Althouse: "Last time I went to Davos, the Fake News said I should not go there. This year, because of the Shutdown, I decided not to go..."

January 23, 2019

"Last time I went to Davos, the Fake News said I should not go there. This year, because of the Shutdown, I decided not to go..."

"... and the Fake News said I should be there. The fact is that the people understand the media better than the media understands them!"

Tweeted Trump, quoted in "John Kerry, in Davos, says Trump should 'resign'" (WaPo).

Kerry, speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum at Davos, also said Trump "doesn’t take any of this seriously,” and (as paraphrased by WaPo) and doesn't have "the 'ability' to have deep conversations."

72 comments:

mccullough said...: John Kerry lost to W. We don’t take John Kerry seriously. He marries for money. A gadfly.; 1/23/19, 6:57 AM
Phil 314 said...: Didn’t vote for either guy.; 1/23/19, 6:59 AM
alanc709 said...: That John Kerry is in Davos is all the reason you need not to go.; 1/23/19, 7:00 AM
mccullough said...: Al Gore is there, too. W’s whipping boys are not elite. They are fops. So are the business leaders there who complain about tariffs on China. These fops would sell out their children for a few dollars more.; 1/23/19, 7:02 AM
David Begley said...: Heck of a job on North Korea, Iran and Chins. Heck of a job, John!; 1/23/19, 7:05 AM
Jersey Fled said...: "The fact is that the people understand the media better than the media understands them!"

Amen.; 1/23/19, 7:10 AM
rehajm said...: That John Kerry is in Davos is all the reason you need not to go.

Davos is a convention for John Kerrys.

Best Davos anecdote:

The Belvedere [hotel], ... is the annual meeting’s hub after dark. Often, there are a half-dozen parties going on at once. To get into it,...you must pass through airport-like security ... The line, on this night, was long enough that a Nobel laureate in economics, who, moments earlier at the Hotel National, had been holding forth on unfairness, deemed it worth cutting.

The best policy solution that could come out of Davos is an avalanche.; 1/23/19, 7:11 AM
rhhardin said...: Kerry is the guy from Animal House who was reported shot by his own men in Viet Nam.; 1/23/19, 7:13 AM
stevew said...: Davos is a boondoggle for the self-identified important people, John Kerry is its poster boy.; 1/23/19, 7:15 AM
ELC said...: A put-down from Lurch is a high recommendation for millions of Americans, including me.; 1/23/19, 7:25 AM
wendybar said...: John Kerry was the reason I voted Republican for the first time in my life. I never regretted it since...; 1/23/19, 7:29 AM
buwaya said...: Kerry has been repeatedly tried and found wanting.

In the Philippine elections crisis of 1986 he was in full display as a weaselly, self-obsessed stuffed shirt.

Various US politicians were on the spot there. All, of both parties, behaved honorably and dutifully in their roles as observers and rapporteurs. It was a fine performance of the US political class, even from persons with some scandal attached, such as John Murtha.

Except for Kerry.; 1/23/19, 7:33 AM
MayBee said...: I know this gets old, but imagine Bush's secretary of state saying this about President Obama. It would be an outrage.; 1/23/19, 7:38 AM
rehajm said...: Kerry gets booed at Red Sox games so he has to watch the games from the private suite level.; 1/23/19, 7:40 AM
Big Mike said...: Trump’s right, yet again.; 1/23/19, 8:02 AM
wendybar said...: MayBee said...
I know this gets old, but imagine Bush's secretary of state saying this about President Obama. It would be an outrage.
1/23/19, 7:38 AM

DING, DING, DING!!! EVERYTHING was an outrage if you spoke out about Obama. (I was called a racist in 2008 when a friend excited about his election asked "Aren't you excited?" and I said NO!) I'm still proud I didn't!; 1/23/19, 8:06 AM
Unknown said...: JK is such a useless f-up.

From his Vietnam "baby killers" swift boat start to his fake and dead Iran deal and screwing Israel over at the UN on his way out in 2016.

its hard to come up with enough adjectives for the guy - feckless, narcissistic, grandstanding, foolish, elitist...; 1/23/19, 8:09 AM
Dude1394 said...: Boy Kerry sure does have an inflated sense of self. Decades in government with nothing to show for it except smearing of American soldiers.; 1/23/19, 8:10 AM
tcrosse said...: Why the long face, John?; 1/23/19, 8:15 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: I can't wait to see Crazy Eyes Ocasio-Cortez, the retard commie, sucking up to / er lecturing the billionaires at Davos. I'm betting that will happen next year.; 1/23/19, 8:21 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/23/19, 8:31 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Trump. Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.

