“He denounced “15 years of wars in the Middle East” — a rebuke of President George W. Bush — and pledged to help union members, coal miners and other low-wage Americans,” this traditionally Democrat-sounding politician continued, “These are the forgotten men and women of our country. People who work hard but no longer have a voice.”
In another forum Donald Trump spoke, a bit incoherently, of the position where the United States foots 75 percent of NATO bills: “If we cannot be properly reimbursed for the tremendous cost of our military protecting other countries, and in many cases the countries I’m talking about are extremely rich. Then . . . I would be absolutely prepared to tell those countries, “Congratulations, you will be defending yourself.”In NatSec think tanks all over the Beltway, heads were exploding. A national correspondent for The Atlantic said, “Trump is creating conditions for the dissolution of NATO, the demise of Europe, and rampant nuclear proliferation.” This from the scribe who claimed POTUS didn’t have the power to close GITMO. Poor Goldberg, always at the tail end of the main issue because he’s too busy brown-nosing to win the race.
I’ve said it before (and I think Trump’s on to it as well), NATO’s usefulness is analogous to that of the Concert of Europe in late 19th century. What began as a Triple Alliance between Great Britain, NATO has been creating the conditions for its own demise for about 25 years now. As I have repeatedly said on multiple occasions: The more nations adopt into the mutual defense alliance, the more the power of said alliance is diluted. It becomes a club that everyone has to be a member of, a sort of stepping stone into the ultimate club, the EU. Although at present the desire to join the EU is at question.
The interviewer then brings up the question of non-monetary value, i.e., good will, with large monetary outlays. Trump is having none of this nasty, pocketed, traded, lost, reheated old chestnut that Think Tankers love to trot out: “We’re spending money, and if you’re talking about trade, we’re losing a tremendous amount of money, according to many stats, $800 billion a year on trade. So we are spending a fortune on [our] military in order to lose $800 billion.” I’ve got ocean-side property in New Mexico, folks, anyone interested?
But really, who is this Republican nominee? Where did he come from? Sure, he’s quite the bigot and sexist. But what male senator or Representative in Washington DC isn’t? Look at their legislation. The only thing they care more about than getting their hands into women’s pants via abortion legislation, is getting into people’s pocketbooks with new fees. Unimaginable new fees. Fees with names a woman with an advanced forensic accounting degree couldn’t decipher.Why, someone has to be asking, the fetish with fees?
Easy: They raise revenue but don’t count as taxes.
Suckers. American taxpayers are flat-out suckers.
But this nominee has problems: His use of grotesque race-baiting, his lack of care for the tragedies faced daily in America when innocent brown and black people die at the hands of white cops who never see any form of punishment. Worse, departments across the country are hiring men and women eager to enforce compliance over their fellow citizens with predictably tragic results. Then there is the stomach-turning use of violence at political rallies. It’s not the violence, per se, that churns the gut. It’s the “Brown Shirt” techniques that are utilized, to be frank, that reek of outright fascism. Are the trains running on time? Oh, wait. . .
Does Donlad’ “Flannel-Moth-Larvae-Head” Trump’s message machine have anything to say about these issues? No, because he’s banking on the silence resonating with a group of voters people see every day but rarely take notice of. People like the following group:
Do they see the man or woman who got the raw deal like the plumber in Wisconsin who took out one too many 25 percent APR credit cards intent on paying for Junior’s cracked front tooth? He, too, had a cracked tooth when he was young and never fixed it. He was too poor. He also always felt it held him back from promotions, getting the right girl, the list was long. He was determined that his son have a better chance, even if he was leaving university soon with upwards of $50,000 in debt with a degree from a mid-level state school in English.
How about the voter down Texas-way who had one hundred acres of land within the city limits of a moderately-sized city in the Texas Hill Country and lost it to imminent domain for letting it lay fallow after racking up so many citations for claiming it to be agricultural land with no farm animals. It wasn’t his fault a group of local hoodlums kept killing the animals he put on the land so as to keep it in good standing with the law. It’s also the voter I sneer at because he or she can’t or won’t move past the slogans; and yet at the same time, is a howling hypocrite, taking advantage of every government program available, going around the neighborhood or attending neighborhood meetings (yes, I’ve been to a few) “hoping to make some converts.”
