Those who lost faith in [the dream that nations could effortlessly merge into a cosmopolitan Pan-European community] began to elect wolves in order to destroy it. The wolves — whether Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban, Rodrigo Duterte, Recep Tayyip Erdogan or any of the others — don’t so much have shared ideology as a shared mentality....Was it really "affection, loyalty, trust and reciprocity" before Trump came along and changed it? I think Trump would say that America was taken advantage of and got conned by what was only a superficial display of affection, loyalty, trust and reciprocity. I think he'd say that American Presidents failed to take adequate account of the "competition, self-interest, suspicion and efforts to establish dominance" that were always involved. So is Trump changing "the nature of relationships" or speaking more clearly and openly about their complexity?
Wolves perceive the world as a war of all against all and seek to create the world in which wolves thrive, which is a world without agreed-upon rules, without restraining institutions, norms and etiquette.... But in the low-trust Trumpian worldview, values don’t matter; there are only interests. In the Trumpian worldview, friendship is just a con that other people try to pull on you before they screw you over. The low-trust style of politics is realism on steroids.
Whether it’s on the world stage, at home or in his own administration, Trump is trying to transform the nature of relationships. Trump takes every relationship that has historically been based on affection, loyalty, trust and reciprocity and turns it into a relationship based on competition, self-interest, suspicion and efforts to establish dominance....
What Trump did to the G-7 is essentially the same thing he did to the G.O.P. He simply refused to play by everybody else’s rules and he effectively changed the game. Trump is really good at destroying systems people have lost faith in.....
As for the metaphor, does the wolf deserve Brooks's contempt?
पोस्ट्स
१०३ टिप्पण्या:
I think that Trump is more of a sheepdog
Brooks:
...every relationship that has historically been based on affection, loyalty, trust and reciprocity
Wasn't he that creepy old guy that used to fantasize about having frottage with some community orgasmiser's pants?
I guess he'd know alot about relationships
No, in Trump's world both sides come out ahead, where previously only the ruling class came out ahead.
It's already Emperor Trump's birthday in Singapore, and it is a happy one. The only depressed people today are the people who hate success for America and Americans. For those weirdos it is a suicide watch day.
Trump is breaking down the status-quo barrier. Ironically, this is the only way to make progress.
Trudeau is more of a pomeranian.
Every MSM author can improve their article about Trump by adding the post script, 'I think I'm going to kill myself'.
-Corollary to Burge's Law
That's odd - putting the wolves back in Yellowstone has restored that ecosystem to it's natural, beautiful state. Brooks isn't paying attention.
Trump takes every relationship that has historically been based on affection, loyalty, trust and reciprocity
Assumes facts not in evidence. It's always self-interest.
Read the Guardian to see the British attitude toward America, even when someone like Barack Obama is in charge.
"Trudeau is more of a pomeranian."
Ah, yes! I found the photograph.
Wolf Hall, baby, where man is wolf to man.
Brooks confirms that his world view is that of a romantic teen-ager.
It's the deer that are the vicious ones.
Did you see the people on the street in Singapore cheering Trump's arrival?
Chuck and Beldar are having a bad week.
What I find most interesting about Prez Trump is that he is actually attempting to fulfill his campaign promises to the people who voted for him.
I voted for him to aggressively promote my economic self-interest and the economic self-interest of the U.S.
What do you do when you're negotiating a business deal? You hire an asshole lawyer to represent your self-interest to the max. So does the other side. From thence, negotiations begin.
The left champions the ruthless pursuit of self-interest by the groups it favors, that is, gays, women and blacks. The left then defines my pursuit of self-interest as a form of bigotry, because I'm white and male.
"It's the deer that are the vicious ones."
From the point of view of the trees, deer are vicious.
BBC:
"The reintroduction of wolves has transformed the ecology of Yellowstone. The most obvious immediate effect has been on the elk population. At the point of reintroduction, there were around 16,000 elk. By 2004, elk numbers had halved to 8,000. That might not sound good, but the knock-on effects were impressive. With fewer plant-eating elk around, woody trees like willow, aspen and cottonwood experienced a dramatic recovery."
Brooks is upset that Trump is beginning to enforce our immigration laws.
Brooks preferred the arrangement where our immigration laws were a fiction.