So...you do what ever the F you think is best. Damn the torpedoes!! Full speed ahead!; 1/23/19, 8:32 AM
Ralph L said...: Heck of a job on North Korea, Iran and Chins. Heck of a job, John!

Don't forget his better hair.; 1/23/19, 8:33 AM
elkh1 said...: Only arrogant fools like Kerry would take Davos seriously. Most of the real people outside Davos don't give a damn.; 1/23/19, 8:34 AM
John henry said...: Blogger mccullough said...

the business leaders there who complain about tariffs on China.

A bit off topic but that reminded me of one of the big news stories that nobody saw last week:

China has offered to go on a six-year buying spree to ramp up imports from the U.S., in a move that would reconfigure the relationship between the world’s two largest economies, according to officials familiar with the negotiations.

By increasing goods imports from the U.S. by a combined value of more than $1 trillion over that period, China would seek to reduce its trade surplus -- which last year stood at $323 billion -- to zero by 2024, one of the people said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-18/china-is-said-to-offer-path-to-eliminate-u-s-trade-imbalance

A few weeks ago China bought massive amounts of American soybeans. Also bought, for the first time ever, I think, a bunch of American rice.

Raise your hands if you saw either story discussed? Or was all you saw "Orange man bad. Tariffs will kill the economy."

Next up, we'll start selling them tea.

Yeah, I see no need for PDJT to go to Davos either.

John Henry; 1/23/19, 8:44 AM
narciso said...: Dont forget his fronting the christic crazies whose chief Daniel Sheehan, runs Phillip's teepee, the lakota access project; 1/23/19, 8:50 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Trump identified 4-5 primary things he wanted to fix in his first term:
Tariffs which damaged our workforce especially re China as John Henry just pointed out, build up military, fix the so-called "new normal" of abysmal GDP growth and high unemployment, secure the borders and fix immigration system and lower taxes.

Trump is well on his way to achieving all of these and, for that, liberals hate his guts. Yet each of these goals were just pretty obvious things [to the citizenry but not the Beltway elites] that needed to be fixed.; 1/23/19, 8:52 AM
narciso said...: What I was referring to:

https://romeroinstitute.org/team/daniel-sheehan&ved=2ahUKEwixw4PMlYTgAhVIgK0KHUYdDzwQFjAVegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw3atwMwDrFqotf7hLLxbu4y; 1/23/19, 9:01 AM
rehajm said...: I can't wait to see Crazy Eyes Ocasio-Cortez, the retard commie, sucking up to / er lecturing the billionaires at Davos. I'm betting that will happen next year.

I still think she'll be killed in the crib. There's a pecking order.; 1/23/19, 9:01 AM
narciso said...: Remember he was colluding with Iranian spies I mean diplomats in Paris, last spring.; 1/23/19, 9:03 AM
rehajm said...: Raise your hands if you saw either story discussed?

Only in the financial media, and it was downplayed as not a done deal.; 1/23/19, 9:03 AM
Quaestor said...: If Kerry had not married the Ketchup Kow he'd be stocking the shelves at Walmart.; 1/23/19, 9:11 AM
Charlie said...: Has he hooked up with MacKenzie Bezos yet?; 1/23/19, 9:12 AM
mockturtle said...: The fact is that the people understand the media better than the media understands them!

Trump is spot-on, of course. This is why we voted for him. He gets it.; 1/23/19, 9:20 AM
TrespassersW said...: "John Kerry, in Davos, says Trump should 'resign'"

Me, in the upper Midwest, says Kerry should shut the hell up.; 1/23/19, 9:42 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: Halp us Jon Carry. We R stuk here in Davos!; 1/23/19, 9:50 AM
Anonymous said...: Kerry...also said Trump "doesn’t take any of this seriously,” and (as paraphrased by WaPo) and doesn't have "the 'ability' to have deep conversations."

Kerry doesn't get enough credit for the choice comic relief he supplies.; 1/23/19, 10:09 AM
Leland said...: I think Trump should tweet about John Kerry and the Logan Act, just to watch heads explode.; 1/23/19, 10:15 AM
J. Farmer said...: The crack about "deep conversations" is probably true. Trump has always struck me as shallow, intellectually incurious, and far too likely to believe from whatever he considers a friendly source. Nonetheless, his instincts towards endless war are much more preferable to the establishment's liberal internationalist bullshit supported by the likes of Kerry, Obama, Bush, McCain, Romeny, etc. That said, nobody should be going to Davos. The whole thing is a circle-jerk for the global plutocracy.; 1/23/19, 10:16 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: Kerry didn't stay long enough in Viet Nam to get shot by his own men.