Finally, there is the voter who understands every government he or she falls under, be it local, toll road, water district, school district, state or federal, is taking, taking, taking. As a result s/he’s pissed. If only I could just make them see how the Ultimate One-Percenter has swindled them, letting local government gut public service by selling off a crown jewel of revenue to a private company (conveniently owned by friends) to solve a short term budget hole. The company then trebles rates, pockets the rainy day fund set up for emergency maintenance, and now has a 1-800-telephone tree giving the customer nothing but bullshit excuses. If you don’t believe me, take a look at Chicago’s parking system. A cash-cow’s cash-cow!
No, I won’t vote for him, because, while I doubt he’s as malevolent as Cruz or malignant as someone like Dick Cheney, he’s letting demons out of our collective closet that are best left in said closet. But, beware and be forewarned if you are a Democrat; especially if you’re certain Hillary is going to steam roll this guy.You’ll have only yourself to blame if Trump wins.
Why?
It’s her election to lose.
realitychecker
The uncomfortable truths should be kept in the closet? That’s your best advice? Don’t ask, don’t tell? How very brain dead you are asking us all to be.
BlizzardOfOz
How foolish your objections are. We can’t afford to live by these tired Marxist lies anymore. Mike Brown didn’t have his hands up. Trayvon wasn’t strolling down the street innocently when Zimmerman shot him. If there’s a problem with the police, it’s not a racial one. If you can bring yourself to admit that, there could be a left-right consensus on the issue.
The leftist hand-wringing over Trump’s “racism” continues to amuse and astound. “Racism”, that great Marxist concern troll, that grand shell-game, is something that applies as little to Trump as to anyone in national American politics. Anyone can see there is not a bone of racial animus in his body. But it just doesn’t matter to the Marxist left, because any populist appeal to greatness is Literally Hitler. The great middle can see the discrepancies between your rhetoric and the reality, and you are discrediting yourself with your dishonesty or inability to perceive clearly.
novaseline
Trump will be moderated by his kids. Ivanka Trump is a vastly better leader than rodeo clown war monger Hillary. I have no worries if Trump is president. And all the bad things that he brings to the table- inaction on global warming, torture, tax cuts for the rich- the Democrats do as well, if not worse.
Seriously, the hysteria against a Trump presidency has reached pitch hyperbole- it’s just ridiculous now. He’ll have 4 years, and then we can elect someone with better values. But, in the end, whoever you pick, we’re in for rough time.
There would be one benefit to having a Clinton presidency, and that would be to see an utter contemptible human being take on a task that is way over their heads. The world is of complexity and chaos, and is unpredictable, and it’s so much fun watching idiots who don’t understand that, take the reins and fail spectacularly.
edmondo
“It’s her election to lose.”
I am positive she manages to pull it off.
Sean Paul Kelley
Realitychecker: “he’s letting demons out of our collective closet that are best left in said closet.”
Please fan me with a brick! That’s got to be one of the most astonishingly poor word choices I’ve ever made. A sincere thank you for pointing them out. If you will, allow me to rephrase? If so, I’d say something along the lines of: but Trump scares me more than both men (Cheney and Cruz) because he has the potential to unleash our inner demons. The kind of demons that take a normal man, your neighbor Harry, he’s got two kids, a half-way pretty wife, but she’s run to heavy in her late 40s. That guy goes to work and over a short period of time, say, six months, he’s gassing Mexicans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Panamanians and the like, all because they came to steal white folks jobs.
I certainly won’t apologize for wanting to keep those demons, which each and every one of us has inside, inside. What I will apologize for is a very poor choice of words this morning and hope you have a pleasant weekend.
SPK
Sean Paul Kelley
BlizzardofOz: Are you talking to me? Making specific objections? Am I missing something? I’m 100% sincere.
Hugh
I have real problems with this post. If you want to say that Trump is a race-baiting fascist billionaire who doesn’t give a shit about ordinary Americans, fine. But do you seriously think that Clinton is any better, and if you do, where is your case?
To say that Trump is a grotesque candidate is nothing new, but from where I’m sitting Clinton is just as grotesque. And indeed the same can be said about their parties as well. As I have said here often, the Republicans offer us one shit sandwich and the Democrats, another. And then they try to force us to choose between the two. The first thing we all need to realize is that this is not a choice we have to make.
Novaseline: “Trump will be moderated by his kids.” Seriously???????
