorial Guinea were in any position to pay more. 

Then he went nuclear - literally.  He not only wants to rip up the Iran nuclear deal (any day now), he  also threatened to nuke North Korea if Kim Jong Un doesn't stop testing missiles.

And I'm worried about hurricanes?          

No sane world leader - that obviously leaves out Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel - can feel assured of a brighter future after the declaration of war that Trump just delivered.  Some of his  comments seemed to come right out of his Twitter account - he called the North Korean leader "Rocket Man."  Elton John and Bernie Taupin, call your lawyers!

I can't help but think of how we ended up with the Bush-Clinton continuum that gave us Trump.  It's highly likely that neither the Bushes nor the Clintons would have ended up in Washington if the elder George Bush hadn't been helped by the Democrats' lack of a strong presidential nominee in the 1988 election - in other words, if Gary Hart hadn't been felled by a sex scandal.  During that scandal, conservative columnist Cal Thomas, who rendered Hart unfit for the Presidency based on a possible extramarital affair, asked while on a TV-show panel, "What could be worse than adultery?"  Democratic strategist Mark Green, another panelist, replied, "Nuclear war!"

And while Trump was talking about annihilating North Korea, there was Melania, his marriage to whom being a by-product of his womanizing, looking on and listening.  That's irony for you.

And even though Gary Hart was self-centered, egotistical, paranoid toward the press, angry at the world, and aloof, even I have to concede that, while there's no guarantee that he would have been elected President if the Bimini affair hadn't happened, we would have been better off if he had.  

We're in trouble going forward.  If you thought 2017 has been a bad year, the year 2018 could be a darker, more dangerous. and more disastrous year for America and the world.    

Happy Nuke Year

Donald Trump sees Russia's Vladimir Putin interested in making more nuclear weapons, so it's game on for Team USA!  As President, he plans to ramp up production of nuclear arms in this country, and may the greater participant emerge victorious!

Well, so, much for the détente a Trump Presidency promised. 

Of course, if Armageddon does start, it won't start in the Baltic region or Ukraine, but in the Middle East, where the actual Battle of Armageddon was fought.  And Israel will be ground zero.  After the Obama administration abstained and let a United Nations resolution against Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory pass, most Republicans and some Democrats slammed the abstention.  Trump has promised to rectify that and appoint as his ambassador to Israel a far-right Zionist named David Friedman and putting the U.S. clearly on the side of Israel and against everyone else.     

For his part, Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the U.S. and other countries can disagree with Israel on the settlement issue, but that the United Nations Security Council is not the place to discuss it.  Well, what is the place? Seems like that would be the perfect  place to discuss it, because stopping the settlements would help produce security to the Middle East.  

It is called the "Security Council."

Oh yeah, Trump has dismissed the U.N.'s existence.  I suppose the United Nations will expel the U.S., and move to Geneva, freeing Trump's companies to turn that building on the East Side into condos.

To be served by the new Second Avenue Subway, which could also double as a bomb shelter. :-O

No-Fly or a No-Go?

President Obama endorsed the no-fly zone over Libya passed in the United Nations Security Council last night, but you have to wonder why the West wasn't able to get it passed and up and running earlier . . . and how it could possibly make any difference now.

Oh, and the U.N. also passed a resolution authorizing the use of force in Libya.

Obama has said that the noose is tightening around Muammar el-Qaddafi, but it seems the Libya leader is doing a pretty good job pushing the thumbscrews into the rebels with that noose around his neck. Pro-Qaddafi forces have taken numerous rebel-held cities and are now poised to retake Benghazi, the largest and most important city in Libya outside Tripoli. If I may use a metaphor involving American football (a very militaristic sport), issuing a no-fly zone or an authorization of force at this juncture is like the Arizona Cardinals being down 56-7 late in the fourth quarter and 95 yards from San Francisco's goalpost and trying for a field goal.

The British and French are very much for this no-fly zone, which means the Americans - already preoccupied with two fronts elsewhere in the Muslim world - will enforce it. Look, I'm no foreign policy expert, but if Nicolas Sarkozy thinks this is a good idea, France should take the lead and send their Mirages up as soon as possible. Then the Brits can send in the Royal Air Force. Sound like a fair deal to you? Let our allies lead for a change and admit we Americans can't handle everything anymore.

Say, isn't there a nuclear crisis in Japan we're helping out with?

Maybe a Benghazi border, like the Pusan Perimeter in the Korean War that saved South Korea from annihilation, is in the making, but I doubt it.

But maybe I'm wrong. Qaddafi has declared a cease-fire in response to the U.N. declarations. Or maybe he did so because he's already winning anyway.

Her Majesty's a Pretty Nice Girl

Queen Elizabeth II was in New York today, making her first speech to the United Nations since 1957. To give you an idea of how long ago tat was, Prince Charles was still too young to be contemplating marriage.

The queen spoke about the importance of the United Nations achieving peace and aiding humanitarian efforts and found that, while progress has been made since the last time she addressed the UN, she emphasized that more needs to be done.

One would laugh at the idea of the queen taking a short time out to visit New York after having spent a week in Canada and acting like the kindly old matron we Americans know her as, but bear in mind, Canada's in the British Commonwealth and we're not. Besides, the queen, who turned 84 in April, has witnessed so much history from her position as head of state that it wouldn't hurt to take her advice on achieving world peace and combating terrorism, just as it didn't hurt her to deliver it in person - for greater effect.

Rock on, Your Majesty!

But please, don't require American tennis players to bow to you - we can go only so far.