Welcome aboard, Mr. President

Presidents, and Prime Ministers, are a mixed bag!  Some good, some bad, most a mixture of the two, and therefor it is difficult to define them exactly which is why it is best, whilst they are in office, to keep one's opinion of them provisional and wait for the historians to decide the matter later - much later!  In my 80-year old experience I have come to the conclusion that the ones who seemed good at first tend to go bad later and vice verse.  

However, it is very much easier to work out the character of the shouty nincompoops who flounce out of their official duties as senior members of the opposition and lead demonstrations against the leader of the most powerful country in the world which is, they should bear in mind, our principal ally.  Of course, in their peculiar world view, the nations most of us think of as potential enemies are actually 'friends' to them!  Need one say more? 

None of that means that we must automatically kow-tow to the President of the USA but when we invite him to be a guest at the celebration of an historic battle in which America provided enormous numbers of men and materials to undertake an incredibly hazardous operation at a crucial time in our history, then good manners should take precedence over petty political disagreements.  Unfortunately, the current Labour party and their brain-dead adherents are incapable of thinking beyond the dumb slogans they display on their banners.  And the term 'good manners' is incomprehensible to all of them!

So, welcome aboard, Mr. President (and your elegant wife!) and let us celebrate together the actions of very brave men and women from another age.

 

 

 

Comments

[Bob]

Well then, Labour and Trump should see eye-to-eye. Trump is, by far, the most vulgar president we've had in modern times. He also kowtows to our enemy Vladimir Putin and has had kind words for murderous thugs Kim Jong-un, Rodrigo Duterte and others.

[JK]

"He also kowtows to our enemy Vladimir Putin."

How so Bob?

As in maybe ordering the launch of TLAMS (Tomahawk Missiles) against the Russia leased Al Shayrat airfield in Syria? Or maybe that time US aircraft dropped the bombs that killed those estimated 500 Russia soldiers southeast of the Idlib pocket?

Or maybe his increasing the bite of US sanctions on Russia? Opening up sales of US LnG to the EU in order to wean Frau Merkel off Russia-piped gas?

If those were "kowtows" I sure dread Trump expressing aggressives.

[Whyaxye]

Bob,

If Trump is vulgar, then please send us more vulgarity. It's a refreshing change from the painting-by-numbers wokeness displayed by some of our bandwagon politicians like Sadiq Khan. Many people in the country want to tell these protesters that they are posturing idiots, but the media and wider cultural climate here is such that people are fearful. Pakistani heritage, see, and a Muslim. If you take issue with him, you're probably Islamophobic, and a racist. To know that there is a tweet saying that Khan is a "stone cold loser" is a wonderful thing.

The worst we might say of Trump is that he is childish. Just like that little boy in the story who spotted that the emperor had no clothes on.

[JK]

"[Trump] has had kind words for murderous thugs Kim Jong-un."

Bob, such as this tweet?

"Kim Jong Un is smarter and would make a better President than Sleepy Joe Biden."

https://stream.org/a-disturbing-glimpse-into-the-manufacturing-of-fake-news/

Too, my memory informs me of GW's words including the Norks as part of, "The Axis of Evil" back in 2002's State of the Union address then, later that same year, "We will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons.”

Then rolls around October 6th, 2006 and USGS seismic monitors detect an apparent "earthquake" measuring 4.1 - Two days pass and Japanese sources report words to the effect "Hey Americans, if that was an earthquake it was a damned unusual earthquake."

So much for George W's unkind words.

Then, unkind words spoken by Obama in February of 2009 directed to Kim Jong il to the effect, "You knuckleheads better not threaten our allies or I'll redline the crap out of you!"

Comes May of 2013 and a couple ICBMs splash down in the Sea of Japan.

So much for Barack Obama's unkind words.

Conclusion - Unkind words don't seem to work very good.

Conclusion #2 - Maybe something else will work better. How's about some kind words?

[Bob]

Here's your hero metaphorically licking Putin's boots:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Xw0_2eMJg

[JK]

Well Bob, Obama's telling Putin "Cut it out" didn't work out so hot either.

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/obama-putin-232754

So, maybe another tack will keep Russian ICBMs from splashing down in Lake Michigan? Metaphorically speaking of course.

[Whitewall]

I can't possibly know for sure since it has been a while since I spoke with Her Majesty, but deep in her heart she might appreciate Trump as an ally to help save Her country from the clutches of Germany. Again. Loud and crass as he can be not withstanding.

[JK]

I wish to append the word 'apparently' after the word 'either' in my comment immediately preceding.

I don't wish to impugn Obama's veracity regarding the other verbiage he included to the Politico reporter.