And thanks BlizzardofOz for that disturbing exercise in snark. If some of us didn’t know better, we might think your real name was Jim Crow. /s
novaseline
@Hugh Yes, I am serious. Who do you think is running most of the show behind the scenes? It’s pretty well documented.
novaseline
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/0722/Strictly-business-How-Donald-Trump-s-children-are-running-the-campaign
http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/donald-trump-ivanka-trump-vice-president/
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/ivanka-trump-2016-donald-trump-214079
And yes, they will keep him from going over the edge, imo. I could be wrong, we shall see.
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©
Don’t even know where this is coming from, and thus the comments also mystify me.
I will not vote for the overcompensating GOP bigot.
Nor will I vote for the vicious neoliberal warmonger.
#BernieOrJillNeverTrumpNorHill
~
V. Arnold
Astonishing; most of the writing re: this election is a waste of time and energy. And it’s always couched in the dichotomy of dem vs. repub with nary a mention of third and fourth “party” choices. There is yet another option; don’t fucking vote!
The Trump/Clinton disaster is a no brainer; Clinton is a proven, craven, killer and war monger; how could anybody, claiming a modicum of sanity, vote for that?
So little original thinking and writing in this disastrous election cycle; the king is dead, long live the king…
Nothing new here folks; move along…
Jeff Wegerson
Everything written on this race from since Sanders no longer had a chance to seriously contest or win the nomination is mere entertainment. So I am at a loss here for why some of the above commenters seem so intent on criticizing the article. As long as one does not live in a swing state you can vote however you feel like voting third parties and all. Inside a swing state you just vote the lesser evil. Which one is that? It is so close that it doesn’t really matter. The chips will fall where they may. We will be stuck with one set of bad consequences or the other.
So lighten up you all and cut yourself some slack here. Getting worked up just juices up your body and mind with unnecessary fight or flight chemicals. You’ll wear your body out fast.
Tom W Harris
She just picked bank stooge free trade shill Tim Kaine as her VP nom. A hard slap in the face to those
Bernie fans who are weighing whether to vote for her.
And as an added bonus, he speaks fluent Spanish! And he’s big on gun control! So shaddup, siddown, and eat yer globalist sandwich.
BlizzardOfOz
SPK: yes, that was in response to your post. It’s comical that your ilk are trying to pin “racist” on Trump, a guy with a proven track record of joyfully working with people from all races and all walks of life. The PC thought prison means an addiction to lies, so that you’re unable to perceive reality or speak the truth.
Hugh: pathetic, that that is the best you’ve got. Old-school liberals are hurtling towards irrelevancy because of your total entrapment within the PC thought prison.
Tom W Harris
Cracka, please. He damn well was strolling down the street innocently when Zimmerman trailed him on a civilian neighborhood watch. In a phone convo with police, they advised him to break contact. He disregarded that advice and continu3ed to stalk Trayvon.
If you’re going to lie through yer teeth, you should really pick a case where the facts are less well known.
Tom W Harris
Italics fix. (I hope.)
Mandos
It has nothing to do with who you work with or who your best friends are. You do know about the “some of my best friends are X” joke/cliché, don’t you? That you may have minority friends doesn’t preclude you from supporting policies/ideas/systems that make the world worse for them. In fact, it makes you a worse person, obliviously taking advantage of their co-operation.
realitychecker
@ Tom W. Harris
Sorry to disabuse you with some facts, but if you’d paid any attention to the trial (as I did, because I’m a lawyer with a decades-long interest in self-defense issues), you’d know that Trayvon’s ladyfriend herself told the court that Trayvon was safely back home, and then reversed course to confront Zimmerman because he thought maybe Zimmerman was a gay man following him with sexual interest, and he intended to beat him up (as he was an accomplished backyard fighter who bragged about his prowess). Trayvon then did in fact beat him up, making him scream for help, and then went beyond all reason by banging Zimmerman’s head on the concrete (a fact established by actual wounds), which can only mean he was trying to crack his skull open.
In all self-defense cases, the dynamic shifts from second-to-second, and if at any moment one party acts with an unjustified IN THAT MOMENT intent to seriously injure or kill, then it is legal to use deadly force in response. It does not matter that something else happened previously that offended your feelings (e.g. “following” or “questioning”), if you were subsequently in a safe place and voluntarily chose to re-engage. We are all responsible for not going over the line and attempting to kill or seriously injure a defeated opponent.
And, of course, the Obama Justice Department says Mike Brown did not have his hands up; I don’t care if you choose to disbelieve a government agency, but with Trayvon the facts are clear and came from his friend.
