Monday, July 20, 2020

Left & Right Wednesday, July 8, 2020



Newspaper publisher Mark Guerringue again sits in the left chair. The first question from the producer asks about reports that Trump was ignorant of Russian payments to the Taliban to kill American soldiers. It’s no surprise to me, I say. Russians have been supporting the Taliban against US forces for nineteen years. When Russian invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the US supported Bin Laden and others against the Russians. I don’t see what the big deal is. Mark’s answer is circuitous. He talks about frequent communications between Trump and Putin, then mentions what he claims are examples of Trump’s racism like retweeting someone saying “White Power” from a gold cart in Florida. I asked what that had to do with Putin paying Taliban and Mark related what Trump aide John Bolton said about it: that Trump probably was briefed on the Russian payments but didn’t pay attention, that Bolton saw that often with Trump and his daily intelligence briefings. I bring up Trump’s July 4th speech at Mount Rushmore and outrageous mainstream media reaction to it, quoting headlines from The NYTimes and The Washington Post depicting the speech as “dark and devisive.” Mark quotes Trump saying there is a new far-left facism in corporate boardrooms.” I agree with that because corporation are kissing BLM butts and coming out in support. Mark claims 70% of the American people support BLM. I doubt that. Mark claimes: “Trump said angry mobs are tearing down statues of our founders, our most sacred memorials and unleash a wave or violence.” I ask, “You don’t agree with that?” “No,” says Mark. “What?” I say. “Have you been watching television?” It went on like that for the rest of the hour, quite contentious. See for yourself.

5 comments:

TRD said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzHE_SY334o

TRD said...

Even Fox News disagrees with Dictator Donald on this. Scary sh#t

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPUHwdSkoCE

CaptDMO said...

Lest there be any Gell-Mann confusion, concerning Mr. G's recent response in his paper, to implied DEMANDS that your column be removed...
Keep Mr. G's responses here in mind when perusing the parts of The Daily Sun (and other)that are allegedly subjective.
With the majority of "letters to the editor" that are chosen for print, INCLUDING ones from "far away", that IMHO seem to weigh heavily toward cancel culture hearsay philosophy on the spectrum, and Socialist lean of "journalism" concerning local budgetary economic PoliSci, well...

I continue to read the Sun's classifieds, legal notices', and ads, to extrapolate local short term economic and demographic futures. (In conjunction with local "..from the horses mouth." of course)

The puzzles and comics are a nice coffee break distraction, and I can't complain about the price.

TRD said...

Criminal FAILURE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uLJkpH__os

Steve said...

I think Putin paying the Taliban to kill our troops is a big deal for a few reasons. Trump has talked a lot about ending our foreign wars, and Putin is incentivizing the Taliban to continue the war and our involvement in it. That keeps us mired down in that endless war and makes targets of our soldiers. Trump periodically tried to strike a peace accord - or at least a ceasefire – with the Taliban, which is impossible to accomplish when Putin finances our enemy. Keep in mind, Putin is not paying the Taliban to disrupt supply chains or spread disinformation or pour sand in our gas tanks. He’s paying the Taliban to kill our troops. While Trump learns of Putin’s-rubles-for-GI-scalps initiative, he still tries to get Russia back into the G8. Your indifference to that is surprising but consistent. In July 2018 in Helsinki, Trump stood on stage in a joint presser with Putin and he announced to the world he believes Putin wasn’t involved in election interference despite our entire intelligence apparatus declaring the exact opposite. The proof Trump gave was because Putin was “very strong in his denial.” In this blog: http://tommclaughlin.blogspot.com/2018/07/ you wrote the media coverage of that event was overblown. It’s a good thing this current iteration of the Republican party didn’t exist in 1987 when Regan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” You guys would’ve been like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s not get over our skis here. I’m sure they put the wall up for good reason.”

In May 17, 2016, Obama attended a wreath-laying ceremony along with Shinzo Abe at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. He gave a brief speech meant to commemorate the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to reflect on two significant events. One is that the successful use of those weapons meant we possessed the ability to kill off our own species and render the Earth uninhabitable to mankind. The other is that the two countries linked by the first and only use of those weapons in combat, though once bitter enemies, are now allies and even friends. Yet, in his speech, Obama said, “And yet the war grew out of the same base instinct for domination or conquest that had caused conflicts among the simplest tribes, an old pattern amplified by new capabilities and without new constraints.” Here, Obama is standing on Japanese soil and laying blame for the war at the feet of Japan, Germany and Italy, but that wasn’t enough for you. You wanted him to be more critical of Japan than that, which you articulated in this blog here http://tommclaughlin.blogspot.com/2016/05/my-father-would-be-pissed.html

So Trump is indifferent to the fact our most committed geopolitical foe for the last seven decades – Russia – is currently working with our enemy to help them kill our soldiers, and they’re meddling in our elections, and you’re all right with that, but Obama wasn’t critical enough of our current ally – Japan – for their role in events that occurred 75 years ago, and that is what animates you?