Posted by sigismund on November 21, 2019, at 17:24:23
In reply to Re: I am always in a good mood » sigismund, posted by Beckett2 on November 21, 2019, at 16:11:20
Gore Vidal said he'd kept a photo of JFK above his desk as a warning against charm. His rhetoric? Pretty dreadful. Obama made good speeches. I loved the one in Alexandria, FWIW which is nothing. I lost faith during Deepwater Horizon. So going back from the current occupant, Obama, ohhh, GWB. Well that was the roadblock. His main virtue was his avoidance of empathy, and cultivation of personal virtue. I don't know. If sufficient people demand lies and groups to scapegoat? I like the one from his father used after the shooting down by the US of the Iranian passenger jet. 'I won't apologise the the United Stares of America. Ever. I don't care what the facts are.' Is this Sam Harris's fight with Chomsky about body counts?
Robert Kagan? (full of that 'Rules Based International Order? Samantha Powers?) HRC? This is cloud cuckoo.
So my general enquiry is why can we not do better? Why do we need Putin and Xi to speak something like the rough truth. (Because we live in a fantasy world?) If I was to speak like this here I would immediately be asked about Crimea and Xinjiang. If I were to praise Duterte's thought I would not be asked very much. The power of truth when Putin asked of the US at the UN 'Can't you see what you have done?' (Now I'll have to defend him! This isn't exactly racism, but we have no good words.) FDR had it, and that is 80 years ago.
poster:sigismund
thread:1106285
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20190413/msgs/1106850.html