Propaganda kills the brain, wise up. It’s beyond disappointing that BLM and their supporters choose these two to be their icons, when so many blacks have been murdered with no justification. Kinda makes you wonder what they really think justice should look like.
And just an FYI, I am totally for prosecuting actual unjustified killings to the max, whether by cops or anyone else. And I am just as totally against a thought process that stubbornly ignores all inconvenient facts.
realitychecker
@ Mandos
“It has nothing to do with who you work with or who your best friends are. You do know about the “some of my best friends are X” joke/cliché, don’t you? That you may have minority friends doesn’t preclude you from supporting policies/ideas/systems that make the world worse for them. In fact, it makes you a worse person, obliviously taking advantage of their co-operation.”
You are really intent on embarrassing yourself, it seems. Your “argument” proves too much.
Did three strikes laws make life worse for blacks? Welfare reform? Private prison industry? Criminalizing marijuana? No limits trade and immigration policies?
Well, then, according to your “logic,” the Clintons have to be the biggest racists in recent history. It doesn’t matter that they have so many black friends, right?
Check yourself.
Mandos
I thought that was openly the point though. User fees are a response to “but *I* never use public good X, why should I pay for it? Make *them* pay for it”, where “them” is some vulnerable group who can’t afford it…
Mandos
Sure they supported things that hurt blacks. Many of them were responses of white liberal politicians trying to get elected by pandering to the same sentiment that is propelling Trump forward — since they thought they had to get some quantity of electoral traction with moderately conservative whites. Your critique is properly directed at that strategy.
It has no bearing on the question of whether Trump is whipping up racist sentiment, making the overall dynamic even worse. How Trump feels personally or how Clinton feels personally is totally irrelevant. For minority voters, there has only ever been a choice between bad and worse, because there’s a critical mass of white voters who want a crackdown. See “blue lives matter”.
realitychecker
@ Mandos
I waas merely pointing out the absurdity of your formulation for determining who is or is not a racist. Since you have not addressed that, I take it that you are conceding that point.
Mandos
I honestly don’t know what you’re on about. Sure, whatever.
Duder
Sean, whatever insightful point you are making here is lost in poor writing. It is difficult to follow your train of thought. Try slowing it down and remember to attach pronouns to proper names so the reader can refer back to the subject/object in question.
realitychecker
@ Mandos
Maybe you should just re-read your “some of my best friends are X” paragraph. If that doesn’t make it clear to you, then your problem runs even deeper than I thought.
Mandos
If that’s so, then I did in fact respond to you, directly and clearly, and you are a very confused person with whom it’s not worth pursuing this discussion any further.
realitychecker
@ Mandos,
For the love of God, can’t you think straight at all? You said, to justify branding Trump a “racist”:
“That you may have minority friends doesn’t preclude you from supporting policies/ideas/systems that make the world worse for them. In fact, it makes you a worse person, obliviously taking advantage of their co-operation.”
I pointed out various Clinton policies that also hurt black people, and gave you a chance to realize that logical application of your own formulation also paints THEM as racists. You did not concede that point, or even refer to it.
Yet you claim to have responded to it. No, all you offered up was a misdirection, the classic response of one who cannot defend the point straight on.
You are pathetic if you are so unable to admit such an obvious error.
Hugh
In his first Inaugural, Lincoln talked about the “better angels of our nature”. In his second, he spoke of “malice toward none, with charity for all.” Contrast this with Trump. He speaks to the worst angels of our nature, with malice toward all and charity toward none. As this thread shows, he allows his adherents the “freedom” to spew all the racist filth and hate they have kept bottled up inside for years, and do it in a way where they don’t have to take responsibility for it, under the guise that they are just saying what needs to be said. Trump’s views on almost any subject are incoherent, but his supporters don’t really care about that. They aren’t into specifics or solutions. They revel in the license Trump has given them to hate, and to hate openly.
As for Clinton’s choice of Tim Kaine, more of the same is what is killing this country, just as surely as Trump’s hate, and Clinton, Kaine, and the Democratic party are the quintessense of more of the same.
We would do well to listen to Lincoln, but we won’t. It is just so much easier to hate or go with the devil you know.
MojaveWolf
It may, in fact, have been her election to lose. Kaine as VP indicates either massive cluelessness or a desire to do just that. Or could be a reflection of the old saying, “Who needs voters when you have voting machines?”
Voting for Jill Stein and praying for a miracle, but honestly if I rolled with the best chance of a an improved outcome from one of the two major party candidates, it won’t be who the establishment democrats want me to pick.
