SCENE: Mitch Berg is picking through a bin of “Priced To Move” CDs at a “Half Price Books” when Avery LIBRELLE notices him, and slowly tiptoes up on him from behind.
BERG: Hey, Avery.
LIBRELLE: Er…OK, Merg, how did you know I was here?
BERG: (not looking up from the CD bin) It’s the same expository plot device Mitch always uses for these bits. Your surprise me at some location where I can’t tactfully get away without dropping a smoke grenade. So – what can I do for you?
LIBRELLE: Donald Trump is sucking up to fascists.
BERG: (Finding a CD of “The River”) What, again? Do tell.
LIBRELLE: He’s invited loose cannon fascist Filipino dictator Rodrigo Duterte to the White House for a meeting
BERG: (Visibly disinterested) So? And he was elected democratically. He’s not a dictator until he suspends Filipino democracy.
LIBRELLE: He’s cozying up to fascists.
BERG: Would you prefer that the Philippines – tens of millions of heavily westernized people, a growing economy, a key military position on the PacRim, and a long time ally of the United States – fall into the Chinese orbit?
LIBRELLE: But Duiterte is an awful man!
BERG: He’s a democratically elected leader. And sometimes you make common cause with awful people to solve more important goals. Like containing China.
LIBRELLE: We can’t condone extremists like Duterte!
BERG: His “extremism” is a matter for the people of his country to ascertain. And containing Chinese expansionism is for us to do.
LIBRELLE: You know who Duterte sounds like?
BERG: Melissa Click?
LIBRELLE: (Stops, stares, puzzled into space, slowly walks away)
BERG: See ya.
And SCENE
Inviting a mass murderer to the White House makes America great again how, exactly? With Trump, it is always about following the money. The Trump tower in Manila is all we need to know.
The Shah of Iran, Gadhaffi and Assad were all murdering SOBs with blood on their hands.
Is the world a better place because, full of ilberal outrage, we deposed them?
Let’s tell it like it is. Trump publicly embraced a mass murderer and invited him to the White House.
OK.
Now, let’s tell it like it really is. The democratically-elected president of a vital US ally broke hard with President Obama, and is flirting with the Chinese – which could be a strategically very bad thing for us in the long term.
Trump and his administration are being realists, looking at a much bigger picture.
Duterte killed in the name of clearing streets of gang and drug related crimes. Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Che killed for the sake of killing and they are your paragons of virtue to be emulated. Why the hypocrisy, bub?
Who knew that inviting a murderer to the White House could be so complicated?
MBerg: I will credit Trump for his flexible moral compass.
America was far from perfect and we walked a fine line with some dirty leaders, but we never openly praised blatant murderers like Dutarte. I use the past tense for good reason. Once done, damage like this is not easily undone…it takes generations and much sacrifice to be the nation that elevates the oppressed and seeks justice. America is not that nation anymore.
As I mentioned, this might have a little something to do with the luxury residences Trump has under construction in Manila.
http://www.trump.com/real-estate-portfolio/philippines/trump-tower-manila/
So, Emery, what should Trump have done about the Philippines?
OK, mass murderers in the White House…
https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=studio+one+cbs&p=2&item=T84:0114
…and then you’ve got FDR meeting with Stalin at Truman’s residence, Ike meeting with Kruschev in the White House, Reagan meeting with Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, Gorbachev….Obama meeting with Castro and sucking up to Iran…..
….and you’re worried about the Philippines, Emery? Seriously? The boat left the dock a LONG time ago.
Captain Nemo wrote “Trump publicly embraced a mass murderer and invited him to the White House.”
That’s true. His name is Xi Jinping.
The Chinese dictators are clever mass-murderers who do their work quietly.
I’m with Mr. Berg on this one. We worked with Stalin to defeat Hitler. Spruce up Clark and Subic.
Emery (or Eddie Izzard) on mass murderers (NSFW):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk_pHZmn5QM
I find it odd that Trump’s business ties in the Philippines are so infrequently mentioned. Last November, Duterte appointed Trump’s business partner in the Philippines as a special trade envoy in Washington. Trump allowed his name to be put on the Manila project in exchange for a multi-million-dollar payment up front, along with up to 25% of the developer’s revenue over a number of years. Perhaps Trump will flatter Duterte with an honorary degree from Trump University to show his appreciation.
Keep trolling, eTASS. Your ass had already been handed to you, and now you are moving the goalposts to distract from p0wnage. How predictable.
