tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post6846547793598621635..comments2024-03-29T04:06:37.402-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Trump in ArabiaStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-2973524198169856212017-05-23T20:51:15.385-07:002017-05-23T20:51:15.385-07:00Here's a fair perspective to me. We are foolis...Here's a fair perspective to me. We are foolish to try to demonize and isolate the Shiite dominated Iran since this only strengthens the power wielded there by hard-line clerics. Iran is just as divided as Saudi Arabia, and we're making it harder for the moderates and reforms. Iran is fighting against the Sunni/Wahhabi ISIS terrorists.<br /><br />So as usual, we've taken foolish sides - in favor of dictatorial wealth and power. The deal is no worse that Obama's middle ground, except we're promising to turn our eyes against human rights abuses, and suppression of women, and the wars that will be committed with the billions of dollars of weapons we are selling. Its a win-win for people who have wealth and power.<br /><br />https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/opinion/donald-trump-middle-east-saudi-arabia-muslims.html<br />---<br />As Trump lambasted terrorism, without pondering its sources, he was standing in the country that provided 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 and has been the fountainhead — through its religious establishment and consistent funding — of the fanatical, anti-Western, anti-women and puritanical strain of Sunni Islam central to the credo of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.<br />...<br />The Islamic State [ISIS] is, of course, Sunni. Iran is not. But in case anyone thought Trump was serious in uniting Muslim forces against Islamic State terror, he acceded to the wishes of his Saudi hosts (shared by Israel) and attacked Iran as the source of “destruction and chaos across the region.”<br /><br />His words will fan the most bitter rivalry in the Middle East, the source of several surrogate wars, that between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The United States should not play this incendiary game. It should be attempting, rather, to build Sunni-Shia bridges. Isolating Iran, as Trump urged, is a fool’s errand. Iran is too big to isolate; such a strategy will benefit hard-liners in Tehran determined to thwart the steady reformist push of the nation’s youth.<br /><br />Trump’s Iran diatribe was particularly grotesque in that it came as President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate, was re-elected with 57 percent of the vote and crowds in Tehran demanded greater freedom. Iran is a repressive society that pursues anti-American objectives in the region; it is also a large island of stability and a society with far greater representative and participatory forces than Saudi Arabia. Anyone who fails to see a glimmer of hope in Iran is blind.<br /><br />Rouhani trounced a hard-line cleric, Ebrahim Raisi, favored by the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. It was clear once again, as with the nuclear deal, that Khamenei has to arbitrate between competing forces in an Iranian society that is anything but monolithic. The theocratic and civic states coexist in uneasy symbiosis. One day something must give.<br />---<br /><br />Its discussed here as well:<br />http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2017/05/trump_s_dangerous_plan_to_back_the_sunni_arab_states_against_iran.html<br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-50873014342501812482017-05-21T17:01:45.813-07:002017-05-21T17:01:45.813-07:00There is a lot of truth in what you say Stuart. Al...There is a lot of truth in what you say Stuart. Also I think the Saudis who for years have had a devil's bargain with the domestic hardcore Islamist (Wahabis) of keep it out of the Kingdom and we'll look the other way and give you money have decided that the Iranis have become a much greater threat. This partly explains the Saudi movement towards Israel and the US. Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13642228725661059539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-36761365958691926342017-05-21T16:33:37.927-07:002017-05-21T16:33:37.927-07:00As an afterthought, Buraq's bow got his ass pr...As an afterthought, Buraq's bow got his ass pretty high in the air...<br /><br />http://danmillerinpanama.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/obama-bows.jpg<br /><br />Of course, in fairness, Buraq's had more practice bending over.trigger warninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06310637474428322994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-65564941651930647892017-05-21T15:51:21.391-07:002017-05-21T15:51:21.391-07:00"a moment to be remembered in picture forever..."a moment to be remembered in picture forever"<br /><br />https://trumpgasm.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/cldhng-ukaactsb.jpg?w=614<br /><br />No medal involved. Just a ladylike grovel.<br /><br />:-Dtrigger warninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06310637474428322994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-26937947504878498772017-05-21T15:47:41.630-07:002017-05-21T15:47:41.630-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.trigger warninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06310637474428322994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-13169042915960633212017-05-21T15:11:44.754-07:002017-05-21T15:11:44.754-07:00IAC: Melanie Trump was dignified, confident and un...IAC: Melanie Trump was dignified, confident and unpretentious in her appearance. That's winning without "winning."<br /><br />Winning is so easy for you, that's good. Unfairly for me, her good behavior was assumed to be a given.<br /><br />But for those who want to see, it looks like Trump was tricked into a bow by having that medal placed around his neck. At least the Saudi King didn't do anything too humiliating to Trump in the moment of submission. Perhaps photographs were enough.<br />https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/20/trump-mocked-obama-for-bowing-to-a-saudi-king-and-then-he<br /><br />Apparently one nature of tribal partisanship is we express our pride through home team (or the underdog), and express our shame through the opposition (or the bad big bully). <br /><br />And when the home team captain gets together with his best friend forever as equals, that's a moment to be remembered in picture forever. <br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-50744677046851535112017-05-21T14:39:39.515-07:002017-05-21T14:39:39.515-07:00"If these clowns had any self-awareness at al..."If these clowns had any self-awareness at all..." <br /><br />The Pussyhats are a Chinese import.<br /><br />https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-pussy-hat.html<br /><br />I guarantee none of those knuckle-dragging Proglodyte numptyetttes knows how to knit, so they import them from sweatshops in a country that practices preferential female abortion selection.