Also, Ian, thank you for an actual realistic analysis of Trump’s speech, and for putting the whole thing out there. Yes, there was bad stuff. The pro fossil fuel stuff alone is enough to keep me from supporting him, and the immigrant bashing is deeply, deeply problematic. The rest of the speech, though, was either about the same as or better than what I expect to hear from Hillary, and he’s got the more problematic base to appease.
Speaking of appeasing bases, I had given up on Trump’s chances after the Pence choice. Then, miracle of miracles, Hillary makes an even more stupid one (Kaine is not worse than Pence, mind you; to the extent one wishes to distinguish between them in a vacum, he’s much better, and tears form in my eyes as I type that, but Pence at least shores up-or tries to-a base that is suspicious of Trump; Kaine is basically Hillary throwing the world’s largest used chamberpot at disgruntled progressives and saying “I don’t need your stinking votes, scumbags!”)
Death of the Dem Party, which act are we in? I hope the 3rd.
BlizzardOfOz
Lincoln then proceeded to start a war that killed half a million Americans. But yeah, the happytalk was nice.
As far as your rhetoric about “hate”: there’s probably a better case that the Democrats’ rhetoric has unleashed anti-white hatred, which has already escalated into violence against innocents. The narrative propounded by mainstream Democrats — whites are hunting down and shooting innocent unarmed blacks — is a lie, and a blood libel, which has now spurred some more unhinged blacks to kill innocent whites. You can find mainstream left-wing writers applauding these murders and justifying them (Jesse Benn is an example, he writes for the Huffington Post).
Have you noticed that Trump is making an argument that the American government should be for Americans — explicitly including black and Latino Americans? He has denounced illegal border-jumping criminals and the policies that have enabled them. This should not be controversial, and in fact was not controversial among Democrats until very recently.
highrpm
the American government should be for Americans — explicitly including black and Latino Americans?
as long as we/ the government/ agree and publish what defines accepted civil behavior in american society so those who don’t like such and refuse to conform to “american citizen” know they’ll be called to account, their citizenship revoked and their new abode a desert retreat in the middle of the big blue ocean thousands of miles from the nearest continent.
alas, the left rules and tells folks to remove their front doors so all manner of ilk can take up residence when and where they want. while the left elites live behind locked iron 20 foot high gated “communities.”
TTKI
Mandos, you are simply full of crap. Bill Clinton’s presidency was, quite simply, the most racist administration since Woodrow Wilson. That is not for debate. Clinton absolutely devastated the black community, and they were happy to do worse racial stereotyping and dog whistling than Trump ever did.
Get your head out of your ass.
Ivory Bill Woodpecker
I think the inmates are taking over this particular asylum.
Billikin
BlizzardOfOz:
“Lincoln then proceeded to start a war that killed half a million Americans. But yeah, the happy talk was nice.”
Hey! Credit where credit is due. The great state of South Carolina started the war, thank you very much.
Ghostwheel
TTKI, I agree with your point about Bill Clinton, although I would modify it and say he was a “practical racist” in the same sense as the Puritans would designate some of their own “practical atheists.”
Now, I don’t think old Bill actually had any racial animus in his heart as he played his sax and wolfed down soul food. But yeah, the policies he enacted all along the board: NAFTA, three strikes, media deregulation, repealing Glass-Steagal, smashing welfare, not regulating derivatives–and every other neoliberal shitstorm I can’t think of right now–they all combined to devastate African-American communities and individuals in one way or another. If I were statistically minded, I could probably assemble a case that they hurt African-Americans the most.
Will Trump be any different? I wish I knew. But I believe he offers some hope of a course correction away from neoliberal economic policy and neoconservative foreign policy. If it were between Cruz and Hillary, I would vote Stein, since for me the former two are effectively alike. But Trump….
Well, now, I have to think about this very carefully. Is this a real chance to kick neoliberalism in the shins? Will Trump really sit down and talk with Putin? All I can hope for from Hillary is the shadow rule of Goldman Sachs and surrounding Russia with more missiles.
I could add that the return of manufacturing jobs to the USA would be a potential boon for African-Americans. So would defusing the present risk of nuclear war.
Reason enough to vote Trump? Still giving it serious consideration.
And Ian, thanks so much for the entirely rational, non-hysterical analysis of Trump’s speech. This is one of the first sites I visit when I need to remind myself that no, I’m not really losing my mind.