Brooks should have called Trump an enemy of the people.
In Buddhist terms, Brooks is confusing causation with contingency. Pratītyasamutpāda -- all phenomena are interdependent: this is, that is; This arising, that arises; When this is not, that is not; This ceasing, that ceases.
Suburban and exurban deer populations absolutely destroy the small animal ecosystem.
The elites could have extended their kumbaya moment in world history, but they had to go too far and let uncontrolled immigration ruin it.
NOW this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky,
And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back;
For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.
Geo-politics has always been about interests and leverage, so I guess congratulations are in order for Mr Brooks. Has he read The Art of War or Clausewitz? Machiavelli? "The enemy of my enemy is my friend", "war is politics by other means", etc.
It's not like this is big news.
These precious, coddled NYT elites are just so darn cute sometimes!
JULES: You sendin’ The Wolf?
MARSELLUS: Feel better?
JULES: Shit Negro, that’s all you had to say.
So is Trump changing "the nature of relationships" or speaking more clearly and openly about their complexity?
Mos def the latter.
We goobers in flyover land know that our betters on the coasts are the actual assholes and always have been.
That's where I went too, Kevin. Winston Wolf is who you send to make order out of chaos. I solve problems. Brooks must not be a Pulp Fiction fan...
Trump sees the world as it is; not as some pansy Ivy Leaguer wishes it was.
affection, loyalty, trust and reciprocity
Like within the private lives of Democrat politicians*? Like between Democrat politicians and the people they represent?
As Angel-Dyne says, Clown World.
*Obamas excepted. They do seem to be a healthy family.
Adding to my previous comment... it seems to me that any political pundit who is not familiar with even the "Cliff Notes" version of Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, and Machiavelli is unqualified to judge politics at all, much less write about it for pay.
And yet, here we are. Reason #4872 to ignore the blathering of these clowns.
"our betters on the coasts are the actual assholes"
Except that actual assholes serve a vital function.
@Jeff - He's not even familiar with Kipling. Or Disney, for that matter.
Wolves have trust affection and honor IN THE PACK. Everyone else can go hang.
Brooks, as always, has a superfluidity of white liberal guilt which hinders his perceptions and his brain functions when it comes to geopolitics. It probably has something to do with how he treated that Mexican stripper in his frat boy days that he is still trying to atone for.
We are ruled by the bourgeois, the management class. They are represented, fairly I think, by Brooks.
Ask yourself: where does the loyalty of the elite lie? What is the source of their sustenance? To what thing greater than themselves do they pledge honor and obeisance?
America has always been a wolf.
"No, in Trump's world both sides come out ahead, where previously only the ruling class came out ahead."
Dream on.
"Who makes the rules?"
"Someone else. Who makes the rules?"
"Someone else!"
No Spill Blood (1988 Boingo Alive Version) - Oingo Boingo
"...What happens when they break the law? What happens when the rules aren't fair? We all know where we go from there, to the house of paiiiiiiiiiiin!"
Ann Althouse said...
"Trudeau is more of a pomeranian."
Ah, yes! I found the photograph.
Thanks for the laugh, Althouse. It's a good thing that I wasn't drinking anything when I clicked on that!
Trump = German Shepherd, Trudeau = Jack Russell terrier, Merkel = Grumpy Cat, May = Standard poodle (large, intelligent, dignified), Kim = Wolf.
Putin is a hyena.
You can tame a wolf, but you cannot tame a hyena. The most you can do is feed them elsewhere.
Have we reached Max CooCoo yet? Every day, gerbils are singing, ducks are flying upside down, gophers are going bowling.....and that's just the op ed pages of the NYT and WaPo! It does amuse the hell out of me....but what a way to run a railroad!
Trump is really good at destroying systems people have lost faith in.....
Why is Brooks complaining about Trump doing what should already have been done?
Wolves travel in packs. 'Lone wolves' are rare. Trump is not a pack animal. A lion, maybe.
The Wolves* have been biting at Trump’s heels.
*Michael and Michelle.
Brooks' headline is hilarious: Donald Trump Is Not Playing By Your Rules
MY rules, Sparky? No, THEIR rules. The elitists' rules. The globalists' rules. The Davos crowd's rules.
Screw them, and their rules.
NOW this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky,
And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back;
For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.
