I've spent some time in the sort of less-paved parts of the world we're talking about today.
But.
At that time I was a paratroop sergeant, NOT Chief Executive of the world's largest superpower.
If you can't see the critical distinction there, you're a goddamn moron.
Or Donald Trump.
Some of my ancestors immigrated from what were also considered shitholes.
ReplyDeleteAnd I've also seen a few shitholes in this country. Let's hope we get rid of Trump and the current regime in Congress before they finish the job and turn the whole country into a third world shitbox.
Trump is loving the controversy. It keeps him in the news. I'm not sure why the press keeps giving him facetime.
"...At that time I was a paratroop sergeant, NOT Chief Executive of the world's largest superpower."
ReplyDeleteAnd therein lies the distinction...a Sergeant vs CnC.
Sergeant: Gets to use colorful language to wind his point through the myriad pathways that many (I included) volunteers have in their labyrinth-like brain pans guard their pristine brain.
CnC: Uses Diplomatic language because it's assumed that he'll have the insight to realize that using colorful language will do more political damage than an invasion or a stock market collapse.
And now...we're seeing that in action.
Ambassadors being called into National leaders offices to explain the President's descriptor and whether it refers to them or not.
Oh yeah, this is one of those shit-storms that isn't going away anytime soon.
What's frustrating is the nursery-school-level of Trump and his Trumpkins. They luuuurve him spouting off crass shit like a paratroop sergeant without thinking how this affects the work then being thrust on REAL paratroop sergeants.
ReplyDeleteSecState Tillerson: "...so you can see, Mister President, how critical your government's assistance is in the matter. The guerillas are striking our troops station in Niger. We..."
President Keïta: "Ha! This "we", this would be you and your master, Mister Trump, correct?"
Tillerson: "Yes, we..."
Keïta: "Ha! So, the last time I heard from that orange fucker he was calling me and my country "shitholes", is that not correct?"
Tillerson: "No, Mister Pres..."
Keïta: "Ha! That's bullshit and you know it. Well, guess what? You and your little stubby-fingered boss can kiss my black ass. How's that for shitholes, nozzle-jockey boy? You got anything more, or should I just give you a buck to tip the sentry at the door?
Tillerson: "Mister President, I..."
Keïta: You tell your ignorant boss that I can tell it like it is, too, right? And here's how it is - it'll be a cold day in hell when you and your shithole boss get anything out of me or my shithole country. Now beat cheeks before I really lose my patience.
Asshole."
And that is exactly what I think is going to be the problem...not just now, but also in the future.
DeleteThis is the future for us...before, our bullshit was couched in diplomatic double-speak, but now...yeah, now...it is all out in the open, and we're going to be paying in spades for decades (note the plural form of time).
I'm not sure how this will play out going forward, sheerah, simply because I have NO experience in this level of fundamental geopolitical stupidity. Even the monstrous autocrats of history, the Hitlers and Stalins and Maos, were clever enough to use diplomatic language in public and keep their real opinions to themselves and their advisors.
DeleteThis ding-dong, though...I mean, I joke about calling him a toddler, but this is exactly like the sort of thing a preschooler does; shouting potty talk words because he thinks it's funny, or because he just wants to, or because he likes to shock the adults. And I don't know how deeply other nations will absorb this as the new normal for the U.S. I think they know to some degree that it is one moron blabbering his hindbrain. But I think they also note the utter lack of any sort of pushback or denial from the GOP. At this point it's hard to deny that the Republican party is the party of racist white nationalism, and if I was a government official from a "shithole" nation I'd be very aware of that in my dealings with a Republican administration...
There were plenty autocrats not smart enough to do have a 2nd face.
DeleteToday's Duterte in the Philippines, for example. And who could forget Idi Amin? Mussolini was not much of an actor either.
Though when it comes to power Wilhelm II is probably the closest analogy.
I think the difference is that two of the three autocrats you cite were a strictly "local" problem. Duterte is an asshole domestically but has no capability to project that assholery beyond the Philippine littoral. Amin was a menace, but relatively impotent outside Uganda, and the Israelis showed his vulnerability to a competent military even within.
DeleteMussolini, though, yes; he was a loudmouth similar to our own Il Douche. And I agree that William the Sudden is perhaps the closest historical parallel to Orange Foolius.
One part of this that IS a game-changer is the degree to which it makes "Trump is a virulent racist" a settled point. There's simply no way, and no reason, to deny it or pretend otherwise. Trump is poisonously racist. Full stop.
ReplyDeleteThe open question now is "how badly will Trump's poisonous racism affect his administration"? That's the unknown. A cautious non-white polity may well take a very skittish, untrusting line with his people given to ugly combination of open racism with the sort of lying skeeviness Trump has displayed in his "deals". I'm a diplomat from Ghana or Mexico or Korea I'd suspect Trump of being cheerfully willing to cheat or backstab a "darky", "greaser", or a "slope". I mean, they're not "real" people like white people, amirite?
Or, to put it simply; Trump is a damn racist, and the only question remaining is "How racist are the OTHER Republicans?" If the answer is "As much or more than he is" then we have, in effect, a government whose worldview is as objectively vile as that of the apartheid regime in South Africa.
ReplyDeleteWhich, it should be noted, the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan supported until Botha's defenstration in the late 1980s, much as the GOP continued to support Marcos in the PI until he was run out of the country.
Obviously, much of that support was based more on a fear of Communism during the Cold War than pure racism. But the GOP has shown a disturbing willingness to tolerate a hell of a lot of vile despotism so long as the people being despotted are darker than a sheet of notepaper. If I was an official from a nation south of the equator I would be casting a very dubious eye over these Trumpkins.
Lots of US troops in Africa. The Shithole-in-Chief should pull them all out IMO.
ReplyDeletehttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/DTaOUGVX0AAtNHW.jpg:large