Clowns to the left, Jokers to the right

This might become a regular feature, as mankind continues to slide down into stupidity.  Before I get to our main contestants for today, I bring you the opening act:

Yes, just one letter shy of "Shake My Head U." is Southern New Hampshire University, which recently started an ad featuring a speaker telling a graduating class, " The world we live in distributes talent evenly, but not opportunity..."

Watch me in a classical piano class and see if you think talent got evenly distributed.  Sure, let's blame difference in outcome ONLY on inequality in opportunity.  Bet you believe in "put enough monkeys in a room full of keyboards, and one will write Hamlet."  Or better yet, evolution.  Fact is, nothing got evenly distributed, not talent, not opportunity, not understanding, and not color.  But, that's what you get when you differentiate northern and southern in a state that only runs from Ft Wayne to Terre Haute.


Now, the main event.  In this corner:

From London's Mirror Online:  Boris Johnson's 5 most explosive claims at a leaked private dinner - and why they're so unprofessional

Why were they unprofessional?  Because British media hates President Trump, and they sounded so very Trump-like.  What I will give you is their little inflammatory sub-headline for the quote, the actual quote, and their explanation why they deem it unprofessional.

1. Donald Trump should do Brexit

 Boris said he is “increasingly admiring of Donald Trump" and "more and more convinced that there is method in his madness...Trump to negotiate Brexit , what a fantastic idea... Imagine Trump doing Brexit. He’d go in bloody hard. There’d be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think he’d gone mad. But actually you might get somewhere. It’s a very, very good thought.”

Mirror's problems:  a) Boris "prefers chaos" because he admires a man who won't be bullied; b) it "inflates Trump's ego" (so sure he even cares); and c) it's" a direct attack on Theresa May".  Uh, you mean like this article is a direct attack on Johnson- and Trump?


2. Brexit will trigger a meltdown and the EU is the 'enemy'

 “I think Theresa is going to go into a phase where we are much more combative with Brussels. You’ve got to face the fact there may now be a meltdown. OK? I don’t want anybody to panic during the meltdown. No panic. Pro bono publico, no bloody panic. It’s going to be all right in the end.... Take the fight to the enemy - absolutely right. We need to and we will."

Mirror's problems: a) Ooh, he said 'meltdown'!  He wants a meltdown!  b) Ooh, he called the EU "the enemy", whatever will they think of us?   How about, they'll think you won't wimp out?

3. The 'heart of Remain' Treasury is a 'quivering wreck'

"The Treasury, which is basically the heart of Remain... What they don’t want is friction at the borders. They don’t want any disruption of the economy. So they’re sacrificing all the medium and long-term gains out of fear of short-term disruption. Do you see what I'm saying? The fear of short-term disruption has become so huge in people’s minds that they’ve turned into a quivering wreck. The Project Fear is irreversible! They’re terrified of this nonsense! It’s mumbo jumbo."

Mirror's problem:  "Again, it is extraordinary for a serving government minister to attack his own government like this. "  Boo fricking hoo.  Learned no lessons from Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill, did we?

4. US has asked him to dismantle Kim's nuclear missile

Oh?  All by himself?

 "Of course we’ve got to help the Americans do this thing…. I just talked to Mike Pompeo, my counterpart in the US State Department. What they want us to do is to use our nuclear expertise to dismantle Kim Jong-Un’s nuclear missile. That’s what he asked me to do today.”

Mirror's problem:  In a stunning reversal from demanding transparency from elected officials, the Mirror thinks he should have kept this under his hat: "This kind of highly sensitive detail is an extraordinary thing to be casually revealing to activists at a private dinner."  But had it been a public dinner, would you not be trying to pry such info out of him?  For definition, see "hypocrisy".

5. Britain has a G7 plan to take on Russia

"[Vladimir] Putin feels a deep sense of shame that he’s leader of a country that has been so greatly reduced in its global importance... He wants to cause trouble... On Friday, Theresa May will be in Charlevoix in Canada for the G7. She will be putting forward a British plan that will have global support to set up a rapid response unit to identify Russian malfeasance… whether it’s cyber warfare, assassinations, calling it out and identifying it... One of the problems is Russia is so good at spreading violence. They’re brilliant at it. We need to identify it and call it out."

Mirror's problem: It eliminates the ability of weak-kneed underlings to obfuscate and dither over details of the plan.  "But more importantly, it drives a coach and horses through the sensitive diplomacy of the G7 summit. Hundreds of officials and civil servants will be working furiously to make sure allies are told the right thing at the right time so as not to offend them. Boris' comments will have blown that."  In other words, he took the top from the spinners and tossed it in the rubbish.

And the coup-de-gras on their own coffin, the Mirror gives us a bonus in which they destroy their own argument:

BONUS... China 'will try and stiff us'

 "We need to engage with China diplomatically, treat China as our friend and our partner, but also recognise that they are our commercial rivals. And they will try to stiff us."

Mirror's problem:  "Boris Johnson is due a visit to China and these comments don't bode well for Britain's top diplomat. Then again - if Boris is saying Britain should follow Trump's playbook, he's certainly achieved that."   And Trump's playbook got us past the ridiculous fetters of "free trade" and gave us a summit with Kim Fatty in Singapore.  

Martin Headline:  British media exposed as shill of American left.

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And, in this corner, from Fox News:

There is a "special place in hell" for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau because of his decision to slam the U.S. in a post-G7 press conference, White House Director of Trade Policy Peter Navarro said on "Fox News Sunday."

"There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door," Navarro said. "And that's what bad faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press conference. That's what weak, dishonest Justin Trudeau did. And that comes right from Air Force One."

"Special place in hell"?  REALLY?  This isn't Trump's ego, this is someone else's messiah complex- a recent invention of the left built for Barack Obama, and now being adopted-in-floorplan by the right for Trump.

Let me be clear.  Do I think Trudeau is a little snake in the grass?  Yep, always have.  BUT, I didn't vote for him, and he's not the boss of me.

Do I find it amusing that these world leaders cannot seem to figure out a man that doesn't bow to their conventions on how diplomacy should work?  Damn straight I do.  Having read the pertinent sections of Henry Kissinger's White House Years, I realize that there is a time and a place for pussyfooting around, checking cultural norms, etc.  Trump would be well advised to do so with Kim Fatty ( a role I have no need or desire to, obviously).  The 500th semi-annual G7 conference is NOT one of them.

But, while I am quite happy to have a President that at least respects the same God I believe in, I don't pretend that we elected him St Peter, and it is a bit concerning that he continues to find ways to surround himself with underlings who do.  While I have no problem with the gist of Navarro's statement, I would sure walk Navarro out to the cameras by one ear and have him apologize for appropriating the rights to Trudeau's salvation.