— Rudyard Kipling
The wolf is not “all against all.” The wolf is a highly intelligent pack hunter. It was Obama of the creased pants leg who wanted to go it alone and to Hell with the people.
Sorry, Henry. I missed your comment somehow.
Wolves can be affectionate and loyal to other members of their pack. The press isn't used to not being part of the pack.
Why do people like Brooks desire that the U.S. be a sheep in a world full of wolves?
@mockturtle, alpha male wolf works better than alpha male lion — who tolerates no other males in the pride and has his females do the hunting.
Whether wolf or lion, Trump is a realist. Idealism has no place in global politics.
Henry said...
Suburban and exurban deer populations absolutely destroy the small animal ecosystem.
This is why we must reestablish wolves in Central Park.
"Suburban and exurban deer populations absolutely destroy the small animal ecosystem."
And actually bring larger predators into close proximity to those areas.
I should also note that they also destroy cars, as well as cause highway deaths. Indeed, I expect that deer kill more people every year in this country than all natural (nonhuman) predators combined. Maybe than any other nonhuman species. (To be fair, we have a bighorn sheep problem starting 5 miles east of town, where we tend to lose roughly 15-20 of them a year over a 10 mile stretch).
Half the household here loves having deer around close here. That half feeds them, throwing most of our (nonmeat) table scraps off the porch. That half can usually get them eating out of their hand by the end of the summer. The other half grumbles and calls them pre-venisons. Somehow that is supposed to scare them off. Which occasions further grumbling.
Trump is a Sheepdog protecting his sheep, against a world of wolves. Article is the Usual TDS Dreck from Brooks.
Sad Althouse did not blog about this. Much more interesting and insightful.
“We’re America, bitches”
A Senior White House Official Defines the Trump Doctrine: ‘We’re America, Bitch’
The president believes that the United States owes nothing to anyone—especially its allies.
JEFFREY GOLDBERG
JUN 11, 2018
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/a-senior-white-house-official-defines-the-trump-doctrine-were-america-bitch/562511/
Woof, woof, ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
David Brooks goes full Beta Male. Very hard to take him serious anymore. In contrast to Duran Duran, he simply isn't Hungry like the Wolf.
Ann Said...
Was it really "affection, loyalty, trust and reciprocity" before Trump came along and changed it? I think Trump would say that America was taken advantage of and got conned by what was only a superficial display of affection, loyalty, trust and reciprocity. I think he'd say that American Presidents failed to take adequate account of the "competition, self-interest, suspicion and efforts to establish dominance" that were always involved. So is Trump changing "the nature of relationships" or speaking more clearly and openly about their complexity?
Well said Ann, well said.
Suburban and exurban deer populations absolutely destroy the small animal ecosystem.
Where I worked in R&D for a large timber/pulp/paper company, we had a whole research team working on deer repellents. Mountain beavers were also targeted as they are big destroyers of trees in the NW. Walking through that part of the lab was a very repellent experience. Phew!
Who's the jackal? Fox? Coyote?
Trump is not a dog. Not a sheepdog. There's actually something feline about him, something both cold and comic like a polydactyl tomcat. He marks his territory.
It's so important to remember that how essentially comic he is. Roald Dahl would understand. He's a Centipede: I am a Pest!
Fritz said, This is why we must reestablish wolves in Central Park.
Or salt licks and snipers, but that won't go over either.
I kinda now live in wolf country. I say "kinda" because they haven't pushed heavily back into this county, and are mostly staying up high (with the brown bears that have also pushed back in) on the ridges, which means that, so far, they have posed minimal danger to human or bovine lives. Yet. But they are far enough along that they are now being hunted, which, to me, makes it much more likely that they stay fearful of humans. Not being a rancher, I am probably more positive, than negative, about wolves returning to this country.
And, talking defense, the gun grabbers have roughly zero chance of passing an "assault weapon ban" in this state, because those firearms, and esp AR-15s, and their ilk, are very likely the best defensive weapon made against a pack of wolves. And, if these guns are too scary in black, we can make them in pretty much any color you want (a friend sent me an article last week on anodizing aluminum, for use with completed 80% complete receivers, which tend to start in an inconvenient shiny silver). Yes, even pink, though browns are more popular.