I realize claims by our former Director Comey that "two Florida elections commissions were hacked during the election process" ought be sufficient critique if any is necessary.

[Glesga]

Whitewall, our Queen is the greatest thing since sliced bread was invented. She has no doubt watched the Franco German alliance emerge in Europe to an extent where the Germans are economically threatening their so called partners whose leaders are stuffing their pockets with gold. We are at a turning point now in World affairs. Trump must now give a guarantee that there will be massive trade agreement between the UK and USA. If not then the UK is lost for decades in the slime of the EU.

[Whitewall]

Jimmy, there is no doubt the Germans will always act like Germans. The "German Problem" goes back generations.

[Loz]

The Germans would be less likely to act like Germans, for example, by re-arming and mobilising as they are now, if NATO was strongly endorsed by the US.

The re-animated Franco-German axis is just so precisely because of Brexit and Trump.

As Her Maj has just said: the global institutions that have kept us safe since WW2 are there for a reason.

Blighty and Uncle Sam will live to rue the day they undermined NATO and disengaged from the EU. There is no precedent in history for such a strategy. Every time the Anglosphere took its collective eye off the euro-ball we ended up plucking it out of the back of the net and giving ourselves work to do.

SoD

[Bob]

JK,

Do I read the subject changing? I don't blame you. That performance still makes me cringe.

[Loz]

If Blighty volte-faces and Remains, consolidating an anti-US Europe.

If Rocketman stubbornly toughs out sanctions and negotiations indefinitely.

If China toughs out sanctions and negotiations and mitigates with EU trade.

If Putin consolidates Syria.

If Iran toughs out sanctions with backdoor help from Vlad and Europe.

If the US economy tanks under the burden of Trump's tariffs paid by US industries.

If there's no effective wall and continued high levels of immigration.

If Trump scores zero in all these goals against friends and enemies by the end of his tenure (and he's on zero as it stands today) then ...

How Great will America be compared to what it was when he took office?

SoD

[Glesga]

Loz, Trump wanted all NATO members to cough up the dosh, he did not want to end NATO where thousands of US troops are deployed. Europe has been milking the USA for its freedom and it is now ending. Time for NATO members to pay their fair share.

[Bob]

"Analysts at the Defense Department's National Defense University calculate that Europeans already spend twice as much on European defense as does the United States. They also already spend twice as much on defense as does Russia, the only state that conceivably threatens Europe."

https://www.rand.org/blog/2018/07/a-look-at-nato-funding.html

Follow the link in the first paragraph for a chart showing NATO payments had already begun to increase in 2013 (figure 2).

[JK]

Depends Bob if you're just going on my comments. As I've suggested hardly sufficient to, after all, suggest a Nobel Prize winner could've been full of shit.

I mean how could that evil Vlad feller possibly even considered after those sorta stern warnings issued by none other than a President of the United States itself to "Cut it out!"? In spite of fired former Director Comey's protestations to the contrary I mean, how could we even consider such a possibility?

Taking all the stuff that's followed here in the US proper it's hard to imagine Obama, after that Presidential "Cut it out!" not being inclined to say 'the appointing of that Mueller feller was a complete waste of time. Here I was afterall a fricking US President and a Nobel Prize winner to boot! How any you US citizens could carried on like y'all have these past fifteen months, is beyond me. I'm here to tell ya'll after I got through with Vlad he was quaking in his boots in the full knowledge he'd risked the sequel of 'Missiles of October' version one.'

Why of course Bob I defer to your ... whatever it is you're inclined to.

Just teasing Bob.

[JK]

"Europeans already spend twice as much on European defense as does the United States."

I should hope so.

After all we ought well imagine, domestic defense industries, even if Europe-based, would good for domestic economic numbers.

This is supposed to be "news" Bob?

[Whitewall]

I knew we could count on the Jew Hating Red:

https://nypost.com/2019/06/03/jeremy-corbyn-to-lead-massive-protest-against-trump-in-london/

Photos to follow of course.

[Loz]

On the other hand, imagine if the Don actually achieves the "Trump 7" goals by the end of his tenure.

That will mean the US took on every enemy facing her on the planet and, without a single friend, won.

That would be interesting: -

1. A first in history? Blighty's empire did it with friends i.e. the first colonials i.e. the Scots, Irish, and Welsh. Blighty had competitors right through to the end. The Roman empire used every rag-bag barbarian auxiliary colonial "friend" it could lay its hands on. Yet the Don's empire mission will be done single handedly with the pure-bloods only.

2. The concept of "over-reach", time-honoured since the beginning of history, will have been emphatically disproven? That is, the idea that every empire under estimates the effort required for its last boundary extension, has not the resources to achieve it, fails, and then unravels.

