On Sunday, Bill O'Reilly will have a special Super Bowl pre-game interview with President Trump...."What do you think? Our country's so innocent?" Reaction on the right to this critique of America: crickets.
In a special preview, Trump revealed his plans for dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
O'Reilly asked Trump whether he "respects" the former KGB agent:
"I do respect him, but I respect a lot of people," Trump said, "That doesn't mean I'm going to get along with him."
Trump said he would appreciate any assistance from Russia in the fight against ISIS terrorists, adding that he would rather get along with the former Cold War-era foe than otherwise.
"But, [Putin] is a killer," O'Reilly said.
"There are a lot of killers," Trump responded, "We've got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country's so innocent?"
Remember, these are the same people who said that Barack Obama went on an eight-year "apology tour" as president. Washington Free Beacon: "Five Times Obama Has Apologized for America." The Heritage Foundation: "Barack Obama's Top 10 Apologies: How the President Has Humiliated a Superpower." Mitt Romney, you'll recall, wrote an entire book keyed to the notion that if we elected him president there'd be no more claims that America ever did anything wrong.
Here's what Romney wrote:
"Never before in American history has its president gone before so many foreign audiences to apologize for so many American misdeeds, both real and imagined," Romney writes. "It is his way of signaling to foreign countries and foreign leaders that their dislike for America is something he understands and that is, at least in part, understandable. There are anti-American fires burning all across the globe; President Obama's words are like kindling to them."I eagerly await a similar criticism of Trump from Romney, Heritage, or the Free Beacon.
Obama might give compliments to America here and there, Romney adds. "But what makes his speeches jump out at his audience are the steady stream of criticisms, put-downs, and jabs directed at the nation he was elected to represent and defend...."
The "apology" that really stuck in the right's craw was Obama's speech in Cairo in June 2009, in which he said:
Nine-eleven was an enormous trauma to our country. The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our traditions and our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to change course. I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year.The message is clear: We've done regrettable things, but we'll do better from now on.
We can debate whether the Obama administration lived up to the ideals it expressed in this and other statements regarded as "apologies." (From the liberal-hating leftists in the audience, I hear a cry of "Drooones!") But Obama's "apologies" were an attempt to define principles that America should live up to. Trump is making a completely amoral realpolitik argument: America has acting immorally, so we may as well give up altogether on morality, even a compromised morality, in foreign policy.
It's being argued that he's doing this to justify his own amorality and authoritarianism:
When Trump says America is a nation of killers, he’s not making a principled critique of US misdeeds. He’s JUSTIFYING more killing.
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) February 5, 2017
Trump's "But US is bad too" is not aimed at reducing state violence in the US but using Russia as an excuse to make US state violence worse
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) February 5, 2017
I think that's giving him too much credit for sophisticated strategizing. He's saying this simply because he wants a better relationship with Putin, as an end in itself. We're not certain why he wants this -- he's being blackmailed? he'll benefit financially? he has a mancrush? -- but he does. He says it's because he seeks Russia's help in the fight against ISIS, but that's clearly an excuse or a rationalization. He wants this relationship, period.
If Trump wants to "make US state violence worse," he's just going to do it -- he's not going to say, "Hey, Vladimir Putin does this, too." He's not going to be on the defensive. What he's most defensive about is his desire to get closer to Putin. He and his brain trust can't plausibly justify it. So he says things like Authoritarian violence -- hey, everybody does it, amirite? He's struggling to put lipstick on this pig. I think that's all this is.
****
UPDATE: Well, here's a mild critique of Trump from National Review ("A Peculiar View of America"), and one tweet from Marco Rubio ("When has a Democratic political activists been poisoned by the GOP, or vice versa? We are not the same as #Putin"), which was followed up, an hour later, by Rubio's Super Bowl pick (the Pats). That's all I can find from the right so far.
... Oh, there's this reaction:
"I can speak for myself, and I already have about Vladimir Putin and the way the Russians operate. I'm not going to critique every utterance of the president. I obviously don't see the issue the same way he does," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said when asked about Trump's remarks.Could that possibly be more mealy-mouthed?
9 comments:
"We've got a lot of killers." Especially now in the Oval Office.
No surprise the "Patriots" are the Retards' favorite team, they can only "win" by cheating.
I have successfully boycotted white-dog football for a number of years, not only not viewing such trash in my home but do not do business with those businesses where I might encounter it. Doesn't cost the white-dog football teams anything, nor the bimbo bobble headed bottle blonde multi-millionaire media personalities who hype the shit. Costs the businesses who would publically display the shit money.
Boycotted the "olympics".
Ten Bears
Republicans/Conservatives will be ignoring this, if we let them.
If they can, they'll keep whistling past the graveyard t-RUMPLE-Thin-Skin's building for all of us Americans - if not ALL of humanity.
Grab them by their feet, and hold them in the flames!
And what was bullshit aimed at a black goose, needs to be directed at the chickenshit who's POTUS* now!
I don't see what all the fuss is abut. Trump has presented the US as a shithole from the very beginning of his campaign. He spelled it out in great detail at the GOP Convention and reaffirmed it at his inauguration. It's the foundation of his whole make America great AGAIN slogan ('cos it sure isn't great now).
Trump's whole worldview is that if he wasn't in charge of something, it must have turned out crap. And he's even-handed about it; he clearly thinks the Bush Administration was just as terrible as Obama's. So it would be quite out of character for him to praise his own country yet; it would be implicitly acknowledging that previous presidents knew what they were doing. Trump, on the other hand, believes he alone knows how to get things back on track.
Trump's desire for a relationship with Putin is easy to understand, once you realize that he is still stuck in the worldview he formed in the 70's and early 80's when he was just coming into his own as an adult. Certainly his view of "the inner cities" and "urban America" reflect this worldview; remember his leading campaign crowds in chants of "Deathwish, Deathwish"?
Back then there were only 2 real global contingents, with everybody else more or less a pawn of those two: there was (i) the "Free World," and (ii) the "Communist World." The Leader of the Free World was the US President, and the leader of the Communist World was the Soviet Premier.
The world has changed a lot since then, but Trump hasn't. He believes that when he was elected US president he became the leader of the Free World, and he believes that Vladimir Putin remains the leader of the other global alliance. All the other countries - including China, for God's sake - are irrelevant to this point of view . . . especially b/c he is incapable of taking seriously any country that is not run by Caucasians. He believes this despite the fact that Russia is a weak country; they have a military and nukes, of course, but so does North Korea, and their economy is only the size of Mexico's. Still, in Trump's head Russia is a global powerhouse because they were a global powerhouse 40 years ago when he first decided he understood how the world works.
So Trump's big dream is to work out a partnership with Putin that divides the world up between them. This is why he gets into screaming matches with Mexico and Australia's leaders, and why he treats our European allies so disparagingly. He's the "leader," which means - for him - he is not to be questioned but only obeyed. Any pushback is deemed a treasonous insubordination.
I know, I know . . . this is an absurd theory for people like you and me, who pay attention, but I'd bet at least even money that this is, in fact, how Trump really thinks.
xxx
post script: having reviewed the relevant video - notably the two point conversion (failed) and subsequent overtime drive (also a questionable score) - I have drawn the conclusion the game was handed to the pats by the "officials".
No surprise.
From the little I did see it sure looked like it was handed to them.
An aside, by now, it should be long since obvious that Turtle McConnell is a man utterly lacking in principles and honesty so mealy-mouthed is no surprise.
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