A Trump Abroad in Japan

Although we would be right to assume that President Trump has a group of people around him who, for the most part, will feed him information he ought to know to kind of get him through his trip about Asia with minimal displays of sheer stupidity, it is my dismal duty as a politics blogger to point out that he referred to Japan as a nation of samurai warriors who didn't shoot down NK nuclear missiles for reasons he can not fathom. 

I both explicitly believe that he sincerely thinks of Japanese as samurai, and implicitly believe that he has no better understanding of missile defense than, roughly, this.  It might be absurd to take Trump literally instead of thinking he is offering a kind of foreign policy haiku, but adopting literalism as a means of transcending cultural barriers is how I tend to roll. 

In other news, he chastened the Japanese automotive industry for not opting to save the cost of import by building cars in the US. Even though they do. They really do have great big automotive plants in the mostly "right to work" states of the US south.  The most "made in America" car is the Toyota Camry.

Trump Did Not Have a Great Day 2

Any given day in the Trump Presidency might be indicative of some absolute unprepared amateur-hour crack-pottery, but some days just stand out--and this is another one of those days.

It started out with Trump Tweeting about a news story that was in progress regarding his contact with China--he flagged an earlier story that indicated when he last called the Chinese government, which was updated at some point after his most recent call, which left him linking to a story in a Tweet about his having just now called China that made it look like he actually was not able to read.

He also was quick like a bunny in Tweeting about Lawfareblog.com regarding a quote he heard on the very-low rated failing Morning Joe show he supposedly never watches, which is not actually favorable to his immigration executive order. This also sort of made it look like he either doesn't read (or can't), or just responded via Twitter to a thing he saw on tv, without any critical thought.

This is pretty non-terrific. But he did have what could have been a saving grace--a visit from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is an ally of the US, and how could Trump screw that up--

Except by giving one of his weird dominance-display handshakes to someone whose culture isn't even about handshakes, and getting his name wrong because foreign policy-fail.

But let's talk about something a little closer to home--like Trump's National Security Advisor who apparently spoke to Russia to reassure them, before Trump was even sworn in, that the sanctions regarding the apparent election-hacking were only temporary.

This scenario makes a liar out of VP Mike Pence, who either was misled by Flynn or is covering up a little. But what is amazing is that this little bit of who said what to who when and who knew it and when is going on while law enforcement is finding more credibility in the Russian dossier. This once again reminds us that there was a lot of fishiness about the circumstances of what kind of stories were being pushed in various media during the election--to Trump's favor.

But let's not suppose that Trump is any more aware of that than he is of the Flynn story (he says). After all, he has his mind firmly fixed on the real electoral threat of busloads of Massholes invading New Hampshire to vote illegally.  (I love you, Massachusetts, and wouldn't call you "Massholes" myself, but that's what alleged Pats fan Trump is saying, which is wicked two-faced, right?)

Anyhow, this is another very not-good day in Trumplandia.

An Apology Would Be Inappropriate 2

It's sort of hard for me to fathom the kind of steadfastness to a meme that conservatives have for the notion of an "apology tour". Admitting that former US administrations have done things that did not sit well with other nations, or even with populations within the US, is not to apologize for them, but to acknowledge the truths of the broad sweep of history. It is an adult thing that President Obama does in his speeches (which are intended not for a specific, home-based audience, but for the world, which is something the PEOTUS might want to learn is necessary), and an honest thing, but what it is not is a puling offering of apologies for things hat happened outside of the scope of his administration.

So it is even harder for me to see how even the conservative hindtitterati (is that pageview thingie in the upper right hand corner for real even?) or the 2008 GOP VP candidate's Twitter feed, can somehow imply that President Obama is apologizing for Pearl Harbor--which is, um, something the Japanese did and that Japan PM Shinzo Abe came as close as we'll get to an apology for (previous attempts by former Japanese governments having been denied the opportunity to apologize--as we deemed it inappropriate). Which I pointed out when I noted that Obama had not actually apologized for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.(In the comments.)

What seems to actually rankle is the idea that Obama had the audacity to note that "We must resist the urge to demonize those who are different." Because that, even for conservatives, has to be a reference to Trumpism, no?  After all, who else was on about Mexicans being rapists and Muslims being terrorists and African-Americans being violent and unemployed and living in ghettos, right?

Well, if you want to see it that way, okay--he was pointing out that a future Trump administration would probably be all about discrimination and that's really regrettable--thanks, conservatives for pointing it out! Why did you vote for the guy? (Ha ha! Kidding!)  But no, he was pointing out that FDR--our liberal hero, singled out totally innocent Japanese-Americans on the basis of what another nation did, and that that thing was pretty damn unfair. Preconceptions about whole peoples get in the way of treating them fairly. Dunno why it would be read some other way.

Anyway, this is just a reminder that Trump isn't some weird asteroid that crashed into the middle of the GOP and made everyone go all "pod people" in some 1950's B-movie fashion. He is the end result of viewing history through a very smudgy lens.

An Apology Would Be Inappropriate

The image of President Obama, the first US president to visit the site where the nuclear age was unleashed, embracing the survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, marks a moment of an extraordinary acknowledgement of the enormity of nuclear weapons' use--without constituting an apology.

What president now living could apologize for an act which caused such casualties? How would we or could we place such an event in its historical perspective and re-litigate why it ever took place? It is not possible to entirely do so, but the correct approach is what Obama has done--acknowledge what happened, and point to a task to prevent the use of these devastating weapons from ever happening again.

This does not stop his insane detractors on the right, of course, who ignorantly decry an "apology tour" that has not ever happened in the course of Obama's presidency. What such ignorami reveal is a disgraceful inability to respect the idea of soft or even smart power--a total lack of appreciation for the very idea of diplomacy at all, or an understanding that the place of the US as first among nations and its standing and respect must flow from our adherence to some standard of decency. That we ought not torture, or detain without charge, or go to war without valid interest, or commit atrocities abroad should be a matter of our highest interest--on which our national reputation rests. That we reject nuclear attack or the idea of "total war" is a matter of principle.

It would be great if both parties understood this intimately and did not play the unattractive game of calling out our President as somehow being Un-American for trying to do what is fundamentally decent. But this is not how it is. This is not how it is at all.

The current GOP Presidential candidate is in favor of nuclear proliferation and torture, and has the full support of his party, with only some tepid reservations expressed by useless dupes who think the real problem with their guy is his "tone".

This image above is what America should be--big enough and strong enough to embrace the history we have made. I am sorry, myself--sorry that so many Americans are so very, very small.

The situation in Japan is truly critical-

I simply lack the words to even address the possible nuclear situation going on in Japan after the record 9.0 quake that has left tens of thousands of people missing, over a thousand people dead, and destroyed so much property. The enormity of it all, and the possibility of things somehow becoming worse, simply stall me. I can encourage anyone who has the means to contribute to Red Cross or any other fine rescue/aid organization because the quake/tsunami damage has left thousands missing, without power, and in need of care.

But for some reason, the possibility of nuclear meltdowns occuring from this tragedy seems like an exceptional worry to me. The results of an earthquake or a tsunami seem more fixed, somehow--the damage and the deaths occur, and the healing begins. The result of a nuclear "incident"--so much more complicated, with more dreadful possibilities.

I don't pray, and yet I find myself wishful. I hope evacuation, containment, and cooling efforts are successful. And yet I am gripped with such a fearful anticipation for so many people affected by this tragedy, that I have no more words than I wish, I hope, and feel for them and the loved ones out of harm's way who are also wishing, hoping, and feeling that things should be different.  And that wishing, hoping, feeling seems like so little in the face of so much.