<br /><br />:-Dtrigger warninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06310637474428322994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-16628510440206778132017-05-21T14:21:07.130-07:002017-05-21T14:21:07.130-07:00The most powerful, visible and refreshing statemen...The most powerful, visible and refreshing statement of the visit is Melania Trump not wearing a headscarf. The Saudis don't dress like us when they come to the USA. <br /><br />The Obamatrons and Shrillary people are so offended, amplifying each and every perceived cultural slight or snark, sending symbolic tweets to the first Muslim-American to compete in an Olympics, but no congrats to a white woman who's one of the most decorated Olympians ever because her sport uses........... (gasp!).......... FIREARMS!!!!! If these clowns had any self-awareness at all, they'd realize how patronizing, phony, shallow and transparent they are. And these politicians are the beautiful people so endowed with cultural sensitivity, those who have cornered the market on "caring."<br /><br />Yet Lefties never do mission trips to Saudi Arabia, do they? No, no, no... that's where courage ends. So we get Vagina hats on the D.C. Mall, but no shrieking presence in the Kingdom of Saud. No army of feministas at the wheel of their automobile, clogging the streets of Riyadh with a traffic jam protest. <br /><br />Ever wonder why that is? <br /><br />Melanie Trump was dignified, confident and unpretentious in her appearance. That's winning without "winning."<br /><br />And I'm sure Michelle Obama is still hopping mad that her hand was not welcomed by a medieval misogynist royal figure her husband bowed to. What a disgrace.Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222603717128565302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-73555049955739046162017-05-21T13:57:20.798-07:002017-05-21T13:57:20.798-07:00The REAL courage to fight the world's most dan...The REAL courage to fight the world's most dangerous and menacing figures is exercised by the powerful, silent testimony of graduates at the University of Notre Dame:<br /><br />https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/05/21/protesting-notre-dame-students-walk-out-of-mike-pences-commencement-speech/?utm_term=.bc0b13876c58<br /><br />They learned a lot at America's premier Catholic university, didn't they? No doubt Papa Francisco is most pleased, as he soon will welcome America's president inside his walled palace on the Vatican Hill.<br /><br />We can now safely conclude that the whisperings of joy and welcome for a "President Pence" would be short lived.<br /><br />I'd love a stat on how many of these standout walkouts are graduating from programs in the liberal arts. Universities are Leftist seminaries, and I recommend action against student loan ratios for people in the very-very-Leftist arts. Otherwise, they're just minting activists without any intellect at all, and with poor manners/decorum to boot. What do we, the citizens, get for our massive subsidies? Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222603717128565302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-5760801716547553502017-05-21T11:12:20.575-07:002017-05-21T11:12:20.575-07:00It was nice that Trump could stick to a script and...It was nice that Trump could stick to a script and read his speech straight true today. Here's the transcript.<br />https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/21/president-trumps-full-speech-from-saudi-arabia-on-global-terrorism<br /><br />The $110 billion dollar military investment certainly stand out, although apparently there was a similar reversed-deal with Obama that was reversed.<br />https://www.vox.com/2017/5/20/15626638/trump-saudi-arabia-arms-deal<br />---<br />Back in September, the Obama administration approved a more than $115 billion arms deal with the Saudis. But as the death toll and reports of human rights violations in the Saudi-led war on Yemen began to rise dramatically, the Obama administration nixed the sale of the precision-guided munitions it had originally agreed to put in the deal to try to coerce the Saudis into curbing those atrocities.<br /><br />Now those munitions are back in the Trump arms package — which speaks volumes about this administration. <br />...<br />Trump seems more than willing to cast aside the growing evidence of the kingdom’s brutal actions in Yemen in order to pass an arms deal — especially if he thinks he can get something out of it in return.<br /><br />And that’s precisely why Saudi Arabia — and numerous other countries who have been lectured about human rights by the Obama administration for the past eight years — are so happy to have Trump in the Oval Office now. It’s much easier to commit massive human rights abuses when the people selling you weapons don’t particularly care how you use them, as long as you pay up. <br />--<br /><br />Trump also said: "I also promised that America will not seek to impose our way of life on others, but to outstretch our hands in the spirit of cooperation and trust."<br /><br />I might interpret that to mean "As long as you can pay, we don't care what you do with our weapons."<br /><br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-65199150745106728312017-05-21T08:03:01.962-07:002017-05-21T08:03:01.962-07:00"What do they see in Trump? For one thing, Tr..."What do they see in Trump? For one thing, Trump has been affirming his patriotism. He has been affirming his loyalty to his nation and its greatness. He is not apologizing for America and is not running around bad mouthing his country and declaring himself to be a citizen of the world. And Trump has rejected the policy of appeasement so dear to the Obama administration and the weak-kneed Europeans." Which will make the Dems and their media accomplices so MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDD.<br /><br />"One suspects that the Palestinians will be more willing to negotiate a settlement with Israel." I do not see that happening, unless and until monetary support is cut off, and even then it will take at least a couple of years. I think they're crazed enough to hold out.<br /><br />Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-49463191780552588462017-05-21T07:21:00.516-07:002017-05-21T07:21:00.516-07:00"The [Obama] White House was scrambling Monda..."The [Obama] White House was scrambling Monday to put a positive face on an upcoming summit of Persian Gulf states after learning leaders from four of the six invited nations are expected to skip.[... Josh] Earnest confirmed Monday that Saudi King Salman would no longer attend, noting the king originally had accepted the invitation."<br />--- Fox News (5/2015)<br /><br />Heh.trigger warninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06310637474428322994noreply@blogger.com