An Observation

 

There seem to be two main schools of thought with respects to dealing with Trump's narcissism. One is that he needs a constant supply of ass-kissing, so give it to him so that you can deal with "Nice Trump." Behave a certain way, and you can expect positive results. The other is that he's just a shameful cretin and treat him like one until he slinks off fuming.

Trump strikes me as being as socially hierarchical as can be imagined; very kiss up, punch down. Even if we didn't suspect (or know) that he's compromised, he would treat Putin more deferentially because in his eyes, this is a multibillionaire with nukes. This is why it's okay for Elon Musk to go about the White House dressed like a large teenager, but Zelenskyy, who is dressed in solidarity with his people at war, gets a chiding. 

Nikki Haley "Joins the Fray" (UPDATED)

 

.@norahodonnell: "Do you think ultimately [POTUS] will be impeached & removed from office?"
Nikki Haley: "No. On what? You're going to impeach a president for asking for a favor that didn't happen & giving money & it wasn't withheld? I don't know what you would impeach him on." pic.twitter.com/GtSwBokVkU

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) November 9, 2019

Nikki Haley wasn't going to run against Donald Trump if he was running in 2024, but she changed her mind and is joining the fray.  She says she stands up to bullies, but I don't know if she understands Trump is the first one she needs to tackle to get anywhere. 

She aligned herself with his awful foreign policy--is she going to hit him there? She already negatively referenced the 1619 Project in her announcement, so she is still going to play lip-service to anti-wokeness (racism) even though she was the SC governor who took down the Confederate flag. She can't be a feminist in an anti-feminist party, and she can't play up her diversity beyond a certain point in a party that has made "diversity" a bad word.

I don't know what her lane is, but it's hard to see her plugging away in it past NH in 2024 to be honest.

UPDATE:

Yikes. https://t.co/fS5h6jC7Fp https://t.co/qrxQuN1Dwt

— Vixen Strangely (@VixenStrangely) February 15, 2023

Nikki Haley said she would want to be like a man who called Hitler a "half-breed  Jew" like you know, those Anti-Christs are.  He's also not a big fan of Catholics (he apologized for calling them the Great Whore, but you know?) He's a Christian Nationalist for a very specific version of Christian. John McCain rejected his support in 2008 (then partnered with Sarah Palin, so six of one....) and here we are. Religious signifying. 

She also said this wasn't a racist country just as a man who killed ten Black people in a supermarket for being Black was sentenced and suggested politicians over a certain age be tested for competency. (Donald Trump needs to be tested, then. Subtle.)  She never has figured out the race straddle. (The answer is--don't. There is no straddle. We have racism in this country, it is wrong, you can't ignore it to get beyond it.) 

Her announcement promised underwhelming, and she served it. 

So That UN Vote Should Have Been Expected

UN Ambassador Haley says U.S. "will remember this day in which it was singled out" over Pres. Trump's decision on Jerusalem:

"This vote will make a difference on how Americans look at the UN, and on how we look at countries who disrespect us in the UN" https://t.co/SzZcdmrial pic.twitter.com/zv6HLnB3Ye

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 22, 2017

The Trump Administration doesn't really seem to have any idea about diplomacy or how alliances work or why governments don't just go around saying they will be "taking names" and threatening foreign aid. There have been lots of stories about how Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is a bad fit for a difficult job and the "hollowing out" of the State Department all around. Nikki Haley was a weird appointment as UN Ambassador to the UN because she has no foreign policy background at all. I think that leaves her just articulating what the Trump Administration line is pretty much unvarnished, and it sounds...well, like bullying and an opportunity for other governments to tell the US to stuff it.

And that's what the vote amounted to.  Even countries that received a good bit of US foreign aid had no qualms about voting for a resolution to condemn the US decision with respects to Jerusalem because they well understand that foreign aid grants aren't just for the benefit of the recipient nation. Even countries on good terms with the US either voted to condemn or abstained. I don't know if the "taking names" language necessarily hurt, but it certainly didn't help. And if the Trump Administration cared about such things, they might note they have a very basic problem that really isn't going to make America "great" in the eyes of the world, at all.

A Little More About Trump's UN Speech

At President Trump's UN speech yesterday, the cameras caught Chief of Staff John Kelly in a studious face-palm, looking not unlike a college basketball coach whose team was down by 40 points at the half, trying to convince himself that this was a young team in a building year, and surely, the recruiters hadn't been having him on.  The White House can try and tell us he's just tired because of Trump's vigorous schedule or what have you, but I think the real story is--he can't not know that this speech boxed Trump in and fubar'd his options massively.

This was a speech Trump gave as if for one of his rallies for the maybe 30% die-hards who need to hear his MAGA line of business. But he gave it in front of an audience of world leaders, and this was not the speech he needed to give to them. In addition to threatening to totally destroy a country of 25 million people in a war that would probably also kill millions in South Korea and Japan and elsewhere, he shit-talked the multi-lateral Iran deal that the leadership of Iran is, while they are not simon-pure little angels of joy and light towards the West, basically adhering to. Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif described it as belonging to "medieval times". 

The problem I see with this speech is, that it took a long, steaming crap on diplomacy, and wasted a large part of the goodwill needed for non-military interventions to succeed. Trashing diplomacy is a stupid and backwards tactic with regards to North Korea that shows a person with no concept of recent history. It obliterates any hope that Trump's State Department (such as it is) is competent or capable of finding or maintaining non-military solutions for what should be diplomatic problems. 

This speech, however, does seem to have been copacetic to Russia.  (They do not have our best interests at heart. This is why they backed Trump.)

I am well aware of Trump's base and what they like to hear regarding "America first" and "sovereignty" (which means nothing at all if Russia decides our elections, right?) But knowing there is a world outside of Fox News and Breitbart, this speech nearly gave me the screaming horrors, because nuclear war...mind me, here, because this is important...is BAD. Even one successful missile strike here is a disaster. And the tough talk that Trump likes to think makes Kim Jong Un (not "Rocket Man"--because we are not in 4th grade) respect him, is more liable to make him try just a little bit more. As a leader of a small country that feels beleaguered and wants respect. 

Trump has no idea. And he showed his ass. 

UPDATE: This is what no-maneuverability looks like.

Netanyahu at the UN

Iran has said "Death to America" I don't even know how many times. I don't think Iran could polish us off. I don't think they have a reason to. I'm sure there are Iranians who don't have great use for Israel, but there's always been a not-so-secret-secret that Israel probably already is nuclear-capable. Israel, I have no doubt, can defend itself. I know, because the bulldozed blocks and the shorn olive trees tell me what Netanyahu's vision of Israel means.

I am for being an ally, generally, of Israel. I am not sure I like being an ally of Netanyahu. If he meant to start something with Iran at this point in time, as if all the rest of the world (Iraq, Syria, Yemen, ISIL, stuff around the corner) did not exist, I think he'd be as alone as a very alone thing. I think his stare at that UN audience was trying to see if any sympathy existed. And he thought it should. And there was not, I think, what he expected.