Loving America as I do, would I actually want her to succeed? There are, as usual, two angles on that: the me-me-me and the we-we-we. That is, thinking about the consequences for me as an individual and from the collective of Blighty.

As an individual, I always Loved, and always will, what America stood for: "Bring me your huddled masses", that beautiful green lady in the harbour, et al. But is this that America in action? Or is this a mercantilist tyrant on the rampage who doesn't believe in win-win, who believes the only good deal is screwing other people for the benefit of his own?

As a collective, will Blighty receive any benefit from a mercantilist tyrant by lending support in the battle should the victory come? Seems like Blighty will get as much of a chlorinated-chicken deal as Vlad, being, as such, mere equals in the divying up of the spoils.

So which is it to be? A worthless Yankee lackey and slave shackled together with Vlad, or, a top-table European with the major stakeholding in the EU Army, EU finance, and single market, standing up for the little guys in the court of the Anglo-Franco-German alliance?

SoD

[backofanenvelope]

"a top-table European"

When were we ever a top-table European exactly? My position remains as usual. No French wars and no American wars. Not a lackey of the USA or of the Franco-German racket.

[Loz]

And there's the rub BOE.

If I believed that Blighty could sustain that "Not a lackey of the USA or of the Franco-German racket" on its own, I'd be with you.

But I saw the 1945-75 period. I'm seeing the 2016-2019 period. I'm seeing the Jezza voting masses and the "Venezuela of Europe" future that beckons. Being a non-lackey of the US and not in the Franco-German racket didn't, doesn't, and won't do us any favours, ever since 1945.

So, for the reason of the lesser of 3 evils, I choose the Franco-German racket. Because Blighty plus the little guys stand a chance now in Brussels, and so does me-me-me. But in the other two options, Blighty and me-me-me have no chance.

SoD

[backofanenvelope]

Your vision and mine have the same problem. We need a political class willing and able to fight the national corner. And we don't have one.

[Loz]

That's true enough, BOE.

I ask myself why? Is the failing in Blighty's political class just like "form" in a sports team (or sports person for that matter), it just comes and goes no matter whether the coach is doing the right thing? That doesn't mean you don't need a coach, the coach raises the overall average level, but never smooths the ebb and flow of form. Is Blighty just going through an ebb of form?

Or is it broken by design? An operational constitution that flattered to deceive during empire is now exposed as weak in the modern world. Btw, I'm not talking about Magna Carta and all the great stuff in the supposedly unwritten British constitution of individual rights, which is actually just as written as anybody else's, it's just it was written over centuries in different statutes ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kingdom

I'm talking about the operational constitutional form that filters the pols as they bubble to the surface of the barrel to form the scum that presents Blighty to the field of glory, be it, at any moment in time, a hot air or cold steel field of glory. Is that just not doing its job?

Do we need a new coach, the metaphor for the operational constitution?

Does Blighty even have the peeps and pols wherewithal to have that intelligent conversation, one which starts with the bitter truth: "Why are we so crap?", without descending into worthless self-conflict?

If not, then, sad though it may be, the least worst option is the only one to wish for. Survival is the ultimate aim in this Game of Thrones, and pride swallowing is always called for in such moments. Dreams of glory and grandeur can wait until form returns or a new coach is installed.

SoD

[Whitewall]

The culture sure has changed since the passing of Mr. Churchill in 1965. Ours did too. Questions, what changed it, who changed it and changed to what? Who and what runs its institutions now and are those entities immovable?

[Bob]

It must be reassuring to Europeans that the most unpopular and incompetent president in recent times doesn't hesitate to give them political advice.

JK,

I should have mentioned the NATO funding stats are in contrast to Trump's declarations Europeans are moochers.

[backofanenvelope]

"unpopular and incompetent president in recent times"

There you go again Bob! Your opinion.

[JK]

Well Bob, be satisfied its just Trump advising 'em rather than nuking 'em.

As I recall you did express "some concerns" about that.

Still keeping you up at night Bob? Or, have you come around to the conclusion he's competent enough to not nuke France?

[Loz]

Excruciating ...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/06/04/theresa-may-smiled-helplessly-donald-trump-embarrassed/

SoD

[Bob]

backofanenvelope,

Trump's approval rating has been just over or under 40% for nearly all his tenure. His recent performance in England is a great(?) example of incompetence.

JK,

The point wasn't that Donny was just itching to put his finger on the button, it was that he said he wouldn't necessarily not nuke Europe, which shouldn't be too convoluted for you. I'd hope the secret service would hit him with a tranquilizer dart before he actually did anything like that. That is, if they actually let him have the real nuclear football.

