Another week into the GOP race and nothing much has changed. All the lemmings are still afraid to challenge Trump, leaving only Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie to call a spade a spade. Nikki Haley made a complete fool of herself by correctly identifying Trump’s actions as unacceptable and criminal, and then saying she would pardon him if she were elected.
If you are afraid to challenge Trump, you have no place in the race because that’s what this race is all about; CHALLANGING TRUMP.
What is the sense of including any candidates except Christie and Hutchinson in the debates? Are the Trump lovers just going to stand there and bob their heads in agreement with the criminal sociopath? It’s not like there are any platforms to debate. The GOP hasn’t had anything even remotely resembling a platform in decades. And by the way, “make the rich, richer,” is not a platform.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Beijing this week meeting with his Chinese equal in hopes of improving our relationship which has deteriorated in recent months. Biden calling Xi a dictator isn’t helping him.
A number of military incidents that could easily balloon, alerted our government to the need to engage the Chinese in a way that will perhaps lead to increased cooperation by both nations.
The problem in dealing with China as opposed to many other nations, is that there are certain social customs in the Chinese makeup that make negotiations difficult but are impossible for them to abandon.
I am speaking specifically about “face” and what a “done deal” looks like. We have never been able to come together on a mutual acceptance of these concepts. I learned all about this a number of years ago when I worked on a project in China that was an ultimate failure partly because of basic misunderstandings over the application of these terms.
No one likes to be disrespected but the concept of “face” when allowed to take precedence in a social or business situation forces this concept to an importance far above its place in reality. This continually leads to ruffled feathers and the resulting lack of cooperation necessary to get a deal done.
The completion of any deal, that would normally be accepted by western negotiators is difficult to accomplish when working with the Chinese.
You think you have finished your work and the parameters of the plan have been agreed on, you have gone out to have a drink and a good meal, only to discover they are still figuring out ways to adjust the already understood parameters to their advantage.
It’s up to us to figure out how to deal with these situations if we are to accomplish anything with the Chinese. We must or we face war. The turn from civil negotiations to these military nudges will, by their nature escalate. They must be stopped here and now because if and when the Republicans ever win the White House, we will be at war with China within six months. I have been listening to all the GOP candidates on this and they all tell the same story, no matter what the various plots. They already expect a war, and it is very clear they have no idea how to negotiate with a nation that lives by the above- mentioned social anomalies.
A party that is willing to let Donald Trump violate the constitution and everything else patriotic, is also wiling to send its sons and daughters to die in wars that never have to happen.
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Chuck Todd interviewed Mike Pence on Meet the Press last Sunday and what a monumental waste of time. Pence whined and bullshitted through all Todd’s questions, adding to the pile of evidence that no one on the current GOP roster knows anything about the truth or how to tell it. He kept babbling about the investigation of collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign team as if it were a current problem. He tried to equate what Trump did with documents to what Biden did with them. He talked about Trumps indictment as if it were still in doubt. One wonders where he found the guts to do his one brave act in four years.
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One of the sleazier elements of the Trump administration was always Attorney General Bill Barr. Barr could always find some element of every situation that he could turn, no matter what the reality, to a Trump advantage.
When things got hot, Barr began to see a future of indictments and the possibility of a room with bars, so he got out.
Now he is on the tube talking about what a piece of shit Trump is and attacking him from every angle available.
This was a guy with the complete inside view so, when he tells us that Trump is the ultimate ego maniac that cares nothing for anything but himself, we tend to believe him. After all, the rest of Trump’s gang sits on the sidelines, refusing to admit to any truth about the criminal they worked for.
I find it fascinating that all of them refer, constantly, to the fact that “we are innocent until proven guilty” and therefore they will not consider any guilt being associated to what Trump has done and admitted to.
Yes, we should always consider all plaintiffs innocent until proven guilty, but this is Donald Trump, the ego that walks like a man. This is the mouth that has already admitted all the guilt needed to put him away for a century. This is a jerk who must always show up everyone who opposes him and because he is not the brightest bulb in the fixture, always says too much in every argument and constantly puts himself in jeopardy. He has already admitted on tape that he took the stuff, that it was classified, that he moved it to hide it, first from his own lawyers and then from the FBI, and that he showed it to people who were not cleared to see it. I mean, Jesus Christ, who needs a trial?
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A Washington Post story today has drawn a great deal of attention to the fact that it took the FBI 16 months to gear up to investigate Donald Trump’s involvement in the 1/6 uprising.
I must say the story doesn’t surprise me, although the reason for the delay it claims is quite different than I would have supposed.
The Post seems to think that it was Merritt Garland’s reluctance to accuse a former President of a crime. This may be true, or I certainly hope it is, but my theory is far less complimentary of the FBI and its leadership.
I grew up in the era of J. Edgar Hoover who despite a preference for buttons and bows was a serious bigot with far-right views, and today would have been a big backer of Donald Trump. The legacy of Hoover still stands strong inside the walls of the FBI. They still recruit heavily at Catholic Universities, as they did in my day, long ago.
My suspicion for the delay is that the rolls of the FBI were so filled with Trump leaners and the ultra-right, that it was impossible to mount a serious case in the face of their opposition.
Now that the delay is being questioned, I am reasonably sure that the real story will emerge, maybe not in definitive headlines but at least from enough hints and side whispers to let us get a look at what might be the real story.