Rkka
“Lincoln proceeded to start a war that killed half a million Americans. But yeah, the happytalk was nice.”
Yeah, you were there when Fort Sumter opened fire on Charleston!
And South Carolina’s Instrument of Secession does not even mention slavery, but was only about States Rights!
So much “Lost Cause” bullsh*t, so little time. Old-timers here know that what CSA really stands for is Cotton Slaves & Arrogance.
Stirling Newberry
That we are still talking about the CSA, means there are several streams – the trick is to get the holy to sleep with the unholy.
Lefty
HRC is well on her way to losing this race.
Debbie Wasserrman Schultz is now \”quarantined\” and the leaked DNC emails are going to give the opposition plenty of bullets to shoot.
Am willing to bet some hackers (cough)Russians(cough) will release the Clinton email server files in a month or so.
wendy davis
Not for nothin’ but I saw a headline that read something like: Republic Platform features reinstating Glss-Steagall. I didn’t click in, but I doubt it said anything about repealing the CFMA.
I can’t remember who up yonder’s railing against a Marxist class analysis, but of course it’s neceessary to include in the discussion of the police state. BLM wouldn’t know it, unless by osmosis, or Hundredth Monkey theory, but the most recent modern iteration of fighting the police state was in NM, and there may have been one black assassinated w/o cause by police (well, except for the ‘scared shitless’ cause, or worse).
Speaking on Clinton’s Welfare Deform back in in 2008 (the wayback machine) Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund (she, a ‘friend of Hillary):
“And yet, you know, many years after that, when many people are pronouncing welfare reform a great success, you know, we’ve got growing child poverty, we have more children in poverty and in extreme poverty over the last six years than we had earlier in the year. When an economy is down, and the real test of welfare reform is what happens to the poor when the economy is not booming. Well, the poor are suffering, the gap between rich and poor widening. We have what I consider one of—a growing national catastrophe of what we call the cradle-to-prison pipeline. A black boy today has a one-in-three chance of going to prison in his lifetime, a black girl a one-in-seventeen chance. A Latino boy who’s born in 2001 has a one-in-six chance of going to prison. We are seeing more and more children go into our child welfare systems, go dropping out of school, going into juvenile justice detention facilities. Many children are sitting up—15,000, according to a recent congressional GAO study—are sitting up in juvenile institutions solely because their parents could not get mental health and health care in their community. This is an abomination.”
Goddess knows what the numbers look like now.
God save the Rabble from neoliberal austerity; the social contract is over.
Tom Robinson
I liked the essay, and generally agree, Sean Paul. Good to read your writing again.
It is indeed Hillary’s to lose, and feels a lot like Al Gore in 2000, if not Hubert Humphrey in 1968: a mainstream Democrat with a progressive if hawkish record is villified from the left and right, and loses an election they should have won. (I know, Gore did win, but not in the Electoral College.)
Billionaire Trump, who will not release his tax records, or let any of us really understand how good or bad he is at business, claims to have the answers for the millions of Americans left on the handle of the hockey stick curve of the economy because the tax structure now totally favors the very rich at the tip of the blade.
I just watched Clinton and Kaine on 60 Minutes, and I can’t get to villification. They know so much more about how to run a presidency, and work with Congress, than Trump or Stein. I mean, this is not an even game. They are qualified, even if they are too hawkish and neocon.
Clinton has been and still is a champion for women and girls, and LGBTQs, around the world, as she was as Secretary of State. She has genuinely championed the need for girls and women to have the same education as boys and men, and this puts her in direct opposition to radical Islamists and caliphate-crazies in one of their core backwards policies. We don’t hear shit from Trump on this one.
But basically, glad to see you writing. Would welcome more of it, Sean Paul.
V. Arnold
Tom Robinson
July 25, 2016
Not a few posters disagree with your assessment of this post, me included.
Sean Paul has a history of exaggerating his experiences abroad.
He came to Thailand and immediately started critiquing a very complicated culture he didn’t understand. This included a phrase that was very rude, that some jerk told him about; there are monitor lizards here (water monitors) which are politely called, tua ngun tua tong, and impolitely called “hia” ( a very impolite word) which is what he (SPK) said in print. I proceeded to correct him.
My overall point is, this is written by an amateur, dilettante, feigning knowledge not gained.
I do not accept his shallow attempt at expert knowledge of what is going on in Turkey today; emphasis on TODAY!