"Trump is really good at destroying systems people have lost faith in....." So, Dave, you're saying that Trump destroys systems that are already destroyed?
"Was it really "affection, loyalty, trust and reciprocity" before Trump came along and changed it?" Umm, no, of course not. No one ever said such a thing about international relations. Of course, when drivel can by used as a cudgel, progs will use it.
"So is Trump changing "the nature of relationships" or speaking more clearly and openly about their complexity?" Speaking more openly is a kind of change in the nature of things. It focuses minds.
"Those who lost faith in [the dream that nations could effortlessly merge into a cosmopolitan Pan-European community] began to elect wolves in order to destroy it."
Man, the Clown World propaganda is getting so lame. Like they've given up even trying to propagandize anyone but themselves.
The people electing "wolves" didn't "lose faith". They never shared your bugman religion in the first place. You just tried to shove it down their throats, and enforce its observation with roving mutaween.
Brooks has always been lame, dumb, and wet, but now he's reduced to channeling Maureen Dowd's gossip-column approach to world affairs.
If Trump is The Wolf perhaps it is this Wolf:
Burning the ground I break from the crowd
I'm on the hunt I'm after you
I smell like I sound
I'm lost and I'm found
And I'm hungry like the wolf
Strut on a line it's discord and rhyme
I'm on the hunt down I'm after you
Mouth is alive with juices like wine
And I'm hungry like the wolf
"Burning the ground I break from the crowd"
Is this not an apt description of Trump in the Republican primaries, and Trump during the Election? Sometimes to break from the crowd the some ground needs to be burnt, which then sets the stage for, say, magnificent condos on the North Korean beaches.
"I smell like I sound
I'm lost and I'm found"
The sense of smell is the one sense we are least tricked by: your eyes can be deceived, you can be 'hearing things', but smell is straightforward: the "sound" of Trump's words are less about the words themselves than about the words' 'smell' -- their underlying meaning.
"And I'm hungry like the wolf"
He built empires of real estate; then celebrity; then the Presidency. But it is not enough to be President: he wants to be a Great President -- he is hungry for it. To paraphrase Neil Young: Wolf Never Sleeps.
"Strut on a line it's discord and rhyme
I'm on the hunt down I'm after you"
Is there not a better way than to describe Trump's methods as Discord and Rhyme? He is Good Cop and Bad Cop, strutting all by himself. Trump IS Chaos Theory, and it is most alive on his hunt for The Deal.
"Mouth is alive with juices like wine
And I'm hungry like the wolf"
It is not a stretch to say that Trump's mouth IS alive: he talks extemporaneously, he Tweets. And he does not touch alcohol: the juices are "like wine", but the thoughts are heady enough without the need for the traditional intoxicants.
What is the image remembered of Duran Duran during their Reagan-era heyday? Yachts, luxury, resorts. Trump is the Duran Duran video iconography brought to ambition; he is the Duran Duran Ronald Reagan Reagan.
I am confident that Dylan would have applicable wolf lyrics, but I'll leave that to the esteemed Althouse to provide.
But, as Duran Duran sang in Rio:
"I'll take my chance cause luck is on my side or something
I know what you're thinking
I tell you something I know what you're thinking"
-LWL
Wolves perceive the world as a war of all against all and seek to create the world in which wolves thrive, which is a world without agreed-upon rules, without restraining institutions, norms and etiquette..
Here Brooks shows he understands neither the lives of wolves or the international system.
The life of a member of a wolf pack is severely constrained by rules, norms and etiquettes. (Wolves cannot create institutions) The role of the alpha male is to enforce the rules, norms and etiquettes.
Trump is the alpha male trying to force North Korea to behave by the pack's rules.
mock: Where I worked in R&D for a large timber/pulp/paper company, we had a whole research team working on deer repellents. Mountain beavers were also targeted as they are big destroyers of trees in the NW. Walking through that part of the lab was a very repellent experience. Phew!
I can imagine. It's bad enough getting downwind of that stuff I spray on my tulips and saplings to protect them from marauding deer.
Do the people who work in those labs just get used to the stench, or do they wear some kind of mask?
Wolves can be affectionate and loyal to other members of their pack. The press isn't used to not being part of the pack.
It certainly did seem that way during the Obama administration. Together, they thought they were bending the arc of history toward justice.