The fact that the Goracle and Jean Fraud Kerry are both at Davos sorta sets the tone as to just how "serious" this party in the winter snow for useless twits is.; 1/23/19, 10:37 AM
Birkel said...: J Farmer,
Can you tell me why we should prefer more intellectual types in powerful positions?

Asking for a friend named Bob McNamara.; 1/23/19, 10:48 AM
glenn said...: John Kerry is one of the cathedral chumps this comment refers to. They were the 3000 folks who attended John McCains funeral. The WAPO referred to them as the resistance.

“The people in that cathedral gave us $20T in debt, $800B trade deficits, 9/11, repeated wars in foreign lands, the hollowing out of our industrial base, disrespect for our institutions, disrespect for us as a people, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, a foreign invasion never before seen in our history and racial tensions as bad as they have been in a long time. Screw em.”

Heavy on the Screw Em.; 1/23/19, 10:49 AM
J. Farmer said...: @Birkel:

J Farmer,
Can you tell me why we should prefer more intellectual types in powerful positions?

I did not say that "we should prefer" it. Clearly I voted for Trump against his more educated candidate. Plus, there is plenty of intellectual seriousness behind Trumpism. See figures like Pat Buchanan, Kris Kobach, Mickey Kaus, etc.; 1/23/19, 10:56 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Kerry in Davos is about as unsurprising a thing as one could imagine.; 1/23/19, 11:04 AM
glenn said...: I’m glad somebody mentioned Body Count Bob. I have this recurring fantasy that a bunch of folks who lost friends and family in that clusterfork he helped create showed up at one of his book signings, doused Ol Bob with gasoline and lit him up.; 1/23/19, 11:10 AM
Birkel said...: J Farmer,
I will ask a different way do you don't dodge the fucking question:
Is there any reason to prefer intellectuals that is based on a history of successes?

I know your Smug makes you prefer intellectuals.; 1/23/19, 11:22 AM
narciso said...: In Stephenson's cryptonomjcon a slightly disguised McNamara named Comstock is decked by one of the characters.; 1/23/19, 11:23 AM
Seeing Red said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/23/19, 11:39 AM
Seeing Red said...: More credentialed candidate.

Not educated. Unless your standard is grifting.; 1/23/19, 11:41 AM
J. Farmer said...: @Birkel:

Is there any reason to prefer intellectuals that is based on a history of successes?

Perhaps you can quote somewhere where I said I "prefer intellectuals." What I said is that I think Trump is "shallow, intellectually incurious, and far too likely to believe from whatever he considers a friendly source." If you would like to dispute any of that, go ahead. It has nothing to do with preferring intellectuals.

But let me ask you a question. If you needed surgery for a life-threatening illness and you had a choice between a surgeon at a top hospital who graduated top of his or her class at a top medical school and was a chief resident over someone who graduated last in their class in medical school in Antigua and Barbuda, who would you choose? Why?; 1/23/19, 11:47 AM
Clyde said...: Sadly, when John Kerry dies, I won't get a federal "presidential day of mourning" for him.; 1/23/19, 12:07 PM
Seeing Red said...: But let me ask you a question. If you needed surgery for a life-threatening illness and you had a choice between a surgeon at a top hospital who graduated top of his or her class at a top medical school and was a chief resident over someone who graduated last in their class in medical school in Antigua and Barbuda, who would you choose? Why?

I think that example was a poor choice to make your point.

What I said is that I think Trump is "shallow, intellectually incurious, and far too likely to believe from whatever he considers a friendly source."; 1/23/19, 12:19 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Seeing Red:

I think that example was a poor choice to make your point.

Fair enough.; 1/23/19, 12:23 PM
Mister Brickhouse said...: Just remember that the password for the after party is Fidelio, and there is no second password.; 1/23/19, 12:48 PM
narciso said...: So which of these credentialed men and women, have at best done no harm, at worst actively made any of these problems mentioned above worse.; 1/23/19, 12:55 PM
J. Farmer said...: @narciso:

So which of these credentialed men and women, have at best done no harm, at worst actively made any of these problems mentioned above worse.