[JK]

Probably surprises you Bob well, maybe not. Anyway two of my eldest nephew's friends (nephew currently the AR SRT lead I've told you of - they were all Marines together) work in very close proximity to ... 1600 Penn.

I've spoken to both though not at the same time.

From what I gather there will not have to be a repeat of the time that Marine Colonel piloting Marine One stepped 'down the ramp' to direct "explanatory information" to this, our serving President.

Now I shant Bob, and I'm sure you appreciate what OPSEC is, but anyway Bob I won't do a 'word-for-word' because as delicate as you seem to be whenever The Guy's uhm, "attention to his details" may be concerned I'm confident they're confident.

I pray Bob I've not disturbed your napping times.

Of course Bob I appreciate your appreciation of the power of prayer.

[Bob]

JK,

Hmmmm. Ozark People's Security Escort Company, maybe? In any case I feel way less delicate knowing your kith and kin are on the job.

[Malcolm Pollack]

"...what America stood for: "Bring me your huddled masses", that beautiful green lady in the harbour..."

Ah yes, the Zeroth Amendment -- drafted, proposed and ratified singlehandedly by Emma Lazarus.

[JK]

Bob dear, the region. The general region ought be obvious enough even for the likes of you.

You either have faith or you don't.

[Loz]

MP,

"First generation Americans were, are and always will be the best Americans."

I like that, muchly.

SoD

[Bob]

JK, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, I have not the slightest spark of faith.

SoD, that is largely true. Most non-immigrant Americans couldn't pass the naturalization civics test. And btw, there's another item you can add to your list of Trump priorities; forcing the UK to replace its health care system with our predatory health biz cabal. You'd be whinging to have the problems of your NHS back in months if not weeks.

[Malcolm Pollack]

SoD,

I could offer you a bounteous harvest of counterexamples.

[Loz]

Ref BOE's retort that Germany isn't re-arming and mobilising ...

Spike missile in action
https://www.military.com/video/german-army-fires-spike-lr-atgm-missile

Hypersonic weapons development
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/germany-now-building-hypersonic-weapons-61652

Mobilising off the coast of China
https://www.politico.eu/article/germanys-military-maneuvers/

Enthusiastically extending mobilization in Africa
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/05/10/germany-deployment-extended-mali-niger-somalia/

Look who's Heer! (Geddit!)

SoD

[Loz]

Bob,

Ref the NHS I don't advocate replacing a state monopoly with a private sector cartel.

Instead, liquidate the NHS, give £2200 healthcare voucher per annum to each citizen, open up the multi-market with EU, US, Canada, Oz, NZ for starters and enforce anti-monopoly laws.

Problem solved.

SoD

[Bob]

SoD,

Because no country in the world uses a voucher system, there is no track record. You can't claim vouchers are more than an interesting idea.

[Loz]

So what's the Don gonna do now, eh? ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/us/politics/trump-iran-tanker-hormuz.html

All high and mighty with the sanctions, but when the middle finger comes back from the victim is he just going to sit there like a Woose?

That means it'll be 0 out of 7 at the end of his tenure ...

1. EU tariffs. Failed.
2. NAFTA tariffs. Failed.
3. China tariffs and sanctions. Failed.
4. Russia sanctions. Failed.
5. Rocketman sanctions. Failed.
6. Iran sanctions. Failed.
7. Wall. Failed.

What a loser!

Unless John Bolton gets his way, . But with Iran thumbing its nose at the US with drone limpet mines and the Don not reacting, I can't see Bolton hanging around for long. Another resignation, another loser point for the Don.

Will any ally trust or any enemy have any respect for the US again after this? No wonder the Euros are frantically building their own army, navy and airforce. No wonder Vlad poisons folks in Blighty at will. They're all getting to know the US is just one great Woose!

SoD

[Bob]

SoD,

Unfortunately you're right. Trump's sole purpose in the American body politic is to wreak revenge on "elites". Nearly no traditional functions of the presidency are being fulfilled, but that doesn't matter to his supporters. The worst possible outcome would be that Bolten gets his way by convincing Trump Americans always support the president during war.

[David Duff]

Even so, Bob, A.B.H. - Anyone But Hillary!

[Bob]

David,

I nearly agree, and hope the Democrats will be smart enough to not run anyone as untalented and la-de-da as Hillary again. Also, that voters will be a bit more thoughtful about the qualifications of "anybody". To the surprise of many, a game show host and bankruptcy king isn't a standout, at least in a good way, as president. Americans and Brits should also expand their ideas about elitism to include those who are rich enough to be above mere mortals who can't rob banks or taxpayer funds legally.