Brooks works for a man who is a member on good standing of the billionaire network that supports the Deep State and profits from the globalization that destroys nations like ours.
Why would he not hate Trump, the man who is working to upend the globalization system that is destroying our country ?
We have to restore the ability to make things before the debt bubble that supports the financial system implodes.
They want to re-wild the world, but they can't decide whether they want predators or not. Maybe genetically engineer predators so they are beautiful but harmless.
On a hot summer night
Would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
Will he offer me his mouth?
Yes
Will he offer me his teeth?
Yes
Will he offer me his jaws?
Yes
Will he offer me his hunger?
Yes
Again, will he offer me his hunger?
Yes!
And will he starve without me?
Yes!
And does he love me?
Yes
Yes
On a hot summer night
Would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
Yes
I bet you to say that to all the boys.
It was a hot summer night and the beach was burning
There was fog crawling over the sand
And when I listened to your heart I hear the whole world turning
I see the shooting stars, falling through your trembling hands
While you were licking your lips and your lipstick shining
And I was dying just to ask for a taste
Oh we were lying together in a silver lining
By the light of the moon you know there's not another moment
Not another moment
Not another moment to waste
Oh will you hold me so close that my knees grow weak.
But my soul is flying high above the ground.
I'm trying to speak but no matter what I do
I just can't seem to make any sound.
And then you took the words right out of my mouth.
Oh it must have been while you were kissing me.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
Oh and I swear it's true, I was just about to say I love you.
And then you took the words right out of my mouth.
Oh it must have been while you were kissing me.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
Oh and I swear it's true, I was just about to say I love you.
Now my body is shaking like a wave on the water
And I guess that I'm beginning to grin.
Oh we're finally alone and we can do what we want
Oh the night is young and ain't no-one gonna know where you
No-one gonna know where you
No-one's gonna know where you've been.
You were licking your lips and your lipstick shining.
I was dying just to ask for a taste.
We were lying together in a silver lining
By the the light of the moon,
You know there's not another moment to waste
And then you took the words right out of my mouth.
Oh it must have been while you were kissing me.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
Oh and I swear it's true, I was just about to say I love you
I think that Brooks' problem is that Trump doesn't owe loyalty to the peer group that Brooks belongs to. Isn't in their cocktail circuit, and, frankly, doesn't respect those who are. Which might be fine, except that he has increasingly shown that the emperor wears no clothes. This elite that Brooks is so enameled with, isn't really that good. Sure, they graduated from Harvard, Yale, or a couple other schools, but have gotten too mired down in process for process sake, and have lost track of the bottom line. The goal of American diplomacy shouldn't be to get its practitioners invited to the best cocktail parties around the world, but, rather, to best protect the interests of American citizenry.
Funny thing that Rush pointed out yesterday. Some of the rest of the G7, led possibly by the Canadians, who were dissed by Trump, have been talking about evicting the US from the group. No doubt, Brooks and his cocktail party friends would be mortified if that happened. Maybe even that it is contemplated. But the US has the biggest economy in the world, and our economy is roughly that of the other 6 members of the G7 - combined. Maybe they can have their G6, and we can have a G2 with China. Let's see how they like that. What about poor Canada? What happens if we crank up tariffs on their goods, and they retaliate (or we are the ones retaliating)? Which country gets hurt the most? The answer up is clearly Canada, with a population and economy roughly 1/10 of ours.
Trump and esp his base really don't care about the international cocktail circuit. Few of them own houses overseas. Heck, most of them probably don't even have multiple houses in this country. And are mostly not that well traveled internationally, if at all. They could happily spend the rest of their days traversing this great country in an RV. Brooks does care about that international cocktail circuit - more so than he worries about the plight of the average American.
Somebody dig up Whittle's old essay on sheepdogs...I can't find it.
They want to re-wild the world, but they can't decide whether they want predators or not. Maybe genetically engineer predators so they are beautiful but harmless.
There's the Little Red Riding story, which suggests that predators should be shot on sight. Then there's the sexual revolution, which suggests "freedom" can be a paradise for sexual predators. Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman used to share a joke: once Little Red Riding Hood gets well into the forest, and meets the wolf, the story changes. The wolf looks her up and down and says: "Eat, eat, eat! Doesn't anybody fuck any more?" Within a few years this is followed by MeToo.