To whom is that a response?; 1/23/19, 12:57 PM
readering said...: I didn't see anyone criticizing POTUS for backing out on attending.; 1/23/19, 1:01 PM
narciso said...: You lecture us about endless war among other matters which has been the curriculum of statecraft since 1990,; 1/23/19, 1:07 PM
J. Farmer said...: @narciso:

You lecture us about endless war among other matters which has been the curriculum of statecraft since 1990,

That statement is untrue and even if true would be meaningless. The US was not permanently militarized until after WWII and even that was to protect ourselves from a threat that doesn't exist anymore.; 1/23/19, 1:15 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: John Kerry can't have even a shallow conversation. He speaks to kill time without accidentally imparting any meaning. He needlessly pads his speeches in the mistaken belief it makes him seem smarter.

Kerry isn't even an intellectual.

Dean Barnett figured out Kerry back in 2004, and he was right.

Say what you want about Trump, but he is always clear and easy to understand. It's impossible to misunderstand him. People get angry about what he says but never act confused about what he means.; 1/23/19, 1:17 PM
J. Farmer said...: And of course this whole thread raises the question, what is an "intellectual?"; 1/23/19, 1:28 PM
J. Farmer said...: And grades are not always a great reflection of ability because they are highly dependent on motivation. An "F" on a test can just as easily mean that I didn't bother studying as it can that I am not capable of grasping the material.; 1/23/19, 1:30 PM
buwaya said...: "The US was not permanently militarized until after WWII "

The US had a world-class Navy by 1908, one of the top two by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, and arguably the largest in the world by 1940.

Naval power was the most significant element of a global military establishment in those days - it was much harder to stand up a Navy than an Army. The US went from a near-nothing Army to the equal of the other Great Powers in two years, 1917-1919, after all. Can't do that with a Navy.

And the US was off fighting foreign wars continuously from 1898 onwards. Little wars, colonial wars, but wars. And it had foreign bases likewise.; 1/23/19, 1:44 PM
J. Farmer said...: @buwaya:

The US had a world-class Navy by 1908, one of the top two by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, and arguably the largest in the world by 1940.

Yes, to protect US commercial interests at sea. To quote Dwight Eisenhower, "Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea. Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry."

And the US was off fighting foreign wars continuously from 1898 onwards. Little wars, colonial wars, but wars. And it had foreign bases likewise.

Most what you are describing as "little wars, colonial wars" were not "but wars." Deploying a small contingent of US forces to protect a consulate or to protect American private party is not a "war" in any way that that word is understood. And nearly everything the US did between the Spanish-American and First World War falls into that category.; 1/23/19, 1:57 PM
Darrell said...: Kerry should fly Nathaniel Richard Stanard to Davos. They can catch up and talk about lucky hats. Maybe Nixon sent him upriver in December 1968, too.; 1/23/19, 2:15 PM
Darrell said...: Nathaniel Richard Stanard is Nathan Phillips, for those not keeping up.; 1/23/19, 2:16 PM
Anonymous said...: J.Farmer: The crack about "deep conversations" is probably true. Trump has always struck me as shallow, intellectually incurious, and far too likely to believe from whatever he considers a friendly source.

But it's the delivery by the likes of John Kerry that makes it highly comical.; 1/23/19, 3:47 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Angle-Dyne, Samurai Buzzard:

But it's the delivery by the likes of John Kerry that makes it highly comical.

Perhaps. I don't have any particularly enmity towards Kerry beyond what I would apply to most of his predecessors. My entire point was that even granting those criticisms, Trump's instincts on foreign policy have hitherto been better than his predecessor's (Kerry's former boss).; 1/23/19, 4:29 PM
rcocean said...: There's nothing in Kerry's record at State or in Senate that shows he's "deep" or even borderline competent.

He reminds me of 1980s Robert McNamara - the architect of our Vietnam Disaster - sneering at "Dumb" Ronald Reagan.; 1/23/19, 5:15 PM
rcocean said...: Did we EVER get a straight story on Kerry's medals?

He threw them over the fence - in protest.

No, he threw someone else's medals over the fence - in protest.

No, threw his "Ribbons" over the Fence - in protest.; 1/23/19, 5:17 PM
rcocean said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/23/19, 5:19 PM
rcocean said...: Their insults of Trump would have more credibility if these Establishment Poobahs hadn't fucked everything up.; 1/23/19, 5:19 PM