“It
was a lie that the world was laughing at us. It is now”
---from “The Quotations of Chairman Joe”
When Disgustus was merely a candidate he told the nation
that the world was laughing at us. Like everything else coming from
his fetid mouth it was a lie. Yesterday he stood before the United
Nations General Assembly and bragged to the world that he has
accomplished more in his time in office than nearly any other
American president. The remark drew riotous laughter from the world
assembled.
In the opening pages of “FEAR, Trump in the White
House”, presidential chronicler Bob Woodward tells us that
former tRUMP aides Gary Cohn and Rob Porter discovered to their shock
a paper on the presidential desk, which Disgustus was about to sign,
that would have withdrawn the United States from our current trade
agreement with South Korea. Realizing how destabilizing such an
action would be, undermining as it would not only our relationship
with one of our most stalwart allies but threatening the security
system throughout East Asia, they managed to purloin the document
while the 'president' was unawares, knowing that he would have
quickly forgotten about this item on his agenda having moved on to
other subjects.
What this account demonstrates is not only the chaos in
the room—for Porter was responsible for reviewing every document
presented to our erstwhile maximum leader and somehow this paper
appeared from seemingly out of nowhere—but that a band of men had
somehow managed to assemble that work assiduously to keep our Caesar
from going off the rails. These are, or were, the men that Senator
Corker referred to when he compared the White House to an adult day
care center. These were the adults in the room.
The account not only demonstrates what some have
described as a palace coup de tat that is, unelected underlings are
now effectively shaping policies, but by what narrow threads we now
hang. Both Cohn and Porter are now gone. Defense Secretary Mattis
and Chief of Staff Kelly remain, but the adults in the room are now
becoming few and far between as men of reason like H.R. McMaster are
replaced by the likes of the idiot firebrand John Bolton.
As has been observed previously in these columns (2),
Disgustus cannot be seen as an aberration. The antecedents of all
things Disgustus go back to at least Barry Goldwater and
Richard Outhouse Nixon. What is relatively new is the unraveling of
the commitment of the United States to the world order that it
engineered at the end of the last World War, although that too
predated the arrival of our Caesar upon the national and world stage.
In an essay published in The New York Times, Robert
Kagan points out that both major political parties in the United
States have effectively abandoned the idea of global security. (3)
“The old consensus ab out America's role as
upholder of global security has collapsed in both parties. Russia
may have committed territorial aggression against Ukraine. But
Republican voters follow Mr. Trump in seeking better ties, accepting
Moscow's forcible annexation of Crimea and expanding influence in the
Middle East (even if some of the president's subordinates do not).
They applaud Mr. Trump for seeking a dubious deal with North Korea
just as they once condemned Democratic presidents for doing the same
thing. They favor a trade war with China but have not consistently
favored military spending to deter a real war.” (4)
Democrats, Kagan points out, have not taken to the
ramparts in support of the world order established at Breton Woods
and San Francisco. Americans have had an isolationist tradition
since George Washington's admonitions in his Farewell Address to
eschew diplomatic alliances. Indeed, Bernie Sanders taking up the
populist cudgel forced Hillary to abandoned the Trans-Pacific
Partnership Agreement laying the groundwork for Disgustus
newly-minted trade wars. And, as Kagan points out, the Democrats
have not rushed to the defense of either Mexico or Canada in the
ongoing disputes, nor have they embraced outright liberal immigration
policies, rendering protests and rhetoric hollow.
As the “America First” movement has gained
traction in the wake of the fall of the old Soviet Empire, the
country now finds itself gyrating back into a diplomatic cocoon
reminiscent of the age of Coolidge, Hoover and the Smoot-Hawley
tariffs. The kind of policies that “kept us on the sidelines
while fascism and militarism almost conquered the world” (5).
Yesterday, after being nearly laughed off the podium by
the assembled diplomatic community, Disgustus told the world that the
United States was no longer going to go it alone. We are no longer
going to serve as the underpinning for global security. This has to
be unnerving for the international corporate conglomerates who have
depended upon the global military presence of the United States, as
well as the dollar, to maintain order.
The wrecking ball that our great Vandal-in-Chief has
taken to every institution and every political and diplomatic norm is
sending reverberations around the world as nations scurry for cover.
Let's return to South Korea as a case in point. It has
not been lost on Seoul that this administration or, more precisely,
this idiot in residence, wants to 'cut and run'. He has been crying
about our trade deficit with South Korea as well as the cost of
maintaining troops in the region—not understanding that the South
Koreans pay to house these troops and that it would cost the United
States more money to keep them home. He has also canceled joint
military exercises with South Korea as a means of placating the
North.
Perhaps anticipating this American shift, South Korean
President Moon Jae-In ran for office promising an improved
relationship with the North. The New York Times editors
reviewing the scene had this to say:
“Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim appear committed to seeing
how far they can go toward reconciling their two countries. One sign
was Mr. Moon's address—the first ever in Pyongyang by a South
Korean leader—promising a new era of peace and a 'future of common
prosperity' to a stadium filled with 150,000 cheering North Koreans.
Another was Mr. Kim's pledge to make a reciprocal visit in Seoul.
“Some American experts fear ties between the two
Koreas are deepening too rapidly and will undermine the alliance
between South Korea and the United States....” (5)
The editors of the Times suggest that perhaps it
is because South Korean President Moon Jae-In was born in South Korea
to refugees from the North in the wake of the Korean War that he has
made the reunification of his country such an important part of his
agenda. Perhaps. But is is more than likely that he is simply
reading the political wind, picking up on the stench wafting from the
East from over the ocean and knows that he must now look westward to
China, Russia, and his counterpart in the North.
Disgustus will, as he always does, take credit for any
progress to avert war on the peninsula; but the alliances are
cracking; the old world is rapidly fading.
“An
Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”.
Impeach and Imprison.
________
(1). Woodward, Bob. “FEAR, Trump in the White
House”. Copyright 2018. Simon and Schuster, New York.
Pages xvii-xxii
(2). See: August 8, 2017: Roads to Hell, Long and
Tortuous Path, Reap the Whirlwind.
- Kagan, Robert. “'America First' Has Won”. The New York Times. Monday, September 24, 2018. Page A27
- Ibid
- Editors. “South Korea Opens a Door to the North” The New York Times. Monday, September 24, 2018: Page A26
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