Some of the rest of the G7, led possibly by the Canadians, who were dissed by Trump, have been talking about evicting the US from the group.
Wouldn't that be interesting ? I wonder what the effect would be ?
That would suggest that the "pivot to Asia," that Obama was talking about and doing nothing, might happen.
Bill Whittle's Tribes essay from Eject! Eject! Eject! is currently unavailable, but I did find this copy: http://www.manlymen.org/node/24
Brooks is divorced like Trump. Pontificating doesn’t make us people we aren’t. Brooks is big into
communitarian and other ideals. But the man busted up his own family out of selfishness. He thinks and writes to avoid self reflection. Brooks is selfish and arrogant.
Condensed version of the article:
Democracy has failed us because the people are too immoral to elect our glorious selves. Thus, it must be suspended for a generation or two until the people can be educated up to our level of morality.
"That half can usually get them eating out of their hand by the end of the summer."
So we can hunt deer with ball peen hammers? I think they are trying to divide the gun owners! (A) joke, but "That half" are not doing the deer a favor.
As a motorcycle rider I'm not a fan of those meat missiles.
Our leftie commenters are awaiting instructions. Not a peep about the meeting in Singapore.
Angle-Dyne asks: Do the people who work in those labs just get used to the stench, or do they wear some kind of mask?
Oh, I asked them about it and they said they were used to it. No masks. Maybe today OSHA would require them but the repellent isn't toxic, just smelly. Unfortunately I had to walk through their lab to get to mine and I never got used to it. When we moved to a new location there were systems in place to take care of it. As it turned out, the repellents were only moderately effective. Maybe the critters got used to it, too.
"That half can usually get them eating out of their hand by the end of the summer."
"So we can hunt deer with ball peen hammers? I think they are trying to divide the gun owners! (A) joke, but "That half" are not doing the deer a favor."
Part of why the other half just groans a lot.
"As a motorcycle rider I'm not a fan of those meat missiles."
Never heard about "meat middles" before. Makes sense. We are on what a lot of motorcyclists consider a scenic route, esp if very the pass that is the shortcut to Idaho 20 miles away. When she was still driving, my partner almost took out a pack of motorcyclists on the way down the pass by living up to her name "lead foot", and drifting outside her lane. Luckily for all involved, and esp her, she was able to user her sex and trademarked smile to avoid any adverse consequences.
Luckily, for all, the meat missiles are just starting to come out. Haven't seen any babies yet. It is maybe Aug to Oct that they are at their most dangerous on the roads. What is always funny is seeing them for the first time trying to get across the highway. Their sharp little hoofs are good in dirt but not so great OD on asphalt. You see legs going everywhere.
The US is the market maker for the world. You have to have your head so far up your ass to cut off all light to make a statement that anyone would ban the US from any trade group. They are going to cut off the guy with the biggest trade deficit? Right. If we didn't buy, most of the world's factories would have to shut down.
mockturtle said...deer repellents
We had a very persistent under-shed skunk who didn't seem to mind mothballs, but one application of dog shit and he was outa there. So far.
Sorry, Althouse, you lost me at "David Brooks writes".
Says Brooks, whose career consists of sucking up to the Biggest, Baddest Wolf of all: the State.
Kirk Parker admits: Sorry, Althouse, you lost me at "David Brooks writes".
I'll drink to that.
Kind of like, "According to the New York Times..."
Brooks still doesn’t get it. It’s not OUR rules Trump disdains. It’s the rules of the political class.
We have come off the most autocratic, intrusive regime in decades and into the Trump Administration. Obama gave us sky-high heath insurance premiums, weakened world standing, jihadis as “refugees”, DACA, today’s Libya and Syria, etc. Trump’s efforts to undo the damage must necessarily be held negatively by swamp dwellers like Brooks.
Brooks and others of his ilk simply cannot understand who and what they are and that they don’t speak for, or to, swampless people.
"These precious, coddled NYT elites are just so darn cute sometimes!"
The hell the are!
Ok, maybe if they were confined to a zoo, museum, or some kind of Stalin World them park, then yeah maybe. But in the wild? With a megaphone provided to them by the self-styled Paper of Record??? They aren't cute in this real-life context; they're dangerous.