Didn’t Yassar Arafat visit the White House multiple times?
Loren: Have you gotten many (bike) miles in with this early spring weather?
Say Emery? You gonna bend over, or take it standing…either way, your own words are headed up your ass again…Remember when O’Bammy stepped in to prop up the Castro regime, right after their last benefactor (Venezuela) went under?
Emery on March 24, 2016 at 6:16 am said:
A very shallow analysis. The US trades with Communist China and Communist Vietnam. How is Cuba different? The isolationist/embargo policies haven’t worked for 60 years. What’s that they say about repeating the same policy over and over and expecting a different result?
How you like them apples, you simpering ass nozzle?
Obama’s decision to embrace Cuba was quite brilliant. It’s always better to embrace near neighbors than to exclude, boycott and sanction them. It would also be beneficial for the US to return to normal diplomatic relations with Iran, if only so they could play off the Saudis vs. the Iranians for advantage in the region. But Trump doesn’t understand this issue, just as he has not understood most of the issues that he campaigned on, because he relies on watching Fox News to enlighten him on all aspects of governance. I think probably Mattis and Tillerson understand; perhaps they’ll set him straight. This is not a great deal, but it is much superior to any of the alternatives.
Now I know why Emery is Incognito: too much embarrassment.
“I find it odd that Trump’s business ties in the Philippines are so infrequently mentioned.”
Our whole system is fascistic-ly corrupted in this sense. This is why the GDP is low and we have a regressive economy. Trump just shows it in stark relief.
They have to deal with Duarte. China has to be dealt with with every lever we can get. It’s a 50 man kleptocracy with motives that are very mixed at best in terms of what the rest of the world needs.
I’m open to being talked out of both of those positions, for the record.
Isn’t that just amazing? A new ‘special project’ in Manila and suddenly, Trump is besties with Duterte.
I suppose it’s silly of me to think this had anything to do with why Duterte got an invite to the White House.
EI,
Your blatant libidiot philosophy borders on psychotic. You just finish railing on Trump for ivviting a murderer to the White House, then praise your hero Obumbler for normalizing relations with Cuba. You might want to do a little research and learn that the Castro regime, along with his buddy Che’s murders, make Duarte’s look like a minor skirmish. Hypocrite!
Troy – I have always thought the same. Must be soooo awkward to see your well-crafted words blown up directly in front of your face ……….
Obama said we needed to talk to bad guys too, and got eviscerated for it by the right. I wonder what’s changed?
In general, for the simpler people in the room:
Talking to bad guys: OK.
Giving stuff to bad guys and getting nothing in return: Not OK.
“Obama said we needed to talk to bad guys”? No, he made bad deals and gave them what they wanted.
BH
so hard to discern sometimes if “borderline” means psychotic struggling toward reason or reason surrendering to psychosis. Like his heroes Carter & Obama Emery believes he can play with the devil on the borderline without consequence.
As any good leftist will chant for you, “sanctions don’t work look at Cuba and Iran”
An interesting trend with Carter and Obama is that they both went out of their way to rescue murderous regimes that were collapsing because of US sanctions.
In 1980 Cuba’s economy collapsed and Jimmy Carter under the guise of humanitarian mercy bailed out Castro with the Mariel Boatlift. Allowing Castro to reduce his overhead by emptying his prisons and shedding 125k troublesome and surplus citizens. Thankfully the Marielitos played havoc with Carter’s re-election bid.
Obama normalizing relations with Cuba after Venezuela went titsup as a sponsor had the same goal – shoring up an ideology of which Carter, Obama, and Emery approve.
The same is true of Iran, they were slowly collapsing under US sanctions and Obama rescued them with the nuclear deal and plane loads of cash.
As Mitch pointed out the Philippines are a democratic republic and that Trump might support that kind of government is the thing Emery fears.
Back when music was music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyXz6eMCj2k
Okay, Emery, so what should Trump have done about the Philippines?
JD, Duterte came into reign of power during 0bumbler’s regime. A better question would be, What had 0bumbler done? But that is a rhetorical question of course, which would be followed by a hypocritical discourse from SFB eTASS and further dragging of the goal posts.
I’m not Emery, but it strikes me that since Duterte is for now a relatively minor league a-hole in terms of killing people without trial, you sit him down and explain how payback’s a bitch when people get the upper hand, but repentance will get help from the U.S.