It’s a busy stretch for me, with little time for writing (sorry about the lack of substantial posts here lately), but I’ll get back to logorrheic bloviation as soon as I can.
Meanwhile, I have to post a picture I just ran across: Donald Trump at the G7 meeting, resolutely staring down a hectoring Angela Merkel.
This is why he was elected, and it’s why he will win again in 2020.
27 Comments
I love everything about that picture. And it’s weird because it’s being presented as making Trump look bad. I’m not quite sure how they get that I think it’s fantastic
Early this morning I saw this photo set up about one second before or after this current freeze frame. In it, Merkel was smiling, Trump had a grin and Bolton had a big smile. I haven’t seen that particular frame since. But the conclusion is correct-why we hired Trump.
Love how Shinzo Abe has our back. His arms are crossed just like Trump’s.
Abe-san, more clearly on our side than Bolton…
Bolton got there ‘on our side’ already. Besides, he has to hold the paperwork.
Bolton is neocon. The Japanese right is a bit too militaristic, but it’s mostly a side effect of living next to China.
But what is actually being accomplished when these two go through a “my stare is bigger than your stare” match? We’re going to need germany’s and france’s (and Canada’s) help. It’s not intelligent for trump to be slapping powerful countries around through his tariff silliness.
Jason, they can’t help us. They are weak and self-destructive. Trump is like the parent in that room.
Speaking of Trudeau junior- where is he in this picture. In the corner, sucking his thumb because his BFF Trump hurt his feelz, no doubt.
But we do need the help that only Europe and Asia can provide August – on Korea and Iran for instance. And yes, maybe a parent is needed. Couldn’t trump be acting more wisely though as the grownup in the room here?
Don’t worry. We have the help we need. Europe was up to no good with the Iran thing.
A little levity.
I don’t think “issues” like trade or the supposed threat of Iran or North Korea (or whatever) are very important. Not in the context. What’s really important is cultural or meta-political. What’s important is that Trump presents himself as a big happy raised middle finger against the globalist neo-liberal system and all of its idiotic memes and ‘values’ and buzzwords and the pitiful human detritus of its “leaders”.
He appears as a normal masculine white man with some sense of confidence and rightness and healthy old-fashioned patriotism. And just his facial expression and body language makes all of them and the whole system look diseased and mentally ill. That’s what matters! That’s why we love the picture so much.
He might well be screwing up international trade or ‘foreign relations’. It doesn’t matter. The west is diseased and the first most important thing is for masses of ordinary people to regain some sense of self-respect and normality. To have a US president who radiates normality and commonality with ordinary westerners is the beginning of a spiritual turning. (And it doesn’t even matter if Trump is for real or understands any of this. The effect is what matters. People are afraid to admit publicly that they feel it, but I think millions of us all over the west do feel it and we’re grateful for him.)
Jacques, God bless you for writing this! As Malcolm wrote above-“This is why he was elected, and it’s why he will win again in 2020”.
Thanks Whitewall. Yeah, I am just repeating Malcolm’s thought and yours in my longwinded way :)
But it does matter if he’s screwing up foreign relations and trade Jacques. It matters tremendously. The question (in my mind at least) is if Trump can not merely be a populist, but a statesman. History will rightly damn him if he’s only the former.
By the way, I’m not trying to sound pious here Jacques, August, and Whitewall. There may be an issue of temperament here. I rather instinctively dislike populists, since to me it often suggests politicians taking the easy way out and failing to be constructive. I dislike such politicos, and individuals like that in real life for that matter. Again, it might be fun to stick it to the Global Man. But at the end of the day, how does this concretely address the problems we face (debt, entitlements, breakdown in communities)?
Jason,
“Our media” doesn’t make much of it (if at all) but young Mr. Trudeau has some problems he’s having to deal with – should he wish re-election – and in so poking, figuratively, Mr. Trump is a low-cost way to handle.
https://www.fpri.org/article/2018/05/justin-trudeaus-canada-groping-for-direction/
Hi Jason,
I’d put it this way. The problems you mention are real, of course. And in a different world it would make sense for all of us to care about them and be thinking hard about solutions. But in this world, given how bad things are for America and the western world generally, these problems just can’t be addressed–can’t even be understood–until we first deal with the more fundamental problems that caused those ones.
The most fundamental problem, I think, is the west’s loss of meaning and purpose and identity–leading to our accelerating self-destruction and ethno-masochism.
So I think we have only two real options at the moment: (a) Trump and the other ‘populist’ leaders now coming up, who might make a big mess of some things on the level of ordinary politics and economics, but who just might be able to help us take a step back from civilizational suicide; or (b) anyone else, who might do a better job with ordinary economics and politics, but who will be totally opposed to any long-term vision other than civilizational suicide. So I think (a) is the only viable option, because nothing else matters if we die as a civilization and race. It might be nice for Africans or Chinese or Muslims to colonize the former lands of the white western nations and have working plumbing or a few more decades of decent health care. But that’s not my problem! I want my race and civilization to survive and flourish, even if it means some very serious hardships for a while. Does that make sense? (I realize this ultimately depends on some basic value judgments that other people don’t accept.)
Jacques,
Thank you for articulating this so well.
Jason,
At this point I don’t care at all whom history damns or sanctifies, as “the judgment of history” is itself always a product of a particular age and worldview.
The United States of America is immensely wealthy in both human capital and natural resources, and is buffered against invasion by mighty oceans. As Abraham Lincoln said: “As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.”
“Job One”, therefore, is to steer the United States away from what the late (and sorely missed) Lawrence Auster called “The Path To National Suicide“. Nothing else comes close to this in existential importance.
Donald Trump, apparently alone among presidential candidates in 2016, understood this. By some miracle he was granted victory – and the chance, however desperate, to pull the nation back from the brink of the abyss. May God strengthen his arm.
As I mentioned above, this is the same photo set up one moment in time just after the ‘photo’ sent round the world. Narrative shaping:
http://www.neoneocon.com/2018/06/11/that-merkel-trump-g7-photo-and-in-the-next-moment/later__1528762863_14615/
Thanks for your responses Jacques and Malcolm, which I’ll consider carefully. It’s always healthy to receive civil admonishments like yours. I’ll check out the Auster link.
As always JK thanks for the link; I’ll give it a click.
Thank you, Jason. You’ve always been the very model of an intelligent and civil commenter.
Does seem like a print to put on ones wall. Caption simply “2018”
Whitewall — That’s fascinating. Crazy stuff. But I’ll still be happy just for the propaganda value, which is the opposite of what they intended…
Jacques, you are right about what was intended with the photo. I have seen several heated debates about the actual position of the main players and just who is dominant and why. Crossed arms tell me “I ain’t buying it”. Trump and Japanese PM Abe are alike.