"Trump takes every relationship that has historically been based on affection, loyalty, trust and reciprocity
Assumes facts not in evidence. It's always self-interest.
Read the Guardian to see the British attitude toward America, even when someone like Barack Obama is in charge.
6/12/18, 6:15 AM "
Seems to me I learned back in high school 50 years ago that nations don't have friends. They have allies based on their common interests. Brooks must have missed class that day... in his fancy prep school.
Is it OK to compare Donald Trump to an animal?
If so, then is it OK now to compare to compare Valerie Jarrett to a monkey?
mockturtle,
"Where I worked in R&D for a large timber/pulp/paper company..."
Headquartered in Federal Way, by any chance?
Blogger Gahrie said...
Somebody dig up Whittle's old essay on sheepdogs...I can't find it.
6/12/18, 9:03 AM
Ask and you shall receive...
http://www.defensivecarry.com/forum/law-enforcement-military-homeland-security-discussion/19268-tribes-bill-whittle.html#/topics/19268
I don't think Trump would be insulted by being referred to as a wolf.
"Our leftie commenters are awaiting instructions. Not a peep about the meeting in Singapore."
What is there to say? Nothing is written in stone, no concrete outcome is known or guaranteed. As much as I deplore Trump, (as I do Hillary), if he can actually get NK to completely scrap their nuclear weapons program, he should be applauded for that. I don't really expect that will happen, but no one can say at this point.
link
Powerful! I'd like to think I am a sheepdog.
"The wolves — whether Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban, Rodrigo Duterte, Recep Tayyip Erdogan or any of the others — don’t so much have shared ideology as a shared proximity in this sentence..."
FIFB. He's welcome.
I don't really expect that will happen, but no one can say at this point.
At least you are honest, Cookie.
I can't say that for some others here.
Yes, Cookie is honest and a genuine asset to this blog.
A pretty good statement of the issues by Pat Buchanan.
They see U.S. wealth and power as splendid tools that fate has given them to shape the future of the planet.
Trump sees America as a nation being milked by allies who free ride on our defense effort, as they engage in trade practices that prosper their own peoples at America’s expense.
Where our elites live to play masters of the universe, Trump sees a world laughing behind America’s back, while allies exploit our magnanimity and idealism for their own national ends.
The numbers are impossible to refute and hard to explain.
Last year, the EU had a $151 billion trade surplus with the U.S. China ran a $376 billion trade surplus with the U.S., the largest in history. The world sold us $796 billion more in goods than we sold to the world.
A nation that spends more than it takes in from taxes, and consumes more of the world’s goods than it produces itself for export, year in and year out, is a nation on the way down.
We are emulating our British cousins of the 19th century.
Trump understands that this situation is not sustainable. His strength is that the people are still with him on putting America first.
Trump committed the ultimate sin: noticing. Oh, noticing AND speaking about what he noticed! It's good that David Brooks has pearls to clutch--who can withstand such horrible transgressions?
When was the last time our dear NATO friends met their minimal, treaty-required, defense spending commitments? Don't you dare notice!
Trump is really good at destroying systems people have lost faith in
What's the important part of that sentence, David? WHY have people lost faith in the systems, David? Are you at all sorry for your part in giving people damn good reasons to lose their faith in the systems, David?
No, no; it simply can't be the fault of the smart good people. Probably it's that Trump and his followers are deplorable racists--that's what happened (people got super-racist in a few months and/or Trump's so personally racist & deplorable that his prominence allowed all the closet racists & deplorables to vote for the first time in years, something like that).
The United States is a nation organized with one purpose: to protect the rights of its citizens. Seriously, that's what it's for. You can look it up. Ideally, other nations will look out for their citizens too, but that's none of our business. The Brooks bros of the world imagine that our government is part of some sort of global federation of do-gooders, like The Federation in Star Trek. I think Trump's idea of the proper role of nations is better than David Brooks or Gene Roddenberry's.
I think Trump's idea of the proper role of nations is better than David Brooks or Gene Roddenberry's.
Definitely. If there are no sovereign nations, all people will be ruled by one entity. And it won't be one of their choosing. Although a world of individual nations, each seeking its own interests, seems counter to our current global thinking, there is a good reason for this system: It works.
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